the final hour preceding collapse, it has been the habit of all autocracies, and a particular characteristic of the Russian monarchy, to make a last desperate gesture of democracy. So the Admiral calls a Zemstvo Congress. To anyone knowing the condition of servile impotence to which Kolchak has reduced the Zemstvos, the act is one of most ironical hypocrisy. The official declaration from Omsk calls upon the Zemstvos to help "replace the military régime,” by a “new régime fit for peaceful life, founded on respect for law, and safeguarding the rights of the individual, of property and civil liberty." A naive statement, which is doubly re

vealing, both of the character of the Admiral's present “military régime," and, to any one familiar with the monarchist conception of "respect for law and property,” equally indicative of his future plans. Yet even within these reactionary limits, the Zemstvos, which Kolchak has deprived of all trace of representative character, are not to be allowed any authority. According to the official declaration, the Congress will be graciously accorded “advisory power" and the "right to express its opinion." Surely the mockery of this fraudulent bid for popular support will excite the derision of even the most gullible.

The Economic Difficulties

THE economic situation is an extremely difficult one. Russia is great and rich in products of all kinds, but innumerable obstacles prevent the exchange and distribution among the population of these various products. In the first place, there is the dislocation of transport caused by the shortage of locomotives-which cannot even be repaired in consequence of the lack of any spare parts, resulting from the Blockade. There is a shortage of fuel; petrol is held up by the British (the Baku oil wells); and coal is held up by Denikin, who is supported by the Entente. The only fuel obtainable in the winter was wood, which was extremely dear. A load of blocks equal to about two cubic yards cost 400 to 500 roubles.* Many factories were compelled to close down in consequence of the lack of raw materials and fuel. As the result of this, the people lack such absolutely essential things as linen clothing, boots, soap, etc. The shortage of these things is especially noticeable in the country. Peasants who have wheat and other farm produce are always glad to exchange it for industrial products, but these are not easily come by.

Money has gone down in value ten or twentyfold, and prices and wages have gone up in the same proportion. But there are even more exorbitant prices charged in the "free markets," where things can be obtained without cards at enormous prices. A pood of wheat (36-lbs.) cost in January, 1919, six hundred roubles. But the price of provisions distributed under the card system was moderate.

There were cards of three kinds. In the first category were included productive workers and all workers who were registered in Trade Unions. They received one pound of bread a day. The second category included intellectual workers and officials, who are entitled to three-quarters of a pound of bread per day; and in the third category are professional people, who receive half a pound of bread

The pre-war rate of exchange was about two roubles to the dollar. At present any translation into terms of American currency is almost meaningless.

per day. Other provisions are distributed according as circumstances permit.

Wages have been fixed by the State; the minimum for a laborer is 600 roubles a month, and the maximum for a skilled worker is 1,000 roubles a month. The People's Commissaries (that is, the ministers) receive 1,300 roubles a month.

I am not able to give information on a good many subjects which I am sure would be of the greatest interest to the public, because I did not have time enough to make a close study of the situation in that enormous country.

The Attitude of the Peasants

In the country districts the peasants are not yet communists. They have a traditional collectivist tendency in the working of common lands under the system of the Mir, a kind of village moot; but that system is, however, far removed from communism. This is the source of the continuous struggle between the Government and the peasants.

The Russian peasants are as a rule conservative and do not trouble themselves much about the forms of government. A good many fables have been told about the peasants' love for the Little Father, the Czar. We have seen in our own experience that the downfall of the Czar aroused no protest from them. As we said above, the present Government had won the confidence of the peasants by issuing decrees giving them peace and land. The renewal of the war, which has been forced upon the Government, and the subsequent mobilization, have done a good deal to make the people lose confidence in the new Government. But it has no thought at all of overthrowing this Government. The revolts of the peasants, which took place during last winter, were fomented by revolutionary agitators, belonging to the parties opposed to the Government. But these revelts, serious though they were, were put down without difficulty.

The Government distinguished three classes of peasants, the poor, the moderately well-to-do and

the rich. At first it tried to base its support on the poor element, but the attempt was not successful. The poor element, the proletariat, is not held in great esteem in the country. In order to live decently a peasant must have land, a house, a wagon, cattle and implements, etc. The peasant who possesses these things is not poor, and the peasant who does not possess them is no longer a peasant, and therefore loses all influence in his village.

This is the real reason why the Poverty Committees, organizations of the Proletariat, were not successful. They were formed from transitory elements which were quite unable to exercise any authority in the villages. Recognizing this, the Government has abandoned that experiment and has made up its mind to look for support from the mo

MONG these movements the most powerful is

derately well-to-do element, which, beyond doubt, is the largest. The Poverty Committees have been dissolved, and new Soviets have been formed.

The richer elements among the peasants are opposed to the Government, but they are in exactly the same measure enemies of the people, oppressors of the people; they and the small bourgeoisie of the towns were the strongest supporters of the Czarism, and it is from these elements that the Party of the "Black Hundreds" was recruited.

They are the people who are now engineering discontent with the authorities and who are the breeding ground for plots. They are also the people who suffer most when repressive measures are taken, and who have to pay extraordinary taxes and other imposts.

of the policy of the Russian Communist Party, and it is a non-moral doctrine. Individual consciousness of right and the understanding of scientific truth are not enough to rouse peoples. They need an ideal outside their daily life, which they feel is always full of compromise.

Hence the void which Communist doctrine cannot fill produces a spiritual thirst which they cannot quench; and the political pamphlets spread broadcast by the Party in power are not enough to satisfy the people. It is all very well to wave flags on which are written the great words, Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, Justice, and so forth. The people knew too well that they have been carved on the buildings of a neighboring republic, and that they failed to lead the nation towards a moral end.

Now, therefore, the people are turning towards the man who has been for a long time looked up to as expressing the consciousness of humanityLeo Tolstoi. What a deep antagonism between the doctrine of love and non-resistance and the doctrine of violence and terror and dictatorship! And yet Tolstoism plays a leading part in Russia today, and the dictators tolerate the followers of the great apostle, and even give them a certain preferential treatment as compared with the members of other parties and movements. What is the reason? It is quite a simple one. The political party now in power is much disturbed by the struggles of the other political parties which desire to overthrow it and to take its place. The Tolstoians are not a danger in this sense, because a sincere Tolstoian could never accept a responsible position in a State based on violence; and, in fact, the Tolstoians have no desire to seize power from those who now hold it. It is to this political disinterestedness that the Tolstoians owe their relative liberty.

But there is an even deeper cause which allows the followers of the great apostle to pursue their activities without hindrance. The purity of his ideal and his whole life work, directed as it was

Apart from the powerful Tolstoian Movement, there are parallel religious groups, acting independently, which have come under the saving influence of Tolstoian ideas in so far as the immediate application of Social Christianity is concerned. To name a few of these, there are the old Russian Protestants, the Stundists, the Baptists, the Adventists, the Evangelists, the Dukhobortsi, the Malevantzi, and many others. All these religious groups are united on the most important question in social life at present, compulsory military service. Those who belong to these groups regard military service as incompatible with their religious beliefs, and refuse to respond to the military summons.

Under the Czarist régime they had to put up with more or less severe persecutions which sometimes meant fifteen years' hard labor. During the last war about a thousand refusals to undertake military service, on religious grounds, were registered by the authorities. The Revolution set them free from prison, and in its earlier period they enjoyed complete liberty. But now once again a new summons to arms, to defend the Revolution from the attacks of reactionary Europe, brought them again into danger of persecution.

A special Council of delegates from many religious groups was therefore set up under the Chairmanship of Vladimir Chertkoff, an intimate friend of Tolstoi. This Council sent a formal request to the Government asking for freedom from compulsory military service on religious grounds. Lenin, the head of the Government, declared in

answer to this appeal, that the Socialist Government, which in principle was itself anti-militarist, could not persecute those who refused military service on conscientious grounds, and the Central Soviet of Moscow issued the following decree:— Decree of the Soviet of Commissaries of the People, dated 4th January, 1919.

Freedom from Military Service on the ground of religious convictions.

(1) People who on account of their religious convictions are unable to undertake military service are obliged, in accordance with the decrees of the National Tribunal, to substitute for it an equal term of service to their fellow creatures by such service as work in hospitals for contagious diseases, or some other work of public utility to be chosen by the individual concerned.

(2) The National Tribunal in deciding questions as to the substitution of civil work for military service is to be assisted by "The Joint Council of Religious Groups and Communes of Moscow," for each individual case; the Joint Council to report as to whether the religious conviction concerned makes military service impossible, as well as on the sincerity and honesty of the applicant.

(3) In exceptional cases the Joint Council of Religious Groups and Communes may have recourse to the All Russian Central Executive Committee, with a view to securing complete freedom from service, without the substitution of any other service, if it can be shown that such substitution is incompatible with religious convictions; the proof to be taken from writings on the question and also from the personal life of the individual concerned.

Note.-Steps to secure freedom from service may be initiated by the individual concerned or by the Joint Council, and the latter can require the case to be tried by the National Tribunal of Moscow.

Signed, President of the Soviet of Commissaries: Lenin.

Commissary of Justice: Kursky.

Chancellor of State: Bontch-Bruevitch.
Secretary: Fotnieva.

Dated from the Kremlin, Moscow, January 4,1919.

The Attack on the Capitalist System

The battle has been opened on the whole length of the front. Capitalism and private property are in danger. Communist Socialism is developing its attack in strength and now for nearly two years has held in its hands the destinies of many nations. Are we to side with one party or with the other? We can side with neither. The Christian law which we profess prevents us from entering into the ranks of combatants who use violence and cruelty against their enemies. We are living at an exceptional period, at the turning of the ways. The world perhaps has never known such complete reversals of its habits of life. But nevertheless we can find in the history of humanity periods when similar ques

tions were claiming solution, though perhaps on a lesser scale; times when perhaps they have even been solved; and we may therefore be able to follow the example of those who have found the pacifist solution in the midst of bloody struggles.

Let us turn to the example of the war of secession in the United States of North America. The two parties were almost equal in strength, and the struggle was bitter. In the midst of this bloody struggle, a society of non-resisters arose, headed by Lloyd Garrison, who declared that they were in full agreement with the highest aims of the combatants, but could not have recourse to arms, because their convictions prevented them from taking the life of any person whatever, and ordered them to love their enemies and pardon those who did evil to them. This society won numerous adherents and did a great deal to make the struggle less bitter, and contributed to the final victory and pacification of the country.

In Bohemia in the Middle Ages a Communist Movement grew up among the disciples of Jean Huss, who was burnt alive by the Pope at the Council of Constance in 1415. The Hussite Communists withdrew to Mount Tabor, near Prague, and took the name of Taborites. It seemed as if the movement was likely to develop. Then the Catholic troops, commanded by the Emperor Sigismond, marched against them to crush the movement. The Holy Father preached a Crusade. The Taborites weakened in their faith. They took up arms and defended themselves heroically against the imperial troops. The movement became a popular one. The struggle extended, and the Hussite Wars, as history has come to call them, lasted thirteen years. The Imperial Party in the end proved stronger, and the disciples of Jean Huss were absolutely exterminated.

But a group of these disciples, headed by Pierre Chelchitsky, had refused to take part in the struggle, remaining faithful to the Christian principles. When the struggle came to an end the people of Bohemia and Moravia recognized them as liberators, their faith spread abroad, and the country became covered with Communist Organizations of Moravian Brothers who marked the most flourishing epoch in the history of the Slav peoples. I believe that a similar role is marked out in the present day for the Tolstoian movement.

The Tolstoian Attitude

We believe that Communism is a very high form of social order, but we cannot approve of the use of constraint in imposing it upon the people. Nevertheless we look upon the Communist institutions of Soviet Russia as an accomplished fact, and we believe that we can collaborate in the free education of the people in Communist ideals.

We understand by Communism the recognition of the duty to work and the guarantee of material existence. The abolition of that awful anxiety with regard to material needs in the life of each individual would be without doubt an enormous step

forward, and this may indeed be realized. There is no doubt that the luxurious life which the possessing class lives at present cannot be guaranteed to all. The people will have to content themselves with the necessary minimum. When that time comes we shall be able to say aloud the words spoken by Jesus:

"Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them."

This is indeed the greatest beauty of the collectvist system-the free enjoyment for every human

with many Jews and Christians who had just arrived from Russia, and they all asserted that the whole Russian Jewry is living in an awful state of fear and in a constant panic. Should the Bolshevik rule fall, they say, then the world will witness a horrible catastrophe: the Russian Jewry will be exterminated."

This statement is significant, coming as it does from a writer strongly opposed to the Bolsheviki, and appearing in a paper whose editorial policy is outspokenly anti-Bolshevik.

treasures of the sciences and the arts.

Conclusion: An Appeal

The absence of moral basis, of the "categorical imperative," of active moral force, compels the Communists to have recourse to external force, to violence and terror, in order to make themselves respected. They are building up beautiful buildings on a foundation which cannot last. We fully approve their plans of construction, we admire the beauty of their architecture, but we fear that the whole building will come to destruction if a more solid foundation does not replace that which has been used in the passion to build quickly.

Our aim is not the destruction of anything which has been built, but to put in well-shaped stones for the support of the whole building.

There is one other aspect of the present system which wins our sympathy, and that is the recognition of the workers' rights, which formally did not exist at all. The capitalist system must resign its power, in the name of Eternal Justice. We turn towards the two parties that are struggling with each other and speak these words of reconciliation. We should like to say to the workers: "You are right. You are the creators of the world, but in order to attain and preserve your supremacy, do not revenge yourselves on your oppressors." We would like also to say to the possessing class: "The time has come for you to give place to those who, up to now, have maintained and created your life; and if you are willing to meet them with goodwill, you, too, will have your humble place at the banquet of New Life."

It is our duty to step in between the two struggling sections and to bring in a new current of love and peace and of eternal justice.

The Lot of the Jews

The Vienna correspondent of the New York Jewish daily The Day, Mr. M. Frostig, in a letter on "Reaction and Anti-Semitism in Europe," makes the following statement:

"Denikin's army is fighting in South Russia against the Bolsheviki with the slogan that the Jewish Bolsheviki must be driven from the country, and Kolchak too is trying to win by an anti-Semitic program the sympathies of the populace for his government. During the past few weeks, we had the opportunity to talk

Guaranteed By England at the Rate of 40 Rubles to the Pound

ELSINGFORS, Aug. 26.-The provisional notes

some time ago, which were provided with the signature of General Rodzianko and Colonel Polyakov, will soon be replaced by new notes which will be printed at Stockholm, to an amount of at least 350,000,000 rubles. England has guaranteed these notes at a rate of 40 rubles to the pound. (At the present rate of sterling exchange this would make each ruble worth about ten cents.) The notes will be provided with the signatures of Commander-in-Chief Yudenich and Minister-of-Finance Lianozov. Their circulation on Russian territory will be obligatory. Three months after the occupation of Petrograd, the National Bank will redeem these notes with national banknotes in unlimited quantities, ruble for ruble. The new currency is guaranteed by the entire wealth of the Russian empire.

-Stockholms Dagblad, August 28.

Editor's Note-The English Government guarantees to pay out the entire wealth of the Russian empire, which it does not possess, to redeem notes which are being artificially held at a higher rate than the exchange conditions justify.

To the Russian Socialist Soviet Republic
By F. W. Stella Brown, in the London "Call"

Beyond the dawn a vision and a cry,
Above the thunder an immortal word,
-Thanks to the gods that we-we too-have heard
That voice, before we die.

Oh flag of blood, oh flag of dreams unfurled!
They ringed thee with starvation and with steel,
But still the peoples see thee, still they feel
The torch that lights the world.

Kindle across the mountains and the foam The sacred flame that grew beneath the snow, And for the famine clutch and felon blow

-Straight blows and hard, send home.