Russian Life Is Described
February 7, 1933
Herbert Spencer Clark Speaks on Tour Through Soviet
Great Development
Robert Owen Foundation Secretary Sees Challenge to Rest of World
Intimate glimpses of life in Soviet Russia were presented by Herbert Spencer Clark, electrical engineer and secretary of the Robert Owen Foundation, when he addressed a large gathering in the Windsor-Walkerville Technical School auditorium last night. The meeting was sponsored by the general and co-operative study groups of the local branch, League of Nations Society.
PICTURES DISPLAYED
More than 1,500 attentive listeners who filled the large hall and overflowed to the stage behind the pictorial screen heard Mr. Clark tell of what he had seen and heard during his visit to Russia in 1931, when he toured that country as a member of the Sherwood Eddy party. Camera studies made at the time and since assembled as lantern slides presented a broad panorama of progress under the Soviets, from crowded city to the thatched hut of the peasantry.
Paul Martin, president of the Border Cities branch of the League of Nations Society, acted as chairman and the lecturer was introduced by Mrs. W. K. Matthews. After the lecture was concluded, the meeting was given over to a question period. Arthur Seal, prominent radical leader, seized the opportunity to request the audience to pass a resolution protesting Section 98 of the Criminal Code of Canada, but Mr. Martin explained the meeting had not been summoned for such a purpose.
PRE-EMINENT IMPORTANCE
"I went to Russia with no preconceived feelings," Mr. Clark explained "I realized that something of importance was happening there and I decided to form no opinions until I had seen what was to be seen. I left with " the deep conviction that one of the most appalling and vast development of vital events in world history is taking place, a development of pre-eminent importance.”
Mr. Clark recalled the Renaissance, the Reformation and the French Revolution, likening those periods with what is taking place in Russia. As time goes on, he said, the importance of the Russian Revolution becomes more apparent to those in other parts of the world.
Pictures flashed on the screen were of Soviet leaders, photographs of the beautiful palaces of the Czarist regime, now converted into public buildings, and intimate bits of life, both in the cities, industrial developments and agricultural areas.
CHURCHES STILL ACTIVE
Services are still being conducted in 60 percent of Moscow churches and 50 percent of all churches in Russia, the speaker said, despite intensive, anti-religious propaganda. The summer palace of the Czars is now being used as a children's sanatorium and rest camp. Children romp about the marble bathhouse and swim in the artificial lake which once resounded to the exclusive splashings of the Czar and his regal family.
One picture was of a comely woman and her babe. Mr. Clark asked his hearers to recall her buxom figure when they read accounts telling how the Russians are starving. This woman, he said, was typical of the well-fed appearance the people presented at the time of his visit.
"True enough," he said, "the women are working, but they have been doing so from time immemorial."
HEALTH CARE STRESSED
Infinite care is taken of the health of children, who are sent to sanatoria on showing the slightest sign of illness, of the women by providing nurseries where their children may be attended during work hours without causing anxiety for their well-being, and for other factory workers through the construction of club houses where they may spend leisure hours in healthful exercise.
Great strides are being made in the educational program, Mr. Clark pointed out, stating that about 10,000 libraries had been opened during the past three years. The ratio of illiteracy has been reversed until now fully 70 percent of the people can read and write.
Conduct of the prison camps throws a light on Russian life. The screen showed one such camp Mr. Clark had visited. No guards were apparent and the prisoners, whose offences ranged from theft to murder, roamed at will. Another picture showed one of the six "guards" lighting his cigaret [i.e. cigarette] from the butt of one held by a prisoner.
Mr. Clark told of one prisoner whose criminal activities had made him notorious. He had lived for six years in the camp, had gone outside its boundaries to select a wife, brought her back to the camp and settled down for the rest of his life, quite content to remain there. He pointed out that Soviet authorities are attempting to eliminate crime by reformation Instead of punishment.
Political prisoners and kulaks are still treated brutally, the speaker said, banishment to Siberia being the most accepted form of punishment. Later, to a question put by one of the audience, Mr. Clark ointed [i.e. pointed] out that under the Czarist regime Siberia was more in the public mind than today. Those sent there now, he said, are required to build roads and work in the lumber camps under humane conditions.
Lack of food and difficulties of distribution are still manifest. He showed a view of one kitchen in Leningrad where 90,000 meals per day are prepared. Lines still form in front of the stores and rationing of food is still necessary and will be until some of the major handicaps of distribution are overcome, Mr. Clark said. He indicated that lack of transportation facilities was one of the great drawbacks.
INCREASED POPULATION
Reason for housing and food problems was found in the greatly increased population of cities. Moscow, as an instance, has increased in numbers of residents from 1,500,000 to 3,500,000 within the past few years.
Contrast in agricultural areas was presented by the “individualists” flailing their grain on the one hand and the collectives, possibly within half a mile, using the most modern tractors and threshing equipment.
Each farmer in the collective group, Mr. Clark explained, retains for his own use half an acre of land, a cow and a few hens. For the rest, fences are pulled down and ditches filled in so that tractor plows may operates [i.e. operate]. The produce of produce of these huge farms is pooled, the grain going to new and convenient elevators. This type of farming, he said, had resulted in from 200 to 300 percent increases in production during the past two or three years.
Mr. Clark terms the land of the Soviet Republic the home of the “children’s aristocracy,” declaring that to the very young is given the best the land has to offer.
LARGE STANDING ARMY
The youth is being militarized to the extent that Russia now has the second largest standing army in Europe, second only to France, but he could see no cause for worry in that feature, pointing out that Russia had acted with restraint under Japanese provacation [i.e. provocation] and sent the first world disarmament protagonist to a League of Nations conference.
“You have heard the worst side of the argument for the past 15 years,” Mr. Clark told his audience. “True enough, they have made blunders, but they are striving toward idealistic ends. I believe that they are throwing a challenge to us in the Western world.
“They have developed a scientifically planned economic system which is in sharp contrast to our economic chaos. If that backward people can do what they have done in so short a time, what should we be able to accomplish if we, enlightened as we are, should strive to put our house in order and make uses of the resources at our command.”
MORALS ARE GOOD
One questioner in the audience expressed concern about the morals of the Russian people. Mr. Clark replied that sex morals in Russia were as “wholesomely fine” as in any country, recalling a remake by Mr. Eddy, leader of the party, who had expressed admiration for the Russian motion pictures because of their educational value and the omission of all attempts at “sex appeal”.
Part of the Russian ideal is to wean people away from close family cliques, the speaker said, and turn their minds outward to the greater welfare outlook of the state.
