articleRUSSIA TODAY DESCRIBED BY SPENCER CLARK

January 21, 1933

Speaker Said Much Was Being Accomplished in the Soviet Union

     Mr. Herbert Spencer Clark ad­dressed the St. Catharines Women’s Canadian Club last night on a subject of world-wide interest-Russia of today. Mr. Clark recently made an extensive trip through Russia, travelling with Dr. Sher­wood Eddy, Maurice Hindus, and part of the time with the Shaw-Astor party, and so had an intense­ly interesting story to tell. Over a hundred graphic pictures contrib­uted materially to an understand­ing of conditions in that vast coun­try, which is larger than the whole of North America.
     Russia has drawn great attention for the last fifteen years. She has' been in terrific action, and she is gradually emerging from chaos into constructive achievement. Russia is the only country that has maintain­ed a dominant policy and one party over this period of time. While the pictures landed to stress the more favourable and reconstructive side of life they gave an average cross-section of what the visitor sees. Bad conditions still exist in some parts, but they are mainly a legacy from the old regime.
     The visitor, from the moment he enters me country, is conscious of the personality of Lenin. He early dedicated himself to the re­lease of Russia from the old des­potism, and won universal popu­larity and acclaim by his work. Stalin, call the "iron-hand dictator'' is the most powerful single indi­vidual, but he is not a personal autocrat, and works in close harm­ony with cabinet group.
     The "five-year plan" is an im­mense constructive effort, the key­note being "planned economy." The country is more concerned with in­ternal problems, more than extern­al ones. The religious persecution is not as severe as has been reported. Many churches and cathedrals are open and conducting services. The great Winter Palace is now a mus­eum and art gallery. Art suffered much less during the Revolution there than in the French Revolu­tion. Practically all the art trea­sures were saved. The largest Leningrad cathedral, the Kazan, holds services, which are attended largely by the older people.
     The Summer Palace, once the "Czar's village" is now called the "children's village." It is a preventorium and fresh air camp. Rus­sian children get the best in food, clothing, education and health, that the country can provide.
     Characteristic posters showed the type of propaganda circulated everywhere to teach the new ideals. Coal production, steam generating plants and huge elec­tric generators, all advance Lenin's project of complete elec­trification of the country and the building of a great industrial nation.
     The women workers seem to en­joy their lot. The government pro­vides community laundries, nurs­eries and restaurants. Children are cared for in these scientific, well equipped nurseries while the par­ents work. Workers' clubs, some­what like Y.M.C.A.'s are attached to all large factories.
     Transportation has always been the greatest handicap, but now efficient rapid service is given by well-developed airways.
     In the Red Square in Moscow, the Lenin mausoleum is unique. In a great granite structure, Lenin's body reposes in a glass casket. Crowds line up and enter the mausoleum at seven o'clock each evening. Five thousand people a day file past this casket.
     Education is widely encouraged and where in the old days about one-third of the population was literate, today nearly three-quar­ters is, a tremendous change in one generation.
     To a great extent, the state cares for the individual. Housing conditions are slowly improving. Hospitals and prisons are being revised, and brought more up-to-date. Young people are organized for sports, handicrafts and educa­tion.
     In the out-lying districts, the old conditions prevail to some ex­tent. Those who have joined the collective forum movement have the benefit of modern equipment and expert help, but the individ­ualist farmers are still poor and miserable. They cling, neverthe­less, to their old creed, believing, as one farmer expressed it, that "God didn't create men collective­ly, He created them individually.
     Mr. Clark was presented by Miss Eccles, president of the club, and Mrs. Alban Butler and Miss Mar­quis extended the thanks of the audience.