May 31.
Scientists tell us that we are all, more or less, colour] blind. None of us has perfect} vision, Indeed, in an imperfect world' peopled by imperfect, human beings it is not to be expected that any of our faculties should be absolutely perfect. Our mental perceptions] are, certainly, as imperfect as our bodily senses. This accounts for the fact that "every Uittle boy or girl who's born into this world alive is either a little Liberal or else a little Conservative." The diversity dds piquancy the spice of life and secures us against the deadly dulness of invariable monotony. Russia and its government is one of the subjects on which partisans are agreed to disagree Various deputations have, at different times, visited the home of Sovietism and the reports they) render on their return are coloured blue or ved accordingly as. the visitors were born Liberals or Conservatives. An Irishman of our acquaintance paid Petrograd the doubtful compliment of saying that it "was more peaceable than Belfast." He reminded us of the American who died and found himzelé in that place where no good citizen of the United States ought to be. Asked by a former mundane acquaintance, whom he happened to meet] in the same predicament, what he thought of, their present] habitation he replied that though it was not as good as he expected "it was better than Chicago, any way."
To come to serious matters,' our issue of Wednesday contained two articles bearing! on the vexed question Russia. There was, first, the item of news that the Soviet authorities admitted the serious-neas of the problem of vagrant children, It is stated that there are no leas than 650,000 of these little wastrels, who roam the country in bands, stealing and begging. This, to our mind, is the most terrible thing that) we have yet learned about the Bolshevist "paradise."—What has become of the parents of those unfortunate 650,000? If] 650,000 survive after these years of Bolshevist rule, how many must have perished in the earlier days before they learned to fend for themselves like the wild beasts of the jungle? Russia's apologists will have to do much explaining before they can palliate the ghastly facts that must be inferred from those figures. Biologists discover a single bone of some extinct} monster and from that one piece of the animal's anatomy they can reconstruct the size and shape of the extinct species though it had perished from th orth a million years ago. Here is one great and ghastly fact!
which the nature of, Bolshevism is written in letters of fire. The wealth of a country is judged, not by the possessions of its richest, but by the condition of ' its poorest, inhabitants, The intellectual by the culture of its masses. And the morality of a country is to be judged not by its lofty protestations about the: rights of the proletariat but by ito treatment of the weak and defenceless. Judged by this standard there is no plumb line long enough to sound the depths Soviet infamy. We know that the things we have been taught to venerate, such as truth, justice and mercy, are scornfully repudiated by the apostles of a neo-religion that is the negation of virtue. But the! greatest teacher the world ever! knew gave His followers the severely practical test "by their fruits ye shall know them" by! which to distinguish the true doctrine from the false. If we knew nothing else of Russi but this one damning fact that) there is a vast army of what were once innocent children, but! are now savage nomads, roaming' the country, foraging for sc1 of food as do the wild beasts of the field. we should know enough to lead us to avoid, like the plague, the teachings that fluctuate into such bitter Dead Sea apples.
The second item of taker. from the same paper is sent to us Harbin and is quoted the "Pravda." which complains} that Russian commercial agents {travelling abroad do themselves well and return laden with personal belongings that would do no discredit to a Grand Duke of the old regime. Now, we are of those who believe that the labourer is worthy of his hire. We believe that a man who can accomplish millionaire's work is entitled to a millionaire's wages. Henry] Ford is entitled to. fair wages for his work as much any workman in his employ. And we would not quarrel with the Soviet for paying Rus: state servants such salaries the representatives of a great, nation should receive. But} judged by their own standards these men are false to the only principles they hold sacred. They imitate a certain sect of old and bind heavy burdens} Jand grievous to be borne on other men's shoulders and will not touch these burdens themselves with one of their little fingers. Those whose business it is to do these things should see to it that this example of the terrible consequences—_of, Bolshevist rule is made known to the Chinese who are liable to be fooled by Red propaganda,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.