B,- W. A. DAVENPORT. EST to observe and listens” J Messrs. PuJo. Probuxna. Gold- korn and Smith would furnish the most punled 'American with the answer to one or two of the discon- certing demands upon him to find nut what all: his devoted Govern- ment. The chances are good that Uitid distraught Americanwould ar— rive at the conclusion that after all there is nothing particularly wrong with the Government. It is also probable that he would discover that whatever there is amiss is part. and parcel of himself_and his 110,000,000 neighbors. This poor badgerod American is sssailed daily with fierce blasts from the editorial pages of ”Journals of opinion." It makes no difference to him whose opinion composes the bombardment. Ho has long since despaircd' of ever sorting this view from that estimate: this man‘s view- roint from that nmn's propaganda. There is: something tremendously “Tong with us politically, economi- onlly and Without end variously he ls assured. By "us" ha is given to understand ”the Government." So thrro‘ he stands, mired waist drop in o weltcr of abuse and con- dvmnntimi, conceding that there must b..- mmvthing wrong. doors he know? Has not every young editor of every rmliml journal said 50? Has anybody been heard rc- ccutly to say ihut even a. few things. remain upright? Is there anybody anywhcrw Willing to go to the mat on the proposition that the country is a perfectly 5;.)“(1 country if properly mnnnml'? If there is. he hasn’t been ulvlc to hear because of the fearful din that these bright young.Govern- ment rcnm'ators have been making. It is too bad that Messrs Pujo. Pro- buzno. Goldltom and Smith can't be led around the country like circus elephants to be seen and observed and heard. It is too bad because in this quartet of physical magnificence \les a nice blan et answer to one of the latest of the questions that our befuddled American admits is too much for his beset intelligence. The Return to Moscow. "Why, just why." demand the fierce reconstructionists. "are thou- sands of industrial workers clamor. lng at the doors of the Kuzbas‘organ- Ization, the Society for Technical Aid for Russia, and the nascent Russian- Americon Industrial Corporation, hogging to be sent to Soviet Russia that they might expend the well known sweat of their honest brows In cooperative, community and even subsidized mines, farms and fac- tories? "And when," you are asked. "have you over behold foreign labor forsake in: America. with its highly adver- tised opportunities for the least of the humble alien. to return to a. land where u vsagpn load of official money doesn‘t equal thrcc day‘s wages of a. Uliii'n 1»: intsm liter? Is there any de- fines of n sustain that cannot offer suffi icm. inducement to industrial workers to discourage them from wanting to work in Soviet Russia?" Disregarding for the moment Sid- nwy Hiiiman's Russian-American In- i‘Iustrinl Corporation which is in the :h-t‘th's of formation, and which up- -, . ms to bear a. close resemblance to ‘iIi’J-b'i :is we know it: consider How . Messrs. We, Prawns, Goldkorn and Smith. They purpose leaving America on the 22d of this month on the steamship Ronni-dam. They will , be disembark“ at Rotterdam along with upward of a. hundred men. women and children who will be bound for the name destination and on the same mission. . They‘will proceed t6 Petrograd, where they will be received by the Russian Council of Labor and.De- tense and some of them duly for- warded to the Ural Mountains to mine emeralds, platinunf, gold. iron. silver, copper and zinc. The rest will travel 1. 800 lulles further to the coal fields of Kuznetz. Siberia. Each will take with him or her 3100 in American food. Subsistence. once the Urals are reach“! of the Why _ . Mr. 1130 .0. a .lumhcrjack. ,Goldkorn says that he is. tired working for the , ‘1 bosses and, inasmuch as he. has not made a spectacular success of work- ing for; himself‘here in America, he , , desires;— to Join the forthcoming Kuzbas pilgrimage in order that his individualistic tendencies may not be hampered by business competition. - "Me " replied PuJo, the miner. "me a wabbly for six years. Me in good standing up to two years ago, and I ain’t been” Working steady. Me I glad to go to wherever it is you are going to. I get three meals a day: I work six hours a. day and five days a week, maybe. Me I get my share of the money and a bonus in a. year. If I don't want'to work I get sick. and when they raise hell I go back to work again. No cops, no stilts .y. .k i,» '3'. .,;’.. .4 vii-i. 'Vi‘l Kuznetz basin. will be furnished by the Soviet Government. In either place miners and lumberjacks (these two occupational classes comprising the great majority of the personnel) will settle dOWn to mine and timber on a community basis. each worker depositing his individual output into the general production and pocketing his pro rats share of the proceeds. Said proceeds will come from the Soviet Government. Each community Will be an autonomous industrial col- ony and both have agreements with Moscow whereby'the Soviet Govern- ment takes and pays for the prduct of this community labor. -~-_- A Partner in the Firm. Nothing could possibly sound pret- tier. Put up by an cnthusiastio writer of pamphlets, the proposition gives one the impression of being taken into the girm. Messrs. Pujo, Probuzno. and Smith have been I. W. W. for six or eight years. They used to mine in Col- orado and cut timber on the Canal- dian border. They were followers of Big Bill Haywood, and intend to continue their pursuit of the boss Wobbly, who is in Russia dickering with eCommu'nist’dictators. Every now and then Big Bill arranges for a mining or logging area. that. is to be worked by the workers for the Workers, and he so notifies organiza- tions and individuals in America with an eye to getting the necessary hands. But Goldkorn is neither a miner coming along to take my Job. Pretty good, eh.” So Puio the strict materialist will go to the Urals. Probuzna is. something ‘of a spell- binder. He ' shall probably be in occasional trouble. You can see Probuzna as ia business agent or secretary-treasurer of a wabbly local, but you have dimcultv visualiz- ing him doing 3,101) of steady work day after day for the' sake of a certain amount of money and a. less limited idealism. Jackala and Blackguards. “We're the vanguard," says Pro- buzna, clawing his undisciplined hair and glaring menacingly at the whole United States. "We are the pilgrim fathers in this great industrial move- ment. Slowly at first, brother but later in a torrent that will sweep everything before it the workers of America will swarm to the great Soviet Republic and there produce wealth for themselves-wealth that will not go into the pockets of Wall ”street Jackals and" political black— guards." There was much more to it, gen- erally a repetition of this much. I’robuznn is an orator. There is something grand and imposing about his manner. But somchow one gets the impression that Probuzna will be back with us in a few months pro- vidéd‘he can procure the transporta— tion money. Probuznn lacks some- thing of the doggedncss of Pujo. Pujo, as long as he is fed, will remain “a; he is forced out by un- , foreseen circumstance. But there isa. “mess about Probuzna that augurs for his contribution to the com- mon produce of the autonomous in- dustrial colony he joins ' ‘ Smith 1; ,3 xumbermanjof impres- slve proportions. he lower half of hiS’iett ear is mi us and from the spat from which this portion of his anatomy was sheared down to the tip of his chin there runs the jagged > result of a wwuh. You gather (the impression that as long as ith remained upon his feet he won] be able to give three or four ordinary men a. powerful physical argument. "I'm blowing to Russia because I got the habit young of doing any- _ thins once." says Smith. “I've worked on the docks in New York In. I I've out timber in Sas- katchewan and Alaska. I’ve bummed V and Seattle. my way as a. sin? from Frisco to New Orleans on freights. I've done a. couple of short stretches~one for assault on a guy in Portland and another for vagrancy in Denver. but 5 nothin'g else. “I don’t know anything about the politics of Soviet Russia. and I don't giveadamn. Bill Haywood says it's a. good graft and I’m taking a (name. Like a lot of guys I ain't got the hundred bucks that__ goes into food, but some rich guy that's with us puts up that for me and I'm going. I don't mind saying that if I don't like it I‘ to coming back. I' ve bummed my way from China to Chicago and I don't see why I should have any trouble getting back to the States from Siberia. A Two Fitted Guy. "Also this country‘s getting too rough with us u‘slibiics. Out. West it is worth your neck to be an active 1. W. W. nmdays. Between you and me I ain't been a. wobbly or anything else for a long time, but out West they say 'Once a wobbly always a wobbly. and so get to hell out any- way.’ That's all. This cooperative idea sounds good to me, and they're glad to get any two fisted guy Who's Willing to work." That rounds up the general senti- ment of the workers who are apply- ing to the Kuzbas organization for transportation to Siberia. In all of. them yon will find a vague’back. gloom! of revolutionary. economics. They. will. erupt their creed with a remarkable glibnessr and hold forth with a conviction that tells you how idle it would' be to match argument witheifem. They are talking of one thing: the ordinary American talks, ' of something entirely different, Any contentious dialogue would be a shameful waste of time.« «Thus far the Kuzbas organization has shipped 200 such men to Russia. From .Mosc’ow have come reports that some of these 200 have thrown down their axes and shovels in dis- gust and voiced loud, demands for car fare home. P. P. .Cosgrove, treasurer of the local branch of the organization, says that such reports ' are nothing but capithlistic lies. He produces a. letter from a friend of ' . 'pa'trlated children. m‘eri‘canize .present h‘aslittle to’ioffer her re- but looked to these returned ones to give much to her. To pick out truth from the mass of contradictory reports of just what has happened to those former, work- ers in the clothing factories of New York, Chicago, Rochester and Cleve- land who went back to Moscow is a treacherous business. Probably the only wholly fair statement would be what those textile workers whose ideals were strong enoughto offset the Ameriwn bred fondness for the softer creature comforts, have stuck it out. It is impossible to state accurately how many of these ldéallsts have done so. But certain it is that there, have his in Moscow to prove that he tells the truth“. So there you are. . on got nowhere deciding one way or the other. But you leave the Kuzbas offices convinced that some of the terrific ballvhooing by the revolutionary propagandists is frightful bunk. For example, you gain the impression that about 75 per cent. of the work- ers applying for passage to the mines and factories of Soviet Russia are representative of nothing but themselves. Without intending to belittle their ideals or contradict the logic of their argument or truth of . their stories, at least one observer absorbed the impression that these men would not at info nor be happy in America unless it was conducted on a plan drawn up by themselves. And there is no visible suggestion .. that they would be satisfied with ' that very long. Seeking the Truth. is a somewhat diflerent to tell about those workers There story who have gone to Russia at the ' behest of the Society for Technical Aid to Russia. Such workers as were forwarded by this society, di- rectiypr indirectly, were offered few glittering inducements. They were told that in the textile industries under the Soviet Government a man or. a woman might work toward if not immediately under his Commu- nistic ideals. There has been no attempt to snarevor lure the worker. He or she was told that Russia at been many whose Communist prin- ciples failed when the Soviet pay envelope became light. The efforts -of the Society for Technical Aid to Russia have been a cold blooded de- sire to help the industries of Russia. to resume again an erect position. There was‘very little buri‘k about the proposition. Youpwere asked to go if you thought you had the guts to ' see it through and to stay in America rather than bowl for mercy if you “had to accept poor pay and limited . luxuries during the process of reviv- ing Russia. How different with the I. W. W. boosters for Big Bill Haywood's Kuzbas organization. - “These workers," says R. M. Stein- hardt, secretary of the Kuzbas, “are industrial crusaders. Strictly speak- ing they are'not members of any political organization. We shall cre- ate a. great machine that will return to the workers the full product of their labor. In the Kuznetz basin there are 250.000.000.000 tons of coal. or more than all the coal reserves of Great Britain. Six thousand Skilled American ‘workers are going to risk all their savings to prove to the world that the worker is able to manipulate/the machinery that will . deposit into his own pocket all the wealth from his production." . The timorous worker is assured that he will not be digging coal for the fun of it. All the coal and iron he wrenches from the ground is to be bought by the Soviet Government. he is assured.» The proceeds of th'g massed product is to be dlfidedtheo tween the workers’ pockets and a. central treasury that will be some- thing like a sinking fund for com- munity improvements and the like. _ bividing the am... . The Russian Anni-loan Industrial Corporiflon, organized by Sidney Hillman, president of the Amalga- mated Clothing Workers of America. is a straight stock holding idea“ 1 whereby thousands of Americans may! hold stockrin a venture that invest: ‘ $1,000,000 in the textile mills of Rus- sia. It is suggested that the stock will have a. par value of 810. Mr.~ _ Hillman quotes Lenine to show that ~ he has the assurance that the Soviet guarantees the holders of such stock a neat profit. -It aims to put up 35.000.000 to be ’ combined with the $1,000,000 from America. Mr. Hillman holds forth no glittering promises. "I believe that any capital investor! in'Russia has as many of the ele-7 ments of safety‘as that invested in ‘ most, of the other European coun-" tries," he says. “It occurred to me that inasmuch as the bankers will have nothing to do with Russia it might be a. bit at good business to negotiate with Rus- sia direct. And that is what We did. I discussed it with the heads of the Soviet Government. I inspected the" Russian factories. ing factories employing more than 1,001) persons. There are more than‘ a dozen clothing factories ”in M05- cow and Petrograd alone. They are turning out clothing that might be worn right here in America, What they need is capital. not labor. “The Russian Government will turn over to our corporation, on a partnership basis, two clothing fac- tories employing about 9. 000 persons and two textile plants. "We are guaranteed preference on all orders given by the Governmentf and the first call on all raw matey rials we may need. Furthermore we . shall have the preferencein trade be- i tween Russia and America—or any other country for that matter. Be- sides the Soviet Government guaran— ‘ tees our $1,000,000 even should the venture prove unsuccessful. There is ' nothing crazy about that idea. is there? . . “The plan. if successful, willyshow a new way out, not only for labor but for all classes." I If you will digest Mr. Hillman and contrast his business methods with those of Big Bill Hayv'fisod you will find that we are coming back to the more or less platitudlnous state- 3 ments with which this article be-fi gins. Mr. Hillman has the Soviet Government giving a nod—a cool nod, but nevertheless a. nod—to our own belabored system of economics/3 In business there is none of then: soap box oratory of the I. W. W. 11;. Hillman seeks to garner divl- ’ dends. The Soviet Government longs to fatten the official treasury. Every , worker from Peoria to Petrograd seeks the utmost dollar his labor can . accomplish. And that leaves noth-‘ ing more to be said. :3 It is fair enough, therefore, to 88-! sume that there is less wrong with the Government and its fundamental theory than there is with its sub-E " jects. Mean-s. Nujo, Probuzna, Gold- korn and Smith are not symptoms. They are individual ailments. ii . ,‘il il‘l >l;.‘IA seems to be awak- C - zinc. or rather rcawaken- .' :. *o 1 sense of the debt that ‘l‘rr I'm: Hil‘ l~ i:‘-:;'»t who was the first Stri‘“. though per- :..r on application in literature. this i : u \i.’ i‘~ r:. I'. z. 1-. 'irig, H: - ‘ :1 (‘52 miller of Commerce l ab and is exhibiting a'map lit-.1 lI-irte country, which ,= ':‘ .5... iii «mi-tr tin» following tales: l‘mu‘ Guardians oi" La. ;. ," "An ”firms of Red Dog," Trans of Table Mountain," .- ‘ f 13 Montgomery Street in!“ San Francisco That W”- "Hc'w Santa Claus Came to Simo- ‘WI Bar." “An Episode of middle- 1"“ ' "551012! Jane's Kiss,” “The 7hr“ I"Willard.” ”The Society Upon ““ “uni-1am" "Her utter "Plain 3“ troux Truthful James. “ “A *‘0 of the Redwoods," “Devil's Ford," and "Mun”... c Bret Harte’ 8' Interpretation of California Vthn, in the late eighties, Rud- yard Kipling landed in San Francisco on that Journey round the world which was to produce "American Notes," California. was to him not a State or a. civilization, but the back- ground of the stories of Bret Harte. Harte's influence, more than any other, had gone! into the making of "Plain Tales'from the Hills," and the young Anglo-Indian, arriving in the land of the Argonauts, was less in- terested in problems of industry or railway development than in the whereabouts of Red Dog, Sandy Bar and Roaring Camp. But in 1889, as today. those places lived only in imagination. The rugged mountain tops, the gulches, the silvery streams . and the sunshine were there; but the flavor of existence as John Oakhurst and Colonel Starbottle had known it was irrevocably gone. "Gone is the camp and wasted all its fire." American literary venturers, and like many of those who have been most .vitaliy Californian in later days, he was a Californian only by "adop- tion.. The mention of his name stirs in tho mind a picture of the old Cali- fornia. mining damp with its com- bined dance hall and gambling den, gold dust running in the unkempt, mpdvedsuuetand everymancar- ryingapistoh Yetfisrtewasborn in Albany. New York. and died in England. But st 16 years of age he went to California. when the gold fever was at its height, to seek his fortune. That was in the spring of 1888. Be was in turn’a school teacher, a miner, an express messen- tor. a printer ‘and a newspaper eh. m, and we. a comparative failure in everything until he tried his hand a 11th He began by writing aboutwhathohadseenoutinthe moi-rag, and he submitted his first sketches to the editor of the Golden Era, for which he was theirsettfiie Bret Harte wamonesoffithefirst AL” .7 finally TheLuek-of wisprmm‘wmun his "Condensed Novels" appeared and in 1864 he was made secretary of the United States branch mint in . San Francisco. T's'hilc holding this position “wrote “John Burns of Gettysburg," “The Society Upon so: Francisco in the early mining days, ~ the S‘islaus, " "The Pliocene Skull" and many poems. In 1.888 appeared hlsfirstgreatsucoess, "Tbehdcltéf> ’The Overload Roaring Camp.” Monthly had just been started. Hanewasaskedtowriteastoryfhrv 'The Luck of . Roaring Cm" was his contribution. ' ‘ ”The publisher of the me. upon reading the pr6% bf the story, said 3 the August number. that it would be ruinous to publish it. There was hot discussion. Harte molly championing his letter “:15 mesh cd from James Rus- sell Lewd]. :1: that time editor of the Allallth‘JIDillilly, addreseed to the unknown author of “The Luck of Roaring Camp.” making a request for a similar story for the Atlantic, ‘ The letter brought With it the om- cial cachet of the East. which was. rniansas. then regarded by $118. something in the shine of the acco- lode. At once Bret. Harte sprang into wide fame. II. . was there over such a town as Bearing camp? No indication of it in given in the accompanying m rumnsnednos.andiheap- proiimate situation of Roaring Camp _ 4. W by the information im- nessee’s Partner" Red Dog is men- L tioned as being not far from Sandy Bar, and in “The Calaveras Clarion" Red Dog is situated a mile two from Sonora in Tuolumne county. The name let-suggestive of the rough and ready life. and perhaps in the fire Bookman for May, lively community. Bret Harte, arrivmg in San Fran- ' cisco in 1853, soon went to. the south- The Old Cliff House. cast, establishing himself in Sonora. then the seat of Tuolumne county, a thriving mining center of 1, 800 in- habitants, sixty miles east of Stock- - stun. mining'camps of Jimtown, Yankee ‘, In the region about were the Hill, Shaw’s Flat.'v‘Mo,ccasin Creek. “Jcckass Flat, Whiskey Hill, Chinese Camp, Rawhide Ranch, Tuttletown and Big Oak Flat. In an interview .with Mr. Will lit. Clemens, a cousin of Mark Twain. which appeared in 1901. Bret Harte told of the mannervof life he found in the mushroom camp; ' ~ "Here." said he, "I was thrown, among the strangest social condi- tions that the latter day world has, perhaps, ever seen. The setting itself was heroic. .The great inou'n- talus or the SierraNevada. lifted ma- y"; jestic snow capped peaks againsv a ‘ sky of purest blue. Magnificent pine . forests of trees. which were them- ' selva' enormous, gave to the land-» scapoasens’eoflargenessandgreat- .. ness. Itwasalandofrugged can- yous. sharp decllvltles and magnifi- early mining days there were w w cent distances. Amid rushing waters a dozen Red Dog-s scattered about the State. The Poker Fist of The Ohtcasts of Pokei'iiti‘lax” was un- questionably in NM county. once it- was one of the most thriving mining amps. In 1852 it produced 3700 000 in gold bullion in a single and celebrated the even: with arising. In 1868 and 18“ Itboastedzooolnhablmn‘VEIIo-V telafifteenstoreathroedancehalll, dingy/houses. M and wildwood‘ freedomu army of stro men in red shirts and top were feverishly in search of the 2:”ng hair. mustaches and boards were untouched by shears or razor-.17Veaklingsandoidmenwm‘ - unknown. Ittookastoutheartandi. strongfrsmetodaretheVentm ~ ' battle for life in the wilds. It L wasaciviiizafloncomposedeutlrely: 50, perhaps, but: he had a gray beard '—was pointed out as a curiosity, and men turned in the street to look at him as they would‘have looked at any other unfamiliar object. * These men, generally speaking, were highly civilized. many ”of them being” They were in strange and strong contrast with their surroundings. for all the trammeis and conventionalitics of settled civilization had been left thousands of miles behind. It was a. land of perfect freedom. limited 7 only by the instinct and the habit of law which prevailed in the mass. All its forms were original, rude and pic— turesque. " _ 'Sfipngc Electnc Storm. N a February night, in. south latitude 33 degrees west longi— . , the sailing ~ Fahlp Ville du Havre encountered a" most reinarkable storm. The rain fell ' : tude 38 degrees. in torrents and the ship appeared be electrified, the mastheads flaming m like giant candles. Strange lights trav- eled even the mine and after nashof lightningapartoftbe‘ which had been newly painted,. gold of earth.- Nobody ' ofyoungmen.foron0neoomaion.1. They have‘cloth- ' cultured and professionally trained. V9?! v!
Norwalk Chronicler