The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 4, 1924, Page 10

a this week’s pragram were some visits to Forest Schools, which supplement in a measure the regular schools in Russia. In a suburb of Mos- cow, reached by tram, is the “First Sanitarium School of the Moscow Di- vision,” for children not up to the normal physical standard, which gen- erally means some stage of tuberculo- sis. The large old house, simple, two- storied, buiit of logs, stands in ample grounds in the midst of a_ great stretch of young forest of pine and birch. The old forest which this re- places was once alive with deer, and was ‘the favorite hunting-ground of the father of Peter the Great. Scat- tered thru the young growth are many of the great pines of the older forest. The children cared for here are from nine to fourteen years of age. They are sent out from the city schools to build up their health, for a year or for a summer, and return to town when improved. The sleeping rooms are large and airy and quite rare. Each room has half-a-dozen or more single iron beds, well spaced, and a large stationary porcelain washbasin, with running water. The windows are wide and high, and open on large sleeping ver- andas, on which the beds are moved in the summer. The study hours are short,—from 10 to 12 in the morning, and from 6 to 7 in the afternoon, and there is an hour for sleep after noon —dinner, and a sun bath following it— when there is sun. At 9 is break- fast, at 1 dinner, “tea” at four and supper at 7:30. The free hours are spent in supervised or free play, gar- dening and other outdoor activities. Each child has two eggs and two glasses of milk a day, meat twice a week, and porridge and potatoes, but few green vegetables. The teacher who showed us about felt that more meat was needed, but I told her that in our country the tendency was more and more away from meat and toward green vegetables. I notice this neglect of vegetables everywhere in Russia, tho the shops and booths have boun- teous displays. Outside of soup you get practically no vegetables at any restaurant unless as a special order. Probably the raising of vegetables at these schools will be made a point of later when organization is more com- plete. As everywhere under the Soviets, these children have their own organi- zation and committees, and these are illustrated by colored charts on the wall, drawn according to the individ- ual ideas of the children making the charts, the most important division being sanitation and hygiene. They visit other schools, “homes,” and fac- tories, and compare the housing and conditions with those of their own school, which they try to make a model. Recently they visited and in- spected a leather factory noting espec- ially the sanitary and working condi- tions, and investigating the effects of these on the workers. The classes are held in airy, light rooms, and open and _ half-enclosed verandahs. In one room they make and exhibit, among other things, mod- els of homes and farms in various countries of the world, for comparison A Russian Youth Speaking at the ‘Last Congress of the Russian Commu- nist Youth. with their own mode of living. This is a subject that is made much of. As in our own schools, the walls are covered with the children’s drawings, decorative work and handicraft. It is now vacation time, when they have only “free” work and study. During our morning visit, most of the children were occupied without supervision. As we passed thru a porch a youthful draftsman appealed to our teacher- guide for help on a chart he was mak- ing to show the total and proportion- ate number of men killed in the var- ious countries in recent imperialistic wars, Russia leading in high death rate, Germany, Austria-Hungary and France following. This large wall chart was adapted from a small offi- cial statistical record and chart, and the child was using a homemade yard- stick,—metre-stick, I should say. In an inner class room, four children had come for help in multiplication. On a verandah, a reading group was learning about birds. Four idle chil- dren followed us about with intelligent interest. Questioned,—two had left mud-houses to dry, while the other two had finished some work which had occupied their morning. When the school is in regular session the study hours from 10 to 12 are given to theory, while during the two after- noon hours this theory is in some practical way applied. The home mod- els follow the comparative study of peoples and field study of birds and flowers follow the reading. The war chart was probably related to mathe- matics, mechanical drawing, history, sociology, and economics! And the drawing, painting and modeling illus- trated concretely many of the things they had learned in the morning classes. Such activities must be in- geniously directed by the teacher to relate them to theory. We saw a half-finished portrait of Lenin, inlaid with barks and mosses. The thin white birch was used for the face, and the likeness, copied of course from a portrait, was remarkable. Over one doorway hung a placard largely lettered, “Vladimir Ilyich Lenin is dead. Children, follow his teach- ings.” Nowhere are the people al- lowed for one moment to forget the ideals of the great leader. Only a little music is as yet taught in this school, and that not systematically, but the children are taught rote sing- ing, and have given one act of a sim- ple Tchaikowsky opera. This is only one of many such schools under the supervision of the Moscow division of the educational department. A school of a different kind I visited at the village of Rastorgouyevo, an hour by train from town This is the so-called Children’s Village, a scat- tered group of houses among the for- est trees, where the children from city homes come in the summer for change and study. Here the tiniest tots are taken. We arrived just as the teach- ers were assembling on a broad ver- andah for a conference,—a dozen or more women, and one man—the head of the’ music department for kinder- gartens. He wore white sport trunks, and_open-necked white linen blouse, and with his closely shaven head and darkly tanned skin, looked like a pol- ished bronze statue. Most of these people are sunworshippers. The chil- dren, too ran about in scanty slips, but the Women were all more or less conventionally, tho simply and sen- sibly dressed, most of them with long hair. Only one or two resorted to cigarettes to help them thru the ordeal of the conference, perhaps because the vital questions discussed absorbed their restlessness. For us tea and jam were brought. The principal subject of discussion was the epidemic of whooping-cough, Some of the teachers contended that isolation was absolutely necessary, others that it was absolutely impos- sible, and it seemed to be a pretty serious thing that the impossible should be absolutely necessary. This is a situation, I fear, that often arises in Russia, and I suppose it was finally met as usual, with some resourceful) compromise, Every good Communist, who is making his regular contribu- Letters From Moscow tion toward the support of an orphan, would feel a satisfaction in visiting these schools, that he is helping to make them possible. There are still many children, even in Moscow, running about the streets or selling things more or less illegally, —even begging and stealing. As fast possible, they are being brot into homes, and into the organization of the Young Pioneers, now beginning to call themselves Young Leninists. Many of these children, unusued to restraint, run away, or create much trouble in the homes. There is the story of an organization of gutter children, who lived in’ a passage under a railway station. Unspeakably dirty it was, but more or less warm and. protected. They had kept this retreat hidden from the police, and crept out to beg and steal, about the train and the sta- tion rooms, and in the adjoining streets When their well-concealed lair was at last discovered, a commit- tee of teachers went to bring them into the homes. It was only after long persuasion that the organization con- sented to send out a delegation, to treat with a delegation of teachers, and finally after discussion of terms and conditions, they capitulated. How many of these went back to the old life, I do not know but most of them are hardened little professionals at a tender age. The hopeful point of the whole story By Anna Porter is that while in other countries as fast as one set is redeemed others take their places and the same tragic round goes on,—in Russia they are slowly redeeming the conditions that make for criminal vagabondage. While we continue cheerfully pouring water into the sieve, refusing to notice the holes, “realist” Russia is putting’ a solid bottom in the sieve, But Russia lacks funds and housing to deal with them all, even in such an organized center as Moscow,—in addition to the complications that primitive training and influence bring into the problem. As yet not more than half the children of Russia have ben brot into organized schools. Still, in no country is such a funda- mental effort being made to deal with the child question. In no other coun- try can it be made so fundamentally, because at the base of it lies the eco- nomic question, and Russia is the only country dealing fundamentally with economic causes. Dunne’s Dates W. Frankfort, Ill—October 16. Christopher, [ll—October 17. Du Quoin, [l.—October 18. Madison, Ill.—October 19, afternoon, St. Louis, Mo.—October 19, evening. Belleville, Ill.—October 20. Collinsville, Il.—Octobér 22. Springfield, I.—October 22. Dust Proof Slip Covers Call or Phone. Illinois Slip Cover Co. Not Ine. Warwick Blidg., 551 E. 47th St., Chicago * Telephone Atlantic 0601 Estimates cheerfully given everywhere Yet. Monree 7281 ‘ We Serve Nothing But the Best VICTORY | Restaurant and Lunch Room | Pronos Brothers | 1054 West Madison St. Chicago | “Res. 1632 S. Trumbull Ave. - Phone Rockwell 5050 MORDECAI SHULMAN ATTORNEY-AT-LAW 701 Association Building 19 S. La Salle Street CHICAGO Dearborn 8657 Central 4945-4947 The Walden Book Shop 307 Plymouth Court (Between State and Dearborn dust South of Jackson) CHICAGO George E. Pashas COZY LUNCH 2426 Lincoln Avenue One-half block from Imperial Hall CHICAGO Mass Meeting WM. Z. F OSTER BENJAMIN: GITLOW Workers Party Candidates for President and Vice-President of the United States ~ For President WM. Z. FOSTER Vote for munists Against the Capital- ists For Vice-President - BENJAMIN GITLOW. Ashland Auditorium Ashland and Van Buren SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12th, 1924, at 2:30 P. M. Admission 25 Cents a eeeesdebbbabeparabbbhbaabdbaddaadd da ddbadhhhhdhadad Ad