Evening Star Newspaper, September 29, 1929, Page 50

A Sword Over Stalin ( (Continued From Third Page.) the executive power. Now, according to the constitution, the elections of the Soviets, beginning with the village So- viets, county Soviets, and so _on, were controlled by the secretary of the So- wviet, who had to be a Communist. The secretary of the local Soviet proposed the names of the candidates to be elected, and generally the whole Com- myinist ticket was voted by raising of hands. But if by some chance non-Com-= munist members were elected they-were soon eliminated in the next elections, ‘because the whole system resembles £t of a pyramid, where at the base we m the village Soviets that elect mem- to the county Soviet; those elect members to the provincial Soviets; the latter in their turn elect members to the state Soviet, from which, at last, the members of the Congress of Soviets ave elected in a final poll to reach the top of the pyramid. Only the big towns elect members to the Congress of Soviets airectly, but here the Communist party has always had a majority, because vir- tually only Communists may vote. All through this elaborate organiza- tion the men that really have the executive power are the secretaries of the Soviets. They are not elected from among the mass of the population, but from among the members of the Com- munist party, and in many cases the elections are replaced by a simple nomi- nation confirmed by a vote of approval. Taking into consideration the whole system, Stalin understood that the one who would have the support of the secretaries of the different Soviets throughout the country would be its virtual ruler. So while Trotsky and his comrades stirred up Moscow and the great industrial centers with their prop- aganda, Stalin proceeded by placing his own men as secretaries of the Soviets. Confident of Victory. In the majority of caseg he selected men without any educatiofl, men with- out any talents, just plain Communists, who remained, of course, infinitely grateful to him, because they never dreamed of obtaining such an impor- tant position. Thus, when the final battle between the “opposition”—Trot- sky, Zinoviev and Kamenev—and Stalin ‘was fought at the Congress of the So- viets, which, according to the Soviet constitution, is vested with the supreme power in the country, Stalin was confi- dent, because he knew that the 800 or so men fltting in Moscow have gone through such a filter prepared by him and his supporters, the secretaries of the Soviets, that he could blindly count on their vote. So it really happened, and the “opposition” was defeated. ‘Therefore, we can characterize now the present situation of Stalin in Russia as a secretaries’ autocracy. Thus, if in the past Russia had witnessed the ulti- mate manifestation of royal autocracy, she is subject now to a new form of the same principle, and the hopes that rose and the blood that was shed for free- dom and man’s rights—those noble seeds—have fallen on a strange ground s?d th"e given growth to a horrible plant. But at present there seems a new menace to Stalin's power rising in Rus- sia; In the midst of the Communist party two new groups have formed, led by old members of the Political Bureau, that unit which represented the quin- tessence of the Communist party. ‘There is a left wing and a right wing, Stalin and his partisans remaining in the center. And already the last joke coming from Moscow runs as this: “Now that Stalin has two wings, the question is, when will he fly?” Never- theless, it seems that Stalin’s position still remains very strong, and one of the indications of this is the fact of the reported attempt of Stalin to resign. One must be very careful in investigat- ing this act. At the time of his bitter- est fight against Trotsky, when the sit- uation reached its crisis, Stalin spsc- tacularly gave in his resignation from the post of general secretary. But this was done only in order to prove to his opponents that he is still powerful, be- cause naturally his resignation was not accepted and resulted in a new triumph for Stalin. So this time, too, the news of Stalin’s resignation, as reported by the prei;, m:ubt{ue. But, of course, it was not ut a strategic move in order to reaffirm his power. There- fore, we can be almost that Stalin's hold on Russia is still strong, and that he will not give his power away without fighting and without using in this battle all means in his possession. Will Cling to Power. Some people still think that the Bol- shevik leaders may adopt one day the road to evolution. Certainly it is diffi- cult to be a prophet and to deny this possibility at large, but as far as Stalin is concerned there can be no hope for adopting evolution as his policy. Stalin is tremendously ambitious, and now that he has power, now that he is the ruler of 145,000,000 people, perhaps the greatest ambition a man of the type of Stalin can have, he will cling to this power with all his forces. And this explains why Stalin will never give up his Communistic policy, unless driven to it by force, because, being unedu- cated, not clever but only shrewd, with no manners, no bearing, he would be almost immediately replaced by e one more fit than he is to be at the Read of a Russian government. So as soon as the Communist party throws away its fundamental principles & new class of population will be able to have its part in the government, and this class of the population that'did not espouse the Communist faith would soon throw Stalin out of his place. This is obvious, and Stalin knows it. Therefore, he clings to his position and to the Com- munist principles that enable him to be backed by a majority of the Com- munist party. Dictators_of the type of Mussolini, Primo de Rivera, King Alexander of Yugoslavia, or even Pilsudski, assume dictatorship in order to save their coun- try from disintegration or ruin, but dictators like Stalin seize power so that they could quench their thirst for power, satisfy their ambition. And this is the reason why Stalin will remain dictator of Russia till some force drives him violently from his posi- tion, and probably from life, too. G. O. P. Lcader in New Role (Continued From First Page.) bus Dewitt Huston, was the pastor of a Presbyterian Church. His mother, Margaret Eleanor Macrae Huston, came of hardy North Carolina stock, and when left a widow with four small chil- dren she had the determination to keep the little family together on a little farm until they were able to shift for themselves. Years after he had left the surroundings of Boone, Claudius Huston went back and purchased that farm, and today regards it as one of the most priceless of his possessions. ‘The only school nearby was known as “Swamp College,” because it was a one- room affair on the edge of a swamp, and there the four Huston children received their early education. The curriculum ‘was limited, but out of it Claudius got enough to qualify as a school teacher. He saved enough out of his salary of $30 a month to pay the tuition at Val- paraiso University, and plugged through the four-year course by doing all sorts of odd jobs around town. An elder cousin had gone to Chatta- nooga to teach in the Normal University there, and there was a teaching job there for Claudius when he received his degree from Valparaiso. That normal school is now a part of the University of Chattanooga, and the former cub teacher is now the most influential of its trustees. Bought Small Business College. ‘Then in his early twenties, he thought that pedagogy was his life work, and when an opportunity came along he bought out a small business college and in effect became a captain of industry. Although still a boy he had attracted attention in Chattanooga. He was the “go-getter type, a forerunner of the men who were to revolutionize American business in the twentieth century, and he gravitated naturally to the leadership in everything he tackled. Soon after he joined the Chamber of Commerce his associates made him pres- ident. Scon after he joined the Young Men's Christian Association and took charge of a campaign to improve its plant, he became president of that. Having_defied local prejudice by cling- ing to the Republicanism he had brought from Indiana, he soon became a leader in the affairs of the minority party. Incidentally, that was about as cour- ageous an act as Huston ever performed. ‘The easiest way for any ambitious youngster in Chattanooga, back there at the turn of the century, was to become a Democrat and train with the crowd. Huston chose the more difficult part, but some years later he was to have the satisfaction of seeing Tennessee twice give its electoral votes to Republican candidates for the presidency, and in each case to a man who called Huston his personal friend. The records do not disclose the exact date when Claudius Huston ceased to be a school teachrer and branched into more lucrative callings. He says himself that it happened 8o gradually that he didn't realize himself what was taking place. The most important part of his business college venture was to get jobs for his uates. This made it necessary for to cultivate the acquaintance of manufacturers, shopkeepers and others who from time to time were in need of stenographers and bookkeepers. Many times. after interviewing a local mer- chant, in behalf of somebody else, Hus- ton came away considering an offer of a job for himself. Eventually he began to accumulate extra responsibilities. “Placed” Huston on Board. There was a candy manufacturer in the nelghborhood, and Huston fre- quently asked him to “place” graduates of the business college. In time the manufacturer “placed” Huston on his board of directors, and gave him a chance to earn a financial interest in the property. By a curlous coincidence that candy manufacturer, Wiliam E. Brock, became a new Democratic United States Senator from Tennessee on the same day and almost at the same hour that Claudius Huston became the new chairman of the Rzgubuun National Committee. It was a busy day for both of them, but they managed to get an hour together to philosophize on the strange things that can happen in life. Huston very soon became known as Chattanooga’s most successful “busi- ness doctor.” Whenever an industry, Whether it was steel or wood or cloth, showed signs of slowing up, perplexed executives turned to this very versatile man, who still clung to his business col- lege as a mainstay. He passes from one directorate to another and inevita- bly landed in the banking business, ‘where men of his caliber are particular- ; said he had no that he merely app] of common sense to apparently there lied | England, Walter Edge are only a few men in the world who can do that, for he was able not many years later to walk into Wall Street, in New York, a country banker, and sit down on terms of equality with the mighty men of that neighborhood. He had just saved some millions of dollars for the stockholders of the Transconti- nental Ofl Co., and, although there were men there who probably would have identified Chattanooga as a new break- fast food or an Indian remedy for rheumatism, they welcomed him to their midst. Didn't Seek National Fame. In his 30s, Claudius Huston was not aiming to make himself a figure of na- tional consequence. He was happy in his various businesses. He loved the little city where he lived, the pic- turesque and valleys and the his- toric ground all about it where Ameri- cans had fought and killed each other in a Civil War, so horribly bloody and s0 horribly unnecessary. He had built a home on Missionary Ridge, which back in the 60s had been drenched with the blood of gallant boys from the North and South. That home he loved most of all, for it contained his wife and four daughters. He had no incentive to travel farther from them than the neighboring city. Then came the tragedy of Mrs. Hus- ton's death, before even the eldest of the four girls had reached her ’'teens. The manner in which the young widow- er guided his daughters into young womanhood is not for the prying eyes of the world, but the bond of affection between the girls and their father is the joy of all their acquaintances. Elea- nor, the eldest, is married now, but Katharine, Mildred and Alice are going to close up the house at Missionary Ridge and the apartment in New York, where they have been “keeping house for dad,” and are going to take char of the home he plans to establish ‘Washington. It is melancholy to record that the loss of his wife probably steered Claudius Huston into paths leading to national prominence. To forget his troubles he plunged into Tennessee politics with new vigor, so that by 4920 he was one of the leading factors in the State. He managed Republican finances in the South that year, he induced Warren G. Harding to shatter tradition by cam- paigning below the Mason and Dixon line, and in November Tennessee went Republican by a smashing majority. Late that Winter Harding sent for him, and asked him to go to Wash- ington and become a part of the ad- ministration. “I had h ,”” the President-elect is reported to have said, “to have you in the cabinet, but there weren’t enough places to go around and I know you'll understand. Do you know Hoover?” ,” replied Huston, “we've never met.” Took Place Temporarily. “Well, he's going to be Secretas of Commerce. He knows o‘;‘y you and hr{ "‘Iklelf-!“y'?ll as his first assistant. Please Huston accepted with the distinct un- | derstanding that he could quit in stx months to get back to his own affairs, But the time was extended to two years, 180 reluctant was he to break the daily association with the very remarkable man who was his “chief.”” And even at the end'of two years he continued for several months to travel all over Europe and help establish the foreign offices of the service Hoover was creating, When they parted late in 1923 Hus- ton had but one political idea—to aid in making Herbert Hoover President. Over | 'the years he visited Washington often, I never without a visit to the ent of Commerce or to the hospitable home at 2300 S street. Very often in those years Herbert Hoover would receive a telephone call late at night. . e, This 15 Huston,” & voice would say, v&g"r:fl a mmzh?m I wn:t you to meet. taking the midnig] nulsolor breakfast.” Fana b metimes the would be | political factor in a dis tsme.vr: banker, or a manufacturer. With the thought that he might some day be use- ful to Hoover, Huston was bringing the Y a t popular uprising in the Spring of 1923, when the x manded that the Eivs ttan Hoover, received his first inspi | over the breakfast table at 2300 8 street. Others Were Doing Same Thing. Of . course, Huston wasn't the only man_pla; with that “Hoover for President” idea. Many others were do- ing the same thing, “Jim” Good in Chi- cago, Walter Brown in Ohio, George Moses and John Richardson in New in New Jersey. It was the sort of spontaneous affair that ran largely by itself, but what direction & man who ily | gain their support—and a savage, :&ro&g THE SUNDAY STAR, WASfiINGTON,‘ D. C, SEPTEMBER 29, 1929—PART 2. Is Lawrence (Gol;tm“od From First Page.) ginning to be a savage fighting ground for the two great river valley empires, Egypt and Babylon-Assyria. and its people had the worst possible hammer- position, Furthermore, it is not ghans, too, are at lange: 3 that to India, but the trail there is a difficult one among the most forbidding mountains of the world, with countless natural strong positions, where a few determined men might stop thousands. Mountainous Afghanistan has a dan- gerous situation, but its difficult ter- rian protects its ple. Not so Pales- tine, It is a fairly level, equable coun- try, with_little more than high ‘hills in places. Such was the situation of the ancient Jews and their capital, Jerusalem, and their history is one of juggling politics between Egypt and the powers of ‘the Euphrates. 1t was nearly always sub- fect, and always trying to pick the winning side in the interminable wars, If the Jews sided with Egypt, and it Babylon or Assyria then won, the Jews were out of luck. The same the other way around. The best they could hope for was to subjugate themselves to the winning power. There was one ‘brief space when Egypt and Babylon were both in & process of internal trouble and decay. Each had at intervals pe- s ot ete; Haopere o, coin: lod of wi ess happen coin- gie;t. The peoples of Palestine took advantage of this. The Jews arose to their only real period of national inde- pendence and greatness.. This was the time of the kingdom of Solomon. Palestine Again Falls. Then the rival territories of empire grew strong agaln, and again Palestine knew the conqueror, and the same old thing was under way once more, Final- ly, the Jews got so deeply into trouble that the Babylonian captivity ensued. They were restored tot heir beloved but difficult land by the Persians. The Persian empire had succeeded the Baby- lonian in the Euphrates Valley. It fell by the hand of Alexander and the pow- er of the Macedonians and Greeks. ‘When Alexander’s empire split up, the old war game of battledore and shut- tlecock between the peoples of the Nile and the Euphrates was resumed, the empires of the Ptolmys and the Seleu- cids, and once more Palestine and the Jews were between two fires. Pales- tine once more became the shuttlecock. * This situation came to an end with the rise of the power of Rome. Rome took all into her own capacious do- main, and the Jews no longer had the t between the hammer and the anvil, Small good it did them. They revolted against Rome, and the Roman hand was heavy. Jerusalem was taken and destroyed. The Jews were rooted out of their land and spread over the world, where for century after century they were to dream of being restored to the holy earth that had been theirs. Their place was taken by people of adjoining terri- tories and by natives of their own He- brew blood who did not remain faithful to the Mosaic tradition of religion and nationality. For ages Palestine was dominated by the interaction of the empires of Nile and Euphrates, but there was a third factor, which for a long time was not spectacular. On the east of the fertile roadway of empire was the vast expanse of the Arabian desert, populated by camel-riding Bedouins, lean, hawk-like men, all born robbers and warriors. It is to be expected that they would take some hand in the good lands adjoining them. They did, with plundering raids and an infiitration of desert people who took to agricultural life. Herod the Great, King of Jews when Christ was born, was an Idumean Arab. But the Bedouins of the desert were in general too weak in their scattered, nomadic life to take much of an important hand until Mahomet united them with the creed of Islam and sent them forth to conquer. Then they stormed and carved out kingdoms from Spain to India. One of First to Fall. Palestine, at their door, was one of the first lands to fall. It was swiftly taken and Moslemized. Arabs moved into the land that had been Solomon’s. Presently Palestine was thoroughly made Arab. The people quickly called themselves Arabs, and they do today. 1t is generally agreed that they are not Arab by descent, but are mongrel de- scendants of the old native people and the many races Who have swept back and forth over Palestine. But since the time of Mahomet and the early caliphs they have adopted the religion, the language, the customs and the name of Arabs. The Christians came in the crusades to conquer the holy places. The wars between Christian and Moslem went on for centuries. The Jews, badly treated in Christian lands, were rather well treated by the Moslems. They were kindred peoples, friendly. That is one of the ironies, when now a Christian power protects the Jews against Islam. But the Jews of the centuries were dreaming of Jerusalem and their holy )l . It was a vague aspiration for ng, and then finally lized in the Zionist movement. The World War broke the power of the Turk, thanks partly to the genius of Col. l.lwreflcei and the Zionist idea was powerfu enough to bring about the ‘movement for a Jewlzg) ht;n;;rla:iln under the pro- tion of Greal . m‘!‘h!x‘wu a turn of history where the romantic and mysterious Lawrence played an important part. It may be pertinent to sketch briefly his part in the World War, which led to his ‘having a volce—though perhaps a futile voice —in the making of peace in the Near East. The British in Egypt, with the incredibly important Sues Canal to guard, were much in the same position of the anclent Pharaohs, the Ptolemys and Napoleon striking at Turkey from a in Egypt. The British had to guard against invasiqn through the nar- row Palestinian corridor. At the same time they would have to strike through that same corridor when they advanced against the Turk. Arabs Might Turn Scales. On the flank of this immensely sig- nificant corridor was the desert and the Arabs. The hard-fighting, hard-riding Bedouins, with constant raids out of the; desert, might turn the scale. They might easily be a decisive factor. They were co-religionists of the Turks, but had & national hatred for them. Winning them over to one side or other was a neat and delicate game. England did %mm. support it was—agains rks, and this was largely because of the unparalleled achievements of Col. | Lawrence. Young scholar of Oxford, in Palestine? known as “the Uncrowned King of Arabi. As might be expected, the Arabs, in their revolt against the Turks, had to be- persuaded by cel promises. Every allied nation was speculating on what it would get when the war was won. The Arabs wanted independence. They did not want to exchange the yoke of the Turk for that of any one else. And demanded that their future naticn have what they claimed were its rightful boundaries. Th wanted the whole of Syria, of wm:g England Couldn’t Keep Pledge. It was & promise that England could not keep. She had made other com- mitments that conflicted with it. France stood in the way. Lawrence represented the Arab cause to the nego- tiators of peace. He their case. He failed. Large parts of the territory that had been promised to the Arabs were disposed of otherwise. For one thing, Palestine was given over to be a homeland for the Jews under a British mandate. French demanded and took the rest of Syria. left with nothing but the desert lands of jordania. Lawrence was not bitter about the dlanppolnm;g treatment given his Arabs, and about the of the promises that had been made igh him, be- cause he had foreseen what would h: | e student. of Near Eastern archeology, he represented Britain smong the Arabs,| persuaded them to mighty efforts in the | behalf of the allies, became & leader | among_them, handled them on their| camel-back raids. Thus he came to be ' _— and cohesion it did have was supplied ' in large part by Claudius Huston. The | suite which he occupied at the Muehl- -bach in Kansas City during the ven- e Terece 1t 1 ot durprisng. loover forces. not su 3 occurred politicians give them | prop! iration The Arabs were | J IS T A it T think I can throw some light on will explain many “attitude, which things in his mysteri. rence led the Arab revolt against the Turks during the World War for two reasons—because he wanted to help the allies and because he wanted to see his title to confound the overseas Chiness is further resolved that at Ogden. It desert friends throw off the Turkish|000 Arab yoke. He regarded the Turks as tyrants. is ‘When the war was over he knew the French and Britixh would divide up the Near East between themsclves. So he went to Paris and gave the Arab dele- gates all the assistance he could. An- red because they saw Syria being en from them, the Arab leaders pro- claimed Feisul as their King. But his relgn in Damascus was short; the French army forced him to flee. But thanks to Lawrence and other British leaders the loss of his throne was not 8 very great personal catastrophe; for Feisul, because the British made him monarch of a far richer realm in potamia, where he still rules in Bagdad as King of Irak. ‘The_ final outcome of it all was that the Arab revolt became potentates—Hussein, King of the Hejaz, or Holy Arabia, and his two sons, Feisul and Abdullah, rulers of Irak and Trans- jordania. Lawrence was largely respon- sible for this, and thus the British it faith with the Arabs after all. * Lawrence Declines Honors. True, Lawrence declined the honors :‘nd decorations that were heaped up':lm‘° San But he is first of all a schola; g l | l Penna. Avenue FINE MEN'S WEAR 7th & F Sts. OUR LIBERAL CREDIT PLAN w « + enables any man to dress ) Arab with the desert tl'd!l‘lf“b' stylishly on sensible dignified Nanking Would Gag payments. It is truly Two Papers in Utah Aiming to reach into the United States and exercise censorship control of two Chinese newspapers at Ogden, Utah, is a resolution adopted by the standing me:mmmmee of the central exec- for ~credit. same as cash. Don’t hesitate to open & charge account. Pay in small weekly or monthly amounts easy to meet. rices are t a peut.\unugt the party hu;“w ters in quart Francisco, Tsiao Tung-yeh and Chen Chun-pu, who have managed and - ANNOUNCING KANN'S ANNIVERSARY The Foremost Occasion - On This Store's Calendar Of Important Sale Eventsl ——Agother year has been added to this store’s record of continuous public service. Again we are on the thresh- old of a great Anniversary celebration. And again we can say that it will be the greatest event this store has ever held, for it is traditional of these Anniversary Events that each year’s celebration has greatly eclipsed the one that has gone before. Many months of planning have been brought to a glorious climax. Hundreds of great savings are awaiting the signal to gol As usual, our prices will be as low as any in the city. Savings in women’s apparel, children’s apparel, things for the home! Plan to be herel Monday Sept. 30th “boon” to you men of modest incomes. There are no extras, carrying charges or interest he IS COURTESY DA —Couttesy Day offers you the opportunity of seeing in ad- vance what the Anniversary Savings are going to be, and— if it is more convenient—you may make your selections: then, Monday evening papers will carry the full details of the Anniversary Offerings! fi It is worth remembering, too, that in shopping at Kann’s, even when the savings are as great as they are in this sale, there is no curtailment of the services which'this store renders. You may use your charge account as usual. If you haven’t one you may open one at this time. Ll Ll i You may take full advantage of our convenient payment plan for large purchases of home- furnishings. You may have your purchases delivered to your door, entailing no inconvenience whatsoever, no matter how many purchases you make.