"Fine Gentleman"

Such a party as exuberant Russians best know how to give they gave in 1929 for a Man from Montana, also exuberant.

Russia was then in the early stages of her Five-Year Plan which came to its end this week (see above). She wanted to mechanize ten million acres of Soviet farm land. Out in Montana was Thomas Donald Campbell, mechanized-farming pioneer. True, his Campbell Farming Corp. "operates" only 95,000 acres, which look small beside ten million acres, but the Soviet Government decided that Mr. & Mrs. Campbell were people to honor. They were whisked to Moscow. Farmer Campbell energetically advised the Soviet Grain Trust. After that the fun began. In 1932 Mr. Campbell wrote about it in Russia: Market or Menace? (Longmans, Green; $2).

Still glowing from his warm reception. Farmer Campbell described the Soviet President, Comrade Kalinin, as "a fine gentleman." doubtless unaware that "gentleman" is a fighting word among Reds. Gratefully he recalled "one of the finest dinners we had ever eaten, including several different kinds of wine. The other guests at the table were amazed that Mrs. Campbell and I did not drink and teased us a great deal about Prohibition in the United States. . . . Before the evening was over we had a typical Russian sleigh ride through the thick dark forests. Mrs. Kalinin took me with her, while the rest of the party went in a large sleigh. She had a spirited horse, but was an excellent driver although she succeeded in upsetting the sleigh twice, which I am satisfied she did as a joke."

To Russians, who constantly read in the Soviet Press that President & Mrs. Kalinin are extremely frugal folk and that she has managed successively a textile factory and two big collective farms in different parts of the Union during the past few years, Farmer Campbell's chatter would recall Moscow rumors that the President keeps a vivacious mistress who might easily be mistaken by Mr. & Mrs. Campbell for his wife. In Russia, however, the President does not matter. Josef Stalin matters. Last week another part of Farmer Campbell's book--the part in which he describes his meeting with the Dictator--was savagely attacked in a letter to the Moscow Bolshevik signed "J. Stalin."

Unable to read English, therefore unable to read Farmer Campbell's book, Dictator Stalin had boiled over when some bungling Russian translator told him that the Man from Montana claims they talked from 1 p. m. "until the dawn." Actually Mr. Campbell wrote that the interview lasted from 2 p. m. "until well after dark, as the sun sets early in the northern country." Stalin's letter sharply denied all-night parleying, denied the claim (which Farmer Campbell did make) that Stalin clasped his guest's hand in both his own, finally held up to scorn this statement in the Campbell book: "[Stalin] unhesitatingly admitted, with disarming frankness, that under Trotsky there had been an attempt [by Russia] to spread Communism throughout the world. He said that was the primary cause of the break between himself and Trotsky. That Trotsky believed in universal Communism while he wanted to confine his efforts to his country. He explained that they had neither the time nor the money to try to communize the world."

Stalin's letter called the above a "sense-- less fabrication which turns facts upside down"--i. e. in principle, J. Stalin wants to be known as a driving force behind "The World Revolution of the World Proletariat." In fact, the cost of the Five-Year Plan has taxed Russia's resources so heavily that Soviet cash contributions to Communist organizations abroad have dwindled from a torrent to a trickle. Exception : Moscow still sends money & arms in generous quantities to Chinese Communists, considers that the Yellow Menace is the only one worth investing in at present.

Tall, tense, loquacious Farmer Campbell, queried last week in Los Angeles by newshawks, seemed puzzled. "I have a very high regard for Mr. Stalin," said he. "I consider him a real leader, perhaps the only man who can bring Russia out of its distress and turmoil. There must be some misunderstanding. . . ."

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