Latest / Margaret Sanger; an autobiography / 45 - Margaret Sanger; an autobiography by Margaret Sanger

Transcript

45 - Margaret Sanger; an autobiography by Margaret Sanger · Margaret Sanger; an autobiography

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty six of Margaret Sanger by Margaret Sanger. This
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter thirty six.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Faith is a fine invention. Quote. There is a great
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: difference between traveling to see countries and to see people.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: End quote Jean Jacques Rousseau toverish Blank, wishes to see you.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Came a call from the hotel desk. For a moment,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: I could not place the name, and the face had
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: changed so completely that I could but faintly trace a
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: resemblance to the boy I had seen before. He reminded
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: me I had known him in Seattle as one who
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: had assisted in getting up birth control meetings when the
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: wobleihs were being arrested in the United States. He he
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: had hired out as a stoker on a boat and
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: gradually made his way to Russia, where he thought he
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: could help to usher in the new society. Here was
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: one person who had not had the best of the bargain.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: He was shabbily dressed and looked dilapidated, evidently having seen
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: hard times, and had a beaten expression in his eyes.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Yet disillusioned as he was, he had not come to complain.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Since it was four in the afternoon, the lunch hour
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: in Russia. I asked him to join me in the
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: dining room, conducted like a large commons The waiters seemed disgruntled,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: unhappy inempt, and knew very little about service. They glanced
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: scornfully at the man who sat down beside me. The
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: one lively note was the orchestra, which threw itself into
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: march and wild and spirited Caucasian or Slavak folk dances
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: while we ate. My guest said this was the best
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: meal he had had since leaving America. Why don't you
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: come back, I asked. I couldn't get in, would you
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: if you could just give me the chance? I suppose
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: it was inevitable that in such a social upheaval many suffered.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: I called upon doctor Peter to Tushkin, who had tried
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: to attend our nineteen twenty five conference in New York,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: but had arrived too late. As was the case with
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: most professional men of his years, he had been of
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: the old aristocracy. He and his wife and two daughters,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: both physicians, had owned a beautiful home. Now, the thousands
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: of volumes of what had formerly comprised his fine medical
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: and scientific library had been taken away, and he and
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: his wife slept and ate in the room which had
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: contained them. He was margined and rationed to the last degree,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: and I could feel his humiliation at having so little
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: food that he could not offer us a cup of tea.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: While we were in Moscow, the Eddy Party and the
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Select Six, whom Louis Fisher was piloting, crossed our path. Fisher,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: a Russian living in Moscow and writing for The Nation
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: published in the United States, invited Grant and me to
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: go along with them to meet the Secretary of the
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Commissariat of Public Health, doctor Kaminski. We went up a wide,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: open stairway like that of a court house, and into
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: a spacious room, high windows running from floor to ceiling
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: in French fashion, and a huge banquet table laden with
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: the invariable afternoon tea. Doctor Kaminsky addressed us our worst
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: heritage from the old regime was in the field of medicine.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: The main task before us is to unite science and practice.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: Our medicine is a form of social insurance. Our medical
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: policy based on prevention. We are not interested in profit
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: only service. The Russians had been kind and had grasped
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: very quickly any improvement suggested to them, even accepting criticism
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: with great tolerance. Aware of this, when doctor Kaminsky paused
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: for questions, Grant inquired about doctors entering private practice as
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: Russia builds up public health work. Was the answer, More
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: doctors will be able to find room for private practice
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: if they so desire. Sherwood Eddie slipped me a note.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Here's your opportunity to bring up birth control. I took
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: my cue. Has Russia a population policy? Has she formulated
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: any program for the rate of increase of her people?
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: The audience stirred, as though I had hurled a grenade.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: The interpreter leaped to his feet and shrieked, Malthusianism. We
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: will not have Malthusianism here. We do not need it.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Do you think or imply that Soviet Russia has to
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: advance Malthusian ideas. We can have all the children we want,
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: and Russia can do with twice the population she now has.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: He went on and on. After waiting a few moments
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: for the air to clear, I continued, I have asked
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: doctor Kominsky a simple question, which I shall repeat. I
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: said nothing about Malthusianism, but I should like to know
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: whether Russia has a population policy. She has had five
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: and even ten year plans for agriculture and manufacture and
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: everything she is making. But what has she done about
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: the most important issue today population, its growth and distribution.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Fisher was whispering to doctor Kaminsky, evidently telling him what
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: I wanted to know. The doctor replied, if I understood correctly,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: you are asking if there is any policy from the
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: biological or economic point of view. I am asking whether Russia,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: in planning her industries, has any plan. Also as to
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: the eventual control of families, I know you have much
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: freedom for women and a fine technique for abortions. To us,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: that is extremely significant because after a woman has been aborted,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: she returns to the same conditions and becomes pregnant again.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Four hundred thousand abortions a year indicate women do not
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: want to have so many children. In my opinion, it
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: is a cruel method of dealing with the problem, because abortion,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: no matter how well done, is a terrific nervous strain
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: and an exhausting physical hardship. Doctor Kaminsky's answer was not encouraging.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: There is no question as to the increase of population.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: There is no policy as to the question of biological restrictions.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: On the contrary, there is a policy of increasing the population.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: For six years we have had a great shortage, not
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: only of skilled workers, but of labor in general. Obviously
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: I was not a particularly welcome visitor. By chance, I
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: was fortunate enough to encounter again doctor Marte Reuben Wolfe,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: who with her husband and children, had escaped from Nazi
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Germany and was then at the head of a Moscow abortorium.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Because of her wide experience in Germany, where clinics had
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: been under municipal guidance, she was one of the few
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: Communists who was sane on the subject of population. She
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: very kindly helped me with some of my interviews. Any
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: woman in Russia who requested it was entitled to abortion.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: On application to a doctor, she was told of the dangers,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: warned it might result, and sterility charged about two dollars
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: and a half. We talked to about fifty patients who
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: had already been there three days. None had temperatures. They
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: were very jolly and going home that afternoon to rest
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: for another week or two. Then they would go back
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: to work with no deduction in wages, though some of
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: these women had had five abortions in two years, and
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: one had had eight. They could not sing too highly
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: the praises of their country for allowing the operations. When
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: I asked whether they would not prefer to have some
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: information as to how to avoid further ones by protecting
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: themselves from pregnancy, each and all replied, we have no
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: such thing. We hear of it, but we have nothing.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: Russia is too poor. We hope she will soon get it.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: In only one place did I see a clinic in
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: the sense that we use the word here, and that
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: was in Moscow, where doctor Kabanova had sixty women the
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: afternoon we viewed it. Great credit is also due Madame Leviedova,
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: who organized the original establishment of the Institutes for the
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Protection of Motherhood and Childhood, laid down the principles to
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: be followed and persisted until they had been embodied in
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: a definite program. Doctor Abram b Jen's assistant director, was
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: in charge of contraceptive supplies and the administration of birth control,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: such as it was. He was antagonistic, disagreeable, unpleasant, shouting
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: enthusianism into my ears more times in one hour than
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: I had heard it before. In twenty years. The methods
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: in the Moscow clinic were antiquated, and I suggested sending
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: a physician to instruct them, but my proposal was not acceptable.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: I considered Russia's situation very serious. Her population was a
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: matter of mathematics. It had increased some fifty million since
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: the downfall of the Empire. Unless she looked ahead and
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: educated her people in the problems which arose out of population,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: within two generations, she would find herself with the same
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: differential birth rate than existing in England and the United States.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: It would, however, have much more tragic consequences, since it
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: would lower the augmentation of the capable, skilled shock troops
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: of industry, the idealists and active, selfless workers, and would
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: multiply from the bottom unskilled, ignorant, dull witted workers, superstitious
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: element which even the greatest efforts of a Soviet dictatorship
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: running at top speed could not pull up and out
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: of their evolutional environment. I really began to see Russia
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: under another guise after we stepped on the train from
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: Moscow to Gorky, the former Neisny Novgorode. Around the big
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: city hotels, vendors had been trying to dispose of soft,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: warm sables and gold embroidered altar pieces, evidently reft from churches,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: asking good prices for them. But now the peasant women
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: offered tea cozies, wooden boxes, carved and painted dolls, leather, brass,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: knick knacks for the tourist, quite unlike anything obtainable elsewhere
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: in Europe, and always, of course Russian blouses. The side
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: wheel steamer Komunitska, small but comfortable, was waiting to carry
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: us down the Volga to Stalingrad. Our party occupied practically
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: all available cabins, but hundreds of Russians were jammed on
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: the decks. At some points, the river was a mile
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: wide as it slid between flat landscapes limitless as far
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: as the eye could reach. Often we overtook rafts of logs,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: some at least a quarter of a mile long, each
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: bearing a diminutive house where the captain and his family lived.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: You could see the children scampering back and forth, and
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: the crew pushing it leisurely into the current. We were
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: four days in transit, passing many villages and a few
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: towns Kazan, Samara and Saratov. I do not remember the
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: cities clearly Some places are in dela in your mind.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: Others amount to very little. If you are searching for
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: something and do not find it, the scene vanishes. At
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: every stop. Men and women accompanied by children and baskets
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: of belongings were collected in a hundreds. They had come
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: a week or more early to make sure of catching
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: the boat, spending the nights on the ground, subsisting on
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: a loaf of bread, a tomato or a cucumber. Their
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: children were taken care of in the station, crache bathed,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: dressed in fresh clothing, taught directed in play, delivered to
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: the parents just before the Komuniska landed. Then came the
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: mad scramble. It was like the old days on Ellis
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: Island when the peasants from Europe arrived, thousands of them,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: carrying huge bundles on their head, shoving and rushing and
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: jabbering in strange tongues, attempting to squeeze in. You wondered
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: how so many people could ever get on board. They
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: had no comforts, no room to sleep, such as we.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: They appeared stark and hungry while we had marvelous food,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: in fact too much of it. Any American planning to
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: lose weight in Russia was badly disappointed. Stalingrad, near the
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: mouth of the Volga, was Russia's greatest industrial city. Here
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: I saw a hotel which was going up in front
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: and falling down behind with about equal rapidity. The building
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: material was lying in the streets. In the one in
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: which we lodged, we had to dodge spigots. Plumbing had
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: been laid on all over the country, but the stream
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: from any tap never, by any chance, landed where it
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: was intend. You approached cautiously, not knowing whether it would
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: get you in the eye, in the nose, or shoot
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: over your shoulder and hit your suitcase. The bathroom had
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: no lock, and the attendant insisted it was his job
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: to help patrons take a bath. I pushed on one
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: side of the door, he on the other. I won
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: at Stalingrad, as everywhere I had been before. I was
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: looking for Russian contraceptive methods, but having been discouraged both
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: by doctor Kaminski and doctor Jens, I went at it
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: rather carefully. When I visited the impressive new hospital, I
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: asked the superintendent, who was a gynecologist and spoke good English,
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: whether he gave contraceptive advice. I do not, but we
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: have a department of consultation. May I see it? I
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: had already surveyed about fifteen such where I had found
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: nothing save exhibits on the wall. It's just across the road.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: Will you go with me, I asked, elsewhere it's been
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: hard to get information. He agreed readily. As we entered,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: an attendant was displaying lengthy diagrams to some tourists being
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: shepherded through, and telling them birth control was taught in
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: hospitals throughout Russia. Someone I knew came up to me,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: this is wonderful, Missus Sanger. The people are being taught
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: birth control by the government. The posters were there to
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: prove this, but the consultation room itself was locked. Who
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: was in charge here? Demanded the superintendent. I've been sending
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: patients over. Who takes care of them? I do sometimes?
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: A woman assistant volunteered. She led us into the room.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: There were the same cases I had seen everywhere, probably
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: untouched since nineteen twenty five. The articles within moldy and cracked.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: What do you use, I asked, We have nothing. We've
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: asked and asked Moscow, but we get nothing. The superintendent
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: was much embarrassed, he inquired how long it had been
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: since supplies had come two years? Why we don't know, Well,
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: what about the patients I send over here? We just
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: tell them to go home and wait, we have nothing
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: for them. From Stalingrad, we took the train to ord Zanikitza,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: the beginning of the Georgian military highway through the Caucasus,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: to Typhless. After the usual breakfast of Russian tea, black
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: bread and fresh caviare, which I found delicious, we climbed
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: into four open topped serrabanks, filling them to capacity. Enormous
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: trucks came behind with our luggage. For about two hours,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: we rolled along by the side of the river Terek,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: which was running dark and going so fast that the
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: only thing I could think of was the streams from
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: Swiss glaciers. But instead of being ice green, this was
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: muddy splashing up on the road. The guides told us
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: there had been a two day torrential rain, the worst
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: the Caucasus had ever known. About ten we stopped to
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: stretch our legs at a village. Groups of lusty mountaineers
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: stared at us, grinning good humoredly, as though we were
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: as odd as any freaks in a circus. They gave
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: us cheese and bread. Some of us bought wine and tea,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: not knowing when we might leave. After three hours we
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: were still at the village, and finally, men with great
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: high hats and military looking Ostrakhan capes rode up on
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: horseback and spoke to our guides, who, not being Georgian,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: had difficulty divining what they were trying to say. Our
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: cars could not pass. We thought it was just like
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: the Russians to fuss about a few little obstacles, and
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: said there must be some way to get through. Off
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: we went, and our drivers were magnificent with the stubbornness
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: of tractors. We plunged across streams and over rocks. When
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: trees blocked the road, they lifted the trunks, branches and all.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: We drove on and on slowly, and at last towards
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: five o'clock came. It came to a spot where there
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: was nothing before us, nothing but the mountain side sheer
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: to the swirling water. Out clambered the eighty tourists, youthful
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: and aged, tall and short, thin and fat. We could
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: see the road begin about a quarter of a mile
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: beyond a sultry sun smiling on the peaks of the mountains.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: The river was still rising. One of our guides waded
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: in to test whether we could ford it, and was
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: soon practically up to his middle in the turbid flood.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: Grant began ferrying old ladies over the deep places, and
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: a couple of boys carried the two hundred and ten
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: pound professor ross. The current was terrific and people kept falling.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: After nearly three hours, everybody was across. Our leader found
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: a horse, galloped off to secure new buses, which arrived
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: and took us to the town where we were supposed
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: to have lunch. But it was now dark and lunch
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: became supper. More conversations, more consultations, more delay, more mystery.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Why did we not start? The answer was that three
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: strange men were sitting in one of our cars, Russians
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: who wanted to get to typeless. They were going to
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: have their rights. When pleading, arguing, reasoning could not move them,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: the GPU had to be invoked. Still no results. Not
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: until they had been promised that a bus would leave
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: immediately did they descend and make room for the three
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: of our group whose seats they had usurped We rattled
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: off again, only to be turned back another long halt
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: and more conversation. Ultimately, since buses had been dispatched from
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: Typhlus to meet us and were waiting about six miles away,
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: it was decided to push on. Then began the reel
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: drive through Godar Pass, up and over rocks and embankments,
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: roots of trees, sand and water, precarious detours, and a
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: night as jet as any I have ever seen. The
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: militia had been ordered by Moscow to keep the route open,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: green sky rockets for us to come ahead, red ones
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: to stop, and swinging lanterns in front of the worst
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: danger spots, great drops down into ravines. At last we
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: reached the end and mounted a new set of buses,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: but only three of them. Grant was among those who
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: stayed behind. We arrived at Typhlus at two in the morning.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: Dinner was ready, as well as clean beds, and we
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: slept until the humid sun stirred us out for breakfast
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: just as the rest came straggling in. It was Sunday morning.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: Lining the steps of the old Georgian Cathedral were beggar women, lame, blind, filthy.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: Never had I seen any others. In Russia, children were
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: curiously looking on at the masts, but we were told
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: parents were forbidden to make them go to church. The
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: few elderly women attending were carrying flowers and had twined
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: them also around the frames of the saint's pictures. We
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: tourists presented in incongruous contrast to the priests, with their
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: long beards and splendid robes. Typhlus had slipped the yoke
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: of Moscow here among the mosques and the camels and
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: the bazaars, which gave it a definitely oriental tinge. We
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: finally saw signs of private enterprise. Back in the mountains
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: were tribes. The Soviet were trying to civilize warlike uncultured
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: barbaric Stalin, sentimental for the country of his origin, perhaps,
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: was choosing as many Georgians as he could for high places,
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: and sending in teachers and moving pictures to educate the others.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: But the task was herculean. It was hot, torrid noon
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: when we arrived at Batum on the Black Sea. The
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: sun was pouring down. We wanted to go swimming to
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: cool off, and were directed to a stony beach. The
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: water was darkened by the heavy, rich deposit which coated
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: the bottom, and the sand of the same color was
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: strewn with masses of people, just like Coney Island, thousands
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: of them on the seaweed covered rocks. It did not
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: look pleasant, and we walked further. A partition of slats,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: through which there was perfect visibility, was supposed to divide
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: the women from the men, But despite having heard so
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: much about the nude bathing there, we discovered everyone had
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: on suits astounding old fashioned garments. Missus Clyde declined to
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: go in, but sat watching in her hat and glasses.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: Tanya kept on pink panties and a brazier. The rest
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: of us determined to throw off our inhibitions. Once you
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: did this, you were freed from them for the time being.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: It was the doing that was so hard. Most surprising
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: were the New England school teachers, who had certainly never
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: before removed their clothes in public. They dashed their long,
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: lean bodies boldly into the water, as though to say, Russia,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: here we come. The steamer on which we left Battam
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: was dirty, loaded with passengers who had to be stepped
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: over as they slept on deck. If you left your
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: stateroom even a few moments somebody grabbed it and took
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: your bed. But the scenery of the Russian riviera was
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: very lovely. The spurs of the Caucasus along the coast
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: glittered with marble palaces. I shall always remember the mighty
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: sable cypress trees, slender columns silhouetted against the creamy white walls.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: They were not funereal to me, but more like sentinels.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: Only the chosen of the chosen. The executives in the
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: intelligentsia could stay at Yalta for holidays. Many individuals, Agnes Smedley,
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: for one, had reason to be grateful to the Soviet
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: for their rest periods. Although not a Communist, she had
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: written sympathetic articles, and the Russian health Department, hearing she
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: was ill in China, had sent her an invitation to
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: come and recuperate, and here she had stayed a year
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: without cost, recovering from a strained heart. I spent a
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: day in the majestic Byzantine summer palace of Nicholas the
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: Second at nearby Levadia. It was perfectly landscaped, with statues, fountains, terraces.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: As we drove up, multitudinous shaved heads popped out open
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: windows in the marvelous ballroom, where one hundred and fifty
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: enamel coots side by side the sleeping quarters of the
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: men on vacation. We saw the room belonging to the
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: former Czarina, with fragile brocaded walls and delicate panels. In
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: the center of the parquet floor, bare of any covering,
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: stood a deal table with checked gingham cloth. Now and
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: then you caught a glimpse of people in the palace,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: but mostly they were reclining in the gardens. As we
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: wandered round and round, we came upon a cluster of
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: twenty five asleep, pale and not too well fed. They
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: did not twitch an eyelid. As we approached, I asked Tanya,
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: who are these Touching one of them on the shoulder,
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: she said, tovarisch. These Tovariches want to know who you are.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: At that, not only he, but all of them jumped
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: to their feet, as though at military drill. One after
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: the other gave his name, each with a vitch or
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: a ski on the end of it, stating also his occupation.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: As he finished, he turned his head to the next,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: who took up the recital. The little women with bobbed
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: black hair and a curious bodice of blue proudly said
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: she wore the cross of Linen on her dress because
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: with him she had fought for Russia. This was the
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: highest honor any woman in Russia could be paid. Only
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: a hundred had it. Then the first man bowed politely Titania,
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: and with dignity said something to her. She interpreted to us,
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: they want to know who you are. Tell them we're Americans,
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: North Americans, with great enthusiasm. Yes, Then question after question
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: spattered like a machine gun. Are you from Seattle, Portland?
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: How did you get here? What way did you come?
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: How long did it take you, How much did it cost?
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: What has happened to Dillinger? What's the latest news of
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: the seamen strike on the Pacific coast? How soon comes
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: the revolution? We were rather dazed at the degree of
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: current information they had gleaned, chiefly from posters in the parks.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: Their bombardment continued, Do women in America have as much
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: freedom as men? We all disagreed on that. Can married
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: women work for the government? Can they teach school? Some
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: of us answered no, others yes. On every inquiry of theirs,
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: we were divided, but on whatever we ask them, they
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: were united. Who is your favorite American author? I answered,
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: I like Sainclair Lewis. The woman looked at me accusingly.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: Not Theodore Dreiser. Oh yes, I agreed, he's good. A
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: man suggested, not Upton Sinclair. They were apparently sadly disappointed
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: in us. At last, one of them, making a sweeping gesture,
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: said to me, your American government has never built anything
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: like this for its workers, has it. No? I replied,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: we never had a czar, which was very tactless of me.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: He answered something to the effect you people have opinions
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: but no convictions. We have been to prison for hours.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: Tanya volunteered, pointing to me, this lady has been to
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: prison eight times for hers. Aston was registered and one
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: man spoke hurriedly to Tanya, who translated, he wants to
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: know who you are? Shall I tell him? She then
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: explained I was advocating birth control. Well we have that.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: Haven't you visited any of our hospitals? Thousands of women
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: have it. No, that's abortion. We don't want that. Birth
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: control is different. The conversation had shifted to something concrete
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: and real. We had struck up an entant. That was
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: very cordial. The group gathered closer. Come on, come on,
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: this is important. They had never heard of contraception. How
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: could any one have put me in jail for that?
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: What a crazy government? Worse than they had thought. The
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: woman said, we need you over here. Come and work
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: with us. Don't waste your life in America. From the
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: impatient bus came horns, whistles, bells, summoning us away. The
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: whole twenty five followed us to the share banks, waving farewell.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: Tanya was a most discerning little person, ordinarily impassive, but
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: springing up animatedly the moment music started when of our
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: party invited her, Come on to America. You'll have pretty clothes,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: and for any one who can dance like you, fame
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: is waiting pretty clothes. I have two dresses which answer
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: their purpose. And as for fame, this is my people.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: I enjoy dancing and they enjoy me. Why should I
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: go to America? Before I left, I wanted to do
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: something for her, give her some sort of gift and
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: return for her many services. She was going to be married,
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: and because her mother was old fashioned, have a registered ceremony,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: call in all her friends and even don special raiment.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: I had some new stockings with me and presented them
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: to her. She looked at them, handled them as though
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: treasuring some lovely things she longed for but could not possess.
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't dare wear them. I would be ashamed because
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: my friends could not have the same. Tanya was willing
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: to go without until silk stockings were to be had
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: by all. It was necessary to grasp the satitude to
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: understand Sovietism. It gave you slight personal freedom, and you
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: had to ask yourself honestly whether exploitation by government or
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: by individual was basically different. But what you did have
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: was security for your old age and the hope that
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: when the rewards came, you would have your share. The
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: Russians were a mass of contradictions. One moment, I was
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: irritated enough to tear them limb from limb, the next
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: prostrate before their sincerity and zeal. The more than one
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty races and forty five languages made for
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: problems that challenged man's intelligence. Perhaps no other nation had
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: had a lower order of serfdom to arouse from lethargy
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: and put to work on a new civilization. Nothing but
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: admiration could be accorded their attempts and achievements, But most
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: of the time they were entranced by their own drug
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: of idealism. They had swallowed so much of it that
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: they were self hypnotized and bumped into reality without understanding it.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: Like the Spanish, it was enough for them to say
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: it will be, without taking sufficient thought as to how
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: to bring it about. At Odessa, we boarded what then
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: seemed to us, by contrast, the most beautiful ship in
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: the world, the Italian liner Campidoglio. Entering into another domain,
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: a neat white cloth was spread for you yourself. No
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: longer did you have a soiled napkin folded for indefinite use.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: Spotless coats adorned the waiters, Our chairs were pulled out.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: Everybody had a proper bed and cabin. It was only
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: a simple ship, but its signified Western refinement, and I
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: must say I welcomed it. No matter how much proletarian
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: sympathy you might have. You appreciated clean tables, dishes, sheets, towels,
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: and a bathroom that worked. In order to hurry back
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: to school, Grant separated from me in Roumania, and my
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: husband joined me in Naples to go to Mariambad. I
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: had barely reached there when Grant cabled that Stuart was
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: ill again. I left for home the same day. On arrival,
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: I found the doctors contemplating a radical operation, but I
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: refused to let him have another. As an alternative, Tucson
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: Arizona was suggested for its dry, warm climate. His wound
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: was still unhealed when we started being stowed away in
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: Stuart's small forward coup for days on end. Gave us
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: the best possible opportunity to catch up in our talks
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: and experiences, and place trivial and unimportant events in the
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: pockets of memory where they belonged. The joy of thus
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: familiarizing myself with my grown up son made me envy
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: mothers who had leisure to grow along with their children,
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: or at least to watch them develop. But it is
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: possible we are all the better friends in adult life.
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: At least we adhere to the rights of individuality for
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: ourselves and for each other. It was nearing the close
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: of October when one bright morning we left El Paso
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: and came across miles and miles of brown and yellow
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: desert up to the hills and mountains through the heat waves.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: We saw mirages. We were positive they were lakes. Arizona
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: was so unlike any place I had ever been before.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: You either had to be enthralled by it or hate
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: and dread it, not being quick to come to conclusions.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: I was not at first sure, but I knew there
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: was a delight in the cool nights and the translucent
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: sunny days with a lovely tang in the air. In
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: the beginning, it was the people who won me, particularly
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: Missus Robert P. Bass, daughter of Missus Charles Sumner Bird,
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: one of our early pioneers. We stayed with her for
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: a short time and then took a pink adobe house
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: out where the desert met the foothills. Stuart grew better
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: in the spring. We packed our bags once more in
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: the little car and drove away, looking back regretfully at
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: the indescribable catalinas on which light and clouds played in
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: never ending change of pattern. End of chapter thirty six.