To Illuminate The Darkness The Life of Cliff Herness (1901-1984) Founder of Minnesota Council of American-Soviet Friendship. by Cris Herness Author's Preface A Soviet leader traveling in our country in the late winter of 1984, shortly after Cliff's death, said thoughtfully and quietly to those of us us who were in the bus with him, "Cliff was a great man." Those who knew him best will agree. During the last few years of his life Cliff occasionally expressed a wish that he could tell the story of his most significant experiences to more people than he could reach by word of mouth - and especially to young people who need to know the lessons of the past as they deal with new but similar problems in the struggle for lasting peace. I believe that if Cliff had lived for a few more years we would have written this little book together, as we did an earlier one about our travels in the USSR. Without his help the task is more difficult but no less urgent in the view of the need for honest information about the vital issues of war and peace, to counter in some small measure the barrage of official "disinformation". I first met Cliff at a Democratic-Farmer-Labor meeting in downtown St. Paul in the fall of 1946. He was one of the last to speak at the meeting, and the most effective; he spoke directly, forcefully and with conviction. Clearly here was a man who saw what was needed and how to go about getting it. When the meeting was over both of us joined a small group of those who lived near enough to walk home. We stopped at a conveniently located cafe for coffee and conversation. In response to a question Cliff told us something of his memorable trip to the Soviet Union nine years before; it was obvious that the trip was as fresh in his mind as if it had been just nine days instead of nine years. He had been more than a casual traveler, he had exerted himself to learn all he could about the countries he visited - and his early life experiences had prepared him to understand the significance of what he saw. C.H. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I Early Life.............................. 5 II By Boat in 1937......................... 11 (from Cliff's memoirs) III Back in the USA......................... 53 (from Cliff's memoirs) IV In the Airforce......................... 60 (from Cliff's memoirs) V House Construction...................... 70 (and Wild Pets) VI More Travel............................. 76 & Founding the MCASF VII Later Years............................. 103 Acknowledgement I wish to thank Sigurd and Clarence Sharp for their helpful encouragement, and for reading the preliminary manuscript; Ivan Policoff for suggestions relating to Cliff's musical interests; and my grandson Kevin for his time-consuming, skilled help with the computer. Any errors are, of course, my own responsibility. C.H. Chapter I Early Life Experiences, Cliff Herness (Lyman Clifford Herness) was born on a farm near Fergus Falls, Minnesota, on June 3, 1901. His parents were of Norwegian ancestry and spoke Norwegian at home. Cliff had four younger brothers:Irwin born in 1903, Harter in 1906, Raymond in 1908 and Kermit in 1910. Neither of the parents - Helge and Julia - had more than three years of schooling - barely enough, Helga said, to learn to read - but he understood the value of education and did what he could to educate himself. He subscribed to the progressive publication "Appeal to Reason"; he set aside one upstairs room in the family home for his experiments in elementary chemistry; he took an active part in political affairs; and he argued so much against Lutheran Church doctrine that after his death the local preacher came to the farm to ask the devout grandmother,"Was he saved?" - to which she could only mumble anxiously, "I hope so!" Until the boys reached school age they were quite isolated on the farm, but as the oldest son, Cliff did have more opportunities than his brothers did to go with his father on errands away from the farm. Once when his father took him on a wagon ride into town they stopped at a general store and his father asked him, "What flavor pop would you like?" Young Cliff, not more than five years old, had no answer. What was pop? What flavors were there? He couldn't even put his questions into words. If only he could be worldly-wise like his father! He stood there, embarrassed and speechless, until his father made the momentous decision for him. Coming from a Norwegian-speaking home, English sounded strange to Cliff when he started school in a little one-room schoolhouse, built on a plot of land that his father had donated for the purpose. At first Cliff was acutely unhappy in class, but he had absorbed his father's determination to learn. He persevered. Tragically, before Cliff had quite reached the age of ten years his father died of acute heart failure. His mother now faced a future filled with anxiety. The farm had to be worked, taxes had to be paid,interest and debt payments had to be kept up on a mortgage. At the same time five little boys, of whom Cliff was the oldest, had to be fed, clothed and cared for. It was a hard struggle. She rented out part of the farm. She herself tended milk cows, chickens and a vegetable garden, besides caring for the children. The local bank became trustee of the property - a woman could not own real estate in Minnesota at that time.Young Cliff stood watching and listening one day when the banker came to the home and unctuously told his mother that he would be glad to help her out by taking the farm off her hands. Cliff never forgot the expression of pain on his mother's face as she listened, and he understood her problem - with five small sons, the youngest a babe in arms, where could she go? What could she do? She kept the farm, and tried to keep the family together. But over her weak, ineffective protests the paternal grandparents took the toddler, Ray, to live with them for a while. To be sure, he had a more varied diet and closer supervision in his grandparents' home, but Julia wanted to keep her family together on the farm. To make the payments on the mortgage she turned everything she could into cash. Needed repairs were postponed. When the big clock in the living room stopped running she did nothing about it and refused Cliff's offer to repair it, for fear he would damage it further - what did an eleven-year-old boy know about clock repair? But Cliff was sure he could fix it. Usually he obeyed his mother but one day when she had gone on an errand into town he took the clock apart and repaired it so that from then on it ran perfectly. Of course his mother was pleased, especially since there was no other reliable time-piece in the house. One year she tried to raise a few turkeys. They had to be kept in a dry place but in good weather the little ones were allowed to run loose. Cliff watched on chilly, wet mornings as his mother sloshed around in soggy fields to gather up the baby turkeys to put them in a dry place, and he thought, "She shouldn't have to do that." He would have made life easier for her if he could. But boys will be boys, as the saying goes.Cliff and Irv both wanted a bicycle. They realized that of course there were no funds for anything of the sort. So Cliff used his ingenuity and resourcefulness; with Irv's help he built a wooden bicycle, using a couple of mismatched wheels and other materials that they found in the farm buildings, etc. Even fifty years later the two brothers enjoyed reminiscing about it. Cliff told me, "It ran best down hill, on a gentle slope." No story of Cliff's childhood would be complete without a few words about his fondness for animals. He tamed a squirrel to the point that it would take nuts out of his pockets. He pitied the neighbor's horse that had a sore neck from a poorly-fitting collar, and was angry at the owner for allowing that to happen.He made pets of the rabbits. He was not easily reconciled to the fact that chickens and other farm animals had to be killed to provide food for humans. Within a year or two after Cliff's father died a new disaster struck; the solidly built home caught fire and burned to the ground. The fire probably started spontaneously in some oily rags and partially used cans of paint that had been left upstairs under the over-heated eaves on a hot summer night. Julia took the children and walked with them the few miles to her parents' home, where they lived until a small cheaply constructed house was built to replace the original one. The new house was not insulated; the tiny bedrooms were unheated; water froze over night in the wash basin. The boys were inadequately clothed. Meals became even more skimpy. One tragedy followed another. On a family buggy-ride into town to buy a few necessities Irv felt chilly so he jumped off, intending to run for a short distance to get warm: in scrambling to get back in the buggy while it was moving he caught his leg in the spokes of a wheel. The leg was so badly mangled that it had to be amputated. An acquaintance who was driving by in his car at the time of the accident protested against taking Irv to the hospital because he did not want blood splattered all over the upholstery of his new car! (It is no longer clear whether this driver or another one actually drove Irv and his mother to the hospital. Understandably, neither Irv nor Cliff ever wanted to discuss the details of that terrible accident). Irv's first prosthesis was of course a crude wooden leg. In spite of everything the boys were growing up. When Cliff was about 14 years old he and Irv were sent to live with an uncle's family where they were expected to help with the farm work. They made the trip by train to the station near Veblen, South Dakota, where their uncle was to meet them. Neither of them had ever been on a train before; they felt strange and apprehensive.They ate the one sandwich their mother had provided for each of them. They had no money to buy anything more. When they reached the station they waited, not knowing how soon their uncle would come to pick them up. Hours passed. They wondered from time to time if something could have happened to prevent their uncle from coming. Finally, just as it was beginning to get dark they saw his wagon in the distance. It turned out - although he never explained - that he had simply decided to finish his day's work before going to meet them. The uncle worked hard and expected everyone else to do the same. The boys did chores before and after school, and worked full days when school was not in session. Occasionally the uncle sent Cliff to neighboring farms where extra help was needed. At such times Cliff did a man's work but because of his youth he was paid only a fraction of a man's wages. The two boys got no encouragement from their uncle to stay in school, but they had absorbed enough of their father's attitudes to want to do so. Both of them eventually achieved a higher education. In college Cliff supported himself by, among other things, shoveling coal until late at night so that he was often too tired to study. At times he did manage to have some breaks in the drudgery of his routine; he learned to play a saxophone and on more than one occasion he took part in a dramatic performance. During summer vacations he worked in the harvest fields of Minnesota and the Dakotas, sometimes going north into Canada - to Manitoba and the area around Regina in Saskatchewan Province - "following the harvest" as it moved northward, and then working in threshing crews. He received the Bachelor of Science degree from the State Normal and Industrial College in Ellendale, North Dakota with a major in Industrial Training which covered a wide range of subjects from machine designing to the organization of shop courses. Minors were in chemistry and social sciences. Following graduation from college Cliff taught high school shop work and other subjects at first in Lidgerwood, North Dakota and (after two years) in Red Wing, Minnesota. At Red Wing Cliff broadened the school's vocational guidance activities.He also organized a Glider club. The club purchased a badly damaged glider, repaired it under Cliff's direction and used it for flight training. But then the curtailment of funds for school programs in the depression years forced a narrowing of the curriculum, and the entire industrial arts program was discontinued. For the next two years Cliff had only a part-time job in the cut-back program of the Duluth, Minnesota schools. Eventually an appropriate position opened up in the Bloomington, Minnesota, school program. For the next three years Cliff's work brought high praise from administrators and from the public. The school principal said he could be teaching at college level. The work of his students was exhibited with pride. In 1936 Cliff fulfilled the requirements for and was granted the degree of Master of Science from the University of North Dakota - he had spent several summers working toward this degree at the Universities of Michigan and of North Dakota. His thesis was a study of Cooperative Part-time Vocational Training programs in Public High Schools of the United States. The depression years had intensified Cliff's interest in economics and politics; he wanted to know more about the cooperative movement; and he wondered how accurate our news reports were about the socio-economic system in the Soviet Union. When he heard about a tour planned for the summer of 1937 under the leadership of Dr. Mecklenburg he borrowed some money and joined the tour group. Chapter Two tells the story of that trip in Cliff's own words. Footnote # 1. A somewhat condensed report of the tour appears in the booklet "To the Soviet Union in 1937 and Now" published in 1981 by Novosti Press, but for the sake of continuity we include it here, especially since the earlier version may not be readily available today. Chapter II By Boat in 1937 (by Cliff) "In early 1937 when I was teaching in the Bloomington, Minnesota high school, I heard weekly announcements over the radio of a planned group tour to the Soviet Union and other European countries. The trip would take from June until August. Countries to be visited included Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the USSR, Poland, Germany, Belgium, France, England and Ireland. Total cost including hotels, meals, boat travel from Montreal and back to New York would be $550.00, I was especially interested in visiting the Soviet Union. I found it hard to believe that the Soviet people and their government were as they were depicted in our newspaper cartoons and other propaganda. I wanted to see for myself. "The radio announcement requested interested persons to contact Dr. Mecklenburg's office in the Wesleyan Methodist Church. There I was given information about procedures for obtaining a passport, visas, etc. "When I mentioned my plans to Roman Becker who was on the staff of the Minnesota Leader (a Farmer-Labor publication) he suggested that in view of the scarcity of valid information here about the USSR I should contact our Farmer-Labor Governor, Elmer Benson, to get his ideas of what questions I should ask the Russians in order to learn as much as possible about their country while I was there. The Governor wrote a letter of introduction for me so that I might have the opportunity to talk with officials in the different countries that I would visit. The Governor's secretary, Vince Day, discussed with me the question of what information I should try to get from officials and private citizens. "I drove to Chicago to meet the travel group for the train trip to Montreal, Canada. There were about seventy people in the group including teachers, school administrators, physicians, Methodist clergymen, a mortician, a banker,other active and retired businessmen with their wives, and a few college students. "We arrived in Montreal in the evening. After some sightseeing and an overnight stay at the Queen's Hotel we had breakfast on our ship, the Andania, and were assigned staterooms. I was to share a room with Clark Newman, a businessman from near Chicago. Soon the ship was loosened from its moorings, propellers began to churn the water, the voyage to Europe had started.A pleasant afternoon's sailing brought us to the picturesque city of Quebec, with its interesting French architecture. We stopped here briefly to load and unload passengers from a smaller boat that came alongside our ship. After a few more hours of sailing darkness settled over the St. Lawrence. Passengers relaxed a while before retiring. Clark Newman and I began our acquaintance with a general discussion of world conditions. Some comments were made about American capitalism versus Russian socialism. He implied that the basic difference had to do with religion or the lack of it. I mentioned that a depression such as we had earlier in that decade could not occur in an socialist country; it occurred in our capitalist country because wealth was being concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people, the masses had less and less buying power so goods were piling up and production had to stop. When production stopped, more people of course became unemployed and lost buying power; this is how a depression comes about. Clark made some neutral comment, and we retired for the night. "Suddenly my sleep was interrupted by a loud grinding, rasping, screeching sound - then dead silence. The ship was listing badly to one side. I hurried out to see what was wrong. In the low tide we had run onto a sand bar. After about an hour and a half the engines managed to free the ship and we were on our way again. The whistle blew at regular intervals in the early morning fog. "Later, when I was writing postcards in our stateroom, Clark came in to relax, and he re-opened our discussion of the evening before. He had apparently been thinking about my explanation of the underlying reason for the Great Depression. He now stated his conviction that the basic reason for the depression with its resulting poverty was that people had turned away from God and Christ. I told him that God and Christ had nothing to do with it, that the depression was man-made; the ordinary working people were helpless victims of the greed of those who own and control industry which provides the jobs. He became indignant as I quoted Christ, 'You who have two coats, give one to him who has none.' I explained that Christ said this to a rich man because the rich man's greed had deprived others of what they needed. Christ implied that the extra coat belonged to the needy person in the first place. Clark's manner softened as he said that he could understand my explanation, now he had enough to think about for the time being and wanted to go for a stroll. "In the evening when we met again in our stateroom he posed more questions about socialism and capitalism. I pointed out that everything man needs, everything of value, whether goods or services, is produced by labor, by people working. Money does not produce anything, it is only a measure of value for different goods and services. I reminded him that Christ said that usury (interest on money loaned) is wrong because the usurer exploits the labor of others and produces nothing of value himself. Clark was a wealthy man, successful in business and active in support of his church. He told me that from time to time he had heard these quotations of Christ from the pulpit but he had never heard a minister explain their underlying meaning or relate it to everyday life as I did. 'This opens up a new perspective for me in my thinking', he said, so we continued our discussions each evening until we reached Europe. "By the third day we had passed the broad Gulf of St. Lawrence and were going through the narrow straits with Labrador on our left and Newfoundland on our right. By that evening we were leaving the picturesque Belle Isle behind and looking ahead at the wide open Atlantic Ocean. Because of the cold wind a wide strip of canvas was put up along the windward side of the boat as a protection. The waves were getting higher, the sea was moderately rough. "Dr. Mecklenburg held a church service in the large dining room and after that most of the people retired. Clark and I strolled along the deck on the south side with the canvas protecting us from the chilly wind. We were at the stern end when suddenly about 11 P.M. there was a violent vibration of the boat under our feet, loud blowing of whistles and at the same time the loud clanging of some bell up front. Clark shouted to me above the noise, 'Something is happening! There is something wrong! We must be in trouble!' Now we heard the noise of reversed propellers churning the water under the stern below us. We both dashed around the stern end of the ship to the north side walkway and were met by a blast of cold air from a large object like a glittering gray mountain passing by only a few feet from the boat. A few seconds later it was about a hundred feet behind our stern and a little to one side.The ship was coming to a stop and the iceberg gradually disappeared into the darkness behind us. We hurried to the front of the boat for more information. The man who had been on look-out duty was still very frightened; he told us that when the iceberg out there first appeared it looked as though it was dead ahead, he at once sounded the bell for an emergency stop. The pilot managed to turn the ship to the right at the same time that the engines were reversed, so the iceberg was just barely cleared as it slid by on the north side of our ship. All the members of the crew on duty at that time were very agitated and so were we. The boat was now stopped, its lights scanning all directions for drifting icebergs. We were in an ice field. One officer told me that he had been a sea-going man for thirty years and this was his closest brush with tragedy. The ship did not move again until daybreak. After daylight one passenger counted twenty-three icebergs in the surrounding area. In mid-forenoon I saw two more, too far away for me to get a good picture of them. That day the main topic of conversation all over the ship was the near collision with the iceberg during the night. The air continued to be very cold because of all the ice in the area. "That afternoon a public meeting was held as scheduled; I had been asked to give a lecture on the fundamentals of consumer and producer cooperatives. There seemed to be considerable interest, after the lecture there were good questions from the audience. Later Dr. Mecklenburg asked me to head a group for the study of cooperatives and of education while we were in Europe. I had a conference with him to make plans for such a study group. "After several days of fog and intermittent loud sounds of fog warnings we welcomed a clear, sunny day. A whale passed by not far from our ship. Porpoises darted playfully a little distance away from us. "I had the interesting experience of exploring the engine room and watching the drive shafts that transferred power from the engines to the propeller. I spent an enjoyable hour in this area at the very bottom of the ship. "Each afternoon during our trans-Atlantic crossing the members of our group and other interested passengers gathered for lectures, usually by Dr. Mecklenburg, and discussions about the countries we planned to visit. The Soviet Union was discussed the most. Dr. Mecklenburg emphasized its vast size by pointing out that the distance from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Moscow is less than the distance from Moscow to the extreme eastern boundary of the Soviet Union. He explained that the USSR is composed of many republics of which the largest is the Russian Federative Socialist Republic, next largest is the Ukraine, then Byelorussia. By way of historical background, he told us that the first authentic records date from the year 862 when a marauding Norseman named Rurik established a government at Kiev. In the 13th century there was a flood of Mongol invasions into Russia. Gendhis Khan and his line ruled Russia for about one hundred years. Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible) brought the Tartar kingdoms of Kazan and Siberia into line and formed Greater Russia. Among the better known monarchs was Catherine the Great who, among other things, first introduced state banks, taxation of church property, inoculation against smallpox and the building of hospitals. She also extended the Russian food supply by introducing the potato, he told us. "When the weather was pleasant we spent much time on deck. One afternoon I spotted six black whales about a quarter of a mile off from the side of our ship. They were lined up in single file, traveling in the same direction we were, swimming for about a hundred yards on the surface of the water, then all of them simultaneously diving beneath the surface and swimming under water for about the same distance, surfacing again, and then again submerging all together as though by a unified command. When they came to the surface each one sent up a stream that looked like water and steam under pressure blowing straight up from a point about ten or twelve feet from the head of the animal. As they dove and reappeared they maintained the same relative distance between them, in perfect formation. Each one was about thirty feet long. It was an impressive display. "Each day the clock was turned ahead one hour so that by Thursday we were seven hours ahead of Minnesota time. We began to notice that the nights were lighter, more like daytime. On Friday we had our first glimpse of land, an island off the northwest coast of Ireland. That evening the captain gave a party; prizes were awarded to winners in sports and other competitions. At about 11 p.m. we could see Scotland in the distance, straight ahead. It was still daylight at that hour. We were given landing cards to fill out for customs officials, passengers began packing their bags to be ready to disembark early the next morning. We had been on the ocean for eight days. "When we awoke the next morning the engines were quiet so we knew we had arrived. From the upper deck I saw the beautiful city of Greenock, Scotland, spread out on the green slopes down to the sea where we were anchored. Soon our group went down the gangplank, into the customs building, and from there to the nearby railway station . A train took us to Glasgow, about twenty-five miles to the east. There our travel group was housed in three different hotels, presumably because no one hotel had room for seventy people. Clark and I were assigned a large, high-ceilinged room in the Bellhaven Hotel. When I first turned on the water faucet I discovered what is meant by 'sea legs' - the sound of splashing water produced a swaying sensation for the first few minutes, as though the floor beneath my feet was moving. "Our stay in Glasgow was not long enough for me to find out much about labor strife but I did see slogans chalked on the sidewalk, 'Down with Bank Combines!' and poverty-stricken people were too numerous to be overlooked. We saw them step back into alleys when our bus drove by. When a woman in our party asked the driver, 'Who are those people?' his callous answer was, 'We call them alley rats'. "Later, when most of our group went to see cathedrals and art galleries, I went alone to a crooked, winding alley where poor people lived. Those I met seemed gentle, almost timid. I struck up a conversation with a young man who was apparently coming home from some errand; he had a small paper sack in his hand. "I walked along with him as we talked, and when we reached the shack in which he lived he invited me to go in with him. There was only one room, with a dirt floor, a bed, a smaller cot, a bare wooden table and a couple of straight chairs. Some of the windows were covered with newspapers; one window opening was stuffed with a ragged blanket. The young man's parents and younger brothers were sitting on the chairs and on the cot, wrapped in old bedcovers. The father, talking rapidly and rolling his R's, conversed with me at first about neutral topics and then about the depression which had deprived him of work for two years. He and his family were now 'on the dole'. 'It's very little' he said 'and there are lots of people in the same boat.' Then he added,'You've got a good President, Roosevelt. He's for the working people, isn't he?' I agreed. Very soon the boy who had invited me in said that he would have to take off his clothes and get into bed so that his brother could wear the clothes to go somewhere. I left, feeling depressed. "Later, when our travel group got together to compare our impressions of Scotland the other reports were about beautiful castles, cathedrals and art galleries - a rosy picture. When my turn came to speak I said that I was sorry to be the one to present the other side but I was interested in how working people live and what the economic conditions are. I told what I had seen. The group became quiet. Dr. Mecklenburg cleared his throat a couple of times and said, 'I'm afraid we do tend to look only at the good side but it is important also to see the other side,' and with that the meeting adjourned. "On a Sunday morning we left Glasgow for the Trossachs area of Scotland noted for its great variety of scenery with a relatively small area. In only a few hours of travel we saw lakes, rugged hills, wastelands covered with heather and low mountains. Here and there were frugal looking farm homes with sheep grazing on nearby slopes. "The train that took us northward was so small, its steam locomotive so very little compared to those in the USA, and its tin whistle so high-pitched that to me it appeared as a mere toy. The passengers sat facing each other in compartments with a seat for five passengers on each side. There were no handles on the inside of the compartment doors; when passengers were seated and the doors closed they were locked in by the conductor. The little train traveled at a surprisingly fast speed. "Along the road to Loch Lomond we saw no advertising signs to mar the natural beauty,nor, for that matter, did we see any sign of the monster that is reputed to inhabit its waters. Our boat ride across the lake was most pleasant. Our Scottish guide intrigued us with his comments; he characterized Mussolini as 'cracked and suffering from big-head.' Regarding Hitler, he said,'That's for the German people to worry about. They put him in power, they have the right to do what they want to about him. But if he starts to interfere with other countries, then it will be time to take care of him.' (This was of course 1937, before Hitler's seizure of Czechoslovakia). "At Edinburgh our large group was again housed in two hotels. I went to the Cooperative Central Office and talked with one of the officers who took me on a tour of the city.There were few cars on the streets, most people walked or rode bicycles.Our travel group apparently attracted more local attention than I had realized. On our last day in Ediburgh we were shown a three-column article in the Scottish Daily Express, telling about our visit there. "From Edinburgh we went south by train along the coast of the North Sea to Newcastle, England. Along the way we saw many pasture lands with thousands upon thousands of cattle and sheep. The farms looked well-kept. As we neared Newcastle the countryside became more rough and hilly. Derricks, industrial equipment, black dust and other evidences of coal mining appeared and soon dominated the landscape to the very edge of the city. When we reached the station the train backed up to the pier for some distance through the city slums - not a pleasant sight. The shacks were absolutely not fit for human habitation but families lived there, as evidenced by the little children playing around them. "At the pier we went through customs and boarded the beautiful ten-thousand-ton Norwegian ship, Venus. We moved over the smooth waters of the Tyne River but about an hour later as we reached the open sea huge swells began to form. I discovered that the middle of the ship was the best place to be; the heaving of the foremost tip of the bow was terrible. After a while the few of us still remaining on deck set up a competitive challenge to find out who could walk all the way to the front and back without becoming sick. About six or seven started; only two of us made it there and back but this was the limit of my endurance. Only one young woman went again to the tip of the bow and back. All night it was possible to see out over the ocean because of the midnight sun. "By morning the sea had become calm. The rocky coast of Norway was visible in the distance. By late afternoon we came into the harbor of Bergen. Our hotel accommodations and meals there were good. Daylight continued until near midnight. There were large numbers of people on the streets but no street lights were on and none were needed. "At Bergen I learned that the next leg of our trip would take us through the town of Voss. My paternal grandparents had come from the Voss area to the USA more than seventy years earlier, and relatives still lived in the 'Hernes guard' (farm or estate) near there so I inquired about the possibility of stopping over for a day. The station master to whom I directed my inquiry told me that his name also was Hernes, he came from Voss; and his brother was the locomotive engineer on the train that we would be taking that day! With great joy I stepped off the train after an hour's ride from Bergen, visited the old homestead of my grandparents, took many pictures of the town with its surrounding snow-capped mountains and met many more members of the extended Hernes family. The locomotive engineer showed me places of interest, including the cooperative store where he was one of the directors. He took me to the old Voss church where I was given access to my grandparents' family records up until the date of their departure for the USA in 1866. When the time came for me to resume my journey by train from Voss to Oslo where I would rejoin the travel group, a large number of new friends came to the station to say goodbye. "I did not suspect then, as I left this beautiful city, that less than three years later this community of about two thousand population would be to a large extent destroyed by the bombs and fire of the Nazi Air Force, in the spring of 1940. The entire business area, including the Cooperative Central Store, was completely destroyed. The city was then under Nazi control until almost the end of the war. "On boarding the train in the early evening I found myself in a coach without seats but crowded with standing men on their way home from work. When the conductor checked my ticket he told me that it was first-class, and he led me to the car farther back. This turned out to be air-conditioned, with plush accommodations. He motioned me to a vacant seat next to a man wearing golf Knickers and looking like the businessman he was. I introduced myself and learned that he was an Oslo banker returning from Bergen where he also had an interest in a bank. He became especially sociable when I said that I was from Minnesota. He commented that Minnesota has a large number of Scandinavians; he mentioned the similarity in climate. For a while our conversation continued on a friendly if superficial basis. But when I asked,'What opinion do you people in Norway have of Hitler?', he replied, 'Hitler is the greatest man in the world today.' He went on to say,'It is time that the laboring class of people here in Norway be put in their place. In our country the workers have too much to say about government. Government should be managed by the owners of business and industry, because they have been endowed with the abilities necessary to make decisions for the entire nation. When God created the working classes He equipped them for producing the many commodities and services needed by all of us, but the Supreme Creator did not intend that workers should participate in decision-making. Accordingly, He did not give them the abilities necessary for participation in affairs of government. One reason the working class has become so demanding is that our government has provided too much schooling for the children of workers. But Hitler's program will change that and will take care of these problems in Norway.' "By this time I had heard enough. I told him that capitalists and aristocrats are nothing but parasites on the working people, that we in the USA look upon Hitler as a gangster hired and paid for by the parasites who seek to perpetuate their special privileges. I added 'Now that I have heard your antithesis to everything decent and civilized, I feel ashamed of you as a Norwegian.' Naturally, this ended our conversation. We rode in silence for the few more hours that it took us to reach Oslo. I am sure that later this man became a Quisling supporter. "The three hundred mile trip from Bergen to Oslo passes through some of the most dramatic scenery one can imagine. On leaving Voss the train took us up the mountains until we were above the tree line. The view from the train windows was of waste lands covered with snow; this was on July 3rd. For a long distance we saw no signs of human habitation, no buildings or farm animals, nothing except many lakes, sage grass, rocks and more rocks. At Myrdal we rose to the highest point, 4228 feet higher than at Voss. As the early morning sun was beginning to warm the countryside we gradually dropped down to lower altitudes. We were coming into a beautiful area of farms with cattle, sheep and goats. Red painted farm buildings were scattered here and there, often on terraced slopes. The small villages seemed very peaceful as our train stopped briefly for passengers to get on or off, while at the same time milk cans were loaded or unloaded. "I reached Oslo in the early morning of July 4th and spent the day sightseeing. In a city park I came across a large gathering of people listening to a man who was speaking about July 4th as Independence Day in the United States. He spoke of the inspiration it provided for people in different parts of the world, and stressed the accomplishments stemming from this venture in the founding of a new government based on democratic principles. With conviction and eloquence he pointed up the need for all working people to take an interest in and participate in the affairs of their government. He appealed to his audience to expand the meaning and spirit of the American Independence Day. I was pleased with what I heard here, in such contrast to what I had heard from the pretentious banker during the previous night on the train, Now my spirits were lifted again as I joined the travel group for dinner. "The next morning was bright and sunny as we left Oslo for Stockholm. For about an hour the train took us through a farming area with no fjords and few lakes; herds of milk cows and beef cattle were everywhere. "Near the border between Norway and Sweden there was a short delay and then a little jolt - our steam locomotive was being replaced by an electric one. Now we traveled at a faster speed. In Sweden the electrification of the rail service was much more advanced than in Norway, and the Swedish countryside looked more prosperous. Farm buildings were in good repair and painted, adding a colorful contrast to the green of the pasture areas and field crops. "As we rode along I took the opportunity to talk with Dr. Mecklenburg about Stockholm as a leading center of the cooperative movement. As head of the group for the study of cooperatives I offered to arrange a tour of Stockholm cooperatives for our entire travel group. He liked the idea but thought we should clear it first with the guide who was assigned to our party by the Norwegian travel agency in Oslo and was to be with us until the end of our stay in Stockholm. So we went together to where the guide was seated and told him our proposal. To our surprise he protested that the schedule he had set up for us left no time for visiting any cooperatives. When I insisted that a study of Scandinavian cooperatives was one of our important travel purposes he objected even more strenuously, adding that cooperatives are communistic. So I countered by saying, 'Then let's visit them to see how bad they are.' 'No,' he answered, 'they interfere with free enterprise and should not be encouraged to flaunt their communist ideas.' 'But the cooperatives save the people substantial amounts on the cost of basic commodities. What's wrong with that?' i asked. His irrelevant reply was, 'You must be a communist. You sound like one.' As it turned out, there was no resolution of the issue. Dr. Mecklenburg agreed that we ought to take the opportunity to visit the cooperatives but he was unwilling to take a stand in opposition to the guide who remained adamant. "On our arrival in Stockholm I went alone to the cooperative headquarters and explained that I wanted the sixty-eight Americans in our party to see what the cooperatives were accomplishing, and I told of my problem with the Norwegian guide who was bitterly hostile toward cooperatives. The upshot was that an official from the cooperative went with me to talk with Dr. Mecklenburg. We found him in the company of the guide and most members of our travel group. Another argument ensued. The guide loudly and angrily insisted that busses would be available only for pre-arranged tours. The cooperative representative offered to supply busses for a tour of cooperatives. This made the Oslo guide furious, he repeated his 'communist' accusations. Many of the tourists in the group looked confused and uncertain. At this point Dr. Mecklenburg decided to ask for a show of hands by those interested in a tour of cooperatives. Only about a third now indicated such an interest. How many may have refrained because of the loud invective by the guide is a matter of speculation. I was of course angry at him for his arrogant assumption that he knew what was best for all of us, but in addition I felt an irrational anger because his name was Helge which happened also to be my late father's name. No two men could possibly have been more different. "As it turned out, about twenty or twenty-five of us made the tour of wholesale and retail cooperatives and of a housing area of cooperative apartments for workers. The rest of the tour group went instead to an old restaurant where, they reported later, they were able to buy coffee, ice-cream and sour milk. "A general sightseeing tour took us to the architecturally outstanding Stockholm Town Hall and to 'Skansen', a museum-like park with old furnishings dating back many centuries. At the entrance to an old church we saw stocks where centuries ago men's legs were locked in place in a most uncomfortable and undignified position because the men had failed to attend church services regularly as required by church authorities. These men were humiliated and degraded in the presence of church-going neighbors who perhaps stared at them or perhaps glanced quickly at them while passing in or out of the church. Such was one of the punishments inflicted by an institution that supposedly taught brotherhood and kindness. "In 1937 Sweden and especially Stockholm gave the impression of social progress. We were told that unemployment was only one per cent. People were relatively secure in their jobs and health care. Taxes were high because they supported a high level of government activity in the areas of welfare and social security. Sweden impressed me as more progressive than any of the countries visited so far. "Clark and I compared our experiences and observations as we traveled from one country to another. In Sweden he agreed when I pointed out the obviously better economic and social condition of the average people and related this to the greater participation by workers in affairs of government and in socio-economic programs such as cooperatives. He could see, too, that the cooperatives would be even more successful in bettering the living conditions for workers if they could operate in the friendly supportive environment of socialism instead of in the hostile environment of the private profit system which continued to be in control in Sweden. I brought to his attention the partial loss of benefits to people because cooperatives in Sweden were still dependent on privately owned industry for most of their supplies. Only ten or eleven per cent of the business of Sweden was run by cooperatives. Private business interests controlled the other ninety per cent and this reduced the workers' benefits which instead went to the few who owned the resources and the industries. "Our hotel accommodations were good and the meals were excellent. Some members of our party made comments to the effect that if we gained weight here in Sweden we need not be concerned because we would surely lose it in the Soviet Union where the food would be poor. As it turned out, the food in the Soviet Union compared favorably with that in the Scandinavian countries and everywhere else - but more about that later. "Our steamship ride from Stockholm to Turku, Finland was smooth and pleasant. At Turku after going through customs we took a train for Helsinki, but about half way, in an open country area, our train stopped, the steam locomotive had broken down. While waiting for repairs most of us got off the train and walked around, looking at the fields with sweet clover piled up to dry. I took pictures of five farm boys who came across the fields to look at our stalled train with all the people walking around it. The boys gladly wrote their names and addresses in my travel diary. In about an hour and a half another engine came to take us the rest of the way to Helsinki. "We were scheduled to leave for Russia the next evening. At noon on the day of our scheduled departure we received invitations to a banquet in our honor, courtesy of the Finnish government. It was to be at six o'clock that evening so we were asked to have our bags packed, ready for departure at eight. The banquet was served in an attractive, large dining hall and was hosted by two government officials. The one who acted as master of ceremonies began by telling us that he was pleased to have so many Americans as guests in his country, that relations between our two countries have been and continue to be on a very friendly basis,that Finland was the only country that had paid back its loan obligations to the USA completely and on schedule, a very different record from that of other European countries which had also borrowed money from the USA but had fallen behind in their repayments. Finland appreciated the help provided by the USA, he said, and has paid back every dollar. "At this point he introduced the other official, an older woman whom he referred to as an old patriot who continued to serve her country with devotion and loyalty. She began by repeating in different words much of what he had said, reminding us again that only Finland has repaid each installment when due on the loan from the USA, etc, Then she raised her voice and proceeded,'Now I am told that you are about to leave us this evening for that uncivilized, unchristian, barbaric neighboring country to the east. I feel it my duty to warn you that you are risking your lives to go there. People just like you have gone on from here to Bolshevik Russia and have then disappeared, not to be heard from again. Very likely they were shot. When you arrive at the Russian customs tomorrow morning your troubles will begin. The Russian customs people are very uncivilized and inefficient in their work habits. It will take them two days to check your baggage. They have no appreciation for nice things. They will tear things apart, pull everything out of your bags, scatter your things on the floor and step on them. They have no manners. If they see something they like they will just take it and you had better not object or you wil be in trouble. When you get to the hotels you will find them filthy and full of bedbugs. The food will be poor, mostly just black bread and cabbage soup. There will be many a mealtime when you will have to go without anything to eat.There is very little food in Russia. This is because there is no order or system there - only chaos. If you are caught going somewhere without permission you will be picked up by the police and put in jail. That may be the last anyone will ever hear of you, you may vanish for all time as others have who went on from here to that uncivilized land.' Then she suggested,'If I were you, I would cancel the trip to Russia and instead spend more time here in Finland, then take a boat across the Baltic to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania'(then capitalist) 'three very nice little countries. There you can pick up your planned itinerary again to go on into Germany. In that way you will always be with civilized, Christian people and always be sure of your safety.' "The banquet ended very shortly before the time scheduled for us to leave for Leningrad; there was little time for decisions. But now there was much fear and apprehension in our party. People gathered around Dr. Mecklenburg with proposals to cancel our scheduled departure for the Soviet Union. The busses would be here in a few minutes to take us to the train station. Dr. Mecklenburg had been to the Soviet Union before; he suggested that even if there would be some hardship the educational experience would be worth it, and besides it would only be for about two weeks. As tactfully as he could he explained that he thought there had been some exaggeration by the banquet speaker. However, three people did cancel; they , along with two others who had been informed before leaving their homes that they would be denied visas for the Soviet Union, stayed behind as we left for the railroad station. On arrival at the station we learned that there would be a delay of one hour before we could board our train. The members of our party were escorted to a separate waiting room; most of them sat in glum silence. Their characteristically gay, relaxed spirit had vanished. "I decided to go outside to look around, of course being careful to watch the time. I stood where I could observe the locomotives switching cars, and noticed another man also leisurely watching the trains. I spoke to him in Swedish which he, like most Finns, readily understood, so I engaged him in conversation. He was a truck driver living in Helsinki. Once or twice a week he hauled Portland cement to Leningrad. He readily answered my questions. Yes, the hotels in Leningrad were real good, the food was fine, the people were very friendly and nice to be with. So I told him what I had just heard from one of his government officials at the banquet. He assured me that it was only propaganda, that I had nothing to worry about in going to the Soviet Union.'It's a working people's government,' he told me,'and is doing a lot of good things!' I thanked him and started back toward the station. At the entrance I met another man who seemed to be in no hurry. Again we spoke Swedish. I told him that I was waiting for the train to Leningrad and wondered what that city would be like. I told him about the speech we had heard at the banquet earlier that evening and mentioned the speaker's name. (I do not find her name in my notes and cannot now recall it). 'Oh, her,' he said,'Pay no attention to her. She's a Mannerheim supporter. We don't listen to her propaganda.' "So as I returned to the travel group I felt relieved. Five minutes later we all silently boarded the train. Dr. Rice, a clergyman from Rochester, Minnesota, and I were assigned to the same sleeping compartment. As we retired I said, 'Tomorrow will be a big day!' to which he responded in awed tones, 'I fear for what is in store for us tomorrow!' I decided to drop the subject. Toward morning our train stopped at Viborg long enough for breakfasts in individual lunch baskets to be brought aboard, then proceeded for about an hour to the Russian border, stopping only once more very briefly at a little place called Teryoki, apparently to allow two Russian customs officers to get on. Since most members of our travel group had not talked with men on the strret in Helsinki as I had they were still very tense and apprehensive. So much so that when one of the Russians announced in good, clear English, 'We are Soviet customs officers, please have your passports ready,' the women closest to them looked terrified and fumbled in their purses with trembling hands for passports which they failed to see at first even though they were right there in their proper places. They turned their faces away as they held up the passports, evidentl Htoo frightened to look directly at the officers who thanked them and moved on through the car. When the officers had picked up all the passports and were gone, I heard such whispered comments as,'I'm scared!' and 'Those Russians sure were big!' "Now as I looked through the window I saw many low, dome-shaped, white objects among the trees and the large boulders. Suddenly I realized what I was looking at.We were crossing the Mannerheim Line. The sturdy fortifications had gun barrels projecting all in the same direction - toward Leningrad in the Soviet Union. Before long the train stopped briefly; We were at a bridge over a small river that marked the Finnish-Russian border. Barbed-wire barricades on the Finnish side extended as far as the eye could see. Military sentries stood, relaxed, on each side of our train. We moved across the bridge with its wooden railing painted white on the Finnish half and red on the Russian half. Soon we came to a little village with the customs house where our baggage was unloaded for inspection. There was a horseshoe-shaped counter long enough for all sixty-three people in our party to place their baggage on it at the same time. Most of the bags were opened but the checking of their contents was perfunctory. Regarding my baggage the only question was about my exposed film. When I explained what it was a seal was put around it and I was told not to break the seal until after I had left the Soviet Union. In twenty-five minutes the customs had finished with us all. They could not have been more courteous and considerate. We now had forty-five minutes to wait for our train to Leningrad. Some of us followed the suggestion of a customs officer and went for a walk in the little village. Everyone was more reassured now; I heard such comments as,'This wasn't anything like what we were told at that banquet in Helsinki! The customs took less than a half hour and last evening she said it would take two days!' "I asked an official if there were restricted areas in Leningrad or Moscow where tourists cannot go. He looked at me in a puzzled way and said that of course I could go where I wanted to and take pictures of everything except certain bridges, railroad stations and military fortifications. He asked what gave me the impression that there were restricted areas in Soviet cities. When I told him what we had heard in Helsinki the previous evening and what we hear in the USA he said,'Such reports are just propaganda. You will find that you can go wherever you like when you visit my country.' Then he called another customs officer standing nearby to come and listen; he asked me to repeat what I had been telling him. When I did so they grinned at each other and shook their heads. They both assured me that I would not find conditions in the Soviet Union to be like that. "We reached Leningrad in half an hour and were taken by bus directly to the Astoria Hotel. Clark and I were again assigned to the same room. His first comment when he saw it was,'Look, isn't this wonderful? It's like the very best hotels in Chicago!' I answered that there had been gross misrepresentation the previous evening and he agreed. "Very soon dinner was served; a long table had been set for all sixty-three of us, a string orchestra provided really beautiful music. There were exclamations of surprise from some of the women in our party when they saw the attractive decor. The food was plentiful and so good that Dr. Mecklenburg called a waiter over and expressed what was intended to be very high praise, 'This is a wonderful dinner. It is just like back home in Minneapolis!' The waiter thanked him and smiled. "After dinner we went sightseeing; there was daylight until about 10 P.M. We rode along a wide street with fine new apartment buildings on each side.The balconies were colorful with flowers; young trees lined the curbs.I asked the driver to stop so I could take some pictures, and others also stepped out of the bus when I did. One woman who had told me in Norway that in Russia we would see only rubble and slums, now looked at the miles of multi-storied modern apartment buildings and said, 'Well, anyhow, I just don't like Russia!' "Later in the day we visited the Petrodvorets summer palace, about twenty-five miles from Leningrad by bus along the shore of the Baltic Sea. The palace and its surroundings with many fountains were the most beautiful I had ever seen. It was like stepping into a different world. It was said to be a copy of Versailles, planed by a French architect employed by Peter the Great, and completed in 1715. At each end of the palace was a chapel with a covered walk-way leading to it. In the palace was an elaborate collection of priceless art objects, oil paintings and sculptures by the world's most famous artists. The unbelievably beautiful inlaid floors were made of special woods from all parts of the world, placed together to form beautiful, artistic designs. We were permitted to walk on them only with soft felt soles tied on under our shoes, in order to preserve their beauty. This was the palace where the Tsars and their families lived while the people who paid for it, who built and maintained it, were starving and freezing. Then, when the people petitioned the Tsar for relief, as they did on that cold winter day of January 9,1905, they were shot down in front of the winter palace. " Leningrad was so very interesting that I was sorry to leave. We went by bus from our hotel to the railway station where we were assigned sleeping accommodations on the train for Moscow. According to Dr.Mecklenburg the trains and sleeping cars were much improved over those of four years before. "After all night on the train we arrived in Moscow Sunday morning and went directly to the old but very comfortable National Hotel. Rooms were assigned, a fine breakfast was promptly served, then we were taken to a Russian Orthodox church. The service was already in progress. The church was quite filled with worshippers who stood during the entire service. Music was provided by an a cappella choir. "Later, on a sightseeing tour of the city, we drove along very wide streets that converged at open places called squares. Red Square, next to the Kremlin, is the major one; on it are located Lenin's Mausoleum and also St. Basil,s Cathedral which was built more than four centuries ago. Our tour took us also to Lenin Hills, a steep forested bank of the Moskva River with a magnificent view over the city; our guide said that here the future campus of Moscow University would be located.(Note: Construction of Moscow University was completed on Lenin Hills in 1953. C.H.) "The Moscow subway stations made a particularly powerful impression on our group. I know of nothing in any capitalist country that can be compared to the subway of Moscow. Other countries simply could not afford such a tremendous outlay. Moreover, the Moscow subway is not intended to make a great profit. Yet everyone in our party agreed that it was a masterpiece of engineering and of art. Each of the nine stations had a different architectural design and all were impressively beautiful. Pillars and benches were of marble. Murals, oil paintings, statues and decorative lighting contributed distinctive features to each station. They were clean and free of litter. No advertising cluttered the walls. Long escalators brought people down from street level to the trains some two hundred feet below, and up again. An automatic ventilating system kept the air fresh. The subway trains were swift and almost noiseless. Every precaution for safety had been built into them. The fares were low: about five cents to travel any distance with as many changes as you like. Our guide told us something about the problems of construction in the beginning - wet soil due to seepage from the Moskva River; not enough qualified Soviet engineers so that foreign engineers had to be called in; a manpower shortage that was alleviated by the large numbers of Moscow residents who volunteered to help after working hours in order to complete the project, which belonged to all of them and would provide better transportation for all at low cost. "We toured residential districts. The streets were wide and clean, the apartment buildings were attractive and contemporary in design. Most of them had balconies that were colorful in design. We were told that no one in Moscow paid more than 8% of his wages in rent for an apartment. Again Dr. Mecklenburg expressed surprise at the general improvement in the clothing of the Russians as compared with what he saw four years earlier, and in the fact that there were no longer any long lines of people waiting to buy food; the only lines we saw were people waiting to buy newspapers! "We all enjoyed our visit to Gorky Park of Culture and Rest, a recreation place on the shore of the Moskva River. We saw hundreds of boats and canoes; and for those who wanted more active recreation there were folk dancing,wrestling and a variety of group games. Educational activities were conducted here also - group and individual lessons in music both instrumental and vocal were going on in different studios of one building. In another area there was a parachute tower, with a continuous stream of young people coming down in their parachutes. In yet another section of the park were lecture halls, films and operatic performances. Along the landscaped walks people seated at tables were holding free outdoor classes in various subjects including history, government, medicine, aviation and other subjects. And in still another area there were roller-coasters and other popular fun fair attractions. The price of admission to this park was about two cents, with no further charges for any of the different activities. "We were in Moscow on the day of its annual Athletic Parade. Early that morning I took my letter of introduction from Governor Benson to the clerk at the main desk in the hotel lobby and asked how I could arrange an interview with Prime Minister Joseph Stalin. He suggested that I leave the letter with him and stop by again the next morning to see what he had been able to do. "Meantime I looked for a good spot from which to watch the parade. Fifty thousand athletes from all over the Soviet Union would be taking part in it. It would move across Revolutionary Square in front of the National Hotel on its way to Red Square. My room was on the seventh floor of the National, overlooking Revolutionary Square, facing Red Square and the Kremlin. So I watched part of the time from there and part of the time from in front of the hotel entrance. It was the most brilliant and colorful parade imaginable. It even included small stages on huge decorated trucks, with performing ballet dancers and whole orchestras. There were floats depicting various industrial occupations, factory and farm labor-saving innovations, health exhibits, and much more. Athletes performed extremely difficult acrobatic feats which were fascinating to watch. The different Republics were represented by people wearing their colorful traditional costumes. The parade was continuous from 10 A.M. until 4 P.M. I had to agree with those in our party who commented that they had never seen anything like it and probably never would again. "By evening the streets were open again to normal traffic. We visited the Polytechnic Museum. Here we saw scaled models of buildings, power plants and industrial complexes that had been built during the then current five-year period and other scaled models of projects the Soviets expected to accomplish during the next five years. A museum worker told us that experts conduct careful studies of the needs of the people, and allocations are made to meet these needs on the basis of recognized priorities. I was much interested in the scaled models he showed us of the proposed buildings for the new University of Moscow on Lenin Hills. "We returned to our hotel about 10 P.M.,then three of us walked over to Red Square. The upper parts of the buildings were flood-lighted, red stars glowed above the towers of the Kremlin, the Soviet flag shimmered and sparkled in the slow breeze. Lenin's mausoleum next to the Kremlin wall was also partially flood-lighted. Two guards stood stiffly at attention, one on each side of the main entrance. Near by, the multi-colored and multi-spired St.Basil Cathedral stood as a silent testimonial to the past. No one but the three of us and the two sentry guards were at this moment on Red Square. It was very quiet. Suddenly the silence was broken by the clock on Spassky Tower as it began to strike the hour of eleven. Now my thoughts were on all the past events that had occurred here, because here one could feel history. "My last day in Moscow was a crowded one. First I went for a scheduled interview to the People's Commissar of Education. I learned that the number of schools was constantly increasing, there was a continual expansion of the educational system. All education was free. Literacy had risen in the twenty years since the Revolution from about eight or nine per cent to about ninety per cent; progress in raising the educational level of the people was continuing at a rapid rate. After kindergarten - of which there were two types, one that looked after children for only a few hours and another that cared for them all day and even all night if the parents wanted that - children entered public school at the age of eight years. (Later changed to seven years.(C.H.). For those who would go on into the University, ten years of schooling was standard. Some courses were taught right in the factories. When young people completed their education they promptly found work in line with their abilities, training and preferences; there was no unemployment. Evening schools were available for employed adults, and everyone was encouraged to improve his qualifications so that he could advance to more responsible work with higher pay. "After this interview in the Education Office I returned to the hotel in time for a luncheon meeting at which Dr. Julius Hecker spoke to us. He was born in Russia of a Russian mother and a German father.He had lived in the USA, had graduated from Drew Theological Seminary and had been a Methodist minister in New York City. Before the Revolution he returned to his native Russia as a missionary. After the Revolution he left the ministry and became Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Moscow. He spoke very strongly in favor of the Soviet system; he was convinced that it was more just than any other system in the world. 'Socialism means doing together what under capitalism is done individually; we can accomplish more by working together.' He spoke of the current five-year plan that emphasized housing for the people: the previous plans were of necessity devoted to creating the instruments and machines for production. When, after the Revolution, Russia began the task of building factories, homes, schools, railroads, canals, etc. spokesmen in other countries said it could not be done without the help of capital. They offered to supply capital if the Soviets would abandon socialism. Instead the Soviet people 'tightened their belts' and got along with less of the non-essentials, thus creating the necessary capital. Now every Soviet citizen is a share-holder. 'Russia is like a frontier town. It has the roof over the place. Now we will make the trimmings and get the furniture in the house,' he said, 'We are going forward with an increasing rate of progress as our country's economic system gets under way.' "Someone asked him why we see so many women working. He answered that women are not required to work outside the home but many do because of a desire for greater independence or to supplement the family income, or because they realize that they can contribute to the progress of their country. They know that there is much to be done to make a good life possible for everyone. There is work for everybody but if anyone is unable to work the government provides for him, and no one here looks upon government assistance as a benevolence but rather as a right. One question was about the court system - how people get legal advice or assistance and how the cost is determined. He answered that anyone may consult a lawyer for a fee of two rubles; if it is decided to go to court the fee is stipulated before the court proceedings begin. "At about this point Dr. Mecklenburg asked whether or not it was true that young people are encouraged to turn away from the church. Dr. Hecker responded, 'I'll answer your question by comparing some conditions in the past and in the present. There are now thirty thousand clergymen in this country. Before the Revolution there were one hundred thousand. Yet monopoly by one church is now gone; instead, we have churches of all faiths and denominations. Twenty-five per cent of the churches that were here in Moscow under the old regime continue to be open now. Under the old system we were overchurched. In the past in Russia the church as an institution took the stand that it was entirely in a different world.It was concerned only with saving souls and had nothing to do with this life. It had no program for alleviating poverty, improving health conditions and general welfare, combating ignorance or protecting individual rights. It had no understanding of the meaning of progress. It was a mystic cult which objected to learning and thinking. But since the Bolsheviks with Lenin as their leader took over here in Russia in 1917 the mass poverty, the illiteracy, the slums, the ignorance, the diseases and poor health of the people, etc - all these conditions are fast vanishing. We 'bad Bolsheviks' have done more in twenty years to bring hope and the good life to people than the Christian church did in a period of nearly two thousand years! Does that answer your question?' Dr. Mecklenburg made no reply. The meeting was adjourned. "By this time I had learned that in response to my letter from Gov. Benson and my accompanying request, Prime Minister Stalin would have granted me an interview if I could have stayed in Moscow until the next week; but since that was not practical I asked to talk instead with one of his assistants. On returning now to the hotel desk I learned that it had been arranged. A car was waiting for me, it took me across Red Square and into the Kremlin where it stopped in an open courtyard, with office buildings on every side. On the steps of one building was a woman who walked over to meet us, asked if my name was Clifford Herness and invited me to come with her for the interview with Mr. Ginzburg. In the few minutes that we waited in his office before he arrived she asked me if Minneapolis and St. Paul were very close together and if that was the reason they were called the Twin Cities. When Mr. Ginzburg came in she introduced us and then withdrew as he pulled up a chair and offered me some tea. He asked a few questions about other countries that I had been visiting, and if the unemployment situation was improving in the USA. Soon we were served a lunch of sandwiches, cakes, fruit and chocolates in fancy wrappers. As we sampled these tasty refreshments I told him that I had a list of questions, the answers to which might help my countrymen to better understand the Soviet people. 'Well,' he said, 'We will see what we can do about them.' "I asked about cooperatives; he explained that in small towns and rural areas they handle practically all trade which in the large cities is handled by the state. The only competition between the cooperatives and the state is the competition to provide the best service. He told me that cooperatives in the Soviet Union are in a different position than those in other countries because within a socialist system they are supported by the state. They are organized on a local, district, regional and nation-wide basis. The membership of the cooperatives for the entire Soviet Union, he said, was thirty-nine million. The leading organization, Tsentrosoyuz, is engaged in the development of trade for the rural population, sells agricultural products from collective farms, and makes goods from local raw materials. The only advertising is the announcement of the availability of new products. Soviet cooperatives were members of the International Cooperative Alliance. "My next question was about the status of the church. He answered that before the Revolution the Orthodox Church was the official state religion; after the Revolution religion was declared to be a private matter. No religion was given any preference. Before 1917 it was compulsory for all to belong to the church and pay dues to it. Now there is freedom to speak in behalf of religion or to speak in favor of atheism. But churches are not closed arbitrarily; the law requires that a church remain open unless 75% of its members vote to close it. Many churches have closed, however, because the membership was so small that overhead costs became too burdensome. Often the smaller churches combine to reduce overhead costs. "To my question as to whether or not strikes ever occur in the Soviet Union Mr. Ginzburg replied that there are no strikes because there is no conflict of interest between the workers and the owners, since the workers collectively are also the owners. 'We have no special interest groups,' he said, 'and the only possible situation in which I could imagine a strike occurring would be if and when wages were not paid on the day they were due.' "I asked if he thought there was danger of war coming. It was his opinion that both in Europe and in the Far East there was danger that war might break out. He believed that in the next war the opposing forces would be the dictatorships against the democracies. The Soviets are building democracy, he said; the people have the right to select candidates for public offices. They send delegates from their unions, professional organizations, farm groups, etc.to sit on the nominating committees for selection of candidates up to the highest officials of the Soviet Union. He explained that it had been practical to incorporate this right into the Constitution because of the great progress in education. 'A good, established public school system is the foundation for a successful democracy,' he said, 'and the higher the level of education the better are the chances that the people will understand the issues in an election. Our objective is complete democracy.' He then asked his secretary to bring the latest Soviet Constitution. She brought five or six copies, he handed them to me saying that if I had room in my bags I might take the extra copies with me. "One of my questions dealt with the reasons for the Soviet Union's large military force. I told Mr. Ginsburg that in the USA many people believe that Russia has ambitions against other countries.He answered that his people have all the territory they need to expand into for many generations to come. 'No, our large military force is maintained as a protection against would-be invaders. Also, we must be prepared against a possible combined attack. It is a very big waste of our industrial production, to maintain a large military force. We wish that it were not necessary to maintain any military force at all so that our country would be freed from producing military products and could instead devote itself entirely to production of things that would help people to live better.' "My final question was about the Soviet people's feelings toward the USA. His quick reply was that it was most friendly. One reason for this, he said was President Roosevelt's peace policy. 'We like his good neighbor policy.' "The interview had lasted about one and one-half hours. It had been interesting, informative and friendly. After thanking him for his consideration and his time, I said that I'd like to take with me as souvenirs a couple of the fancy paper wrappers from the candy I had been eating. Laughingly, he scooped out from the bowl a handfull of the candy and stuffed it into my pockets, saying 'take some along!' As we said goodbye he cordially invited me to visit with him again if I ever come back to Moscow. Then he told me that a car would be waiting to take me back to the hotel. "As we drove through Red Square I noticed long lines of people by Lenin's mausoleum which had been closed for repairs since our arrival in Moscow. At the hotel I emptied my bulging pockets and quickly returned to Red Square. When I presented my passport to a policeman near the entrance to the Mausoleum he made a place for me in the line. After a few minutes I passed by the remains of Lenin, the leader most revered by Soviet people and by millions of other people in all parts of the world. "Later that evening we left Moscow by train during a heavy thunderstorm. I regretted leaving. As we were moving out through the suburbs many of us shifted about in order to get a last glimpse of the city. "Soon we were traveling across open country and most of the passengers began to retire for the night. But I was not concerned about sleep; I wanted to see the towns and the countryside along our route. About midnight a conductor came through on his rounds. In fairly good English he asked if I was not getting tired and ready for some sleep. I told him that I was not too tired; that I had been so interested in seeing the country as we passed through that I had not yet made arrangements for a place to sleep. At this he began to shake his head slowly from side to side, saying, 'What shall we do now? What shall we do now? You should have made arrangements when you first came on board. I am afraid every sleeping place is now taken.' Then he remembered, 'Maybe there is a vacant bed in a compartment where there is a young lady, an American, in the other bed. A Russian man was assigned to that vacant bed but she objected strenuously so we found him another place. But you are a countryman of hers, maybe she would not object to you having the other bed.' I realized that in some European countries it is the custom for men and women travelers to share compartments; but I told him that if she objected to the Russian then I would not go there either. I would rather sit up; missing one night's sleep would be no great hardship for me. However, he was unwilling to let it go at that. Suddenly he said that I could have his own bed. When I hesitated he misunderstood my reason and quickly assured me that it was clean, as of course it was. He suggested that I now go to bed and get some rest, then he left. As I was dropping off to sleep in the lower bunk I heard the conductor return and quietly wake the man in the bunk above me. When that man had gotten up and presumably gone to his job, my conductor friend took his place and went to bed in the upper bunk. As I dozed off I wondered how many American conductors would do for a Russian tourist under similar circumstances what this one had done for me. I thought of how different Russia was from the way it was pictured in American anti-Soviet propaganda! "The next morning I had an opportunity to thank the conductor again for his hospitality. I found him in a talkative mood. After assuring himself that I had slept well, he went on to tell me that conditions in the Soviet Union are improving so much that each year people can see a big change for the better. 'We read in our newspapers that in your country you have cars and fountain-pens and cameras. We don't have all those things yet; we are working to get the basic essentials for everyone rather than luxuries for a few. But the luxuries will come later, we don't have them yet but we will get them too, for everybody!' "It was already noon when we arrived at the Polish border, and by evening we reached the city of Warsaw. On a sightseeing tour of that city we drove through the Jewish section where more than a third of the total population of Warsaw were living in a small, crowded ghetto with very narrow streets. As we continued our westward train ride through Poland, the general impression was of relatively primitive farming methods as compared to those in the Soviet Union where we had seen large, mechanized farm machinery working in huge fields. Here in Poland the fields were laid out in narrow strips, horse-drawn wagons were common, scythes and sickles were much in use. "At the Polish-German border some Nazi customs officers came on board to check our passports. Their manner was cocky, their whole demeanor suggested that they considered themselves to be members of a master race. "Our arrival in Berlin was uneventful. After our late evening dinner I took a walk in the nearby area. The streets were crowded with bicycle riders. I was repeatedly accosted by prostitutes who approached me with 'Zehn Mark!' which seemed to be their standard rate. I noticed at once that when people met on the street the typical greeting was not the expected 'Guten Abend!' or 'Wie geht's?' but 'Heil Hitler!' "Before our tour of the city the next morning we had a meager breakfast. Our guide identified various landmarks and interspersed a comment to the effect that Germany is a most peaceful place to live, there are no strikes or violence. Some members of our party seemed favorably impressed by his statement. But I thought, 'So people here have no way to resist exploitation by the monopolistic corporate interests.' "Before leaving home it had been my intention that when I reached Germany I would try to contact a Dr. Kirchensteiner whose writings had been very useful to me in teaching vocational subjects. He presumably lived in Berlin but I did not have his exact address. At the hotel desk I asked how I could contact him in order, if possible, to arrange for a discussion with him of certain aspects of vocational education. The desk clerk gave me an address where he thought I could get assistance. While I was talking with the clerk I noticed a fairly large portrait of Henry Ford on the wall behind him. I wondered why Ford's picture was there but I did not ask. Later I heard that Ford had made substantial contributions to the Nazis. "The address given me was on the second floor of a nearby office building. When I introduced myself and explained my purpose in coming I was ushered into an inner office. I repeated my request to the three men who were there. No, none of them had heard of Dr. Kirchensteiner. Instead of offering to help me locate and use a city directory as I had hoped they might, they quickly changed the subject and asked if I had just come to Berlin. They appeared gracious and polite as they inquired about my occupation. When I said that I taught in a public high school they quickly suggested that now while I was in Germany I must learn about the Nazis and Hitler. At this point a fourth man entered the room with the words, 'Heil Hitler!' and the others responded,'Heil Hitler!' Now all four of them intensified their efforts to convince me of the tremendous worth of the program that Hitler and the Nazis were carrying out in Germany. One asked, had I seen the Hitler houses yet? I mentioned the sightseeing tour when we drove past them a few hours before. They urged me to make a good study of their program 'and when you get back to your own country,' they said, 'get busy to organize the same thing there.' One of them asked if I had seen the morning newspaper reports of a strike in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. These reports, they said, told of much destruction. Such things didn't happen in Germany under National Socialism. I asked them to explain the implication of the word 'socialism' as it relates to the full name, National Socialism. They answered that it refers to the social programs such as youth camps, housing projects, etc. but with preservation of private ownership of industry and all other property as its basic principle. They added that National Socialism with Hitler as its leader supports the will of God that business and industry should be owned and controlled by those whom God has endowed with the abilities necessary for their proper management and use. These are also the men who should be the rulers, the government officials. They are the aristocracy of industrialists and businessmen. In the USA men like Henry Ford should run the government. Working class people were put on this earth to do the work but God did not intend that they should take part in government. The USA, they said, makes a serious mistake in permitting working class children to have access to higher education including social and political sciences because when they get to know too much about their society they become dissatisfied. They want to participate in decision making and this leads to chaos and violence. The reason for the strike in Pittsburgh was that the workers had more education than was good for them. Education for workers should be limited to training for the specific occupations that they would be expected to enter. Then the workers would not be troublemakers and there would be a peaceful society. "These Nazi propagandists went on to predict that their system would spread all over the world. 'Hitler knows what is best for everybody,' they asserted. I decided to ask them if a man like Abraham Lincoln, who came from the most humble working-class parents and became an outstanding President, would have had the opportunity under their system to provide the leadership that he did. They agreed that Lincoln would have been destined to remain in the station in life to which he was born, but they said that somebody from the aristocratic class would no doubt have appeared to provide that same outstanding leadership! "They asked me to go with them into the next office to meet someone else who had just arrived in Berlin. The traveler and a Nazi official were talking together when we walked in. When my name was mentioned in the introductions he commented that I also must be Scandinavian. He had just come from Copenhagen, he owned the largest newspaper in that city. He went on to say that he was 'sold on Nazism. We in Denmark expect to set up this system in our country within two years.It is a system that is going to be established soon all over the world. You must get busy when you get back to America and help to organize for a take-over by National Socialism in your country!' His almost jovial, self-assured and vociferous praise of Hitler and Nazism made me feel deeply concerned. After a while I said something about having an appointment and I again mentioned that I had hoped to contact Dr. Kirchensteiner during my short stay in Berlin. They suggested that I leave my name and address so that if they located him they could let me know. I left feeling more strongly than ever before how terrible it would be for the whole human race if men like these should succeed in taking over the world as they were so arrogantly planning and preparing to do. "On one of my walks in the business area of Berlin I stopped one evening on Friedrichstrasse to listen to an orchestra across the street. To avoid blocking pedestrian traffic I stepped back into the recessed entrance of a retail store and was leaning against the side of the entrance listening to the music when a policeman came by making his rounds. He checked doors, including the one where I stood, to be sure they were locked. As I stepped aside he noticed some dust on my jacket where it had touched the wall and he brushed it off with his hand. When I said, 'Thank you!' he responded in English, 'That's all right. You're welcome.' Then he asked if I was from London. I told him I was from the U.S.A. 'From what state?' 'Minnesota'. 'From what part of Minnesota?' 'St.Paul.' Now he looked surprised and told me that he had a sister living in St. Paul, he had visited her for three months during the summer, two years earlier, i.e. in 1935. 'Well,' I replied, 'Here I am many thousands of miles from home and I meet someone who is familiar with my home town!' He asked if I was on a general tour of Europe, and which countries I had visited. When I named them he singled out the Soviet Union, asking about conditions in that country. I replied that I could see that the people there had made much progress, a tremendous construction program was going on and living conditions were improving rapidly. He made a noncommittal response to the effect that it was interesting to hear that. Then I asked about conditions in Germany. Instead of answering he said abruptly,'I have work to do,' and hurried away. "About half an hour later I ran into him again on a different street. As we met I remarked, 'Well, here I meet you again!' He explained that he has a large area to cover in this, that and that direction (gesturing with his hands). I asked him why he left so suddenly when I inquired about conditions in Germany. Instead of answering directly he asked me the name of the office block across the street from the State Capitol in St. Paul. I answered after a moment's hesitation that the only building of that description that I could think of was the State Office Building. 'Yes, that's right,' he said quickly,' and what is the name of the large building that is owned by the Federal Government? It's near the river.' I answered that he must be thinking of the Post Office building. Again he commented quickly,'That's right.'I then asked him if he remembered the First National Bank building with the large, lighted '1st' sign that flashes on and off at night. 'Yes,' he replied, 'I remember that very well. So that is still up there on top of that building!' I assured him that it was. Now he took my arm and drew me aside to the door of a business place; the door was recessed a couple of feet so we could be out of the line of pedestrian traffic. In a lowered voice he went on to say, 'Now that I know you are not a spy and that you really are from Minnesota as you say, I want to tell you that this country has become a terrible place to live. You never know who is a spy, they are in every block. Your next-door neighbor may be one, or the man across the street. And there are higher spies to check on the lower ones to make sure they are doing their jobs. Then there are still higher spies who check on the overall spy organization. When the top leaders are speaking on the radio - usually during evening hours when most people are at home - it is required that everyone listen. The speeches are announced and publicized beforehand so there can be no excuse for not listening. And it is required that shades on windows must not be drawn. This is so that spies can check on you during the speeches. If you forget to leave the shades open during a speech there will be a Nazi official call on you with a warning, 'Don't let that happen again! Apparently you were not listening!' The children are so completely propagandized that they report any critical remarks by their elders to their Nazi youth leaders. We have to be very careful of what we say in the presence of our children. And regardless of the impossibly bad living conditions for workers because of rising prices on everything while wages remain the same, we dare not protest. Many people from all over Germany are now in concentration camps.' "After a bit I asked him what he and other Germans thought of the war in Spain. He answered that it was a terrible thing to have to help set up the same kind of government in Spain as they had in Germany. 'But it is not for me to say. We are compelled to go along with it. I am fifty-two years old. If I were younger and did not have a family I would find some way to get out of this country. But I have a wife and three children. I have to stay and make the best of it. We have to live in one room. I earn 125 marks per month. Each month the government takes out 30 marks for taxes. I pay 3 marks for gas to cook with. A loaf of bread costs 1 mark, a pair of shoes costs 35 to 48 marks. You can see that we don't have much to live on. You are an American, you are free, but I am not free. Once something awful like what we have here has taken over, we become chained and lose our chance to ever try to get our freedom again.' I told him not to lose faith, that something will happen to set him free again.'No,' he answered, 'If you were in my place you would understand how hopeless it is. But now I must get on with my work. I have a large area to cover before my shift is over.' We shook hands as I thought about what he had said and wondered how I could help him. "One morning sixteen of the youngest members of our group were taken by Nazi party members to a youth camp about fifty miles from Berlin. On their return they reported having seen facilities for sports activities, boat excursions, glamorous social events, etc., and they naively concluded that 'Hitler is doing a lot for the young people.' Neither these young Americans nor the elder tour leaders of our group could see what i made some effort to point out,that the youth programs were gimmicks to capture the loyalty of the German youth for future military adventures. "So much of what I saw and heard confirmed my fears that here in Germany a terrible threat was being constructed against humanity not only in Germany but all over the world. During my walks around the city of Berlin I saw over and over in window displays a self-operating movie on a screen showing Hitler, Goering, or some other prominent Nazi speaking and gesticulating; or showing military machines in action. When the picture had run its course it automatically started over again, repeating on and on. One could see how the entire population was being conditioned to subserve the military-oriented Nazi machine. It was obvious to me what the objective was, and what was being prepared for humanity the world over. "We left Berlin by train, it was evening when we arrived at Heidelberg. We were housed there in two hotels; I was with those who stayed at a hotel within walking distance of the railroad station. We were comfortable enough but here as in Berlin some people complained because we were unable to get coffee which most of us would have enjoyed at meal times. Several people made comments with which I agreed, that meals in Germany did not come up to the standard of those in the Soviet Union. "During our one-day stay in Heidelberg I asked the baggage-man what was going on at a table in the lobby where two men were selling tickets. He answered that all working people in Germany were required to buy their quota of tickets, the proceeds went to the Nazi party treasury to pay for the luxurious homes and other expenses of Hitler and his staff.To make the people feel that they were getting something for their money , each ticket was one chance for a prize but it was one chance in many millions. The baggage man said he thought he could talk to me because I was an American, but to complain to other Germans was very risky. There were spies everywhere; in the schools, the churches, the factories, the business places and the neighborhoods where working people lived. He confirmed what I had been told in Berlin about a hierarchy of spies, with those higher up checking on the others to be sure they carried out their assigned spying activities; children were encouraged to inform against their parents. The government's methods of control were brutal - two farmers near Heidelberg had sold produce for slightly more than the official government buyers' organization was paying. For this they were thrown into a deep pool of water at a concentration camp and whenever they managed to swim to the edge of the pool they were pushed back to the center of it until they became exhausted and drowned. He told me that whenever a Nazi military parade took place , which was quite often, he tried to be as far away from it as possible because anyone near enough to see it was required to salute and say 'Heil Hitler', which he disliked doing. I asked what would happen if he did not salute. He explained that scattered among the crowds were Nazi agents who watched everybody along the parade route. Anyone failing to salute and say 'Heil Hitler'would simply be knocked down; if he got up he would be knocked down again. I asked, 'How do they knock people down?' He made a fist and said,'With this!' "When we left Heidelberg the next day he offered to help me carry my bags to the train station. He suggested that I board the train at once and try to get a seat on the platform side so that we could converse through the open window for a few minutes before the train started. He was very discouraged; he confided that he wished he were free as I was. I tried to urge him not to give up hope; I said that some unexpected development might end the Nazi tyranny within a few years. 'No,' he answered, 'I don't think there's much chance for that,' As the train was about to start I reached down and we held each other's hands as we said goodbye. There were tears in his eyes, and as for myself, I was unaware of the scenery for the next hour or so. My sadness was not only for the friend I had just left behind but for all the German people. "When we reached Paris the World Exhibition was at its height. The main entrance was impressive with beautiful lighting effects accomplished through the use of fountains with colored lights. The Eiffel Tower, almost a thousand feet high, stood in the center of the Exposition. But the outstanding pavilion on the Exhibition grounds was the Soviet building. It contained the most impressive and the most meaningful exhibits. Over its front entrance was a tremendous statue of a young man and a young woman holding high the hammer and sickle as they looked ahead, rushing forward. Everyone in our party agreed that this was the finest work of realistic statuary that any of us had ever seen. "Political conditions in France appeared to be unstable; there was strife between labor and industrial management. We heard that many were unemployed. The franc was dropping in value on the international market. The people were so dissatisfied with their rulers that each new government lasted only a few months, but the Popular Front was not quite strong enough to take control. " From the French seaport of Le Havre we crossed the English Channel and continued on by train to London. There in addition to the usual sightseeing - and an excursion on my own into an unbelievably squalid area where poor people lived in tumbledown shacks with broken windows and children wore rags - I visited the House of Commons, taking with me my letter of introduction from Governor Benson. I had an opportunity to talk with a member of the Labor Party, Mr. Frank Banfield. He told me that his Party was apprehensive about the lack of any firm policy against the German Nazis. He stressed the importance of no more concessions to Hitler. He spoke of the fact that industrial monopoly interests were backing Hitler because his program was one of freedom for the monopolies to use terror in exploiting the working classes. He expressed concern about the possibility of Hitler plunging Europe into another war. "On our bus ride to Liverpool through the pleasant English countryside Clark told me that he appreciated my companionship during this tour. He said that my observations and interpretations along the way had been very useful to him in clarifying his understanding of what we saw and experienced. He added that he may not always have agreed with me completely but I had certainly helped him to gain a better perspective and he was continuing to think about views that I had expressed. He wanted to see me often after we returned home and he hoped that we would become even closer friends. I replied that I hoped so too, and of course I thanked him for his expression of regard. I especially appreciated his comments because I had so often found myself in disagreement with the majority of our tour members who commonly drew confused and at times even contradictory conclusions from our travel experiences. They professed a basic belief in democracy yet admired much of Hitler's program. When some members of our party met other travelers who said that Germany was 'tottering to a fall', that the German people were unhappy and full of fear, that report was labelled by influential leaders of our group as 'based on propaganda' and 'farthest from the truth.' Most of our tour members agreed. "In Liverpool we boarded the ship Scythia for the voyage home. The entire trip had taken two months, in the course of which we had taken a quick look at a dozen countries. For me the most exciting and significant experiences were in the Soviet Union where the masses of people, after centuries of oppre ssion, were taking things into their own hands and forming a classless society. Working people were improving their living conditions at a speed never before thought possible. I became convinced that in the Soviet Union we had the most powerful force for peace. There was full employment, an excellent health program, and housing construction more extensive than in any other country. Education was for everyone and women had the same opportunities as men. The emphasis was on the participation of all the people in decisions affecting their lives. "A sad contrast was Nazi Germany where a brutal, militaristic clique, with the backing of monopoly capital, had managed to take power. The surprising fact to me was that not everyone in our travel group saw the German situation for what it was. "On returning home I was convinced that war clouds were gathering over Europe because of the Nazis' ambition to expand their system 'all over the world' as they so bluntly told me in Berlin. I was more aware now of the powerful monopoly interests in other countries preparing the people through newspaper and other media propaganda campaigns for a Nazi takeover when the time came. My chance meeting with a pro-Hitler Copenhagen newspaper owner who said that he intended to help establish Hitler's program in his own country caused me great concern. Also the general attitudes of American news media which played up the favorable accomplishments of Hitler but were silent about the basic Nazi aims, made me apprehensive that already the Nazis had acquired a substantial influence in the U.S.A. "When we went through the American customs I was singled out for brief detention and more careful search than the others. After looking through my bags the only question the customs agent had was, 'Why do you have half a dozen copies of the Soviet Constitution?' I explained that I thought some of my friends would like them as souvenirs of my trip. An official then apologetically admitted that I was checked because a member of our travel group (whom of course he did not identify) had telegraphed from the boat to give him my name as a possibly subversive person. He added that I must have been 'talking politics with someone.' The incident was a minor one, but I resented even this much harassment by some pro-Nazi in our travel group, especially since we were now back in the U.S.A. "Not long after our return home I had a message from Clark, asking me to call him so we could set a time to get together for a visit. My schedule was very crowded at the time, and before I got around to it to call him back a report appeared in the daily newspaper saying that Clark had committed suicide by jumping out the window of the top floor in the hotel where he had been attending a business meeting. Needless to say, the news came as a profound shock to me." * * Author's note: Was it really suicide? The newspaper report made no mention of the circumstantial evidence that suggested otherwise. Apparently there was no investigation. Chapter III Back in the U.S.A. "The 1937 Mecklenburg travel party disbanded as a tour group when the ship docked in New York, and the members were now on their own. After two days of sightseeing in New York I went by bus to Washington, D.C. for my first visit to our nation's capital.Meantime I kept recalling the many experiences I had overseas, experiences that were so often the opposite from what I would have expected from the reports and discussions in the daily news media here in the USA. I was now as never before aware that the news media were not reporting the truth, especially about the Soviet Union. The tremendous housing construction program that provided surprisingly low-cost housing for increasing numbers of workers and their families; the public education program that really was free from kindergarten through the universities and professional schools; the free health care including hospitalization, surgery and all the rest; guaranteed full employment for everyone; a pension for every retired worker - yes, and enforced laws against race or sex discrimination - on all of these accomplishments in the Soviet Union our daily news media were failing to report honestly to the American people. Instead they reported distortions, fabrications and misrepresentations that could only have been designed to confuse our people and to increase their distrust of the Soviet Union. "The most common anti-Soviet report in our media was to the effect that there was no freedom in that country. But I became convinced that the only freedom we had that they lacked was the freedom of some to exploit others through our arrangement of profit-taking. According to information I gathered while I was in the Soviet Union, all income is based on wages or salaries for work done whether mental or physical work; and the amount of income depends on the level of training, skill and responsibility involved in the job. But our news media consistently avoided objectively reporting this Soviet way of progress toward equality of economic opportunity. "On the other hand, the reporting about the Nazi government in Germany was such as to lead the average American to assume that social progress was being made there. A frequent report was that the Nazis had successfully brought order out of chaos, that they emphasized efficiency, that everything was now being done on schedule so that even the trains ran precisely on time. It was common;y stated that Germany had become a peaceful place to live because there were no workers' strikes and no labor-management clashes with their accompanying destruction of life and property. Some of the Americans with whom I traveled were impressed by such reports and spoke to the effect that such a system should be adopted in the USA. But these reports failed to make clear that in Germany under Nazism the working people had lost the basic right of self-defense, of protest against living and working conditions regardless of how unjust such conditions were. Most of our media reporting showed no concern about the absence of freedom in Germany, nor did it expose the basic tenet of the Nazi program that only the wealthy owners of business and industry, militarists, monopolists and aristocrats should engage in politics or have a hand in government or management. Our news sources failed to tell the public that under Nazism the working people would not only be excluded from any right to participate in government but would also be denied the right to advanced education because, as the Nazi propagandists in Berlin told me bluntly, workers with higher education would know too much and would be more difficult for the ruling class to manage. "I had to go to Berlin for this information about the Nazis' basic doctrine. Too many wealthy owners of industry in America shared the Nazis. views and they controlled the media through direct ownership as well as through advertising subsidies. This helps to explain why our media were reticent about reporting on basic Nazi doctrines during Hitler's rise to power. Evidently the big monopolists wanted to adopt all or at least part of the Nazi program for the USA. Keeping the public in the dark about NAZism as much as possible would make it easier to get it established in our country. As I talked with people in New York and Washington I became more and more conscious of a general lack of awareness regarding the real danger of Hitler and his Nazis to America - yes and to the whole world. "After I returned to my teaching job in Bloomington I was asked to give talks on my travels to various clubs and groups in the area. People expressed the most interest in hearing about my experiences in the Soviet Union and in Germany. More often than not my reports differed from those in the mass media here. A frequent question from the audience was, 'Why haven't the newspapers or radio told us about that?' "The school term was well underway when a man came to my classroom just as the students were leaving for the day. He said that he was a magazine representative, he heard that I had recently visited Russia and he wondered if I would like to write a magazine article about that country. I told him that I would be very glad to do that,and I started to tell him something of what I would say about the program of full employment, free education and health care, low-cost housing, etc. He interrupted,saying they couldn't use that kind of a story. He was sure there were a lot of things wrong with the Russian dictatorship and he wanted me to write about them. I would be well-paid - probably more than I was earning as a teacher. I answered to the effect that I would not write picayune criticisms of a country that was so rapidly improving the living conditions for the common people. After a moment's hesitation he tentatively offered the suggestion that maybe someone else could write the article and I could sign it as someone who had recently been there; I would still be well-paid. At this I walked to the door and opened it for him, with the comment that he was wasting my time and his: I would write an honest report or none at all. He mumbled something about it being a matter not of honesty but of emphasis; and as he walked out he handed me his card saying,"In case you change your mind after thinking it over, here's my phone number." I promptly dropped the card in the wastebasket. "One day about a month after my return home from Europe I was waiting for a friend in the lobby of the Minneapolis Y.M.C.A. building. My eye caught the headlines in the daily paper, 'Hitler Makes New Demands on Czechoslovakia.' The article reported that he was insisting on annexing the Sudetenland to Germany. I remarked to a stranger standing nearby that it appeared that the more concessions made to Hitler the more he demanded, and that he seemed bent on having war.The stranger's surprising answer was that the Soviet communists would be responsible if war came, Hitler had to go into Czechoslovakia to prevent the communists from taking over that country; and the Soviet Union was responsible for the turmoil in Europe, not Hitler. He went on to identify himself as a minister of the Gospel, living in New York City. He had a friend, a theological student, who had just returned from a visit to Russia where he saw bodies of people piled up like cordwood along all the main streets. They were the bodies of people who had been shot by the police, he said, because they had persisted in attending church against the orders of the government. When I said I was surprised to hear such nonsense from a minister he replied that it was true, that he had seen the pictures taken by his student friend. I then informed him that I also had been in Moscow in July, that I rode the busses and walked for hours in all directions and I never saw anything of the kind. The streets were much like those of Minneapolis, the people were as carefree as they are here. He looked at me with a hostile stare and exploded,'Are you a communist? You must be!' I merely repeated forcefully, 'I was in Moscow less than two months ago and I did not see anything like what you describe!' He turned and strode off into an adjoining room. The incident is one example of slander about the Soviet Union,fabricated without any basis in truth. "People with Nazi attitudes quite commonly held positions of esteem, in Minnesota as elsewhere. Sometimes they even turned up as administrators in our schools. About two weeks after I had joined the teaching staff at Bloomington in 1935, I happened to meet the Superintendent in the corridor as I was leaving at the end of the day, and we stopped to chat a bit. Some mention was made of two or three students who were having problems. He then named several students whose parents, he said, were business people of good standing and influential in the community. He told me that if those students got a little out of line that I should ignore it. But if certain others whom he named got out of line I should go after them and make them 'toe the mark' because their parents were shiftless, unskilled workers, often unemployed; some were even on relief or government work programs. Such people were 'just trash and their kids are like the parents - out to chisel on others.' This from a Superintendent of schools! I concluded that there would be much to be desired so far as professional help was concerned, in developing an appropriate setting for educational accomplishments by our students. Fortunately the school Principal completely rejected the Superintendent's attitude and did what she could to mitigate the effects of wrong policies. "After my return from Europe I felt the responsibility as the unanimously elected president of our union (which I had taken the initiative in founding)to try to improve some of our difficult working conditions. But our recently formed union, even with 80% of the teachers as charter members, was still relatively weak. It could not withstand the pressure from the School Board and the Superintendent. The Board ordered me to give up the office I held in the Farmer-Labor Party and to resign from the presidency of the union. When I refused to do so I was dismissed from my teaching position, and with no other job prospects at the time I felt the injustice keenly. A public meeting was held to protest my dismissal and it was well attended but the decision stood. For two years I was unemployed. "Meantime I heard reports from time to time that another teacher who had been a member of our travel group was making speeches that were highly critical of the Soviet Union and filled with distortions; she was winning promotions and professional recognition. "One wintry afternoon in January 1941 I had occasion to stop at the Minneapolis Central Library. At the entrance I noticed a placard announcing a talk that evening by a prominent local businessman on the topic,'As I Knew Hitler.' When the time came the auditorium was filled almost to capacity. The talk by Mr.S. was most depressing. He said that he had developed a friendship during the First World War with a German Count who happened to be in the USA when hostilities broke out and had been detained in New York for the duration of the war. After the Count's return to Munich he and Mr.S. kept in touch with each other.One day about a decade later Mr.S. received a telegram from the excited Count, saying in effect,'Come to Munich on the first available boat! I have met an interesting, magnetic man with a promising program to put Germany back in the position of greatness it deserves among the nations of the world. When you arrive I will take you to him. You will discover as you hear him tell about his organization which is already well established and his proposals for the future that you will be drawn to him. But to build his organization further he needs your help.' So in about a week Mr.S was on his way. The Count took him to meet Adolph Hitler in a downtown office. Mr.S. was well impressed with Hitler's explanation of the policies and objectives of National Socialism. He liked Hitler's plan to 'stop the Communists and all other radical elements' as a first step before the reconstruction of Germany could begin. With enough help Hitler promised to eliminate all the radical and left-wing organizations. Mr.S. gave some details about how this was done: Hitler's organization dispersed storm troopers among audiences at union meetings, communist gatherings, etc. The troopers were dressed like workers but carried concealed weapons including blackjacks and hand guns. Many of them were convicts released from prison on the condition that they serve in these storm troop groups. With no apparent compunction Mr.S. described their tactics in breaking up meetings by all of them suddenly jumping up at once in the middle of a speech or program, slugging everybody near by, physically attacking the speaker and shooting wildly until the meeting was dispersed and workers were too terrified to plan any more meetings. In this way Hitler promised to eliminate labor unions, communists and all radical organizations. When the time came - in the near future - he would deal with the Bolshevik menace in Russia also, and put an end to it for all time. But he needed money. "Mr.S. said that he himself had made a substantial contribution and persuaded his friends to do the same. But now he has turned against Hitler, he said, because of the non-aggression pact that Hitler signed with the Soviets in 1939. This, he said, amounted to a double-cross and he wanted to inform the American people about it. He was incensed to find that after Hitler's industrial and military might had been built into a formidable power with substantial help from private industrialists and government officials in the USA and other Western countries, Hitler then offered the Soviets a non-aggression pact which, in brief, promised not to attack the Soviet Union if the Soviet Union would not attack Nazi Germany. (It is of course common knowledge now that Hitler broke this pact by attacking the Soviet Union. It is also well known that for some time the Soviet Union had been unsuccessfully seeking a military alliance with the Western European nations against Hitler, and only after having been repeatedly thwarted in this effort did the Soviets accept Hitler's offer of a non-aggression pact as the best available means of postponing the outbreak of war). "What angered Mr.S. was the fact that instead of attacking the Soviet Union Hitler had turned against the west European countries while signing a non-aggression pact with the Soviets. This was unforgivable and Mr.S. wanted his audience to know it. "After the speech one or two innocuous questions from the audience were answered briefly. Then a woman asked about the morality of hiring thugs to beat up workers who met to discuss and protest against their grievances. Abruptly the chairman announced that there was no time left to answer questions; the meeting was adjourned. I left with a heavy heart." Chapter IV In the Airforce - A Close Look at Wartime Sabotage "In September 1942 I was inducted into the Air Force. I declined deferment which was available to me as Principal of the high school in Hancock, Minnesota, where, incidentally, I was offered a substantial increase in salary. I felt strongly that I wanted to do whatever I could toward the destruction of the Nazi power in Europe. At about this time the Nazis were making a supreme effort to capture Stalingrad. Our press and radio were daily reporting that the Red Army was unable to stop the Nazis and that Soviet resistance would soon collapse. "A University of Minnesota professor, sponsored by the First National Bank of Minneapolis, was each day 'backgrounding the news' as he called it, and predicting that the Red Army would last only 'three more weeks', and the war would then be over (with a Hitler victory, of course). A week later he was predicting that in two more weeks it would all be over except 'mopping up the remnants' of the Red Army. He implied that a Nazi victory over the Soviet Union and its consequences in terms of what Hitler might do after that caused him no concern. But to me the prospect was unthinkable. The Red Army was defending not only the Soviet Union but also the USA and all humanity everywhere in the world. If Hitler were to succeed against the Soviets, big business and industrial circles in America would put pressure on our government to make peace with Hitler, and these same circles would then work for the adoption of Nazi programs and policies in the USA. However, as the weeks went by the Red Army was able to hold fast and to increase its destruction of the Hitler forces. "I was sent to Sheppard Field, Texas, for basic training. Then with about forty other men I was transferred to the aeronautics school in Kansas City, Missouri, for special training over the next three months.* *Author's note: Cliff earned the rating of 'Qualified Machinist' and was put in charge of the machine shop. Later in his spare time, he carefully constructed a precise, small-scale model of a steam threshing engine. After leaving military service, on rare occasions he enjoyed amusing his family and friends by starting up the engine, using straw as fuel. 'The reports we heard about Stalingrad continued to indicate improvement for the Red Army even though the situation remained serious. Then soon after the beginning of the new year 1943 the Red Army encircled hundreds of thousands of Hitler's troops. Among the hordes of Nazis taken prisoner were Field Marshall General Paulus and his staff. Obviously the professor who had been 'backgrounding the news'was not as accurate a predictor as he would have wanted his listeners to believe. It was now the Red Army who were doing the 'mopping up.' There were of course still many tough battles such as the one at Kursk, but the victory at Stalingrad seemed to be a turning point in the war. Now in our press there appeared an occasional proposal for a negotiated peace instead of unconditional surrender by the Germans. "From time to time instances of sabotage came to light. In early 1943 I came across a short article in the Kansas City Star newspaper reporting that Anaconda Copper Company had sold to our government several million dollars' worth of copper wire to be sent to the Soviet Union under the lend-lease arrangement. The wire, intended fro communication purposes, was to be used in military operations against the Nazi aggressors. The report stated that when the Red Army men installed the wire between communication points the circuits suddenly failed so that communications were halted. Investigation revealed that the entire shipment of wire was defective and had to be junked. "Not long after that report the same newspaper reported that some sixty or seventy thousand trucks made by the Chrysler Corporation and sold to the US government were shipped, again under the lend-lease plan, to the Soviet Union. When these trucks were on their way to the front lines with their loads of war supplies, the gears of so many of them broke down that the Red Army found them useless for hauling critically important materials and, according to the newspaper report, had to abandon them. "It was not only from newspaper reports that I learned of sabotage in the USA of war supplies for our allies. After completing our training program in Kansas City several of us were transferred to Robins Field, an Air Force base in Georgia. We were assigned the job of inventorying the acres of machines, tools and accessories for the 40th Repair Squadron in preparation for overseas transfer. We were to check the machines for any flaws or damage, to make sure they were in good condition before shipment. Then we were to crate the machines in airtight boxes for protection against salt from the sea during shipment. Some of them were valued at forty or fifty thousand dollars each, and were so heavy that large dollies were needed to move them. Each of the boxes in which they were to be shipped was large enough to enclose an automobile. "Another repair squadron - the 33rd - was working in the space next to us, under the same vast roof that protected the acres of machines and equipment. Those men were scheduled to go overseas at least a month before we were. They were much further along in their work of readying the machines for shipment. Working side by side, the personnel of the two squadrons learned to know each other and many of them became friends. So when their machines were loaded on a mile-long train of flat cars, the crates covered with canvas and the personnel coaches at the end of the train were in place many of our squadron were on hand to see them off, and we felt a little sad to see them go. "Our own departure was to be in about a month. Meantime we would be busy crating the machines, making sure all accessories for each machine were packed with it, etc. My commanding officer warned me to be on guard against such sabotage as removal of essential parts or damage to them before crating. "We were working on this task about two weeks after the departure of the 33rd when suddenly a train came back on the track next to our warehouse. On the flat cars were large crates covered with tarpaulins. At first we assumed that they contained equipment for the next repair squadron that would work here after our departure. But now the men from the rear coaches appeared - they were our friends from the 33rd! Some one called to them, 'What the hell, we thought you would be on the boat by now!' But the men were dejected, they answered our greetings without spirit and without explanation. They began to remove the canvas covers and unload the crates. With the noisy dollies moving the large boxes they gradually filled the huge space that had been empty for two weeks. Then they began the task of breaking open the boxes with sledge hammers. Inside were rocks! A few overcoats, a few pairs of boots, and more rocks! The next crate contained nothing but rocks and a sack of coffee beans. In the next box were more rocks, many of them too heavy for several men to lift. This routine went on for several days before the entire trainload of rocks was removed. The men explained that after this trainload of machinery had arrived at the dock and was being loaded onto the boat one box happened to fall from the dolly and break open so the handlers could see what was inside. They discovered that instead of the machine that the identification label indicated, it contained only rocks. So they opened the next box; it contained only rocks. More boxes revealed more of the same. So the entire shipment was returned to Robins Field to be opened there. A whole trainload of rocks hauled back to Robins Field from the east coast! Had it not been for the accidental breakage of one box these rocks could and doubtless would have been carried to England. We never learned what happened to the machines. Hviously Hitler had influential friends in high places somewhere along the line who had accomplished substantial sabotage on behalf of the Nazis. It may be assumed also that American taxpayers had to pay a second time for the replacement of the machines and tools that were sidetracked. Some industrialists no doubt thus increased their profits. And at best there was a long delay in getting machinery to the places where it was badly needed by our fighting allies. "At the suggestion of the Colonel who headed the Air Corps staff school I was transferred to the school as instructor in shop mathematics, machine design and shop work. I had very mixed feelings about the transfer and felt left behind when I watched the men of the 46th say goodbye to their wives and children on the evening before their departure for Europe. "On the morning of June 23, 1944, I was surprised to receive a request to report to Room 106 at the Base Intelligence Office by 10 A.M. The lieutenant there began by saying that I had been called in because I was talking too much about Nazism; he wanted me to stop talking as I did about Hitler and the Nazis. When I got past my initial shock and surprise I asked what was wrong in talking as I did against Nazis? I told him that of course I often referred to them as beasts: in 1937 I visited Germany as a tourist and had conversations with Nazis who told me about the program and aims of National Socialism (Nazism). They said they were determined that only the children of the wealthy upper classes should have access to higher education and participate in government or politics. They said that was the will of God. They claimed to know that it was God's will that the people of the working class should not participate in public affairs or have any part in decisions regarding social or economic problems. They told me that a broad education should not be available to the working masses because it would enable them to know too much, they would then become dissatisfied and troublesome to the rulers. I went on to say that having learned first-hand from the Nazis what their hideous program was, I knew what I was talking about. And now they were killing not only thousands of American soldiers in the battles on the Normandy beach-head and in France itself, but in the countries they occupied they were also killing defenseless women and children. I reminded the lieutenant of the many extermination camps, the gas chambers, the slave camps where wealthy German industrialists were getting factory laborers free by turning train loads of Jews and other captured people into slaves so the industrialists could swell their profits. 'Now,' I added, 'You are telling me that I should stop talking against this. Really, why did you call me in to ask this of me?' He answered that there was a complaint. 'So,' I said, 'Instead of calling me in, you should investigate the complainer. He must be pro-Nazi. Who is he?' Of course the lieutenant did not tell me his name. He suggested that I just stop talking about the war. I should relax, have fun, go out and make new friends; there were some nice women working in the nearby industrial plants, I could have a good time. 'But please,' he said, 'stop talking the way you do about Nazism. You undoubtedly know what you are talking about. But don't take the war so seriously.' He patted me on the shoulder as he walked with me to the door and said in a lowered voice,'Please, stop talking about Nazism and when you join the other men don't say anything about this interview or why you were called in here.' Without answering I walked out and returned to my area just as the men were lining up for the noon meal. When someone asked where I had been I answered, 'At the Base Intelligence Office.' 'Did you get the Commission the Colonel recommended you for?' 'No,' I said, 'guess again.' I then explained that I had been told to stop talking against our Nazi enemies. They were astounded. 'You're kidding!'was the response of several of them. I told them that I wasn't kidding, and that I intended to find out if I was in an American army or not. So after lunch I discussed the incident with our commanding officer. He kept repeating that he could not understand it. I suggested an investigation and told him that I was willing to sign an affidavit but he said, 'No, there must be something that you and I don't understand.' I disagreed, stating that I considered it evidence of subversion in our ranks. He refused to take any action so nothing more was done about it. I continued to speak out against the Nazi beasts at every opportunity as I had done before I was called in on the matter. "Of course I recognized that the Nazis had simply carried to an extreme some of the practices that were prevalent also in other capitalist countries including our own. The Nazis' main targets of racial discrimination were the Jewish people; here in the USA the Black people have been the main victims. In our southern states the discrimination was more open and obvious, more institutionalized than in the north. Three incidents illustrate the climate of opinion in Georgia at that time (1944). "One Sunday afternoon I boarded a bus for Macon, about twenty miles from Robins Field. The rear seat extended the width of the bus and accommodated five passengers; it was reserved for Blacks and was the only seating available to them, the rest was reserved for Whites. When all the passengers had boarded the bus the rear seat was filled and one Black serviceman was standing. I sat just in front of the wide rear seat and there was an empty seat beside me, so I gestured for him to take the empty seat. When the driver spotted this through his rear-view mirror he pulled to the side of the highway, stopped the bus, walked back to my Black companion and said, 'You Nigger get up!' I protested,'Let him sit. I don't object. He is wearing the same kind of uniform as I am. He is expected to give his life for freedom if necessary just as I am, and to protect all Americans. Let him be.' But the driver raised his voice and repeated, 'You Nigger get up!' By now the bus full of White people, men and women, got out of their seats and began verbally abusing me, calling me filthy names and mumbling that I should be lynched. Of course the Black serviceman had jumped up hurriedly. The driver returned to his place and drove on, but White passengers continued to turn around in their seats to look at me, repeating threats and profanity. The drive continued for another fifteen miles or so, and gradually their wrath cooled so that when we reached Macon they went their separate ways. When most of them had gone I quickly got off the bus and tried to lose myself in the crowds. I can never forget that frightening experience. "Another incident that pointed up the racist attitudes in American society occurred one evening during that summer of 1944. I was reading in the lounge at the servicemen's center in Macon when a minister from a local Methodist church was making his casual rounds visiting with servicemen. He introduced himself, asked about my native state of Minnesota, etc. We entered into a discussion about the progress of the war. I mentioned my earlier visit to Germany and what it revealed about the nature and tactics of the Nazi enemy. He appeared very interested and asked many questions; we talked until almost closing time. Then he expressed warm appreciation for an interesting discussion and invited me to come to his church on Sunday mornings. I thanked him and added that if I did come I would bring my brother from Brooklyn who was also at Robins Field. The minister asked in surprise, 'You have a brother at Robins Field?' 'Not in the sense you mean,' I replied, 'but there is a black man at Robins Field who has become a very good friend, a brother in the service.' The minister's face dropped. 'Well,' he said, 'as you know, we in Macon we have separate churches for Negro people. I am afraid it would not be well to bring him to our church.' I responded that if my friend would not be welcome at his church then I also would not want to come, adding, 'As a minister you must know that Christ taught universal brotherhood. As a professed Christian you should welcome any and all people.' I asked if he had read the Dean of Canterbury's book, 'Soviet Power'. He had not read it but had heard of it. I offered to mail him a copy and told him that in it he would learn that in the Soviet Union people of all races live together as brother and sister, according to Christ's teachings. After that the embarrassed minister and I parted company. "Still another incident demonstrated how heartless people accustomed to the standards of racial discrimination can become: I had just stepped off the bus at Macon one morning when I noticed a Black woman with five children ranging from about two to ten or twelve years. They can from the waiting room marked 'Colored' and went to a bus that was taking on passengers for Savannah. But the bus driver directed her and her children to stand aside so that White people could board the bus first. As more and more White people got on, she and he children waited. Then the driver told her that the bus was full, there was no more room for her. She silently went with her children back to the 'Colored' waiting room. I asked the dispatcher when the next Savannah bus would come; one-half hour I was told. I decided to wait and see what would happen to this woman then. The very same thing happened again. She was pushed aside with the children; again there was no room after the White people had been accommodated. She and her children had to go back again to the 'Colored' waiting room. I stayed to watch two more buses and still she failed to get on one to Savannah with her children. I then left until about 8 P.M. when I came back to catch my bus to Robins Field, and there was the mother with her children again making a try for the Savannah bus. When my bus came I boarded it without seeing the outcome. For some time I was preoccupied with thoughts of how ruthless human beings can be toward fellow human beings because of traditions and propaganda. "It is not possible to imagine incidents like the above occurring in the Soviet Union. There the economic distinctions that set one class above another have been removed and racial discrimination no longer exists. This is one basic reason why the Soviet people with all their diversified languages and cultures were united, as we were not, in the war against the Nazis. They carried the major burden in the task of destroying the Nazi forces. President Roosevelt, I recall, said not long before his death that the Red Army had destroyed more Nazis than all the other allies together. In retrospect I'm convinced that had it not been for the Soviet forces, Hitler and the Nazis would have won the war. If that had happened the whole world would have become subject to Nazi domination, and civilization would have gone back to the dark ages. Here in the U.S. the Constitution with its Bill of Rights would have become just a scrap of paper. Labor unions would have been outlawed. Public schools would have been closed down. Throughout the world the Jewish people first and then other minority peoples would have been hunted down and destroyed. The industrial monopolists would have been the absolute masters of all the resources, human and material- this was the keystone of Nazi doctrine. "The Soviet Union lost twenty million people repelling the Nazi invaders from their land, and thereby saved the lives of many Americans, including perhaps my own. Since my return from almost three years in war service I have been and will continue to be grateful to the Soviet people for their major contributions to the Allied victory." Chapter V House Construction - and Wild Pets After his honorable discharge from military service in 1945 Cliff joined the Veteran's Administration as a training officer. His work included locating jobs for veterans who were having difficulty finding jobs on their own, and helping them if necessary to adjust to the requirements of their employment after they were hired. He was a frequent intermediary between the employer and the veteran. With his background in vocational training and guidance he was well suited to this work and he enjoyed it. But he very much wanted to build a home of his own. He knew what architectural style he wanted; he had seen houses in Europe that appealed to him aesthetically. And he knew he could do it. He had never built a complete house but he had done some building for his brothers - remodeling Ray's home, and completing Irvs' when it became apparent that the contractor was doing sub-standard work. When we were married in the fall of 1947 Cliff started to build our house, on a lot next to Irv's. He worked on the construction in the evenings and on week-ends while continuing with his VA job, so of course the work went very slowly - especially when he was transferred to St. Cloud for some months and came home only on week-ends. My 20-year-old son lent him a hand to close in the basement before winter would set in. As soon as we could, on a snowy December 1st, we moved in. Our temporary basement home was comfortable enough. The ceiling was a little higher than most - in order, Cliff said, to accommodate "Highpockets" (the nickname of his very tall friend who loved to dance). We lived in three rooms; the fourth became Cliff's workshop. A fireplace that took up most of the north wall of the living room added a note of cheerfulness. On one occasion that fireplace was put to important practical use - a heavy summer storm hit our area, knocking out power lines, uprooting trees that blocked the streets and driveways, etc. No one could go anywhere, except on foot. Our electrically operated water pump was temporarily useless; we brought wash water in buckets from the nearby pond. I cooked our meals in the fireplace. We felt very much like pioneers for the three days that the emergency lasted. The frame of the house was up and Cliff was putting on the roof when in 1948 he was nominated to run for Congress in the primary of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party election. He was very reluctant to accept the nomination because of being busily occupied with house construction, but he felt that it was his duty to accept; he worked hard in the campaign while being well aware that the odds of being elected were against him. Still, he saw the campaign as an opportunity to inform people about the aims of the DFL Party. His program was: 1. Repeal the Taft-Hartley Law. 2. Bring Down the Cost of Living. 3. No Draft or Military Training in Peace Time. 4. Create a Fair Employment Practices Commission and end all Racial and Religious Discrimination. 5. Federal Aid for Public Housing, for Schools, for a Health Program and for expanded Security, including $100 a month for Old-Age Pensions. 6. Full Aid to Our Veterans. In the election Cliff ended up with about 3000 votes; the winner, Eugene McCarthy, received about 11,000. It was no surprise to Cliff that soon after the election his job with the VA was terminated, ostensibly because of staff reduction but he felt sure that his political activity was the unstated reason. However, he was soon offered an opportunity for re-instatement , so he wrote to the Secretary of the Progressive Party of Ramsey County on November 24, 1948, "As I have been recalled to the active service of the Veterans' Administration of the United States, it is necessary for me to resign absolutely and unconditionally as of this day from my office as Chairman of the Progressive Party of Ramsey County, Minnesota, and because of these circumstances, I must consider my connection completely severed. Respectfully yours, Clifford Herness." But as it turned out, the new VA assignment was to be in Worthington, Minnesota, about 180 miles from our half-built home in the St. Paul suburb of Lauderdale. Cliff was eager to finish building the house. He had already spent some time working in St. Cloud while building, and Worthington was much farther away; too much time would be spent in commuting. So he let the VA job go and spent full time on house construction. While he was building he was surrounded by the little wild animals that lived in the area. He made friends of some of them; he tamed a wild rabbit so that it ate graham crackers from his hand. He "talked" with a squirrel while he was working on the roof, so that when he was at one end of the ridge-pole and the squirrel at the other end, it kept coming closer and closer at the sound of his voice. Once when I turned on a small motor to spray an apple tree I inadvertently startled a mourning dove that was nesting in a pine tree near by; she flew across the road to the edge of the pond with frightened cries. Cliff kept repeating her call and in this way gradually lured her, in a series of short flights a few yards at a time, back to her nest. He had an unusual ability to imitate sounds, not only of birds. Sometimes, to the amusement of a very few close friends - but never in public - he ridiculed pompous politicians by imitating their speech. And one had to be really an intimate friend to hear - and only if he happened to be in the mood for it - his amusingly accurate imitation of "a steam engine with a leaky piston." He continued to build with painstaking care. Of course there was frequent and recurring need for supplies; our modest pooled savings and my current earnings hardly sufficed to cover the costs. But even when money was "tight" we subscribed to a number of progressive periodicals, and Cliff used the information he got from them to start conversations with people he met. When he went to builders' supply houses, etc., he usually found some way to strike up a conversation about what he had learned regarding the Soviet Union and the importance of building friendly relationships with that country. When, as often happened, he and I went shopping together I saw how readily he turned the conversation to favorable comments about the USSR by, for example, comparing prices or quality or working conditions. An interested clerk who could spare the time might get a practical lesson in economics - and perhaps a book or a magazine with an article about the Soviet Union the next time Cliff stopped in there. His painstaking care in building is illustrated by the plastering, a kind of work he had not done before. So he started by extensive reading of library books on the subject. Then he went to nearby houses under construction and watched the plasterers at work. Next he plastered one wall in an out-of-the-way closet. Only then did he proceed to plaster all the rooms, even adding decorative moldings in the dining and living rooms. Eventually the house was finished - with brick exterior, steep roof, and round entrance. Inside there was hand-carving on the fireplace mantel and on the built-in bookcase, etc. Years later Cliff added a garage, a breezeway and decorative stone outlining the terraces in front. But meantime he needed an income. He considered returning to teaching but having been away from the field for so long made it difficult. There happened to be a lot for sale across the alley, facing the next street. We bought the lot and Cliff promptly built another house, this time with standard construction, similar to other houses on the block. It was rented before it was quite finished, and has never stood empty. In time he built one more house, with red cedar and brick exterior, and with a separate apartment on a lower level. While laying brick one time Cliff heard chirping in the grass behind him, and by imitating the sound he coaxed a baby duckling to come to him. It was so tiny and helpless that he put it in a cardboard box and gave it crackers and milk. It had apparently been abandoned by its mother. So each night Cliff put it in the box, and each morning he set it free but it stayed close to him. It was amusing to watch it huddle close to Cliff, and scramble wildly to get close again when he moved a few steps away to get more bricks or mortar. My grandchildren called the duck "Daddles", and the name stuck. It tried to follow Cliff everywhere, but of course it had to stay home when he went shopping for supplies. One spring day when he was gone longer than usual Daddles disappeared. That evening the T.V. news reported that a duck had stopped traffic on a nearby street (Broadway) during the evening rush hour, by slowly waddling across, ignoring the cars. Cliff put an ad in the "lost-and-found" column of the daily paper. Very early the next Sunday morning a phone call came from a woman who lived on the other side of Broadway;she reported that she had a duck in her back yard that did not want to swim but liked to run after her son's ball. With an excited, "That's Daddles!" Cliff hurried over to her home in his car. The moment the duck saw him it rushed at him with a great flapping of wings and noisy commotion; the woman said laughingly, "He's yours, all right!" The story of Cliff's life would be in complete without some reference to his profound love of music. He especially enjoyed listening to the great classics and lively dance music. Over the years he accumulated a collection of records with which he sometimes entertained his friends. Quite often he listened in solitude to his favorites. He combined his hobbies of woodcarving and music by making a hand-carved base for his turntable which was unfortunately stolen in 1971 when our home was burglarized. (Among the other things taken at that time were a slide projector and the carrousel with 100 cherished slides from our 1969 trip to the USSR). Because for several years he could not spare much time to practice playing his saxophone, Cliff's playing was not up to his own exacting standards so he gradually abandoned it. While in the process of making the first of a pair of built-in, hand-carved stereophonic speakers Cliff happened to find elsewhere a set that he liked at a price he could afford. The unfinished carving still hangs on the living room wall. While Cliff was building houses, the brother next door and his wife were supplementing their income by running a small orthopedic sewing business from their home. At their suggestion, when Cliff stopped building houses he started making orthopedic furniture but that business never prospered and was discontinued after about a year. In the spring of 1969 I retired after 23 years of work at a child guidance clinic, but with a commitment to start work in a public school system the following September. As soon as I told Cliff that I would have the summer free he suggested a trip to the Soviet Union. He wanted to see what progress had been made since his 1937 tour, and he also wanted me to see for myself some of the things that he had been telling me about. It was clear from the enthusiastic way in which he made the suggestion that this was something he had been wanting for a long time. It turned out to be a highlight in both our lives. Chapter VI More Travel; Founding the MCASF. In 1969 anti-Soviet feeling was so strong in our country that the travel agency nearest to our home refused to handle arrangements for a trip to the USSR, giving as the reason, "We don't want any American money to go to Russia". But we soon learned that there were travel agencies in New York that would handle the arrangements. We flew to Luxembourg and went from there to Osnabr}ck in the Federal Republic of Germany where we picked up our pre-purchased Karmann Ghia Volkswagen. In West Germany our bus driver complained about his difficult working conditions; he had been driving continuously for eight hours and yet, after dropping us off at K\ln he would have to drive all the way back to Spain, a distance of roughly 800 miles, before he could stop to get some sleep. And at Osnabr}ck the man who sold us our car complained of lengthened working hours and reduced pay; he was at the point of taking another job the next day but worried that the company to which he was transferring might not be able to remain solvent. So we concluded that working conditions in the FRG were far from satisfactory. We drove north into Denmark and from there to Sweden. In these countries we stayed in tourist rooms rather than hotels, mainly to keep our expenses low; but this also gave us a better opportunity to visit with people in their homes. From Stockholm we took the ferry to Turku, Finland, where the scenery ranged from pleasant to spectacularly beautiful. But as it happened, it was also in Finland that we made the acquaintance of an anti-Soviet bigot, a man who tried to give us merchandise to sell on the black market after we would arrive in the Soviet Union - for no purpose that we could perceive except to make trouble. The border crossing to the Soviet Union was uneventful. Our baggage was cursorily examined,, we were asked a few simple questions about our health histories, we exchanged some traveler's checks for rubles, and we were on our way. We drove through long stretches of wooded country that reminded us very much of northern Minnesota, the trees looked much the same. There were no billboards, and very few signs of any kind. As we approached Leningrad we watched for signs directing us to an "Intourist" office, since our travel agent had told us that we would find them everywhere and they could tell us where our hotel reservations were. But we saw no such sign. We drove on, into the business section of the city. We saw a few street signs which we could not read on buildings near the intersections; and two or three times we had to detour because of street repairs but the detours made no real difference to us because we had no idea where in the city we were or which direction to go. Several times we tried to ask pedestrians for directions but we could not understand their responses which were, of course, in Russian. Finally a young man asked in English, "Can I help you?" His name was Vadim, he told us that he was a student at the University of Leningrad, he had learned English in school, starting in about the fourth grade. He went with us to the nearest Intourist office and from there to the Vyborgskaya Hotel where our reservations were. As he helped us to register, etc. he told us that he had a few days free before taking a summer job and would like to show us his city. Cliff offered to hire him as our guide but he remonstrated, "No, I don't mean that. I don't need the money. As a student I get my stipend each month, and I'll earn money working this summer too. But Leningrad is my city and I want you to have a good visit here!" It was agreed that we would meet in the lobby at nine the next morning. After he had gone we went to the restaurant next door to the hotel. We were probably the only non-Russians there. The menus were printed in Russian and at that time we did not realize that we could ask for an English one. So I hesitantly pronounced the Russian words for meat and vegetables, and was pleased when the waiter brought us a stew. While we were eating a man who spoke some English joined us at our table. He was a young engineer from Odessa; we enjoyed a good, friendly conversation with him. The Vyborgskaya Hotel was very busy. Big busloads of travelers were leaving or arriving at frequent intervals. The lobby was piled with luggage being brought in or taken out. We judged most of the guests to be either Soviets or Finns. It was a surprise to us to meet a couple from California, they were checking out after what they described as a wonderful vacation in the Soviet Union. They called our attention to the Beryozka souvenir shop off the lobby where only foreign (i.e. non-Soviet)money is accepted and some items are surprisingly low priced. The next morning Vadim came with a bouquet of flowers. He took us first, at Cliff's request, to the historic Peter and Paul Fortress. He refused to let Cliff pay our bus fare, saying that it wasn't much. (Later we learned that a bus fare is less than a nickel). The Fortress was built in 1703 by Peter the Great. Later we went to the Hermitage with its gorgeously beautiful, spacious rooms and ornate furniture, unlike anything I had ever seen before, or even imagined. As we walked from one luxurious room to another Vadim said,"Keep in mind that the Tzars were accumulating all this wealth while the ordinary working people had to wrap their feet in rags because they could not afford shoes". His words reminded me of the old geography book that I studied in elementary school - about 1915 - in which Russia was described as a country of illiterates; an accompanying picture showed a grim, shabby peasant with his feet wrapped in rags. What remarkable progress has come about in our lifetime! The next day we had our first ride on a hydrofoil. In a very short time we arrived at Petrodvorets, about twenty miles from Leningrad, and spent most of the day there.More than one hundred fountains, each more beautiful than the others, were scattered about over many acres of park-like grounds. There were sunny walks with flower borders, and shady walks with birds singing everywhere.(And plenty of park benches to rest for a while). We were told that in Tzarist times the people were not allowed to come within three miles of the palace grounds but now we saw people all over the place, enjoying the beauty and in a few instances eating picnic lunches but without creating any litter.On the palace grounds were a few ice-cream stands; for about fifteen cents apiece we each had a cone and they were so tasty that from then on we regularly had ice-cream for lunch while traveling in the Soviet Union. The palace itself was lighter in coloring and in atmosphere than the Winter Palace but just as luxurious. It had been largely destroyed by the Nazis during the long siege of Leningrad. After the war, as their resources permitted the Soviets began the Herculean task of restoring the palace to its original grandeur. Vadim who had an exaggerated idea of American well-being asked us if we were rich; he thought we were because we could travel to his country. Of course we explained that we were far from rich, we were working people who had to do without other things in order to make this trip. He told us that he had been getting his information about our country from listening to the "Voice of America" broadcasts. Cliff responded at some length, explaining that the "Voice of America" is a propaganda agency whose broadcasts are not to be taken at face value. This seemed to be a new idea to Vadim. He listened intently and replied soberly, "I will not forget". We were sorry to leave Leningrad on the morning scheduled. Vadim rode with us to the outskirts of the city ; he assured us that the road to Moscow went straight ahead, we would have no trouble following it. But eventually we came to a fork in the road and after some hesitation we took the road to the right. We drove perhaps a dozen miles or so when a large billboard (the first we had seen in Russia) announced that this was the new Leningrad-Kiev highway! So we had taken the wrong fork way back there. What to do? It seemed logical to drive on until we came to a good crossroad and go left on it until we reached the road we should have taken in the first place. It was then that we had our first meeting with Russian policemen. The well-paved road we turned onto may have been the entrance to a military facility. In any case, we were stopped by two guards who asked for our passports. Since we did not understand much of what they said in Russian, and they did not understand what we said in English, I explained as best I could in my very inadequate German which ,luckily, one of them understood. They were very courteous and as helpful as they could be; they said that if we got lost that easily they would advise us to go back to where we made the wrong turn; we would not be able to find any short-cut to Moscow. So we turned back, took the other fork of the road and proceeded as fast as the heavy truck traffic would permit. We passed the city of Novgorod without stopping, stayed overnight at a comfortable "Motel" at Kallinin, and continued south the next morning toward Moscow. Again in Moscow a friendly stranger offered to show us around the city, actually taking a day off from work to do so. With him we rode on the world-famous subway and on city busses. We shopped in stores and toured museums. Cliff was very well impressed with the progress in living standards since his earlier visit 32 years before; in spite of the intervening horribly destructive war people were now better dressed, better fed, better housed - and better educated. We spent one evening at the home of a good friend who confirmed our impression that walking on the streets was safe at any time of the day or night; he (a physician) told us that he had never heard of any traveler being assaulted on a Moscow street. So we walked about freely late into the evenings, trusting Cliff's unfailing sense of direction to get us back to our hotel. On leaving Moscow we drove south to Kiev, then to Odessa and Kishinev, stopping briefly at smaller towns along our route - altogether about 3000 miles in the USSR. Along the way we had talked (often through interpreters) with educators, physicians,students, athletes, a mayor, clerks and people in the streets. Without exception they were better informed about our country than most U.S.citizens are about theirs. They all yearn for a peaceful world and support their government's initiatives in promoting it. These initiatives are not widely reported in our U.S. media; instead the Soviet Union is usually portrayed as aggressively militaristic. Cliff became convinced that such anti-soviet reports in our news media are, basically, deliberately misleading propaganda aimed at advancing the interests of the military-industrial complex against which President Eisenhower and others have repeatedly warned us. Having clearly understood this, Cliff saw no alternative but to do all that he could to report the truth; it was simply inconceivable to him to do otherwise. We crossed the border near Kishinev and soon arrived at Birlad, Romania; a small town with very narrow streets. The woman in charge at the hotel spoke German fluently. When I asked her where we should park our car since it was blocking the street where it stood, she answered, "Gerade da! Nichts passiert!" ("Right there! Nothing will happen!") So we left it right there and went into the dining room. While we were eating a young man who was alone at a nearby table came over to us and introduced himself as Gabriel "Gabby, for short". He had heard us talking English. He learned English in school and liked to keep in practice. But there were no English-speaking tourists in Birlad recently. Until last year, he told us, there had been large numbers of single young American men arriving constantly, telling Gabby and his friends how wonderful everything is in the USA. But abruptly last year they stopped coming. (That would be 1968, the year of the Czechoslovakian government crisis which set off a propaganda furor in the United States.) We asked for specifics about what the young American travelers had told him and his friends. Gabby replied that for one thing, they talked about the easy life of college students in the USA. As a college student himself, he was interested in that. In the USA, they told him, all the students drive around in fine cars, they have lots of money, and if there is something else they want, they riot so they get it. "But we are not allowed to riot!" he pouted with amazing naivete. "What do you want to riot about?" Cliff asked. "About the small stipend we get from our government!" he answered. "We don't get very much." He found it hard to believe Cliff's assertion that students in the United States get no automatic stipend from the government and have to pay tuition besides. He had never heard about tuition, he had difficulty understanding the concept. "A public college is for the public, isn't it?" he asked, "and supported by public funds? How then can they charge for it? Young people need and have a right to education. The country needs educated people!" The young men from America had told him so many interesting things he could not remember all of them but he had been so impressed that he very much wanted to visit America himself. He had saved up enough money to live on for a month in Romania, and then asked a visiting young American how long that amount of money would last in the USA. "About a day and a half," the man had told him. So Gabby reluctantly gave up the idea of traveling to see the USA for himself. When we asked him why such young men had abruptly stopped coming to Romania in 1968 he had no answer. He had probably never heard of the C.I.A. and if he had it would never occur to him that, having failed to wipe out socialism in Czechoslovakia, the U.S. secret agency may have concluded that subversive efforts were no more likely to succeed in Romania. What other explanation can there be for the large influx of unattached young American men in even the small towns of Romania, and the sudden cessation of all this travel after Czechoslovakia got rid of the anti-socialist element in its leadership? When we finished eating Gabby invited us and a hotel guest from Switzerland to walk with him to his home to meet his family. His father taught in a higher school and would get home very late this evening but his mother and younger sister were there. The home was a substantial, frame house with attractive, comfortable furniture, good quality carpets and tapestries. For the rest of the evening Gabby was a busy interpreter and his mother a gracious hostess. The next day along the road to Bucharest we saw many houses with paintings or other decorations on the porch walls and sometimes designs made of bits of glass embedded in the stucco, setting off the gables. We reached Bucharest during the hottest part of a hot day, July 4th. Almost the first thing we saw was an ice-cream stand on the corner, near a large office building. Our hotel was large and luxurious; the cost was moderate. Driving in Romania was easy, the highways were well marked with numbered routes, arrows indicated the direction to major cities. The scenery was beautiful; the mountains reminded us of Norway. The city of Sibiu was a pleasant surprise. We had read in a travel brochure about the old town, the ancien t churches, the museum and other historical places. But what we saw were avenues of fine new apartment buildings with neat lawns, and young trees bordering the wide streets. In the picture Cliff took of one such street a few people were strolling along the sidewalk, some of them with small children. These people are definitely not living in the past! Our hotel was beautiful, and beautifully landscaped. In addition to the usual amenities there was an outdoor dining area with the kind of atmosphere that in our own country would be accurately described as "exclusive". Practically all the tables were taken. Obviously, in socialist Romania many people can afford to eat at delightful, "exclusive" places like this. We drove on the next day through mountainous country. We watched the trains with steam locomotives disappear into tunnels in the mountainsides and reappear some distance farther on. When we stopped for gas or lunch our conversations with the Romanians were usually brief because of the language problem, but we were able to learn that Oradea would be the last town on the Romanian side of the Hungarian border where we would be able to find lodging. We arrived at Oradea in the early evening. Young people in tremendously large numbers were in the streets talking, laughing, singing, casually socializing. The hotel was easily located but the rooms were all taken (we had made no reservation). The clerk suggested that we stay in an approved private home. We phoned the home owner who came to the hotel to direct us to her home a few blocks away. She was a pleasant, middle-aged woman who spoke German readily, while I translated as best I could for Cliff. After a while I asked her, at Cliff's suggestion, if she was better off under the present regime than she had been before Romania became socialist. She answered that she herself was not as well off as before because now she was alone, her husband was no longer living and her grown children were in Bucharest where they were doing well but she missed them, and of course she missed her husband. She has enough income, she said, and she can supplement it by taking in tourists like ourselves. Still, she was better off before. But if we were asking about the great majority of the people, "They are so much better off now that there is no comparison," she said. In the old days, very few could afford a higher education. Now education is completely free and "all of them who have any ability or aptitude can become anything they want to be." When we drove on into Hungary the formalities at the border were brief and simple. A room was reserved for us in the dormitory of the University of Budapest, part of which was being used as a tourist hotel during the summer when most students were on vacation. We went sightseeing on foot, by bus and by streetcar. With the help of a city map obtained in a bookstore near the campus we explored the surroundings and visited the old fort high on a hill overlooking the city. After a few days we drove northwest toward Vienna, Austria. Our car was scheduled for servicing after 5000 miles and the nearest Volkswagen service station was at Br}ck, not far from Vienna. When we arrived there we saw a "Tourists - Room for Rent" sign by a private home. A woman was cutting roses in the front yard. She showed us the room, it was clean and convenient so we took it. Her husband came home in a little while; he was interested in where we had been and where we were going. When Russia was mentioned his hostility was obvious. He had been in Hitler's army, he said, and had been taken prisoner at Stalingrad. The prisoners had very little to eat; once they even dug up some potatoes that the Russians had just planted, "and we ate them without even washing them!" adding in a burst of feeling, "It's a wonder I'm still alive, no one understands what I've been through!" Getting more excited as he spoke, he went on,"There's nothing can stop those Russians! Nothing! They are in Hungary to the south of us and in Czechoslovakia to the north. I own this house but if the Russians ever come here, I leave it and I go!" He pointed dramatically toward the west. "If it's in the middle of the night, I go!" He was so dramatic that Cliff could hardly keep from laughing. As we listened to this Nazi veteran's report of the battle of Stalingrad it was clear that he considered the Russians to be the intruders in their own land. He thought they should have at least treated the Nazi prisoners like the superior men they considered themselves to be. When our car was ready we drove on into Czechoslovakia. Since we were not required here to make advance hotel reservations and did not know how far we could comfortably travel in one day, we decided to take a chance on finding a room in whatever town we happened to be at the end of the day. Near the town of Znojmo we pulled off the road to check our map in order to determine if we were on the most direct road to Prague. A truck driver pulled up alongside and asked if we were having any problems. He explained that we were on the right road to Prague but it would take us through the town of Jihlava where we could easily lose our way. He was going in that direction. If we would follow him through the town he would be glad to lead the way. So we followed at first on open road and then through a complicated maze of narrow city streets with unmarked sharp turns, a route so intricate that we could never have found it by ourselves. When we again reached the open road, he pointed in the direction of our route and turned off onto a side road. We went straight ahead until we reached the outskirts of Prague;at the approach to the city the street was blocked for repairs and no detour was marked. Again a friendly stranger led the way through the city. By this time we were beginning to think about lodging for the night. After several stops for directions, etc. we found a small hotel in the town of Kralupy with one room still vacant. In the morning we resumed our drive northward. At the border of the German Democratic Republic we were delayed for a couple of hours by the necessity of getting confirmation of our hotel reservations. We arranged to stay at Meissen the first night and at Potsdam for the other two nights that we would be in the GDR. It is hard to describe our first impressions of Dresden. The bombed ruins of castles and other huge buildings, the ruins especially of the Frauenkirche with flowers and shrubs growing around them, the many new and attractive apartment buildings - all these things contributed to a mood that was a mixture of sadness over all the useless, mindless destruction of the past, and admiration for the courage of these people who were building for their future. With some conspicuous exceptions they have removed the war ruins and replaced them with attractive, modern structures. But they are leaving the once indescribably beautiful Frauenkirche as it is, to show the indiscriminate destructiveness of war. And they are determined that never again will a war start on their soil. The town of Meissen is in a beautiful setting on the Elbe River, with an old castle high on a hill overlooking a picturesque bridge that was hazy with fog when we first saw it. The hotel was on the upper floors of a clean, modern looking railway station. We wondered if the noise and vibration of the trains might disturb our sleep but there was no such problem. After a good dinner in the restaurant on the first floor we were asked to take our passports to the police station, across the bridge and down the road to the right. We had a moment of apprehension, wondering what, if anything, could be wrong. In the USSR we had usually been asked to leave our passports at the hotel desk until our departure, but never to take them to the police. Later we learned that the reason was very simply that ours were the only passports to be checked that night, and so rather than ask the police to make a special trip to the hotel, it seemed reasonable to have us take the passports to the station instead. And besides, our walk to the station took us through a picturesque part of the city that the hotel people may have wanted us to see; the narrow winding road was bordered by little shops with all sorts of interesting art objects and antiques. At the police station we showed our passports to the first uniformed person we saw. He handed them to a companion who looked at Cliff, then at the passport, then back at Cliff wearing his gold-embroidered velvet skull-cap (bought in a Beryoska shop in Moscow) and joked,"It says here that you are an American. To me you look like an Uzbek farmer!" to which Cliff responded laughingly,"Thanks!" and, the ice broken, we had an hour-long, friendly discussion. They were sincerely interested in knowing our opinion of their country and they asked good questions about ours. They wondered why most U.S. citizens supported their government's aggression in Vietnam. To our question about their attitude toward re-unification of Germany they replied that they were not against it in principle but could not accept it as long as former Nazis were in positions of power and influence in the Federal Republic. Nor would they under any circumstances ever return to an economy run for the profit of a few rather than for the well-being of all. The porcelain factory at Meissen has a constant stream of visitors. A guide explained the entire process of porcelain manufacture.We watched master craftsmen at work and admired the finished product. The scenery was pleasant along the one hundred miles of good road from Meissen to Potsdam. The fine new "Interhotel" at Potsdam could be seen for some distance, it was so tall that it dominated the landscape. We were now within a few miles of Berlin, the capitol of the GDR. We telephoned Paul, a Berliner, whom we had met at the Bucharest Hotel in Moscow. He took us by train to Berlin, showed us some of the harmonious, massive new construction in the center of the city, and the shrapnel damage in some places not yet repaired. He took us to see the impressive Treptow war memorial to the Soviet fighters who died freeing Berlin from the Nazis, and he told us a little about his own experiences in Nazi concentration camps.He did not want to talk about those experiences every day, he said, but it is important that Americans understand. "We had ways of sending messages out from the camp" he told us, "and once we sent word to our Bulgarian trade union brothers, telling them of the terrible things going on in the camp. Word came back that they did not believe us. They said that Germany is a civilized country and things like that just can't happen there." Paul had been speaking English but he paused and then with strong emotion he said to me in his mother tongue,"Tell your husband that the reason those horrible things could happen was that the ordinary, decent German people did not know and did not believe it possible. The reason for the horrible war in Vietnam now is that ordinary, decent Americans do not know what goes on, and if they are told, they don't believe it's possible! Tell your husband!" I translated. On our way back to the hotel after Paul had left us at the transfer point a stranger who sat in front of us on the train turned around to ask how much we had seen of his country. He spoke enthusiastically of the progress in housing, health care, public education, recreational opportunities, and art by and for the people. He eagerly volunteered to take us around the city for the next couple of days and show us his country's accomplishments in some of these areas. When we said that we had to leave the next day he was sincerely disappointed. We had to get off the train at about this point; we regretted later that we did not get his name and address. Basically, his attitude was typical of the great majority of people we met in the GDR. The next day was a crowded one. Our GDR visas were due to expire at midnight. Eisenach, where we would cross the border, was only about 200 miles of good highway from where we were, so we thought we could include some side excursions. We visited "Luther's Wittenberg" which Cliff had seen thirty-two years earlier; he wanted to take pictures of it to show to some church groups who might be interested because of its historical significance. While he was taking pictures I explored the neighborhood a little on foot and came across a cemetery with Russian names on the markers. Back on the main highway we passed groves of pine trees with the bark cut in converging diagonal lines so the turpentine would run out into small buckets. Once we passed a field of hops, something which neither of us had ever seen before. As we skirted the edge of the city of Leipzig, we saw new construction - probably apartment buildings - extending for a tremendously long distance. On one of our side excursions we happened to reach the town of Bad Bibra. At the hotel which stood close to the street, we stopped for supper. Our English speech attracted the attention of two young men at a nearby table; they asked us to join them for a glass of beer. We had a friendly conversation; they told us that peace in Vietnam is so important to them that they are giving a percentage of their wages each month to help the Vietnamese people. They were surprised and pleased when Cliff commended them for doing so; they had assumed that, as Americans, we supported our governments aggressions. They urged us to stay until the next day so they could show us the city park with lots of flowers now in bloom. Unfortunately we had to decline. We had already stayed in Bad Bibra longer than we had planned, and now had to get back on the main highway and follow it straight to the border crossing at Eisenach. We arrived at the border before midnight with only a few minutes to spare.By the time we arrived I was too tired to function well; I fumbled in my purse for papers that normally I would have found promptly. And the customs officials seemed to take quite a while to check our car. I worried that if we did not proceed promptly we would not be able to find a hotel in time to get a good night's sleep. We didn't - not because of the time it took for customs clearance but because of such a heavy fog that we could not see to drive into "West Germany". When we came within inches of hitting a white painted wooden fence, we gave up the attempt to drive farther and pulled off the road to wait until the fog lifted at daybreak. In the Federal Republic ("West Germany") after visiting relatives in Fulda, Kreis Lauterbach we went on to Heidelberg. The castle is not just one building as I had imagined, but many buildings constructed as a unit around a large, open courtyard. It is as large as a small village and stands high above the surrounding area. The walls are very thick, with openings through which a gun could be pointed at an enemy coming up the path toward the gate. In olden times the people who lived in the valley below had no choice but to fight and work for the prince for whom they built the castle and whom they enriched by their labor. Then as now, the methods by which the rich get richer and the poor get poorer were built into the system. We stopped for one night in a small village on the Rhine River where Cliff took pictures and simultaneously recorded the sounds of the barges hauling coal and gravel. As we walked in the cool evening along the river bank we were surprised to see a woman's handbag tossed under a grating - the kind of evidence of recent robbery that we sometimes see in the United States. And, just as at home, when we went to a Post Office to buy stamps we saw a placard with the photograph of a man wanted for murder and robbery. Crimes of that kind are extremely rare in the socialist countries that we visited; we saw no such placards in the Soviet Union. When I mentioned this to a co-worker after my return home she answered,"Well, of course! Russia is a police state, the police won't permit it!" I am sure that she did not mean to imply that our own police do permit it. We followed the Rhine northward to Bonn, with Cliff taking pictures of the castles we saw along the way. Our first impress Hn of Bonn was of a lot of advertising signs plastered on billboards, walls and every other available space.No doubt because of having been for a while in the Soviet Union where there are almost no such signs we noticed them more than we would have otherwise. Farther north, near the border of Denmark, we stopped in the very old, pleasant little town of Itzehoe. The clock on the ancient city hall struck every hour, day and night; we heard it clearly even in a hotel room across the square. A very short distance from the square was a beautiful little park overlooking a stream bordered with flowers. In Denmark we stopped in late evening at a hotel that was full. At Cliff's request the clerk recommended another place but then charged about seventy-five cents for the favor, which surprised and irritated Cliff. (In the socialist countries that we had been visiting such favors were always free). From Denmark we crossed over to Sweden on the ferries, and then followed the west coast of Sweden into Norway, past Oslo, and from there northwestward about one hundred miles to Fagerness in the Waldres area where we stopped to visit with Cliff's relatives. Lars was cutting hay and hanging it over wire fences to dry. His wife, Kari, was up on the mountain at the "seter" - a cattle grazing area. Lars rode with us to guide us up the steep, winding, narrow mountain road. After about an hour he left us with Kari and walked back down to the farm. All summer he tends the farm and cuts hay with a scythe while Kari tends the cows up on the high plateau. Once every couple of weeks or so he walks up the long mountain road to be with her for a while, but he must keep everlastingly at his job of cutting hay with a scythe and drying it for winter use, otherwise there would not be enough to feed the cows through the winter. In the off season he had built a guest cabin on the "seter" ; we stayed there visiting with Kari for a couple of days. Kari said that she gets terribly lonesome up there in the mountains. We had noticed other scattered cabins where other lonely women were doing the same thing she was. I asked her why she did not offer to milk the neighbor's cows for one week and ask the neighbor to milk hers the next week; then each of them could be at home with their respective husbands at least on alternate weeks. Her only answer was simply,"We never did it that way." The highways in Norway are surprisingly good considering the mountainous terrain, and they are kept in excellent repair. They are often of necessity quite narrow but drivers courteously make allowances for that, and where necessary they pull over when they can to allow other cars coming in the opposite direction to pass. At Laerdal the road ran right up to the edge of the fjord and stopped, with no way to proceed except by water. So we took the ferry from there to Gudvangen, a distance of roughly ten miles which we covered in about two hours. Norway is no place for people who are in a rush to get somewhere, but it is a great place to enjoy spectacular scenery. One stretch of the road from Gudvangen to Voss was almost impossibly steep and narrow, with sharp hairpin turns. Voss was the town where Cliff had met some of his Hernes relatives when he visited there thirty-two years before (in 1937). The one whom he knew as an anti-Nazi underground fighter (Sjur) was no longer living, but his daughter and her family now lived in an attractive mountainside home where we spent an evening in good conversation with them and other relatives. In the course of the evening it became apparent that some of the relatives were deeply concerned about the rise of neo-Nazism but a few others "had no interest in politics." Before leaving the U.S. we had advised our families to address our mail to the Voss Post Office. When we stopped there to pick up our mail we learned that my sister Dorothy, who was sick before I left home, had taken a turn for the worse and was failing fast. So we drove promptly to Oslo where I took a plane, and arrived home in time to talk with Dorothy briefly. She was pleased that I was back from the trip and showed interest in the few comments that I made to her about it. She died three days later. Meantime, Cliff had the task of arranging for our car to be shipped home. From here on, the story is in Cliff's words: "After seeing Chris off on the plane for home, I drove around in Oslo for a bit and then headed south. I regretted leaving Norway, the home of my ancestors. But we had seen much of its beauty and had renewed acquaintance with the relatives there. It was time to think about shipping the car and returning home. I drove until early evening before asking a gas station attendant about lodging in the area. He recommended a motel about six miles farther ahead. The man from whom I rented the room was a very cordial university professor of agriculture who managed the motel as a sideline. He showed interest in my travels. When I mentioned Voss his interest heightened; he had grown up there, from time to time he returned to visit relatives. I commented that I also had relatives there. This led him to ask if we might be related; to our mutual surprise and pleasure it turned out that we were. So before I left the next morning we exchanged addresses and agreed to keep in touch. "I went on into Sweden, the day's drive was uneventful. That night I took a tourist room in the private home of a Swedish couple who were interested in my account of travel in the Soviet Union. They asked a number of questions and I had the feeling of being among friends. "Another day's driving brought me to the port city of Halsingborg. Here I shipped home the box full of items that Chris and I had packed in Voss - a painting reproduction bought in the Beryoska store in Moscow, some clothing, several books from the USSR and the Czechoslovakian drinking glasses which were a gift from the manager of the Praha Hotel in Kralupy. Then I revisited the Halsingborg shopping mall, including the store where Chris had bought a coat when we were on our way to the Soviet Union. I joined a guided tour of a one-thousand-year-old castle, the former residence of Swedish kings. I walked through the old city hall; and I watched a couple of small children carrying their beloved little dog that attracted the attention of passersby; one middle-aged woman patted the dog and said, "Han er sa sot" (He is so sweet) and the children were delighted. "In the late afternoon I took the ferry to Helsinger, Denmark. While driving through customs as we came off the boat I asked the customs officer if he could recommend a hotel nearby. He thought he could but asked if I would first park my car - he pointed to a parking area -and then come back to talk with him. Our talk turned out to be more than just a matter of advice about lodging for the night. He wanted to talk about Denmark's inflated economy and its dependence on that of the USA. He was in Hrested in hearing that we did not find prices inflated in the Soviet Union. He asked what proportion of people in my country were in favor of the U.S. aggression in Vietnam and he pressured me to tell him why we were there. I answered that in my opinion we were there because it was profitable for the owners of industry including especially the munitions makers, but that the reasons usually given and accepted by most Americans had to do with the containment of communism. He sadly shook his head and commented that even aside from the presumptuous immorality of such an attitude, the U.S. should have learned something from the French experience there. I agreed. "In driving to the hotel address he gave me I somehow missed a turn and decided to check again. A pharmacist who was just closing up shop suggested that I follow him to the Municipal Tourist Center, as he would be driving past there. As it turned out the Tourist Center was filled but the clerk reserved a room by telephone in a hotel about four blocks away; he suggested that I park my car about two blocks away as the hotel had no parking facilities. While walking from the parking lot to the hotel I saw more drunks than I had seen in my whole life. As I passed a tavern I stepped inside intending to get a sandwich but a fight was going on inside so I backed out and went to the hotel where I felt safer. I decided that the streets in downtown Helsinger were no place for me at this hour. I went to bed but it was a hot evening and through the open window I heard yelling and shouting and drunken conversation. This was clearly not like the USSR where the streets were orderly even when filled with people; if there was an occasional drunk he was in the hands of his friends. There was never any fighting, yelling, screaming or drunken commotion on the streets anywhere. How very different here in Denmark, a capitalist country like our own. From time to time I thought of my car and woke up worrying about it. In the morning the first thing I did was to check it; I was relieved to find that it had not been tampered with in any way. The streets were quiet now; I enjoyed a quiet breakfast. "The castle made famous by Shakespeare's "Hamlet" is not far from downtown Helsinger; it is now a museum with many famous paintings and other art objects. I toured the castle from the basement dungeons where prisoners used to be kept in total darkness to the top floors where one can get a good view of the harbor and the city of Helsinger. Then I strolled along a street with houses dating back to Shakespeare's time; I stopped in the drug store where he used to buy his medicines. Some of the nine-hundred-year-old buildings were still structurally sound. "On the way to the German border I drove past fields of ripened wheat. Once I stopped by a large stone monument and read the inscription: it gave the names, ages and date of death of seven Danes who had been captured there and shot by the Nazis. "The sun was still high in the western sky when I reached the German border. The Danish and about a half mile farther on the German customs officials glanced at my passport and waved me on. After driving another ten or fifteen miles I came to a motel and decided to stay. In the dining room I ordered what I thought was hamburger but it was almost inedible. I shared a table with eight or ten others who were talking German. The room was decorated with pictures and statues of Prussian Generals - Ludendorf, Von Hindenburg, Bismark, Frederick the Great. Weapons were fastened to the wall as decorations, plaques with German inscriptions commemorated incidents in World Wars I and II. The overall feeling was decidedly militaristic. An employee who spoke English told me that this had been a military hospital in both wars; there had been bitter fighting here. At one time the Danes had conquered this area. He invited me to walk around the grounds where I would see more memorials. I went outside and found inscriptions stating that here the Danes committed aggression; here the Danes executed so-and-so many Germans, etc. The impression I had was that militarism was still held in high esteem here, the old Prussian ideas were still flourishing. The changed attitudes that the times require in order to eliminate the causes of war were not in evidence. "We were the victims" seemed to be the sentiment expressed. I suggested to the employee that what is needed in order for the future to be better than the past is less militarism, and he agreed but apparently only because he considered it proper to be agreeable and polite to a guest. He obviously failed to grasp the meaning of what I was trying to say. "The next morning I continued driving south, got lost for a while in the city of Neum}nster, passed Hamburg and reached Bremen at dusk. A gas station attendant directed me to the docks from which the car would presumably be shipped; he said there were tourist rooms available near by. But when I arrived all the hotels and tourist rooms were filled, I could find no "Zimmer frei "(vacant room). None. So I kept on driving until I came right up to the water by the dock. A guard there spoke a little English, he was very friendly and kind. When I told him of my predicament he said, "Sometimes men sleep in their cars. I will be on duty here all night. Just pull in here and sleep in your car if you like." So I did. By daylight the next morning I found that I was right next to the submarine pens where about eight or ten submarines were kept. I thought to myself, so this is where the dreaded German submarines were launched during the war. It gave me an eerie feeling. "At the main building where I went to arrange for shipping my car I was told that all places were filled for a long time to come; the quickest way to ship the car would be to take it to Emden, a boat would soon be leaving from there. So I went on to Emden, but to reach the highway to that city I had to drive through the business section of Bremen; I was relieved when that part of the trip was behind me. I still had to drive through the cities of Oldenburg and Westerstede. "In the latter city I made two stops, one to buy an electronic flasher for my camera. I talked English, the salesman talked German, and we understood each other quite well. The other stop was by a very, very ancient-looking church. The unusual architecture attracted my attention as I was driving by; it was a sturdy, solid brick structure. I went in. Just inside the main vestibule was an honor roll, a long list of perhaps a thousand names of church members who had lost their lives in the two world wars. I was impressed again with the terrible loss of life in war, and the futility of it. "As I approached Emden in the late afternoon, storm clouds were gathering quickly. At the loading docks people were rushing to get their cars turned in and papers made out for shipment before the storm; shipping arrangements were made out-of-doors in an area where the cars were then parked. Attendants were busily checking the condition of each car, making note of any scratches or body damage already there so the transportation company would be responsible only for damage during shipment. When the cars were checked in the owners had to catch a bus at the street corner to go to the business district of town where hotels and restaurants could be found. I turned in my car and caught a bus just as the hard rain started. I was carrying not only my suitcase but also a large camera and a tape recorder, I did not want them to get wet. So on getting off the bus I dashed into the nearest place, a tavern, to wait for the rain to stop. But it did not stop. A man whose car was parked close by offered to take me and my luggage to the nearest hotel. There I took a room and tried to dry my clothes while I listened to the crashing thunder and watched the flashes of lightning as the rain came down even harder than before. The storm lasted until past midnight; I appreciated being in a dry, comfortable room. In the morning the desk clerk gave me directions to the railway station. She spoke only German but I understood well enough. "While waiting for the train to Luxembourg I noticed a six or seven story building with only a door on one side and no windows; I was told that this was a bomb shelter from World War II. "In Luxembourg I learned that there was no possibility of a flight for five days so I made a reservation for the earliest possible flight and decided that the next morning I would go to London: the cost of the trip - about $35.00 - would be no more than the cost of staying here in a hotel. The train left in late afternoon and arrived about 3 A.M. at the Belgian port city of Oostende where we boarded the boat for England. "On the boat were a large number of "Hippies" (mostly Americans) lying on the floor and behaving with an embarrassing disregard for good taste. I talked with a few of them and found them to be as antagonistic toward the Soviet Union and as completely misinformed about it as are most of their more conventional countrymen. They knew nothing of the measures being so effectively taken in the socialist countries to continuously improve the quality of life. But perhaps the few with whom I spoke were not typical of the group. I had assumed that their style of living was a protest against the American way of life, and I should like to believe that they were more aware of alternatives than they seemed to be. "At Dover, England, we boarded a train for London. It took us through beautiful countryside. In London the Victoria station was chock-full of packed humanity like sardines in a can. The commotion and shoving was in marked contrast to the orderliness of the crowds in Moscow, and the clutter contrasted with the neatness and cleanliness of the railway stations there. "I checked my belongings except my camera, and went sightseeing. I watched the colorful changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, with the beautiful horses and the music. At Westminster Cathedral I went inside and took pictures. I stepped into shops and talked with people about their views of economic conditions. I asked one shopkeeper how he felt about his country being a colony of the USA. He smiled and agreed that England is not the world power that it once was; then he criticized the USA, saying that it should get out of Vietnam and he was surprised when I agreed. He nodded when I commented that the U.S. is trying to be the dominant colonial power like England used to be before World War II. "At the Parliament Building I talked with the guards in the House of Lords and with other tourists. In the House of Commons I joined a group of American tourists with a British guide. He referred to Churchill as a powerful leader during and after the war. He spoke of "an important famous speech" that Churchill made after the war while he was in the United States, a speech in which he called for the Western powers to unite against the Soviet Union; from that time on the Soviet Union was no longer to be considered an ally as it had been during the war. He asked if any of his listeners could identify the speech. Nobody else spoke up so I said that it was at Fulton, Missouri. A little later in his talk the guide mentioned a "famous labor leader who became Prime Minister," he again paused to ask if any of the tourists could name the man, and again when no one else responded I mentioned Clement Atlee. At the end of the tour the guide came over to ask me what other countries I had visited. When I mentioned the Soviet Union he wanted to know what I thought of that country. Of course I told him that I had been very favorably impressed with its social progress, its health programs, free education, full employment, etc. and that now I knew that the people there completely support their government's actions because the government is theirs, they control it. He disagreed and called it a dictatorship. I said, not so; the people in their local, regional and national soviets make the decisions. He disputed this and we finally parted in disagreement, his positive response to me having cooled considerably. "In the ancient Towers of London I saw the cells and torture chambers where in past centuries opponents of those in power were imprisoned and sometimes executed. I took a picture of the balcony where Sir Walter Raleigh had his daily walk while he was imprisoned here. I photographed the Tower Bridge and the St. Paul's Cathedral. Near the downtown area I added one more picture to my collection, that of the tall column memorializing the Great London Fire of 1666. "One morning I discussed my travels with the couple from whom I rented a room. They were better informed about the Soviet Union than were most U.S. citizens; what I was telling them was not new to them but it confirmed and supplemented what they already knew. They asked a few good questions and I think they enjoyed our little talk as much as I did. "Of course I went to Hyde Park, the site of many out-door meetings. Soap-boxing was going on while I was there, people were gathered in groups to listen. One speaker was protesting U.S. aggression in Vietnam and accusing the U.S. of trying to become the major colonial power. Another was castigating royalty _"Down With The Queen!" (In 1937 at this same place I heard "Down With The King!") In England there is apparently more tolerance for extreme speech than there is at home - the attitude of those in power in England seems to be "it's good for them to blow off steam" -but things don't change much. Soap-boxing was also going on at Piccadilly Circus which is a conglomeration of packed-in business places, busses, cars and crowds of people. Of course all traffic was in the left lane, which was a bit confusing for an American like myself. "At Trafalgar Square I gazed briefly at the statue of Lord Nelson, another military man honored because he was outstandingly successful in expanding British imperialism through aggressive acts of war. "On the return trip we arrived late at Brussels where we had to change trains. Because of the language problem and the tight connection - something like four minutes and some distance to go - I almost missed the train to Luxembourg. I ran along calling out to every uniformed person I saw, "Luxembourg?" Finally a uniformed man ran and called to the conductor; the train lurched forward but the conductor got the message and halted it long enough for me to clamber aboard. "At Luxembourg after waiting for two more days I was able to board a crowded plane for the flight to Iceland, where we spent an hour or so in the middle of the night before proceeding to New York. As we approached Kennedy Airport in the early morning the sky was lighting up in the east. "Because I would have some hours to wait before I could go on to Minneapolis I went to downtown New York for a visit with the travel agent who had arranged our tour. He was pleased to hear and discuss my report of the evidences of great progress that we had seen in every socialist country we visited. He was interested in my urgent recommendation that he put more emphasis on encouraging travel to the German Democratic Republic which has been making impressive gains in many areas. "I had barely time left for a brief visit to the United Nations Building with its ultra-modern architecture before returning to Kennedy Airport. The round trip fare from Kennedy to downtown New York and back was not approximately ten cents, as it would be in Moscow, but instead it was about fifty times as much (about $5.00). "Soon I boarded Northwest Airline's plane for Minneapolis. By early evening I was back home with my baggage, including tape recordings and the exposed film of more than eight hundred slides that I hoped would help to tell the story of our trip. This is the end of Cliff's written report - but of course not the end of his work for peace. After our return from Europe he took every opportunity to show his slides. He showed them to groups of people at our home and at the homes of friends; at schools; at public gatherings; at any place where people could be brought together to see pictures taken in the Soviet Union by one who had recently traveled in that country. Even when we drove to the Dakotas or Ohio to visit relatives he showed his slides not only to them but also to people in hotels where we stopped along the way. His interest, of course, was not so much in the slides themselves (although most of them were of excellent quality) but in helping people to get an honest view of the Soviet Union. In 1975, after having made five trips to the USSR, Cliff led a group of 15 travelers to the Soviet Union, Poland and the GDR. Shortly after our return from that trip a friend came to our home bringing John Baker who at that time was Chairman of the Washington Council of American-Soviet Friendship in Seattle. John told us about his work and explained the organizational arrangement including the affiliation with the National Council. He suggested that we form a Council here and join the national network. The advantages of joining with others over working alone were obvious. So Cliff invited the fifteen participants in the recent tour to meet at our home, and thus the Minnesota Council of American-Soviet Friendship was founded in the late fall of 1975. Originally all meetings, including monthly public meetings that soon became routine, were held in our living room. We chose officers and drew up a set of by-laws that were based largely on those of a local Cooperative society of which some of our group were members. As our membership grew the meetings became too large for our living room which can accommodate only about fifteen people. So Cliff remodeled our basement rooms; he lined the walls with knotty pine, put in parquet floors and built shelves for books in a small adjacent room. Folding chairs that the Cooperative was discarding were made available. Our meeting space was now doubled but eventually we outgrew that to. With mixed feelings Cliff participated in the decision to hold our meetings in a rented Community Center hall. Our home continued to function as general headquarters for the Council and a meeting place for Russian language classes, small committee meetings, etc. Cliff continued to visit the Soviet Union as often as he could. Altogether he made eight trips to that country and visited just over half of its republics: Russia, the Ukraine, Moldavia, Byelorussia,Latvia, Lithuania, Armenia and Uzbekistan; and of course every trip was different. He often visited Soviet friends in their homes. Twice he accepted invitations to speak over Soviet radio; on one of those occasions after speaking on the radio from Moscow he went on to Kiev where he was surprised to be met by a delegation of people who welcomed him with flowers. On every visit he learned more about the vast country of the Soviets and became more convinced that it is doing more than any other country in the world to improve the quality of life for its people, and is consistently working for a peaceful world because only in conditions of peace can the people prosper. The Council continued its modest growth; its newsletter improved and its mailing list expanded. It hosted Soviet delegations and promoted tours to their country. It sponsored marches, rallies and demonstrations for peace and friendship with the Soviet Union. It joined the Twin Cities Peace and Justice Coalition. In his quiet way, Cliff was justifiably proud of the organization that, with the help of other dedicated people, was started on his initiative to promote peace and friendship with the first socialist country in the world. Chapter VII Later Years In addition to the periodicals to which we personaly subscribed, several Soviet journals and other literature came to the Council at our address from various sources. Besides making it available to our membership etc, Cliff regularly distributed "Soviet Life" and other literature to public libraries in our area. At first librarians were often reluctant to accept it. If he persuaded them to put it on their shelves, sometimes when he checked back he found it tucked away in some inaccessible place. But after looking over a few issues and in some instances getting favorable comments from readers most librarians began to look forward to each new issue. When friends in Ames, Iowa, asked Cliff to help them organize a Friendship Council there he made two or three trips to that area and was deeply gratified when the Central Iowa Council of American-Soviet Friendship was established. He went to Duluth, Minnesota for a similar purpose but the few people there who took the initiative were unable at that time to gather a group in order to form a Council. (Since then Duluth has become linked in a Sister City relationship with Petrozavodsk). In 1981 the little book about our travels was published by Novosti Press*. We were happy with the reception it received. We hoped that in a small way it might help to counteract anti-sovietism in our country and so contribute to peace. A highlight in Cliff's life came on Oct. 15, 1983, when, on the occasion of a Tribute Dinner by the Minnesota Council, he received a medal from the Union of Soviet Friendship Societies "For Contributions to the Cause of Friendship." The light in Cliff's eyes as he walked from the podium with the medal pinned to his lapel told me more than any words could have said about how much this recognition meant to him. A few months before this his health had begun to fail noticeably, but even after cancer was diagnosed he continued to carry on much as before. He distributed Soviet literature to libraries even when he who had always been exceptionally energetic and strong now tired easily and sometimes had to walk so very, very slowly that it was painful to watch. He continued to speak at public meetings and also to maintain the three houses he had built; he even moved heavy stones to improve the landscaping around our home. It was only when the roof needed some minor repair that he called in outside help, being aware of the risk in working at such a height. He was of course pleased when the head of the company doing the repairs expressed admiration for the quality of Cliff's construction work and offered to hire him as consultant - but Cliff knew it was too late for that. His illness became more and more disabling. On January 9, 1984 he entered the hospital. He hoped to welcome the Soviet guests who were scheduled to arrive the next week; he wrote a short welcoming message which he hoped to deliver when they came. But he did not live long enough to meet them. He died on January 19, just ten days after entering the hospital. "The man who loved peace no longer sees the white bird circling dimly above. The wise patriarch of coexistence, the quiet-talking one emanating warmth and comradeship, has gone from our midst, and the night is cold and dark. Yet what he so tenaciously sought, the all-consuming passion of his life, shines like a brilliant beacon to illuminate that darkness," by William Lamppa, 1984 * "To the Soviet Union in 1937 and Now" by Cris & Cliff Herness