J. Stalin is almost the only Big Red not yet met by new U. S. Ambassador to the U. S. S. R. & Mrs. Joseph Edward Davies, who by last week had definitely hit their stride in Moscow. Considering that most diplomats and their wives in the Soviet capital figure as "Capitalist spies" in the Communist press, it was notable last week that such prominent Soviet wives as Perfume Trust Manager Zhemchuzhina* and the spouse of Assistant Foreign Commissar Nikolai Krestinsky should have taken Mrs. Davies socially in tow on a round of Moscow creches and factory restaurants while Ambassador Davies, his daughter Emlen and his valet went off to inspect the Ukraine. It was not that Mrs. Davies, the extremely rich General Foods heiress, is known in Russia for her notable philanthropies—on which she did not cut down during Depression, while she did cut down on her parties, one of which included elephants from Ringling Brothers-Barnum & Bailey Circus, and cooch dancers.† Moscow does not care about the 700 free meals daily in Manhattan's slums for which Mrs. Davies, who provided such amenities as "second helpings" and small tables at which impoverished families could eat together en famille, became known as "The Lady Bountiful of Hell's Kitchen." It is also immaterial to Bolsheviks that the American Flag Association, impressed by Mrs. Davies' vigor in helping its drive against U. S. crime, asked Mrs. Franklin Delano Roosevelt to perform the act of dubbing her "The Lady of the Flag." Nor do the Russians care that Ambassador Davies was born so poor he had to help pay his way through the University of Wisconsin Law School by working as a physical instructor. The Bolsheviks seemed to like Ambassador & Mrs. Davies simply for their frank and friendly Capitalism—impressive to Russians who are always taken by "sincerity," their favorite virtue.
In the two scant months the Davieses have been in Moscow (TIME, Feb. 1), the friendly U. S. Ambassador has made it a practice to tell Bolshevik bigwigs straight off that he has no apologies to make for Capitalism and wants to hear no arguments for Communism, adding that he likes a shooting match of questions about either the U. S. or the U. S. S. R. with the answers kept as factual as possible. The shooting started when Foreign Trade Commissar Rosengoltz gave a five-hour Russian lunch for Ambassador & Mrs. Davies at his magnificent dacha or country estate adjoining Dictator Stalin's west of Moscow. Such dachi simply do not exist in Soviet newspapers or for visiting Communists, who hear all about the "austerity and simplicity" of Big Reds. However, at 1 p. m. in the dacha of Rosengoltz the heiress from Manhattan and her corporation lawyer husband, who is rich in his own right, sat down to feast with handsome War Commissar Klimentiy ("Klim") Voroshilov and pouncing Public Prosecutor Andrei Vishinsky of the Moscow Old Bolshevik trials. Three hours later the champagne was still being quaffed, and over coffee and liqueurs friendly questions & answers cracked for another two hours.