White-haired but exuberant and bouncing Ella Reeve Bloor, 75. "Mother" of U. S. Communism returned last fortnight from three months in the Soviet Union. Now the No. i female member of the Central Committee of the American Communist Party, with a record of twelve grandchildren and 36 arrests. Mother Bloor last week gave her impressions of Communism in Russia:
Living Conditions. "I was never to so many operas and plays in my life! I spent most of my time in Russia in one of the nicest hotels I've ever been in. I heard Madame Butterfly sung in Russian —in the finest presentation I have ever seen. . . . Russia today is safe, secure: there is no worry there, no fear. I didn't go hungry. I ate almost better than I ever have! I don't speak Russian. The people really have free speech. If they wanted to, the Russian people could get rid of their present leaders, but they don't want to."
Housing conditions were very bad "but that is due to a shortage of workers!"
Executions of Old Bolsheviks were explained to Mother Bloor by showing her photographs of letters by Lenin. As translated by her interpreters these disparaged
Old Bolsheviks now executed. Said she: "When they arrest someone in Russia, he's sure to be guilty, for in the Soviet Union they always investigate carefully beforehand." She heard a Czech Communist ask venerable Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin, Soviet President, "Was the Red Army weakened by the execution of its leaders?" President Kalinin asked: "What do you think? Would it weaken any army to remove those who are confessedly guilty of weakening the faith of the army in itself? What do you think?"
Elections. "There was only one candidate for an office," beamed Mother Bloor triumphantly, "because the nominations were made by such large groups—groups that represented everyone—that he was a unanimous choice! The election was the most democratic in the world. We can learn from Russia. We can strive, at least, to get America on the path of Democracy! The reason I did not want to stay in Russia, which I love so well, is that I wanted to come home to make America better! We have everything. We should be happy!"