to take a more active 

 part in the campaign 

 of 191 /, but that she 

 has remained in the 

 war at all, in spite of 

 the sinister influences 

 that have been brought 

 to bear against her. 



Crisis after crisis 

 has been weathered in 

 Petrograd, and in the 

 latter part of July 

 there came the Ger- 

 man blows in Galicia, 

 which at this writing 

 seem to have produced 

 results neither greater 

 nor less than they have 

 always produced in 

 Russia, namely, a re- 

 tirement of the Rus- 

 sian army to a new 

 line of defense. 



The military re- 

 verses have produced 

 a political crisis in 

 Petrograd, which Ke- 

 rensky has again 

 stemmed, and once 

 more the ship of the 

 Russian state has its 

 head into the seas and 

 is slowly moving on 

 again. 



The world should 

 have realized in April 

 that Russia could not 

 contribute anything to 

 the war this year other 

 than holding fast on 

 her present line while 

 her people adjusted 

 themselves to their 

 new conditions. After 

 three years of misery and disaster, Russia 

 was entitled to this breathing spell per- 

 haps, and because she has not contributed 

 to a coordinated advance this year is no 

 reason for us to conclude that she is fin- 

 ished for all time. 



In judging Russia we musr remember 

 that again and again we have had crises 

 which at the time seemed as crushing as 

 the present situation. When I first went 

 to Russia, in the fall of 1914, people were 

 talking of the disaster in East Prussia as 

 being a fatal blow and laying open the 

 way to Petrograd. In 191 5 for six 



Harris & Ewing 

 ELIHU ROOT, GENERAL HUGH L. SCOTT, AND THE UBIQUITOUS 

 NEWSBOY AT A WAY STATION NEAR MOSCOW 



Evidently the street urchin of Russia is no more impressed by- 

 proximity to greatness than his brother gamin of the New World. 

 The Russian "newsie," true to the spirit of the day, wears a military 

 cap tipped rakishly over his right eye and carries his papers in a 

 portfolio, like an artist or a cabinet minister. 



months i lived in nothing but disaster 

 and retreat, while my days were filled 

 with dead and wounded men and my 

 nights lighted by the flames of burning 

 villages. Every road was choked with 

 fleeing refugees and retreating armies. 



The world at large said that Russia 

 was finished, and in 1916 Brusilloff ad- 

 vanced for 70 days, taking half a million 

 prisoners ! 



When Warsaw fell we heard on all 

 sides the tale of an independent peace — ■ 

 a tale which never was justified by sub- 

 sequent events. The Galician drive of 



117 



