Throughout this entire year, the Russian colony in Chicago was busy raising funds for the erection of a new Russian church. The spring and summer months were crowded with social gatherings, parties, and picnics, all having one aim--collecting more money for the new church. It was not easy sailing, as everyone knows that the economic condition of the Russian colony was far below the average standard.

Now, with the approach of autumn, with its faster tempo of life, new and equally important, or even more important, matters than the church urgently demand our attention. The first and most pressing need of the colony today is more Russian schools for our children. It is not an easy matter to provide an adequate number of well-equipped schools for the colony's children, just as it was not an easy task to raise the money to build a new church. Yet, 2with will and determination, the new church was completely finished in one year, despite the fact that at the beginning it seemed an out-and-out impossibility.

Whether in the next ten or twenty years this new beautiful Russian church on Wood Street will still be the focal point for the entire Russian life of Chicago, and whether Russian speech will still be heard in and around the church, depends solely upon the Russian schools. If we have enough Russian schools in Chicago, the courts and the streets around the church will be filled with life and with people speaking the Russian language. If we fail to provide Russian schools for our children, the church surroundings will soon be covered with grass.

It is up to the older Russian generation in Chicago, which made it possible, by its great effort and sacrifice, to erect a beautiful Russian church as the monument to the Russian faith and as the sacred heritage of the future Russian-American generations, again to hearken to the call of our children demanding 3more Russian schools. We need funds to improve the schools we already have and to build the new schools in many parts of Chicago and vicinity where there are Russian people. This year it was impossible to arrange picnics and other social affairs to strengthen our depleted school fund, because all our efforts were concentrated on raising money for the final phases of the construction work on the church. Now, however, it is our duty to start, without delay, the Russian school building campaign.

Two or three men who will go to the task with all their might may achieve great things, their one achievement may have a national importance. In our circumstances, the organizing of even a small Russian district school may be regarded as an important achievement, which should give much moral satisfaction to every Russian who loves his country and his people, not in words but in deeds.