Last Sunday an entertainment was given for the benefit of the schools maintained by the R.I.M.A.S. In spite of the very cold weather the attendance was large. Many guests came even from outlying towns, such as Argo and Pullman.

Among these present were members of the school committee and of the board of directors.

A few words of greeting were uttered by Professor A.I. Nedzel, N. Novin, and S.Volodkin.

All the speakers pointed out the importance of the role played by the school societies in the Russian national cause and appealed to the Russian colonists to pay more attention and be more responsive to the needs of the Russian cause abroad.

Immensely enjoyable was the appearance on the stage of the little Russians in their 2national costumes singing popular folk songs and dancing national dances. Only blind men cannot see what great service is rendered by the Russian schools to the Russian societies and the benefits enjoyed by the children themselves. One can only regret that many parents allow their children to remain illiterate in their own language.

We quite frequently envy the riches and the accomplishments of the Jewish nation, but we do not care to examine the situation more closely and to discover the reason for Jewish power. Their power is in their nationalism. Jews live among strange nations and in strange countries and have so lived for nearly two thousand years, and yet they have managed to preserve their own language, their own faith, and their own customs. All their children speak, write, and read Jewish. [Editor's note: They do not. They speak Yiddish, Jewish German.] All Jewish boys go to Jewish schools for years, there to study Jewish history and the Mosaic law. This people do not lose the ground under their feet and when their children enter active life, they are well organized, they feel strong, and in the struggle for existence they find support in their nation, in the history of their people.

A Jew to a Jew is always a brother, for they are bound together by a common language and a common training, regardless of where they were born, in Germany or in America.

The Russian colonists, being only novices in immigration, should examine carefully the Jewish position, and they may learn a great deal from those people and profit by imitating their ways of life. Only be acting in harmony, organized around the R.I.M.A.S. Without undue criticism and interference, and by helping those who are willing to work for the common good shall we be able to support one another and to help ourselves at the same time.

The Russian schools should be the center of our attention. They must receive the fullest support from those who care for national unity. Years that are wasted cannot later be retrieved. The years from seven to thirteen are the most important, for those are the formative years in the life of a child. When a child reaches the age of thirteen, its character is already formed, and after this age it is very difficult to teach it new ways. Parents should continually bear this 4in mind and not let valuable time slip by if they really want their children to be reared in the national spirit, in love toward their own people, and in respect for their own parents.

The school benefit entertainment given last Sunday showed that the Russian colony harbors sympathy and good feelings toward the schools, and the only trouble is that we suffer with inertia and wait for some one else to do things for us.

"I have nothing against the Russian schools," one often hears. "Let the school be organized, and I will send my child."

Herein lies the whole trouble. The school as such cannot create itself. The founding of it is each parent's task. None will help us if we will not help ourselves.

To lose time in waiting is criminal, and there is no sense in heaping the work on one person, for one man can do very little alone. It seems to us that among 5the Russian colonists signs are appearing of a spiritual awakening. Let us hope that these young and still very weak sprouts of spiritual life of the Russian colonist in America will not perish prematurely, will not die out, but will grow and be strong. Let us hope that Russian culture, like a spring of living water, will sustain the Russian people and give strength to it as it begins to awaken from its deep slumber. Let us all help the members of the R.I.M.A.S. in their cultural and educational work, in their struggle against backwardness and ignorance. In organizing and supporting the Russian schools, in arranging lectures and listening to them, and in acquiring libraries we shall reap benefits ourselves and enrich the lives of our children.

It is only necessary that cultural activity among Russians here in Chicago shall flow not like a tiny brook but as a mighty current.

P. Svatikova