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II.
THE DOWNFALL OF KEREN-
SKY.

SPECIAL CABLE TO THE DAILY NEWS.
[Copyright, 1918, the Chicago Daily News Co.]

Moscow, Russia, April 12.—On Aug. 18k
1917, members of the American Red Cross
mission attended a conference, at which
Kerensky, Savinkoff, Nekrassoff and Ske-
beloff discussed with them the details of
a coup d'etat to effect and amalgamation
of the Korniloff and Kerensky forces.
The next day Kerensky, Korniloff and the
American mission met in the Winter pal-
ace and further discussed details of the
plan. All urged its speedy execution, as
the soviet's attacks because of the food
situation and also the soviet's peace cam-
paign were rapidly undermining the po-
sitions of both Kerensky and the allies
in Russia.

Kerensky and Korniloff agreed to join
forces and co-operate with the United
States. They agreed to meet the press-
ing food difficulty by appointing M. Ba-
tolin food dictator. Batolin was the Rus-
sian wheat magnate whose wizardlike
foresight and almost superhuman powers
of organization enabled him to become
probably the largest single human factor
in Russia's industrial and commercial
life, despite the handicap of his birth in
a peasant's hovel.

Hoover Was to Be a Factor.

The tentative economic agreement be-
tween Russia and America proposed that
Mr. Hoover and other allied food special-
ists should be brought into the confer-
ence. America was to export to Russia
certain foodstuffs in exchange for plati-
num and other metals, beet seed, flax
and hides. Kerensky and Korniloff
agreed jointly to sign a proclamation to
America's name. They were to conduct
a ruthless campaign against speculators,
invoking the death penalty, if necessary.
Both Kerensky and Korniloff were hope-
ful. They laid great stress on the neces-
sity of America's co-operation.

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Despite the urgent need of immediate
action, the plan hung fire unil the
American mission, recognizing the sov-
iet's rapidly rising power, advised Kor-
niloff and Kerensky to abandon the plan
entirely. Korniloff and Kerensky obsti-
nately refused. Then came their attempt.
As a coup d'etat a more miserable fiasco
was never seen. Everything went wrong.
But the failure was no mystery. It was
the soviet which, learning of the plot,
sprang into activity, showing unsuspected
depths of organization.

Soviet's Coup Was Well Planned.

Overnight the soviet's power became a
factor of equal consideration with that of
the provisional government. This was
not accidental. It was the culmination
of weeks of untiring and skillful leader-
ship. The Kerensky-Korniloff plot and
the soviet counterplot popped simulta-
neously. Kronstadt sailors hurried to
Petrograd under the thin pretext of
guarding Kerensky. The sailors sur-
rounded the winter palace, virtually held
Kerensky a prisoner and forced him to
repudiate his piedges to Korniloff. They
forced him to sign a decree denouncing
Korniloff as a counter-revolutionary. The
movement was crushed in twenty-four
hours.

The soviet's maneuvers opened a new
phase of the situation which disclosed
Kerensky's lack of power. They made
plain the fact that Kerensky was run-
ning a socialistic government with the
machinery of an autocracy and was thus
building on a false foundation. A wholly
socialistic organization was striving to
overthrow both Kerensky and Korniloff.
On the one hand Kerensky talked the
old world politics and diplomacy of the
allies; on the other he shouted the most
radical and excited views of the Russian
masses. The two things did not mix. The
opposition was the soviet conducting rev-
olutionary, socialistic antiwar propagan-
da. Its formula, "peace, land and bread,"
was sweet music to the Russian ear, be-
ing just what it wanted to hear.

Captivated Army of 15,000,000.

Kerensky's declaration, "We will fight
until the bitter end," did not stand a
show. Paychologically the arguments of

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