Foreign News: Duped

Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin (pronounced Karlee’neen), first chairman of the Soviet Union Central Executive Committee, leaned back in his chair, his face wreathed in gratification. There on his desk in his private office in the Kremlin, Moscow, was an invitation from the City of Boston to participate in its third centenary celebration in 1930. So high an honor could not be refused. With a grin and a flourish the invitation was accepted, a delegation named to proceed to Boston for the event.

Soon, in Boston, it was discovered that one William W. Ryan, janitor of a printing plant, self-styled “Organizer and President of the World League of Cities,” had sent invitations, not only to cities in Russia, but to hundreds of cities in the U. S., Britain, France, Italy, China, Japan, India. All of these invitations were worthless.