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Show THE CITIZEN 4 - Now if there is anything that will explode a candidates boom it is a wicked, charge of that kind that he has coddled profiteers while persecuting labor. To do one or the other is to invite unpopularity; to do both at one and the same time is to write oneself down as the foe of all truth, virtue and goodness, as an oppressor of the widow and orphan, as a tyrant who would torture his subjects on the rack while soup. putting poison into his mother-in-law- s Of course Mr. Palmer has but one weak recourse; the weakest kind of a recourse, in fact, lie must make a defense. When a statesman is compelled to explain he is in a bad way. The popular statesman is the one who can continually0 attack and thus make the other fellows explain. But Mr. Palmer is always thrown back on the defensive and his explanations are like those sad official statements which the allies used to issue daily to explain why they were joyfully continuing their strategic retreats.. Even if Paris falls the war is not over, they were accustomed to say. And had they been chased into Algeria and compelled to issue their official statement from the chief mosque in Algiers they still would have gone on explaining feebly. 0 There is not the slightest doubt that A. Mitchell Palmer prosecuted labor with injunctions, the Lever law and. other deadly weapons and boomerangs and there is not the slightest doubt that the profiteers kept on profiteering right under his nose. All that he can do is to point with pride and not a little trepidation to his career as congressman. During that period of time, he says, I did more for honest labor in America than Judge Bonniwell has done in his entire life. Which, undoubtedly, will squash this pestiferous Judge Bonniwell into the Pennsylvania mud, but which, sadly enough, will not be very convincing to the great American voter. Mind you, we are not, at this period of time, as Mr. Palmer would say, trying to prove the charges of Judge Bonniwell against him. We are simply showing his pathetic plight. It is madness for a public prosecutor to seek the presidency. Even the strictest adherence to dutv is misconstrued to his disadvan- tage. He is always on the defensive ; always explaining with tears in his eyes that he is a good, good man whose enemies wont let him alone. He runs on a platform of sobs and slips in his own tears. 0 . WHY BRITAIN FROWNED? r. liant. He believed that if he struck a ...crushing blowf and followed it up with annihilating tactics, the menace against Poland, would be removed for a long time. With the help of the Ukrainians, who have been chafing under soviet rule, he w'as able to accomplish his pur, J 4 ?: pose. The Bolsheviki have been so badly worsted that they are unable to stem the tide of invasion even with armies brought up from the southeastern front where victory has crowned every effort of Lenine and Trotzky. The Poles, however, must think of the future. Their victory has been won at the cost of British disapproval, which may cause them many difficulties. Not that British approval would have been of much help to them. Last year the Poles continually besought Great Britain to lend aid against the Bolshevik menace, but their pleas met with little response. It was not to the interest of Great Britain to disturb the balance of power too much. q Poland as a national entity was of value to the British only as a buffer to keep the Bolsheviki from joining hands with Germany and as one of several independent Slav states that would prevent Russia from becoming too powerful. On the other hand British statesmen could see many advantages in placating the Bolsheviki or, more generally speaking, Russia, for the good will of Russia will be important to the British empire. Not only will a friendly Russia tend to keep inviolate the possessions of Great Britain in Asia but it will open the doors of inexhaustable commerce. THE INVISIBLE PLATFORM The invisible platform of the Socialist party is the one that is important to the American people. The radical measures excluded from the New York platform of the Socialist party of America were opposed and defeated on the grounds of expediency. If we would know what the Socialists are fighting for we must read into their platform those measures which were strongly supported and yet met with defeat. One of these pronouncements was to the effect that a privileged few own the churches and regulate mens souls. Radical as is this declaration it does not fully express the antagonism of Socialism to religion. Only a year ago the British, at Archangel and in Siberia, were trying to defeat the Bolsheviki, but when the Poles attempted the same task the British objected. It was argued that the Poles ought to be content with the boundaries fixed by the general treaty of peace and should not seek to extend their boundaries by moving against the Bolsheviki. The real reasons, probably, were concealed. The. British were anxious to make peace with the soviet government because a continuation of hostilities probably would mean that the Bolsheviki would strive to extend their military operations to the south and southeast in all those regions where British power is predominant. An invasion of India, Persia and Asia Minor might be the result and, at no remote time, the Slavic hosts might be able to wrest Constantinople from the British. Perhaps it was a vision of what might occur unless peace with the soviet government were patched up that prompted the London government to interpose an objection when the Polish armies, in conjunction with those of the Ukraine, began a drive against the armies of Lenine and Trotzky. The Poles have taken the sound military view that an offensive is the best defensive, but the theory, of course, is limited by circumstances. An offensive which might gain the victory in a present campaign might prove unwise in the long run. In other words, the Poles, by fostering the hatred of the Russians, might invite calamity future years. Viewing the offensive solely as a military move it is difficult to deny its justification. The Bolsheviki, after bragging for months that they would crush Poland, actually began a campaign early in the spring, but it disintegrated rapidly owing to the fact that the common soldiers saw little use in fighting and much use in being on their farms to sow the crops. The opportunity presented to the Polish commander was bril- - in i To denounce the churches is not necessarily to denounce religion, unless on the strictest interpretation of the theory that by their fruits ye shall' know them. Churches might be owned by a privileged class and the mass of mankind gulled and regulated by them, and yet fundamentally the religion taught by them might be true. What the radical Socialists really believe and it is the radical or revolutionary Socialists who are in control the wide world around is that religion is merely a passing phase in the development of mankind. In fact, that phrasing was used in a declaration of principles approved last year in Germany. Socialism of the bolshevik type has no place in it for religion. The materialistic conception of history and economics excludes the God of the Christians. , 4 The plank attacking the churches was rejected on the theory that it was unwise to antagonize the churches. It is bad politics, said Victor Berger and another delegate called attention to the help ministers and rabbis had been in spreading the doctrines of socialism. The attitude of the party toward organized labor is equally hypocritical. A plank advocating the one big union was adopted and the one big union means the end of labor unions as at present constituted. It is a revolutionary measure based on the theory that if all labor acts as a unit it can take control of the factories, workshops and railroads and finally of the government. Hence the delegates who pleaded for an accord between the party and the labor unions and who favored getting control of the unions from the inside, were not advocating friendly but destructive interference. If they had expressed their aims frankly they would have stated that it was the object of the Socialists to obtain control of the unions to destroy them. One plank in the platform will be good for serious consideration among those who disputed about the exclusion of the radicals from . co-operati- on, |