Show PROBLEMS FACING STRICKEN WORLD shall chaos or reconstruction in europe follow the great world war ANALYSIS OF SOVIET RULE cold reasoning easily proves fallacy on which the idea Is based its foundation stone article by FRANK COMERFORD lenane has frequently observed that representative government la a allure lie has insisted that the democratic form of government Is debauched and destroyed by the political machine that political corruption vetoes the will of the people it lenane Is right in this conclusion then the bolshevik government in russia offers just from three to five times as much chance tor political corruption as our own form of government if it Is dangerous for the american people to entrust their business to an agent whom they directly elect and who la directly responsible to them how much more dangerous must it be to torn over the public business to 17 men appointed by a central executive committee the members of which have been appointed by an all russian congress which all russian congress Is elected by soviets for whom the people did not vote applying this plan to our own government our congress would be elected by the state legislatures and the aldermen of the cities then this congress so elected would pick an executive committee of and this committee would elect 17 commissioners to whom would be given the supreme power of the state both legislative and executive power the right to make laws and the authority to enforce the laws democracy or autocracy all down through history two theories of government have been at war one Is that the majority shall rule the other that the minority shill rule the people struggling for freedom have battled for the former the few seeking special privileges have fought for the latter the first Is democratic the second autocratic no compromise Is possible there Is no middle ground these two antagonistic ideas have nothing in common like parallel lines they can never meet in their nature they are separate and apart the government of the late kaiser of germany the government of nicholas the autocrat of russia were founded on the idea that the minority shall rule history shows that minority rule has always enslaved the major ity the rule of a minority over a majority means slavery for the many it Is human nature the principle always works the same result if it Is a political meeting and the minority runs if the result Is a machine and a boss when it Is a nation yon have a bureaucracy and a dictator deriving bis power not from the consent of the governed but from the bayonets of the army there may be room for honest differences of opinion between honest men on many questions but there Is not any room for difference of opinion among honest free men on the proposition that minority rule Is a menace in article of the bolshevik constitution ution we find incontrovertible evidence that the government of soviet russia Is built on the tyrants atone minority rule section 25 reads the all russian congress Is corn posed of representatives of city eoal ets in the ratio of one delegate tor every voter and 0 representatives of the soviets of the provinces in the ratio of one delegate for every inhabitants discrimination against peasants no explanation Is given for basing the representation in congress from the cities on the number of voters while the representation in congress from the provinces Is based on the number of inhabitants the words are not synonyms a voter Is an inhabitant of certain age and possessing certain qualifications an inhabitant Is anyone who lives in the province regardless gard less of age or qualifications it the word inhabitant Is given the same meaning that the word voter Is given then it Is apparent that the cons titu alon unjustly discriminates against the poor peasant As they have had no general elections in russia it Is impossible to give the official construction ot these two words it the word inhabitant means any man woman or child living in the province the dis crimination against the poor ants is just as obvious although it docs not go to the same length As an illustration if we read this important provision of the constitution gluing to the word inhabitant the same meaning as we give to the word voter then we see that the voters of the city have one congressman for every while the poor peasants have one congressman for every it we construe the word voter to mean the qualified legal voter and the word inhabitant to mean any human being living in the provinces we learn that the people of the city have one congressman tor every voters while the people of the brov inucci have one congressman for every voters I 1 reach this estimate 1 the following manner in the united states we that voter in every five e the population this calculation Is based upon male suffrage alone with the voting age fixed at twenty one henrs in russia both men and women have the suffrage and the age qualifying one to vote Is eighteen years I 1 therefore figure that there would be one voter tor every two in population there 1 no question about the discrimination against the poor peasant and the favoring of the city voter it Is only a question of how much machine politics may be the idealist some people say he Is but this section of the constitution proves him to be practical machine politician in his methods the provision was written to meet a situation it has a purpose lenane has frequently written and spoken about the poor peasants ue can be forgiven for overworking the phrase the poor peasants make up the great bulk of the population of russia it is not bad politics al though it smacks of demagogy to speak often and sympathetically of the suffering poor particularly when the poor peasants make up the majority of ones constituency many successful politicians owe their offices to this appeal in russia over 80 per cent of the people live on the land over four fifths of all the russians are peasants less than one fifth of the population live in the towns and cities measured by his words lenane Is the friend of the poor peasants by the constitution their enemy As we have seen the constitution specifically declares that the supreme power of the government Is vested in the all russian congress of course this Is true only in theory tor we have read bow the all russian congress turns the supreme power over to the central executive committee which in turn surrenders the power to the 17 peoples commissary commissars commis sars the discrimination against the poor peasant runs all through the constitution the bolsheviks are at least consistent paragraph B of section 63 of the constitution furnishes additional evidence of the conspiracy against the peasants it reads the provincial soviets are con posed of representatives of the city soviets and the rural soviets one representative tor inhabitants 0 the rural districts and one represent arlve tor 2000 voters in the city in the regional congresses it Is the same one representative for inhabitants of the country and one representative for voters of the city aim at Dis franchising peasants the governments of the nation ot the regions of the provinces are based on the disfranchisement of the poor peasants I 1 am wondering it there Is any significance in the fact that the people of the city have one representative tor a certain number of votes and the people of the country have one representative tor just five times the number lou will note the ratio Is always the same for congressmen it Is in the city as against in the country in the regional congress it Is voters of the city as against inhabitants of the country in the provincial congresses it Is one representative for 2000 voters in the city one representative for inhabitants from the rural dis tracts why this five to one I 1 am wondering bow lenane hit upon the ratio of five to one Is there any connection between this alve to one discrimination against the poor peasants and the ratio of population in russia between city dwellers and poor peasants which Is about five to one it is not difficult to guess the reason for this action any american ward politician could furnish the explanation in a minute all political experience proves that a political machine Is best controlled easiest organized in the ditlea political machines have never been popular in the country districts the soviet form of government Is a political machine the control of the machine is insured by dis franchising the poor peasants the men who designed the bolshevik constitution knew one thing about practical politics and knew that one thing thoroughly and that la that cities are accessible to political control amenable to political influence ideal for the political machine the soldiers and sailors are generally stationed in cities this give them the power of city voters they e are not discriminating against thoy are favored soldiers and sailors are not free agents in the sense the civilians usually are civilians have a freedom of thought and action that the military do not enjoy the soldier s occupation prevents it first he Is an employee of the government second he Is under discipline third the peoples commissary commissars commis sars fix his pay determine the quantity and quality of his food arrange tor the comforts of the barracks ls the votes and the bayonets of the military sustain and support lenane as truly as the military force held the czar on his throne copyright 1920 lew paper union |