Show PROBLEMS FACING STRICKEN WORLD shall chaos or reconstruction in europe follow the great world war bolsheviks FETTER LIBERTY theories leaders of the movement lay down and put nto into practice fly in the face of all human experience article 1 by FRANK COMERFORD all the world except the bolshevik liol rulers of russia Is 1 old fashioned behind the times we still cling to the old superstition that the people should be the sovereigns i that public officials are public servants that the safest plan of government I 1 is that form of government which Is nearest to the people in the united states each citizen has one vote he has a vote for the men who make the local laws the city or village ordinances a vote tor for the man who enforces the ordinances the maor a ote for the representatives in the state legislature where the laws are maie male ma ie for or the governor who enforces the state laws lans a vote for the congressmen and senators who enact the natio national nal laws and formulate the national pol policies fetes a vote for the president who ho carries out the supreme law of the land IN while bile it Is 1 true that in the case of the president we ue vote for electors who elect the president there has not been a single case wherein an elector has voted other than he was instructed by the people IN we e come together jn political parties present platforms and enery citizen has a chance to register his opinion of men and measures the citizen has a right to vote at primary elections and register his choice tor for the party candidates and for the delegates to the conventions which formulate the party platforms bolshevik argument unsound the bolsheviks point out that political parties do not live up to their platforms that candidates for office df deault fault in their promises after they are elected that representative democracy Is frequently not re presenta tire of and res responsive p ondise to the people IN e know that there Is some wine truth in this criticism but we ue know that it is our fault we have the power to express our wants mants to record our will we also have the power to punish our betrayal bet raal ile e can recall from office recreant public servants we can add to our legislation and take over the power to initiate lars and compel the reference of legislation mck to the people before it can become operative as law our public officials are only our agents we ue hire them we pay them we can fire them dl prace them and punish them if they fall to obey our instructions such Is our power it we do not use the power intelli gently and effectively it Is 14 our fault it we are indifferent to the rights we ue possess and fail fall to use them the fault Is with us therefore we do not condemn a system of representative government because some of the bals who make up the government are unfit and unworthy of tho the rights they enjoy the bolsheviks appear to favor a change in the method of governing the people the plan they have adopted Is based on the theory that the people eople must not be trusted but that the officeholders can bolshevism Is government from the top down rather than from the bottom up they seem to go on the theory that power delegated through many bands will lose its corruption just as running water does this political theory flies ales in the face of all human experience bolshevist joker Joke in our numbers we have a figure which for many years hai enjoyed a peculiar reputation it Is 18 the jester of numbers it la Is the number 23 it Is known in Ame american slang as the bolsheviks inserted in the constitution a joker and oddly enough they gae gane it the number 23 11 it Is found in article 2 of the constitution 1 being guided by the interest of the m working class ns as a whole the russian socialist federal soviet republic deprives all individuals and groups of all rights which could be utilized by them to the detriment of the socialist revolution it here Is the big beware sign in the constitution what nhat does it mean what fears must come into the minds of men and women omen in eursla liben hen they read this paragraph the con de deprives priNes every one In divid bally and collectively of exercising any rights he or they may have which ere are opposed to did tyranny ever impose a more arbitrary I 1 autocratic ukase the paragraph concedes that individuals and groups have rights and then commands the people not to dare use those rights if their exercise might be detrimental to the lenine trotsky government the right to voice thoughts is sentenced to sl lence freedom of opinion Is crushed who is 1 to determine what rights if exercised might be detrimental to a socialist revolution 1 the meaning la Is as plain as the command Is stem stern fall in line with bolshevism or perish 1 is 1 the order if it you disagree with 0 our ur plans and methods be seen but not heard I 1 wonder what our good friend the militant soap boxers who shout about freedom of speech would think and ray if it in thee days dayi of unrest the congress of the united stiles states and the president should make such a pro no america radical ami ani conservative would rise in against any such law we live grow and progress as a people because ot of our freedom of thought speech and action of course we se silence the mara who mho criminally advocates la lawlessness and we do it for the same reason that we arrest the man who spits on the sidewalk alk it Is to conserve the public welfare the common good of the great majority who do not believe in vio fence and disorder what would happen to our red agitators it they were in today instead of in the united states and ventured a single disagreement with the bolshevik program either in policy or methods method sl this constitutional provision Is not a muffler on free speech it Is a gag what freedom can there be in a country in which opinion 19 1 shackled how can a nation make progress ex capt by the conflict and friction of opinion in the united states experience has taught us that be the majority Is generally right that the many can bo be trusted we have put into practice the idea that many heads are better than one the bolshevik constitution launches the policy that wisdom can only come from a few minds the fewer feiner the better this it 14 the method they adopted to socialize freedom ot of thought freedom of speech it means a communism of 0 ideas but a very limited communism in fact limited to the holy seventeen and the oracle dictator the people are outside the circumference of this communism in their zone communism commands obedience and silence the human race has fought many a fine fight to t take tale the fetters from tho the ml minds of men and no fight was mas ever made for a more essential liberty when the mind of man Is not free what freedom can there be the jailing of the body serious as it Is Is only i t small interference ter with mans liberty compared with the imprisonment of 0 his mind this constitutional climp muzzles the press notwithstanding all the criticism which may be justly made against the press the tact fact remains that the newspapers of the world have been a great force for good aa a great power in securing freedom we sea see the world through the eyes of the neiss newspapers papers it Is our source of anfor matlon mation we ne depend upon it tor for the facts upon which we base our opinions notwithstanding the bitter partisan character of the press few papers know party lines or party prejudice when the public interest la Is menaced the press has throw n the searchlight of terrible publicity on the rat antholes holes and driven out the political rats the freedom of the press Is 10 in dispensable to free government Le genines nines change of heart lenine before he came into power was the loudest voice in russia crying for free speech his ills pen had hai been most bitter against interference with inith the freedom of the press in hia his pamphlet lessons of revolution he wrote the printing establishments of the labor press are raided the bolsheviks aro are arrested not infrequently without accusation or on the pretext of charges which are simply calumnious I 1 it may be argued that the prosecution of the bolsheviks Is by no means a violation of free speech since only certain persons on specific charges are thus prosecuted but such arguments bear the earmarks of premeditated untruth for why should printing offices be raided newspapers suppressed for the crimes of individuals even it if these crimes are proven and sustained by law it would be altogether different it if the government de dared criminal the entire bolshevik party its ideas and views but ever one knows that the government of free russia never could end indeed never neer attempted to do anything of the kind lenine coming into power wrote into the constitution a new crime he declared all opposition to the bolshevik pro program gr am a crime on this high moral ground he struck down freedom of thought freedom of speech freedom ot of opinion and freedom of the press in the language of a great radical the time will come when the silence of the people of russia will be more poI powerful erful than the voices throttled by the bolshevik gag today copyright 1920 western union |