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Show i THE RED TERROR. One of the frequent comebacks of the apologists of Communist Russia, when their attention is called to the outrages committed by the Red Terror, is that similar things happened in Russia in the autocratic auto-cratic days of Nicholas the Second, and that men were executed or sent to prison then on mere suspicion. The apologists declare further there was no great outcry in America against the political outrages in the days of the czar and that hence we ought to have nothing to say about them now. All of which may or may not be true. It is possible that the Red outrages cause more revulsion of feeling in Americai now than political persecution in Russia did in the days of the czar. But if this is true then it is also true that in the days of Nicholas there was no army of propogandists in America seeking to undermine respect for constitutional government here so that the ground might be prepared pre-pared for sowing the seeds of Russian autocracy. What the average American seeks, is not any hand in regulating the affairs of Russia but the safety and welfare of his own government- The thing which has caused the intense feeling against Russian communism in the United States is not what is happening to the Russian people though this is ad enough but the efforts of the communists to undermine responsible government everywhere, and especially in the United States. This is something which the supporters support-ers of the czar never tried to do and its accounts for the greater antipathy being shown for Red political persecution than for similar persecution in the time of the czar, though it must be said in fairness to the majority of Americans that they do not like political persecu tion from any source. |
