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Show PROBLEMS FACING STRICKEN WORLD Shall Chaos or Reconstruction in Europe Follow the Great World War? RUSSIA'S GRAVE MORAL ERROR Forcible Seizure of Land Understandable, Understand-able, but to Be Regretted as Making Mak-ing a Precedent to Justify Dishonesty. Article XIX. . By FRANK COMERFORD. An examination of Russia, the patient, pa-tient, Just before the treatment was started, reveals several findings which are necessary to complete the history and physical examination. Russia was 78 per cent Illiterate. This means that nearly four-fifths of the people in Russia could not read or write. It does not mean that they could not think. There is as great a difference between illiteracy and Intelligence In-telligence as there Is between Illiteracy and ignorance. I have met many Russian Rus-sian peasants who could not read or write, who had good native, minds, genuine power of reasoning homespun home-spun thinkers. The head of Russia had not been trained, but It was not empty. There are many reasons for the Illiteracy Il-literacy of the great majority of Russian Rus-sian people. The autocratic state was the principal conspirator against the Russian people getting an education. The autocrats knew that Ignorance Is the greatest insurance against uprisings, up-risings, the greatest sedative to keep the slave from complaining. The Church in Russia, the Orthodox Church, was used to keep the light from the people. The czar was the "Little Father," the divine agent of God on earth, and the "Unholy Synod" of the Russian Church bowed, not before be-fore the Christ, but bent low before the czar. They betrayed Christ, even as they betrayed the sons and daughters daugh-ters of men, their own blood, the Russian Rus-sian peasants and toilers. Religion Their Only Solace. The people of Russia held firmly to their faith In God. The rest and ease their faith gave them was the only comfort they had. In moments of Intense religious communion they were lifted out of themselves and for seconds forgot their burdens. These seconds were long spaces of rplief, green spots in the endless desert waste of life. How Christ must have wept when he witnessed the "Holy Synod," the monkish rascals, with their sacrilegious icons, silencing the protests of souls, throttling the cry for freedom, by quoting in his name that those who suffered most here would be highest high-est In heaven. A blasphemy, a corruption cor-ruption of the Lowly One, who used the word brotherhood to define equality, equal-ity, and the fatherhood of God to express ex-press the Justice that man owed to man. It was agreed by and between the Holy Synod and the czars that the Russian worshipers of God must not know how to read or write his nnme. So It was that the orthodox church of Russia used religion to Insult God and hold his creatures In bondage. It was the only great church In the world that did not provide prayer books for Its members. It was argued ar-gued that If the people had prayer books they would learn to read, and if they read the Christ message on the Sabbath they might read other strange and dangerous hooks on Monday and Tuesday and the other days of the week. They might misuse their ability abil-ity to read, and read things like the American Declaration of Independence. Independ-ence. The churches of the Byzantine painted the story of religion on the side of Its walls. They gave the people peo-ple an education by the picture book method we use for children before they have reached the kindergarten age. Bolshevism Officially Launched. The birth certificate of bolshevlsm was Issued on November 10, 1017. "The All-Russian Congress of (be Councils of Worklnginen's, Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies decrees the form of the administration of the country, TENDING THE MEETING OF THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY. ASSEM-BLY. The provisional workers' and peasants' government Is to be called the Council of People's Commissioners. Commission-ers. The administration of the Individual Indi-vidual branches of stale life Is to be entrusted to boards, the composition of which Is to secure the carrying out of the program proclaimed by the congress con-gress In close cnnlact with the organizations organ-izations of workers, sailors, soldiers, peasants and employees. The government gov-ernment authority belongs to the board and chairmen of those commissioners, that is, to the people's commissioners, and the right of systematizing them belongs to the All-Russian Congress of the Councils of Workmen's and Peasants' and Soldiers' Delegates and Its Central Executive Committee." The government of the czar was autocratic, au-tocratic, not because It was a bud government gov-ernment and misgoverned the people. It was autocratic because the people did not have a voice In It. A good government that denied the people a voice would be equally as autocratic. With the fall of the Kerensky regime Lenlne and Trotzky, and their bolshevik bolshe-vik followers, did not have time and t wax qui expedient or possible to canvass the wish and will of the people peo-ple at once, so they issued the promise prom-ise I have quoted above. The word of promise are printed in capital letters. let-ters. It was their moral obligation to keep this promise made to the people. It was necessary to keep it. If thera was to be a genuinely free Russia. Who could anticipate and who would dare write out and put Into operation the plan of government without giving all of the people of Russia a chanca to' pass upon the plan and help formulate formu-late It through their own chosen representatives rep-resentatives t This was the first promise the bolshevik bol-shevik leaders made to the Russians. They broke It. It has never been fu filled. In the constitution and decrees of the soviet government they have tried to explain, excuse and condone this breach of promise. Fairly interpreted, in-terpreted, all they have said In defense de-fense of this abuse of power, this violation vio-lation of trust, Is in substance: "It was necessary to dissolve the Constituent Consti-tuent Assembly; it might have Interfered Inter-fered with our plans; It might havo jeopardized soviet government." What right did they have to think, act, and decide for the people any more than the czar had? In speeches and writings Lenlne and Trotzky have since In a veiled way suggested that the peasants elected members of the middle class to represent them Instead of peasants. peas-ants. What of It? If the peasants peas-ants make mistakes they will learn and profit by their mistakes. They cannot become Independent until they get a chance to exercise Independence. No man can get muscle by letting another an-other fellow use the dumbbells. The Russians peasants, workers and bourgeoise are all human beings, and a government, to be democratic, must be, as Lincoln put It, "of the people, for the people and by the people." A government that Is nfraid of the Influence Influ-ence and power of three or four per cent of the people Isn't able to live, and It doesn't deserve to. Gladly Obeyed Lenlne. Lenlne Issued his famous order, "Peasants, seize the land." This command com-mand was obeyed with great enthusiasm. enthusi-asm. They forgot all about freedom and the constitutional convention. They understood what land meant, they had been taught that by being denied de-nied It. They knew little about political phrases and framework. The order to seize the land tore from tho serfs their heaviest chains. Lenlne became their liberator his wns tho voice that said "seize tho land." Probably the peasants would havo done It anyway. Disorder and unrest had destroyed nil respect for properly rights. Property rights had a different differ-ent meaning In Russia than elsewhere; property rights meant the right to beat human beings, to buy and sell serfs. Yet the fact that Lenlne had utlered the words made them reverence and respect him, even as a man will be thankful to one who has told him to be careful of h hole in the sidewalk, side-walk, notwithstanding the fact he has already seen It. Bolshevism started wllh great popularity. This was tho secret of It. Of course the order to seize the land, all land, was based on the Idea that the owners of land held title by and through their own wrongful conduct. con-duct. God had made the ground and sunshine, and those who had taken ti tle to It had only moved on and forced others off. This Is the way the bolsheviks bol-sheviks reasoned, and from this point of view they were consistent. From the world's point of view It was confiscation. con-fiscation. It was dishonest. Many people believe that acquiring property Is frequently the result of Indus! ry and thrift; In some cases the title to property Is based upon cunning, scheming schem-ing and force. All of us know that there are some who are without any private property because they prefer pre-fer to squander their time, dissipate their energy and live shiftless lives. After nil. It Is a mailer of opinion, and from the point of view of the bolsheviks bolshe-viks tile order "Peasants, seize th land" may have been Justified. But when (he order was given, the jK'asanls seized It not for the community com-munity but to own It privately. On this point there can be no difference of opinion among honest, Imparllal, fair-minded men, and when the peas-ants peas-ants seized the land to hold, use and own It as their private properly Ibey were guilty of taking title by the very means others bad taken the land, ami against whom Ibey had complained anil cried "Thief 1" The Russian people have the power to think. They realize that they have acquired property by the very method Ibey have always condemned In olh-ers. olh-ers. Their natural selfishness may constrain them to keep this properly. The sufferings they have gone through may mitigate the ofTonse, but one effect ef-fect was inevitable, and that effect the most serious that could happen to a people on the threshold of n free future. fu-ture. I refer lo the weakening of their moral nature, the making of n precedent Justifying dishonesty. I have found the III cnVcts of ibis act on the patient, Russia, in every subsequent sub-sequent symptom. (Copyright. 1620. W..trn N-w.jmp-r t'nlnnf |