OCR Text |
Show PROBLEMS FACING STRICKEN WORLD Shall Chaos or Reconstruction I in Europe Follow the Great World War? ! BOLSHEVIKS FETTER LIBERTY Theories Leaders of the Movement Lay Down and Put Into Practice, Fly In the Face of All Human Hu-man Experience. Article XXIII. By FRANK COMERFORD. All the world except the bolshevik rulers of Russia Is old-fashioned behind be-hind the times. We still cling to the old superstition that the people should be the sovereigns, that public officials are public servants, that the safest plan of government 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 for the man who enforces the ordinances, the mayor; a vote for the representatives in the state legislature, ft here the laws are made; for the governor, who enforces the state laws ; a vote for the congressmen and senators sen-ators who enact the national laws and formulate the national policies; a vote for the president, who carries out the supreme law of the land. While it Is true that in the case of the president, we 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. We come together in political parties, prescut platforms, and every 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 for the party candidates and for the delegates dele-gates to the conventions which formulate formu-late the party platforms. Bolshevik Argument Unsound. The bolsheviks point out that political politi-cal parties do not live up to their platforms; that candidates for office default in their promises after they are elected; that representative democracy de-mocracy is frequently not representative representa-tive of and responsive to the people. SVe know that there is some truth In this criticism, but we know that it Is our fault. We have the power to express ex-press our wants, to record our will. We also have the power to punish our betrayal. We can recall from office recreant public servants; we can add to our legislation and take over the power to Initiate lairs, and compel the reference of legislation back to the people before It can become operative as law. Our public officials are only our agents; we hire them, we pay them ; we can fire them, disgrace them nnd punish them If they fall to obey our Instructions. Such is our power. If we do not use the power intelligently intelli-gently and effectively it is our fault If we are Indifferent to the rights we possess and fail to use them, the fault Is with as. Therefore, we do not condemn con-demn a system of representative government gov-ernment because some of the individuals individ-uals who make up the government are onflt and unworthy of the rights they njoy. The bolsheviks appear to favor a change In the method of governing the people. The plan they have adopted adopt-ed is based on the theory that the people 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 dele-gated through many hands will lose Its corruption Just as running water does. This political theory files In the face of all human experience. Bolshevist "Joker." In our numbers we have a figure which for many years has enjoyed a peculiar reputation ; It Is the "Jester" of numbers. It Is the number, "23." It is known in American slang ns "skiddoo." The bolsheviks Inserted in the constitution a Joker, and oddly enough they gave It the "skiddoo" number, "23." It Is found In Article 2 of the constitution : "Being guided by the Interest of the working class as a whole, the Russian Rus-sian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic Repub-lic deprives all Individuals and groups of nil rights which could be utilized by them to the detriment of the socialist so-cialist revolution." Here Is the big beware sign In the constitution. What does It mean; what fears must come Into the minds of men and women in IluFsla when they rend this paragraph? The constitution con-stitution deprives every one. Individually Individ-ually and collectively, of exercising finy rights he or they may have which ! are opposed to hoNhevism. Old tyr-' tyr-' anny ever Impose fl more arbitrary, Bu'ocratlc ukase? The pnr.'gr:tph con-I con-I cedes that Individuals and groups have rights, and then romman'N the people not to rinre use those rich's, if their exercise might be detrimental to the Lnine-Trotv'ry government. The right to voice thoughts Is seo'encc to silence. si-lence. Fteedom of opinion ! cr-"'h"d. Who Is to determine v.h-'t r:i-Y. if exerci-ed rnirht be de.ri'nen'al to a socialist revoJirlon? Tn m'-nn'n; ) lis pl:rn ns the cntnmr'nO Is s'ern. Fn!! In lii.e wl'S boM,. -vista or p'-r''li, is lie nr'l'-r If you (iisn-rep '.vl'h our ri'-it-s r-:id n:e:ho(ls, "be seen but not I wonder what our good friends, the militant soap boxers, who shout about freedom of speech, would think and say If In these days of unrest the congress of the United States and the president should make such a pronouncement. pro-nouncement. America, indlcal and conservative, would rise in protest against any such law. We live, grow nnd progress as a people because of our freedom of thought, speech and action. Of course, we silence the man who criminally advocates lawlessness, and we do It for the same reason that we arrest the man who spits on tha sidewalk. It is to conserve the public welfare, the common good of the great majority who do not believe in violence vio-lence nnd disorder. What would happen hap-pen to our "Red" agitators if they were in Russia today Instead of In the United States, and ventured a single disagreement with the bolshevik program, pro-gram, cither In policy or methods! 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 Is shackled? How can a nation make progress except ex-cept by the conflict and friction of opinion? In the United States, experience expe-rience has taught is Unit 'he majority Is generally rlgr.t. that the many can be trusted. We have put Into practice prac-tice the Idea that many heads are better bet-ter than one. The bolshevik constitution constitu-tion launches the policy that wisdom can only come from a few minds the fewer, the better. This Is the method they adopted to socialize freedom of thought, freedom of speech. It means a communism of ideas, but a very limited lim-ited communism. In fact, limited to the "Holy Seventeen," and the oracle-dictator. oracle-dictator. The people nre outside the circumference of this communism. In their zone communism commands obedience and silence. The human race has fought many a tine fight to take the fetters from the minds cf men, nnd no fight was 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 a small Interference In-terference with man's liberty compared com-pared with the Imprisonment of his ndnd. This constitutional clamp muzzles the press. Notwithstanding all the criticism which may be Justly made against the press, the fact remains that the newspapers of the world have been a great force for good, a groat power In securing freedom. We see the world through the eyes of the newspapers; It Is our source of Information Infor-mation ; we depend upon it for the facts upou which we base our opinions. opin-ions. Notwithstanding the bitter partisan par-tisan character of the press, few papers pa-pers know party lines or party prejudice preju-dice when the public Interest Is menaced. men-aced. The press has thrown tha searchlight of terrible publicity on tli rnlholes and driven out the political rats. The freedom of the press is Indispensable In-dispensable to free government. Lenlne's Change of Heart Lenine, before he came into power, was the loudest voice in Russia, crying cry-ing for free speech. His pen had been most bitter against Interference with the freedom of the press. In his pamphlet, "Lessons of Revolution," he wrote : "The printing establishments of the labor press are raided. The bolsheviks are arrested, not Infrequently without accusation, or on the pretext of charges which are simply calumnious. "It may be argued that the prosecution prosecu-tion of the bolsheviks Is by no means a violation of free speech, since only certain persons on specific charges ore thus prosecuted. Rut such arguments argu-ments bear the enrnuirks of premeditated premedi-tated untruth. For why should printing offices be raided, newspapers suppressed, sup-pressed, for the crimes of Individuals, even If these crimes are proven and sustained by law? It would be altogether alto-gether different if the government declared de-clared criminal the entire bolshevik party. Its Ideas and views. Rut everyone every-one knows 'thnt the government of free Russia never could, and Indeed never nttempted to do anylhlug of the kind.' " Lenlno coming Into power, wrote Into the constitution a new crime. He declared all opposition to the bolshevik bolshe-vik program a crime. On this high moral ground he struck down freedom of thought freedom of speech, fro!-dom fro!-dom 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 powerful than the voices throttled by the bolshevik gag today. (Cepyrtght. 1920, WeBtorn Nwpapr Union) |