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Show PROBLEMS FACING STRICKEN WORLD Shall Chaos or Reconstruction in Europe Follow the Great World War? SOME LIGHT ON BOLSHEVISM Movement Not Anarchistic, as So Many Seem to Think Probably Is Best Described as "Con-sistent "Con-sistent Socialism." Article XIII. By FRANK COMERFORD. If I were asked to name the principal princi-pal cause for the growing unrest ray answer would be bolshevism. The almost al-most universal attitude of big business toward Russian bolshevism an attitude atti-tude adopted by most of the governments govern-ments of Europe has been, and Is, Kill It; don't waste time examining It; It Isn't worth trying to understand ; no good can come out of It; It must be fought; It Isn't entitled to a trial. Reams of paper have been used to assail as-sail It. Captains of industry nnd government gov-ernment oflielals have vied with each other In making assault on it Many of those who oppose bolshevism are Indignant If you ask them what It Is and why they oppose It. They characterize charac-terize it, attack it, resent It. Great near nas oeen snown in uiscussing it, without throwing any light on the subject. sub-ject. Absurd lies have been told about bolshevism. Later these unnecessary unnec-essary and stupid lies have been exposed, ex-posed, with the result that suspicion has been bred, unrest fed. The effect upon the workers has been to increase their hate for their employers and destroy de-stroy their already weakened faith In government. Whether bolshevism Is right or wrong, whether It Is a good thing or a bad thing, It is at least a definite political po-litical plan, capable of being examined, measured, weighed and tested. It Is few of the things it has been called. It is entitled to a hearing on Its merits. mer-its. It cannot be howled down in abuse. Bolshevism Not Anarchy. Those who lead the campaign against it frequently and confusingly define It as anarchy. If there Is one thing that bolshevism is not, It Is anarchy. an-archy. Much controversy will be avoided, many differences of opinion dissolved if we come to a fair and open understanding of the bolshevik program. One of the great misfortunes misfor-tunes Is that we form opinions without information, rush to judgments without with-out understanding, then stubbornly close our minds. Much of the discord and strife of life In big tilings, as well ns In lilfle matters, is due to this habit. Anarchy is not criminal lawlessness, law-lessness, notwithstanding the fact that this is the popular misconception of the term. Kay "anarchist" and the average av-erage man or woman to whom you say It looks frightened, thinks of u bomb-thrower, bomb-thrower, a dynamiter, a firebrand. Kuch a man Is not an anarchist; he I3 a terrorist, n criminal, a destruclion-Ist, destruclion-Ist, a murderer. Let us call a spade a spnde and be sure we know what a spade is, and we will understand eacli other belter. Anarchism is an old and respectable philosophy. The anarchist is an Individualist. Indi-vidualist. He is in favor of a free life fop the individual. He is opposed to turning over the individual's power to the state. He argues that great power delegated to government limits the growth and freedom of the Individual. Indi-vidual. He dreams of an ideal slate in which human beings will be so perfect they need no law. His doctrine is an enlargement, an exaggeration of the Idea that the government which governs gov-erns least governs best. He isn't a lawbreaker. He Is a law nbolisber. He reasons that when murder leaves the human heart there will lie no occasion for laws against killing; that the statute against murder Is only printed words on the pace of a law book, utterly ut-terly and entirely without meuning, or existence, to the man who is Incapable of killing his fellow man. He says that we should develop our artistic and moral sides and by evolution gradually repeal one law after another an-other until all law disappears. It Is pure idealism it Is a movement toward to-ward perfection. It is the millennium It Is poetry. Kipling wrote its constitution con-stitution when he wrote: And only the Muster phnll praise us. Ami only the Master shall blame. And no one shall work for money. And no one .shall work for fame. Bat each for the Joy of working. Kaeh In his separate star Shall draw the ThlnK R9 he sees It Kor the (led of Things as They Are. Merely a Beautiful Dream. Few people will contend that this theory is anything mure than a beautiful beauti-ful dream. Probably the first and greateM of the anarchists was the great lin-ek philosopher 7.-no. from ("ret.', the founder of the stoic philosophy, philoso-phy, who died -TO years I'.. ('. I: N disturbing to find dynamiters culled anarchists, and in the nam. .r-;i:h hear deluded some of the create,: idealists that have ever t pd the ear:h. The very mention of li.o t in typos in til.' same class eives re- lability to tlie totally r.-iy. d.-pnived. i:" uvaiit, lawless criminal. 1 w ent to a standa id an: lo a- f. r a couimon-seiiM' dei',ni;ion of hoNln-- Ism. 1 "as in I'rjiu n my way toward the bolshevik front. 1 spent In ufLeruuou with President Thomas I G. Masaryk of the new Czecho-Slo-vakian republic. He Is a Slav. He , knows Russia. He was in Russia d:ir- j Ing the revolution and at the hep-in- j nlng of the counter-revolution which put bolshevism In the saddle. He has ' written of Russia and is accepted as an authority on the subject. I asked him, "What Is bolshevism?" His answer an-swer was: "Bolshevism Is consistent socialism." Bolshevism is an old, untried theory of government. Its object is to secure a greater production and a more Just distribution. Socialism says that men are without motive for efli-cient efli-cient work today because they do not get a fair share of the things they produce; that the way to stimulate production Is to adopt common ownership. owner-ship. Under such a plan, they say, every man would he working for himself, him-self, in the sense that all would be working for the stnte, and that as all are an equal part of the state their interests would be common and mutual. The socialist says that by working and doing as much as he could he would be helping to shorten tlie workday, because if all the people of the world were at work they could produce an abundance of everything necessary for the world's happiness and comfort, every one would have all he needed, no one would have more than another and It would be to the Interests of each Individual to work to shorten his own workday. The program of socialism promises to destroy all private,, ownership. There will be no such thing as private property. No one will own land. The land, the factories, the railroads, the mines, everything, will be owned in common. The state will hold the title to everything, manage everything and distribute the product. This plan abolishes profits, rent and private capitalism. cap-italism. Money and Capital. To understand this doctrine It is necessary to clearly' know the meaning mean-ing of the word "Capital." Many people peo-ple confuse the wbrd "capital" with the word "money." These words have totally different meanings. Money is the metal or paper used by a government govern-ment to make easy the exchange of products. Without money the world would go back to the baiter system, In which the man who had eorP traded it for meat, clothes, and th others things he needed. Capital if the unconsumed product of labor. In other words, all of the food, cloth, clothing, machinery, etc., in the world is its capital, just as a man's capital is the food he has In the cupboard, the clothes he hasn't worn out, the money in the bank which represents a power to buy. It is the surplus. It is the reserve. Plato, the great Greek philosopher, was one of the first of the socialists. In the republic of Plato we find a defense of state socialism. From Plato to Lenine men have been urging communism ns a cure for the Ills of the world, as a remedy for wrong, as a means of realizing exact justice. Modern socialism dates from the "Communist Manifesto," pi blished In 18-18. by Karl Marx nnd Frederick Kngels. Their outline of ti e socialist plan seized upon the thoupht of the world. Since that day It has been gathering the dissatisfied of the world and grouping them in a clas.i, developing develop-ing what they term- a "class consciousness." con-sciousness." I'.ack of It has been nn insistent, uninterrupted piopaganda which has reached every corner of the globe. Billions of leaflets, pamphlets, tracts and books have been circulated. Millions of speeches have been made. Drawing rooms have been thrown open to it, highbrows have Tirofessed the faith, lowbrows have thundered the creed from soapboxes on the street corners. It has flourished best in Furope. It has furnishej prime ministers. Its voice today in the parliaments par-liaments of Europe is nnt n whisper It is n shout. In the new governments govern-ments which have come out of the war it Is a militant, dominant factor. The bolshevism of Russia is pure socialism literal communism. At this moment I am not writing of the methods meth-ods of the bolsheviks. Firs', I want to make clear and simple their plan. Bolshevism Is an effort to put Into prnctice the doctrine pr-achod by Plato, programmed by Murx. (CopyrlKht. 1920. Western .Nirspaper Union) |