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Show I ONE OF MUCra CRIMES I At a time when all the -world is preparing pre-paring for the great peace conference, which will shortly meet to settle affairs af-fairs of the nations, and to rehabilitate international law on a scale that has never been witnessed before, attention Is inevitably directod to that great people peo-ple who, alone amongst the participants partici-pants in the struggle just ended, will not, so far as can be seen, be represented repre-sented at the peace table. As Mr. Balfour Bal-four put the matter, with the utmost sympathy, the other day, he was unable un-able to conceive that the conference would consider any existing government govern-ment in Russia as representing the Russian people, as the allies conceive Russia is, indeed, one of the enigmas enig-mas of the hour. To the western man, I I laboring In the effort to understand an eastern people, for it must always be remembered that the Slav is eastern, the present position in Russia, and the position which has obtained there for more than two years, is full of difficulties. difficul-ties. And yet it is safe to say that at no time since Russia separated herself her-self from the allied cause, not even in those dark days in the autumn of 1917, when the sudden failure of Russia upset up-set all the allied plans then reaching out toward victory, or again in the spring of 1918, when the complete collapse col-lapse of the Russian front enabled Germany to throw tremendous additional addi-tional forces against the allies in the west, at none of these times did the allied al-lied peoples fail in their sympathy for the Russian people. All along they have recognized that there was some- I thing going on in Russia which they only partly understood; that Russia was the victim of a terrible system, : winch found itsv fullest expression there, as it there, ultimately, met its exposure and ruin. In the Gorman organization or-ganization of Bolshevism in Russia, and in the German treatment of a be-trayed be-trayed and stampeded people, the allies al-lies saw Germanism in its most shameless shame-less aspect, and this revelation, perhaps per-haps more than anything else, rendered render-ed them determined to make that full end which is today being accomplished. accom-plished. The allied peoples have long since ceased to be interested in the theory of Bolshevism. It has a theory, of course, and, like every other "ism" which was ever preached, it has in it some elements of just political doctrine, doc-trine, but the world is very much inclined in-clined to judge Bolshevism by the only standard by which it can be judged, namely, by its fruits, and the fruits of Bolshevism in Russia, and' ! elsewhere, are known .to every one. At this hour, there is little to be gained by going over, once again, the horrors hor-rors for which this teaching is responsible re-sponsible in Russia. The only thing left to do at the moment, above all others, is to strive to learn, from the welter of confusion and anarchy which it has produced, whatever lesson may be learned from it. That lesson was well summed up by Mr. Balfour, in London, the other day, when he said, speaking on the league of nations; "Democracy Is not a suit of clothes to be put on a man of any color, or at any stage of development. Democracy is a difficult form of government applicable ap-plicable only to advanced civilization. "Hence," he added, "the league should 'be a trustee of backward nations, and help them along the steady path of progress." pro-gress." No people, perhaps, ever stood so sorely in need of just such guidance as did the Russian people in tho spring of 1917. They might have found iL Men like Prince Lvoff, who for years had striven, with unparalleled patience and self-sacrlflce. in the cause of Russian Rus-sian freedom, stood there ready to spend themselves for Russia. All the world was full of hope for her, and stretched out eager hands of help toward to-ward her. Germany, however, Russia's evil influence for centuries, had other views. True to her system of making use of anything and everything to secure se-cure her ends, she called to her aid the two international Jews, Ulianoff and Bronstein, convoyed them across her (.erniory 10 ine itussian ironuer, ana through them inaugurated that terrible system of betrayal which will always be counted one of the blackest ofthe many crimes which must be laid to'her charge. The Russian peasants and artisans arti-sans alike were helpless Simple-minded; largely uneducated; accustomed to obey orders; with no experience of public affairs, except such as might be learned by a few of them from the village zemstvo; they were swept off their feet by the millennial promises of Lenine and Trotzky, and their fellow fel-low Bolshevik!. The peasant hungered for land; they promised him all the land he wanted. For years, ho had known nothing but a system of semi-bondage; semi-bondage; they promised him unlimited freedom. For years, he had never known what It was really to have sufficient suf-ficient for his daily needs; they promised prom-ised him abundance. For years, he and his family had been hedged about by all manner of restrictions; they gave him to understand that he might do as he pleased. And so, with all restraints thrown aside, and the vodka shops once again thrown open, liberty in all directions quickly degenorated into license and anarchy. Land owners were driven from their estate, their houses burned, burn-ed, and excesses followed which havej been detailed, again and again, during the last few months. It was very I 'much the samo in the towns, for, although al-though the Russian artisan is better! educated than the peasant, he is still the same simple-minded, easily influ- onced man that the peasant is, and 'just as likely to take the same utterly illproportioned viow of great affairs.. He refused to work unless he was ' paid wages such as bore no proportion whatever to the value of the work done. With these people the Bolshe-viki Bolshe-viki worked their will. Once firmly I established, as was made "clear the i other day in the Esthonian appeal, "Russian Bolshevism and Prussian Junkerlsm" showed themselves "chil-; dren of the same spirit of violence,! tyranny, and. perjury." Only very little is known as to what! is really taking place In Russia today, but everything that is known points to the fact that the Russian people, still under Bolshevist rule, are long sinco disillusioned. Bolshevism seems to 'have a strangle hold of Russia but Russia Rus-sia no longer believes in Bolshevism.' It all goes to show Inevitably that Russia, Rus-sia, In spite of her Bolshevism, can. claim the utmost sympathy and con-1 slderation from the allied world. And I Russia, surely, may take comfort in this, that she will have both, and that a vacant place at the peace table will very far from militate against her interests. in-terests. In full accord with the views of the allied peoples everywhere, Mr. Balfour stated, the other day, that the conference would make every effort to see that It did not deal with any . interest that did not lay its own case before it, and that, where selection of competent representatives was impracticable, im-practicable, the conference would do its best to find out the opinion of the population concerned. As to the summing up of the whole matter, it is surely this, that there Is no short-cut to the millennium. "Democracy," "De-mocracy," to quote Mr. Balfour once again, "is not a coat to be put on." It Is not even a political system, it is a state of mind a state of mind, moreover, not attained or attainable through legislation, but through understanding. un-derstanding. The human mind Is capable cap-able of many strange excursions. It catches queer, distorted views of great truths, and hastily builds round them its systems; but the next moment it is back again In the abyss of nonsense. non-sense. And until humanity learns to lay judgment t6 the line and "righteousness "right-eousness to the plummet," that is to say, until it strives to conform Its systems to principle, principle will overturn and overturn them, until, at last, "he come whose right It Is." |