The Ogden standard. [volume] (Ogden City, Utah) 1902-1910, 1909-01-18

these are never seen at all by those
offthe nation whose eyes are ever
turned backward to the past II ism
in any nations past that the promise
OF IT'S future is to be seen-it is lin
the nations present. Not In high
sounding eulogy Of the deeds OF the
dead, but in the resolute spirit and
social faith OF those wno are living
is the real meaning of a nation to
be found. Is II not significant that
1t is not in America at all that the
forward-looklng souls of today are
finding their ground for hope and
cheer? Not even the revolutionary
spirits of America itself are finding
their greatest inspiration here The
most heroic deeds OF the past fifty
years have not been done In Amer.
lea The examples of superhuman
sacrifice. the deeds of divine daring,
have been done ON the other side
OF the ocean and not here. Indeed.
American literature cannot compare
with Russian literature In vital quail
ity. American drama bears no COM
parison with European drama Where
Will you find In America any names
to be spoken in the same breath with
1olstoy. kropotkin, Turgeneff, Ibsen
Karl Marx. August Bebel, Madam
breshkovsky, Tchaoiksky, and host OF
others who have been stirring the
worlds life as no one Of their Amer.
ican contemporaries has done.
What Phillips said nearly a genera
ton ago of Russia is just as true to-
day of that government: In Russia. -
said he, there Is no press. no debate,
nr explanation OF what government
does, no rcmonstrance allowed, no
agitation of public issues. Dead ST.
lence. like that which reigns at the
summit OF Mont Blanc, freezes the
whcle empire. long ago described az a
despotlsm tempered by assassination.
Meanwhile such despotism has un-
settled the brains Of the ruling fam
fly. as unbrldled power doubtless
made some Of the twelve Caesars in.
sane-a mailman sporting with tho
lives and comfort of hundred mil
lion men. The young girl whispers
In her mothers ear, under a celled
-oof, her pity for a brother knouteG
and dragged half dead into exile for
his opinions. The next week she is
stripped naked and hogged to death
IN the public square. No inquiry, no
explanation. no trial, no protest: one
dead uniform sllence-the law OF the
tyrant Where is there any ground
for hope or peaceful change? Where
the. fulcrum upon which you can plant
any possible lever?"
Besides these words of Wendell
Phillips let us place the words of one
of the priests of Russia, a priest who
has ceased to be the mere creature
and slave OF Russias autocracy:
There Is no Christian Czar and no
Christian government. Conditions OF
life are not Christian. The upper
classes rule the lower classes. A lit
tie group keeps the rest of the popu-
lation enslaved. This little group has
robbed the working people of wealth,
power, science, art, and even religion,
which they have also subjected; they
have left them only Ignorance and
In the place Of pleasure they
have given the people drunkenness;
In the place of religion. gross super
and besides, tho work of a
convict, a work without rest OF re.
ward. That which the upper class
have taken by force or by artIfices
they have called sacred property.
When the nobility had serfs, the lat
ter were very sacred property, at
present some of them have taken pos
tession Of the land and this they call
sacred property. II the rich had been
able to take the sky, the air, the sea,
or the stars, they would still have
called all this their sacred property.
They squeeze out heavy rents for the
OF their idleness, and
when the people, brought nearly to
by their suffering, outraged
III its highest feelings. speaks OF
rights, demands for It's labor q part
Of their abundance, the rich classes
send against 1t with cannons and bay
1nets its own brothers-only dressed
up in the uniforms OF soldiers and
by barrack drills into
that kills"
My friends. there is no spot on this
earth today where the plain duty and
demand of human. life, the supreme
lecessity Of a human civilization. or
he meaning of the system OF things
which now prevails all over the world
ire so clearly and Enthusiastically pic
mred or where they are so well un-
lcrstood as in Russia. There. as
Nowhere else. is dramatized for all
he rest of us the real meaning OF our
iuman struggle The words of the !
oremost French writer of the present
ime, Anatole France, are literally true
lnd they arc words which puncture |
he bombast behind which we Ameri- |
ans have SO long been content to |
lide our moral inertia and spiritual |
iegeneTacy: "On the banks OF the |
Ieva, the Volga, and the Vistula,
'ayS M. France, "the fate of New |
europe. and the future of humanity,
ire being decided" What do those
words mean? They mean that no
,here on this earth can the real mean
ng OF the forces which make for hui
Kan degradation and slavery and the
oIces which make for human free
om and progress be so clearly seen.
What is the Russian government to-
lay? Do you say it is merely sur
living feudalism? Not at all, The
'resent Russian government Is the
legitimate logic of capitalism. The
tussian autocracy and It's unspeak
BILE violation of all that is just or
ecent are merely the inevitable is
Ges OF capitalism. Capitalism any
yhere and everywhere means privi-
ege. means irresponsible power.
means the sacred rights of DroDerty