Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1917-11-23

" Is
Entered as second class matter OCT
ober II, 1908, at the post Office, Ottum.
va, Iowa, under the Act Of Congress o.
March 3. 1879.
Foreign representatives.: Cone, Lor'
enzen & Woodman, Advertising B1ds:
City: 500 Victor Bldg, Kansas C1ty
Mo.
the INEVITABLE OUTCOME.
One of the paragraphs in long dis'
match on the Russian situation dis
closes the fact that General Korniloff
Who was reported last week to have
ofRanised an army of his own and also
"a have effected reconciliation and
: union Of forces with Kerensky and
General Kaledines, has been PRISON
er throughout the bolshevik revolu'
ton.
TO those who had followed the for.
TIMES Of Korniloff and had known OF
hts incarceration by Kerensky's or
ders following the collapse OF his Ell
fort to inaugurate q successful revo-
luton AGAINST the provisional govern
mant. Il did not seem likely that the
anarchists would give him freedom
md the opportunity to renew his &C
. Hyities. In the nature Of things they
.vould be expected either to execute
Him without Formally or at least to
redouble his guard and confine him as
: douhly dangerous prisoner.
For Korniloffs crime against Rus
IA law In his refusal to accept the
sanseless theory of the socialist and
anarchist Cossack and veteran OF
several campaigns against the Ger
mans, he knew that the efiiciency OF
any army depends primarily on the
discipline which Is the basis OF tnat
army's organisation When the SOL
diers and workmen's delegates de-
stroyed discipline Kornilon was able
20 maintain in his army stern rule
which was the strength In the re
markable. DIVE he made into Austrian
territory.
But the poison worked its way INTO
hia veil orxanized forces. Pro-Ger-
man PROPAGANDA and socialistic agita.
t1on did their work together, as well
fhav might. The splendid army which
had followed Korniloff to within strik-
lne distance of Lemberg, melted sud
i1enly nike frost before a September
Isnn. Some of the units remained
10y.l hat they could not hold tho
hnhan flne against the assaults made
~ veteran German divisions hurried
~ thrown into the campaign.
I Then Korniloff informed Kerensky
~ dIucpline must be restored in the
snmy, With the provision iof the DEAN
lpsnalty Tor desertion Is the keystone
J NJ
| In the conference at MOSCOW NOT.
niloff repeated this demand hotly and
With full knowledge Of the opposition
he would meet at the hands OF the an
aYchist element He depended on ker-
Ieosky to uphold him by an Official
sdeclarst3on, and he depended on the
PATRIOTISM Of the bulk of the Russian
army to approve his stand.
Kerensky's Moscow speech, which
leolloved the Korniloff address, was
CAPABLE Of q number OF tnterpreta-
tions, Is indeed were all his speeches.
Kerensky's greatest gift seems to
nave been the ability TO talk convinc-
}nxly on every side Of every question.
on this occasion he proclaimed rule
e "blood and iron," tacitly approved
General Korniloffs position and con-
cluded by throwing verbal sop to
the radicals.
But when the time came, as it did
Immediately, to enforce that rule OF
sblood and iron," Kerensky weakened.
There was q story of his having con-
demned some 1000 men, members OF
regiments which deserted practically
IN 4 body. All were sentenced to be
shot. but there the story ended. No
record of their execution ever has
come to hand.
Korniloff marched on Petrograd as
the champion Of = hopeless cause.
His messenger to Kerensky told the
premier Korniloff demanded the abb
dication Of the Kerensky government
and recognition Of himself as military
dictator. He had Instructed the mes
senger to demand only that Kerensky
enforce the death penalty and restore
discipline In the army. Kerensky re-
fused the demand that he turn over
the entire government to Korniloff.
The latter understood the refusal to
mean that Kerensky repudiated his
Moscow promise.
Korniloff was unable to hold his
following when Kerensky's emissaries
promised them the socialistic regime
which based itself on the destruction
Of discipline. The generals faith in
the patriotism Of his soldiers was mis-
placed.
Kornflofrs defeat was the incident
which paved the way for Kerensky's
overthrow. It convinced the bolshevikf
that the premier was more socialist
than governor. 1t emboldened them
to redouble their demands for power
and finally to rally the socialistic SOL
diers and sailors for successful at
tack on the capital. On the very day
before Kerensky was forced to flee
from Petrograd to evade arrest the
cossacks apprised him Of the danger
and demanded that he proclaim the
bolshevih rebels. With the demand
went the offer to protect him and his
government against anarchy.
Even then he refused to give author
fly to his would.be defenders and the
cossacks accepted the inevitable.
In all of Russia, dispatches assert,
there Is to be found no one who SYM
pathizes with Kerensky. His social
istic idealism proved its fatal weak