Arizona republican., 1918-02-17
DIRECT FROM RUSSIA

as Between Capital and Labor, Says
 President Wm. B. Thompson of In
 spiration Copper Go. - BoIsheviki
 Grow from Exploitation of Russian
 People Such as Never Before Known
 Except in the Congo-Their Course
 Compared with Miners Law and |
 Vigilance Committee Work Which |
 Made This Country. An Iiluminat
 ing Address
 Col. Vim. B. Thompson, president | of the Inspiration Copper Co., Ari- | zona's largest single copper producer, since his return to New York from | Russia has given out views of the | situation in that country, of it's un- derlying causes and of some condr- 1 tions in this country that are not | entirely unrelated, that have been received with marked consideration by all classes and that give cause for continued hope even in view of more recent developments in Russia. Col. ! Thompson put his findings before the Rocky Mountain Club of New York, his speech in full being printed Ill the Engineering and Mining Journal as follows:
 have returned to this country with some very strong ideas regarding Russia and the duties of the United States and the allies to that stirring, and, l am afrdaid you will think, somewhat cratic young democracy. l come from a people now generally known as the Bolsheviki, who jusc now are extremely unpopular with the American press. They are being held up to eXecration as assistant Ger mans and are being denounced for having deserted the allies and throw ing their influence on the side of the kaiser. I am afraid the American people are slow to realize one of the greatest facts in the war at this time. The Bolsheviki at the present mo- ment are a tremendous factor in bringing the central powers of Europe around to basis of a reasonable and lasting peace. The newspapers that are denouncing the Bolsheviki just now are printing columns upon a rev. olution in Austria Hungary, a revolu- tion based upon immediate peace with no anneXatios and no indemnities This Austro- Hungarian revolution was inspired by the Bolsheviki. The i'm portance of this revolution should not be ignored. The example and efforts of tho Russian democracy are
 
 The most damaging enemy Germany has is the Russian democracy along side of it, preaching to the German common people and to the German soldiers the same doctrine of demo- cratic peace. Stranger things have happened than a lasting peace, with out the realization of any of Ger manys despotic war aims, but it may be, at this very time, in the making. When I arrived in Russia last July l found the country almost prostrate through demoraliZation caused by un- opposed German propaganda. German propaganda had brought about a strike through all Russia three days before the declaration of war in 1911 German intrigue and propaganda had so surrounded the czar that a sepa- rate peace was impending last March f Food had been cut off deliberately . from Petrograd and other cities 1T order to cause bread riots and strikes with the cold intention on the par of German and Russian autocracie. D of using these measures as an excus, !, for a separate peace. The Russian aa soldiers refused to fire on the hungr, - people, and the long sought for Rus
 sian revolution was realized with tn
 abdication of the czar.
 / At the time I reached Petrograd = that noble Russian patriot, Alexande e kerensky-and I am deliberate | \ calling him a noble man-was at :, tempting coalition government, = government representing the rich an,
 the poor. The rich, however. wer not satisfied to work with the poor
 German propaganda was busy tearin
 down, allied haggling was uncon
 sciously aiding, and this resulted | an attempt to place over Russia . man on horseback, Korniloff. To m, f 1t seems that a madder scheme wa = never conceived in the brain of mar
 It aroused to frenzy the great mass. c
 Russians, who interpreted it as return of the old order. Just at thi
 time a Russian general, Gurko, wh |, had been deprived of the command c ,. the army for writing letters to tn
 czar, saying that he hoped to see hiI
 return to power. escaped to Englan and was received in audience by Kin
 George.
 When you have not been to Russi
 you are puzzling your brain over tn . Bolsheviki, and wondering why the
 should be so extreme and so oppose
 to the property owning classes. >- would be useful for you to remembt J. these things, which will explain wh rs the workingmen and peasants are absolute control in Russia, and pas ID sionately devoted to making the
 freedom secure The terrorism undt
 which the limited property ownin
 class is living in Russia is sligl ~ compared with the terrorism in whic D the workingmen and the peasants liN g. in contemplating return of the pow D. CT of the old regime.
 .P We talk about patriots in this cour - try, but we do not know what patrio
 ism is until we see in Russia eXan
 ples of what I should call the patrio ~ ism of mankind. While in Russia CT met some real patriots, men al n. women who for the benefit of the If fellows had spent three quarters = their lives in prisons and chain gang
 There I met the heads of the revoh Q tionary groups who, for 50 years al :. more, had been risking their all f
 Russia freedom. Think of Bresl
 kovsky the "Grandmother of Il
 Revolution" A years old, prison = and exile for 34 years, still worklI ;: day and night. with might and mai 0 for the benefit of her fellow Russian
 This group surrounded Kerensky, vi 's believed in working out the soci u problem by the Russian labor class -- in conjunction with the proptert
 owning classes. Then again. l sa
 the workings of another group, equa