The Washington herald., 1918-12-15
By JOHN l.. BALDER sTON.
Copyright, 1913, by the Mcclure Newspaper
SyndiCatel

AARRgA l-hls lsA9r " tAN 1ANel-AN -'S"7fNE
Syndicatel
London, Nov. Il (by mail.)-Ameri'
can aid tipped the scales and saved
the world from autocracy. 1t is now
up to America to save the world from
something at least as bad as au-
tOcracy and perhaps wOrse-anarchy.
Americas weapons in the new crusade
upon which she must embark are not
bombs and bullets, but money and
food. Especially food.
Until the Red Terror that threatens
to strangle in its cradle the soon-to-
be-born infant league of nations has
been put down. the world will not
have been made safe for democracy
or for anything else. One of the
leading statesmen of Europe said to
me Yesterday: You have delivered
US from domination by militarism;
and il we are to be saved from dOmi-
nation by anarchy 1t is to you that
we must look during the next year
or two"
It Is not in poor covering. starving
Russia alone that this new unclean
thing that came into the world has its
nest It has Crept not only into Ger
many. where the "SpartsCus" group
Of Bolshevists are openly working for
continued war, foreign and domestic.
in order that the social order may be
utterly destroyed and the soil made
ripe for the Terror.
The American republic is safe from
immediate infection, perhaps alone OF
all countries in the world. but our
immunity must not blind US to the
fact that even in the countries of our
allies the danger exists. as well in
81 afaFN
enemies.
Germ Breeds in Famine.
The germ Of Bolshevism, like the
germ of the new influenza" is a
mysterious microbe. As the cholera
bacillus grows virulent only among
filthy surroundings, and so claims its
victims mainly in the crowded and
insanitary East. so bad political drain
age enables Bolshevism to germinate
amidst hunger, defeat, misgovern-
ment and discomfort, and thus 1t is
natural that the first outbreaks should
be in those countries that have suffer-
ed ruin. famine and decentralization
through the war. Nevertheless the
disease has crept into Italy, and cx
lists in a milder form in England and
France. and it is no way to prevent
an epidemic to say that the first
cases of cholera or plague are really
mumps or scarlet fever.
A general survey of the situation
in Europe from the Bolshevik point
OF view shows the largest country in
Europe, Russia, under the heel of the
I,enine and Trotsky Cabal; Germany,
lately the mightiest Of military pow
ers, threatened by similar chaos; the
nations of Austria-Hungary, and the
Balkan states one and all graphing
with the menace Of anarchy; of the
allies, Italy, England and France in
the order named, faced by dangers
from the unruly element in greater or
less degree; and. finally, all the Eu
ropean neutral states up against the
widespread peril
The allies are now practically at
war with the only country where
terrorism and murder are the official
Iy recognized method of government.
Expeditions to crush the BolsheYiks
were landed at Vladivostok, and far
inside the Arctic Circle at Murmansk
and Archangel, because these distant
ports until this week represented the
only means of ingress into the Unfit
less sxpanses of the former Muscovite
empire.
Allies Will Relieve Russia.
But now under the conditions result
ing from the collapse one after the
other of the four central European
despotisms, these expeditions dwindle
into insignificance. Because Of the
appalling transport difficulties, they
are not of great size.
1t is certain that within a few
weeks the great wheat port of Odessa
will witness, amidst the indescribable
joy Of the inhabitants and the despair