The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1918-06-27

At the time of this revolution the
"W hite Guard was formed, composed
mostly of hired thugs and strike
breakers, armed with German weapons
and officers by the "Finnsh chas-
seurs" above referred to, trained in
the army of the kaiser. This butcher
guard, as the Firms call them, would
have had no chance to impose its will
against the desires of the great mass
of the Finnish people. Fighting alone,
it was doomed. But the German gov
ernment, spurred by the desire of
making Finland an outpost of German
imperialism and securing road to the
Russian arcti C ports Of kola and Ar
changel, which would give Germany
control over Scandinavian shipping,
needed the call of the Finnish junkers
and sent 40, 600 men. The forces of
the provisional government, hastily
raised voluntary army of upwards of
100, 600 men, poorly armed and more
poorly fed, is no match for the German
war machine. Finland has fallen. To-
day the white Guard" is giving the
German officers lists of their political
opponents, and the Germans are slaugh.
tering the prescribed men and women
by thousands. In this primitive fashion
the system of Sulla. the Whites" hope
to manufacture majority.
For many weeks there have been
stories in the papers about "Red
Guard atrocities. Many of these have
been exaggerations and many down.
right lies. They have come mostly
from German sources and reactionary
Swedish sources and from pro-German
White Guard" leaders who up to a
few weeks ago seemed to be able sue.
cessfully to camouflage their real pur-
poses from many honest American rep
esentatives with whom they were in
contact.
That there have been killings by the
Red Guard" that should have been
avoided, do not deny. In any country
in revolution certain ruffian element,
devoid of principles, inevitably bobs up
to take advantage of the situation for
plunder. The provisional government
leaders have taken stringent measures
to put down such persons. But there
is also another element of honest per-
sons who, in the heat of revolutionary
passion, sometimes see red. If the
United States had inherited foreign
speaking aristocracy who in this war
betrayed American democracy to the
German military power, it is possible
that here and there groups of Ameri.
cans would give short shrift to these
raScals,
But from the start the forces of my
government have been under strict or
ders to give ''White Guard" captives
all the rights of organized warfare,
though the white Guard" leaders
have openly boasted that "Red Guard
captives were to be slaughtered as
bandits.
The producing classes of Finland
strongly orangized, trained in over lC
years of parliamentary achievement,
desire to establish in Finland a cooper.
ative commonwealth, without specia
privileges or political or economical
exploitation of any kind. They are op.
posed by the aristocracy, leading the
junker forces of Finland, willing to ac
cept German vassalage to perpetuatt
their feudal control and keep the mass
of the people in chains.
The labor movement in Finland, which
YIELDS the great mass of the people to-
gether, is the only organized demo
cratic movement opposed to mediaeva
junkerism and German control. 1t is
the form the democratic movemen,
takes in Finland, as well as in Russia
and necessary form. In Finland anC
Russia the ideas Of social and economic
democracy are just as vital to this de.