New-York tribune., 1918-12-22

general who dared to raise his voice in be-
half Of decency conscience and humanity,
Gorky writes
"Where and in what is the difference be-
tween the bestia psychology Of the mon
archy and yours? The monarchists were
sincerely convinced that the happiness Of
Russia was possible only with the whole
sale and reckless determination of all those
who thought otherwise. You think and act
similarly.
u repeat: to kill is easier than to con-
vince, but is it not true that the violations
practised by the old regime upon the peo-
pie were the cause of its own destruction?
By dividing up among yourselves the ma
terial riches Of Russia, she will not be-
come richer or happier. Neither will you
become better or more humane. New forms
of life demand new spiritual forces. Are
you capable of creating them? Judging by
your words and acts you are still incapable
of doing that-you are only wild, primitive
Russian people, perverted and tired out by
the old regime, the regime which inocu
lated you with all the terrible diseases with
which it suffered, as well as its senseless
despotism.
Acting as you do, you are giving the
coming reaction the chance to support itself
upon your acts, the right to say to you:
Under a Socialist government, when the
power was in your hands, you, like we
before the revolution, were engaged in the
wholesale killing of the people. And by
this you have given Us the right to kill
YOU
"No. You ynust regain your senses. You
must try to be human beings. I know it
is hard for you to be human beings. But
it is absolutely necessary"
And here is a passage which is perhaps
the most lucid and direct of all Gorky's
remarks upon the present national and cult
ural dissolution of Russia:
81 cannot deny that we have in Russia
many professional thieves and murderers
who have from time to time shown that
they, too, have some human conscience
This is well-known fact. Some scoundreY
will rob or kill a man and then he will
become overwhelmed with pangs Of con-
science. Many good Russian people find
consolation in this phenomenon. They i'm
agine that these signs of shabby conscience
are really the symptoms of spiritual health.
AS a matter of fact they are simply the
symptoms OF a sickly lack of will power on
the part of people who prior to committing
murder grow enchanted with the beauty
of field picture and can very easily
combine within themselves the sincere rev.
lutionist with the no less sincere provoca-
teur as has very often happened in our
country
Il believe that all of us-saiIors and
htterateurs, 'bourgeoisie' and proletarians-
are equally without will and cowardly.
which in no way prevents US from being
the most cruel physical and moral torturers
of each other. In evidence of this truth.
| invite you to compare the methods of
street 'samosuds' with those of our press
polemics. In both cases, both in the street
and IN the press, you will notice the same
mad and blind people, whose chief aim and
greatest pleasure consists in dealing the
other fellow as great a blow as possible,
either IN the face CT in the soul
This is the psychology of people who
seem to be unable to forget that only fifty
SIX years ago they were slaves and that
each one of them was liable to be beaten
with the rod, that they are living in g coun-
try where mass pogroms and murders 90
unpunished and where the price of man,
life is nothing. Nothing
The TYRANNY of the