Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-08-21
PLOT FOR REVOLT
IN RUSSIA FAILS
Soviets Are Successful in
Suppressing Movement
for New Uprising
NO POPULAR SUPPORT
Many Monarchists Said to Be
Involved in Plan for
Revolution
NO POPULAR SUPPORT
Special Cable to Evening Public Ledger

Stockholm, Aug. IS delayed.
Moscow has been full for some time
Of rumors that counter-revolutidnary
effort is to be made the latter part
of this month. The Soviet, however,
Is extremely efficient in dealing with
such plots. having dealt successfully
with the Pogrom plot Of last winter,
when the enemies of the Soviet hoped
to get the drunken soldiery to sack
Smolensk; then with the Cadet plot
at Moscow. then with the Left Social
Revolutionary mutiny, and then the
affair at Jaroslav.
This new affair has been long
promised and is spoken of as an "offi-
GERS plot" Many monarchists are said
to be involved. It was proposed after
the social revolutionary movement.
The time chosen for it was to coincide
with that of the creates, starvation,
this because such plot would have
no support among the politically con-
scious masses. The only hope for such
plotters is to play on the unconscious
masses who might during a hunger
crisis be stirred up to riots, in the
course of which a coup d'etat might
be accomplished, and IL followed by
wholesale shootings and terrorization,
as in Finland, might replace the Soviet
Government with some scratch body
which would depend for its tenure on
the immediate improvement Of food
conditions.
Even If such n coup was successful,
which Is very unlikely, such a Gov.
ernment would within very short
time be in difficulties and urgently
need foreign troops with which to
maintain itself.
l am inclined to think it will be
more difficult than the plotters imagine
to get even momentary support among
the masses. The Left Social revolu-
tionary mutiny of six weeks ago
showed with what aloofness the bulk
of the population regard such events
and how unlikely any attempt at revo-
luton Is to gain serious support Then.
while part Of the town was actually
in the hands of the mutinecrs, while
continual machine gun fire was going
on, while the mutineers' headquarters
were being bombarded by artillery
shrapnel into the Krcmlin people were
sitting about in tho sunshine.
Public Not Interested
In the Theatre Square, close by the
Krem'in, and in those parts of the
town not Immediately affected, 1t was
impossible to tell from the appearance
of the streets or demeanor of the
people that anything extraordinary
terested in discussing the CHARGES of
avoiding war as the result of Mir.
bach's death than in the fate Of mutt.
neers who in seeking to provoke war
had shown how deep a gulf lay be-
tween the Left Social Revolutionary
leaders. who are intellectual romantics
and the matter-of-fact peasantry they
were supposed to represent
This party will recover its impor-
tance not as representative body, but
as a revolutionary organization. in all
parts of the country where the So
viets are suppressed. 1t is RESPONSE
bic for the deaths of Eichhorn. Mir
bach and members of the Ukrainian
bourgeois government and is certain
to apply the same methods to repre-
sentaives of the bourgeois and allies
in the north. Its members share the
tradition of the old Social Revolution.
ary party, which believed in revolu-
ton by assassination. They are thus
distinguished from the Bolshevjki, who
have always opposed assassination as
method, believing that it merely
strengthens the other side in dealing
with mass revolt.
"Not War. But Revolt"
The Social Revolutionaries hoped for
war with Germany, believing, not that
war with Germany would mean any
thing but further occupation of Rus
sia. but that by thus increasing the
area of occupied and revolving terri.
,ory they would be serving the revolu-
ton as a whole, better than by sup
porting the less sentimental, less pic
turesque policy Of serious economic
and military preparation which is fa-
vored by the Bolsheviki. The Left
Social Revolutionary watchword was
Not war, but revolt" Without con-
structive plans, but with the revolu-
tionary tradition. they sought condi-
tions suited to the work for which
they are fitted. They find such condi.
tions in the Ukraine and / shall he
much surprised II they make any
distinction between the Ukraine and
north Russia. Like the Bolshevik,
hey support the Soviet form OF gov
ernment.
Other parties of less Importance
at the moment are the Right Social
Revolutionaries, who are fairly strong
in the northern governments ana
everywhere there are many Well-to-do
peasants They have no mold on the
poorer peasantry or. workmen, VINO
are by far the largest class. Ihey
may be regarded as conservatives
among the revolutionary parties, ana
since the establishment of the Soviet
Government they take the place or the
old reactionaries. For the moment
any assassinations which they may
accomplish will be among the mem
bers of the Soviet Government. Ihey
are definitely opposed to the SET.
The same may be said of the Men
shoviks and a group or other more
or less insignificant parties, VINO lost
| their following last year. They pusy
themselves in getting resolutions from
workmen opposed to the Soviet This
is very easy to do in the mass OF In
different and hungry people. There
| is no great difficulty in finding a
population for several Of Kipling's VII
| lagos to vote that the earth Is nat.
| Ever since they have been in oppo-
sition, and therefore in the best posi-
tion for gaining votes, their support
has decreased. When the Soviet ex'
ecutive committee voted that, since
these parties were definitely opposec
to the Soviet, they therefore had nc
right to sit in 1t, the speaker pointed
out that the whole of the opposition
parties could sit on one chair: where
upon one of the opposition members