Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-08-10
BOLSHEvISM IN A SPIKED
HELMET

pinely surrendered before the barbaric
| invasion by Germany-have declared
state of war with the Allies there is more
than revelation of sort of perfdy that
is without parallel in the history of
| human relationships. The fantastic It'd
| ings bristle with subtle warnings. 1t is
| highly probable that such declaration,
| though it may sound futile at this dis
tance and though it was long expected,
will react further to complicate the prob
lens of the Allies in Russia.
This, obviously is what it was intended
to do. Lenine and Trotsky, amid the
ruins of their plans, as confused and as
desperate as Wilhelm himself, seek now
to mobilize the passion of Russia against
the agencies of civilization.
Like the Germans, they seem Willing
to burn as they retire. They control
highly potent forces. Their appeal from
the first was to all that was generous,
credulous, faithful and visionary in the
Russian character. It is this that makes
their course at this moment seem unbe-
lievably infamous. At the same time it
is by the approach to the emotions
rather than to the reason, of submerged
Russia that the Bolsheviki have made
themselves influential to a degree not
always admitted by the optimists on the
Allied side.
1t is not surprising that the Allies
should find the Bolsheviki at last openly
and actively opposed to them. The Bol-
sheviki haze for months been 1Udging q
far less ercusdble aCdr upon their oWn
territory. 1t is necessary to remember
that the revolutionary idea is not new in
Russia. 1t has aspired through genera
ton after generation as a well systema-
tized democratic idealism.
The older revolutionary propaganda
was ennobled by endless martyrdom. In
tellectuals and proletarians, rich and
poor, men and women without number
who consecrated themselves to unselfsh
service on behalf of Russia and its peo-
pie, went in endless streams to fortresses,
to Siberia, to the gallows. Others always
took their places. The traditions of the
old democratic struggle in Russia are
splendid and pitiful. The older patriots
fought losing battles against forces far
more sinister than anything now known
anywhere in the world outside of Ger
many. They didn't fight to Win. They
| fought to inspire others. And it is these
| Others-the inheritors of the old demo-
| cratic dSpirations-that the Bolsheuist
leaders are no,c shooting and imprison-
| ing in untold numbers. Ciuil Wdr has
| been almost constant in Russia since the
rise of the Bolsheviki.
Every effort of the sane reformers to
achieve the free government which Rus
sia has awaited and sought through sac
rifice and matchless bitterness is de-
nounced and fought by the Bolsheviki
as counter-revolution. The nation has
been split up into warning elements. On
the one side are the incurable Reds. On
the other are the revolutionists, who aim
to establish free and ordered govern
ment in Russia. Lurking in the back
ground are the reactionaries, who will
seize the first opportunity offered by the
contending elements at home or the
Allies abroad to re-establish a state of
tyranny in the empire.
1t will do no good to assume that
Lenine, Trotsky and their followers were
at the beginning deliberate allies or
agents of Germany. 1t must be remem-
bered that their quarrel has not been
chiefly with any system of government.
The thing they hate and detest is civili-
cation itself. The State of their concep-
tion is one in which nine-tenths of hu-
man effort would be eliminated. They
have believed that anarchy could some-
how be systematized and wrought into a
working principle of government. Ex-
perience has shown them that this is not
possible. So, with their fall plainly
destined, with chaos and disorder loom
ing in the immediate future, attended,
perhaps, with omens of popular venge-
ance, the Bolsheviki leaders appear will
ing to invite the sympathetic aid of the
Germans for their own safety.
Allied craftsmanship in Russia from
this on will have to realize that the vast
mass of the people who are apparent
supporters of the Bolsheviki are not
themselves conscious devotees of unrea-
son. They have been misled. One has
followed the other. The task now will
be to convince and reconcile these peo-
ple-to make them realize that their
interests and the interests of the country
will be best served by the revolutionists
opposed to them who believe in democ.
racy rather than in anarchy.
Kerensky suggested another peril when
he warned the Allies that it will be fataI
if the reactionaries are, or seem to be
favored in plans for the re-establishment
of government in Russia. The question
at the present moment is whether the