The daily banner., 1918-01-24
Soviet Government In Russia

In the Constituent Assembly farce
staged at Petrograd, the whole cast
Bolsheviki and Social Revolution
aries, even the Cadets, played true
to form and character. Nobody sup
posed that Lenine would permit the
newly elected Representatives of the
Russian people to meet and make {
Constitution, unless a majority of the
Assembly was Bolsheviki; the ma
iority being the other way, of course
Lenine DEGREES that the Assembly i:
dissolved. Nor did anybody suppose
that the delegates to the Assembly
would pluck up courage enough te
resist the Bolsheviki and their armed
Red Guards. The expected happen
ed, and promptly, it was all over in
a night The Soviets continue to be
the Government of Russia, and Rus.
sia will have no Constitution unless
it is made by men of their choosing
In lands like England and the
United States, where the people rule
it has for some centuries been felt
that bayonets in the legislative cham
ber were out of place The blood OF
a free people may not actually boil
in their veins when soldiers drive
the lawmakers from their seats, but
no other misuse of a lawlessly usurp-
ed authority produces quite the
same feeling of patriotic indignation.
The men of the railway unions in
Russia have protested against the
acts of the Bolsheviki, but we have
not yet been informed that the peo-
pie are very much excited about it.
Nor are we in this country as deeply
stirred as we should be if this thing
had happened, let US say, in the
House of Commons or in the French
Chamber ef Deputies Everybody is
more than usual calm" because il
was nowhere expected that the So
cial Revolutionaries would be able
to set up and maintain a capable
Government in Russia. They are
not so extreme as the Bolsheviki, not
SO radical, not half so wild, but they.
too, are deluded victims of the cult
of socialism and from them there
was not much to be expected save,
very likely, a separate peace with
Germany.
In Lenine's decree of dissolution
he declares that the delegates to
the Constitution Assembly, having
been elected prior to the Soviet revo-
luton in October, in November ac-
cording to our reckoning, were cho-
sen from the old lists and therefore
do not represent the Russian people.
The Jacobins in France by sheer ter
rorism forced the great majority OF
the French people to abstain from
voting and so got an Assembly ma
jority to their liking. Lenine lets
the people vote and then has his Red
Guards chase their duly elected rep
resentatives out of the chamber. By
this proceeding he sets up the Sow
cts, or the Councils of Workmen' S
and Soldiers Deputies, as the true
representatives eof the Russian peo-
pie. In law these councils have NO
standing whatever. The delegates
were chosen by votes of the work
men in the factories, by the soldiers
Of the regiments. Under their au-
thority the workmen and the social
ed proletariat of Petrograd have
been armed, and it is only because of
this armed force that Lenine is able
to maintain his Government. 1t
rests upon the foundation of a mob
equipped with rifles and machine
guns.
The Russian people appear to have
been effectually cowed. The vast ma
jority of them are supposed to disap-
prove the proceedings of the Bolshe-
Wiki, but they are unorganized, they
have no organs for the expression
and formation of opinion, since the
Bolsheviki have suppressed all news
papers save their own, they have no
leader. The Constitutional Demo-
Gratis, or Cadets, sent only fifteen
delegates to the Constituent Assem-