The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1918-07-12
PARLOR BOLsHEvIsM.
(By Theodore Roosevelt in the Metro
politan.)


Bolshevism.
Dreadful though It is that desro-
tism should ruin mems bodies, Il Is
worse that IL should ruin mems souls.
Vast physical distress was caused by
the centuries of despotism which Rus
STA owed to the fact that 500 years
ago she lacked military ability to re-
pei the Mongol warriors. But this is
overweighed by the dreadful quail
ies of soul which the despositism pro-
duced in those who suffered under It.
We in America have a direct in
terest in this evil phenomenon. From
the tyranny to Russia great num-
bers of Russians fed hither. Many of
these-Mary Antin is a type-were
eminently fit to live in a land which
with all its faults, is land of free
dom and of opportunity, and these
gave much to the land which gave
them so much. But many have been
merely sources of poisonous corrup-
ton to the nation which gave them
an asylum. Many of the Bolshevist
exiles to this land returned to Russia
when the revolution broke out. and
most of these were filled with venom
/ for this country. The prime cause
lay not in our shortcomings-many
though these are-but in their own
corroded souls. This moral corrosion
made them preach and practice the
gospel of hatred and malice, not only
toward all men of wealth. whether
they did good or evil, but toward all
honest, Woodworking. decent-living
men and women who were not con-
sumed by mean envy of others.
These Russian exiles were not ask
d to come here. They came here so as
to be free from persecution and to
better themselves. They owe this
country everything. But the only emo
tions aroused in the Bolshevist type
are mean hatred, mean desire to SLAM
der and self-pity both mean and
morbid. The moral and mental atti-
tude it introduces into this country is
much more permanently mischiev-
Gus than the bubonic plague, and
against it we should erect far more
rigorous quarantine. The oppressed
of other lands who have developed
this kind of character should be kept
out of this land at all hazards, and
our immigration laws should prompt
ly be changed accordingly. There are
plenty of sordid and arrogant capital
lists in this land, but their most harm
ful and unlovely traits are no worse
and no more dangerous than those OF
this particular type of professional
prOletarian. In it's full development
it produces the Trotzkys, who have
brought Russia to the brink of the
abyss, and the Hillquits and Victor
Bergers and Eastmans, who would
lead our people into a complete ruin
of which one item would be subjec
ton to the German autocracy. The
most sordid capitalists and reaction
aries can do no more harm to this
country than these men, if given
power, would do. The worst bour-
bons of politics and business stand
no lower than these leaders of the
American Bolshevists, of the I. w.
w, the Germanized Socialists, the
anarchists and all the squahd crew |
who breaches the gospel of envy and |
hatred, who preach a class war, |
which, when preaching is translated |
into action, expresses itself through |
the bomb and the torch.
These men are encouraged, and |
our own moral fiber is weakened, by |
the parlor or pink tea Bolshevism |
dear to the hearts of so many of our
people who like to think of them
selves as intellectuals, and who are, !
perhaps, particularly apt to find ex- |
preston for their views in the new |
repgblic. Most certainly, hard in |
difference to the conditions and OPP |
pOrtunities of the immigrant is a |
hideOus wrong, but it is not bettered |
by a dilettante sentimentalism on |
bedalf of wrong. We must never |
view the immigrant merely as a la
Joe unit. We must think of him only |
as a future citizen, whose children |
are to share with our children the |
heritage of this land. We must do |
for him everything that is right, and !
we must tolerate from him nothing
that is wrong \
The BOlshevists have no lesson to |
teach America except what 10 avoid. |
They have betrayed democracy in |
America, England and France. They |
have plunged Russia into ruin. They !
fatuOusly hoped by this betrayal of |
their allies to make peace with the
German militaristic aUtocraey, and (:
then to betray il in turn. But the /
Germans were just as false, cunning /
and treacherous and a thousand times |