New-York tribune., 1919-02-05

cdlCnWOrQ, Dut II Is nOth1nG more
In plain language, it means that
all the nations Of the West are to keep their
hands off the Bolsheviks until the latter have
time to organize themselves as an aggres-
sive force and to lay their hands upon the
rest Of Europe.
Six months ago the Allies could have
crushed the Bolshevks with onc-third of
the effort which would be required to day;
in three months time the effort necessarily
will have increased tenfold, and if it be
postponed for year they may be con-
frontcd by movement which will submerge
all Europe, with the possible exception of
France and Britain.
Those who say that the Bolshevils have
no idea behind them are fools. They have
an idea no less definite than that which set
in motion the armies of the First French
Republic, and by the force of circumstances
they are, in their turn, being driven to prop
agate it abroad or perish from moral inani-
ton and sheer material famine. Unhappily,
this idea is the negation of all those polti-
cal principles (which the modern world has
acquired through the crucible of three great
revolutions, in England, in America and in
ror-a terror such the men of 1893 never
dreamed of-for equality and fraternity,
class hatred, the dictatorship of the prole-
tariat and the prescription Of the intel
lectual class.
And our sentimental democrats would
have US observe policy of "hands off" to
men who mock at democracy alike in theory
and in practice. and who absolutely decline
to adopt "hands off" toward any of their
ncighbors. When the Bolsheviks respect
the territory of Polish and Esthonian
allies and of our friends in Livonia and
Lithuania it will be time enough to adopt
rigid view with regard to the sanctity of the
Bolshevik frontiers. Meanwhile, if we de-
cline to take up their challenge while they
are still only threatening Wilma and Riga,
we may be forced to do so when they are al
ready supreme in Warsaw, Berlin and Buda-
pest.
Intervention in form or another is
inevitable and desirable alike in the inter
csts Of Russia and of humanity; all depends
upon the Interpretation given to the word.
In our opinion the action of the Allies must
rest upon precise and publicly defined pro-
gramme, having the sanction of the Allied
peace conference, and thus of the league of
nations, which is already coming to birth.
In the first place, it must be declared
beyond all possibility of doubt and mis-
understanding that the restoration of Car
ism is impossible and intolerabe to the free
democracies of the West, and would be met
with their universal disapproval and oppo-
sltlon. Conversely, must commit our
selves no less publicly to the principle of q
federal Russian republic as alone capable
of reconciling the centraizing tendencies of
economic life with the special national needs
and outlook of the border nations.
1t must further be declared that the Allies
stand irrevocably for the principle of repre-
sentative government and therefore favor
the convocation at the earliest possible
date of a new Russian Constituent Assem-
bly, (the Assembly of December 1917, being
past revivalD, based upon universal suffrage
and free elections. On this point there
must and can be no hesitation
We must nail our colors to the mast
Ihere can be no compromise with the
ideas of Lenine or Of Liebknecht.
The autocracy of single caste or class is
always odious and corrupting whether it
comes from the Left or from the Right from
below or from above Social reconstruction
must rest upon unequal opportunity for all;
levclling upward rather than downward, but
above all, levelling; government of the peo-
pie for the people by the people; co6pera-
ton of every class in the common tasks Of
social, political and religious life. To all
this the Bolsheviks rctort with the conten-
tion that the whole structure of modern 40