Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1919-02-03
Monday, February 3, 1919.
The Creeping Pestilenee


Just two months ago President Will
son formally announced the signing
Of the armistice and the approach OF
world peace. The war" he said.
thus comes to an end
The words were accurate SO far as
they went. Germany had been de-
teated. and civilization freed from the
pent of Prusslan domination. But
as a fact the war has not ended. II
has hardly been interrupted. II has
only changed its form. There is in
progress today a struggle as lrrecon-
liable and as pitiless as that which
irenched Europe with bloodsfor more
than four years. Democracy is once
more. or still. on the defensive.
Bolshevism. a force as ambitious.
Is tyrannical and as menacinE as
Irussianisn. has set out TO conquer
and cnslave the world. The battle
line. hitherto in Russia. has extended
into Germany; tomorrow a new front
may spring into being elsewhere. For
the sinister fact about this new world
war is that il takes no account OF ra-
cial or political frontiers. 1t is not
national. but International. anti-na-
t!onal. Two implacably antagonistic
forces have come to grips. Eithe. de-
democracy or bolshevism must d;sap.
pear from this earth.
In the popular attitude toward the
news from Europe there is to a great
iegree the same misconception the
significance of events that was no.
-iceable during the Developments OF
.ivil strife in Russia. The general
Impression seems to be that the up
1eaval in Germany is OF concern
chiefly to that country. and there is
a sort OF grim satisfaction in seeing
the parentland Of socialism in the
clutches Of its malign offspring.
bolshevism. Yet just as surely as
democracy was summoned to fight for
its existence on the battlefelds Of
Belgium and France is it challenged
by the fluctuating struggle in Berlin.
II is not necessary to believe that
The bolsheviki as some Of them as
sert. have a disciplined army of 900.
900 or 10000 men. Bolshevism is
less political or military movement
than it is a disease. II is a state Of
mind. and as such grows in powe, i'm.
perceptibly until suddenly an oppor-
tunity like the revolutionary turmoil
III Germany presents itself. and then
the force becomes visible. concrete. an
armed menace. Thus within the last
week We have had news Of bolshevik
capture Of Riga, bolshevik rioting in
Budapest. bolshevik attacks on Lem
berg and Wilma and desperate boil
shevik uprising against the socialist
government in Germany.
AS already has been made clear,
these campaigns are directed only
primarily against the countries indi-
Gated; they are part of the Bolshevik
program to create a world wide rev.
clutiou which shall overthrow every
where the existing social system AID
exterminate democracy.
Lenine was right when he said that
as the strength Of bolshevism in
creased. its dangers must multiply;
for each success it gains helps to
arouse the democratic nations to un-
Outstanding Of what the hideous thing
means and what it purposes to GO. to
realization that democracy must
stamp out this pestilence or per-
ish miserably.-Philade North
American.
Can We stamp i: out" by
present methods-half- hearted. =, -.
ly-equipped. one per cent-sized ex.
petitions to assist" God save the
~ord.) Russia:
Can we stamp out the bolshevik
tiend Of degenerate mind and heart of
stone by feeding them. and trying
moral suasion on them in world-ad-
vertised conferences on uncharted
Islands?
Can We stamp out this wave OF So.
preme devilishness by writing notes"
to it. by coddling it. by pleading for
1t to be good, by proclaiming that no
other faction in Russia will be rccos.
nized?
Can We suppress bolshevism and
halt the reign Of terrorism now pre-
vailing in Russia-the wholesale
slaughter and rapine-by such meth.
DDS and spineless backing and filling
as We adopted in Mexico. as We finally
got into the war, as we have met big
questions at home during the war and
since the armistice was signed:
Is that the way We are to wipe out
this creeping pestilence. this host Of
hell: