Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1919-05-06

| with he leaders OF that movement
and with the revolutionary party In
. Russia In general. Lcnine was looking
forward to his return with consider
ablc impatience. lie made no secret
fthat he had been encouraged by the
German government in his anarchistic
designs on Russia and spoke openly OF
the financial help the Germans had
given him and without which he would
have been unable to undertake tho
long journey from Zurich to Petrograd.
He frankly owned that he had applied
to the German Legation In Switzerland
for funds which were Immediately
handed TO him. One OF the persons In
the room during our conversation
asked Lenine whether he was not
ashamed to accept money from the
enemies OF his country. The anarchist
answered this remark by saying that
he did not feel ashamed because now
that socialism was to become supreme
the barriers which divide one nation
from another would fall and that all
humanity would become united I'm the
supreme attempt to deliver the world
from the trammels Of superstition and
autocracy and to establish the rule of
the people In every country. For his
part he is willing to accept the help
of anybody who you'd aid him. no
matter TO what race he belonged. Then
some one ventured the remark that
one could not really consider the Ger
mans civilized beings in view of the
havoc and destruction OF which they
had been guilty. AS proof he men
toned the destruction Of Rheims
Cathedral. Lenine looked at him for
accent which | shall never be able to
forget:
Rheims cathedral was but monu-
ment Of the times when the poor were
oppressed by the rich, and when we
look upon 1t from that point of view
the Germans were quite right to shell
and destroy it."
There were some who said. and still
say. that Lenine is an idealist, and
that he Is honest too. 'Lenine is neither
an idealist nor an honest man. He is
only an opportunist and an ambitious,
a personally ambitious creature He
understands well certain class Of
Russians, these who like empty words
and who never look ahead and never
icare to do so. He also understands
the rough nature Of the Russian peas
ant-the monjils who can shcw him
self at times the kindest of men and a
few minutes later the widest and most
cruel Of individuals. He has also
studied with great care that fatal
agrarian question which has been at
the bottom of all the revolutionary
movements in Russia and for which
there seems to be no solution at pres
ent. This question has been misman-
aged from the beginning and dates
from the false conception the moujils
has all along carried of the situation
of the large landowner ever since the
day Of the serfs by Alexander III. Len
inc knew fully that a general partition
of all the riches Of the nation between
everybody was an impossibility. yet he
proclaimed it as the only principle
which would inspire his conduct from
the first moment he set foot on Rus
sian soil, tho he never meant to
carry it thru. What he aimed at was
to become the absolute master in a
land which he believed to he doomed
and out of which only he hoped to save
sufficient wreckage TO be able to live
not only in comfort but also in afflu-
ence for the rest of his natural life.
He was an EXETER Of the passions of
the mob: he was no more of ruler
than Kerensky. and he could not even
be called leader, of men. tho he
knew how to launch them on career
of crime and plumber
He promised everything that was
required Of him when he was put to
the test. He must be rendered this
iustice-he did not deny his signature
but worked faithfully towards the ac-
complishment he had been set by Ger
many to perform. When Trotzky Joined
him. Lenine did not like it at all at
first: then he gradually fell under the
influence of this human cobra and at
last became the purveyor OF the scat
| fold which NJ. Braunstein alone would
not perhaps have been able to erect in
?ctrograd AS well as in the rest Of
Russia.
4 Trotxky.
At the time of the reolution in Rus
STA TrotZky Vas in America where he
had been helping to strengthen the
feelings OF luminosity which the ex-
treme socialists everywhere enter
tanned for the Russian reigning family
and preaching revolt against the Rus
sian government Trotzky was a Ger
man subject-his real name was
Braunstein--and he had been sent to
Russia for the first time lin 1905 dur
ing the first rebellion which collapsed
under the energetic action Of the mill
tary and civil authorities in the en-
pire of the car. Arrested for extreme
anarchist propaganda he had peen
sentenced to exile in Siberia, but he
managed to escape. aided by money
sent to him from Berlin and which
reached him in a mysterious manner
never revealed to any one. Since
that time he had been living in Ger
many, where he had remained in close
touch with Russian anarchist circles.
When war broke out 1t had been con-
sidered advisable to expel Trotzky
from Berlin so that no one should