New-York tribune., 1919-04-04
Our Anne rican BoLshe uists
Albert Rhys Williams
By Stanley Frost
Who the
By Stanley Frost

take certain joy in being with vast multi
tudes of people"
He had to weigh the revolutions death
roll by his psychological balance, to meas
ure the hatreds left by Czarism against the
starving babies. And he finally surrendered
10 the psychology of the committee, say
ing: Your minds are full of the things
that have been told you by men who have
been there, and their ideas not facts, motel
VIII nave stronger influence than NINE"
Then there was the constant feeling for
the psychology of the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
and spectators. II know that we are living
IN very passionate tme,' he said, "and it
would he difficult for any committee to sit
here at the time of the French Revolution
and pass upon the facts from different
sources and realize the difficulties under
which You labor"
tcotfoss a. the Past
There was also the psychology Of revo-
luton. lIo called it youth, rather than
rccElcssncss, inc&pcrionce and "nothing-to-
lose ncss." "The lcodcrs who arc the heroes
of American lifo and who have done the
great work Of the past arc, after oil, the
rcvolutionarics who have been displaced
and pilloricd by the Boshoy.k advcnturcrs.
He recognized tina. radicaism is Young.
and pointed out that tho I2o]sbcviki had
gained greatly by extending the franchise
TO those between eighteen and twenty-one
almost every one being an extremist He
also admitted that the best rcvolutionaries
were those that have no stake in society,"
and said that the best weapon Of the cap
italist would be to that every one had
some property. Finally he was asked
whether, If the soviet system worked in
Russia, he would favor ii for America.
~ know that by The time the soviet gov
ernment demonstrates ITSELF" he said, II
will have grown old and conservative and
hardened in my attitude toward life, and
probably will jump at new idea and hit
it on the head, just az most people 90 when
they pass a certain stage of life
He had to psychologist, too, about the
murders and the looting-and he thought
they were not in excess of what might be
expected! Then ho stated his own ideal of
government:
u would like TO have a government so
strongly ntrcnched in the affections of the
people and system OF life making it so
happy for the vast majority of the people
that any orc who asked for a violent over
throw OF the government would be simply
| laughed out of court as fool.''
A Plea for a Fair Chance
On top os this he admitted the complete.
, failure Of Boishevsm. Rule by force, muir
ders, looting, naturalization OF women, idle
factories, discontented workers and peas
ants alikcnii these things he acknowl-
edged in some degree. He waved them
aside as temporary--also he minimized
them, though lie stated as facts and without
vertcation Boshevist stories of atrocities
by hc-Sovaks and counter-revolution-
aries.
Il wish yoO would try to recall the
hardships under which the soviet govern
ment is laboring," he said. az do not know,
nor do you know, whether it is a success
full form of government. 1t has not had
fair chance, fair trial"
He pointed out that it took ten years to
form the American government after Eng
land granted independence, but he did not