Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-08-01
MilitdristS, Far in Minority
in Germany, S,oayed Ma
tion to Its viii, Declares
Financier
Old Days of Terror Are
Ouer, Religious Reuiuals
Coming to the Fore, He
Says
BY FRANK A. VANDERBILT

Whoever has hope for humanity.
whoever believes in democracy. is con-
vinced that the great mass of the pcoplc
is right minded. well -intentioned and,
despite local alterations, that the voice
OF the great majority is n wise voice.
ona comes to a comfortable optimism
that things will work out well in the
end If the majority rules.
One Of the most startling Impressions
which have received in Europe il that
the majority does not rule" and that
sometimes minorities. apparently almost
lnconsequentially small, may grasp power
and WELD it in amazing fashion. If
TINS is so we cannot rest comfortably
IN the assurance that majorities are
right minded and that right -mindedness
Will control destinies where majoritics
have the ostcnsible political power.
Perhaps the most awful illustration of
+ all time of the terrible power of n
minority is to be found in the starting
| OF the great war itself. The power of
that numerically insignificant party Of
Prussian militarists to throw n whole
world into a cataclysm has no parallel.
But here it may be stated there was no
free play of the voice of democracy and
that a great people had no volition, but
had to follow where they were led.
Let us take another illustration. Per
haps 100. 900. 900 people of the 10
0OO. 900 that once constituted Russia
! have passed under the sway of Bolshp-
vik regime although the true adherents
to that political theory probably num-
bered less than per cent of the popula
ton involved.
Russia in April, 1919
Perhaps it would be as appropriate a
place as any to give picture of the
internal Bolshcvik Russia on the list
of April. 1910. 1t is n second hand
picture, to be sure. but it is only sec
ond hand. 1t is made up from facts
related to me by one Russian and two
Americans who were in Petrograd and
Moscow for the purpose of observation,
who had conferences with Leninc and
Trotsky. and who must at least have
grasped the superficial aspects of life
under the Bolshevik regime.
l was greatly interested to learn as
a passing piece of information that the
great art treasures of the Hermitage
Museum in ,Petrograd are unharmed
My friends visited the museum, saw the
pictures and bore testimony that the
gallery is intact. A few of the most
valuable pictures had been sent to Mos
COW at a time when a raid was feared
| hn H,,t kl,o
time of this visit arrangements were be-
ing made for their return.
While Petrograd is city of silence,
Moscow is center of chaotic activity.
Being the seat of the most autocratic
governmental power of modern days, the
home of a government that has cen
tralized its authority to the highest
degree, while at the same time that
authority has been extended to the
minutest control of individual lives. the
whole heartbeat of Bolshevik Russia
was discernible there. Again there was
evidence that the tales of material de-
struction have been overdrawn. The
stories of a destroyed Kremlin are alb
solutely untrue. Hunger was as acute
in Moscow as in Petrograd. The diff
cultics of transportation were the same.
In spite of this breakdown in trans :
portation my friends made the trip from
Petrograd to Moscow in thirteen hours,
which is only two hours longer than
the old time schedule.
There are no more soldiers coun
ellis. Instead, there is the army domi
mated by system of discipline that
would make a PruSsian officer turn green
with envy. Trotsky, be it remembered
is Lenine's secretary of war.
Day Of Terror Over
Broadly speaking, however, the OLD
days of terror are over. A stern moral :
ity has taken possession of the people
In their distress there is a great reviva
of religious feeling and in their desper
ate condition they are turning to the
church for comfort. Bolshevik Russia
is absolutely dry.
The minute ordering C tie lives Of
people, the dead level of reward ant
the meagerness of that reward tend tc
make Bolshevism pail when viewed a!
a political panacea by its victims.
The governmental ordering of life
the total loss of personal freedom, i.
building up new party, an extreme
left of anarchism, which bitterly resent.