The Cordova daily times., 1919-04-09
B0URGEoIsE AND HoLsHEvIki

cult kidnapped the word "Bourgeois' from the ranks of responsibility and made it term of reproach and con- tempt Originally it had reference to size of type named after it's founder, bourgeois, size between long primer and brevier. Then it came to mean citizen of the middle rank of society, as between a gentleman on the one hand and peasant on the other; one of the shopkeeping class.
 The socialistic implication was always one of derision. The aristo- crats were hated; the Bourgeoise were despised. An aristocrat could be respected even while he was hated, but the man of the middle class must always be regarded as ridiculous by the radical who would revolutionize society. An aristocrat, despite his in- herited tendency to enslave his fellow men, often was cultured and at least laid claim to nobility and grandeus The radical regarded him with feroc- ity, but did not consider him absurd.
 The poor Bourgeoise, in radical eyes, was always subject for inex- tinguishable laughter. The socialist looked upon him as too dull to know that he was enslaved, too servile to resist even if he knew. And so it came about that the middle class citizen was the symbol for all that was stupid, narrow, mean, and sub- missive It was altogether to be ex- pected that even his virtues should come to be despised by the reformer who prided himself upon his ability to remake the world according to bet ter model.
 Historians had displayed a fondness for the middle classes and were there fore anathema to the socialist who had formed a6new conception of his tory. Some historians had even gone so far as to say that this or that na- tion-Poland for example-fell be- cause it had no middle class Some of us within the last few years have been wont to point out similar con- dition in the social and economic structure of Mexico.
 The reformer with Bolshevik tend encies has neither admiration nor pity for the Bourgeoise. Perhaps that is due, in part, to the desire of the Bolsheviki to substitute one kind of class rule for another. The Bolshe- wiki want to be the ruling class. After doing away with aristocrats and all their devices the Bolsheviki would substitute their own devices-their own economic and social systems and impose them on all other classes.
 It is old-fashioned and absurd, in the opinion of the Bolsheviki, to re- spect the middle class virtues. They sheer at it as middle class morality" And thus we have before us the phenO- menor of Russia. The Bolsheviki have adopted the lecheries of the aristo- crats rather than the purities of the "stupid" Bourgeoise. The murders and cruelties of autocracy come natur- ally to the new autocrats. In fact, all that the world formerly held in vener- ation as virtuouss and honorable has Lo. hxy hn formers. Like autocrats they regard contracts, covenants and treaties as mere scraps of paper" If man still harps upon a point of honor they de- ride it as an obsolete refinement. And as for morality, it is utterly contemp- tib1e. In the place of wife they would enthrone the goddesses of free love, whom old-fashioned people have long called by uglier and shorter names.
 Honesty, too, is mere Bourgeois virtue. It is a false view forced by the owning class upon the weaker class. Like all the commandments or Christianity it enfeebles the common man and makes 1t impossible for him to throw off the yoke of the strong who made the commandments.
 It is true that this view is older than Christianity. The same charge wss hurled against the pagan religions of Greece and Rome before Christ was born.
 How long will radicals regard the middle class citizen in that light? Will Bolshevism so triumph that he will be considered ridiculous crank who still deems family ties binding, debts payable and personal honor more priceless than life? What strange world it is that can turn old things so 'awry that the common man who, once venerated these attributes should come to be considered target for the derision and scorn of millions of human beings.