The Butte daily bulletin., 1919-06-25
dress of John Haynes Holmes.


this place tonight. First of all is /
Russia, the Incompatible; the land of
musicians and poets and artists: the
abode of Tolstoi; the haunt for more |
than hundred years of the martyred
lovers of liberty.
Then we think of the revolution,
which, at last, after such long delay, |
has brought reward to the sacrifices
of exile and death-the revolution
which marks the one bencficent event
of the great war-the revolution,
which will be remembered and
blessed OF men when battles on land
and seas, treaties of peace and
leagues of nations have been utterly
and cOntemptuouSly forgotten.
Again, this meeting brings to our
minds the soviet, that new form of
social organization, which has sprung
up out OF the soil of Russia like
native plant, under the sunny influ-
ence of frcedom-the most interest
ing and promising contribution which
has been made to the science of de-
mocracy since the writing of the con-
stitutiOn of the United States.
And then it is inevitable, is it not,
that we should find ourselves think
ing tonight of Lenine and Trotzky
and the bolsheviki-men whose the
ory of class government I do not ac-
cept, whose methods, many of them.
| must deplOre and condemn, but who
have builded out of the shattered
fabric of Russian life a government
which has endured for is months -
who have attempted single handed.
and thus far successfully, task of
creative craftsmanship unparalleled
in history, and who hold in their
keeping this day the trust, the affec-
tion and the eager hope of more than
80 per cent of the Russian people.
OF these elements in the problem
which l have named, l propose to
speak primarily of the revolution.
am here to ask that the Russian peo-
pie be left alone to work out their
own destiny in their own way. I am
here to plead that the Russian peo-
pie, with whom | have no quarrel,
be given sympathy and help in pre-
serving the liberties which they have
SO heroically achieved. | am here to
demand, in your name and my own,
that the revolution be not delayed
1t seems strange that in this coun-
try, or in any of the allied countries,
it should be necessary to argue that
free Russia be given justice. The
allies, we are told, were fighting in
the late war, for democracy; and we
know that this was so, because if
you doubt it, you were promptly
sent to Jail. The anomaly in the mill
tary situation as thus described was
the presence on the allied side of the
czar, whom we had always been
taught to regard as the head of the
most autocratic and cruel govern
ment in the world.
One would have thought that the
overthrow of this tyrant would have
been greeted in the countries which
were battling to make the world safe
for democracy with universal acclaim.
And so it was, by the people of those
countries! They recognized instantly
that here at least was one place
where democracy was safe. for a
while at least The political leaders
in these allied countries, however,
were not so enthusiastic.
Democracy was all right, of course,
But it must be under CONTROL and
here was a democracy which seemed
to be it's own master. Not even the
very mild-mannered government of
Miliukoff and Lyof, therefore. was
regarded in the beginning without
suspicion
When Kerenski took hold, suspi-
cion was instantly transformed into
ill-concealed hostility. In vain he
pleaded for a statement of demo-
cratic war aims, that he might hold
the Russian people to the fight
against Germany. In vain he asked
for recognition and cooperation.
Then came the bolsheviki. That
the allies would have no dealings
with these Russians, was certain
from the beginning. But certainty
was made doubly certain by the
colossal impudence of the bolsheviki
in publishing the secret treaties, and
thus disclosing to the world what
democratic craftsmanship was doing
G behind the scenes.
From that time on, the allied gov
= crnmentS were the sworn enemies o1
/ the bolshcviki. They have sent am
munition into the country that the,
might be killed. They have blockadet
= their ports, that they might bt
starved. And now that iirst-class
} Al autocrat has appeared, in kol
= chalk, who himself confesses to III
other dictatorship and thus destroy
i ing the revolution, they rush prompt
"A ly ana effectively to his ana.
1t may be we'll to consider for {
moment what are the reasons Offered
c in justification of this hostile inter
ference with the happy progress o
I the Russian revolution. These arr
[ all summed up in the word ''bolshe
wiki" The allies, forsoOth, woult
save the revolution from the RUTHLESS
5 hands of those who are leading it tt
betrayal and death
Thus it is alleged that the bolshe
wiki are pro-German, that they rep
resent the success of the pro-Germal
propaganda in Russia! OF all TIN
c great fairy tales of the world, th
most marvellous ever written, may
:, say, is that of the life and work o
IL pro-German propaganda. If you hap
a pened to believe that Moses mean
what he said in his commandment
II Thou shalt not KILL" and that Jesu
was serious when he declared, Low
your enemies" it was pro-Germal
IS propaganda. Ii you went on strik
r. for wages enough to meet the eXtOr