The Washington herald., 1919-03-30

luxuries, will make broader and
better men and women; will In
short, bring up to the middle class
standard all the workers of the
world. To get these shorter hours,
higher wages. better houses and
more wholesome environment, It
Will be necessary to take away
every year a larger scale of rents.
Inheritance. interest and profits,
SO that the differences between
those whose brains are In trained
hands, and those whose brains are
in trained heads will year by year
and century by century become less
and less marked.
Greed Ia Majority Rule.
This Is a leveiing process. 1t
provides for the continuance of the
civilization that now is by natural
process of evolution from one form
to the next higher, without break
or change. The creed Of the evo-
lutionary Socialist is based upon
the theory of the majority rule;
it holds to the doctrine that in some
way, out of the council of the
many, wisdom will come: that vox
populi Is really vox del! And IL
there is vox del, the presump-
tion Of deity is inevitable. So
we find a creed based not upon
the theory that might makes right.
but that inevitably in the pro-
cesses of the years right makes
might. There may be more or. less
bloodshed following the adoption
of this creed upon earth. And
doubtless somewhat of a modifica-
tion of 1t; but in the end II will be
accepted. The Bolshevist theory
that no man should eat who does
not work Is worth saving. The Boil
shevist idea that much now may
be trusted to local self-govern-
ment which in the earlier evolu-
tionary stage had to be passed on
to central government, Is interest
ing and should not be too sum-
marily rejected. The political
power and industrial contribution
of a man should bear some rela-
ton to one another. And the no.
good should have no vote. All
that is Bolshevist is not bad. And
there can be no doubt that society
more or less grows decadent at the
top as 1t mildews in injustice at
the bottom: so a certain amount
Of leveling down may be necessary.
But speaking broadly one may cay
that these two ideals. the ideals of
a government based upon a level
ing down process. and the ideals
OF government based upon a lev
cling up process, cannot live in the
same world; for one is based upon
Ill
upon the philosophy of fellowship,
OF self-respect,
Bolsheyiki Strong.
SO much for the philosophy of
the situation; now for its actuali-
ties: The Bolshevists seem to be
in undisputed control of a major
part of Central Russia and much
OF Siberia. They are opposed by
fairly substantial governments in
Poland. Finland. Archangel. Es-
thonia. Lithonia and the southern
provinces around the Black Sea
with Odessa as the nucleus. over
by the Caspian Sea the Bolsheviks
have weak control. IL any,
among the tribesmen. but there is
no stable government which could
resist Bolsnevism seriously. A cor
don Is thus seen to be drawn
around the area OF Bolshevix con-
troll. but 1t is not strong And the
Bolshevik army is strong and
growing rather stronger than 9TH
erwise. The enemies of Bolshe"ism
claim that the growing stren2 Il of
the army is due to promises of
loot. and that the weakness of Boil
shevism lies in the fact that the
peasant farmers who desire to be
land owners and who were land
owners to a more or less extent
under Kerenski, submit to Bolshe-
vik rule only under the force Of
fear. This is not an established
fact.
The Bolshevik government sta
tistics seem to indicate that pro-
duction in the factories has fallen
OF apprecisbly under Bolshevik
rule, and the depreciation OF the
rWble has made an apparent in
crease in cost of the products OF
Russian factories so great that
they cannot compete successfully