The independent. [volume] (Elizabeth City, N.C.) 1908-1936, 1919-01-10
NOW is THE TIME FOR
A 'HANDS OFF" POLICY
Must Run Their Course
And We Should Not Play Carpet i
Bag Game -
BY AMOS PlNcHoT

BY AMOS PlNCHoT
We began the war with the coTnpara-f
lively modest aims OF protecting our
commerce and. preventing Germany
from conquering the Allies. Under Mr..
Wilson's guidance our aims have stead
lily grown into vast network of terri
torial. ethnologicaI and power readjust
ments. Never in the worlds history has.
there been a war with such comprehen-
.siye objects Never have nations fought I
to free peoples whose names they shard-
/ w knew and. whose history was an un-
opened book. but now has come the5
moment when we must resolutely refuseI
to enlarge our aims any further. HaV-1
ling ousted Russian, Bulgarian, Turkish /
! Austrian and German autocracy the A.
lies and-the United States should not
allow themselves to imagine that it is
their business to police the world, or
to work out the salvation of the people
thew have liberated. Now is the time
for a firm clear-cut policy of Hands.
OFF!
In the swing of the pendulum from
a1tocratic rule to democracy, there will
, naturally be tremendous disorders; that
lis quite inevitable; look back at the
French Revolution. People do not GO
along for hundreds of years under tyr
annous dynasties. and then suddenly
, glide into freedom without ripple. we
iknew this when we first began a war
for democracy. When we sa1d TO our
selves, 1--WE will free those people, we
:, tshould also have said "And they Will
aise the very devil; but no matter what
Q happens we must let them alone. For
- only the Russians themselves, the Aus
. itrians themselves and the Germans
: themselves, can solve the problems pre-
lsented by the new order. ReVolutlons
must run their course. And no crime
against democracy is SO unforglveaoie
as that of conquerers who impose amer
le learpet bag rule on a nation IN the
5s=s4fs.oes of revolutionary re-birth
Clear as It is that we Should hold our
" iselyes aloof at this time, sinister voices
d will be raised on every side urging US e
t. go in and pacify. These voices will car
st fully refrain from stating the actua
t. truth. For instance they will not sa.
D "Jf we allow an economic revolution II
of Germany and Russia and socialism
LII eovernment, our investments and IN
IA 5anonities will be imperilled Ii -direc
of Donn1ar rule and co-operatice industr
r. onducted by the working classes is per
n 4 ed to take root in one country 1t WI
IL Presumably spread to, others, ana IN
s. foundations of the exploiting class WI
- he shaken everywhere" " But neVerthe
as less. this disguised is high souhalae
r. roi,k-wh1te phrases, will -1bss7 s22actl
es, what they will mean
Sin Against Holy Ghost.
lis We must remember that, in the eye
u aff-industrial plutocracy, to set up CO
ne onarat;ye production is the sin agalhS
le- ~ EJo1v Ghost. This and not the re
er- or+ed Russian excesses, is the Amer
p- can junker's main indictment again
ei the Russian economic upheaVai' L. nuss-
OF has been knouted for centuries, sl3i 'e
for centuries, sileneed for centuries gent
Ia profiteer aristocraey so corrupt tn
u it even gurglarized it's own means
tai defense Now Russia is lied apoC
'ui hecai,se she is trying to set up u
10 co-operative commonwealth Whlch
generations has been the ideal Oh ecu
i'Ae mists. And she is lied about WIN e
pecial zest because, from the potnl
sou view of our capitalist newspapers, y
A"' is so unreliable; for Russia continual
w. refuses to perform atrocities whlcn
press has already ascribed to her
accomplished facts
Certainly the much misrepresene
az revolution has been violent; revolutle
are by no means parlor games; Tn
IN are desperate undertakings at oest'
io (which the stakes are life and oea
But, on the whole Russia has peen
. less violent than was France in ~
90 iwhen the people killed off the an
s tocrats, men and women alike ourn
n~ their estates and made of their count
a horror to dream of and hell to IL
20 in. 1t was terrible, but it was
'Ae overstress in a break 'or hoei
which Carlyle pictures as the nopis
hes Of human events. ''The greatness
ity human actions said Pasteur can
ces measured by the inspiration Whl
rcn gives them birth!" And Russla,s II
piration has been to abolish econon
Re- slavery by removing from the profite
and lboth his profit and political power.