McNairy County independent. (Selmer, McNairy County, Tenn.) 1902-1969, 1920-07-30
Shall Chaos or Reconstruction In
Europe Follow the Great
World War;
ANALYSIS OF SOVIET RULE
Cold reasoning Easily Proves Faliacy
on Which the Idea Is Based
Demaaoglsm Its Foundation
Stone.
Article XXI.
BY FRANK coMERFoRo.

Lenine has frequently observed that
representative government Is q fall
ure. He, has insisted that the demo-
cratic form of government is de-
bauched and destroyed by the political
machine; that political corruption We
toes the will of the people. If Lenine
Is right in this conclusion, then the
bolshevik government in Russia offers
just from three to five times as much
chance for political corruption as our
own form of government. If 1t is dan
gerous for the American people to
entrust their business to an agent
whom they directly elect and who Is
directly responsible to them, how
much more dangerous must it be TO
turn over the public business to II
men appointed by central executive
committee, the members of which
have been appointed by an All Russian
congress, which Al-Russian congress
is elected by soviets for whom the
people did not vote? Applying this
| plan to our own government, our con-
gress would be elected by the state
legislatures and the aldermen of the
| cities then this congress so elected
would pick an executive committee Of
200, and this committee would elect
II commissioners to whom would be
given the supreme power Of the state,
both Legislative and executive power,
the right to make laws. and the au-
thority to enforce the laws.
Democracy or Autocracyf
All down through history two the
cries of government have been at war.
One is that the majority shall rule
the other, that the minority shall rule.
The people struggling for freedom
have battled for the former; the few
seeking special privileges have fought
for the latter The first is democrat
lie. the second autocratic. No compro.
mise is possible; there is no middle
ground. These two antagonistic ideas
have nothing In common: like parallel
lines, they can never meet, In their
nsture they are separate and apart
The government of the late kaiser of
Germany, the government of Nicholas
the autocrat of Russia, were founded
on the idea that the minority shall
rule History shows that minority
rule has always enslaved the major.
ity. The rule of minority over a
majority means slavery for the many
II is human nature. The principle
always works the same result. If Il
is political meeting and the minor
and boss. When II Is a nation, you
have a bureaucracy and dictator, de
irving his power not from the consent
of the governed, but from the bay
onets of the army. There may be room
for honest differences of opinion be
tween honest men ca many questions
but there is not any room for differ
ence of opinion among honest fre'
men on the proposition that minority
rule Is menace.
In Article LII of the bolshevik con
stitution we find incontrovertibe evi
dence that the government Of sovie
Russia is built on the tyrant's stone
minority rule, Section IS reads:
~The All-Russian congress is com
posed of representatives Of city SOW
cts In the ratio of one delegate fO
every $4,000 voters. and of represent
atives of the soviets of the provinces II
the ratio of one delegate for ever!
125y0c0 inhabitants"
Discrimination Against Peasants.
No explanation Is gwen for basinl
the representation In congress from
the cities ON the number of voters
while the representation In congress
from the provinces is based or tn,
number of inhabitants. The words arr
not synonyms, voter Is an lnhabit
ant Of certain age and possessing Ger
anyone who lives In the province, re
CARELESS of age or qualifications.
the word inhabitant is given the sam,
meaning that the word voter is given
then II is apparent that the constitn
ton unjustly discriminates agains
the poor peasant As they have hu,
no general elections in Russia. 1t 4
impossible to give the official construc
tion of these two words. If the wor,
inhabitant means any man. woman G
child living In the province. the dis
elimination against the poor peas
ants" is just as obvious. although |
lOes not go to the same length. A
an illustration. II We read this i'm
pOrtant provision of the constitution
giving to the word inhabitant the sam
meaning as we give TO the word voter
then we see that the voters of tn
city have one congressman for ever
25.000. while the poor peasants
have one congressman for every l25
900. II we construe the word vote
TO mean the qualified legal voter, all
the word inhabitant TO mean any hu
man being living in the provinces, W
learn that the people of the city hav
one congressman for every $500
voters, while the people of the pro,
inces have one congressman for ever
800 voters. reach this~.estimat
In the following manner: In the Unite