The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1920-04-15
Shal! Chaos or Reconstruction
in Europe Follow the Great
World War?
SOME LIGHT ON B0LsHEWsM
movement Not Anarchistic, as So
Many Seem to Enthusiastically
is Best Described as "con-
sistent Socialism,"
Article Kill.
BY FRANK

BY FRANK c~oMERFoRD.
If were asked to name the princi-
oal cause for the growing unrest my
answer would be bolshevism. The al
most universal attitude of big business
toward Russian bolshevism-an atti-
tude adopted by most of the govern
ments of Europe-has been, and is,
Kill IL; don't waste time examining it;
Ii isn't worth trying to understand no
good can come out of it; 1t must be
fought; 1t isn't entitled to a trial.
Reams of paper have beer used 10 as
sail IL. Captains of industry and gov
eminent officials have Wed with each
other in making assault on 1t. Many
of those who oppose bolshevism are
indignant if you ask them what 1t is
nnd why they oppose ii. They charac-
eerize Ii, attack ii, resent il. Great
heat has been shown in discussing 1t,
without throwing any light on the sub
Ject. Absurd lies have been told
about bolshevism. Later these unnec-
essary and stupid lies have been ex-
posed, with the result that suspicion
has been bred. unrest fed. The effect
upon the workers has beer to increase
their hate for their employers and de-
stroy their already weakened faith In
government.
Whether bolshevism is right or
wrong, whether it is a good thing or a
bad thing, it is at least a definite POI,
litical plan, capable of being examined,
measured, weighed and tested. 1t is
few of the things it has been called.
1t is entitled to a hearing on its mer-
its. 1t cannot be howled down In
abuse.
BoIshevism Not Anarchy.
Those who lead the campaign
against 1t frequently and confusingly
define it as anarchy. If there is n
thing that bolshevism is not. 1t Is an
archy. Much controversy will be
avoided, many differences of opinion
dissolved If we come to a fair and
open understanding of the bolshevik
program. One Of the great misfor-
tunes is that we form opinions without
information, rush to judgments with
u understanding. then ~stubbornly
close Il minds. Much Of the discord
and strife of life in big things. as we'll
as in little matters, is due TO this
habit. Anarchy Is cot criminal law
l~essness, Notwithstanding the fact that
this is the popular misconception of
the term. Say anarchist" and the av-
erage man or woman to whom you say
1t looks frightened, thinks of a bomb
thrower. a dynamiter, q firebrand.
Such a man Is not an anarchist; he is
a terrorist. a criminal, a destruction
fist, a murderer. Let US call q spade
spade is. and WI will understand each
other better.
A%narchism Is an old and respectable
philosophy. The anarchist is an indi-
vidualist. He Is In favor of a free life
for the individual. He Is opposed to
turning over the individuals power to
the state. lie argues that great
power delegated TO government limits
the growth and freedom of the indi-
vidual. He dreams Of an ideal state In
which human beings will be SO perfect
they need no law. His doctrine Is an
enlargement, an ~exaggeration Of the
idea that the government which gov
ems least governs best. He isn't a
Iawbreaker. He Is a law abolisher. He
reasons that when murder leaves the
human heart there will be no occasion
for laws against killing; that the
statute against murder is only printed
words on the page of a law book, ut
terly and entirely without meaning. or
existence, TO the mar who Is incapable
of killing his fellow man. He says
that we should develop our artistic
and moral sides and by evolution
gradually repeal II law after an
other until all law disappears. 1t Is
pure idealism-it Is a movement to-
ward perfection. II Is the millennium
1t is poetry. Kipling wrote Its con-
%stitution when he wrote:
And only the Master shall praise us.
And only the Master shall blame.
And no one shall work for money.
And no one shall work FOR fatne.
But each for the Joy OF working.
Each in his separate star
Shall draw the Thing as he sees IL
For the God Of Things as They Are.
Merely a Beautiful Dream.
Few people will contend that this
theory is anything more than a beauti-
full dream. Probably the first and
greatest Of the anarchists was the
great Greek philosopher Zeno. from
Crete, the founder of the stole phiIoso-
ply, who died 270 years B. c. II Is
disturbing { o find dynamiters called
anarchists, and In the same breath
hear included some of the greatest
idealists that have ever trod the
earth. The very mention OF the two
types in the same class gives respec-
liability TO the totally ugly. depraved,
Ignorant. iawiess criminal.
went to a standard authority for
n cominon-sense definition of boisheN-
ism. I was In Prague IN my way up
toward the boIshevik front. spent
an Afternoon with President Thomas