Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1920-01-22
WHAT THE REDS WANT.

If the majority Of the American
people want to exchange the American
form of government for the new Rus
sian form, they can do so without
violence, simply by using the political
means they now possess-the secret,
universal suffrage.
That is why there is no excuse for
the Red propaganda OF direct action
in this country.
The Red propaganda is carried en-
with the use of many hinh sounding
phrases, such as liberty, the rule of
the people, justice, and progress.
The Reds say they want liberty.
What they want is to impose their
own will upon the majority If they
did not they would appeal to the ma
jorty which already have the right
and power to choose the Reds to rep
resent and rule them. The Reds know
they are minority. That is why
they are not willing to appeal to the
majority or to rely upon the ballot.
They propose to force their own will
by organized violence and by destruc-
tive strikes.
While talking of liberty the Reds
propose to set up what they call in
the jargon they have borrowed from
Russia, "the dictatorship of the pro-
letariat." I"
This means that the gov rnnlent of
the United States shall be given to
certain men who are either chosen by
manual workers or choose themselves
as representatives exclusively of man.
ual workers. In Russia this has been
worked out. The dictatorship, a few
men in the principal cities. abolished
liberty at once. 1t has executed those
who disagree with it. 1t has sup
pressed the opposition press and op-
position speech. While American
Reds are appealing loudly against the
measures of suppression adopted dur
ing the war, the Russian Reds, whom
they praise and propose to follow,
carried on acts of bloody suppression
which make the hardest laws or acts
in our history look like child's play.
The word liberty in the mouth Of
an American Red is joke. If every
charge they make against American
, conditions were true, America would
still be . free and fortunate country
con'nared to it's fate under Red des-
potism.
The Red hates any mans liberty
but his own:s, He respects no 4msn's,
right to think but his own. He is not
willing to trust to winning other
mems minds by reasoning and per-
suasion. He proposes to use force to
compel him to submit and be silent.
This is what every other tyrant has
believed in. force, "direct action"
The Red tries to cover his despotism
with fine phrases. He considers him
self a noble character bent on other
mems good. Every tyrant has talked
like that since Christianity set up al
truism as human ideal.
The Reds talk of the rule of the
people. But every adult male citizen
in the United States votes and soon
every adult female will vote. We
/ choose all our law makers by direct
vote and pass directly upon many
laws. We elect bv direct vote all our
/ important executives and most of our
judges.
The Reds are not satisfied with
this. According TO their theory, tn,
people elect local soviet, which
chooses a district soviet, which
chooses a national soviet, which
chooses an executive committee. The
people are from three to four removes
from the power which rules them in
all national and international affairs.
The American people would never
submit to such indirect representa-
ton.
The Peds talk Of progress, but m-
der the covering of snowy phrases
they propose return to tyranny. It
is tyranny by the Reds, so they are
for it. But why should any American
citizen want to deliver himself to it?
In Russia, which for centuries ac-
cepted the tyranny of the car, the
soviet system and even the Lenine
dictatorship doubtless mean progress.
If man carries load on his back
and gets a wheelbarrow he has made
progress. If he has horse or an au-
tomobile and gives it up for wheel
barrow he has gone back, not for
ward. To exchange America for Rus
STA is not going forward