The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1920-04-16

CONCLUSION tnat TO learn W0at DOL
shevism is I might with wisdom adopt
the scientific method used by the doc
tor Of medicine In arriving at a d.
agnosis. The doctor examines and
gathers the symptoms, the meaning of
the disease. He then determines what
diseases might produce these symp-
toms. By process Of elimination he
discards one possibility after another
left, one thing that the symptoms can
mean.
! discovered at the outset that most
of us have the habit Of using terms
loosely. Seldom do we give time or
thought to the exact, real meaning of
things. The meaning of bolshevlsm is
too important to the world not to try
to understand 1t. There Is differ
ence between having the acquaintance
Of word and knowing; the former is
a mere introduction, the latter an in
timacy.
Since the war, when the fastidious
diner YEARLY orders his consomme
and the waiter brings it bit tardi'y
or cold, he thinks to himself, or If
courageous enough TO speak his mind,
he calls the cook bolshevik. He has
found word to express his irritation.
1t serves his profane feelings and at
the same time saves his SNUG respect
ability.
See Bolshevism Everywhere.
Once the maid asking for an af-
ternoon off provoked knowing smile.
Her mistress granted the request,
charged 1t up to a possible romance
and generally suspected the policeman
on the beat. Since the war 1t Is differ
ent. The maid Is looked upon with
suspicion. Her motives are questioned.
The request is considered symptom
of the new terrible disease, bolshevism.
The mistress thinks to herself: The
maid doesn't want to work any more;
she is down with the epidemic.
The office boy, working the reliable
excuse that his grandmother has died
again, to get an afternoon off to go
to the ball game, is trying to shirk
work, in the opinion of his employer,
who formerly, when such an appli-
cation was made from the same source,
chuckled as he granted it, while his
memory took him back to his own boy
hood days when he used the grand
mother yarn to answer the call of the
ball field
Many captains of industry see the
symptoms of the new dread in every
movement and thought of the workers.
The demand for living conditions and
decent wages are grudgingly received
by minds soured with the thought that
It is bolshevism.
The hirers of child labor, looking
hatefully at legislation designed to end
child slavery, call the leaders of child
life conservation bolshevists. When
doctors and public-spirited men and
women insist that an irreparable In
|. Jury Is being done the nation in al
lowing women to work for a period In
excess of the hours they are able to
work without menacing their mother
hood, the proHteers from woman labor
cry out: "You are invading the right
of private'contract; your are mad with
bolshevsm."
Every Sort Of Definition.
The wag with the wit of barber
defined bolshevism as a wild idea sur
rounded by whskers. The saloon
keeper, bowled over by prohibition.
screams "bolshevism." The anti-sa-
loon leaders come back with the an
swer, "Your personal liberty cry is
only a camounage for bolshevism."
If anyone disagrees with you, don't
grant him, the right to an opinion,
don't reason with him-just call him a
bolshevlk. The word has become an
epithet. a popular invective, a slur, an
insult, an outlet for contempt. con-
tumely and hate. Its parenthood in
Duences our definition of 1t. Most or
us see the Russians with the eyes of
the earicaturists, who for so many
years have portrayed the Russian as
the moujik with high boots, disleveled
IlulT, VIII "HlSheTh, tie lave VI an "S-
sassin, the body Of terrorist In ac-
ton, the suggestion Of long dagger
smeaked with hot blood, under his
greatcoat.
If a doctor making an examination
Of all of the patients in a hospital.
discovered they all had certain symp-
toms In common, such rs temperature.
weakness and pnin, and because of
these findings should diagnose the
sickness of oil Of the patients as pneu-
monia, the doctor would be regarded
a lunatlc. yet there are men in the
world today who are as foolish us such
doctor would be. They call every
symptom of unrest. without regard to
its history, bolshevlsm.
Copyright. 1920, Western Newspaper Union)
Roumania'o Oil Wells.