The Wrangell sentinel., 1920-07-01


 first Lover of the Poor were those who cried out against the tenements. de manding for human beings the sun shine and air cattlemen give their stock. These unpopular ones were the same twho brought ice to keep milk cool in the hot summer for the chill dren of the slums; these were the crusaders against child labor. the protestants against compelling the women who bear the children of the race to work so many hours each day that exhaustion marred and marked the physical and mental strength of children.
 So 1t was that these redeemed, freed children of Russia learned of the cancer and feared 1t as much as the thing they had escaped.
 None Able to Check Disease.
 They beheld old-school politicians acting as doctors to sick civilization. These doctors, miscalled statesmen. were agreed as to the cause of the dis- ease and that the symptoms threat ened death. Many prescriptions have been given the patient. but none seem to check the disease. These prescrip- tions had been various formulas of government. the constitutional mon- archy, democracy, republic. The giving of these various treatments failed to effect cure. Civilization continued to suffer. At times pain be came uncomfortable and the doctors gave local anesthetics. These were the laws, included under the general designation "Social Welfare Legislation" They made the patient temporarily more easy. They allayed pain that might otherwise have produced convulsions- Revolution.
 studying the new world into which they had so recently come. discovered that many of these political doctors were quacks, they were unreliable and dishonest. They were more interested In their own fortunes than the fate of the patient. They imposed upon the people who hired and trusted them. Their time and thought was taken up In holding their jobs, rather than In do- ing their work. That the schools of political medicine, called political par ties, responsible for these doctors. were diploma mills. graft rings. That some of the people suspected these physicians of being interested in keep ing the patient sick and were not mak- ing an honest effort to cure. It had even been rumored that there are peo- pie ln the world who make profit out of poverty; that special privilege Is the powerful profteer of our day.
 Turned to Old Theory.
 Plato had spoken about another remedy way back in the fourth cen tury before Christ. So had Marx. An untried remedy-a theory. Its object was to cure poverty. The Russians. seeing that the remedies in common use had failed, turned their thoughts to this old remedy which had never been tried. At least 1t had not failed; this was in It's favor. It was an ex- pertinent. to be sure, but Nothing yen- tured, nothing gained" Many argued that 1t could not more completely fail than the prescriptions at present in use.
 And with the fall of imperialism there came into Russia one who had been exiled. For many years he had been a teacher and preacher of the tal nd a savior. He came with message. He said that communism would keep them free make them happy. They listened, they believed. They were as little children, so great was their faith. To them promise was truth fulfilled, the word a covenant; and the promise was that peasants would have their own land. that working men would be their own bosses. It was the word they had waited for, the realiza- ton of the dreams they had dreamed in the dark treadmill. The Prophet had come. The new day awaited them. They rejoiced and cried. Long live the new Messiah" No one sacri- legiously questioned the practicability of the dream. Every one forgot the common, controlling instinct of man selfshness. Maybe in the intense gen. eral selfishness individual self1shness could not be seen.
 The man was Lenine-the message Communism.
 Copyright. lsis. Western Newspaper Union, 
 Food Smuggling In Germany.