Polk County news. [volume] (Benton, Tenn.) 191?-1983, 1920-08-12
Shall Chaos or Reconstruction in
Europe Follow the Great
World War;
ERROR IN MEETING MENACE
Allied Governments Can Not Ee Said
to Have combated the BolsheVik
Movement in Wise or
Prudent Manner.
Article xxx.
BY FRANK coMERFoRD.

Two things have tended to spread
and deepen the unrest of the world
since the signing Of the armistice-
the attitude of the allies toward the
soviet government, and the attitude
Of the conservative press and the en-
ployers of the world toward the work
ing class.
President Wilson summed the stu
alton up in a statement made in the
office of NJ. Pichon at the Quai
| DOrsay, Paris, on January 16, 1919.
| The conference was called for Il pre-
| liminary discussion regarding the sit
uation in Russia. The notes of the
conversations of the conference par
| ticipated in by Mr. Lloyd George, Mr..
Balfour, Mr. Pichon and Baron Som
ninio give the substance of the presi-
dents position in the following words:
"He (the presidenD did not believe
that there would be sympathy any
where with the brutal aspect of boil
shevism, If 1t were not for the fact of
the domination of large vested inter-
eSts in the political and economic
world. While it might be true that
this evil was in process of discussion
and slow reform, it must be admitted
that the general body of men has
grown impatient at the failure to
bring about the necessary reform. He
stated that there were many men who
represented large vested interests in
the United States who saw the neces-
sity for these reforms and desired
something which should be worked
out at the peace conference, namely, |
the establishment of some machinery
to provide for the opportunity of in
dividuals, greater than the world has
ever known. Capital and labor in the
United States are not friends. Still,
they are not enemies in the sense that
they are thinking of resorting to phys
ical force to settle their differences.
But they are diStrustful, each of the
other. Society cannot go on on that
plane. On the one hand, there is a
possessing capital and
brains; on the other, a majority con-
sisting of the great bodies of workers
who are essential to the minority, but
do not trust the minority, and feel
that the minority will never render
them their rights. A way must be
found to put trust and cooperation
between these two.
president Wilson pointed out that
the whole world was disturbed by this
question before the bosheviks came
into power. Seeds need soil. and the .
for them"
Unrest and Its Causes.
There was unrest before the war.
t was due to the fact that the few
lad more than they could use while
he many had less than they needed.
The complaint against conditions was ]
aking form. Unrest was tending to-
ward action. There was class con- /
clousness. 1t was more than un- !
1t was growing into pos
tive hate. The war depression crys- (,
allied 1t, and the war shock from I
Which the world suffered quickened I
he eagerness for action. The desire 4
or change was more than agitation; 4
had grown into determination and
esolution. Once the people had =
oubts about their ability to get free, i
ecent lives through political action. =
fter the war suspicion of the work .
,g class that the powerful interests %
'euld and could defeatt them on the *
olltcai deld became positive convic- j
on.Fs A. y AZ Il n 4.s tA.. q
The great mass Of toilers of the n
orld coming out of the war in this Il
anne of mind looked with sympathy
pom the. Russian experiment with m
Ii was the KIND of SYM r.,
athy one has for the underdog in q,
ght, and Russia had been an under n,
g iIf thegstruggle for life and lib 10,
ty NhroEgha all the ages. r. IA
$50 DsfInltef Policy lacking. 4 w in
Unfortunately for the world today q,
q Allied Governments of the world n,
i've been without definite policy to- to
ard the soviet government IN fsussiu. m
heir attitude has been one of uncer- u,
inty; a purposeless santaeonism Of II NJ
tshevlsm. From thes beghinfEa the M
lies have opposed the soviet pro n
am and the bolshevik methods, but NJ
cir opposition has taken no CON NJ
,uctive form; 1t has led to nothing; !
has amounted to a disorderly