The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1920-04-16
Shall Chaos or Reconstruction
In Europe Follow the Great
World War;
SOME LIGHT ON BoLsHEvIsM
Movement Not AnarchistIc, as So
Many Seem TO Enthusiastically
lie Best Described as "con-
sistent Socialism"
Article XIII.
BY FRANK coMERFoRp.

BY FRANK coMERFoRD.
II were asked to name the princi-
pal cause for the growing unrest my
answer would be bolsheyism. The al
most universal attitude of big business
toward Russian bolshevfsm-an atti-
tude adopted by most of the govern
ments of Europe--has been, and is,
Kill 1t; don't waste time examining 1t
1t Isn't worth trying to understand; no
good can come out of it; 1t must be
fought; it isn't entitled to a trial.
Reams of paper have been used to as
sail 1t. Captains of industry and gov
eminent officials have We'd with each
other In making assault on 1t. Many
of those who oppose bolshevism are
indignant If you ask them what 1t Is
and why they oppose it. They charac-
terize 1t, attack it, resent it. 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 been 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
bad thing, it is at least a definite po-
litical plan, capable of being examined,
measured, weighed and tested. 1t is
few of the things 1t has been called.
1T is entitled to hearing on its mer-
its. 1t cannot be howled down in
abuse.
5oIshevism Not Anarchy.
Those who lead the campaign
against it frequently and confusingly
define it as anarchy. If there is one
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
out understanding, then stubbornly
close our 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 not criminal law
lessness, 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
it looks frightened, thinks of bomb
thrower, a dynamiter, a firebrand
Such man Is not an anarchist; he is
a terrorist, a criminal, a destruction
list, murderer. Let US call a spade
a spade and be sure we know what 6
spade is, and we will understand eacf
other better.
Anarchism is an old and respectable
philosophy. The anarchist is an indi
vidualist. He is in favor of free life
for the individual. He is opposed tt
turning over the individuals power t,
the state. He argues that grea
power delegated to government limit.
the growth and freedom of the indi
vidual. He dreams of an ideal state IL
which human beings will be so perfec
they need no law. His doctrine is al
enlargement, an exaggeration of tn
idea that the government which gov
ems least governs best. He isn't
lawbreaker. He is a law abolisher. III
reasons that when murder leaves tn
human heart there will be no occasion
for laws against killing; that tn
statute against murder is only printe
! words on the page of law book, nj
terly and entirely without meaning, o
existence, to the man who Is incapabl
of killing his fellow man. He say
that we should develop our artist
and moral sides and by evolutio
gradually repeal one law after al
other until all law disappears. 1t
pure idealism-it is movement Il
! ward perfection. 1t is the millennium
1t is poetry. Kipling wrote its col
stitution when he wrote:
J And only the Master shall praise us,
q And only the Master shall blame,
. And no one shall work for money,
And no one shall work for fame,
7 But each for the Joy of working,
I Each In his separate star
Shall draw the Thing as he sees II
: For the God of Things as They Are.
y Merely Beautiful Dream.
|, Few people will contend that tn
e theory is anything more than beaut
full dream. Probably the first an
greatest of the anarchists was ii
1 great Greek philosopher Zeno, fro
Crete, the founder of the stole philos
ply, who died 80 years b. G. 1t
II disturbing to find dynamiters call,
ii anarchists, and in the same brea