davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
New-York tribune., 1920-08-15

adventure. French statesmen have
never even simulated belief in the
vocal method Of extinguishing a
world confagration, but France has
lacked the strength to undertake a
new war single handed.
AS for America, what can one
say? We have refused to rccog-
nize the Reds, we have consistently
opposed them, we have conducted
within our own boundaries rigor-
Gus repression which has amounted
to sending few score of Boil
shevists back to Europe or be-
hind prison bars, but beyond this we
have done nothing. We have shared
the Allied policy of passive and in
direct hostility. We have contribu-
ted money and supplies to various
adventures, but, save for brief mo-
ment and on microscopic scale, we
have contributed no men.
Indirect Methods Won't Do
Yet the truth about the Russian
revolution is unmistakable. 1t cam
not be beaten by indirect and subsi-
died efforts directed to support
ti-Bolshevist leaders in Russia. 1t
can no longer be restrained by the
use of border tribes, by more or
less earnest support Of the national
istic and racial aspirations of the
people who were once engulfed by
the Western push Of the Russian or
by the German invasion. 1t can be
checked, if at all now, only by the
employment of British, French,
Italian and American troops in
large numbers over a considerable
period Of time.
And no alternative of peace Is
open to the West, because the Rus
sian revolution is, in itself, in its
very nature and driving force, an
assault upon Western civilization.
We may fight it at the Oder, the
Vistula line having collapsed; we
may fight it, when it has overrun
Europe, at the shores Of the Atlantic
itself, when it has at it's command
all the vast resources of the Euro
pean world it has engulfed, but
somewhere we must fight it.
Lenine is becoming, in his own
way, exactly the menace Napoleon
New-York tribune., 1920-08-15

"Who are you? What do you mean
by coming in here?'
Mr.. Wallis fell back, and few
minutes later tried it again. Once
more the Bull Of Bashan charged
upon him. This time another men,
Der of the party interfered.
"T'his is the new commissioners
he explained, whereupon the inspec-
tor began profuse apologies.
What He Wanted to Know
"That is all right" said Mr..
Wallis. Don't apologize. l have
learned one of the things l wanted
to know. If you will treat visi-
tor, who, even you can see, is an
American and a gentleman, in this
way, how will you treat these poor
aliens? This island has ceased to
be the private property of few in
spectors. 1t has become a govern
ment institution and henceforth is
going to be human and humane"
That is the reason for the abnor
NAL conditions at Ellis Island. When
a visitor goes over there he can go
most any place without being dubbed
over the head, and if he happens to
get into forbidden path he is di-
rected politely into the proper lanes
of travel.
After he had been sworn in the
new commissioner made a tour Of
the buildings on the island. He
found that in the dinging room they
served 5000 meals a day and that
New-York tribune., 1920-08-15
Amercanizaton Work Should Begin at Ellis Island

! and then kept on their feet for three
or four hours until their trains are
ready, and the mothers have to hold
the babies in their arms all that
time. These people are not getting
anything free. They pay just as
mrch as any one else, and they must
be treated the same as any one else
or there will be no more immigrants
routed by the Erie from Eli.
Island"
That is the keynote of the alb
normal conditions at Ellis Island.
The new immigration Commissioner
has theory that he is putting into
practice. 1t is that the Americans
zation of immigrants should begin
at Ellis Island, and that the way to
begin it is to treat them like human
beings.
Commissioner Ordered Out
After Mr.. Wallis had been sp-
pointed and confirmed, and before
he was sworn in as commissioner he
went over to the Island to have a
look around. There is an institu-
ton over there known as "the kiss
ing post" 1t is the place where
relatives of immigrants first meet
and greet the newly arrived aliens.
Mr.. Wallis opened a gate in rail
ing and started in the general di-
rection of "the kissing post" But
an inspector rushed up to Mr.. Wal
lis, put both hands on his chest and
pushed him back through the. gate.
"Get out of here!" he bq3swed.
New-York tribune., 1920-08-15

years OF bureaucratic inefficiency.
"A private business run as the
government is would go bankrupt in
SIX months" says Commissioner
Wallis.
1t IS all a part of his theory that
the Americanization of the immi.
grant should begin with the arrival
Of the ship in the port of New York.
ut is men and women we are re-
ceiving here" he says, land if we
are going to make good American
citizens of them, we must show them
from the minute Of their arrival that
this is civilized country"
To help him put his theory into
practice he is forming a committee
of we'll known men and women who
shall constitute themselves an or
ganlzatlon for receiving the immi-
grants and helping them to a fair
start in their new country. Many
aliens have to be detained for greater
or less periods of time on Ellis
Island. No one ever seems to have
thought of entertaining them while
they are he'd there. Commissioner
Wallis has begun a program of con-
certs. They are given Sunday after
Moons at present, but he expects soon
to have them three times a week. If
he succeeds in all he has laid out for
himself to do, people who have been
familiar with Ellis Island in the past
and with the treatment Of the newly
arrived alien to these shores-third
class-will he inclined to call him
superhuman
New-York tribune., 1920-08-15

that rushed out almost took him off
his feet.
"Why are these doors kept
closed?" he asked.
"If l leave them open the immi-
grants bother me to death with their
questions" the matron replied.
Keep these doors open and an
swer all the questions that are asked
you. That is your business" said
Mr.. Wallis. "Open the windows,
too"
1t took a week Of constant watch
fulness to have those double doors
kept open, but they are open, now,
all the time.
Up little flight of stairs he found
another room containing the over
flow from the rs. l." 1t had 225 oc-
cupants. Windows and doors closed,
of course. But not only that: in this
Black Hole Of Calcutta the water
was shut off and two of the four
toilets were out of commission, while
the door of the third was locked and
the one left open for use was in an
indescribably filthy condition.
That situation has been remedied.
The aliens detained there are no
longer treated as swine by lazy and
brutal officials, but are considered
human beings.
So it goes all over Ellis Island.
There is a new Commissioner who
takes nobody's word, but is investi-
eating conditions for himself and
taking instant steps to remedy the
abuses that have grown up over long
New-York tribune., 1920-08-15

ible blindness Of the allied publics,
an accompaniment Of their extreme
exhaustion, itself consequence of
the World War, and to the Disgrace
full jealousies and chickering's among
the three great European powers Of
the West, Britain, France and Italy.
And at the moment, when it is no
longer possible to disguise the grav-
ity of the menace, Britain is oc-
cupied by two considerable wars in
Asia, with the Turk and with the
Arab; the French have stretched
their military resources to the ut
most limit to give Gouraud, in Syria,
New-York tribune., 1920-08-15

and Lyautey, in Morocco, the nee
essary troops to complete two CO.
lonial ventures, while maintaining
the watch on the Rhine.
AS for Italy, she has lost in the
game of colonial adventure and
finds herself, after an exhausting
war, in the worst shape of the three
great powers with the smallest ter
ritoria! gain to show for her sue
cesses. She finds her recent allies
backing the Southern Slavs. against
her in the Adriatic and her Greek
rivals in the Egean and on the
mainland of Asia Minor. And at
the same time she faces one of the
gravest domestic crises in all her
recent history.
Troops Hard to Find
That France or Britain can find
troops to face the Bolshevists east
Of the Rhine barrier seems totally
unlikely. That Italy will consent
to contribute troops to fight be-
yond her Alpine frontiers seems
equally improbable. The simple
fact is, then, that the situation in
the twentieth century is hapidly ap-
preaching that Of nearly 1000 years
ago, when Rome undertook to hold
the barbarians in check on the
Rhine, the Alps and the Danube, and
after several centuries of effort
failed and fell. To these same bar
riers the West may now have to re-
coil.
| tried last week to emphasize the
dangers which would result from a
total collapse of Poland. They are
not limited to the elimination of
Poland. The defeat of the West
goes far more deeply. Not alone
New-York tribune., 1920-08-15

there was not a drink of water to
be had in the place, though there
were several drinking fountains.
The water was turned off at all Of
them.
."Why is this water turned off?'
he asked an inspector in charge of
the dining room.
The immigrants slop the water
around and the floor gets wet near
the fountains" said the inspector.
$50 you keep these poor people
without any water with their meals
because you>are too lazy to mop the
floor" said Mr.. Wallis. "Turn that
water on.'
The water was turned on, but dur
ing the night some officious official
broke all the faucets off the foun-
tains. Mr.. Wallis had new faucets
put on and stationed a guard to pro-
tect them. After few days the
inspectors learned Chat he meant
what he said, and the immigrants
can now get all the water they want
with their meals.
Bothersome Questions
He found room with 400 occu-
pants, all the windows closed, the
double doors at the entrance closed
and a matron complacently tanning
herself on the outside. It was the
IS. l." room, the roome where imni
grants are detained who have to go
through a special inquiry. When
he opened the Aoors the foul air
New-York tribune., 1920-08-15

was a little more than a century
ago. But Europe was long learn
ing the lesson. Austria fell while
Prussia watched. Prussia went to
ruin and Russia, on the heels Of two
defeats, made peace at Tilsit. Only
England remained aloof, hostile and
helpless as long as Europe was
divided Napoleon's victorious armies
reached Madrid and Lisbon, Ma
poleon dominated the Continent from
Gibraltar to Warsaw.
Then, at last, Europe learned it's
lesson, and all nations and pc pies
Joined in the common battle. But
New-York tribune., 1920-08-15
THE Advance of Bolshevism Is Com.
pared to the Descent of Northern
Tribes on Rome

Of course, this is nonsense, as the
Polish incident proves, as the whole
course of Bolshevism demonstrates.
Bolshevism, as l have pointed out
here so often, is state of war
against the whole system of economic
and social laws and customs of the
New-York tribune., 1920-08-15
Continued from page ~

officials led him to one side and ex-
planned to him.
That's the Commissioner of I'm
migration" he said. keep still and
get these people inside, where they
can sit down."
The softened head usher got his
subordinates together, and they took
the immigrants inside and settled
them comfortably on the benches to
wait the three or four hours until
their train should be ready. Then
Commissioner Wallis explained to
the Erie officials.
Pay Full Rates
There are no immigrant rates
any more" he said. "These people
pay as much to travel on your road
as any other class of passengers
you have"
"That is true" one of the officials
acknowledged. "We will make more
on these people than on all the rest
of the Chicago train put together"
"All right" said the Commits
sioner
"Then you treat them that way.
You treat these immigrants as we'll
as you would any one else who
travels on your road, or you won't
get any more business from Ellis
Island. ] am not going to have
aliens just arrived in this country
sent over here to be led across rail-
road tracks between moving trains
New-York tribune., 1920-08-15

to-day we are in the stage of ex-
treme disintegration, and Germany
IS watching the defeat of the West
with exactly the same emotion which
prevailed in Prussia when Russia
and Austria were enduring defeat
at Austerlitz. No defeat of the
West, however severe, will stir the
Germans, even if the Russian ad-
vance has for them another Jena
in store, such as Napoleon's cam
paign against Austria prepared in
1906.
Force Alone Will Prevail
In my Judgment there will be no
hating of the Russian advance, of
the Bolshevist sweep, until the
masses of the people of Britain, the
United States and France recognize
that their own existence is in peril
and join in open and unlimited war
upon the Reds. AS long as states
men are restrained by popular re-
luctance to make new sacrifices and
by the blindness of the millions to
the true import for them of the Boil
shevist attack, we shall have the
futile and fatal hesitations, expert
ments, failures, which have marked
all of Allied policy from the Prinki-
po fasco to the Polish tragedy.
Statesmen cannot make war sue
cessfully, even when their judgment
of the necessity for war is sound,
without the support of the publics
which in our form of government
control. One recalls how many
months were required to demonstrate
to the people of the United States
that war with Germany was not only
a moral duty but a physical neces-
sity. BY contrast, nothing is more
impressive than the fashion in which
the millions responded when at last
the fact of the matter was made
New-York tribune., 1920-08-15
With Poland Conquered the Mex
Frontier to Be Defended
will Be the Rhine

easily and generally comprehensive
by German acts.
The same will be true of the Boil
shevist case. The time has not yet
come, perhaps it is still far in the
future, when the American public
will perceive that all which we have
New-York tribune., 1920-08-15

West. What the Bolshevists seek to
obtain is a system of society, in
which the least educated, the least
trained, dominate and control, rely
ing upon terror and violence to sup
press those whose training and in
telligence would give them the pre-
dominant influence.
Bolshevists True Character
Whatever the theories of the Boil
shevists, their practices reveal the
true character of their conception of
social and economic organization.
They have destroyed, not created.
Their very military successes are due
to soldiers acquired from the old
regime and weapons captured from
the unsupported and ill~advised Rus
sian factions and border tribes in
the last two years. WHIST organiza-
tion they have Of an effective char
acter is entirely alien to their own
ideas and ideals.
Bolshevik Success Due to Allies
But with these weapons they have
destroyed their enemies in Russia,
they have demolished the barrier to
their westward advance which the
West sought to construct between
the Baltic and the Black seas. They
have arrived at the frontiers of
Central Europe, itself in the last
stages of disintegration and inca
pable Of any great effort to resist
the enemy. They have reached the
frontiers of that Germany which lies
smouldering and smoking, ready at
any moment, perhaps, to burst into
new and even more terrible flame.
Their success is due to the incred-
New-York tribune., 1920-08-15
Peace Only a Truce

resist the Russian advance.
Peace Only Truce
And as to the Bolshevist peace pro-
posal one knows what that meant.
1t meant truce during which Rus
sia, drawing upon the West for mil
itary supplies, would prepare for
new attack upon the border tribes,
in the interval employing her enor-
nous propaganda machine to build
up Bolshevist sympathizers in the
states she was determined to destroy.
To-day we see the policy disclosed in
the support given to Red elements in
Poland, who are manifestly to be
employed as the bases for Red
state, to be constructed on the ruins
Of the Poland which has been over
thrown.
This is what Germany did six
years ago and throughout the World
War. In Belgium the Fleming sep
aration movement was stimulated.
In Russia the Lithuanians and the
Ukrainians were favored, in the
Balkans and Bulgars rewarded at
the expense of the Serbs. This is
what the French Revolution did a
century and a quarter ago, when it
overf1owed into Central Europe and
decorated it's own frontiers with
various republics, in which the domi-
nant influence was supplied by those
who were subsidized or enlisted by
the Revolutionary leaders.
Lloyd Georges attempts to re-
strain revolution by eloquence and
turn back the onrush of barbarism
by ultimatums unsupported by bayo-
nets have been as effective as Ca
nute's prohibition issued to the ocean
or Mrs. Partington's adventure in
conquering the same enemy with a
mop. But Lloyd George has always
known better, and acted only under
the constraint of his own electorate.
which was opposed to all Russian
New-York tribune., 1920-08-15
p Philadelphia Record

in the way of order, democracy
progress, limited as these may be,
are in deadly peril if Bolshevism is
to sweep successfully from Moscow
to Madrid. When that hour comes
we shall unquestionably resume our
place among the Allied nations, and
once more take our place in the bat
tie line of Western civilization.
In the meantime, without us the
British and the French, with their
own problems, colonial, and for the
French particularly, Germany, will
probably fail to act decidedly, will
shrink from new war of the mag
nitude of the recent conflict, and
will, in consequence, see one barrier
after another collapse until the enc
my reaches the Rhine barrier and the
frontiers of India. Similarly, the
Italians will remain passive, evacu-
atlng outlying territory, as they
have in the case of Albania, and
awaiting the arrival of the storm at
their own frontiers.
Peril of Fixed Frontier
But as long as the West remains
passive Russia will advance. Rome
successfully maintained her natural
frontiers for certain time. but
when she accepted these boundaries
she sealed her own fate. 1 know
that it is fashionable to believe that
once the West has agreed to make
peace with the Bolshevists they will
be overthrown from within, but this
convenient theory breaks down in
the face of history.
The French Revolution, so far
from collapsing, when its enemies
made peace with it, took new form.
achieved order at home and en-
barked upon tremendous period of
conquest under Napoleon. Whv
should Trotzky and Lenine, having
New-York tribune., 1920-08-15

endured the misery and agony Of H.
feat, having survived Brest-I inv,
fall when they are now sween;,r
westward, reconquering all the h..
territory and arriving in reyio,.
which were not Russian when u.
World War broke out?
German Aspect Remains
Then there always remains Il.
German aspect. Napoleon fond
precious allies in Germany in u.
opening phase of his great imrer;.,
career. To-day German inte,o,.
may be served quite as well bv =
lance with Russia as continued snA
mission to the Allies. The Cerr,.,
choice is between a generation ~
economic servitude to the West and
a dangerous experiment with Fas.
ern revolution. But already Russia
offers Germany the territory lost n
Poland in the Treaty of Versailles
Will Trotzky be less willing to ofs,
Alsace-Lorraine than Posen and n.
Danzig corridor?
At the very least Germany G.,
demand immunity from the penaltiss
inflicted at Versailles, can ;nsj.;
that the reparation and restoration;
be forgiven, if she undertakes with
her armies to meet the Russians
But this, at one time, means the ruin
of France and the reconstitution q
those very German armies which 70
SO many years threatened the peaee
Of Europe. 1t means, too, the triumpt
of reaction, first in Germany ari
then in Russia, for no one can douht
what German policy in Russia wouE
be, nor mistake that it would b
with the Prussian Junkers that tht
Western Allies would have to d
business, if, as Winston Churchil
suggests, they deputized Germany s
fight their battle with Russia.
New-York tribune., 1920-08-15
Treaty Is Dead

fght tnelr battle with Russia.
Treaty Is Dead
We are two years away from Ver
sailles and the eastern settlemer
has gone into the scrap heap. Pc
land has practically ceased to exist
or, what is worse, will presently az
pear as a Bolshevized state, ally an
creature Of the Reds. Rumania mus
now face a similar destruction, un
less the West is prepared to ser
large armies, British from MesopD
tamia, French from Syria, abandon
ing the colonial ventures in both re
gions and accepting the revival o
the Turkish nationalists, who hav
already extended hands toward Rus
sia and may find ultimately a iru
alliance there and become detaI
in the Russian westward push, opsr1
ating in Asia Minor and in MesopO.
tamia.
In a few weeks, if the Polish dis
aster becomes absolute, Germany
may be in a position to make bel
own terms, either with Russia o.
with her recent conquerors, ane
either way the victory Of TIKI
World War is lost. The arrival o.
the Bolshevists at Warsaw will have
for the alliance which defeated Ger
many something approximating til
significance the announcement ofth'
return of Napoleon from Elba hs
for the statesmen gathered at v
emma. And there is far less chaW
of a Waterloo, for the Allies in 1871
are by no means as closely united -
those of 1915, while their enemfi
are far more formidable.
Wars Second Stage
We are then, in my judgment, D.
the threshold of a second stage ]
the World War, of which the Ger
man phase was the first. Wester
civilization, terribly shaken by tp'
four years of struggle which culnA
mated in the armistice of Rethonde
with its wounds unhealed, with @
losses still unrepaired, faces ns'
attack, and the gravest single e'
cumstance is the fact that the gres'
ness of the danger is only oiH.'
perceived by few as yet. GerEasS
was defeated because all of Fran
sprang to arms at the moment oi y
declaration Of war, Russia w
ready to move and Britain was SUD
GENTLY alarmed to send her afn
to the Continent. But who is reau
to face Russia?
In the heat of a Presidential ee
ton it is idle to imagine that the TsS
import for America of the BolsheSn
conquest Of Poland will be broaga'
home to our own public. This Is "
truer because there is unive'S
WEAKNESS and distaste for fofes'
affairs as a consequence Of the W.
man War and a political issue, ra'''
by the Treaty of Versailles, but Co
sidering that the assassination o. v
Archduke Ferdinand six years ss
led directly to the Meuse-Argon@
is it rash to suggest that the rsh y
Poland will lead in no distant tine T"
the reappearance of America IN h'
rope or, at a remoter time, to the W
pearance of Bolshevism on Anie''
can shores?
(Copyyioht, 1890, by the Mctm's'
Newspaper Syndicate,l !
New-York tribune., 1920-08-15

will the Turk and the Arab be in
cited to new resistance, but the bor-
der tribes everywhere will see in
the fate of Poland the bitter truth
that they cannot rely upon the West
for support, even if to the very
great advantage Of the West they
resist the Russian advance.
New-York tribune., 1920-08-15
By Frank II. Simonds

wv Y ITH the collapse Of Poland
wv and the advance of the
Bolshevists upon Warsaw