Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1920-03-25
Article XII
BY FRANK cOMERFORD.

back from the French front. I had
known him for many years. Before
the United States entered the war he
was one of the many impatient at our
delay. He believed that it was our
duty to join the fight when the ruth
less submarine campaign torpedoed
the Lusitania, sending to cold, wet
graves American women and children.
| distinctly remember his face as he
read the headlines in the papers tell
ing of the murderous slaughter of
Americans on the high seas. Now
when he greeted me he startled me
with his first Words 1.-THE war is over.
I'm bolshevik." I did not know what
the word meant, yet it carried to my
mind an impression, and while the i'm
preston was hazy, it was clear at
least in one particular. It sounded
like the confession of a crime
He had always been of a quiet, con-
servative type. Before the war one
would have judged him to be pacifist;
he was even-tempered, mild of manner,
and | still think that before August,
1914, ne was a pacifist in head and
heart. 1t was only the call of a just
cause, the fight for an ideal in which
he believed, that had made him a SOL
der. In this respect he was typical
of 80 per cent of his countrymen.
had spoken to him the day he en-
listed, for he was one of those who
volunteered, who might have waited
for CONSUMPTION and claimed a Just
exemption. He was in the beginning
Of his married life, with two very
young children. BY profession he was
an engineer. Going to war meant
leaving a wife and two babies, leaving
job that promised advancement. I
recall his enthusiasm, the intensity of
his patriotism, his quiet disregard of
the danger to himself I am sure
that there was little hate in his mo-
rale. He saw danger to the world.
The honor of his country had been
offended against. He was an Ameri-
can, one Of those upon whom the duty
fell, so he went.
He a bolshevik! Why? I was con-
founded, confused. The only meaning
| gave to his remark was that he was
an anarchist. The word 'bOlshevik''
sounded red to me. 1t flared of the
torch, photographed disorder, lawless-
ness-it registered blood, violence, as
sassination, force, hate, insanity. 1
wondered how this nine-lettered word
had become the vehicle for so many
sensations that disturbed peace of
mind and sounded alarm.
Where had the word come from and
what company had it kept that so
fouled it's soul? What did it really
mean-had it a definite meaning?
Was it bug like the "fu" germ? Had
1t come among nations to destroy them
and to the hearts of men to silence the
heavenly message, "Peace, on earth,
good will to men," Would it run
around the world as a scourge? Was
it postscript to the bloody war les
son, prophesying more anguish and
tears than four years fighting had
brought? Would the world, coming
out Of the war bent, now be broken?
Or was it meaningless myth? Was
the word boyle, bad joke, a night
mare pressing heavily on tired, nerv-
Gus worlds head?
Seeking Words Real Meaning
Or was the meaning that men had
read into the word a lie? Was boil
shevism the message of a new Mes
siah being cried down by the money
changers of our time in the same way
their ancestors had silenced the word
from the Mount and destroyed the
Message Bearer with the lash and the
cross?
In every mind was the thought and
from every tongue fell the word. Rus
STA had given the world a word. It
had encircled the globe Everywhere
people were speaking the word-it
found Judgment in every brain, liv-
ing place in every language. It's use
had become universal. The old, the
young, rich and poor, the learned, the
uneducated,. the serious, the simple,
the toiler, the artist, the poet, and the
peddler, the tinker and the thinker,
held the thought and spoke the word.
Men, women and children spoke the
word, read the word, and felt the
thought it carried.
To the nine hundred and ninety-nine
it was word of ill-omen, a word Of
terror and fear. To the one in a thou
sand it was a word of hope, a light
for the feet of stumbling world, and
the nine hundred and ninety-nine said
that some of these people called boil
sheviks were dreamers of a strange
dream, that twisted idealism had made
them mad, that the majority of those
who profess faith in bolshevism were
sick with strange, social fever, that
they were mischief makers, ne'er-do-
wells, criminals, that they sought to
burn the world
l made up my mind that / would
learn the real meaning of the word.
The dictionary definition threw no
light on its meaning. l came to the