The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-03-08
Shall Chaos or Reconstruction
in Europe Follow the Great
World War?
RUSSIA'S TRIAL OF SOCIALISM
Ultimate Good to the World Looked
for From the Practical Test
Now Being Made in That
Country.
Article XIV.
BY FRANK coMERFoRD.

Inc leu nag IGiuSuy mas DeeH ue-
handing trial, test. The demand |
has been growing. Before its advo- |
Gates can be silenced they must be |!
shown. Out of the test of socialism |
in Russia is bound to come good |
Whether the theory is a practical one |
or not, putting it to the test will an
sWer a question, satisfy demand, ,
and tend to quiet unrest.
The fair-minded investigator cannot
deny that there was justification and
reason back of the effort to try the
remedy. That the world has been suf
fering from poverty cannot be denied.
have found few men, even among the
conservative, responsible leaders of
| business and governments in Europe,
who did not admit that conditions in
| the world before the war were not
| right; that some change in the order
! OF things was inevitable that the dis
| satisfied elements in society were com
| ing together and that unless men were
given better lives, they were deter
mined to fight The working man was
deteriorating physically under the
strain of brutal working conditions
which exacted too many units of phys
zeal energy for the number Of calor-
les of food he was getting. The haemo-
| globin count, the red corpuscles were
disappearing from the blood of the
| working people 1t was not a theory
one could see it in the faces and move
ments. of the people. Medical men
/ recognized the fact. walk through
the poorer district of any industrial
city liz Europe furnished plenty of
evidence of this alarming condition.
Men, women md children were resorts
ing to false stimulants TO keep ups
Tea, coffee and alcohol were being
used in increasing amounts
Always on Verge of Want
Men were stretching their arms and
yawning. Squalor and filth furnished
|, the. homes. Many lived in abiect pow
, erty, many more lived on the border
line of the garbage alley. Few We're
: able to accumulate even the smallest
surplus. They could not by scraping
7 and denial get a week ahead of the
game. 1t had become hand-to-mouth
I existence, a weekly. monthly fight to
meet the grocery bills, buy stockings.
! shoes, and the scant amount of clothes
to cover their bodies. 1t was bread
and coffee for breakfast, bread with
jam and tea for dinner. tea and cheese
, for supper. Sausage sometimes took
turns with cheese. Once a week, the
Sunday repast, great stew, n few
4 vegetables and a bone. In the Latin
: countries it was the same, except that
diluted cheap wine was substituted fol
tea. The great majority Of men found
: themselves poorer and older at the
end Of the week than they were at its
beginning. Over the workfngman',
u head was suspended night and day by
: 4 thin, weak thread, the dreaded sword
a of poverty. Men feared that the thread
. might break any minute 1t was tn,
= thread by which they held the thing
called a Job What did they car,
= about the rights of private property
q They didn't have any private prop
:. erty. The socialists had willing list
ID eners when they ranted about com
IS munism. 1t promised to give thes,
y people property, to give them com
mon ownership of everything. l
- wasn't hard to convince them that thf
Z, was better than ownership of nothing
10 The bolsheyiks of Russia are en-
ne titled to the presumption of goo,
be faith in selecting the MARKHAM formula
y Ii is only fair to them, and to the rem
!, edy, to examine the experiment wit
!" a mind free from prejudice In admit
a ting the good intentions Of the boI
as ShevikS ! an rot conceding that bo
II shevism is practicable, workable; tina
It's it ha< succeeded or can succeed. 70
in the present | am trying to fairly Civ
a the whole story of the effort. 1t
as foolish to try to answer the DO
q, shevik propaganda by calling the DO
!. sheviks ugly names, as it would b
~ stupid to accept bolsheyism becaus
nr its advocates arc sincere.
or Need for Calm Consideration.
Russia is the patient. If we are t
els intelligently Judge the treatmei
OF called b0lShevism, it is necessary
20 get complete history of the patief
81 and examine the conditions undt
49, which the experiment was tried. An
doctor who is a scientist would folio
such a procedure in handling me,
en- ical case, If a doctor announced [
rIl the scientific world that he had a ren
gs edy for cancer, which at the preser
in time is an incurable physical diseas
lat just as poverty IS a%sociai one, IL
ogt1 scientists would give a hearing to h
me theory. seek q fair. test for it, ket
~ ne their minds open, and judge the eff
Co., caey of the remedy by the results
no produced. Communism, as a trea
m ment. cure for poverty, has new
is been put to the test on a. scale and
ern circumstances which justify any pc.
tive Judgment as to whether or n
the plants Il practicals one AS I ha
oal written. the Russian bolsheviks insl
uO9 thar If every one GOWNS everything