Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-02-05

been organized by the soviet authorities
TO counteract 1t.
Great meetings for workmen are ar
ranged every Friday in Moscow and
every Sunday in Petrograd. The best
Bolshcvik orators speak at these meet
ings and exert themselves to the utmost
to stimulate and inflame the dying revo-
iutionary ardor of the workers.
1t was at one of these propaganda
gatherings that the attempt was made
to assassinate Lenine, and, more re-
Gently, to kill Commissary Zinovieff, by
throwing bombs on to the speakers
platform.
Demagogues Have Pet Phrases
In their speeches the Bolshevik agi-
tators never fail to lay particular stress
on the triumph of the workers over
their bourgeois masters" and to tell
their hearers that they are today "the
masters of their former oppressors.'
and this rhetoric still makes an impres-
sion on the Russian workmen and often
rouses applause.
Loud clapping Of hands likewise al
ways greets speaker who proclaims
that not only the bourgeois merchants
but also their intellectual supporters
must be sent to the guillotine, or one
who announces that 1.-THE. flames of
revolution are already bursting forth in
all the countries of the world and
that "a universal auto da .fe of capital
ists' is imminent.
Defamation of this sort hatters the
Russian workmen and revives their
class conscious" pride, which has been
considerably dulled by the actual con
ditions under which they are forced
to live and work. There. are many ex-
cellent speakers among the official agi-
! is Preobachensky, an assistant of Lu-
| nacharsky, minister of education. 9th
| ers who still. succeed in Intoxicating the
| workers and making them forget their
| disappointed hopes are Chlemnitzky,
| Antonof and Choricheff, the last two
being especially noted for their fanat-
ical violence.
| The speeches at these meetings re
veal very clearly why the Bolsheviki
were able to triumph over their ,oppo-
nents in Russia and are still able to
maintain their dictatorship. Instead
of hesitating, compromising and quar-
reling like the other Russian parties,
they were from the first united in
thought and action, declined any kind
of compromise and preached the sim :
pie and direct doctrine of ruthless class
war to the bitter end.
Bolsheviki Override Opposition
While their adversaries were para
| lyzed by all kinds of political compli
cations, they alone found, in the brutal
simplicity of their program, will power
to act without delay. Bolshevik lead
ers are still animated by this fighting
spirit. and they owe the preservation
of their power to the fact that they
have remained indomitable men of ac-
ton.
Sometimes the workmen S meetings
are enlivened by music and even cine
matograph performances, which always
attract a great crowd, and even many
bourgeois spectators, though the lat
ter must pay an entrance fee, while th'
workers are admitted free on presenta
tion of their Bolshevik membership
cards.
While the total economic COLLAPSE
of the soviet state daily grows more
unmistakable. gifted propagandis
like Preobachensky tells the Russian
workmen with tears in his voice tina
they must be prepared to make th
supreme sacrifice of separation from
their own Lenine,' who will sooi
be called upon to assume the presidepc.
of the 'federative soviet world repub
lic," and the poor dupes in the audi
ence believe him and forget their owl
disappointments and hardships in thi
vision of their mystical leaders futur
glory.
(Mr. K0spoth's sixth and last articl
will be printed tomorrow