Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1920-06-17
Shall Chaos Or Reconstruction
! In Europe Follow the Great
Il, World War;
SOME LIGHT ON soLsHEvlsM
Movement Not Anarchlstto, a. So
Many Seem 70 ThInk--Probably
I 10 Best Described as "coh.
slstent Socialism,"
Article KIN.
ey FRANK coMERFoRp.

ey FRANK coMERFoRD.
II were asked to name the princi.
pal cause for the growing unrest my
answer would be bolshevism. The al
most universal attitude of big business
toward Russian bolshevism-an att-
tude adopted by most Of the govern
ments Of Europeans been, and Is,
Kill It; don't waste time examining 1t;
1t isn't worth trying to understand; no
good can come out Of it; it must be
fought; 1t isn't entitled to 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 1t. They charac-
terize 1t, attack 1t, resent 1t. 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 good thing or
bad thing, it is at least definite po-
litical plan, capable Of being examined,
measured, weighed and tested. 1t is
few Of the things it has been called.
1t is entitled to a hearing on Its mer-
its. It cannot be howled down in
abuse.
Boishevism 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 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 discard
and strife of life in big things, as well
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 a man is not an anarchist; he is
q terrorist, criminal, destruction
list, murderer. Let us call spade
q spade and be sure we know what
spade is, and we will understand each
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 to
turning over the individuals power to
the state. He argues that great
power delegated to government limits
the growth and freedom Of the indi-
vidual. He dreams of an ideal state in
which human beings will be so perfect
they need no law. His doctrine is all
enlargement, an exaggeration OF the
idea that the government which gov
ems least governs best. He isn't
lawbreaker. He is law aboisher. He
reasons that when murder leaves the
human heart there will be no occasion
for laws against killing; that the
statute against murder is only printed
words on the page of law book, Ut
terly and entirely without meaning, or
existence, to the man who Is incapable
of killing his fellow man. He says
that we should develop our artistic
and moral sides and by evolution
gradually repeal one law after an
other until all law disappears. 1t Is
pure idealism-it is movement to-
ward perfection. 1t is the millennium
1t is poetry. Kipling wrote its con-
stitution when he wrote:
And only the Master shall praise US.
And only the Master shall blame.
And no one shall work for money.
And no one shall work for fame.
But each for the Joy of working.
Each in his separate star
Shall draw the Thing as he sees 1t
For the God of Things as They Are.
Merely Beautiful Dream.
Few people will contend that this
theory is anything more than beauti-
full dream. Probably the first and
greatest of the anarchists was the
great Greek philosopher Zeno. from
Crete, the founder of the stole phiIoso-
ply, who died 270 years B. c. 1t is
disturbing to find dynamiters called
anarchists, and In the same breath
hear included some OF the greatest
ideaiists that have ever trOd the
earth. The very mention Of the two
types In the same class gives respec-
liability to the totally ugly. DEPRIVED.
ignorant. lawless criminal.
went to standard authority for
commOn-sense definition Of bolshev-
Ism. was in Prague on my way up
toward the bolshevik 'front.' | spent
M afternoon with President Thomas
G. Masaryk Of the new Czecho-Slo.
vakian republic. He is q Slay. He
knows Russia. He was In Russia dur.
Ing the revolution and at the begin
ming Of the counter-rsvoluti0n which
put bolshevism In the saddle. he has
written OF Russia and Is accepted a.
an authority on the subject ! asked
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