Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-11-17
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW OF
RUSSIA AND THE RUSSIANS
Bruised, 5ewtIdered and Unbeatable
Giant Seeking Friends at the
Worlds Sack Door

'J'Ahh L" III" average man in the street and
h" Will tell you that he il sick Of hear
ing about Russia. sickcr of hearing about
HotShcvists. He knows Bolshcvists believe
him That fellow Gomperg ia one SO are
the people who voted for--or Is II against 2
prohibition. lie has his suspicious about
Bryan.
Boshevists arc people who do not agree
with you and the Leaders Of the sect want
to blow Up governments with dynamite
Russia? Oh, yes. Russia is Il land on the
top of the world. all snow and prisons and
hIIed with chaps who never shave and hurl
bombs for amusement. A wild place.
None of our business, Bolshcvism Is like
infuenaa--a nuisance that ought TO be quar-
antined.
So meditatcS the American il n hurry
Yet. though he may be sick OF Russia aud
sick e bolshevism. there is no relief for him.
IL" will have 70 hear ilore about both. He
will have to know more about what gradu-
ally is becoming the greatest question in the
world If he is to understand what is hap
p"ning IN Europe now and great deal that
soon will be happening in the United States.
For the first time in six years Russia is
without the prcoccupationa Of war, without
the inspiration that he'd the people together
through unparalleled strife and awful rcvo-
lutions. Russia is n bruised and bCwildcred
giant. child minded. unconQuerable. stag
goring under burden Of riches. knocking
at the back door Of Europe-at the back door
of tho world-where only the Germans. for
reasons Of their own. are eager with q vel
come.
Russia Is not bolsnevism. nor il bolshcYism
Russia.
The development and practice OF boil
shevism as it was forced on 10000, 900
Russians by a minority of 100000. who
seized the mechanism of TIE old governments,
have made it possible to toll just what a
Bolshevist iS
BolsheViSt is man who believes that
no man. woman Or child has any right to
own private property 20 acquire it by
work Of any kind. You may I've q farmer.
an artist Il mochiniSt, carpenter. all engi
n"er. Il mason, Il writer -auything-under
bo!shevism, yet you are denied any right TO
benefit directly by the fruit of your labors.
You must throw your crops. your pictures,
your building, your books, your writings or
whatever YOU produce rto n common pool
and take ~ return what the soviet thinks
you ought to have. Hold onto your crops
and an armed squad arrives and takes them
away. IlHIuSH 10 NOTA Ut NuuL SttIHS IlEt
an amless task and you will bc mustered
into labor gangs under military disciplin"
and command.
Trading is a crime in Bolshevi~t Russia.
The soviets aim to put all life on common
level, Scholars and scientific men, the
searchcrs and the discoverers. live like out
casts without adequate clothing. fuel or
food. That is boshrvism. 1t is the thing
that has hidden RuSs!a-th" far larger fact
from the outside world.
The RussianR. after the assaults and
blockades of the last few years. have little
cause to love the Europe OF tho Allies.
They have driven Wrangei into the Black
sea and now they are facing civilization
with questions that will have TO be an
swered If bolshevism in Russia lasts until
sDring and no one can know whether IT
will or not, Russia may attack Poland ana
break down The barriers which the Contl-
mental powers have been trying desperately
TO create between the sovictS and Germany.
Then civilization will have to contemplate
the possibility of fusion of interests be-
tween the Russian and German masses or
what would be worse--an alliance between
the soviet iunkprs and IN" mil!tarists OF
Prussia.
IeninP'S lnalevolent minority r"rtaInlT
will invite further warfare because, without
the misguided statesmen who hav" been or
rlnizjng military expeditions against him,
Jcnipe would have fallen long ago and his
regime would have fallen under attacks OF
RussianS themselves.
When the peasants had no land, no prop
ertv and no recognizable rights. tax ~
dis,r;bution Of wealth was musi" in their
ears. Now mat they hold land and az" abe
IN grow crops and create property OF their
ovn thry rebel violently against IL" RUE
that their leaders prescribed Tor others
peasauts hide aud hoard their loou. Many
NJ them have been shot for such VioIauonS
of tbe soviet code. SO they do only as mnGh
work AS Is needed to feed thcLnse4Ves' INV
.i.ios +hsrefore. have been going hungry and
without coal and raw materiaIS Inc ne" iH'
~ Iivisiou in Russia ia drawn sharply be-
tr-c.r tho dwellers in cities and the dwel!ers
IN agricultural areas. For every single per
.ar ir N Russian city there are ten who live
on open land .,.
II ;s natural enough 70 wonder, therefore
;r tho Moscow crowd has remained IN
no,,er until now. 1t has remained IN power
Looauce II wos the only visible force ready
to ontagoniYe the forces OF INVASION thnt
or,oared from the direction OF Japan, from
80 direction os Poland and hnaly IN the
C,;ueo TIE peasants were told that the
harnns and the dukes, the whip wieIders
UH''t I tSo whole army Of crooked bureaucrats
a. u,t .ho old regime were returning in the wake
% .no DeniEines. the Yrdenitches and the
W.on,cIs W sr 70 take possession Of the land
ocsin and re establish the older tyranny
The people cheerfully forgot their differ
o,ces and gave up their crops and their
,ohor for the army, and they gave their ale
lance TO the Moscow government because
= organized the system of national defense
Democratic opinion, represented by the
able and devoted Russians who fought
through generations for representative gov
ernment, has been deliberately silent But