The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-03-06
Shall Chaos or Reconstruction
: in Europe Follow the Great
World War?
SOME LIGHT ON BOLsHEvISM
Movement Not Anarchistic, as So
Many Seem to Think-Probabiy
is Best Described as "Con-
sistent Socialism,"
Article XIII.
BY FRANK coMERFoRD.

BY FRANK coMERFoRD.
If | 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 atti-
tude adopted by most of the govern
ments of Europeans been, and is,
Kill it; don't waste time examining it;
it isn't worth trying to understand; no
good can come out of it; it must be
fought; it isn't entitled to trial.
Teams of paper have been used to as
Sail it. Captains of industry and gov
eminent officials have We'd with each
other in making assault on it. Many
OF those who oppose bOlshevism are
indignant if you ask them what 1t is
and why they oppose it. They charac
terize it, attack it, resent it. Great
heat has been shown in discussing it,
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 bolsheyism is right or
wrong, whether it is a 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. 1t 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 a 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 discord
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
tao tfaY Al
erage man or woman to whom you say
! it looks frightened, thinks of a bomb
| thrower, a dynamiter, a firebrand
| Such a man is not an anarchist; he is
| Il terrorist, a criminal, a destruction
| list, Il murderer Let US call a spade
| spade is, and we will understand each
| other better.
| Anarchism is an old and respectable
| philosophy The anarchist is an indi
| viQualiSt He is in favor Of a free life
for the individual. He is opposed tc
turning over the individuals power Z
| 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 il
which human beings will be so perfec
| they need no law His doctrine is al
| enlargement, an eXaggeration of tht
idea that the government which gov
erns least governs best. He isn't ;
lawbreaker. He IS a law abolisher. H
reasons that when murder leaves tn
human heart there will be no occasion
for laws against killing; that TIL
[ statute against murder is only printed
}, words on tire page of a law book, ut
terly and entirely without meaning, o
Z existence, 70 the man who is incapable
: Of killing his fellow man. He say
that We. should develop our artist
and moral sides and by evolution
! gradually repeal one law after ar
j, other until all law disappears. 1t i
pure idealism-it is a movement tC
7 ward perfection. 1t is the millennium
? 1t is poetry. Kipling wrote its cor
stitution when he wrote:
And only the Master shall praise us.
/ And only the Master shall blame,
e And no one shall work for money
And no one shall work for fame
: Dut each for the JOY of working,
: Each in his separate star
+ shan draw the Thing as he sees it
For the God OF Things as They Are.
s Merely a Beautiful Dream.
d / Few people will contend that thi
: theory is anything more than beaut
y full dream. Probably the first an
greatest of the anarchists was til
! great Greek philosopher Zeno, frol
. Crete, the founder of the stole philost
ply, who died 30 years B. C. 1t
e disturbing to find dynamiters Gale
n anarchists, and in the same breat
II hear included some of the creates
e idnnliStS that have. ever frnd fh