The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1920-09-27

hhSSiOh Va H. W ilclI CuOSeU utlIS
are impossible. They have desires
dreams and hopes.
Lenine had in mind particularly
English workmen probably because
of the memory of the outcome OF the
visit to Russia some months ago OF
little company Of inquirers repre-
senting British labor. That visiting
commission as it sets out was SYM
pathetic to principles set forth in
an expression Of the ideal Bolshevism.
II returned. after the shattering Of its
expectations. deeply impressed by the
wretched state OF the unhappy coun-
try It had visited.
One of the members Of that COM
mission was Mrs. Philip Snowden, an
internationally known trade unionist
and the wife OF a socialist leader
and member OF parliament, Mrs.
socialist, democrat and a Christian, 4"
and denounces Bolshevism as being
"anti-socialist. ant-democratic and
anti-Christian." She saw nothing in
Russia that was either socialism CT
communism; nothing in practice but
slavery, tyranny, suppression OF all
criticism, espionage and terror. Bert
rand Russell, another member Of the
commission and well known socialist.
found the Bolshevist rule TO be 'in-
ternally aristocratic and externally
militant"
Mrs. Snowden and Mr.. Russell hava
represented in conservative England
the radical evolutionary forces to-
ward social progress which in auto
cratic Russia were found in Prime
Kropotkin under the old regime, and
in the class autocracy Of Lenine in
Peter Wrangel Kropotkin who might
have been a power in the Czarist
regimes, became revolutionist from
the highest motives and his advice.
before and after his imprisonment,
escape and exile, was in the direction
Of q popular government free from
wild theories Of impossible personal
equality.
Peter Wrangel was a baron of the
old empire and was a large land
holder. He realized early in his career
as commander that the old system of
landlords and peasants could never
go" in the new Russia. So Peter
Wrangel ruled that the peasants could
keep as their own the land they had
taken. He also ruled that where the
peasants had not taken the land Il
must be given them. Ii was no cruel
confiscation. for what the peasants
were TO be given was already right
fully theirs. 1t was land which they
and their ancestors had titled and
lived on for no one knows how many
generations. The rich could retain
their home estates and pleasure
grounds.
It happened that one Of the great
properties to be divided and distribut-
main. 1t also happened that Wrangel
was too busy commanding his army
to take time TO attend to its dis
tributiops. so he sent his wife to do
1t. She divided the land and dis
tributed II conscientiously. They are
up-to-date. practical. unselfish Rus
SLAMS.
Prince Kropotkin was one Of the
first TO hurry TO Petrograd when the
empire was overthrown. His keen
insight into the possibilities and also
the dangers that faced the Slav mil
lions could have had faith to direct
their newly acquired power. The
prince believes in a soviet form Of
rule in which the actual producers
by hand and mind in all lines become
the dominant power But he de-
clares. the moment such a nominal
government becomes dominated by one
unopposed party assumes a party
dictatorship failure must result; un-
der such party dictatorship the
labor and peasant councils lose all
their significance.
Such centralizaiion Of political pow
er in a few hands is condemned both
by the English speaking socialist,
Bertrand Russell and by the Russian
prince who warns the world that "the
immense constructive work that Is re-
quired from a social revolution can
not be accomplished by 4 central
government, even IL II had TO guide II
in its work something more substan-
tial than few socialist and anarch-
ist booklet. 1t requires the knowl-
edge. the brains. and the willing
collaboration az q mass Of local and
specialized forces, which alone can
cope with the diversity OF enocomical
problems in their local aspects
The same. the true advocates of
social progress, whether II be in
Russia. England or In America, are
no more for the autocracy OF a
Lenine than Of Nicholas. Skilled
labor. "aristicratic opportunities, as
Lenine calls II Is one OF our strong
est bulwarks against Bolshevism as
It has been misapplied. Such labor
has a keen outlook upon things rs
they are. and the last OF their visions
is that OF world controlled by q
brutal despotism masqueradng under
title Of beneficient communism
Labor knows opportunity when II
sees H.