Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1920-04-22
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.

ny EoFtNN SS"En onCs
If l 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 1t; don't waste time examining 1t
1t isn't worth trying to understand; no
good can come out Of It; 1t must be
fought; it isn't entitled to a trial.
Reams of paper have been used to as
sail it. Captains of industry and gov
eminent officials have Wed with each
other in making assault on it. Many
Of those who oppose bolshevism are
indignant if you ask them what it is
and why they oppose it. They charac-
terize it, attack it, resent 1t. 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 bolshevism is right or
wrong, whether it is good thing or a
bad thing, it is at least definite po-
litical plan, capable of being examined,
measured, weighed and tested. 1t Is
few of the things 1t has been called.
1t Is entitled to hearing on its mer-
Its. 1t cannot be howled down In
abuse.
BoIshevism Not Anarchy.
Those who lead the campaign
against 1t frequently and confusingly
define it as anarchy. If there Is one
thing that bolshevism Is not, it is an
archy. Much controversy will be
avoided, many differences of opinion
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
the term. Say anarchist" and the av,
erage man or woman to whom you say
it looks frightened, thinks Of a bomb
thrower, a dynamiter, a frebrand
Such man Is not an anarchist; he is
a terrorist, a criminal, a destruction
list, murderer. Let us call q spade
a spade and be sure we know what 8
spade is, and we will understand each
other better.
Anarchsm 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 t
turning over the individuals power t.
the state. He argues that grea
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 thu
idea that the government which gov
erns least governs best. He isn't {
lawbreaker He Is law abOlsber. HI
reasons that when murder leaves thu
human heart there will be no occasion
for laws against killing; that thu
statute against murder is only printed
words on the page of a law book, ut
terly and entirely without meaning, o
existence, to 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
other until all law disappears. 1t I
pure idealism-it is a movement tC
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,
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 a Beautiful Dream.
Few people will contend that thi
theory is anything more than beaut
full dream. Probably the first an
greatest of the anarchists was tn
great Greek philosopher Zeno, fror
Crete, the founder Of the stole phlost
ply, who died 270 years b. C. 1t
disturbing to find dynamlters Gale
anarchists, and in the same breat
hear included some of the creates
idealIsts that have ever trod tn
earth. The very mention of the tw
types in the same class gives respe,
liability to the totally ugly, deprave'
ignorant, lawless criminal.
| went to a standard authority fC
common.sense definition Of bolshe'