Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-05-12
SOCIALIST
|ND|CTS RED RULE

| icat congress on bolShev1Sm ana De-
mocracy" John Spargo. former SO
cialist leader. who broke with that
party at the outbreak Of the war
presented severe indictment of the
present red rule in Russia. holding
that bolshevism in theory and prac-
tice was $50 years behind the United
States. politically. economically and
spiritually.
Easing his conclusions on the &C
credited reports of the bolshevists
themselves. he characterized this
movement as brutal. selfish. sordid
philosophy" incompatible with Amer
lean ideals. He counseled against any
dealings with the soviet government
on the ground that IT was their
acknowledged belief that no contract
| between men or between nations was
| sacred. and said this had been demon /
strated during the last few months.
! Revolt Against Democracy.
| After telling of the initiation of the
bolshevist movement and the coming
| q meeting Of exiled Russians in Lon
| don In 1903. Mr.. Spargo said. in part:
| When the revolution overturned
| the car in 1917 the establishment
OF popular government was well
under way when bolshevism came, not
as revolution against czarism. but
against democracy. The name was a
! misnomer. for it had been agreed
at the London conference that the
proper method to pursue was for q
powerful and daring minority to seize
a weakened and tottering government.
On getting control in Russia the
olshevists aimed to destroy the idea
of a democracy. They repudiated the
| idea OF government resting on the
consent of the governed. They re-
sorted to every device czarism ever
| used. exhibiting the bitterest and
| most severe tyranny toward the so
genuine democracy.
The statements which Lenin. Bulk
harin and Zinoviev. the principal in
ltellectuals of the movement. made as
| to their attitude on questions of free
dom Is very Illuminating. Bukharin.
In little book authorized by the
red government, and Lenin, in a series
| of theses. set forth'a doctrine. blunt
| ly and without any qualifications.
which said in effect: When we were
merely a party that was weak we
advocated universal suffrage. freedom
OF the press, freedom of assembly and
freedom of speech, for that was the
only way to get freedom for our
selves. Everybody in favor of free
dom was willing to help. But now
| that we have obtained power we will
to US; to suppress the principle OF
universal suffrage. the presa Of our
opponents and the right of assembly
of those who are not in sympathy
with us
las an illustration Of how this has
press has been connscated and used
for the bolshevists' own political ends
while milder, opposition papers have
been subjected to an impossible tax
on each copy sold. It is illegal to
| advertise in these opposition papers
Further nepotism has been carried to
such an extreme by the bolshevists
of Tweed and Tammany look like civil
service reform institutions. Political
corruption and graft IL flourishing.
"All accepted ideas of legal pro-
cedure have been discarded and
judicial tribunals have been estab-
lished. known as extraordinary COM
missions" The members of these
commissions are not generally known.
They may cause the arrest of any
body except bolshevist officials, the
person arrested has no right to coun-
sci. to witnesses. to know what
charges are brought against him. or
to hearing.
power of Imprisonment. exile, tor
ture and capital punishment and have
exercised all of them. A new ruling
ID that any person inquiring about
what has been done with the accused
may be severely punished. So that
members OF q family fear to inquire
about . brother. father or son.
TN the cities of Petrograd and
Moscow alone during the years 1918
and 1919 official reports Of the. boil
shevists themselves show these ex.
traordinary commissions caused moro
were for political opinions or activi-
ties. When 1t IL remembered that
these bodies are not the only ones
with power to infiict the death PEN
atty. and that such commissions are
operating all over Russia one can get
some idea of what the red terror
means.
Crimes Admitted.
1.-THE bolshevists admit they have
ordered men, women and children put
to death, not for crimes OF their own,
but for crimes Of others. whose names
are unknown. When an attempt was
made to assassinate Lenin last sum-
at a time. and hundreds of executions
followed.
1.-THE bolshevists act on the theory
that any attack on them by one OF
the bourgeoise class makes the whole
class responsible. Suppose the CAPT
attack on one Of them by q union la
Dor man was justification for the exc
cution of all men who belonged to
unions? Where would 1t lead?
THE bolsheyists are waging a con-
slant warfare against the peasants
who constitute s6 per cent OF Russia,s
population. They send armed detach-
ments into the country from the cities.
where starvation reigns. and compel
the peasants to exchange whatever
food can be found for money that is
only useless paper. They have ruined
Russian industry. and sent the coun-
try back to the middle ages. to the
pineknot for light. and to methods Of
transportation illstrated in hieroglyphs.
people over here who talk OF a
new democracy through the soviets'
make q big mistake. The soviets do
gained control OF the big industries
their first move was to throw out
everybody who knew how to operate
them. That did not work. 80 they
brought them back and went to the
other extremes that mark the worst
forms Of capitalism.
Trade unions are suppressed. the
right to strike is denied, the Taylor
system is practically followed in some
places, and labor is confiscated. The
bolshevist ofncials may order man
to leave one kind Of work in his home
village and 60 to work at some un-
congenial task in a different place.
Their rule is similar to the statute Of
laborers introduced in England in
1349. and much like that tried out in
Russia under the cars early in the
seventeenth century.
This is bolshevism-what they admit
about themselves. written in their own
official reports. Yet we have a lot Of
people in this country who are assur-
ing US that democracy is the handspring
Of bolshevism in Russia. Certain pub
locations that take this position do not
come to us with clean hands. We have
not a perfect democracy here there are
many failures and abuses Of democratic
freedom. But with all our faults we