Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1920-04-29
Shall Chaos or Reconstruction
in Europe Follow the Great
World War?
RUSSIA'S TRIAL OF SOCIALISM
Ultimate Good to the World Looked
for From the Practical Test
Now Being Made in That
Country.
Article XIV.
BY FRANK coMERFoRD.

handing trial, test. The demand
has been growing. Before its advo-
Gates can be silenced they must be
shown. Out of the test of socialism
in Russia is bound to come good.
Whether the theory is practical one
or not, putting it to the test will an
swer a question, satisfy a demand,
and tend to quiet unrest.
The fair-minded investigator cannot
deny that there was justification and
reason back of the effort to try the
remedy. That the world has been suf-
fering. from poverty cannot be denied.
l have found few men, even among the
conservative, responsible leaders of
business and governments in Europe,
who did not admit that conditions in
the world before the war were not
right; that some change in the order
OF things was inevitable; that the dis
satisfied elements in society were COM
ing together and that unless men were
given better lives, they were deter
mined to fight. The working man was
deteriorating physically under the
strain of brutal working conditions
which eXacted too many units of phys
ical energy for the number of calor-
les of food he was getting. The haemO-
globin count, the red corpuScles, were
disappearing from the blood of the
working people. 1t was not a theory
one could see it in the faces and move
ments of the people. Medical men
recognized the fact. A walk through
the poorer district Of any industrial
city in Europe furnished plenty of
evidence of this alarming condition.
Men, women and children were resort
ing to false stimulants to keep up.
Tea, coffee and alcohol were being
used in increasing amounts.
Always on Verge of Want.
Men were stretching their arms and
yaWning. SqualOr and filth furnished
the homes. Many lived in abject pow
erty, many more lived on the border
line of the garbage alley. Few were
able to accumulate even the smallest
surplus. They could not by scraping
and denial get week ahead of the
game. 1t had become a hand-tO-mGuth
existence, a weekly, monthly fight to
meet the grocery bills, buy stockings.
shoes, and the scant amount of clothes
to cover their bodies. 1t was bread
and coffee for breakfast, bread with
jam and tea for dinner, tea and cheese
for supper Sausage sometimes took
turns with cheese. Once week, the
| Sunday repaSt, a great stew, a few
vegetables and a bone. In the Latin
| countries it was the same, except that
| diluted cheap wine was substituted for
tea. The great majority of men found
| themselves poorer and older at the
/ end of the week than they were at its
| beginning. Over the workingman's
head was suspended night and day by
q thin, weak thread, the dreaded sword
of poverty. Men feared that the thread
might break any minute. 1t was the
thread by which they held the thing
called Sob" What did they care
about the rights of private property
They didn't have any private prop
erty. The socialists had willing list
eners when they ranted about COM
munism. 1t promised to give these
people property, to give them a COM
mon ownership Of everything It
wasn't hard to convince them that this
was better than ownership of nothing.
The bOlsheviks Of Russia are en-
titled to the presumption of good
faith in selecting the MARKHAM formula.
1t Is only fair to them, and to the rem
edy, to examine the experiment with
a mind free from prejudice. In admit
ting the, good intentions of the boil
sheviks | am not cOnceding that boil
sheviSm Is practicable, workable: that
1t has succeeded or can succeed For
the present | am trying to fairly give
the whole story of the effort. 1t is
as foolish to try to answer the boil
shevik propaganda by calling the boil
shevlks ugly names, as it would be
stupid to accept bolshevism because
its advocates are sincere.
Need for Calm Consideration.
Russia Is the patient If we are to
intelligently judge the treatment
called bolshevism, 1t is necessary to
get complete history of the patient
and examine the conditions under
which the experiment was tried. ANY
doctor who is a scientist would follow
such procedure in handling a med
ical case. If doctor announced to
the scientific world that he had rem
edy for cancer, which at the present
time is an incurable physical disease,
just as poverty Is social one the
scientists would give a hearing to his
theory, seek fair test for It, keep
their minds open, and judge the eff
cacy Of the remedy by the results II
produced. Communism, as treat
ment, a cure for poverty, has never
been put to the test on scale and in
circumstances which justify any posi-
tive judgment as to whether or not
the plan Is practical one. As | have