The Wrangell sentinel., 1920-04-29
Article XII
By FRANK coMERFoRD.

back from the French front. I had known him for many years. Before the United States entered the war he was one of the many impatient at our delay. He believed that 1t was our duty to join the fight when the ruth. less submarine campaign torpedoed the Lusitania. sending to cold. wet graves American women and children. I distinctly remember his face as he read the headlines in the papers tell ing of the murderous slaughter of Americans on the high seas. Now when he greeted me he startled me with his first words, "The war Is over. I'm bolshevik." I did not know what the word meant, yet 1t carried to my mind m impression. and while the im- pression was hazy. 1t was clear at least in one particular. It sounded like the confession of crime.
 He had always been of quiet, con- servative type. Before the war one would have judged him to be pacifist he was even-tempered. mild of manner and I still think that before August. 1914, he was a pacifist in head and heart. It was only the call of a just cause, the fight for an ideal in which he believed, that had made him a sol dier. In this respect he was typical of 90 per cent of his countrymen.
 l had spoken to him the day he en- listed, for he was one of those who volunteered, who might have waited for conscription and claimed a just exemption. He was in the beginning of his married life, with two very young children. By profession he was an engineer. Going to war meant leaving wife and two babies. leaving job that promised advancement. I recall his enthusiasm. the intensity of his patriotism, his quiet disregard of the danger to himself. I am sure that there was little hate in his mo- rale. He saw danger to the world. The honor of his country had been offended against. He was an Ameri- can, one of those upon whom the duty fell. so he went.
 He a bolshevik! Why? was con- founded. confused. The only meaning I gave to his remark was that he was an anarchist. The word "bolshevik" sounded red to me. It flared of the torch, photographed disorder, lawless- ness-it registered blood, violence, as- sassination. force, hate, insanity. I wondered how this nine-lettered word had become the vehicle for SO many sensations that disturbed peace of mind and sounded alarm.
 Where had the word come from and what company had 1t kept that so fouled its soul? What did 1t really mean-had it definite meaning? Was 1t bug like the 'fiu" germ? Had 1t come among nations to destroy them and to the hearts of men to silence the heavenly message. Peace. on earth, good will to men," Would 1t run around the world as scourge? Was 1t a postscript to the bloody war les son. prophesying more anguish and tears than four years fighting had brought? Would the world, coming out of the war bent, now be broken?
 Or was 1t a meaningless myth? Was the word bogie. bad joke, night mare pressing heavily on a tired, nerv- ous worlds head?
 Seeking Words Real Meaning.
 Or was the meaning that men had read into the word lie? Was bol- shevism the message of a new Mes- siah being cried down by the mo6ey- changers of our time in the same way their ancestors had silenced the word from the Mount and destroyed the Message Bearer with the lash and the cross?
 In every mind was the thought and from every tongue fell the word. Rus sia had given the world a word. It had encircled the globe. Everywhere people were speaking the word-it found lodgment in every brain, a liv- ing place in every language. It's use had become universal. The old. the young. rich and poor, the learned. the uneducated. the serious. the simple. the toiler, the artist. the poet. and the peddler, the tinker and the thinker, held the thought and spoke the word. Men. women and children spoke the word, read the word, and felt the thought 1t carried.
 To the nine hundred and ninety-nine 1t was a word of ill-omen, a word of terror and fear. To the one in a thou. sand 1t was a word of hope, a light for the feet of stumbling world, and the nine hundred and ninety.nine said that some of these people called bol- sheviks were dreamers of strange dream. that twisted idealism had made them mad. that the majority of those who profess faith in bolshevism were sick with a strange, social fever, that they were mischief-makers, ne'er-do- wells. criminals. that they sought to burn the world.
 I made up my mind that would learn the real meaning of the word. The dictionary definition threw no light on its meaning. 1 came to the