The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1920-05-06
PROBLEMS FACING
STRICKEN WORLD
Shall Chaos or Reconstruction
in Europe Follow the Great
World War?
SOME LIGHT ON BoLSHEvISM
Movement Not Anarchistic, as So
Many Seem to Enthusiastically
Is Best Described as "Con-
sistent Socialism,"
Article XIII.
BY FRANK coMERFoRO.

NJ tiOiC NIL.
BY FRANK CoMERFoRD.
II / were.asked To name the prlnci.
pal cause for the growing unrest my
answer would be bolsheviSm The al.
most universal attitude of big business
toward Russian bOlSheviSnl-an utti
Jude adopted by most of the govern.
mentS of Europeans been. and is
Kill IL; don't waste time examining IL
II isn't worth trying To understand: M
good can come ont of ii: II must be-
fought; il isn't entitled To II trial
ReamS of paper have been used TO as
sail IL. Captains I industry and gov
eminent officials have We'd with each
0f those who oppose bolShcvSm are
indignant If you ask them what il is
and why they oppose II. They charac-
teriZe 1t, attack 1t, resent Ii. Great
heat has been shown i'm discussing II,
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 Ia increase
their hate for their employers and de-
stroy their already weakened faith in
government
Whether bolsheviSm is right or
wrong. whether il is good thing or Il
bad thing. il is M least definite po-
litical plan, capable of being examined.
measured. weighed and tested. Ii is
few OF The things ii has been called.
II is entitled TO hearing on its mer-
It's. Ii cannot be howled down in
abuse.
Bolshevism Not Anarchy
Those who lead the campaign
against it frequently and confusingly
define it as anarchy. If there is one
thing that bOIshevism is not, ii is an
archy. Much controversy will be
avoided, many differences of opinion
dissolved if we come to a fair and
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
IL looks frightened, thinks of bomb
thrower. a dynamiter. frebrand.
Such man is not an anarchist; he is
a terrorist. criminal, q destruction
list, a murderer. Let us call spade
a spade and be sure we know what a
spade is. and we will understand each
other better.
Anarchism is an old and respectable
philosophy. The anarchist is an indi-
vidualist. He is in favor of a free life
for the individual. He is opposed TO
turning over the individuals power 20
the state. He argues that great
power delegated 10 government limits
the growth and freedom Of the indi-
vidual. He dreams Of an ideal state In
which human beings will be so perfect
they reed no law. His doctrine is an
enlargement, an eXaggeration of the
idea that the government which gov
ems least governs best. He isn't
lawbreaker. He is a law aboisher. He
reasons that when murder leaves the
human heart there will be no occasion
for laws against killing; that the
statute against murder is only printed
words on the page of law book, ut
terly and entirely without meaning, or
existence, TO the man who is incapable
of killing his fellow man. He says
thar we should develop our artistic
and moral sides and by evolution
gradually repeal one law after an
other until all law disappears. 1t Is
pure ideaism-it is movement to-
ward perfection. 1t is the millennium
II is poetry. Kipling wrote its con
stiuution 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 IL
For the God OF Things as They Are.
Merely Beautiful. Dream.
Few people will contend that this
theory is anything more than beauti-
full dream. Probably the first and
greatest OF the anarchists was the
great Greek PHILOSOPHERS Zeno, from
Crete. the founder Of the stole philoso-
ply, who died go years r. G. Ii is
disturbing to find dynamiters called
anarchists, and in the same breath
hear included some of the greatest
idealists that have ever trod the