Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-07-22
AS ONE WOMAN SEES 1T
Soviet Propaganda GIorIhes Glass
While Appearing to Destroy u.
The Most Precious Thing II
Destroys Is Initiative
BY SARAH ID. LOWRIE

their consideration.
1 have not delved very deep or searched
very, far just took what came easily to
hand. 1t is literature that is scattered with
casual craft where the young of the so
called ''intelectuals' might easiest come
upon It. ! fancy 1t is the same sort that
has filtered into college clubs. The trans
lations from Russian speeches and pam
phlets are made in brusque, colloquial Eng
lish. The style is vehement and the doc
thine is dogmatically set forth--that is, by
series of emphatic assertions that have
nothing interrogative about them. You must
either agree or get out And getting out
seems to be getting out of the proletariat
and being bourgeoisie.
Being bourgeoisie means belonging to
the educated, to the employer and to the
willingly employed classes; being prole-
tariat means belonging to the unwillingly
and the ignorant and as yet debased en-
ployed class. There Is still another class
composed OF a very limited number Of per-
sons who are self-appointed and self con
tinued. These are the Government officials,
who make the dogmas, divide the prole
by governmental fats all the population to
work for them that are not banished or in
prison, under the name Of working for the
Government. .|.fE ....
TT is such a rough and arbitrary scheme
i of life that it is bewildering that it
should ever have succeeded in getting tried
who should try to spread 1t In such coun-
try as this. But it has three things that
appeal to three types Of persons. Its dog
matism appeals to the young Of this genera
tion. 1t seems strange. but they are unused
to dogma. The generation just preceding
theirs nearly eliminated it because in its
youth II had suffered from an overdose Of 1t.
Its savage onslaught on the employer
class and its brusque dismemberment of the
educated class and its arbitrary cassifca-
tion Of persons into classes to be dealt with
in bulk, for good or for punishment. has it's
soothing appeal for the unhappy, unfortu-
nate, angry at society workman who has
been fighting a losing fight. And lastly, its
drastic suggestion OF q general break up OF
all existing formulas and institutions and
making n new deal has its appeal for the
merely restless, the intensely individualistic
and the slightly psychopathically ''intellec
tuaP' who Is always agin something" and
wants another chance ito stand alone"
TT IS this last sort Of "restless helper
1 who is doing most Of the propaganda, by
both money, publication and talk.
The odd thing about It is If the upset"
really came and communism really planted
its heavy, brutal foot on these shores. these
rebels against all there is, by temperament
rather than by reason, would be crushed out
fiat as too troublesome to be allowed
around" the first day. Before they could
against, the forces they had invited they
would be snapped of by the heads. And
really think they would get what they
deserved. Theirs is not sin Of ignorance.
They have knowingly lost the creative touch
and cultivated the destroying touch
That the youth of today might be made
to pause and listen gravely to the new
dogmas is, as l have said, strange to those
of us who have suffered and have disliked
and banished dogmas, but the young Of this
generation are attracted by very strong
opinions expressed with the loud pedal
down. The limbo to which the Russian
propaganda sends nbelievers--annihilatio
does not scare them, even though it sends
them drifting, without father. mother, land
or heritage, into space! Their notion is
''Thcrc might be a right or wrong to the
here?'' f;' u ''SH'' "H'' Ae W. o0'"s
And to our objections to the fat asser-
tions that have the impudence to pose as
infallible dogmas on the sayso of Karl
Marx, translated by Trotzky or adjusted by
Lenine and illustrated family by the Com
munc that turned Paris to chaos in the sew
enties and now fulfilled in Russia in all its
glory. they look still gravely thoughtful.
Because it has never been done right is no
proof it cannot be, being their excuse for
listening
THE only type of tentative sympathizer
i who is not theoretic but practical about
1t is the dissatisfied man of the employed
class, who has failed through lack Of initla-
tive to make good. For the one great doc
trine Of this strange religion of Government
is to put the bloodhounds of persecution and
injustice on initiative-and kill 1t.
Like Herod. who slaughtered whole
village of babies to make sure of putting an
end to rival child, the classes that are
supposed to harbor and to recreate initia-
tive-the educated and the employer classes,
from land owners to shopkcepers--are to be
annihilated as menaces to the power of the
officials Of Government and hereditary enc
mics to the ranks of the employed. 1t is
calculated that the process of annihilation
will take about century. Meanwhile. the
children and grandchildren Of the now edu-
Gated and employing classes will not be per-
mitted to have the privileges of citizenship,
lest they use their latent power of initiative
to get control of industry and of Govern
ment. They are, on the contrary, to be
treated with an acknowledged severity-cali
II individual injustice II you will--until the
power of initiative that they have had a
chapCe to possess by birth or by environ
ment Is bred out Of them.
A FORM of government which bandly
n proposes this scheme of destruction of
Il valuable quality because all of the popu-
lation does not possess it In equal power and
which sets up martial law to deal with some
citizens cruelty because they are better
equipped for life than others. has undertaken
a hideous task and is at the same time not
only reversing all the laws of physics, but
also the laws of civilization. They may kill
initiative in all but chosen few self elected
self perpctuatcd Government officials, but
even the initiative Of those picked tyrants
will be that Of destruction, not of creation
Change they will bring about, and change Is