Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-08-25
COMMUNISM ON ITS LAST LEGS

WHAT purpOrts to be a confession of
w failure by Lenine has been published
in Paris. 1t is in the form of letter
to a friend whom he knew when he was in
exile. The confession may or may not be
authentic, but it contains what any intelli-
gent observer of the Russian situation knows
TO be true. There Is no reason save one of
political expediency which should prevent
Lenine from making the admissions with
which he is credited He has already made
them in part by his concessions to the desire
of the peasants TO own their land and by
his modification of the communistic theory
in the management of industry.
Lenine is represented rs saying that the
Russian workers and peasants have betrayed
their own interests. He gambled on the
collective instinct which he thought ought
TO hold the people and the members of the
Communist Party together but he found
that the collective instinct was weaker than
the individual instinct to possess and to re-
tain that which was acquired. In other
words, he gambled on the weakness of
human quality which has been responsible
for the organization Of what he is pleased
to call the capitalistic Governments.
1t Is n matter of history that Govern
ments have been organized to protect the
property as we'll as the life of the people.
The right to o.private property has been re-
garded as sacred The hope of accumulating
it has been responsible for the material de-
velopmcnt Of the world. 1t has driven men
from the older countries to the new, where
they have endured hardship and privation for
years that they might ultimately profit by
the possession of land and its fruits of all
kinds There has been no mass action in
this The individuals with sufficient intia-
tive to 60 forth and tame the waste places
Of the earth have been responsible for what
has happened.
What is called the collective instinct has
been born in men who have wished to profit
by the labors of the individuals without
enduring the hardships which the individuals
have suffered. They have insisted that the
world belongs to the people who nhabit it,
and that they and those who agree with
them are the people.
For a long time past ] have realized
the imminence of compromise and conces-
sions on our side" the alleged confession
new forces and increase the little band of
weary and really devoted workers. Without
that we cannot go on
But an authentic message from Lenine
to the German Communists indicates that
he has not lost faith in his theories. He
tells the Germans that ii is necessary to
choose the time when the masses, driven by
the capitalist class to defend themselves will
unconsciously make common cause with the
Communists, and that the whole tactics and
strategy of the party's propaganda must be
directed toward that end.
The Russian leaders must have lost hope
for the expected world wide industrial revo-
luton with which they began their expert
ment. And they must know, too, that no
Communist State can live among States
organized on the old system. If the Rus
SLAMS are to deal with the rest of the world
and there can be no recovery from the
present industrial depression unless they
have such dealings-it must be possible for
foreign business men TO deal with Russian
business men with some guarantee that the
Russians will keep their contracts as indi-
viduals.
1t begins to look very much as IL the end
of communism Is in sight.