Middletown transcript., 1922-01-07
REAPuNC AS THEY SOWED


A CCORDING to an apologist for the
- Bolsheviki of Russia, the great
need of that country today is -"Men of
the foreman and works-manager Glass;"
in fact he puts this need ahead of the
need for either food or medicine. We
can readily believe that this states the
situation with fair degree of accuracy,
for the whole policy of the Bolshevists
has been such as to drive out any men
already in Russia of the class qualified
for the supervision of work, and to
keep out others who might contemplat.
going to that country to help in reviv-
ing the almost defunct productive in
dustries.
Setting aside all the teachings of the
experience of all nations since the be-
ginning of recorded history, the Boil
sheviki undertook to establish an abso-
lutte equality of individuals by leveline
down from the top. The most capable,
who had accumulated some wealth by
ability, diligence and thrift, were de-
spoiled. Those who had come into the
ownership of manufacturing plants by
reason of their fitness for successful
management were deposed and the
''proletsriat" placed in control. Not
only were the owners deposed from the
management but their rights in the
property were confiscated. If they
made any effort to assert rights Of own
ership. they were imprisoned or put to
death. Even if they were permitted to
remain, all incentive to personal effort
was removed and the man qualified for
"work-management" became either
non-prodsctive or producers merely
through their own individual physical
efforts and not through their ability to
direct the work of others.
Russia's new leaders have realized
too late the utter fallacy of their the.
cries of industrial management. Like
land-lubbers who turn pirate on the
high seas, they seized the ship and
threw the navigators overheard, and
cannot call them back to guide the ship
through the tempestuous pillows. They
are likely to find, as pirates would un-
der similar circumstances, that they
will not only fail to operate the ship
themselves, but they will SOON lose the
confidence of the seamen and will
themselves meet the fate they decreed
for their betters.
The salvation of Russia rests almost
entirely in the hands of her own people.
Outside influences may help, but not
much. 1t is but temporary expedient
to send few cargoes of food to the
suffering. There can be no permanent
relief-no restoration of industrial pros
perity-until fundamental conditions
are changed by return to those prin-
ciples of human rights which have been |
demonstrated by human experience to |
be essential to human progress.
1t may be readily conceded that in
Russia at the time of Lenin's advent,
conditions were not perfect. That is |
true everywhere and will be true as
long as human beings remain less than |
divine in their attributes. But it is also |
true that no one man, like Lenin, also |
partaking of the frailties of human ma
ture, can arbitrarily overthrow estab-
lished principles and customs and erect |
. different set of principles and customs
for the arbitrary regulation of the po-
litical, industrial and social affairs of
great nation.
That is what Lenin and his associates
endeavored to do. They accepted their
own ideas as superior to the ideas de-
veloped through the hundreds of thous-
ands of years of human progress from
barbarism to civilization, and they
sought to force those ideas upon all
mankind. They have failed and will
continue to fail. If they want foremen
and work-managers to assist in restor-
inn production, they must get them by
recognizing human rights as recognized
and established throughout the world.
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