The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-01-27
PRESS ON NICOLAI LEVINE

ceded to be the one who conceived the soviet program and who has been its chief directing influence. Now that he has been withdrawn from the scene, it remains to discover whether the re- gime existed because of the merit of the idea on which it was founded, or because of the strength of character of him who fathered it. Certainly he himself was forced greatly to modify it within his short period of rule. Lenine's rapid rise from a position of obscurity to a commanding height, whence he not only ruled the destinies of a hundred and thirty million peo- pie, but exerted a profound influence upon neighboring governments, has been rivaled by that of only a few Napoleons of history. Few concede that his influence was bcneficent one; but none car deny that it was profound and far-reaching.
 Indeed, the Louisville Courier-Jour- nal believes that Lenine was forced by the enthusiasm of his supporters at first to be more extreme than he intended: "He would have been power less to check the mob excesses had he desired. He therefore, for while, gave them full rein. Eventually some sort of order followed this orgy of chaos. He gathered to himself con- trol of the situation. Within the past year he was powerful enough, secure TOTS and to attempt to rectify them l by saner measures. His death closed career that might, had he lived a decade longer, have given him better name and more enduring fame" :" Still, it is hard to reconcile such a view with definite proof of deliberate soviet plot to overturn other govern ments sby violence. Had the soviet been content to work out the prob lens of Communism within Russia s l boundaries before attempting to thrust them upon the world, the world would perhaps feel differently about it.
 Perhaps a truer picture of the real Lenine is given by the Atlanta Jour- nal: "He must have believed intensely at the outset, in the Communism which he strove to rivet upon his country and hoped eventually to fas- ten upon the world. He continued pressing his radical theory while Rus sia, victim of the experiment, sank deeper and deeper into wretchedness and degradation. He repudiated debts of honor; he virtually declared war against Western Europe and the United States; he alienated his coun- trys best friends; he outlawed her staunchest and wisest patriots; he caused, or permitted, thousands of her citizens of the upper and middle classes to be killed, and the property of thousands to be confiscated; he trampled down religious liberty; he tyrannized and terrorized-all to maintain theory as ill suited to the broader needs of human nature as to the loftier aspirings of the human uplift. That he did so from firm conviction is not gainsaid; but it was a conviction that makes countless thousands mourn"
 As proof that it has not forgotten, the Washington Star declares; "Le- nine was undoubtedly an evil man. Perhaps he was a sincere man in his belief in the doctrines that distn- guished his party from that of Ke- rensky, the maximum of Marxism, the ultimate of Communism. Whether sincere or not, however, he was d great organizer and an indomitable leade:. His methods were cruel in the extreme. Nobody, perhaps, will ever know .how many lives he sacri- ficed to the. end of establishing an autocracy of what nc called the pro- letariat, a tyranny greater even than that of czarism. Lcnine's scheme was fallacious. Ii failed. He acknowl- edged it's failure before ne was seized with the illness that finally, after long suffering, ended his Hrc.'
 In sinila? vein the Atlanta Consti tuition: "Thc soviet system was built upon passion and prejudice, and it has not endured, nor will it. Tho death of Lenine will be great How to his . followers and perhaps 70 his Drotcsaed ideals. He had rlany elements oi greatness, but he Was unsafe, m- sound, unreasonable ana after all--as nreparablc as may Ia tho loss to loved ones and to those closest t. hnl--nis passing may, iA the end, s4rvc Russia well. On the other hand the De troit Free Press doubts "whethrr Lc- mines death can bring about ana : thing like & return to sanity in Rus sia. The event merely removes one of the storm centers of the enduring chaos, There is the possibility that his death may but led to Wcrdcr eX- perimentS than those sponsored by the dictator now dead, Tac whole fate of Russia now lies ia thc lay of an inscruta5le destiny just aS mucl today as i. lay there before Lcnine breaLhcd his last. Indeed. any opium