Evening star., 1925-02-02
New York's Soviet.

y
of the death of Nicolai Lenin, Madison
Square Garden, New York. was filled
with a crowd variously estimated at
from 1000 to $4,000. The walls OF
that historic meeting place. it would
seem, are sufficiently elastic to ac-
count for this wide range of attend
ance figures. 1t does not matter, how
ever. how many thousands actually
attended the meeting. The point of
interest is that the place was filled to
overfiowing with advocates of the es
tabIishment of the Soviet government
in the United States. They were led
by radical who is now out on bail
from a prison sentence for anarchistic
agitation pending appeal to the Su-
preme Court. They were addressed by
him and others in violent terms of
denunciation of the existing form Of
Government and pleas for the adop-
tion of Leninism in substitution. One
of the speakers was a youth of IA, who
ilize the children to fight against the
capitalistic system" and who said
further: I'VE must always be ready
for the day to strike. Down with
capitalism. Down with its system. Up
with the Soviet republic"
This meeting was not disturbed. Po-
licemen stood at the doors and listened
to the speeches, to the cheers and to
the singing of the "Internationale." 1t
was all rated as an ordinary Sunday
afternoon diversion.
That certain percentage Of the
American people favor the establish
ment Of a Soviet system here is evil
dent. That they form a very small
minority is plain. Placing yesterdays
meeting in New York at the highest
number estimated. 1000, it does not
represent an impressive proportion of
the city's population of 5000, 900. The
question arises, is it better to let this
small fraction of the people who are
favorable to communist revolution
come out in the open, or should they
be suppressed and denied the right of
speech and forced into secret meet
ings?
There is nothing deeply disturbing
about such a meeting as that of yes
terday, save, perhaps. in the evidence
that the red propaganda is reaching
and affecting the children of a certain
class. Numerically the meeting was
not. particularly significant, though
10 Tha
not surprising. New York has always
been d center of radicalism. From it
went forth Trotsky to Russia to join
Lenin in the revolution of 1917. From
it also went Emma Goldman, against
her will. to join her comrades of COM
munism, only to suffer grievous disap-
pointment on discovering that the
revolution had turned backward and
was headed again toward capitalism.
1t is somewhat significant that this
meeting was held almost simultaneous
ly with the announcement from Mos
COW that the Soviet government has
gone another step back toward the
capitalistic system, so called, restoring
competitive wages in, the industries of
Russia and permitting piecework,
banned by early Soviet DEGREES. The
great experiment of Lenin proved
failure before his death, and he recog-
nized the fact. His successors are
moving along the lines he laid down
toward a return to the economic and
governmental principles which were
condemned eight years ago. His fol-
lowers in this country do not recog-
aize this change, do not see the fail
ure of sovietism and cIamor for its
adoption here. They are to be pitied
for their stupidity rather than con-
demned for their mischievous but i'm
potent designs.