Evening star., 1936-08-30
BY MARK SULLIVAN.

the state Of the world-no less.
Let no easy-going citizen turn
u the page with the reflection
that the state Of the world is too
large subject for him to bother about
on hot August day. Let none sup
pose that he can 60 his own way
without concerning himself with the
state Of the world. That might have
been to some extent true in the past
periods Of world crisis. But precisely
the thing that is important in the
present situation is the arising and
rapid growth-the sensationally rapid
growth-of two conceptions OF gov
ernment and society which deny to the
citizen the right to manage his ex-
istence according to his own direction,
two conceptions Of which both pro-
pose to reduce the citizen to a status
Of submission to compulsion by gov
ernment.
What will say here I have written
before in fragmentary ways. Very
recent events call for repetition in a
compact way which all can grasp.
Preceding 1917. there were two
forms Of government In the world.
One was monarchy, with varying lin
itations. The other was democracy,
with differences in detail. OF the
democracies, America was the out
standing example. We thought, and
the world thought. it was the best
form Of government. Ever since we
had adopted it, in 1889, the world
had been initiating it. For 1913 years
every change that had taken place
anywhere (that was important or
lasting) had been an abandonment of
monarchy, whole or partial, an adop-
tion or extension Of democracy. We
assumed that we had the latest and
best model Of government, and by
imitation the world confirmed our
complacency.
Democracy Set Up In Russia.
Then, in 1917, Russia passed
through a revolution. 1t was the same
kind of revolution that had long been
familiar, a revolution which over
threw monarchy and set up a demo-
cratic republic. America sympathized,
and felt renewed confidence that our
form Of government was the one to
which the whole world would ulti-
mately come.
But six months after that first
revolution, Russia passed through an
other A group Of leaders, chiefly
Trotzky and Lenin, overthrew the re-
public and substituted communism.
Communism vas something new in
the world. --.
The moment communism @estab-
lished itself in Russia its leaders be-
gan an energetic campaign Of propa-
ganda, direct action and secret 10
mentation TO extend communism to
the rest Of the world. Their agents,
with funds supplied by the Russian
Communist leaders, became active in
every important country IN Europe
and in the United States.
One country In which communism
made some progress was Italy. 1t did
not succeed in achieving quick over
turn Of the existing government. but
it created chaos in parts of the coun-
try. In that situation, Mussolini
emerged In 1922. He devised q form
Of society and government which he
called fascism. Fascisim was as new
in the world as communism. 1t will
be observed that fascism was devised
as an antidote to communism.
The next important development
was in Germany. Germany immedi-
ately after the war, had passed
through a revolution. 1t was revo-
luton of the familiar type-mon-
archy overthrown, democratic re-
public set up. We in America con-
graduated ourselves as We had many
times before-here was another proof
that our conception Of society and
government was going to spread
throughout the world.
The German republic lasted some
years. Efforts to overthrow it were
kept up steadily by communism.
These efforts made progress. At a
point where 1t seemed that COM
munian might succeed. Hitler arose.