The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1939-08-03
The Communist Game

A trenchant point in connection with
the German and Russian propaganda,
with which this country is pretty thor
oughly drenched, is made by the Vir-
ginia Weekly, The Bath County En-
terprise, in a column written by Mr.
Fay Ingalls,. A more general recogni,
ton of its soudness would promote the
national health.
The essence of the argument is that
the public attitude toward the Amer
lean activities inspired by the two
great dictatorships-the one headed
by Hitler and the other by Stalin-is
not the same, though on the surface
there appears no reason it should not
be identical. For example, in the last
year the people generally, and the
press particularly, have bitterly-and
properly-resente the publicity and
PROSECUTING of the Nazis in the United
States In addition, there has been
created and nourished high state CT
public wrath over the ruthless tyran-
MES of the Hitler regime.
On the other hand, the propaganda
that comes from Moscow and the ac-
tivities of the Communists represen-
tatives here, which are widespread,
constant and effective, now appear to
be received with curious lack Of in
dignation. This change began about
three years ago and has been SO grad
ual that in the main it has escaped
comment So far as the two nations
are concerned, the doctrines and poll
cies of one hardly are more offensive
to US than those of the other. They
are equally threatening to democratic
ideals.
Both are totalitarian states of the
extreme type, whose rulers look with
loathing and contempt upon the dem
ocratic system - particularly the
American democratic system. They
are equally ruthless, equally irreligi-
Gus, equally Enthusiastically, equally in
different to the rights of the individ-
ual and equally devoid of national mo-
rality. In Russia they do some things
on a grander scale than in Germany
and a political purge which in the lat
ter may take half a dozen lives IN the
former may cost as many as hundreds
or even thousands. Essentially, life IN
the two countries is much the same
No man can express his opinion freely
without danger of prison or worse;
none but few have any say either as
to the making of laws or their enforce
ment; liberty and justice are equally
farcical in both, and in both labor
works practically at the point of the
bayonet for a wage determined by the
masters.
All these facts are too well known
really to need repetition. What is go
ing on in Russia is no less hideous
that what is going on in Germany. But,
so far as we are concerned, the Com
munists are much more numerous and
much more active in spreading their
propaganda than the Nazis. Why,
then, has the American public gener-
allv, and the press particularly, be-
come more tolerant toward the Com
munist activities here than toward
those of the Nazis? Of course, there
is one large, obvious reason-lt s
Hitler rather than Stain who threat
ems to plunge the world into another
great war from which civilization
could hardly emerge, and it is Hitler
who, by various coups, has dramatl-
cally held the spotlight for consider
able period.
But there is another reason and an
important one. The Nazi activities
here have been blatant and brazen,
but more or less open. Certainly there
has been nothing subtle nor skilltul
about them. Their meetings have been
publicly held, their plans paraded and
their leaders advertised. In contrast,
for some years most of the Commun-
list activities in the United States have
been underground, camoufaged with
hypocritical declarations of concern
for democracy. A calculated policy
has been pursued by which the really
key Communist leaders are kept in
position to deny that they are Com
munists. There has been a systematic