The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1940-01-18
Today
AND
Tomorrow
By
Frank Parker StOekridge

RULERS 1orce
Looking back only a few years.
who remembers that in 1918 the
German Army and Navy rebelled
against the German Kaiser and
forced him into exile? Or that a
year before the people of Russia
had deposed their Car and sent
/ him to his death? The peoples OF
those nations were taking their
governments into their own
hands. That was hailed by the
believers in democracy as a great
triumph for the principle of self
government.
Look at what has happened
since. The German Republic las
| ted only seven or eight years be-
fore an INSCRIPTIONS gang of po-
liticians got control and abolished
democracy entirely. The peoples
government of Russia, under
Alexander Kerensky'S leadership,
lasted but few months before it
was overthrown by another gang,
which has ruled by ruthless muir
der of all who have opposed its
policies.
The German people and the
Russian people are far worse off
than they ever were under the
rule of Kaiser or Car. Instead of
gaining freedom, they have lost
whatever vestige of liberty they
once had. They are dominated
by force in the hands of unscru
pulous scoundrels.
DEMOCRACY bosses
Historians of the future are
bound to write hundreds of books
explaining why democracy failed
in those two great nations. To me
the basic answer is clear enough.
Neither the German people nor
the Russian people had ever had
any experience with Individual
liberty nor any understanding of
the processes of elf-government.
They had always been subjects
of an all-powerful state, trained
for generations to be subservient
to authority. Only few thinkers
had ever dared to dream of self
government, and they were
speedily suppressed.
1t was easy enough for the po-
litical tricksters and gangsters
who now control those two ma
tons to nip the democratic idea
in the bud. The people weren't
ready for it. It takes years, even
centuries, for any group of people
to master the principles and work
out the methods of successful
self-government. We in Ameri-
ca succeeded only because we
had hundred years and more of
experience in running our own
affairs as colonists so far away
from our rulers that they couldn't
discipline us very severely.
The Germans and the Russians
merely exchanged one set of bos-
ses for another, and continued
their old habit of taking orders
from the ruling group.
HISTORY BOnaparte
1t took the people of England
several hundred years of trying
to endure the expressions of the
Crown before they got up cour-
age enough to cut off their king S
head and take the government
into their own hands. That was
the beginning of democracy as
we know it. It took them anoth-
er rs years or so, in which they
nearly lost the liberties they had
gained, before they finally learn
ed to operate the machinery of
self-government.
The French people were hun
dred years and more working
themselves up to the point of re-
volution,. and probably would not
have tried it if they had realized
in advance that they would have
to kill the king to gain their H.
berry. They, too, almost lost all
they had gained when an unscru-
pulous adventurer named Napo-
leon Bonaparte gained political
control. 1t was half a century af-
ter Napoleon before the French
people developed a workable sys-
tenn of democratic rule.
| The best way to get a clear
understanding of what is hap
pening in Europe today is to read
the history of the French Revo.
luton and the life of Bonaparte