V

ASPECTS OF BOLSHEVISM AND

AMERICANISM 1

It would be impossible in the time allotted to me to do more than sketch the outstanding features of Bolshevism and to point out how they conflict with the social and political institutions under which we enjoy the benefits of civil liberty. Perhaps I may be of some service, however, by indicating with a few broad strokes the fundamental principles of Bolshevism, and pointing out how it is at war with every principle of true Americanism.

HISTORICAL ORIGIN

Bolshevism is based upon the system of economic philosophy founded by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, who collaborated for many years. Their doctrines were regarded as revolutionary and they were driven first from Germany, where they were born, and then from other continental countries. They finally found refuge in England, where they continued during their lives to exercise an extraordinary influence by their bold and able advocacy of revolutionary theories. Their writings, and particularly those of Marx, were most voluminous. "Das Kapital," his great work, is a voluminous work which probably few people in the world have ever read, but which among economists has excited about as much comment and controversy as the writings of Rousseau. The influence of Marx on the socialistic thought of the last century was extraordinary.

1 Address to the League for Political Education, Carnegie Hall, New York City, December 6, 1919.

In spite of statements of some of the moderate Socialists to the contrary, the Bolshevist system is theoretically and practically based upon the doctrines of Marx and Engels. Lenin and Trotsky assert this to be the fact; and the veneration in which Marx is held by the Bolshevists of to-day is indicated by the fact that the Bolshevist régime do not object to the substitution in public places of his picture for that of Christ.

It has been said that the doctrines of Marx were inspired by the consuming passion of hate, and a recent writer has said of him:

"He was without religion, having been conveyed from Judaism to Protestantism by his father at the age of six, and having abandoned Protestantism for aggressive Atheism when he grew to manhood. He was a man embittered by persecution, enraged by antagonism, soured by adversity, exasperated by suffering. . . . His inspiring and dominant passion was the passion of hate-hate in its virulent and peculiarly Germanic form . . . 'Das Kapital' (1867) is the enduring testament of Marxian animosity. It is a work of dogmatic mythology, the formula of a new religion of repulsion, the Koran of the class war."

THE MARX DOCTRINE

This doctrine was embodied in the so-called Communist Manifesto issued by Marx and Engels in 1847. It is based upon the assumption that the proletariat, or the laboring man, has no national character and that "law, morality, religion are to him so many bourgeois prejudices, behind which lurk in ambush just as many bourgeois interests." And it adds:

"The proletarians cannot become masters of the productive forces of society, except by abolishing their own previous mode of appropriation, and thereby also every other previous mode of appropriation. They have nothing of their

own to secure and to fortify; their mission is to destroy all previous securities for and insurances of, individual property."

There is some obscurity in Marx's theory as to the abolition of property in general, but it is apparent that he proposed to abolish all property that belongs to the bourgeois class.

He adds:

"The bourgeois claptrap about the family and education, about the hallowed correlation of parent and child, becomes all the more disgusting the more, by the action of modern industry, all family ties among the proletarians are torn asunder, and their children transformed into simple articles of commerce and instruments of labor."

Then upon the question of nationality he says, "The workingmen have no country. We cannot take from them what they have not got."

Marx does not deny that Communism of his form abolishes all religion and all morality, and makes no attempt to constitute them on a new basis. He believes that political power is merely the organized power of one class for oppressing another. He dismisses with contempt the economists, philanthropists, humanitarians, improvers of the conditions of the working class, organizers of charity, members of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, temperance fanatics and "hole and corner" reformers of every imaginable kind. The Manifesto closes with these ominous words:

"The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The

proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains; they have a world to win.

"Workingmen of all countries, unite."

Wilhelm Liebknecht, interpreting Marx, says that "socialism and ethics are two separate things."

LENIN AND TROTSKY

The most influential leaders of Bolshevism have been Nicolai Lenin, whose real name is Vladimir Ulianov, and Leon Trotsky, whose real name is Leon Bronstein. The assumption of a false name has been quite common among Russian revolutionists and has no particular significance. Lenin is of an old Russian family of the landed gentry class, his father having been a local judge. He is about fifty years of age, has had a university education, is an economist of distinction, having been the author of works on Russian economics which have attracted wide attention. His elder brother killed a civil officer of high rank and was hanged for the offense, an episode which it is thought has had much to do with the radical views of the surviving brother. Lenin does not come of a Jewish family. Trotsky is a Jew and has traveled much throughout the world, having been the editor of a Russian newspaper in this city for some time. His power in the Bolshevist revolution came from his talent as an orator in influencing the people to rise. He is now the Minister of War in the Soviet cabinet. His writings show a remarkable power of expression. Others among the Bolshevist régime are men of unusual intellectual equipment. Indeed, Lenin has sought out men of force and the power of efficiency. The Minister of Education, Lunarcharsky, is a man of superior power and is said to have made extraordinary efforts to found a system of pop

ular education, all, however, founded upon the basis of the Bolshevist social and political system.

BOLSHEVIST TERMINOLOGY

We will not understand the real nature of modern Bolshevism without some attention to the meaning of some of the terms used in describing it. In the first place, the peoples of the world are divided roughly into the proletariat or proletarians and the bourgeoisie. Imperialists and aristocrats form such a small part of the population that they are negligible. Temporarily the soldiers, and especially the Cossacks, had to be recognized as a part of the ruling classes.

The term "Bolsheviki" etymologically means "the majority." At one time in the history of the struggles of the various revolutionary groups in Russia one group upon some issue then important, but now wholly forgotten, obtained and held for some time a majority in the socialistic assembly and was for the occasion called the "Bolsheviki." The other group was known as the "Menshevists" or "Mensheviki," meaning the minority. Lenin was then of the group of Bolsheviki. Trotsky was affiliated with another group. In the subsequent developments in the socialistic groups the Bolsheviki lost their supremacy and this continued through the first revolution, resulting in the government of Kerensky, which preceded that of the Soviet Republic. During all of that time Lenin and Trotsky and their associates were in the minority, but they clung to the name, Bolsheviki, although it no longer signified that it was the majority party. Indeed it was, until shortly before the fall of Kerensky, in a small minority.

The "proletariat" is the great body of the working people,-those who work with their hands with no expectation of anything beyond a wage which will supply