The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1919 THE MADNESS OF BOLSHEVISM.

Taihape Daily Times, 15 January 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1919 THE MADNESS OF BOLSHEVISM.

(With which is Incorporated The Taihape Po«t end Walcyail'io News).

Berlin is the scene of demonstrations that should prove of value to every member of every community on this little globe. From the time —centuries ago—that anarchy first made* )any appreciatblo mafrk upon society sane people have sought to learn upon what foundation anarchists would base society, what policy, what form of government it would establish to enable the masses of humans to live in peace and contentment with each other, and still go on building up a world to meet 'the requirements of the greater number who come .after them. Today, in this age, more than j at any other period in history, is mankind more concerned about what ! the studied or planned ultimate of j anarchy is. Nothing worthy of a moment's thought has been written in the past by anarchists, and to-day avc turn to the Lenins iand Trotskys, the Liebknechts, Kadeks, Ledcbours and Eichorns; coming nearer, Australia offers nothing in anarchy but what must result in the destruction of all in common that Is worth saving. In Eussia there is an Anarchist Government; Russia the most successful case of anarchist revolution that is known, but it cannot'last; ithas nothing to offer but murder and plunder, and its gospel being based upon {robbery N a.nd dp.'truc.fakm $o gratify the fugitive wills of men with unbalanced minds must of necessity i come to an cud; the people of the world cannot wait for long upon j robbery and murder. The great thinker, and orator, Burke, said in I his day: "that to resort to anarchy or to arm to rectify bad government, is to invoke the powers of hell to rectify the disorders of Garth." From what history tells us of past revolutions we know that Burke states a fact in a most forceful way. The revolutions, or rebellions, of Cade' and Wat Tyler in England, only ended in greater misfortune and held back j social progress for very many years. ! The rising of the French Jacquerie, the French Revolution, is further instance of violence to secure reforms j being worsted. German anarchy is now resorting to violence, what is it achieving and what is it likely to j

achieve? Like the French revolution it is resulting in the massacre of thousands of innocent men, women and children. The anarchic pleaders in their mad enthusiasm are lashing up otherwise peaceful people to resort to revolution, to slay their erstwhile friends indiscriminately, and to be slain. What are these people fighting for, suffering death for? They have been told that there should be no- property, no government; everything should belong to everybody, an impossible doctrine. There w*as some excuse for the revolution in France, the peasants had suffered terribly for long years from feudal tyranny. The nobles of France when taken prisoners by the British extorted the price of their ransom from their impoverished vassals to save them selling "their estates, they seized everything movable the peasants possessed, furniture and chattels of every kind, and it is little wonder the peasantry rose lagainst such "tyranny. It is common history that when revolutionists were asked what they were fighting for they usually said they did not know, they did so because others did it. This insurrection spread over all France yet it was instantly suppressed, but not till thousands upon thousands of peasants and workers had been slain; it terminated in additional cruelty to, and slaughter of, the people, as (all revolutions before and after it have ended and as all future revolutions must end because they are based upon nothing more, tangible than the vapourings of dishevelled minds and intelligences. Workers in New Zealand and Australia arc lashed and fired into enthusiastic belief, by anarchists, that their disabilities and social wrongs can only be righted by violence, by employing force to seize everything, depose all power, and cast to the wind all law; but we «sk them to seriously consider whether their cause for which they would use violence,'would not be entirely lost in the wide-spread and general destruction which their violence would bring about. If cx _ periencc is worth anything let it be some guide for the future; while all anarchical revolutions have miserably failed social scientists have most strongly urged the cause of the pea-

sant and the worker. Sir James Macintosh wrote a strong apology for the French revolutionists, but he impressed upon all nis readers of that date and ever since, that "Political institutions are not made, but grow." It is strange that with all the failures and disasters of revolutionists in the past workers of this period should allow themselves .to be gulled into seeking reforms by violence. Labour in Australasia, as well as in Kussia and Germany, may drift into the folds of anarchy, whereas, if half as much money were spent in sane, healthy labour propaganda .the highest ideal labour could strive for would very soon be attainable. It is because the masses are split by conflicting interests that reforms lag behind. The iconoclast to .destroy the impositions and shams of modern industry and society are indispcnsiblc in the popular cause. Anarchy is too drastic a medicine, for it may or may not kill the disease, but it invariably kills the patients. The cure is worse than the idisease and that is why anarchy and revolution must, for ever fail in the future as it has failed in the past. Let intelligence replace unad enthusiasm for with the diffusion of a wider intelligence must come the greatest and most beneficent reforms. What, we would ask workers, labourers, mechanics and producers, is the position presented in Germany at this moment? What, has Liebknccht, Kadek and other extremists, offered as a basis of government that workers should throw away their lives in support of? Nothing! German anarchists arc demonstrating to the world the futility of their cult in securing j more justly uniform conditions of \ life. Like the revolutionists of Prance, if they were asked what they were fighting for they would be non- j plussed, and would probably reply ; that they were fighting because others i were fighting. The gospel of murder and sabotage recoils roost disastrously on those who encourage and put it into practice, this is proved by all ; history, by all past experience and by j all that is taking place- in the present. The seizure of power by force is fundamentally opposed to everything human; man is a peaceful, not a warring being, and it is the harangues of the noisy anarchic demagogue that misleads him into being anything else. Liebknccht is urging the German people on to their death in thousands with his firy iia-vauguing; Berlin streets running with the blood of German workers causes him no shud- I dcr, remorse or sorrow; through their blood he would w.adc to coveted power that his intelligence could never attain by peaceful,, means. Anarchy never did succeed in benefitting the masses, and its modern form, Bolshevism, 'is a terrible exaggeration of anything that has yet preceded it. We must, and will, have social reforms j such as renders it impossible for one j class to batten upon and exploit another, but to put trust, in B'olshevik j violence to secure them more quickly is to undoubtedly delay their attainment indefinitely. Had Germany refused to listen to Liebknechts and Ivadeks it is extremely probable there would have been a stable democratic German government at this moment. Sane labour will eventually rule, but until the press of this and of all other countries institute a propaganda to discover and expose the hellish idiosyncracies of the Belsheviki, countries, homes and our admittedly most humane institutions wi'l remain in constant danger of the .ndescribable terrors of revolution.