GIFT OF 71 A^S A SERIES OF THREE EDITORIALS REPRINTED FROM The DAILY NEWS SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA Bolshevik agents are busy in every industrial center. Their work has been denounced by nearly every American journal, but denunciation is not enough. The Daily News is the only newspaper of this coun- try that has undertaken, in language that any man can understand, to make clear the terrific blunders that are the very root of Bolshevik doctrine. These editorials, written by Mr. Eugene MacLean, editor of The Daily News, constitute a major document in the case of Americanism vs. Bolshevism. They are commended to your attention. •*i3 0—^7, qq BOTH the Bolsheviki and the Social- ists preach the "Revolution." By this they mean upsetting the existing order of things entire, and building up a new structure of govern- ment and society. No such plan could add to the happi- ness or welfare of mankind. It would have an exactly contrary effect. The jar of such an upheaval itself means misery, lasting until order again is restored in the course of years. With order restored, under any sys- tem of government either tried or pro- posed, the same old problems remain. * * ♦ These problems are two: Maintaining the freedom of the in- dividual, without interference with his neighbor's rights; Maintaining a supply of food and clothes and shelter for all, and the means to get them. The first requires the exercise of a police power, and the severity or lax- ness of this police power does not de- pend on the NAME or FORM of govern- ment, whether monarchist or republican or bolshevik, but upon the kind of men who control the police. The second requires the continuance r r ;he benefit of a fellow who is a stranger to me? Abolish capitalism, and I'll be working for my- self. I'll get the full value of my prod- uct, instead of turning it over to a man I don't even know, getting back only a pittance for my labor." That's the standard argument of the radical socialists — the men whom we usually call bolsheviks or I. W. W. We've heard it 40 times, in one way or another, and most workingmen have heard it. The propagandists see that the workingmen DO hear it. ♦ * * "Why should I work for the benefit of a fellow who is a stranger to me?"- Because that's the only way you can make your labor of benefit to yourself, brother. There are two means of escaping work for the benefit of the other fellow. No. 1 is not to work at all. No. 2 is to go off in the woods by yourself, dig your own roots to eat, knock over your own bear with a club, for clothes, and pull down your own branches for shelter. But the man who lives and works among other men must work for their benefit, because that is the kind of part- nership humanity has set up to .escape the cold and hunger, that brought- mis- ery in the days of barbarism. • •• * * * .'..*> Go back to the beginning; back to the days before men went into partnership. A man lies on his back beneath a tree, naked. Other men, like him, are basking in the autumn sunshine. Nobody is working. Nobody has worked. There is no food stored up for the chili days when vegetation is with- ered and the trees bear no fruit. There are no clothes. There is no shack nor novel There can be no stored pro- visions nor clothes nor hut without work. * * • Winter comes on. The people huddle in caves to escape the bitter wind. Some die of cold. They scratch in the earth for roots that they can eat. Sometimes they are able to catch a small animal When such food is not available, they starve. Occasionally a man, with a rock or club, has managed to kill a bear. The others rush for the meat, and he de- fends It. They kill him, and then bat- tle among themselves over the question who shall get the carcass of the bear. In the end the strongest gets it, and drags tt to his own cave, where he and his female and his children devour the flesh. * * * Men lived so, once upon a time. * • * X-ater, they decided that this sort of thing didn't pay. They worked out a different arrange- ment. Before cold weather came, the matt kilted a bear or two, and the woman skinned them, and laid out the pelts to dry; fdY clothes. Together they put away some nuts and dried vegetables and meat, to keep themselves and the young- sters alive through the winter. To make Utt for the shortage of caves, they built a hut W live in, out of the branches of trees, and bits of turf. They learned that there was such a thing as comfort, even in the winter. la the course of ages they learned that they could make food grow for them by planting seeds and bulbs. That meant more work. When they first began working, two or three weeks in the year served the purpose. They got Only two or three weeks' worth of return from it, but not so many froze to death or starved. lese But more desires developed, and these meant greater and longer effort. They discovered that stone hatchets were better than branches torn from a tree in doing battle with bears and wolves. One old man proved more skillful in making hatchets than the others. He was too weak to go out to do any kill- ing himself, but in exchange for his hatchets, the younger men gave him a share of the meat they brought in. It was the first wage in history. * • * If the old man had worked only for himself and not for the benefit of the other fellow, he'd have only his hatchets. He couldn't eat them, and he couldn't wear them. He couldn't even use them. He could use the meat, though. He was working for others, and they were working for him. • • • There was one difficulty. Meat came to him in plenty when the men were hunting. When they weren't hunting, or when the kill was poor, he had to eat just the same. However, the news of his skill was spreading. Men came a long way to get his hatchets'. Some brought dried foods — roots and meat dried in the sun. They were more than he could eat at the moment, but they would keep. He put them away at the back of his hut for future use. It was the first profit in history. In course of time, other skilled men developed. Bows and arrows Were in- vented. There were arrowmakers and men who knew how to treat the sinews of animals to make bowstrings. Some had discovered how to make rough shoes out of hides, to protect the feet from thorns and flinty rocks. Each put in his time at the task he could do best, and traded products with the makers of other implements, and hunters, and growers of grain. Men were learning to work together. They were learning, too, to lay aside a surplus out of what they received — food for the winters, and skins and ar- rowheads for the days when they could no longer produce, and would have noth- ing to give in trade. These surpluses grew. * • * One day, in the distant ages of the past, came word to one of the tribe that another clan, across the mountains and the great river, had produced a great quantity of wheat — more than it could use. Wheat could not be grown on the lands of this tribe, but it had been tasted and relished. The journey across the mountains was long and perilous. One youth offered himself to make it. "I have here a great heap of bearskins/' said he. "I will take some of them with me. I should take other things. Give me some of these fine arrow-heads, and these strong bowstrings, and I will give you the rest of my skins for them. Then I will take what I have gathered, and go across the mountains to secure wheat." He collected his wares, made the trip, and brought back, on his own shoulders and on those of bearers from the other tribe, the wheat his people wanted. It was the first commerce in history. i • * The young man traded back to his tribesmen the wheat he had brought, re- ceiving things he needed in exchange, and other things that he could trade to the villagers across the mountains for another consignment of grain. He was the first merchant in history. fie dealt in things he did not raise nor produce, yet without him, each of two tribes would have been without products that it wanted. ♦ * * Slowly, though very surely, the idea spread through mankind. Rude manufactures grew. The discovery was made that iron could be found in the earth, and made into implements. Certain men had learned how to lo- cate iron ore and dig it from the ground. They were the miners. Others had developed skill in heating it and turning it into a metal that could be used. They were the smelters. Still others knew how to beat the iron into spearheads and hatchets and swords and instruments with which to scratch the ground in order that seeds could be ^planted. They were the smiths — the first mechanics of history. • • ♦ Elsewhere, there were regions where men bred sheep, and had learned how to weave cloth from the wool. There were communities where leather goods were made, such as shoes, and heavy jerkins to use in hunting. There were places where ornaments were made, and where men had learned to find and polish precious stones. Merchants went from tribe to tribe, and village to village, carrying the prod- ucts of one to another, trading there for materials needed back home. Each man had his own particular work. Each was working for the benefit of strangers, but if he had not done so, his own work would not have been of benefit to him. The weaver could not consume all his own cloth. The spear- maker could not use his spears and make them, too. Neither of them could spare the time and effort to make the exchange himself. But, by the weaver, spearmaker, merchant, and all the rest laboring for each other, mankind was lifting itself from the level of the sav- age, lying naked upon the ground. * • • In course of time it was found too cumbersome to carry iron hatchets and bales of cloth and shoes from village to village. Tokens were invented, which were used in trade. A merchant, buying a bale of goods to carry back to his people, gave a token to the man from whom he bought. The token usually was made of metal, which could be traded for other wares up to a certain amount. These tokens were called MONEY. Men could carry money in their pock- ets, easily, where they could not pos- sibly carry all the wares it represented. The invention of money did not change 10 the principles on which men were con- ducting trade. It simply made trade easier to carry on. In storing this surplus for old age, it was no longer necessary for the man to fill his house to overflowing with cloth and leather and dried grains. He simply laid by a store of these tokens, with which he could buy what he wanted in time of need. • * * Other things had come into being, with the upward growth of the human race. There were men whose duty it was to heal the sick. There were ministers of religion, and men who decided disputes between the people, and men who wrote records on brick or parchment, and men who taught the young. Their services were paid for out of the surplus of the others. They worked at their crafts, just as the ironmaker worked at his, and similarly, out of the surplus that they were able to lay aside they bought the wares of the cloth- worker, and the ironworker, and the worker in ornaments. * * * Once upon a time, a weaver of cloth found that there was more demand for his product than he could fill by him- self. There was a youth in the neighbor- hood. The youth was not skilled in any- thing, as he had just sprung into man- hood. Skilled work was demanded now by men. "Come with me and learn to weave," said the weaver. "I will teach you the craft, and will give you money to feed and clothe yourself. As you become more skillful I will pay you more. If there is a surplus from your work, as there is from mine, I will buy more wool, and more spindles, and another loom, and find another young man to work with us/' It was the first factory under the wage system. The experiment succeeded. There was profit from the labor of both men. The profit went into the buying of more raw material, and more tools of the craft, and other men were added to the force. ♦ • * Some of the young men proved skill- ful and thrifty. In course of time they had laid up sufficient surplus of their own to become master-weavers on their own account. As men learned the warmth and com- fort of cloth, the demand grew, and weavers set up their looms in increasing numbers. The same process was repeated in other occupations. Mankind by now had advanced so far ibeyond the naked savage underneath the tree that he regarded as necesaary many objects that the savage could not dream would ever exist. In the quest for physical comfort and mental advancement, and happiness, men were demanding more and more products and service. Each of these activities required the time of men. Each new product de- manded special skill. Means for establishing new industries, for advancing new arts, for promoting new discoveries in science, were pro- vided by the surplus which was stored up from the labor of mankind. This surplus was profit, and without profit men found that they could not ex- tend the arts and crafts which constituted civilization. * * • The growth of mankind is measured by the growth of mankind's require- ments. It came to pass that great engines •were required to do the work that a sail used to do, in moving ships across the water. To make these engines, huge factories were needed, and these in turn called for intricate machines. By the effort of scientists — which