The Weekly People's Forum from Lawrence, Kansas • 2

Education In Russia. Lenin and Democracy. By Alanson Sessions Cleveland German Brunch Demands Unity. A resolution passed by the German Branch, Cleveland, reads in part as follows: "We pledge ourselves and New York Newt. "By January 1st we are sure to have a local organilation of over 2,000.

As was expected, the Communist Party elements here are already fighting it And yet, when the President is once-in office he may out-Kaiser the Kaiser' with no restraint during his term except the power of Impeachment lodged in CongresB. In other words, the President of the United States is a dictator. Woodrow Wilson commltteed several violations of the United States Constitution. He drafted men for overseas service. He waged war on Russia without even a formal declaration of war.

He signed the Espionage Act, which Is directly violative of the clause in the Constitution which provides for freedom of speech and assembly. As a matter of fact, although the present government of Russia is considered, even by the Bolsheviks themselves, a dictatorship, it is the nearest approach to genuine democracy that has ever been made. It is a form of democracy that is compatible with efficiency. The mass of a nation is not capable of selecting a national executive. The eighteen commissionaires can do it far better, because as managers of their departments they know best what kind of executive will prop The NATION for October 4 carries a brilliant article by Lincoln Steffens on Russia and the Soviet Government.

The account of the actual working of the Soviet system is written in a spirit of fairness and understanding. But Steffens states a half-truth which may do mischief among indiscriminat-ing readers. "The present Russian Government," he says, "is the most autocratic government I have ever seen. Lenin, head of the soviet government, is farther removed from the people than the Tsar was, or than any actual ruler in Europe is." And Steffens goes on to show the manner in which Lenin has been selected as Premier. First, there is the local soviet which is formed around a shop or an Industry.

This elects delegates to a city or country soviet. This elects delegates to a government or "state" soviet. This elects delegates to the All-Russian Soviet. This All-Russian Soviet elects the commissionaires. And these commissionaires elect the Premier.

This is how Lenin was elected. His election, as can readily be seen, is the very essence of democracy. But Steffens complains that by thisj process Lenin is actually removed far from the people that, in the last! i analysis, eignteen or twenty men (tne commissionaires) select him. Steffens' criticism is not a good one, as we shall see. First, the Russian constitution provides that every official of the Soviet Government may be removed by the recall of the majority.

This does not mean that the masses may hold a. special election for the purpose of ousting Lenin. But it does mean that by each soviet organization instructing the one higher, Lenin himself may be removed from office and another substituted. True, Lenin Is a dictator. But, if the paradox is permissible, he is a dictator by virtue of the decision of the majority.

Americans talk boastfully of the fact that they elect their President by popular vote. By Paul Publie education is under the control of Commissary Lunacharsky, a brilliant and learned man, full of energy and devotion for the cause. The Czarist regime left a legacy to the present system of a population in which more than sixty per cent were illiterate. In order to enable the whole population to gain education, it was necessary at once to triple the number of schools. That is a task which takes time, but it is going on with a fine enthusiasm.

The program of one single type of school has been introduced. Teaching is free, both at the school and at the University. The education of adults who have passed school age and are still illiterate is a most important question in Russia, and therefore a special department for education outside the school system has been set up at the Commissariat of Public Education. Lenin's wife is at the head of this department Madame Lenin. The Work School.

To give you an idea of the intelligence of this remarkable person I shall quote a few' passages from her book, which she gave me with her own hands. She is a sweet and lovable person, though far from strong, and yet in spite of this, her energy is unequalled. One of her aims is to introduce manual work into the modern Russian school system by setting up Work Schools, and she writes: "The Work School should have as its basic principle the combination of manual with intellectual work. Manual work in the Work School must not be specialized; on the contrary, it must be as diversified as possible. The child must model, design, paint, cut out, paste on, do carpentering, and so on.

Manual work must be closely allied with the teaching of mathematics, natural science, geography and history. It gives life to these branches of study, brings them nearer to the child, and thus makes them more intelligible. It awakens in the child interest in these studies, and teaches it to observe and to? work out things for itself. In this way manual work brings out the creative impulses in the child, develops the habit of perseverance until the end is attained, awakens interest in technical work, and gives the child the general idea of what work is. In such surroundings as the Work Schoal gives it, the child's bent and natural aptitudes are readily brought out" Solidarity Through Education.

A little later, dealing with the school of the future in terms at once more general and more definite, she writes: "The school of the future must do everything possible to develop the sentiment of solidarity between the children. Every kind of restraint must be rigidly excluded. The school of the future must be, so to speak, a free association of pupils whose Who is Fighting Steel Trust? Birukoff aim it is, by their common efforts, to clear the path which leads to the realms of thought. The teacher in such a school is no more than a be loved comrade who helps his pupils by his greater experience and knowledge, who shows them the practical ways in which knowledge may be ac quired, helps them to organize useful work together, and teaches them how to help one another in the process of education. Only a school run on these lines can become a school of solidarity, a school which teaches mutual understanding and confidence.

But the desire to be useful to men is nob enough by itself. It is also necessary to know how to be useful. Schools at the present time make children unaccustomed to being useful. The child wishes to apply his knowledge as soon as he acquires it, and the school artificially prevents him from doing so. He is kept on dictation and useless problems, and the consolation offered is that after ending his studies and receiving a certificate he may perhaps be able to be useful to his relatives and to Society.

But anyone with any knowl edge of children realizes that, especially in the higher forms, this compulsory idleness is a real torment to them, and they suffer because the most natural of their instincts, the desire to be useful to other people, remains unrecognized. The schools of today artifically develop their ig norance of how to apply their energy and render it productive. At the completion of his studies a boy who has been to college looks everywhere without success for some work in which he might be useful to man kind, and he does not see the hum drum daily work, which is just as necessary, because he does not know how to apply himself to it." Self-Govemment in the School. The principle of self-government has also been introduced in the new schools, and Mme. Lenin shares on this subject the views of those American teachers, who believe in the greatest possible freedom for the development of their pupils' social in stincts.

She writes: "Those who believe in a liberal education are resolutely opposed to scholastic discipline and constraint in any form, whether physical or moral, in the sphere of education. This must be the very basis of a liberal education, and it is an axiom which there is no need to prove. Once constraint has been done away with, measures of police supervision at once become futile, and such posts as 'prefects' (so harmful to the youthful mind), chosen in some schools from among the pupils, can be abolished. Having got rid of this mockery of self-government, we are able at once to substitute the principle of participation by all the children in the organization of the school and of the teaching given there." credited organizer of and lecturer for the I. W.

who has written ably in Reedy's Mirror in favor of the Bolshevist theory of society and government, and finds its circulation increasing. Jt is very evident that radicalism is 'what the people and the hotter the radicalism the more they want of it. "The only sign I see of any reaction against the radical rage, if one may call it so, is the recent inaugur ation of the Review of New York, lo whose arrival the Bellman cries 'Hail' in the same issue in which it chants its own farewell. The Review aspires evidently to take the conservative position once held by the Nation, now gone out into the wilds with Ishmael, under the brilliant direction of Oswald Garrison Villard." From the Publishers' Weekly. War War is the statesman's game, the priest's delight, The lawyer's jest, the hired assassin's trade, And to those royal murderers whose mean thrones Are bought by crimes of treachery and gore, The bread they eat, the staff on which they lean.

Guards, garbed in blood-red livery surround Their palaces, participate in crimes That force defends, and from a na tion's rage Secure the crown which all the forces reach That famine, frenzy, woe and penury breathe. These are the hired bravos who defend The tyrant's throne. Shelley (1819). urge all members of the Communist Party to refrain from any and every tactic that may create enmity between the workers and to do our utmost to bring about unity between all revolutionary factions; especially between the Communist Party and the Communist Labor Party." The part of this resolution which reads "We urge the CommuniBt Party to refrain from any and every tactic that may create emnlty" is well directed. Tactics which are being pursued by the Communist Party at present are not such as will lead to a unity between all revolutionary factions in this country.

Mental Ticklers (By John Dequer.) When at a meeting and rau desire to ask a question, let that question be for information. Do not try to get a speaker to say something you are too cowardly to say yourself, if There is a difference between Pe-trograd and Wall Street, also between Kerensky and Morgan. You can not deal with the latter as you did with the former. Eight years ago the steel trust pre' ferred foreign to American labor, so they encouraged the immigration of foreign labor. The foreigner was not familiar with.

American Industrial de velopment, so he worked hard and long in the hope that he might become rich and return to his native shores He soon discovered that the law of wages is the same the world over; that a dollar wage and a dollar cost balance one another quite as well as a three dollar wage and a three dollar cost. He saw that he was stung and therefore began to think. Thinking led him to organize. Organized he began to assert his power. This made him a damned foreigner, who ought to have stayed at home, and now the steel trust is going to give the Native Ameican a chance to think and to get organized.

Exit Steel Trust. Say Bo! were there any 0. B. organizers in Omaha, just prior to those riots? If so there may be an economic reason for the fanning of a little senseless race hatred. Europe is still wet, that is the reason for the exodus of the foreign born from our shores.

I agree that it is spirit that lures them back, but it is not primarily the bottle variety. The spirit of Liberty that sometimes dies in one part of the world is just now being reincarnated in Europe. As the star of Empire sets in the West, the sun of freedom rises in the East. It is unlawful in certain states to say what you think. In fact that is more criminal than to do what you feel like.

Gen. Denikin, that spotless saint of Great Britain's news papers, says that he can't stop his soldiers from mas-sacrelng Jews, while he is teaching the Bolsheviki law and order. The Bolsheviki are the party in control in Russia. They are said to be somewhat tryannical. Majority parties have suffered from that weakness in other countries, and with far less excuse.

The next election in Russia may put the bolsheviki out of power, that is more likely than that the colored people of the South will get the Democrats out of power. But remember, dear, that though the Bolsheviks fall, the Soviets will endure. The Capitalist rob you only when you sell, never when you buy, for if the robbing took place on the buying end, then the millionaires would be the worst robbed people on earth, and worthy of our sympathy instead of our whatever we use to express our feelings. WANTED. A correct, honest, open-minded definition of Americanism.

What is Americanism? What is Justice? What is Honesty? What is Liberty? Does It imply Free Speech, Free Press, and a Free People? In the absence of the above, What Is Americanism? What does Capitalistic Americanism mean for your children? If Americanism means anything for an honest people, why is it that men and women, mothers and fathers, are Bent to' prison as criminals for speaking or expressing their own honest convictions against Capitalistic Injustice? Is this what we are taught to call Americanism? L. J. Smith, 668 South 18th Kansas City, Kas. out among themselves as to who shall control the controllers. All the active revolutionary elements have Joined the C.

L. P. Russian FedHU Branch 4, of Kings, Dy a vote om-T-jo in voieu iu withdraw from the Russian Federation, and this branch, together with four other Russian Branches in New York have decided, at a recent joint meeting, to affiliate with the C. L. P.

As regards the S. it is practically UfeleBS. an organization of "leaders" without a rank and The future is bright for the C. L. Morris Zucker.

Fred Merrick Free PITTSBURG, Oct 13. A dinner was given Fred Merrick, Socialist and leader of the Westinghouse strike in 1915-1916, who was recently re leased from the Allegheny County workhouse. It was given under di rection of the Socialists of Pittsburg who have been active in Merrick's defense. They were moved by the recital of the hardships endured by the prison ers, as related by Merrick, who said that he would devote himself to ob taining better food and working conditions for them by arousing pub' lie sentiment in Allegheny County. He assured his audience that de spite his imprisonment he had come out clean and that the period of incarceration had more firmly impressed upon him the Socialist ideals, for which he would continue to work, but with more tolerance for the opinions of others.

Merrick was sentenced because he was the leader of a strike in which three persons were killed and many wounded by state constabulary, the responsibility for the killing being shifted on him. Merrick remarked that the leaders in the present strike were facing similar courts and prisons and that already the Allegheny County workhouse is being filled with scores of steel workers. Class War Prisoners From out of the gloom of the bas-tiles of our White Guard democracy comes the pathetic cry from the prisoners of the class war, "WE are in here for you; are you out there for us?" In response to that cry the membership of the Industrial Workers of the World is making heroic efforts to raise the immense sums required, for legal defense and money to bail out those weaker ones whose health land mental condition are breaking under the strain of incar ceration. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been raised for these purposes, but the end is not yet Immense sums are still to be raised, The workers on the outside, still enjoying some small measure of freedom, must continue their activities in raising money for defense and cash and other forms of prop erty for bail and bonds. Every worker should elect himself a committee of one to keep constantly alive to the stern need for funds for legal defense and active in rais ing money and property schedules and Liberty bonds for bail for our class-war prisoners.

In almost every community there are propertied individuals who would, if properly approached, be willing to go on the bonds of our fellow workers. Seek out these men and women and get them interested and willing to pledge their property for the re lease of our prisoners. Better still, let no member of the I. W. W.

forget the greatest thing of all organization. For, after all, only the organized economic powers of the workers can finally open the prison doors for all and keep them open. Educate, agitate, contribute and organize for our class-war pris oners. Individuals or groups seeking in formation as to the proper procedure in the matter of property bonds or those having Liberty bonds or cash remittances to send in, should address Thomas Whitehead, 1001 West Madison Chicago, 111., or A. S.

Embree, 318 North Wyoming St, Butte, Mont. They are slaves who fear to Bpeak For the fallen and the weak; They are slaves who will not choose Hatred, scoffing, and abuse, Rather than in silence shrink From the truth they needs must think; They are slaves who dare not be In the right with two or three! Russell Lowell. erly assist them with their tasks. Car penters are capable of electing one of their number to represent them in the city or country soviet. The representatives in these Soviets can best elect representatives to the next Soviet, and so on.

In each case voting is specialized, and men vote for a representative, not because they like the color of the candidate's hair or the style of his necktie, but because they know that he is the ideal candidate to perform the task at hand. And yet the entire system is fundamentally democratic because it has for its pivotal basis the industrial occupations of the masses. The Soviet system of Bolshevik Russia has its imperfections; it is. largely the result of a spontaneous growth. But its' fundamental principle is sound and it is the next step in democracy.

Workers, Amalgamated Association of; Machinists, International Asso ciation oi meiai ronsners ymon of North America; Mine, and Smelter Workers, International Union of; Mine Workers of America, United; Molders' Union of North America, International; Pattern Makers' League' of North America; Plumbers and Steam Fitters, United Association of; Quarry Workers' International Union of North America; Railway Carmen of America, Brotherhood of; Seamen's Union of America, International; Sheet Metal Workers' International Alliance, Amalgamated; Stationary Firemen and Oilers, International Brotherhood of; Steam and Operating Engineers, International Union of; Steam Shovel and Dredgemen, International Brotherhood of; Switchmen's Union of North America. The Strike SAY what ye will, ye owls of night, The strike upholds the cause of right; The strike compels the king to pause, The statesmen to remould the laws. SAY what ye will, yet without ruth, The strike drives home the bitter truth; The strike tears off the mask of things, The mass and class the issue brings. SAY what ye will, the strike is good; It clears things long misunderstood; It jolts the social mind awake; It forces men a stand to take. SAY what ye will, all else above, The strike is war for bread and love; For raiment, shelter, freedom, all.

The human race can justice calL Covington Halt CALL HOME WEST 1893 FORUM PUB. CO. FOR JOB PRINTING Turns to Radical Reading Chicago As the capitalistic press from day to day tries to convey the impression that the steel strike is an affair of no consequence, it is well to recall how many labor unions are really on strike against Judge Gary and his fellow-capitalists. The "New Majority" of this city has made the following interesting compilation Blacksmiths, International Brotherhood of; Boiler Makers and Iron Ship Builders of America, Brotherhood of; Brick and Clay Workers, United; Bricklayers, Plasterers and Masons, International Union of America; Bridge and Structural Iron Workers, International Association of; Coopers' International Union; Electrical Workers, International Brotherhood of; Foundry Employes, International Brotherhood of; Hod-Carriers', Building and Common Laborers' Union of America, International; Iron, Steel and Tinplate Revolutionary "Rant By John Griffiths. Three cheers for the social revolution! Then perhaps we go home and do not bother about it until the next meeting we attend, when we think the speaker for the evening will tackle our intellectual palate with our pet ideas and dogmas, also, perhaps, whip up our emotions with lucid references to the beastly capitalists and the placid proletariat but enough.

Some of us have run away with the idea that narrow-mindedness is confined to religious bodies. Yet between the religious fanatic and the revolutionary fanatic, the only difference is in what they rant about. In my long experience as a Socialist I have found that sometimes the narrow religious sectarian becomes a convert to Socialism, but he does not drop his narrowness, immediately, and often develops into a rigid hopeless doctrinaire Marxian, the ultra dogmatist of our civilization. As with individuals so with groups and nations. Now what does the consideration of these facts indicate? That steady, persistent, constructive work is more likely to triumph than emotional elation and cheers for the revolution, or strong invwtive and declamation.

Socialists frequently hfve decried trade unionism, yet thf Socialists who have entered the union and co-operative movemt it seem to have accomplished effective work, and by their steady persistence are bringing about revolutionary changes we scarcely thought possible tweiy years ago. The New Age. Book sellers and publishers are reporting that the public's demands nr tjBTirliTH mnro nn1 mnro intn raA. ical fields and that the books in the fields of government, sociology and general literature which gets the quickest attention are those that have a decidedly radical viewpoint and push out boldly into new fields. Many look on this as a temporary condition, and perhaps one to be discouraged; others find that they are being called on to select and recommend books in fields in which they have done little personal reading, a condition in contemporary took selling that was pointed out in the address of Prof.

Harold J. Laski at the book sellers' convention. That this tendency is to be expected as being in accord- with the present periodical reading of the country is interestingly pointed out by the editor of Reedy's Mirror in an article on American weeklies. "The country, the world, in fact, seems to have gone radical with a vengeance. There is but one truly conservative weekly of note left in the field, and that is the Argonaut of San Francisco.

The once conservative New York Nation has become so radical in tone that now the erstwhile advanced and super-progressive New Republic and the Veblenian Dial 'toil after it in like 'panting Time' after Shake-spear, in the poem. Then there is Max Eastman's paper, the Liberator, often' repressed, but insuppressible in its forceful intransigeance. The Public remains radical, with a strong reservation against all fault finding with President Wilson and his policies. "Even the venerable Atlantic Monthly now publishes articles by Herbert Wilton Stanley, whose other name is Harold Lord Varney, an ac.