The Failure of Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe
To the average country-born American the period of the war has been
a time of painful disillusionment. There may have been among us some
who, before the war, had some accurate knowledge of what was going on
in the world; but the great mass of Americans were very much shocked
by the succeeding event. We took the statements of the leaders of the
people in Germany and Russia at their face value. It seems to me to be
very much worth while, at present, to trace the various events by which
we were led into knowing what central and eastern Europe were really
thinking and doing. Let us recall our first period of disappointment.
We had always believed that the parties of the people in Germany,
especially the great social-democratic party, had the power to prevent
the Kaiser from undertaking a war of conquest. The declaration of war
was to be the signal for a revolution and the creation of a republic.
This was rather taken for granted, without investigation, by reading
people all over the world. When we saw the entire German nation, with
hardly an exception, turn quite insane with the war spirit, we sat back
and wondered what this people was really like.
It was also a generally accepted theory among us that the German
immigrants who came to us had left Germany because they disliked
the tyranny of its government. Then, in 1914, with a suddenness
that quite took our breath away, came the propaganda of "Kultur."
The entire German nation, through every means it had of speaking to
the outside world, informed us blandly that it possessed a system
of society infinitely more efficient and desirable than democracy.
"It is Germany's duty under God," wrote Bernhardi, "to give her
superior culture (Kultur) to all inferior peoples." Indeed, the war
itself was generally interpreted by Germans as an act of charity and
self-sacrifice upon their part. At the time the idea was so new to us
that it took us just three years to really comprehend what was going on
in Europe. Even President Wilson, in 1916, declared publicly that we
did not know the real causes of the War.
We may or may not have completely destroyed the Germany autocracy; but
we may be sure we have by no means done with the system of Kultur.
It is all too easily put into practice. The stupendous machinery and
organizations of modern industry presents a perfect maze of social
problems for solution. Kultur is, by far, the easiest way out. The
direction of the whole business of life is simply turned over to a
"great man" or to a small clique. People everywhere are naturally lazy
and morally irresponsible. For the thinking and characterful minority
there come times of mental anguish and disillusionment. To-day the
times tempt us to despair. We are almost driven to lose faith in the
majority and so in government by the majority. "Why not try a change,"
"it could not be worse;" we hear it said on every hand. So, perhaps,
we in America may yet try Kultur. Certainly we shall if we again have
unrestricted immigration. When democracy fails, some form of monarchy
will be our only salvation from oligarchy; and an oligarchy is more
dangerous to freedom than monarchy. A monarchy, with our peculiar
industrial development and our great propertyless masses, means Kultur.
In the midst of the Great War came the Russian revolution. We sat
back and said, "How fine! Now they are going to follow our example
by building a great Russian Republic, which will soon break down the
German autocracy." Even now most of us do not begin to understand what
has really happened. What we do know is that the Bolshevists have not
only created a state of universal starvation, disease, and despair
throughout Russia, but they have also tried to spread their system
throughout Europe and the world. To this end they have made foreign
war and conducted an enormous and costly world propaganda. As I write
we learn that, while we were voting credits and collecting funds for
the starving in Russia, they were paying $30,000 to a single agent to
execute a single murderous bomb-plot in New York City.
In our last chapter we quoted Mr. H. G. Wells's statement that New York
City will be the next Petrograd. This observation can be, by no means,
taken jocularly. Go in our present course, and Bolshevism will be, in
all our larger cities and industrial districts, the natural alternative
for monarchy. Compelled to choose between the two, our original
American people will probably divide and civil war will result. Lenine
and Trotsky did not create Bolshevism. Bolshevism grew as naturally
as a rank weed on a dunghill. It sprang from ignorance and poverty
and despair. It will appear wherever ignorance, poverty and despair
are mixed together. Quite likely we shall have, with unrestricted
immigration, a Bolshevist revolution first, then monarchy and Kultur.
A great many persons are disposed to compare the present state of
central and eastern Europe with the conditions in France at the time
of the French Revolution. I, for one, am not at all impressed by this
easy explanation. The French Revolutionists represented and advocated
a movement toward democracy for all Europe. Both the Germans and
Russians have burst out upon us shouting that, in their peculiar system
of tyranny and slavery, they had something better than democracy to
proffer us. The average reading American throws up his hands and cries,
"What in Heaven's name, will China next urge upon us, or Africa?"
What has happened to us is, after all, upon reflection, quite simple.
We are placed on the defensive for democracy. And we have wisely given
over trying to urge our point of view and our peculiar system upon
those who not only reject it but openly despise it. No doubt this has
been a severe shock to our ancient national conceit. Let me again
emphasize that democracy seems to be, for the present, limited to the
boundaries of certain peculiar nations. Other peoples may evolve into
democracy later. But their steps will be slow. Their experience will be
gained gradually. We can not help them much, if at all, by urging them
merely to follow our example. Meanwhile, if there be anything precious
in democracy for us, we had better bestir ourselves to save what we
have left of it.