The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, July 8, 1918, Page 4

BY A. B. GILBERT JAVE after wave of intense propagan- da is breaking in newspapers and magazines of a certain kind, for allied invasion of Russia. From Maine to Califor- nia the country has been covered with articles and editorials purporting to show why America should abandon its long-standing policy of noninter- . ference on the soil of other nations. President Wilson has especially laid down_as his policy in the present con- flict that America will not consent to peace until the German violations of this principle in western Russia have been brought to naught. Why then this newspaper campaign for an allied invasion of Russia? : > When Japanese invasion of Siberia was first | talked of several months ago, it was thwarted by i1 the refusal of America’s sanction. And in each | attempt since to prepare the mind of America for it, nothing has developed because President Wilson has not changed his mind. 'A small allied force has occupied Vladivostok and there it stays wait- ing for his approval, until the kept press of all allied nations can develop an agitation strong enough to force his hand. . The president has evidently withheld his ap- proval of intervention in Russia because he is { i1 moved by the right principles and is fully informed {1 about the facts of the situation. The American people, with the same principles, but not so well informed or worse misinformed by the press agent work of skunk journalism, should have faith in his judgment in this matter. He has a right to demand this faith, and they have no reason for believing that the kept press which so betrays their interests at home, is a better guide than th president in international -matters. s ; The same forces that demanded military invasion of Mexico several years ago and are still demand- ing it although that country is making wonderful progress in reorganizing itself, the gained considerable support from the fact that the war complicates this issue. These invasionists declare that the successful prosecution of the war is their aim, but all indications now show that invasion of Russia would . \ interfere with the war and that the 5" forces ' behind the shriekings of our press are willing to interfere with and- prolong the war for ulterior mo- tives. INTERVENTION WOULD HINDER THE WAR H Even if the present Washington i1 administration were not actuated by ¢ the democratic motives held by our i common people, wisdom in the diree- it tion of our forces toward a speedy i termination of the war should .pre- vent any allied intervention in Rus- sia. The intervensionists, such as ex- President Taft and Senator King of Utah, give a plausibility to their cam- paign by declaring that the allies. must have gn eastern front to shorten the war. There can be no doubt that such is the-case, but intervention is an impossible method of getting it. Any possible eastern front must be a Russian front, established by and with the consent of the majority of the Russian people, and with such aid in the way of munitions and indus- trial supplies as the allies-can spare. President Wilson has done a great deal to bring the: people of Russia to " the point where such a front can be established. Our ambassador and - consuls have been. kept in Russia to ' /interpret the two nations to each ~ other. '‘He sent a message to the i £ i i 2 2 \ iy ¢ straining to get into Siberia. in ovérrunning Russia. of the allies. ULTERIOR MOTIVES The Republi lected these ‘days. them. The truth is, The farmer has a flivver of his own, can ele Playing the German Game in Russia Newspapers and a Certain Type of Politician Are Striving to Override President Wilson’s Friendly Interest and Force Joint Invas;on Among the statesmen of the world President Wilson stands for the conscience of democracy. Alone against tremendous pressure he is holding back great Japanese armies that are Men with the blackest records in congress are urging that permission be granted for an in-. vasion of poor moonstruck Russia. 0 | for America to send an army of its own to join the Japanese i To all the clamor President Wilson has answered that America means to stand by Russia, just as firmly as we would stand by France or England or any other Allied invasion, he believes, would . further push the Russians into the arms of Germany. soveit government on March 12 which awoke a great responsive chord in that nation and did much - to break down the fear the people there have that ours is also an imperialistic government. Again in his Red Cross speech in New York recently, in the midst of one of the interventionist campaigns, he declared: “As for me, my sympathies are with Russia.” It is worth noting here also that in his later message to Mexico he said his New York audience cheeréd that declaration in regard to Russia much more than any other part of his speech. Given a free hand to pursue this course of aid and understanding with Russia, President Wilson will 800D give us -an eastern front, and there is no other way. THE STRONG On the other hand, whatl do the interventionists propose ? b little doubt that they are right, that Russia does -not have sufficient confidence in the unselfishness of the nations which will do the intervening, es- pecially Japan, to trust their armies on her soil. Their plan involves, therefore, restoring the large propertied classes to power in the government of Russia and with their help putting the Russian masses back in the war. > Subduing the people by a long process of open and guerrilla warfare must be accomplished before same forces that found expression i? - B ex-President Taft’s “dollar diplomacy” have been for months urging a mili- I MODERN EQUIPMENT IS EST l tary invasion of Russia. They have VoW Gy Ong, - PAGE FOUR - The echo press is calling They believe, and there is probably " phant and the Democratic donkey are feeling very neg- Somehow the common people” have grown suspicious of blind adherence to party tickets has gone out of fashion. ~and 'it’s hitting on all four cylinders: .. Yipl' There he goes in the Nonpartisan speedster. e S SR S ; _ i the eastern front- is established by this method. The struggle may be so bitter that radical Russia will invite in German help long before the allied armies are within thousands of miles of the eastern boundary of Germany. Then, granting that Russia is at last subdued, the property owners back in power and the allied armies near the German front, is it possible for us to maintain that front through vast stretches of territory inhabited by a hostile people? ™ Again, there is obvious proof that the expelled nobility and the large propertied interests of Russia are willing to be friendly with the Ger- _ man as well as allied interventionists. The great issue with them is to get back the lost principali- ties, their landed estates, their mines, their full ownership of the factories. When the red guard or revolutionary troops were driving out this class in the Ukraine, these wards of the interventionists invited in the German troops and with their help subdued the country. In a similar situation in Finland, this element made an appeal to Germany for help and with its help Germany has overrun Finland and is striking at the railroad from the port of Archangel. Those interventionists who urge it in spite of its violation of our fundamental war stand as nec- essary to the war either are very poor reasoners or they have ulterior motives to which our rapid and successful conclusion of the war is secondary. There are, in fact, two such important motives: Some of our plutocrats fear that out of the suf- fering and radical methods being tried to remove it that have gone on in Russia, new economic meth- ods may be gradually established which will ap- peal to the common people the world over. This view finds expression in such statements as “The bolsheviki are more dangerous than the Germans.”, The purpose is to destroy the experimenting in government by outside military power. before it can win or fail on its own merits internally. There is a2 powerful business group anxious to restore - and secure titles to a vast amount of property in Russia and to grab the vast amount of natural resources there not pre- viously appropriated for exploitation. FOREIGN INVESTMENTS - IN RUSSIA The second group is not especially interested in the much-discussed re- pudiation of the national debt but rather in the fact that the soviet gov- ernment has, for the time being at least, stopped the private exploita- tion of natural resources and has given the workmen a very large share in the management of factories.. The New Republic, a widely read progres- g -sive magazine, says in its issue 'of June 1, 1918: “To be sure, one would be innocent indeed if he failed to rec- ognize that such interests are active in the propaganda for intervention in Russia. Foreign investments in Russia.are enormous—those of France alone must exceed four billion dollars, and those of England, Belgium-and America may amount to two billions more. Other billions measure the holdings of Russians in exile, or cry- ing from Russia for foreign succor. All these billions are naturally mak- ing themselves heard.” A A That there are American interests feeling this agony of confiscated | wealth is also indicated by ‘the fol- lowing - from the Commercial and Financial - Chronicle .of a year ago;- describing an agreement made with. - the first provisional government: ’ “The transfer to American inter- . ests of a great part of the Russian decided upon at a special meeting of = “the mining commission of the ministry - » of trade at Petrograd July M. Ma- liavkin, director of the mining depart- ment, is. said to have propounded a: ~ (Continued onpag mines and other' mineral deposits ‘was