1108

4

Russian people was part only of a general war statement. An
utterance by the President devoted entirely to this question,
addressed directly to the people of Russia, couched in as con-
crete terms as possible, would get home to the hearts of the
Russian people.

The writer is aware that the proposition, from the
point of view of international procedure, approaches, perhaps,
the fantastic. It might be construed to mean forcible inter-
vention in Russia's internal affairs for the safeguarding of
republican institutions. Yet the writer is also aware that
the old diplomatic proprieties have given way to a more en-
lightened and more humane procedure. He recalls the Presid-
ent's magnificently courageous and untraditional policy in Mexico.
The world would seize upon the spirit of such a message without
caviling at the formula.

If such a message is practicable; if we succeed in
bearing in upon the consciousness of the Russian people the truth
that they need not cling to the anarchy of the Bolsheviki as their
only safeguard against the return of autocracy; if it be made pos-
sible for Russian revolutionists like Brashkovskaya, Tchernoff,
Tseretelli, Plekhanoff, Kropotkin, to make a firm stand against
the Lenine policies without subjecting themselves to the charge of
counter-revolutionary activity, we shall have rendered a service
to America, to Russia and to the Allies.

The shadow of the Czarism is on the hearts of the Russian
people. If the President, who is now the spokesman for the moral

41766