Despite everything that has happened, despite these excesses, there is no question that the Russian people in revolt have contributed greatly to the world’s democracy. They will make still greater contributions, I believe. They have a long road to travel before they establish their new civilization. The Russians are not as developed as the English, the French or the Americans. In some respects they are no further developed than the English of the reign of Henry the Eighth. They ride in street cars, but the street cars were made in Germany. They use the telephone, and go up stairs in a lift, but the telephone and the lift came from Sweden. They have only recently learned to use modern tools with skill or to farm scientifically. But they are learning very fast. They are learning to coöperate in their farming faster than almost any other people in Europe, which to my mind is the most hopeful sign of all.
For I am just as much of a socialist as when I went to Russia in May, 1917, and just as little of an anarchist. I believe that the next economic development will be socialism, that is coöperation, common ownership of the principal means of production, and the administration of all departments of government for the collective good of all the people. I believe that the world is for the many, not the few. But Russia has demonstrated that there is no advantage to be gained by taking all power out of the hands of one class and placing it in the hands of another. Too much power rests now in the hands of a small class. But that class never abused its power more ruthlessly than the Russian Tavarishi did in the 1917 revolution.
The lesson of Russia to America is patient, intelligent, clear-sighted preparation for the next economic development. Beginning with the youngest children, we must contrive for all children a system of education which will create in the coming generation a thinking working class, one which will accept responsibility as well as demand power, and into whose hands we can safely confide authority and destiny.
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