Lincoln R. Colcord to Woodrow Wilson
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Your generous and kindly letter made me very happy, both on a personal score and on the score of world-mutation in which all our hearts are so deeply engaged. But from your towering address the other day I had of course derived the greater joy, and for it I had given the greater thanks. Permit me now to thank you for having taken time to be so generous on the lesser issue.
The terrible danger towards which the Bolsheviki are heading is clearly defined by their anti-capitalistic program. There is plain disaster even in their domestic application of this program. I said the other day that Russia is ready for radical measures, and so she is; I said there is no anarchy in Russia, and until now there has been no anarchy in the sense in which we use the word. But real anarchy there has been and is, after all, for Lenine and Trotsky are real anarchists or communists. And they cannot put through even their domestic program in the face of the democratic institutions of the world, much less in the face of German autocratic institutions. But when they insist on applying this anti-capitalistic and anti-institutional program not only to the internal affairs of Russia but also to international foreign policy, the fearful danger is self-evident. If Russia is not ready for this program, surely the western democracies are not ready for it. But there remains a hope. Lenine and Trotsky, under the pressure of responsibility, will suffer a change of heart. This will come about most powerfully with respect to domestic affairs, since these will be the motive instruments. Perhaps, balked at home, they will attempt to spend their anarchistic ardor upon their foreign policy. This must be anticipated and offset. They must be persuaded to modify their program most of all upon the side of foreign policy. They must be shown that such a course would not be one of compromise, but that the real compromise would be contained in their proposal to force social revolution upon nations which fundamentally are not prepared for it. The course of events in Russia seems fairly plain. There will be civil war, and the Allies are fostering it; they will do anything, lose the war, rather than support an anti-capitalistic program. There are of course powerful forces in Russia which will support a counter-revolution. But I doubt if the Allies realize the fundamental radicalism of Kaladines' program also. Two weeks before the Bolsheviki uprising Kaladines as hetman of the Cossacks submitted to Kerensky a strong protest against his failure in foreign policy, and an equally strong representation that Russia required immediate peace. The Allies are chasing the illusion of a dictatorial power which can never appear in Russia now.
Not being a socialist myself, I cannot contemplate with equanimity the frightful measures which are surely imminent in the world to-day. I am afraid of France, where revolutionary blood has run so often, so wonderfully, and sometimes so disastrously. Ultimately, of course, there can be no disaster in revolution. But I believe with all my heart that there could always have been an orderly way to accomplish what revolutions have accomplished. The history of the world is the history of revolutions, and the history of revolutions is the history of evil and stupid authority. The new world which is plain before us, which is inevitable, cannot and must not come through anarchy. Yet that, too, is plain before us as the next step, if wise and brave things are not quickly done.
I have been very close to the Russian Ambassador during the last few weeks; Colonel House introduced me to him in Magnolia last summer. He gives me his heart and mind on this subject. I think he is half-right and half-wrong. He is wonderfully sympathetic towards the lowly people of Russia, but he is not one of them himself. He has been a member of revolutionary societies in his student days under the old regime, yet his family belonged to the bourgeoise. He has suffered only for freedom, never for bread. His knowledge of socialism and of Russian history is profound, and he points out very clearly the steps which are inevitable. And yet he is not ready to admit that these steps are right unless there is a change of heart throughout the west, and that only be these steps can the truth finally be won. He is not ready to admit the deep significance of the contradictory fact that Lenine and Trotsky, the anarchists, the wild and wrong, have struck the first blow of outright truth in action which has been delivered during the summer. And he is not ready to recognize the extreme carefulness, the actual wisdom, with which they have so far conducted their negotiations.
It is impossible to define in words the shades of difference which separate my belief from his; we have had fine talks in the attempt to clear up this issue between us. But the difference, slight in its definition, is vast in its results. If there is no other way, and if the time has come, then I am for revolution. He wants still to compromise.
I have also cultivated the acquaintence of Baum, the representative in America of the Council of Soldiers' and Workingmen's Delegates. He was at hard labor in Siberia when the revolution freed him, and is, of course, a Jew. He is one of the people; but there seems to be a last analysis which the Russian Jew cannot face. Baum wants peace now whether or no. Maybe he is right; I am not too sure.
My other friends who purport to know Russia Mr. George Kennan, for example are all living in a past day. And perhaps all of us are living in a past day. The world seems unaccountably to have distanced its inhabitants. The future actually is the present, through the strength and meaning of potentialities. Only imagination can see what already has arrived.M. Bakhmeteff knows both Lenine and Trotsky personally, Lenine better than Trotsky. He tells me that Lenine has a simple mind, but a powerful and dogged character. Trotsky is more the theorist, a better thinker than Lenine, frankly an anarchist, and an effective orator.
I am, my dear
Faithfully yours,Lincoln Colcord
Mr. President,
The President,
The White House,
Washington, D. C.
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