New-York Tribune from New York, New York • 52

A Wave of Barbarism Threatens to Inundate Europe The Advance of Bolshevism Is Com? pared to the Descent of Northern Tribes on Rome By Frank H. Simonds WITH the collapse of Poland and the advance of the Bolshevists upon Warsaw the world upheaval en? ters upon a new stage. An ex? hausted and divided Western civili? zation faces a renewal of the as? saults of barbarism, of anarchy, of dissolution such as temporarily overcame Roman and Greek civili? zation more than fifteen centuries What the Paris conference un? dertook to do in the face of this barbarism was to construct a bar? rier such as Rome had erected at the Danube and the Rhine. The later wall was to be composed of separate nationalities freed from Russian and German tyranny, the three Baltic races, the Letts, the Lithuanians and the mixed tribes of Esthonia; of the Poles and the Ru? manians, and behind this outer ram? part an inner wall made up of Czecho-Slovaks and Jugo-Slavs. So far as Paris could agree upon anything, this wall, this corda; sanitaire, represented its Russian policy.

These states, depending for existence, for prosperity, for every? thing, upon the Western nations. were to stand to arms on the Rus? sian marshes and repel any attempt of Russian revolution to flow west ward. The armies of these smaller states were to be organized and officered by military missions from the West; they were to be the allies both against Russian and German attack. Second Choice at Paris This barrier policy, to be sure, represented the second choice at Paris. The statesmen and the sol? diers of the nations which had con? quered Germany would have pre? ferred to direct their still powerful armies against Russia and crush the Bolshevist in their opinion still a hollow shell.

But this course was impossible because the soldiers who composed the armies were un? willing to fight a new war, the mass of the public was dead against any such adventure and the limit of Western contribution was mani? festly comprehended in the purpose to support the border tribes and out of them construct a wall. Now, the thing that it is essen? tial to perceive is that the wall hat not alone been breached but demol? ished by the Bolshevist successes The Baltic states have entered inte peace negotiations with the Eeds which leave them momentarily and untroubled but seal their ulti mate fate, for they no longer hav( the strength to oppose vast Russiar armies. Poland has fallen and Ru mania alone remains standing be tween the Gulf of Finland and th? Black Sea. All of which is only another wa; of saying that the Allies in the firs place abandoned the logical policy of making war upon the Reds, wh? were making war upon them, becaus their own people were too weary fight on and too blind to perceive th meaning of the Red menace to al classes of Western society. Then, i the second place, they attempted a a substitute to persuade the borde tribes to do their fighting for thei in return for subsidies and technict assistance.

This second method ha now led straight to the ruin of a but one of the border tribes, so fa as the main question of resistance Russia is concerned. Russian Peril Still Hidden We come now to the third phas? Obviously the necessity at the pre: ent hour is to fight the Reds, to eist them in the east and center Europe before they reach the wes having accumulated a tremendoi momentum on the way. But will th Western masses consent to fight i doubt it. The real character of th Russian peril is still hidden from th great majority of the people wh constitute the proletariat. They ai still convinced that Russian hostilit grows out of the action of their ow rulers, not out of Russian purposi In a word, they think that the wa with Russia, for war it is, has bee a war of aggression by the Wes1 andjUhat once the West consents mara peace, Russia will welcome it Of course, this is nonsense, as the Polish incident proves, as the whole course of Bolshevism (demonstrates.

Bolshevism, as I have pointed out here so often, in a state of war against the whole system of economic and social laws and customs of the iblo blindness of the allied publics, an accompaniment of their extreme exhaustion, itself a consequence of the World War, and to the disgrace? ful jealousies and bickerings among the three great European powers of the West, Britain, France and Italy. And at the moment, when, it is no longer possible to disguise the grav? ity of the menace, Britain is oc? cupied by two considerable wars in Asia, with the Turk and with the Arab; the French have stretched their military resources to the ut most limit to give Gouraud, in Syria, Freedom Shrieks in Poland Once More Poland--Why did I not pay more attention to the history of Napoleon? Help! Help! Star West. What the Bolshevists seek to obtain is a system of society, in which the least educated, the least trained, dominate and control, rely? ing upon terror and violence to sup? press those whose training and in? telligence would give them the pre? dominant influence. Bolshevists True Character Whatever the theories of the Bol shevists, their practices reveal the true character of their conception of social and economic organization. They have destroyed, not created.

Their very military successes are due to soldiers acquired from the old and weapons captured from the unsupported and ill-advised Rus? sian factions and border tribes in the last two years. Wbftt organiza? tion they have of an effective char? acter is entirely alien to their own ideas and ideals. Bolshevik Success Due to Allies But with these weapons they have i destroyed their enemies in Russia, they havi? the barrier to i their westward advance which the West sought to construct between the Baltic and the Black seas. They have arrived at the frontiers of Central Europe, itself in the last stages of disintegration and inca i pable of any great effort to resist the enemy. They have, reached the frontiers of that Germany which lies smouldering and smoking, ready at moment, perhaps, to burst into a new and even more terrible flame.

Their success is due to the incred and Lyautey, in Morocco, the nee- essary troops to complete two co? lonial ventures, while maintaining the watch on the Rhine. As for Italy, she has lost in the game of colonial adventure and finds herself, after an exhausting war, in the worst shape of the three great powers with the smallest ter? ritorial gain to show for her suc 1 cesses. She finds her recent allies backing the Southern Slavs, against her in the Adriatic and her Greek rivals in the u3Sgean and on the mainland of Asia Minor. And at the same time she faces one of the domestic crises in all her recent history. Troops Hard to Find That France or Britain can find troops to face the Bolshevists east of the Rhine barrier seems totally unlikely.

That Italy will consent to contribute troops to fight be? yond her Alpine frontiers seems equally improbable. The simple fact is, then, that the situation in the twentieth century is hapidly ap? proaching that of nearly 2,000 years ago, when Rome undertook to hold the barbarians in check on the Rhine, the Alps and the Danube, and after several centuries of effort failed and fell. To these same bar? riers the West may now have to re? coil. I tried last week to emphasize the dangers which would result from a total collapse of Poland. They are not limited to elimination of Poland.

The defeat of the West goes far more deeply. Not alone will the Turk and the Arab be in? cited to new resistance, hut the bor? der tribes everywhere will see in the fate of Poland the bitter truth that they cannot rely upon the West for support, even if to the very gi-eat advantage of the West they resist the Russian advance. Pearc Only a Truce And as to the Bolshevist peace pro? posal one knows what that meant. It meant a truce during which Rus? sia, drawing upon the West for -mil? itary supplies, would prepare for a new attack upon the border tribes, in the interval employing her enor? mous propaganda machine to build up Bolshevist sympathizers in the states she was determined to destroy. To-day we see the policy disclosed in the support given to Red elements in Poland, who are manifestly to be employed as the bases for a Red state, to be constructed on the ruins of the Poland which has been over? thrown.

This is what Germany did six years ago and throughout the World War. In Belgium the Fleming sep? aration movement Was stimulated. In Russia the Lithuanians and the Ukrainians were favored, in the Balkans and Bulgars rewarded at the expense of the Serbs. This is what the French Revolution did a century and a quarter ago, when it overflowed into Central Europe and decorated its own frontiers with various republics, in which the domi? nant influence was supplied by those who were subsidized or enlisted by the Revolutionary leaders. Lloyd George's attempts to re? strain revolution by eloquence and turn back the onrush of barbarism by ultimatums unsupported by bayo? nets have been as effective as Ca? nute's prohibition issued to the ocean or Mrs.

Partington's adventure ir conquering the same enemy with mop. But. Lloyd George has always known better, and acted only undei the constraint of his own electorate which was opposed to all Russiar adventure. French statesmen have i never even simulated belief in the vocal method of extinguishing a world conflagration, but France has lacked the strength to undertake a new war single handed. As for America, what can one say? We have refused to recog? nize the Reds, we have consistently opposed them, we have conducted within our own boundaries a rigor? ous repression which has amounted to sending a few score of Bol? shevists back to Europe or be? hind prison bars, but beyond this we have done nothing.

We have shared the Allied policy of passive and in? direct hostility. We have contribu? ted money and supplies to various adventures, but, save for a brief mo? ment and on a microscopic scale, we have contributed no men. Indirect Methods Won't Do Yet the truth about the Russian revolution is unmistakable. It can? not be beaten by indirect and subsi? dized efforts directed to support anti-Bolshevist leaders in Russia. It can no longer be restrained by the use of border tribes, by more or less earnest support of the national istic and racial aspirations of the people who were once engulfed bj the Western push of the Russian ot by the German invasion.

It can be cheeked, if at, all now, only by employment of British, French Italian and American troops ii large numbers over a consideraba period of time. And no alternative of peace li open to the West, because the Rus sian revolution is, in itself, in it: very nature and driving force, ai assault upon Western civilization We may fight it at the Oder, th Vistula line having collapsed; may fight it, when it has overrui Europe, at the shores of the Atlanti itself, when it has at its comman? all the vast resources of the Euro pean world it has engulfed, bu somewhere we must fight it. is becoming, in his ow way, exactly the menace Napoleo Granting an Week Courier-Journal was a little more than a century ago. But Europe was long learn? ing the lesson. Austria fell while Prussia watched.

Prussia went to ruin and Russia, on the heels of two defeats, made peace at Tilsit. Only England remained aloof, hostile and helpless as long as Europe was divided. Napoleon's victorious armies reached Madrid and Lisbon, Na? poleon dominated the Continent from Gibraltar to Warsaw. Then, at last, Europe learned its lesson, and all nations and pc pics joined in the common battle. But easily and generally comprehensible by German acts.

The same will be true of the Bol shcvist case. The time has not yet come, perhaps it is still far in the future, when the American public will perceive that all which we have AT THE OUTER GATE. Recard to-day we are in the stage of ex? treme disintegration, and Germany is watching the defeat of the West with exactly the same emotion which pi'evailed in Prussia when Russia and Austria were enduring defeat at Austerlitz. No defeat of the West, however will stir the Germans, even if the Russian ad? vance has for them another Jena in store, such as Napoleon's cam? paign against Austria prepared in 1805. Force Alone Will Prevail In my judgment there will be no halting of the Russian advance, of the Bolshevist sweep, until the masses of the people of Britain, the United States and France recognize that their own existence is in peril and join in open and unlimited war upon the Reds.

As long as states? men are restrained by popular re? luctance to make new sacrifices and by the blindness of the millions to the true import for them of the Bol i shevist attack, we shall have the i futile and fatal hesitations, experi? ments, failures, which have marked all of Allied policy from the Prinki po fiasco to the Polish tragedy. Statesmen cannot make war suc? cessfully, even when their judgment of the necessity for war is sound, 1 without the support of the publics which in our form of government control. One recalls how many months were required to demonstrate to the people of the United States that war with Germany was not only a moral duty but a physical neces sity. By contrast, nothing is more i impressive than the fashion in which the millions responded when at last I the fact of the matter was made i in the way of order, democracy, progress, limited as these may be, are in deadly peril if Bolshevism is to sweep successfully from Moscow to Madrid. When, that hour comes we shall unquestionably resume our place among the Allied nations, and once more take our place in the bat? tle line of Western civilization.

In the meantime, without us the British and the French, with their own problems, colonial, and for the French particularly, Germany, will probably fail to act decidedly, will shrink from a new war of the mag? nitude of the recent conflict, and will, in consequence, see one barrier after another collapse until the ene? my reaches the Rhine bai'rier and the frontiers of India. Similarly, the Italians will remain passive, evacu? ating outlying territory, as they have in the case of Albania, and awaiting the arrival of the storm at their own frontiers. Peril of a Fixed Frontier But as long as the West remains passive Russia will advance. Rome successfully maintained her natural frontiers for a certain time, but when she accepted these boundaries she sealed her own fate. I know that it is fashionable to believe that once the West has agreed to make peace with the Bolshevists they will be overthrown from within, but this convenient theory breaks down in the face of history.

The French Revolution, so far from collapsing, when its enemies made peace with it, took a new form, achieved order at home and em? barked upon a tremendous period conquest under Napoleon. Whj should Trotzky and having With Poland Conquered the Next Frontier to Be Defended Will Be the Rhine endured the misery and agony of feat, having survived fall when they are new sweopir.J westward, reconquering all the lo? territory and arriving in reposa which were not Russian when the World War broke out? German Aspect Remains Then there always remains th German aspect. Napoleon precious allies in Germany in thj opening phase of his great imperil career. To-day German may be served quite as well by liance with Russia as continued sab mission to the Allies. The German choice is between a generation economic servitude to the West ard a dangerous experiment with East? ern revolution.

But already offers Germany the territory lost tt. Poland in the Treaty of Versailles Will Trotzky be less willing to offe Alsace-Lorraine than Posen and tlj Danzig corridor? At the very least Germany tx demand immunity from the penaltis inflicted at Versailles, can insi; that the reparation and restoratior. be forgiven, if she undertakes wit her armies to meet the Russian But this, at one time, means the rui of France and the reconstitution those very German armies which f( so many years threatened the pea of Europe. It means, too, the triump of reaction, first in Germany ar then in Russia, for no one can dem! what German policy in Russia won be, nor mistake that it would 1 with the Prussian Junkers that ti Western Allies would have to i business, if, as Winston Church suggests, they deputized Germany fight their battle with Russia. Treaty Is Dead We are two years away from Vi sailles and the eastern settlenw has gone into the scrap heap.

land has practically ceased to exi or, what is worse, will presently i pear as a Bolshevized state, ally a creature of the Reds. Rumania mi now face a similar destruction, i less the West is prepared to large armies, British from Mese tamia, French from Syria, abandi ing the colonial ventures in both gions and accepting the revival the Turkish nationalists, who hi already extended hands toward sia and may find ultimately a fi alliance there and become a det in the Russian westward push, op ating in Asia Minor and in tamia. In a few weeks, if the Polish aster becomes absolute, Germa may be in a position to make own terms, either with Russia with her recent conquerors, either way the victory of World War is lost. The arrival the Bolshevists at Warsaw will hi for the alliance which defeated many something approximating significance the announcement of return of Napoleon from Elba i for the statesmen gathered at enna. And there is far less cha of a Waterloo, for the Allies in I are by no means as closely united those of 1815, while their enen are far more formidable.

War's Second Stage We are then, in my judgment, the threshold of a second stag? the World War, of which the man phase was the first. civilization, terribly shaken by four years of struggle which cu; nated in the armistice of Rethon with its wounds unhealed, wita losses still unrepaired, faces a attack, and the gravest single cumstance is the fact that the it' ness of the danger is only perceived by a few as yet. Gern was defeated because all of Fr? sprang to arms at the moment ol declaration of war, Russia ready to move and Britain was I ciently alarmed to send her to the Continent. But who is to face Russia? In the heat of a Presidential tion it is idle to imagine that the import for America of the Bolsh? conquest of Poland will be broi home to our own public. This I truer because there is a univ? weariness and distaste for for affairs as a consequence of the man War and a political issue, by the Treaty of Versailles, but sidering that the assassination Archduke Ferdinand six years led directly to the Meuse-Arp is it rash to suggest that the fa Poland will lead in no distant the reappearance of America ip rope or, at a remoter time, to tra pearance of Bolshevism on An can shores? (Copyright, 1920, by the Newspaper SyndicaUj.

Americanization Work Should Begin at Ellis Island (Continued from, page 1) officials led him to one side and ex? plained to him. "That's the Commissioner of Im? migration," he said. "Keep still and pet these people inside, where they can sit down." I The softened head usher got his subordinates together, and they took the immigrants inside and settled them comfortably on the benches to wait the three or four hours until their train should be ready. T'hen Commissioner Wallis explained to i the Erie officials. Pay Full Raies "There are no immigrant rates i any more," he said.

"These people 1 pay as much to travel on your road as any other class of passengers you "That is true," one of the officials acknowledged. "We will make more on these people than on all the rest of the Chicago train put together." "All right," said the Commis- I sioner. "Then you treat them that way. You treat these immigrants as well as you would any one else who I travels on your road, or you won't I get any more business from Ellis Island. I am not going to have aliens just arrived in this country sent over here toie led across rail? road tracks bctwwn moving trains and then kept on their feet for three or four hours until their trains are ready, and the mothers have to hold the babies in their arms all that time.

These people are not getting anything free. They pay just as rrrtch as any one else, and they must be treated the same as any one else or there will be no more immigrants routed by the Erie from Island." That is the keynote of the ab? normal conditions at Ellis Island. The new Immigration Commissioner has a theory that he is putting into practice. It is that the Americans zation of immigrants should begin I at Ellis Island, and that the way to begin it is to treat them like human beings. Commissioner Ordered Out After Mr.

Wallis had been ap? pointed and confirmed, and before he was sworn in as commissioner he went over to the Island to have a look around. There is an institu? tion over there known as "the kiss? ing post." It is the place where relatives of immigrants first meet and greet the newly arrived aliens. Mr. Wallis opened a gate in a rail? ing and started in the general di? rection of "the kissing post." But an inspector rushed up to Mr. Wal? lis, put both hands on his chest and pushed him back through the.gate.

"Get out of here!" he b'fljWd. "Who are you? What do you mean by coming in here?" Mr. Wallis fell back, and a few minutes later tried it again. Once more the Bull of Bashan charged upon him. This time another mem? ber of the party interfered.

"This is the new commissioner," he explained, whereupon the inspec? tor began profuse apologies. What He Wanted to Know "That is all right," said Mr. Wallis. "Don't apologize. I have learned one of the things I wanted to know.

If you will treat a visi? tor, who, even you can see, is an American and a gentleman, in this way, how will you treat these poor aliens? This island has ceased to be the private property of a few in? spectors. It has become a govern? ment institution and henceforth is going to be human and humane." That is the reason for the abnor? mal conditions at Ellis Island. When a visitor goes over there he can go most any place without being clubbed over the head, and if he happens to get into a forbidden path he is di? rected politely into the proper lanea of travel. After he had been sworn in the new commissioner made a tour of the buildings on the island. He found that in the dinging room thej served 8,000 meals a day and that there was not a drink of water to be had in the place, though there were several drinking fountains.

The water was turned off at all of them. "Why is this water turned off?" he asked an inspector in charge of the dining room. "The immigrants slop the water around and the floor gets wet near the fountains," said the inspector. "So you keep these poor people without any water with their meals because too lazy to mop the floor," said Mr. Wallis.

"Turn that water on." The water was turned on, but dur? ing the night some officious official broke all the faucets off the foun? tains. Mr. Wallis had new faucets put on and stationed a guard to pro? tect them. After a few days the inspectors learned that he meant what he said, and the immigrants can now get all the water they want with their meals, Bothersome Questions He found a room with 400 occu? pants, all the windows closed, the double doors at the entrance closed and a matron complacently fanning herself on the outside. It was tvc reom, the roome where immi? grants are detained who have to gt through a inquiry.

Whei he opened the JJoors the foul ab that rushed out almost took him off! his feet. "Why are these doors kept closed?" he asked. "If I leave them open the immi? grants bother me to death with their questions," the matron replied. "Keep these doors open and an? swer all the questions that are asked you. That, is your business," said Mr.

Wallis. "Open the windows, too." It took a week of Constant watch? fulness to have those double doors kept open, but they are open, now, all the time. Up a little flight of stairs he found another room containing the over? flow from the It had 225 oc? cupants. Windows and doors closed, of course. But not only that: in this Black Hole of Calcutta the water was shut off and two of the four toilets were out of commission, while the door of the third was locked and the one left open for use was in an indescribably filthy condition.

That situation has been remedied. The aliens detained there are no longer treated as swine by lazy and brutal officials, but are considered human beings. So it goes all over Ellis Island. There is a new Commissioner who takes nobody's word, but is investi? gating conditions for himself and taking instant steps to remedy the abuses that have grown up over long years of bureaucratic inefficiency. "A private business run as the government is would go bankrupt in six months," says Commissioner Wallis.

It is all a part of his theory that the Americanization of the immi? grant should begin with the arrival of the ship in the port of New York. "It is men and women we are re? ceiving here," he says, "and if we are going to make good American citizens of thej-n, we must show them from the minute of their arrival that this is a civilized country." To help him put his theory inte practice he is forming a committee of well known men and women whe shall constitute themselves an or? ganization for receiving the immi? grants and helping them to a fail start in their new country. Manj aliens have to be detained for greatei or less periods of time on Island. No one ever seems to havt thought of entertaining them whilt they are hed there. Commissionei Wallis has begun a program of con certs.

They are given Sunday after noons at present, but he expects soor to have them three times a week. he succeeds in all he has laid out fo: himself to do, people who have beei familiar with Ellis Island in the pas and with the treatment of the newl; arrived alien to these be inclined to call hir superhuman'.