THE BOGEY MAN

Grey River Argus, 27 August 1941, Page 7

THE BOGEY MAN

“Communism” —By R.M.

(This is the fourth and last article in the Bogey Man series.—Ed.) Another bogey used by the capital ist class to divide and disrupt the working class movement is the Communist,” and “Communism.” I place before readers the views of eminent men on Communism. BISHOP W. M. BROWN, D. D. “Communism is for me the only comprehensive term which is a synonym at once of morality, religion and Christianity. Marxian and Bolshevikian Socialism are halves of one thing—the theoretical and the practical half. Marxism is Socialism in theory, Bolshevism isi Socialism in practice. Communism constitutes a gospel, the only true comprehensive and sufficient gospel which the world has ever had or can have, and there is no hope for the future of mankind except in it. If it fails, the world is lost, but it shall not, and indeed cannot fail, for its words are so many ails or facts of nature !

“As long as gods dominate the sky and capitalists prevail upon the earth, the world will be safe for commercial imperialism, having a small heaven for the few rich masters and a large hell for the many poor slaves.” DEAN OF CANTERBURY. The following are extract from the book "The Socialist Sixth of the World,” by Dr. Hewlett Johnson, Dean of Canterbury. Besides being a Doctor of Divinity, Dr. Johnson also holds the degree of Doctor ot Engineering and is a recognised eminent scientist.

“The experiment which is being worked out on a sixth of the earth’s surface (Russia) is founded on a new organisation of economic life based on clearly defined principles which are thoroughly understood and gladly accepted. These principles now on trial, differ as far as East from West from our own competitive system of every man for himself and devil take the hindermost, with the profit-mak-ing motive as the chief incentive; men being used as means and not ends, with all the consequential exploitation of the mass of the people that inevitably follows.

“Private ownership of the. means of production has outlived its day. It is doomed. Happily there is an alternative. The instruments of production can be owned publicly; and worked not for private profit but for

public service, the needs of the consumers being the controlling factor. Production can be worked by plan, the people as a whole deciding what they need and producing a sufficient supply to meet it.

“The Russian programme gripped me from its earliest formulation. Majestic in range, practical in detail, scientific in form, Christian in spirit, it has embarked on a task never yet attempted by modern or ancient State. It is a programme which thinks not in terms of a privileged class, but in terms of each individual soul; not in terms of profit for the few, but in terms of service for all; deliberately bent on organising the whole life over a sixth of the earth’s surface so that a twelfth of the world’s population may eventually share, ‘each according to his needs.’ ” MR MAURICE HINDUS. Mr Maurice Hindus, writing in March, 1938, assures us that Communistic organisation of industry in genera] and agriculture in particular has definitely succeeded:

Space will permit of me to give only a fraction of the opinions of eminent men and clear thinkers on Communism. :

Surely there must be something in this Communism which is the only practical solution for the stopping of wars, slumps and the starving of thousands of workers in the midst of plenty !