BOOK REVIEW

New Zealand Tablet, 8 April 1920, Page 33

BOOK REVIEW

Bolshevism ;.-■ Its Cure. By David Goldstein and 3 Martha Moore Avery. Pp. viii x 414. s■■■ Boston i School of Political Economy, Boston. '.

This book by two well-known American . writers on Socialism is an attempt to state in a plain but forcible way the philosophy, programme, and policies of Bolshevism as well as its activities in the school and factory, the authors profess to show “that the deep springs of its action lie in rebellion, in atheistic materialism that its world force is drawn up in hostile array to Christian civilisation; that its 'philosophy and its psychology vitiate every mind and every organisation that gives it a sympathetic service, that within the four grand divisions of human society, namely, the domestic sphere, the social sphere, the political sphere, and the economic sphere, no department escapes its mental and moral blight” (p. v). Here surely is a subject of immediate interest for every lover of his kind, and especially for Catholics, because the day is coming, it it has .nbt already come, when two armies will concentrate and fight for supremacy in Europe: the Catholic Church and International Socialism. Everywhere it is fast becoming a question of the Cross of Christ 01 the Red blag. he States of Modern Europe have in the main ceased to observe the rules and' practices of Christianity and therefore the earth heaves and none are so deaf as not to hear the rumblings. A materialistic spirit, rank injustice on the part of both employers and employees, open contempt for all authority, want of love amongst men —these disorders are widespread, and, if unchecked, will bring about the disintegration of Europe and the rest of the world. Alone among the powers the Catholic Church can save civilisation and re-create our modern world as it did the Roman Empire of old. In dealing with this important aspect of the case our authors are on solid ground, and one is grateful for. the plain and forceful, if somewhat superficial statement of the position contained in the first two chapters of the book. -Rut alter that, the deluge! The remaining chapters, we are sorry to say, are the usual sensational “exposure” of Bolshevism and the Bolshevik. There is much parade of authorities, it is true, to show that the leaders of the movement are depraved monsters of iniquity. But the reader, though no admirer of Bolshevism, quickly forms the impression and rises .from the book with that impression strengthened, that all this is but an ex-parte indictment, not a deliberate and scientific study. It s a pity, for no good can come from wild abuse nr misrepresentation of facts and motives. The basis of the Bolshevik state is it seems to us undemocratic, unsound, and reactionary, and we would have liked to come across a sober criticism of it on these lines. We fail to find any such criticism in this book. Men in desperation of soul are driven to Bolshevism by the modern, un-Catholic social oppression that has made them slaves.. The remedy hes in constructive social democracy and in practice of Hie Catholic religion. This book, though it professes to give us the cure for Bolshevism, is only -a piece of soundin. brass. — Giiimrl.