serious
revolutionary is not personal heroism, nor martyrdom, but the creation
of a happier world. Those who have the happiness of the world at heart
will shrink from attitudes and the facile hysteria of "no parley with
the enemy." They will not embark upon enterprises, however arduous and
austere, which are likely to involve the martyrdom of their country
and the discrediting of their ideals. It is by slower and less showy
methods that the new world must be built: by industrial efforts after
self-government, by proletarian training in technique and business
administration, by careful study of the international situation, by a
prolonged and devoted propaganda of ideas rather than tactics,
especially among the wage-earners of the United States. It is not true
that no gradual approaches to Communism are possible: self-government
in industry is an important instance to the contrary. It is not true
that any isolated European country, or even the whole of the Continent
in unison, can, after the exhaustion produced by the war, introduce a
successful form of Communism at the present moment, owing to the
hostility and economic supremacy of America. To find fault with those
who urge these considerations, or to accuse them of faint-heartedness,
is mere sentimental self-indulgence, sacrificing the good we can do to
the satisfaction of our own emotions.

Even under present conditions in Russia, it is possible still to feel
the inspiration of the essential spirit of Communism, the spirit of
creative hope, seeking to sweep away the incumbrances of injustice and
tyranny and rapacity which obstruct the growth of the human spirit, to
replace individual competition by collective action, the relation of
master and slave by free co-operation. This hope has helped the best
of the Communists to bear the harsh years through which Russia has
been passing, and has become an inspiration to the world. The hope is
not chimerical, but it can only be realized through a more patient
labour, a more objective study of facts, and above all a longer
propaganda, to make the necessity of the transition obvious to the
great majority of wage-earners. Russian Communism may fail and go
under, but Communism itself will not die. And if hope rather than
hatred inspires its advocates, it can be brought about without the
universal cataclysm preached by Moscow. The war and its sequel have
proved the destructiveness of capitalism; let us see to it that the
next epoc