The Catholic Times

A short time ago, on the 38th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, the Soviet Government declared that the 20th century would inevitably witness the triumph of communism from one end of the world to the other.

No one can break the close ties linking the Soviet people with the broad masses and working classes of all countries of the world, Lazar M. Kaganovich, the Government's spokesman for the occasion, told the traditional gathering in Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre. It will not be necessary, he said, to export revolution because the revolutionary ideas of communism, "which know no frontiers," are exporting themselves "without visas and without fingerprints" to all parts of the world. Communism, he added, will triumph from within each country: it cannot be imposed from without. Those who talk about the Soviet Union's exporting revolutionary ideas, he said, are either "fools or provocateurs."

Not on the Open Market

As coincidence would have it, one of these fools or provocateurs"—George Meany, president of the American Federation of Labor—delivered two major addresses on world communism on the two days immediately preceding the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. To say that these two speeches, by the most influential labor leader in the free world, directly contradicted Mr. Kaganovich's speech would be putting it very mildly. Needless to say, they were not reported in the Soviet press, which merely goes to show that the Kremlin's alleged confidence in the inevitable triumph of the revolutionary ideas of communism is a monumental bluff.

The fact is—and nobody knows this better than Mr. Kaganovich's masters in the Kremlin, who told him what to say in his recent declaration of policy—that the so-called revolutionary ideas of communism cannot be sold on the open market in competition with the ideas of democracy.

Corner on the Market

This is not to say that the revolutionary ideas of communism are not making headway. On the contrary, they are making more headway than most of us like to admit, especially in the so-called underdeveloped areas of the world. For the most part, they are not being sold in open competition with the ideas of democracy. In far too many cases they have a corner on the market. One reason for this, according to Father Walter Hogan, S.J., the so-called "labor priest" of the Philippines, is the failure of Western leaders to make the principles of democracy come alive in terms of practical social action.

Father Hogan, who is currently on leave in the United States, feels very strongly on this subject. In the West's attempt to combat communism in the Far East, he has repeatedly pointed out, the economic and social problems of that area, in contrast to the purely military problems, have received relatively little attention.

Basically Spiritual

Father Hogan would be the first to admit that communism cannot be forestalled or eradicated solely by means of social reform. To be sure, it is not the complete answer. It is nevertheless an important part of the answer. And, according to Father Hogan and many of his zealous associates on the firing line in the Far East, it is being badly neglected.

Father Hogan's repeated emphasis on the importance of social reform in the underdeveloped areas of the world is very timely. Unless we are badly mistaken, many of our people are being tempted at the present time to minimize or to play down some of the obligations of social justice on the grounds that we must concentrate all of our energies and our assets on the problem of military and/or spiritual defense. This is a very subtle temptation, for it tends to distract our wavering attention from the fact that the world-wide crisis through which we are passing, and which is likely to be with us for a long time to come, cannot be resolved by military or even by spiritual means alone.

Basic Rights of Man

To a certain extent, perhaps, we have permitted ourselves to be mesmerized by the Soviet Union. We are so preoccupied with its many crimes, so conscious of its military might, that we may tend to forget that the world-wide revolution through which we are passing—a revolution being used for diabolically evil purposes by the masters of the Kremlin—wasn't created exclusively by the Soviet Union. Therefore, it could not and would not be automatically ended even by the miraculous conversion of Russia, or by the military defeat of her massive armies and those of her satellites.

It will be ended—or, more accurately, channeled into peaceful and constructive purposes, which is all that we have any right to expect—only when justice, with charity as its soul, replaces economic servitude; when the basic rights of man, including all of his social and economic rights, are more widely respected than they are today. In the final analysis, this is the only way to prove that Mr. Kaganovich was whistling in the dark when he announced, on November 6, that communism will inevitably triumph in all parts of the world before the end of the present century.