The Bemidji Daily Pioneer

Communists Make Move But Workers Are Relied Upon

By Carl D. Groat
(United Press Correspondent)

Berlin, Nov. 8. (By Mail.)—Germany's 'Neukommunisten'—new communists, as the extreme left of the Independent party is called since the Halle convention—are want to start putting Moscow principles into practice in Germany.

They believe with Sinowjew, Russian agitator and demagogue, that they can get a dictatorship of the proletariat and a soviet regime in Germany. And, their leaders say, they are prepared to undertake the fight at an early date. As this is written, the new communists are busying themselves with the task of seizing Independent party treasuries and trying to get control of party organs. They started in immediately after the Halle convention—grabbed the party paper in Halle, 'Das Hallesche Volksrecht,' threw out the right-wing editor and put in Moscow disciples. They likewise sent a force of strong-armed youngsters to the central office of the Independent party here to seize party documents. A courageous night watchman drove them off. This is merely the first step in the pro-Moscowites fight.

They call themselves Independents still, just as the right wingers do. But, they propose to get the party machinery, especially the party organs like the influential 'Freiheit' here under their control. Thereafter, according to their ideas they will be ready for their battle against their 'enemy, the capitalists.'

If one takes the left-wingers' talk seriously, one can picture a dire and dreadful winter in Berlin and other sections of Germany.

But the truth of the matter as seen by careful observers probably is not as black—or as red—as the new communists paint things.

They are regarded as strong enough to undertake some reign of terror at various points and times. But, on the whole their strength is everywhere estimated as too small to upset the present order of things. Breitscheid of the right wing, for instance, foresees that the reds will attempt to put thru their terroristic program, but he adds confidently that the moderates will have their innings directly afterward.

The creation of a new communist group in Germany has not the dire significance that many persons would attribute to it.

American authorities here are inclined to take this view of the situation namely: 1—that the left wing formation merely separates the sheep from the goats; 2—the creation of a party favoring force and terror is not a new thing, for the persons who now cast their lot with Moscow are the people who have always preached terror and practiced it when they had a chance.

And, above all, is the general spirit of the German worker. He has reached the point where things go a little more smoothly for him than for the last few years. Unemployment has decreased slightly since the first of September. The German workers as a whole want sanity and sound conditions rather than the doubtful experiment of Moscowism.

Admissions of even the demagogue Sinowjew that Russia's internal plight is bad have given the worker food for thought.