1 84 RUSSIA THEN AND NOW 



France. Liberty is beautiful, but to man order is the 

 primal necessity. In the hard task of choosing be- 

 tween liberty and order the human animal selects 

 order as of the greater value. The old conditions in 

 Russia will never come back, but if there is to be a 

 steady pressing forward toward the realization of the 

 dream of social justice it is to be by recognizing the 

 expediency of conservatism rather than by emphasiz- 

 ing radicalism. Man is many things, but never 

 wholly consistent or rational, and the Russian shares 

 the defect of the species. The way to attain 100 per 

 cent, justice is to get 50 per cent., and then 60 per 

 cent., and so on with gains whose slowness maddens 

 the logical. 



In America, where many victims of Russian auto- 

 cracy have found refuge, a disposition exists to mis- 

 read what has occurred and thus to lay the foundations 

 for disillusionment. Liberalism won in Russia be- 

 cause it slowed up enough to get in step with the ideals 

 of an army whose officers are of the classes and whose 

 rank and file is largely composed of ignorant and 

 superstitious peasants. The Russian intellectuals, 

 having exploited theory, will do well if they play in 

 practical affairs the role of opportunism. The evolu- 

 tionary revolution of Russia is brilliantly successful, 

 but its prospects will darken if its leaders accept the 

 advice plentifully given to them by American friends. 

 Realism is the keynote of Russian literature, and 

 realism should be the central thought of Russian 

 politics. The New York Globe. 



