Title: The Road Away from Revolution
Author: Wilson, Woodrow
Language: English
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  THE ROAD AWAY FROM
  REVOLUTION


[Illustration:

  Copyright Harris & Ewing, Washington, D. C.

Woodrow Wilson 1923.]



  THE ROAD AWAY
  FROM REVOLUTION

  _By_

  WOODROW WILSON

  [Illustration]

  THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS

  BOSTON

  COPYRIGHT 1923 BY
  THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS, INC.


  PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA


  _The following pages are reprinted
  from_
  THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY
  _for August 1923_



THE ROAD AWAY FROM REVOLUTION



THE ROAD AWAY FROM REVOLUTION


In these doubtful and anxious days, when all the world is at unrest
and, look which way you will, the road ahead seems darkened by shadows
which portend dangers of many kinds, it is only common prudence that we
should look about us and attempt to assess the causes of distress and
the most likely means of removing them.

There must be some real ground for the universal unrest and
perturbation. It is not to be found in superficial politics or in
mere economic blunders. It probably lies deep at the sources of the
spiritual life of our time. It leads to revolution; and perhaps if
we take the case of the Russian Revolution, the outstanding event of
its kind in our age, we may find a good deal of instruction for our
judgment of present critical situations and circumstances.

What gave rise to the Russian Revolution? The answer can only be that
it was the product of a whole social system. It was not in fact a
sudden thing. It had been gathering head for several generations. It
was due to the systematic denial to the great body of Russians of the
rights and privileges which all normal men desire and must have if they
are to be contented and within reach of happiness. The lives of the
great mass of the Russian people contained no opportunities, but were
hemmed in by barriers against which they were constantly flinging their
spirits, only to fall back bruised and dispirited. Only the powerful
were suffered to secure their rights or even to gain access to the
means of material success.

It is to be noted as a leading fact of our time that it was against
“capitalism” that the Russian leaders directed their attack. It was
capitalism that made them see red; and it is against capitalism under
one name or another that the discontented classes everywhere draw their
indictment.

There are thoughtful and well-informed men all over the world who
believe, with much apparently sound reason, that the abstract
thing, the system, which we call capitalism, is indispensable to
the industrial support and development of modern civilization.
And yet everyone who has an intelligent knowledge of social forces
must know that great and widespread reactions like that which is
now unquestionably manifesting itself against capitalism do not
occur without cause or provocation; and before we commit ourselves
irreconcilably to an attitude of hostility to this movement of the
time, we ought frankly to put to ourselves the question, Is the
capitalistic system unimpeachable? which is another way of asking, Have
capitalists generally used their power for the benefit of the countries
in which their capital is employed and for the benefit of their fellow
men?

Is it not, on the contrary, too true that capitalists have often seemed
to regard the men whom they used as mere instruments of profit, whose
physical and mental powers it was legitimate to exploit with as slight
cost to themselves as possible, either of money or of sympathy? Have
not many fine men who were actuated by the highest principles in every
other relationship of life seemed to hold that generosity and humane
feeling were not among the imperative mandates of conscience in the
conduct of a banking business, or in the development of an industrial
or commercial enterprise?

And if these offenses against high morality and true citizenship have
been frequently observable, are we to say that the blame for the
present discontent and turbulence is wholly on the side of those who
are in revolt against them?

Ought we not, rather, to seek a way to remove such offenses and make
life itself clean for those who will share honorably and cleanly in it?

The world has been made safe for democracy. There need now be no
fear that any such mad design as that entertained by the insolent
and ignorant Hohenzollerns and their counselors may prevail against
it. But democracy has not yet made the world safe against irrational
revolution. That supreme task, which is nothing less than the salvation
of civilization, now faces democracy, insistent, imperative. There
is no escaping it, unless everything we have built up is presently
to fall in ruin about us; and the United States, as the greatest of
democracies, must undertake it.

The road that leads away from revolution is clearly marked, for it is
defined by the nature of men and of organized society. It therefore
behooves us to study very carefully and very candidly the exact nature
of the task and the means of its successful accomplishment.

The nature of men and of organized society dictates the maintenance, in
every field of action, of the highest and purest standards of justice
and of right dealing; and it is essential to efficacious thinking in
this critical matter that we should not entertain a narrow or technical
conception of justice. By justice the lawyer generally means the
prompt, fair, and open application of impartial rules; but we call ours
a Christian civilization, and a Christian conception of justice must be
much higher. It must include sympathy and helpfulness and a willingness
to forgo self-interest in order to promote the welfare, happiness, and
contentment of others and of the community as a whole. This is what our
age is blindly feeling after in its reaction against what it deems the
too great selfishness of the capitalistic system.

The sum of the whole matter is this, that our civilization cannot
survive materially unless it be redeemed spiritually. It can be saved
only by becoming permeated with the spirit of Christ and being made
free and happy by the practices which spring out of that spirit. Only
thus can discontent be driven out and all the shadows lifted from the
road ahead.

Here is the final challenge to our churches, to our political
organizations, and to our capitalists--to everyone who fears God or
loves his country. Shall we not all earnestly coöperate to bring in the
new day?


  Printed by McGrath-Sherrill Press, Boston
  Bound by Boston Bookbinding Co., Cambridge



Transcriber’s Notes


The first illustration bears the signature shown in its caption. The
illustration on the Title Page is the Publisher’s logo.

Italic text is enclosed in _underscores_.





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