The Road Away from Revolution, Woodrow Wilson

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Road Away from Revolution by Woodrow Wilson. This is
a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Recording by Larry Wilson. In these doubtful and anxious days,

(00:21):
when all the world is at unrest, and look which
way you will, the road ahead seems darkened by shadows
which bore tend 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

(00:42):
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

(01:04):
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

(01:28):
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

(01:49):
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 read. And it is against

(02:12):
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

(02:32):
of modern civilization. And yet every one who has an
intelligent knowledge of social forces. Must know that the 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 the attitude of

(02:54):
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

(03:17):
that capitalists have often seemed to regard the men whom
they used as mere instruments of prophet, whose physical and
mental powers it was legitimate to exploit with a 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

(03:40):
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

(04:00):
blame for the present discontent and turbulence is wholly on
the side of those who are in revolf 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

(04:21):
fear that any such mad design as that entertained by
the insolent and ignorant hohen Zoluns 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

(04:43):
insistent imperative. There is no escape in 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 organized society. It therefore behooves us to

(05:06):
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

(05:29):
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

(05:50):
willingness to forego 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 to be too great
selfishness of the capitalistic system. The sum of the whole
matter is this, that our civilization cannot survive materially unless

(06:15):
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,

(06:38):
and to our capitalists, to everyone who fears God or
loves his country, Shall we not all earnestly cooperate to
bring in the new day end of the road away
from revolution? By Woodrow Wilson