{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_59019/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_59019","id":"gutenberg_59019","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/59019","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: History - Modern (1750+)","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Politics","Political science","Revolutions"],"text":"Produced by Tim Lindell, Charlie Howard, and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This\nfile was produced from images generously made available\nby The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n  THE ROAD AWAY FROM\n  REVOLUTION\n\n\n[Illustration:\n\n  Copyright Harris & Ewing, Washington, D. C.\n\nWoodrow Wilson 1923.]\n\n\n\n\n  THE ROAD AWAY\n  FROM REVOLUTION\n\n  _By_\n\n  WOODROW WILSON\n\n  [Illustration]\n\n  THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS\n\n  BOSTON\n\n  COPYRIGHT 1923 BY\n  THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS, INC.\n\n\n  PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA\n\n\n  _The following pages are reprinted\n  from_\n  THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY\n  _for August 1923_\n\n\n\n\nTHE ROAD AWAY FROM REVOLUTION\n\n\n\n\nTHE ROAD AWAY FROM REVOLUTION\n\n\nIn these doubtful and anxious days, when all the world is at unrest\nand, look which way you will, the road ahead seems darkened by shadows\nwhich portend dangers of many kinds, it is only common prudence that we\nshould look about us and attempt to assess the causes of distress and\nthe most likely means of removing them.\n\nThere must be some real ground for the universal unrest and\nperturbation. It is not to be found in superficial politics or in\nmere economic blunders. It probably lies deep at the sources of the\nspiritual life of our time. It leads to revolution; and perhaps if\nwe take the case of the Russian Revolution, the outstanding event of\nits kind in our age, we may find a good deal of instruction for our\njudgment of present critical situations and circumstances.\n\nWhat gave rise to the Russian Revolution? The answer can only be that\nit was the product of a whole social system. It was not in fact a\nsudden thing. It had been gathering head for several generations. It\nwas due to the systematic denial to the great body of Russians of the\nrights and privileges which all normal men desire and must have if they\nare to be contented and within reach of happiness. The lives of the\ngreat mass of the Russian people contained no opportunities, but were\nhemmed in by barriers against which they were constantly flinging their\nspirits, only to fall back bruised and dispirited. Only the powerful\nwere suffered to secure their rights or even to gain access to the\nmeans of material success.\n\nIt is to be noted as a leading fact of our time that it was against\n\u201ccapitalism\u201d that the Russian leaders directed their attack. It was\ncapitalism that made them see red; and it is against capitalism under\none name or another that the discontented classes everywhere draw their\nindictment.\n\nThere are thoughtful and well-informed men all over the world who\nbelieve, with much apparently sound reason, that the abstract\nthing, the system, which we call capitalism, is indispensable to\nthe industrial support and development of modern civilization.\nAnd yet everyone who has an intelligent knowledge of social forces\nmust know that great and widespread reactions like that which is\nnow unquestionably manifesting itself against capitalism do not\noccur without cause or provocation; and before we commit ourselves\nirreconcilably to an attitude of hostility to this movement of the\ntime, we ought frankly to put to ourselves the question, Is the\ncapitalistic system unimpeachable? which is another way of asking, Have\ncapitalists generally used their power for the benefit of the countries\nin which their capital is employed and for the benefit of their fellow\nmen?\n\nIs it not, on the contrary, too true that capitalists have often seemed\nto regard the men whom they used as mere instruments of profit, whose\nphysical and mental powers it was legitimate to exploit with as slight\ncost to themselves as possible, either of money or of sympathy? Have\nnot many fine men who were actuated by the highest principles in every\nother relationship of life seemed to hold that generosity and humane\nfeeling were not among the imperative mandates of conscience in the\nconduct of a banking business, or in the development of an industrial\nor commercial enterprise?\n\nAnd if these offenses against high morality and true citizenship have\nbeen frequently observable, are we to say that the blame for the\npresent discontent and turbulence is wholly on the side of those who\nare in revolt against them?\n\nOught we not, rather, to seek a way to remove such offenses and make\nlife itself clean for those who will share honorably and cleanly in it?\n\nThe world has been made safe for democracy. There need now be no\nfear that any such mad design as that entertained by the insolent\nand ignorant Hohenzollerns and their counselors may prevail against\nit. But democracy has not yet made the world safe against irrational\nrevolution. That supreme task, which is nothing less than the salvation\nof civilization, now faces democracy, insistent, imperative. There\nis no escaping it, unless everything we have built up is presently\nto fall in ruin about us; and the United States, as the greatest of\ndemocracies, must undertake it.\n\nThe road that leads away from revolution is clearly marked, for it is\ndefined by the nature of men and of organized society. It therefore\nbehooves us to study very carefully and very candidly the exact nature\nof the task and the means of its successful accomplishment.\n\nThe nature of men and of organized society dictates the maintenance, in\nevery field of action, of the highest and purest standards of justice\nand of right dealing; and it is essential to efficacious thinking in\nthis critical matter that we should not entertain a narrow or technical\nconception of justice. By justice the lawyer generally means the\nprompt, fair, and open application of impartial rules; but we call ours\na Christian civilization, and a Christian conception of justice must be\nmuch higher. It must include sympathy and helpfulness and a willingness\nto forgo self-interest in order to promote the welfare, happiness, and\ncontentment of others and of the community as a whole. This is what our\nage is blindly feeling after in its reaction against what it deems the\ntoo great selfishness of the capitalistic system.\n\nThe sum of the whole matter is this, that our civilization cannot\nsurvive materially unless it be redeemed spiritually. It can be saved\nonly by becoming permeated with the spirit of Christ and being made\nfree and happy by the practices which spring out of that spirit. Only\nthus can discontent be driven out and all the shadows lifted from the\nroad ahead.\n\nHere is the final challenge to our churches, to our political\norganizations, and to our capitalists--to everyone who fears God or\nloves his country. Shall we not all earnestly co\u00f6perate to bring in the\nnew day?\n\n\n  Printed by McGrath-Sherrill Press, Boston\n  Bound by Boston Bookbinding Co., Cambridge\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber\u2019s Notes\n\n\nThe first illustration bears the signature shown in its caption. The\nillustration on the Title Page is the Publisher\u2019s logo.\n\nItalic text is enclosed in _underscores_.","title":"The Road Away from Revolution","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":1134}