Page:Lars Henning Söderhjelm - The Red Insurrection in Finland in 1918 - tr. Annie Ingebord Fausbøll (1920).djvu/122



Not without self-confidence did the Red often declare in their papers that they were doing as another leading people in history had done: they were building their temple with the trowel in one hand and the sword in the other. The simile is right enough, but with the restriction that the right hand seldom knew what the left hand was doing. For what the trowel built was not respected by the sword.

The great reform programme of the Red Government was, of course, never carried through. But it was at once subjected to criticism also from their own adherents. A written communication published on the 8th February reflects the disappointment felt in the Labour circles which had expected a real social revolution. It is the workmen at Kymmene Works—the largest in the country—who express their disappointment at a meeting "attended by thousands." The programme vacillates between efforts for petty reform and economical revolutionary principles "it says very truly in the communication to the Government, and it is therefore not entirely satisfactory to the revolutionary Labour Class. For this reason the meeting desire that the Government will at the earliest opportunity acquaint our People with the main features of their programme, which, according to the unanimous wish of the meeting, should rest on the basis of economical revolution."

The "Government" did not, however, comply with this wish. On the contrary, its members sought in speech and writings to convince their adherents that a social revolution was neither aimed at nor possible. The fact of the matter was that on account of their corruption, the citizens had not been able to do their duty, and therefore the working-men had been obliged to undertake the, by the way, difficult task of governing the country.