Why runners make lousy communists

By , economic reforms had somewhat improved the standard of living in most countries in Eastern Europe. Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and East Germany had the highest standard. But even these countries still fell way behind the West. A small minority of people were members of the Communist Party.

They held almost every important government post. They also enjoyed many privileges such as better housing and special access to Western consumer goods.

Others "voted with their feet" and fled their homelands. Some risked open dissent. Most Eastern Europeans, however, conformed to life under communism. Shortages of goods constantly occurred. Even when in stock, there was little variety of goods.

Often there was only one type of laundry soap, one flavor of ice cream, and one kind of coffee. But most families owned a television set and a washing machine. Many owned cars. But cars and appliances required long waits. In fact, lines were a part of daily life. Shopping was an ordeal, especially in the Soviet Union. Every day, women would go from shop to shop to get items. It is estimated that a Soviet woman spent two hours in line every day, seven days a week.

Shoppers paid in cash. People did not have credit cards, charge accounts, or checking accounts. In the workplace, almost everyone had a job. Wages, however, lagged far behind those in the Western democracies. A common joke was, "They pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work. Most industrial workers belonged to labor unions. But the unions were run by the government mainly to help factory managers achieve their production goals. Farmers resented having to give up their land and work for the government on collective farms.

Many left to work in city factories for higher pay or better working conditions. Housing, built mainly by the government or group cooperatives, was always in short supply. Often, two or three generations of a family lived in a three-room apartment. Newlyweds usually had to wait years for a small apartment of their own. But everyone had a home. Homelessness was not a problem. Public transportation was affordable and extensive. Most cities had a web of subway, streetcar, and bus lines that carried people everywhere in the city.

Railroad transportation between cities was also low priced. Officials, however, forbid travel outside the Eastern bloc. The government subsidized entertainment. The government paid the salaries of theater companies and athletes.

Box office prices were low. Everyone could afford to go to the theater, movies, the opera, the ballet, or sporting events. Universal public health systems "socialized medicine" covered everyone. The government and state-owned businesses paid the costs of doctors, health clinics, and hospitals.

As a result, the health of the population generally improved. The quality of health care, however, still fell short of that provided by public health systems in most Western European nations.

The communist governments offered many benefits for child care. They provided paid maternity leave, grants of money for childbirth, monthly childcare allowances, and low-cost pre-school. All education--from elementary school through college--was free. The government in most Eastern European countries required all children to attend school until age At the end of the eighth grade, they entered high schools.

Students who wanted to go to special language or science schools took exams for entry. As in most Western European countries, a government education ministry created a uniform curriculum taught in all the schools.

Entrance exams and students' high school records determined admission to the state universities. By the s, illiteracy had been eliminated in most Eastern European countries. All Eastern European countries established a social security system. It included government health insurance, welfare services, and pensions. In most countries, men could retire as early as 60; the retirement age for women was generally a few years earlier.

The rate of violent crime was low. The streets were safe. But crimes of corruption, such as bribery, flourished. People paid off officials and even shop clerks to get ahead in line or get an item in short supply. Theft was a problem for items that were in short supply.

For example, car owners routinely removed their windshield wipers when they parked their cars. Otherwise, the wipers might be stolen and replacement parts were hard to find. Under the communist systems of Eastern Europe, the "collective interest" of the people, as determined by the communist party, overcame any claims to individual rights.

Thus, the government harshly suppressed freedom of speech, press, and assembly. The government licensed newspapers, other media, and even churches in order to control them. The practice of religion was discouraged. The communist regimes established civil and criminal court systems. In most cases, the trial courts consisted of one professional judge and two citizen "assessors," not specifically trained in the law.

Public prosecutors acted as defenders of the state, public defenders, and prosecutors of crimes. They, like the judges and assessors, were accountable only to the government officials who appointed them. The officials, of course, belonged to the communist party.

A fair trial might take place if the communist party had no interest in it. But otherwise the system was stacked against those accused of crimes.

Defendants could be charged with political or economic crimes. The crime of "economic sabotage" included such offenses as failing to achieve a factory production quota. The courts vigorously prosecuted anyone dissenting against communist-party rule. As in the Soviet Union, Eastern European countries weeded out those suspected of disloyalty. This happened in "show trials," where the government forced defendants to confess their supposed crimes.

All the Eastern European countries established extensive secret police organizations. Soviet "advisors" occupied key command positions in each of them. Moreover, secret police agents from the Soviet Union worked throughout Eastern Europe and could arrest anyone. Official documents stated that the Stasi was "entrusted with the task of preventing or throttling at the earliest stages--using whatever means and methods may be necessary--all attempts to delay or hinder the victory of socialism.

The Stasi kept files on an estimated 6 million people. Stasi agents regularly used phone taps, bugging devices, and video cameras to spy on their fellow citizens and even on the Stasi itself.

A huge number of informers passed on information and rumors about their neighbors, fellow workers, and relatives. Even church ministers sometimes informed on members of their congregations. A climate of fear chilled the daily lives of the people. Communist rule in Eastern Europe depended on Soviet military support. The Soviet Union intervened militarily in Hungary in and again in Czechoslovakia in Even under this threat, the people of Eastern Europe increasingly complained about their lack of political freedom and the failure of socialism to bring their standard of living up to that of the Western capitalist democracies.

Starting in the early s, Polish workers joined food riots and called strikes that led to the formation of Solidarity, a nation-wide pro-democracy movement. After the reformer Mikhail Gorbachev took power in the Soviet Union in , even the Russian people began to demand radical changes. You can see it, feel it, and hear it all the way from the Indochina hills, from the shores of Formosa, right over into the very heart of Europe itself.

There is still a hope for peace if we finally decide that no longer can we safely blind our eyes and close our ears to those facts which are shaping up more and more clearly. The great difference between our western Christian world and the atheistic Communist world is not political, gentlemen, it is moral.

For instance, the Marxian idea of confiscating the land and factories and running the entire economy as a single enterprise is momentous. With only these differences, however, the east and the west could most certainly still live in peace. The real, basic difference, however, lies in the religion of immoralism. This religion of immoralism, if the Red half of the world triumphs—and well it may, gentlemen—this religion of immoralism will more deeply wound and damage mankind than any conceivable economic or political system.

Karl Marx dismissed God as a hoax, and Lenin and Stalin have added in clear-cut, unmistakable language their resolve that no nation, no people who believe in a god, can exist side by side with their communistic state. Karl Marx, for example, expelled people from his Communist Party for mentioning such things as love, justice, humanity or morality. Today we are engaged in a final, all-out battle between communistic atheism and Christianity. The modern champions of communism have selected this as the time, and ladies and gentlemen, the chips are down—they are truly down.

Lest there be any doubt that the time has been chosen, let us go directly to the leader of communism today—Joseph Stalin. Ladies and gentlemen, can there be anyone tonight who is so blind as to say that the war is not on? Can there by anyone who fails to realize that the Communist world has said the time is now?

Unless we face this fact, we shall pay the price that must be paid by those who wait too long. Six years ago,. Lined up on the antitotalitarian side there were in the world at that time, roughly 1,,, people. Today, only six years later, there are ,, people under the absolute domination of Soviet Russia—an increase of over percent. On our side, the figure has shrunk to around ,, In other words, in less than six years, the odds have changed from 9 to 1 in our favor to 8 to 5 against us.

This indicates the swiftness of the tempo of Communist victories and American defeats in the cold war. The reason why we find ourselves in a position of impotency is not because our only powerful potential enemy has sent men to invade our shores.

It has not been the less fortunate, or members of minority groups who have been traitorous to this Nation, but rather those who have had all the benefits that the wealthiest Nation on earth has had to offer.

This is glaringly true in the State Department. There the bright young men who are born with silver spoons in their mouths are the ones who have been most traitorous. I have here in my hand a list of As you know, very recently the Secretary of State proclaimed his loyalty to a man guilty of what has always been considered as the most abominable of all crimes—being a traitor to the people who gave him a position of great trust—high treason.

He has lighted the spark which is resulting in a moral uprising and will end only when the whole sorry mess of twisted, warped thinkers are swept from the national scene so that we may have a new birth of honesty and decency in government. I further stated that I have in my possession the names of 57 Communists who are in the State Department at present. A State Department spokesman promptly denied this, claiming that there is not a single Communist in the Department.

You can convince yourself of the falsity of the State Department claim very easily.