RUSSIA'S STRONGEST MAN.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIX, Issue 13812, 17 July 1919, Page 6

RUSSIA'S STRONGEST MAN.

(Bv Frazier •Hunt.)

Russia's millions are tirccP to death of the revolution. The wonderful i things they had been promised would ! fail into their laps with the revolution h:u e not come, .rind, for the moment, they want to try something else. [ Their "ears are open to new I words and new promises of coan tor-revolutionists. The things the revolution has actually brought them —a voice in their new factories and lives, new opportunities to study and be entertained, the new feeling that it is their own country and government —can't stand against continued hunger and discontent over the lack of the plain comforts of life so often promised them. They want a change, but they are not thinking l>ow they would react to 1-eaeiion. But this much can be said without hesitancy; no Government, except a Radical Government, built more or less along socialistic lines, will ever last in Russia. The peasant is going to get the land, and all land, for his own, and nothing is going to cheat him out of that. The city workman is going co have at least a part say about how tlie factory is run, how much he is to be paid, and his working conditions. His factory committee is always going to be an active radical part in the life of industry. Any future Government, whether it is to b"e Communist or Kolchak's, must honestly represent the great masses and the great majority — which neither do at the present moment.

No dictatorship of the proletariat or dictatorship of the Communist Party or dictatorship of reactionary aristocracy or bourgeoise landlords will last for long: it will have to be the rule of the people. Two weeks ago, in 3loscow, I attended a great factory meeting, which was one of a group of patriotic assemblies of workmen called by the Communist agitators to stir up e-nthusiasm for the Government's fight against Kolehnk. I rode out'of thp factory, yhich is known as one of the blackest or most reactionary in the city, with v ! Tomski. head of tli e All Russian t'nion of industrial Workers. which . boasts three million and a half workers :ui its ranks.

Toniski. who i.s called the Russian Samuel Oompers, is one- of tho most, picturesque, as well as one ol the finest nisd sincerest figures in the whole revolution. Of small stature, full of the fire of intense, honest sacrificing, with ravages of long years spent in the C'zar's prisons still showing, he leaves a. strange, thrilling impression. He. and a few others like him. are the real hopes of revolutionary Russia. They are not thinking of revolution —thev are working eighteen hours a day on'building up the ruined industries putting men back into factories, and Minding the country to work again. The ereat professional union that, he head's is a powerful industrial club ; ! that he is swinging at the heads, of i wild revolutionary fanatics who stand in his way of 'putting _ Russia to , work The Commissariat tor La- , Ibor, which is one of f.h e Soviet's nine- ] teen great governmental departments, is nothing but the service of this tremendous, independent trade union organisation. The Government Commissary of Labor is actually elected by the professional unions. With the possible exception or «HeRod Ann v. this independent pro.essionaf union of Tomski's is the most powerful thing in all Russia. It .along with Rikov's Supreme Council of iSational Economy, controlling all production and distribution,, and krasiii s depayment of Foreign Trade find Com missariat of Wavs and Communications, is the great, hard-headed, hard-fisted, practical solution and hope of Russia s rise from the mud hole into whicn she has fallen. Firebrands like Trotsky or Zinovieff are not going to be permitted to sidetrack them. The rcgeneratiol of Russia rests upon the generous outside help, given to men like these, along with the.best men of tho opposition parties, whose love for Russia is sending them to work alongside. Totnski and Rifeov and Ivrasin. At the factory I trailed along "with Toniski as he went- into the office to talk over the proposition of holding the meeting with the Factory Committee or Laborers elected by all the workers. This factory committee acts as liaison between the workers and factory directory and the outside world. The factory directory, which manages the factory, numbered fifteen men —one-tliird being elected by the workmen, one-tliird by the local union within the factory, and one-third appointed by the Supreme Council of National Economy. After securing the consent of the Factory Committee to hold the meeting, orders were sent out to have the workmen gather in the great court between the factory buildings. The party of speakers and myself moved to a small wooden, second-storey platform. reached by outside stairs. The crowd gathered below us —sullen men. women, and children, standing in groups on piles of factory refuse. It had been raining, and everywhere there were pools of dirty water. The day was grey, heavy, and dull, with only how and then a bit of bright-colored scarf around some woman's head relieving the greyness. Ijut it all expressed the spirit of Russia: hopeless, grey, with here and there some flaming, flaring bit of color. Tomski spoke first, and he had liiydly begun when several women began crying: "Where's the bread? Bread, that's what we want, bread." Toniski was patient, as only a man who has spent half his life in prison for an ideal can bo patient, and soon he had the crowd listening; but it was a superiorcrowd, that was tired of words, and wanted bread and comforts. There was only a scattered applause when ho had finished. Then came a tall, gentle man, named Novomirsky, nn anarchist, who had been four years Tomski's cell-nute in

tho St. Peter and Paul Prison, Petrograd. Novomirsky, who was not a. member of the Qpmmunist Party, had spent several years in America, and had talked to me on the way to the meeting with' sincere feeling of his great love and respect for America. As he started to talk now, his voice proved so hoarse that there were calls from distant groups for him to talk louder. Ho pleaded for a chance, and in a minuter or two his voice had grown stronger, and he was throwing out words that were going straight into the hearts of these poor men and women who had lost faith in their revolution. He was down among them, pleading, begging, touching hearts with them.

"Kolchak can only bring you new whips to drive you back to your k-en-nols." ho cried. "He # will bring you order, but it will bp the old Czars ordpr of drawn sword and knotted lash. You have had a taste of rnnniu.fr your own affairs, and you will never be satisfied with anything less. You are only going to get reaction, and yon know you don't want that." It was the real, sincere revolutionisttalking. Here was a man who had rotted in Russian prisons and eaten his heart out in Siberian mines and in foreign exile. Ho was pleading, notfor tho Bolshevist revolution or the Communist revolution, but for Ins own revolution. My translator, swept away by bis words, was translating mechanically, flinging out words just as Novomirsky flung them out. There were no cries for bread now ; ho was grasping hands with, his listeners, the discontented, hungry people who had grown tired to deatii of the Communist Party revolution. He was pleading for them to hold on a little longer, begging them to give tho real revolution a- little more chance. When he had finished thero was little iCpplausc; his listeners were thinking 100 hard. After him- came a wild party man, who undid most that Novomirsky had done, and, when the meeting broke up, it -was still a sullen, -superior crowd. As wo walked away I remarked that tho audieiico was what an . American tramp'wou-ld call "Horstile.' "Yes. but there's no one to -show them what to do with their discontent," I wuk answered.' "TJgli! If we wero the party of opposition to-day, we would turn tho Government out in three days." Ho was right. For it isn't at nil a question of the Communist Government's strength,- but - tho weakness of all opposition. I turned to. Tomski and spoke about the crowd.

"Yen, they do think they want a chnengc," h<» said, "but if n new Government does come, and thoy don't

get what they want, they'll start another revolution, and they'll keep on revolting until they do get what ihev want." He was hitting on the greatest truth one can iind in Russia: Russia herself will keep on until she gets what is best and right for her.

The woman wore a. worried look. Her brow was creased with care, The chemist's store by storm she took And hailed a salesman there.. "0. Sir,"' she said, "I'm ill with dread. My child* will die, I'm sure : With croup lie's sick, please serve me quick! With Woods' Great Peppermint Cure.