COMMUNISM EXPERIMENT

Taranaki Daily News, 14 April 1932, Page 12

COMMUNISM EXPERIMENT

“DOOMED TO FAILURE”

OPPRESSION OF WORKERS. WRETCHED LIVING CONDITIONS. A graphic word-picture of conditions in modern Russia was painted in al * dress to the Auckland Rotary Club by Mr. R. A. Laidlaw. The Bolshevist Goiernment was described by Mr. Laidlaw as perhaps the greatest, political and economic experiment of history. In ten years, he said, the system should have outgrown the experimental stages. Actually it had not. The Communist state, as represented by Russia, provided labour conditions far worse than those obtaining under capitalism, and was doomed to failure. d “In Russia,” Mr. Laidlaw said, ait attempt has been made to communist 150,000,000 people. I do not condone tlie conditions that existed under the Tsans. regime; I do not say that everything ui Soviet Russia is entirely bad; but I do say that when Soviet Russia, through the agency of professional propagandists, attempts to foist Communism on to the other peoples of the world, it is time we paid more than passing attention to the matter. . “The Tsarist regime may have had many horrors, but it is questionable wliother they were Averse than the hardships that are endured in Russia to-day. In 1887 Alexander Lenin was hanged for attempting to assassinate the Tsar. His young brother Vladimir swore vengeance and it is one of the romances of history that 30 years later he should have been sitting in the Imperial palace at Moscow, wielder of a power more absolute than that possessed by the Emperors of history. After Lenin’s death Stalin assumed control, and he to-day .wields a power even more autocratic thun Lenin’s.” POWER OF PROPAGANDA. To obtain an idea of conditions in modern Russia, Mr. Laidlaw continued, one had to realise the power of propaganda. The huge Government wireless station, which had practically a monopoly of broadcasting, the entire Press of the country, all spoke with one voice the voice of Stalin. News from the outside world was contorted or suppressed, just as it suited Communist ends. People were wont to ask why, if the people of Russia were. oppressed, they did not rise against their oppressors. It had to be remembered that the new generation in Russia knew nothing but Communism. Young people to-day were only children when the revolutio of. 1917 threw Russia into chaos. Practically speaking, they had known life only under Communism. “A fair gauge of the standard of living in any country is generally supplied by the shopkeepers. In the main street of Moscow hardly a dozen shops are open; butchers’ shops are unknown; shoes and boots cannot be bought anywhere; in the best food store one can obtain about a dozen lines of packet groceries, butter at 17s 9d a pound and bacon at Ss lid a pound. The staple diet of the people consists of black rye bread and vegetable soup. CONDITIONS OF LABOUR. “Since my return, a lady member of the Communist Party in Auckland has seta fit to produce a pamphlet criticising certain statements I have made. She says that the standard of living of the Russian worker is much higher than it was in Tsarist days and that it is still rising. In 1913, she says, the Russian worker was earning only 30 per cent, of the wage paid in London, but, on hei own figures, he is even now earning only 50 per cent; of the living wage of an English workman, “It boils down to this. An experiment has lasted ten years, and in that time it has produced conditions only half as good as those enjoyed under a system which is said to be wrong.. It is the old question of capitalism against communism. If the capitalist earus the profits he receives from his business he is an economic advantage. Even allowing for all that may be said against capitalism, we see in Russia to-day, as ye saw here during the war, that Government distribution and control of merchandise is clumsy, inefficient and doomed to failure.” PLIGHT OF PEASANT FARMER. Russia’s real problem, however, was the peasant farmer, Mr. Laidlaw continued. The average holding Avas small generally three coavs, one horse and about nine acres of land —but for all that the peasant Avas an absolute individualist. The Soviet started to destroy his individualism and forced GO per cent, of the peasants of the country to go on to collective farms. In January, 1930, Stalin ordered 5,000,000 peasants to be evicted from their land on the anniversary of Lenin’s death. Later 12 were shot for not obeying eviction orders. A feature of the campaign against the peasants Avas that it was always the most prosperous against whom eviction orders were made. Consequently it did not pay a farmer to be prosperous. The incentive of the best farmers was being killed and there was proof of this in the fact that Russia’s wheat output decreased last year by 1,000,000 tons. . In the cities, too, conditions were just as bad. With the introduction of the fiveday week people ivorked longer hours and practically all the pay they, received Avas their food. Now it was realised that Communist principles in industry were all in favour of the bad worker. .Then there was the system of “shock brigades” in factories, composed of the best Avorkers, who had to set the pace of production and work harder than the others. They received bonuses —an extra bread ticket a week —and this was illustrative of the conditions of industry. The working man in New Zealand Avould not stand for Communism for three motnhs. MENACE IN OTHER DIRECTIONS. The Cheka, or secret police, who could arrest people ou trumpery charges and execute them Avithout trial, had destroyed all sense of personal liberty. Russia, in fact, Avas back Avhere the rest of the civilised Avorld Avas centuries ago. “Russia is a. menace in other directions as well,” Mr. Laidlaiv said. “She has the largest standing army in, the. Avorld, even if it is the most slovenly uniformed and Avorst disciplined. Everything is being done to inculcate a military spirit into the people. “Then there is the organised attack on home life. Soviet officials, in their determination to communise the population, have realised that the best Avay to destroy a man’s individualism is to destroy his home. A home in Russia is only a room in which people sleep. Husband and wife may go for days without seeing one another. Children are kept away° from their mothers and organised attempts are even being made to destroy the maternal instinct in children.. I he last great madness of Communism is the declaration of Avar against God. . . “It is difficult to say lioav Russia’s experiment will end. I personally think it will result in the growth of a new aristocracy, composed of Government

officials, military officers and business executives. Perhaps the best argument against present conditions in the Soviet is that the .Communists dare not give the people a free vote, but have to take autocratic control. No country is free if its rulers have broken home ties, maternal love and the eternal laws of life.”