The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-11-22

occupied the major portion of their efforts in fighting for the eight-hour day and increase in wages. sThe price of foodstuffs had increased tremendously during the war, while the increase in wages had been slight and only affected very few industries-the most essential to war production.
 The capitalists, supported by the middle-class government of Kerensky, showed no benevo- lence towards the workers but haggled with them over every penny and quite often drove them into striking. Then the fight for the minimum wage commenced and it was only due to spirited revolutionary attack that the workers defeated the capitalists. The capitalists ac- cepted this defeat in very bad grace and made complaints to the Government on the impossi- bility of keeping their factories going if these exhorbitant wages must be paid to the workers. They claimed that the d1sorgan- ization of industry was directly uu6 IO lJlG 4dp u1OuS uSIld1OS l1dI were made.
 In spite of the complaints of the capitalists against the rais- ing in wages, the unheard-of ex- ploitation of the workers went on at high pressure and the price of necessary commodities rose enormously, so that from time to time the workers were compelled to demand increases of wages in order to live
 The Fixing of Wage Scales.
 The craft unions and their fed erations had not only to lead a campaign for the raising in wagess' but they also had to equa- lize wage scales in different in- dustries, regulating these accord ing to the difficulty and intricacy of the labor. Begun before the October Revolution by the unions of the metal and typographical unions, this campaign was taken up afterwards by all the unions. Workers Control of Industry.
 However, the organization of unions, the fight for the eight hour day, and the raising in wages was not the whole story. The professional organiza tions took an active part in the organ ization of workers control and devoted many efforts tN prevent ing the complete Misrepresentation of production by the profiteering capitalists.
 In the early days of the Revo- 1ution-the period in which the idea of workers control came in to being-it was the factory com mittees that undertook to deveI- op the idea of workers control, and this was done in the ensuing months
 The craft unions believed that it was necessary to bring this control into their hands in order to centralize it and introduce Committees on Economic Control for each industrial organization in order to benefit the people as whole rather than adjust the existing conditions temporarily in individual factories.
 In addition to workers control. the craft unions sought to ex- tend their activities to the organ ization of production and stop the complete destruction of in dustry. They sent their delegates into the managerial offices in or der to help in the fight against the disorganization of rnanufac- turing concerns and against the d1sorga anizers themselves-the capitalists
 Political and Industrial Struggle.
 All this work was often inter- rupted by political events During the whole eight months of capi- taist-scocia1 patriot rule the l1n- ions applied themseIsev not on ly to industrial problems, but all so to political questions, for they realized that the two were insep- arable and that if the political si- tuaUon remained the same, the conditions of the working class would gradually become worse and It's victories would be undone- That is why the unions abandoned their industrial acti- v1ty in October and gave them selves up entirely to the politi- cal fight, playing during the Oc- tober Revolution the role which corresponded to their organizing capacity
 The fall of the capitalists from power brought great change in the life of the working class and it's industrial organizations. and It became necessary o bring all the strength of the unions to bear in order to solve the new and hitherto unknown problems Strikes were found to be unnec- essary7 Under the government of the workers and there is no room for strikes ,, said the men, and they caused the strike movement to cease as soon as the Revolution was ac- complished
 Organizing Industry.
 Al the moment of the October change the form of the labor. unions from fighting organiza- tions directed against the bosses to auxiliary organfza tfons of the State itself, and if Lenin, in April 1917, could find no other express sion than that of "a morass' to define inc labor movement he now renders homage to the un- ions for the fine part they played in the reorganizatio of our na- tiona1 industries
 The General Staff of the Octo- Der Revolution was posted in the Smolny Institute on the lower floors occupied by the Central Committee of the professi~ nal or ganizations of all Russia. It was there that the Revolutionary Ru- reau of the Directorate of the Communist Party in Petroeca d