New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1920-06-11

States we estimate that there 10 o.
voter In every i've Of the population
This calculation is based upon ma
suffrage alone. with the voting az
liked at twenty-one years. In Russi
both men and women have the sui
frage. and the age qualifying one {
vote Is eighteen years. l. therefor,
figure that there would be one vste
for every two IN population. There /
no question about the Discriminate
against the poor peasant" and the "a
voring OF the city voter. 1t Ii onl
a question Of how much.
Machine Politics.
Lenine may be the idealist some pee
pie say he is. but this section Of tn,
constitution proves him to be & prac
teal machine politician In his meth
ods. The provision ~as written {,
meet a situation. 1t has q purpose
Lenine has frequently written and
spoken about the poor peasants" III,
can be forgiven for overworking tn,
phrase. The poor peasants" max,
up the great bulk of the population o.
Russia. 1t is not bad politics. al
though 1t smacks Of demagogy, {,
speak often and alphabetically o
the suffering poor" particularly when
the poor peasants" make up the ma,
jority Of ones constituency. Many
successful politicians owe their
offices to this appeal. In Russia
over so per ent Of the people live on
the land-Over four-fifths of all the
russians are peasants. Less than one
NTH of the population live In the
towns and cities. Measured by his
words. Lenine Is the friend of the
poor peasants" by the constitution,
their enemy.
AS we have seen, the constitution
specifically declares hat the supreme
power OF the government Is vested in
the Al-Russian congress-. OF course
this is true only in theory, for we have
read how the All-Russian
turns the supreme power over to the
central executive committee, which in
turn surrenders the power to the II
peoples cOmmissars.
The discrimination against the "poor
peasant" runs all through the consti-
tuition; the %bolsheviks are at least con-
sistent. Paragraph "B" of section So
OF the constitution furnishes addition.
al evidence Of the conspiracy against
the peasants. 1t reads:
"The provincial soviets are CON-
posed OF representatives of the city
soviets and the rural sOviets, one rep
.resentative for 10000 Inhabitants Of
the rural districts, and one represent
alive for 1900 voters in the CITY,"
In h regional congresses 1t is the
same, n representative for 2 5000
inhabitants Of the country. and one rep
resentative for 5000 voters of the city.
Aim at DISTINGUISHING Peasants.
The governments Of the nation, Of
the regions. Of the provinces, are based
on the Acknowledgement of the poor
peasants" ! am wondering IL there
Is any significance In the fact that the
people OF the city have one represent.
alive for a certain number Of votes,
and h people OF the country have
one representative for Just FIVE times
the number. You will note the ratio
is always the same: For congressman
1t Is 25,OOO in the city. as against
l2o.OOO m the country; In the regional
congress it Is 5000 voters of the city
as against 25.0OO inhabitants Of the
country. In the provincial congresses 1t
Is one representative for 1900 voters
In the city. n representative for
10000 Inhabitants from the rural dis
tricts. Why this five to one3 1 am
wondering how Lenine hit upon the
alto Of five to one Is there any con- |
nectiOn between this f~ve-to-one dis
against the poor peas |
and the ratio Of population In
between city jewellers and
poor peasants" which Is about Ave |
% one? 1t is not difficult to guess the
for this action. Any American
ward politician could furnish the ex-
)lanatiOn In a minute. All political
proves that a political ma
'hine is best controlled, easiest or
In the cities. Political ma
hines have never been popular In the
districts. The soviet form OF
is a political machine. The
control of the machine is insured by
DISTINGUISHING the poor peasants"
The men who designed the bolshevik
constitution knew one thing about
politics, and knew that one
hing thoroughly. and that is that cit.
are accessible to political control.
menable to political influence. ideal
or the political machine.
The soldiers and sailors are gen.
stationed in cities. This gives
hem the power Of city voters. They
re not discriminating against, they
re favored. Soldiers and sailors are
OF free agents In the sense the civil
usually are. Civilians have a
Of thought and action that
he military do not enjoy. The SOL
ier's occupation prevents 1t. First. he
an employee Of the govern
second, he is under dlsci-
third. the peoples commissars
K his pay, determine the quantity
nd quality of his food. arrange for
he comforts of the barracks: the
Dtes and the bayonets Of the military
Istain and support Lenine as truly
J the military force held the car on
Is throne. !
1920. western Newspaper Union,