The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1920-06-10

/ fixed at twenty-one years. In Russia
/ both men and women have the suf-
frage, and the age qualifying one to
vote is eighteen years. |. therefore,
/ figure that there would be one voter
for every two In population. There is
no question about the discrimination
against the poor peasant" and the IA
yOring OF the, city voter. 1t Is only
a question Of how much.
Machine Politics.
Lenne may be the idealist some peo-
! pie say he is, but this section OF the
constitution proves him to be { prac-
! tical machine politician in his meth
DDS. The provision was written to
meet situation. Ii has a purpose,
Lenine has frequently written and
spoken about the poor peasants" He
can be forgiven for oyerworking the
phrase. The poor peasants make
up the great bulk of the population OF
Russia. 1t IS not bad politics, al
though 1t smacks of demagogy, to
speak often and sympathetiCally of
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 cent Of the people live on
the laud-Over fOur-ffthS of all the
russians are peasants. Less than one
fifth 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.
specifically declares that the supreme
power of the government is vested in
the All-RuSSian congress. OF course
this is true only in theory, for we have
read how the All-Russian congress
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 bolSheyiks are at least con-
sisrent. Paragraph "B" Of section 81
of the constitution furnishes addition
al evidence Oh the conspiracy against
the peasants. 1t reads:
ne proElhciai SoVietS are COM
posed of representatives Of the city
soyiets and the rural soyiets, one rep
FeSeH'"lI'e IOr IV'oOo ii''ao'la'''N VI
l"e iuI"i uIHl'lclS"ahu one represent
alI'e Ior -'0VO voters III 'ne Guy.
III Ihe Ies'"'ia' congresses W u ll'e
S"ih'' one representative I"F -''OON
i"nI"'iaII' Oh 'he country, ana one rep
t'N'H'a'I'e 'oI "'""O VOTERS Oh me 'l'9'
Aim at DISTINGUISHING Peasants.
The governments Of the nation. of
the regions, of the provinces. are based
on the disfranchisempnt Of the poor
peasants" / am wondering if there
is any Significance in the fact that the
people If the city have one represent.
alive for certain number of votes
and the people of the country have.
one representative for lust five times
the number. You will note the ratio
is ALWAYS the same. For cougreSsmeyl
it is $4,000 i'm the city, as agaius.
125.UOU in the country: in the regional
congress II Is 5000 voters Of the city
as against $4,000 inhabitants of tho
country. In the provincial congresses IL
is one representative for 1000 voters
in the city, one representative for
10000 Inhabitants from the rural dir.
trlcts. why this five to one? | am
wondering how I.enine hit upon the
ratio Of five to one; is there any con-
necti0n between this hve-tO-One dis
crimluation against the poor peas
ants and the ratio OF population In
Russia between city dwellers and
poor peasants which is about t1yH
to onef 1t Is not difficult to guess tn"
reason for this action. Any American
ward politician could furnish the ex'
PLANTATION In "a miaute. All political
experience proves that political mn'
chine is best controlled, easiest or
ghnized in the cities. Political ma'
chimes have never been popular in the
country districts. The soviet form az
government is political machine. The
control of the machine is insured by
DISTINGUISHING the poor peasants"
The men who designed the bolsheylk
constitution knew one thing about
praclIcai polllIcS' anu hhe" tlaI VA"