New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-08-21
Communist Party, Inefficient
And Bold, Becomes Hierarchy
Criminals and Reactionaries Mingle in Extravagant
Government, Forcing Will Upon People Through
Barbarous Extraordinary Commission

that by the very nature Of things COM
bines colossal inefficiency with mon
strous dishonesty.
The Communist leadership is not
only powerless to put a stop to this
Bacchanalian orgy Of official corrup-
ton, but finds itself compelled to pre-
serve it, for the bureaucracy is one of
the important factors in the system
which the Soviet regime has built up
for the preservation of its political
power
This system consists of series of
protective measures, developed and
perfected at different times, but all di
rected to the same end, viz, the contin-
uance of the Soviet regime. The Com
munist leadership, in its work Of po-
litical administration, apparently pro-
ceeds on the theory that its rule as
minority can be preserved even in the
face of active hostility and opposition
on the part of the masses of the peo-
pie. provided it succeeds in building
up a sufficiently powerful apparatus of
compulsion and coercion. the personnel
of which would come definitely to re
gard its personal. material interests
az bound up with the preservation Of
the whole regime. The Soviet regime
has succeeded in building up such an
apparatus, though most of It's factors
are so degenerate as to be progress
s;,,aiv die arratinr
Groups Bribed To Be Loyal
BY Concessions in Food
The first element Of the protective
apparatus Of the Soviet regime IS the
system of group discrimination in the
distribution of food and other neces-
saries Of life At first this system was
rather haphazard and the population
was divided for purposes Of discrimi-
nation into groups roughly correspond
ing to the former class divisions.
Workmen. for example, would receive
more than profe ssional men, the latter
more than capitalists. etc. AS time
went on, however, almost scientific
system o. group iiscrini nation IN dis
tribrtion was worked out by the So
viets 1t goes under the name Of "pur
pose distributions" Groups are singled
out for favorable discrimination in ac-
cordance with their relative usefulness
to the Soviet regime. SO into the first
or the most favored group went most
of the officia ldom and of the army and
selected group of workmen in vital
industries. Other groups of the popu
lation Jared much worse than the first
group.
Some groups of the population, then,
have been and still are bribed into 10y
atty to the Soviet regime by distribu-
tive discrimination. As a counterpart
to this the regime found it necessary
! to intimidate and crush the active OPP
position of other groups. The system
of the protective apparatus Of the So
Wet regime.
In actual application this system OF
intimidation took the form OF an abro
SGtlOI VI all CIVIC ltSUNo. Lee SUI
of what civic liberty means under Rus
sian Communism has been told too
often and TOO authoritatively to need
repetition here beyond a sheer enr-
meration With the whole press in tne
hands OF the Soviet government and its
agencies; with freedom Of speech in
unknown entity; with elections con-
trolled completely by the Communist
minorities ard nullifed by the authol'-
ties at will whenever Communist
candidates are returned, the ntimida-
ton of the opposition is carried to tho
nth degree of efficiency.
But the opposition continues its
k-underground, when it cannot
work openly. This requires a system
OF repression which goes beyond the