davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-01-29
A Million and Half Dictators.

Even when reckons their candidates, "sympah.
isers and youthful converts the Russian Commun.
lists can hardly number 100000 persons. II seems
slender basis for dictatorship over l20 Millions of
whom about so millions are cnfranehsed adults. The
fact of the dictatorship is boldly avowed Thus Zinc.
vicf the head of the Perograd administration writes
in the explanatory report presented to the recent
Congress of the Third International
Every conscious proetafian in Russia knows that
without the iron dictatorship of the Communist par
ty, the Soviet government would not have retained
power for three weeks, LET alone for three years
The dictatorship of the working class cannot be
realized otherwise than by means of the dictatorship
of its advance guard-the Communist party
The survival of the dictatorship is much more re.
markable fact then its crcatpn. Indeed, one of the
ablest leaders told me that n 1917 they hardly hoped
TO maintain themselves for TITO months Their oppon.
cnts were more inert and mdre inept than they had
realized There is no doubt t in central Russia the
majority of the population welcomed the Revolution.
amazed to discover from study of the statistics
of the elections for the Constituent Assembly, taken
on an orthodox dcmocratic bssis that the Bosbevks
had polled clear fftyfive per cent of all the votes
east in northern and central Bssia including Moscow
Pctrograd and the northwestern and west arm
The actual numbers Of the chief trade groups
were; metalworkcrs 1874; carpenters AZ; tailors 5o
textile workers 10; laborers %; peasants 15O clerks
els; teachers 57 postal workers S1 miners 23 fisher
man 10. olartrtci,,a on
The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-01-29
Plritanisn.

The harsher critics of the Communists usually
them of abusing their power to make themselves mate
rally comfortable The charge of luxury is grossly false
Wherever | had chance of observing them at close
quarters Gas for example at Minsk during the Peace
Conterence) the most responsible Bolshevik officials
lived in exactly the way their typists and
clerks They dress with the utmost simplicity and the
flats in the Kremn occupied by the People Commis.
soners (Cabnet) are merely the chambers of former
officers of the guard The only elements of partial
truth in this accusation are think () that everyone
whether Communist or nonCommunist, who travels on
official business do so more comfortably than the
general public, and (2) that all who do important
work, including the army the teaching profession and
the muntion workers, whether they are Communists
or not are rationed the highest scale That is
essential for efficient administration One hears much
OF favorism in the distribution of clothes and food
One such case on big scale in the provinces tat Po-
dos, was recently exposed by the Soviet inspectors
which means that the party whole regarded il as
reprehensbe Scandals of this type are not uncommon
and probably there is corruption and more favor
itsm than is ever exposed Both were always habtual
in Russia. If an opposition press existed the gain
from its criticism both in honesty and efficiency
would be immense. One must however say for the Com
munists, that they punish detected offenders with
terrible severity Indeed, they probably err here by
excess, for if mans colleagues know that by OK.
posing him. they win him to be shot they may
spare him, as they would not if the penalty were
milder AT present the Communists are certainly not
mainly or even largely party of arrivistes, aud THEN
stern discipline may them from this blight for
some time to come The test will arrive If ever
hey ENJOY ease prosperity and peace At present their
tendency is rather to puritanical fanaticism.
The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-01-29

of age The proportion Of sptellectuals' among the
members was, think unusually high in Samara, and
the proportion of rath low Very few peasants
actually join the party Thus il the province of Ryazan
Central Russia) in November 1919, there in the
towns 1860 members, but in the country only $685.
which meant rather less than in two hundred Of
the rural population Another test is furnished by the
statistics of the Sverdoff University at Moscow the
college in which the new ruling class is training its
civil service. Here about thousand young men and
women, drawn from the working class receive rapid
of instruction in political science from the Com
munst standpoint. They studyJfor six months taking
courses in political economy the history of civilization,
Russian history statistics, and the history and doe
trines of Marxst socialism Thereafter, they specialize
in some one departmental ADM illustration (agrcupre,
food education etc and the lectures followed by
practical work in the ministry which specially interests
them. One cannot make experts in six months, and
two years course will be started this winter The
students seemed alert and full Of mental e and
the shorter gives them intellectual stimulus,
and invaluable introduction to home reading and
private study. This collegeis only of the innumer
able schools and courses tfich train young and
for every imaginable phase of public and social
work The students who are to form the civil service
of the Russia nosinated by the local sovets
the trade unions, the local Communist organizations
or the army. They represented less than twenty
five nationaities, including even the halfcivized
Asiatic races but Great Russians predominaed with
IS per cent and Jews came next though they had only
rs per cent. The women We're less than in five of
the total number and two thirds of the students were
between the ages Of eighteen and twenty-five The
audaciy of prolearan rule revealed in the educa
onal statistics. Seven per cent had had schooling
at all, and described as selftaught, while 10
per cent had had elementary education only Exactly
half the students had been industrial workers, the
proetariat CLERKS teachers, etc) came
next with 81 per cent, while peasants accounted only
for Is per cents Over ninetenths of the students
Communists in degree another of initiation,
while 81 classed as .nonparty," word which
doubtless covers some tmid Mensheviks.
The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-01-29
Why discipline and selectness are necessary.

The reasons for keeping the party select are rs
potent as they ever WERE The Revolution is still fight
ing for its life. When an army wavers, Communist
volunteer batalions thrown into the breach. When
a regiment lacks steadiness, percentage Of Commun
lists is introduced into its ranks When factory works
ILL., few Communist workmen INTRODUCED into its
staff When a village is disaffected, one or two Com.
munSts sent to live in It. They are the active
nervous, conscious element in the sluggish Russian
body They the elite Of the Revolution aud every
man aud woman among them is expected to have will
and magnetism enough to infuso of his zeal into
others. If the party to deteriorae, if it beramc
less jealous, less sefacrifcing less audacous the
revolution itself would collapse Another is no
less compelling II is obvious that a party which
monopoizes power must attract those whose sole OBJ
ject is to make That element the older members
who proved their devotion in the years of prosecutions
are sernly resolved to exclude.
How far do they suceeedi l put this question to
many people, both adhersnts and opponents of the
party. The usual Communist answer ran somewhat
thus owe Communists have duties, but no privileges
We are expected at a moments notice to obey the
commands of the party, and to leave our homes for
whatever work is assigned to us, be It organization,
administration, fighting agitation. Wc are all sc
overworkcd, that look a mobilization order 60
join the army the beginning Of holiday. And yet
II is TO the army sent we must face dangers
which Others. escape. The Communist corps are what
Germans call shock troops and Russians 'Battalions
This is true. SO Polish officers frankly told me In
the spring Of 1912.
The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-01-29

form judgment on these figures. Most of those
executed taken at the front Some were miltary
deserters; Others marauders and bandts some
guilty of peculaton and corruption. terrible
crime in a-hungerstrken land others were spies an
active conspiratve agents of the foreign and domestic
enemy in bitter civil war 1t is impossible to guess
how many under the wagner charges Of HSpecuation
or Counterrevolution, were really the victims Of
class hatred and partisan intolerance but the number
whatever it is, is too high.
fdoubt however, whether many have suffered merel,
for hostile political opinions The leaders of the Men
shevik party told that only eleven of their active
members had been executed since the beginning of the
Revolution. The ''Terror' should have ended las
February, when the Extraordinary Commission was
deprived of its power to pass death sentences but with
the Poshoffensive, executions began again. and aver
aged this summer q quote high Communist authority,
three hundred month. Almost worse than the blood
She'd is the Generalization caused by this irresponsible
tyranny Its directors have developed the casustry of
all fanatics. All means for them good which seem
to their narrow minds to serve the end and humanity
and truth consciously dsregarded if the cause Of
Communism may thereby, on short view be served
Communists have trick of laughing at "bourgeois-
morality" and though it may be pausiby argued that
our current ethics have been formed to suit the capital
st SYSTEM this argument in the mouths of half educa+
ed men becomes pretext for dsregardng all moral
ity.
The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-01-29
Persuasion the First Resort Rifles the Last

should give false impression of Communist
'actics, II allowed the reader to suppose that the
party relies solely on force 1t scrupes to use it
1t takes the shortest road to its end One trifno
illustration shows its method Long before the first
Revolution the Academy of Sciences recommended
new orthography. Tsardom did nothing Then Kerenskv
came in, and 'imposed' the new spelling by decree
Nothing happened and no one obeyed The Bolsheviks
succeeded them, and at enforced the new system
by the simple expedien of sending Red Guards round
to all the printing offices to remove the tyne of the
superfluous letters abolished by the Academy. With
herensky and his school the word was the beginning
and the end The Bolseviks are men of action Yet ne
government in the civilized world makes an adroite
use than they OF the methods Of persuasion propaganda
and education Rifles ready in the last resort but
plaeards are avishly used to economize powder and
shot Inc walls OF every town covered with the
KIND OF colored cartoons, humorous drawings and
whimsical rhymes which in England one sees only
during elections Every crisis every difficulty is used
TO read the plain man lesson in economies and 90.
ography. He may 90 short of sugar or cotton or oil
but at least the Soviet government takes care TO ex
pam to him exactly why he goes short A picture man
or Russia shows him precisely how the Civil War cuts
him off from these things. Even-fhe peasants wI,o,
formerly bad nc ceFr+ion all Of Russisi as a state
or as an economic whole, are beginning to grasp ts
unity Other posters deal with the transport crisis and
the man in the street learns to witch the successes Of
the railway repairing shops much as he follows ths
march Of the Red Armies
The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-01-29
How the Opposition is Repressed.

The Communists eontrive to keep an overwhelming
majority in the Soviets mainly by repressng the pro
paganda of their opponents The worst detail of the
Soviet system, it exists in Russia is that all voting
is open and usually by show of hands, so that every
opponent becomes marked man. For the inequality
which favors industrial constituencies as against the
backward rural areas some defence may he made The
franchise is almost universal for the employing
class which originally excluded, is now in the
main absorbed among the saared workers. save in the
richer agricultural DISTRICTS where wealthy peasant
employers survive 1t is broadly true that there is now
no opposition press in Russia, though the Left Social
Revolutionaries have monthly organ and the Jewish
parties, not yet wholly absorbed, have several weekly
papers The Menshevk leaders told ME of their Difficult
ties They can get no paper, which is government
they can rarely hire hall for public meetings. though
they can and do speak at the meetings called by the
various bodies of electors e. g. Soviet employees)
they succeed as rule only in factories where propa-
ganda can be done by ord of mouth Even So on one
pretex or another their candidates are sometimes dis
qualified, and their elected members are occasionally
expelled (e in casefor refusing to Join in the
election of Lenin and Trotzky honorary presidents
OF the Sovet. They none the less tolerated and
legal opposition. Other parties, notably the Right So
which openly support the "Whites" in the Civil War;
are, of course not tolerated at all as open organza
tions.
The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-01-29
Boy and Girl Communists.

The Communist party now recruits itself largely
from the youths who are growing up to manhood and
womanhood under the Revolution. The ''Young Com
munst organizations conducted entirely by the youths
themselves is with its 100000 members, nearly as
numerous as the party itself. deputatiOn of four
alert and unembarrassed youths of the Vladimir group
called me evening" partly to describe their own
work and partly to ask me questions about the British
Labor movement. They have 5000 members in Vlad
mir province Gone third qf them girls)., while the
grown up party has only $3.50 They arrange courses
at which lecturer deals, for example, with Karl
Marx, and the group therGftk the subject
in his aisence. Thsy are = promoting Sports
and gymnastics, and l sa& later very good display.
asked them how far they ywere reaching the children
of parents hostile to Socal m They answered that in
several eases they had enlisted the children of priests
and of "Kuaks' (the word means fists ant is
nickname for the close fisted village traders
and rich peasants) and they mentioned lads by name
whose fathers had tried in vain to thrash the Commun
ism out of them With the children of ''rch but not
intelligent" families Gas they quantity put it) they
usually failed They left their weekly newspaper with
me- and in it found these ypcal reports of the actv
tiles of the Communist You'll" elsewhere in Russia:
In another village, boot repairing workshop has
opened factory for soap, and is distributing it free
with appeals for cleanlnessy
Ino another village, boot repairing workshop has
been opened to repair free Of charge the boots of the
families of absent soldiers
Another: the group has organized itself to fight cpl
denies.
Another: the group has registered all terates from
l6 to 80 years of age and opened class for them with
80 pupils.
Kazon: 50 libraries opened; 1,5oo Moslem members
enrolled including $50 girls.
Another: collected old iron and made ploughs for the
peasants.
Suzda (near yladimir): the Secretary was censured
for wasting his time at evening dances.
TurkeStan: organized collection for the starving
children of Petrograd and Moscow.
These youths, very dogmatic and very sure of
themselves, but they will make good citizens who will
help to organize Russia out of the soth and passivity
of centuries.
The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-01-29
The Ruthless Humanitarians.

With these virile qualities one must add that the
Communist party disdans the mercies and the graccs
of life Its journalistic and controversial style is rough
and crude Its intellectual basis is curously dogmatic
and even Lenn is apt to settle the largest theorec
questions by simple reference, in the manner of
pedantic theooean to the authority of Marx or Enges
The general level of ability in the party did not strike
me as unusually high, and gap seemed to separate
the bigger men, Lenin Trotzky, Ito my thinking by
far the more brilliant intelligence of these two though
not the stronger wil, Tchieherin Krassin and Radek
from their immediate leuenants Perhaps the oddest
trait in the psychology Of the party is its combination
of ruhessneSs with humanitaranism It has no scrupe
about sacrificing life have heard the leaders talk of
the masses of the Red Army as the abundant raw
material of victory, very much as Tsarist statesmen
used to talk. Few of them feel any conjunction for
the unnecessary sufferngs of the dispossessed aud
their ruthlessness towards workmen who strike or
neglect their duty is even remarkable. All this
is combined with humane work for children, for
mothers and the sick which puts richer communists to
shame Fanaticsm is not the whole explanation The
trait is Russian well Communist. One can under
stand Russians only by repeating daily to oneself the
simple historical fact that they escaped the Renassan
&c, the Reformation and the French Enlightenment
Of indivdualism With us these movements percoatel
downwords through church, chapel and the platform
even to the uncducated, n Russia they touched onl,
the intellectuals and that only in the last century
For good and for evil Russians count In millions and
not in units. Their attitude towards the value or rights
Of the individual can never be that of the west
Party Of Youth.
ul,
me greatly, and found some Illuminating statistics
II is the party of youth Here, for example is classi
fication of the Communist party of samara town in
July 1919, according to age
Age 16-1S years. 67 members
I" 1870 F." 1859 Z"
Sl-iO " COZ 4"
Over 40 eos /"
The men numbered l,912, and The women only ol7
Their occupations were foows-
Manual workers, 1,203
Clerks and official employees, ISo
Peasants 1j6.
Doctors, teachers, cts, 1ji
The main body Of the party in this case consists of
male manual workers between twenty aud thirty years
The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-01-29

les They outvOted in the richer outlying parts
of Russia the Ukraine, the South the Caucasus and
Siberia where the Social Revolutionares predominant
ed These regions they have slowly conquered thanks
mainly to the folly and brutality of the "white'
generals. If asks how the dictatorship has been
maintained the is partly by unremitting pro
paganda, partly by terror but chiefly by the adroit
seizure of the decisive tactical 'positons the So
yiiets, the trade unions, and the army.
The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-01-29

The Decay of Superstition
The chief difficulty in the villages Is the relipiOu
question There is full religious liberation In Russs
out tho Communist party Is ficrccy antclerical and
Continued on page ~.
The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-01-29
A Party of Youth.

The composition of this audacious party interested
me greatly, and found Illuminating statistics
II is the party of youth Here for example is classi
fcation of the Communist party of samara town in
July 19l9 according to age
The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-01-29

Of Death There is no quarter for them in the civil
war, and even the Poles shoot every Communist
prisoners The Commissioners in the army are always
shot, if captured, and sometimes tortured first The
'White Guards" have been known to slaughter every
Communist whom they could identity among the civilian
population when they took town. If the Revolution
should be overthrown most of us will be massaered.
We submit voluntarily to higher standard of conduct
than is imposed upon Others. If Communist officer
drinks if Communist official steals takes bribes
he is reentlessly shot, whereas non-Communist is
only imprisoned, Nothing less than strong conviction
would induce man to join party
The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-01-29
Opportunities of Power and Command.

This answer is true so far it goes On the other
hand it is obvious that nine Communists in ten enjoy
opportunities of power and command which would
never come to them under any other regime That is
true of all the workmen, and of the Jews at least
among the inteectuas Iis always hard to distinguish
where ambition begins and a pure zeal for service
ends Most of these men have broken out of cramped
lives which would have brought them little or
opportunity, and enjoy the widest scope To some
the attraction of the life may be the Importance
which they have suddenly attaned to others it is
doubtedly the Joy in a creative work Any Revolution
in Russia which upset the old Tsarist bureaucracy
would have brought class to power, The
''Cadets" CIiberas) are mainly capitalists shop
keepers and professional men. The 'Mensheviks and
the ''Social Revoutonares" " are largely intelecuals
who have following in the former of artisans,
and in the latter of farmers and wealthy peasants The
Communists differ from the other socialist parties in
having much smaller general staff of inteectuals,
and much bigger mass of industrial workers.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-03-31
MUCH TO ANSWER FOR

From the Argonaut.
 Armin w. Riley. the efficient head of the flying squadron" that hunts down profiteers for the department of justice. told a profiteer story at a Washington reception. "A sick profi- teer," he said. was told by a physician that he had only short time to live. Accordingly he expressed a desire to confess his sins, and a divine was sent for The divine entered the dying profi- teer's chamber and the door was closed An hour, two hours, three passed. Nothing was to be heard by Vthe attendant nurses and physicians outside in the corridor save the steady, monotonous flow of the profiteer's con fession, puhctured at brief intervals by exclamations of horror and indignation on the part of the divine. Lunch was sent into the sickroom, and the confes- sion went on. The afternoon waned. The sun set. The night fell. The di- vines dinner was carried to him. And still the profiteer continued to confess Haggard and unstrung, the divine at last tottered forth at daybreak. Our unfortunate friend he said. is no more. He worked very, very hard; but at the time he passed away he had only carried his confession through the first year of the war;"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-03-31

From the Chicago Tribune TIN the series of meditative essays
 contributed by B. L. T. to his col- S umr under the title, The East Window" the following beautiful and prophetic passage on death is reprinted below:>
 "A summer night descending cool and And dark on daytime's dust and stress
 and heat
 The ways of Death are soothing and
 serene,
 And all the words of Death are grave
 and sweet"
 When I am bidden to the journey through the Narrow Vale, l hope the message will come, not in the summer, but in the spring, the season of birth in death. The idea of Resurrection was mans greatest inspirations divine ln- spiration, if you wish. The idea has never lost its freshness though the phrases we use to describe it are worn to the threads. As we sit in the dark ened room, and the preacher reads the service for the dead, we feel the trite- ness of the phrases and listen with a casual ear; but the idea of Resurrec- tion takes entire possession of our thoughts, to which the preachers words are but droning accompaniment. (
 When we are very young Death seems A dreadful thing, not to be dwelt