Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1919-1980, 1921-12-07
By J. c. segrue.

by j. U. Segrue.
London, Dec. when | left
Russia the newspapers, thus re-
flecting public interest in the mat
ter, were full of explanations of
and comments on the decree,
signed by Lenin and other COM
missars Of the people in which in
effect the practical abolition of
the rationing system and its sub
stitution by wages in money was
ANNOUNCED.
The decree referred to is a really
that issued three months back au-
thorizing private trading, marked
another stage in the process of
turning undiluted communism into
a system of modified capitalism.
The failure of the world revo-
luton" is offered as the explana-
tion of this reversal of policy ON
the part Of the soviet government,
althoughfother causes, such as the
1,alization that many reforms have
been too rapid and too radical to
be digested by the Russian masses,
might be mentioned.
The decree referred to lisa really
statesmanlike and courageous doc
ument in which some blunt truths
are told the workers OF Russia
truths which, If they came from
capitalist governments would most
certainly provoke storm of pro-
test.
Payment by Results.
In effect the popular (and ig-
norant) conception of communism,
as meaning no work and plenty of
food, and wages supplied by the
government for everyone except
j 6 the hated bourgeois, is replaced
by one which insists on hard work.
The need for the adoption Of the
payments by results system in
the Russian factories, and the re-
jcction of the theory that all
should be paid alike-the un-
skilled laborer with the highly
skilled, technically trained mana
ger-were the most striking fea-
lures of the decree.
Some fears were entertained in
government circles when l was in
Russia that the blunt truths men
toned might not prove palatable
to the Russian workers, and at
tempts were being made as l left
Petrograd to explain, by means of
posters, as gently as possible, the
meaning of the decree to them.
What the Decree Means.
The following summary, trans
scribed from posters affixed in the
city, indicates the main points of
the decree and the way they have
been put before the Russian work
ing classes:
/. No square pegs in round
holes; no more skilled engineers
doing the work of stablemen; no
efficient trade unionists as potato
growers; no girl typists acting as
charwomen.
2 The more you produce, the
more you will earn.
3. All payments previously made
in kind to be made in money.
4. Wages to be paid to the
worker must be such as will en-
able him to meet the expenses of
rent, heat, lighting, water, cloth
lg, barber, bath, theaters and 9th
er amusements, railway travelling,
food for himself and family.
S. output OF work to regulate
payment of wages. Work done in
factory-not the number of
workers employed thereto be
the measure of the wages paid.
6. Less of those wise tables
about wages and greater simplific-
alton of salaries.
7. Russia to have "flexible "
wage system, in determining which
the kind OF exchange will have an
Important influence.
s. Get rid of the idea that in
the matter of wages everybody
should be equal, Payment on the
lther hand should be regulated by
the amount and character Of work
done.
8. Foodstuffs which workers
wish to buy to be supplied at cost
prices at the factories where they
work.
10. The introduction OF cash
ages means the abolition OF the
ionthly ration system.
The Vital Point.
The last mentioned point is, OF
course, the most vital in the de-
cree, indicating as It does the end
II the attempt to ration a popula-