The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1931-06-15
No More 'Carelessness' in Russia
washington Sta

ooAHAiSV oval
Soviet Russia is bent upon making men perfect, even
at the cost of the severest punishment for failure to con-
form to standard. An order has just been issued by the
supreme court to the officials Of all district courts
throughout the union that h%enceforth "carelessness' will
be considered a crime and that all offenders must be
tried under the criminal statutes, with the penalty OF
imprisonment, or exile upon conviction. This means that
any workman in a state factory who breaks or spoils
any bit of work, or any farmer who causes a loss of mate
rial or the dSablement of a machine may be sent to Jail
or to prison camp. Heretofore when offenders have been
tried by the factory courts such offenders have usually
been acquitted on the plea of accident" whereas now
it will not be necessary to prove the intention of workers
who have damaged machinery or have set fires, but only
that they were careless.
The issuance of this edict suggests that there must
have been a good deal Of sabotage in the shops and on
the collective farms on the part Of the workers, and
that the workers have not been whole -heartedly coopera-
ting in the intensive production program of the Soviet
government. Reports to that effect have been received
frequently during recent months. Incompetence in the
shops, 1t Is stated, has, for example, resulted in the
failure of a large number of the tractors that have been
manufactured under the plan. Whether the fault has
been mechanical inability or intentional damage or poor
workmanship, this order now issued, making Careless
ness a crime, would seem to have been designed to cor
rect the fault.
But the question is whether workmen in factories or
on the farms can be made efficient and careful by threat
Of penal reprisal. In fact. this difficulty which the court
order is intended to correct lies close to the whole mat
ter of Soviet control. Can men be made uniformly
efficient by law? Can the traits of a race be changed
by ukase? Is it possible to dictate" uniformity OF
conduct and skill?
Communism such as that which forms the basis of the
Russian organization aims at the reduction Of the in
diyidual to a type, at the destruction of personality and
the substitution of a human machine. In Russia the
tyrannical dictatorship of the proletariat' seeks to
flatten out every trait of character that makes one per-
son distinctive from others. Even the educational pro-
cesses attempt to make all minds work alike. But those
very educational processes are operating to a contrary
end, for as the people are taught to use their minds,
however rigid the molds set at the beginning. they will
develop their natural independence Of thought, and the
time will come, perhaps shortly. when the "moujik," the
Russian peasant and artisan, will seek freedom from
such harsh rule.
The counter revolution sweeping away the Soviet or
g~anization may be postponed by the imposition Of more
and more severe rules Of conduct, with prison or exile
which means virtual slavery-as penalty for disobedience
or failure. But to expect such measures to establish
permanent tyranny is to look for that which is humanity
impossible.