The daily worker. [volume], February 23, 1924, Magazine Supplement, Image 8

About The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958

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LENIN SEIZES POWER
FOR Nicolai Lenin the question of the
necessity of the seizure of power
by the proletariat had been settled
from the first moment of our present
revolution and the question was only
about the choice of a suitable oppor
tunity. In the July days of 1917 our
entire central committee was opposed
to the immediate seizure of power.
Lenin was of the same opinion. But
when on July 16, the wave of popu
lar revolt rose high, Lenin became
alert, and here, upstairs, in the re
freshment room of the Taurida Pal
ance, a small conference took place
at which Trotsky, Lenin, and my
self were present. Lenin laughingly
asked us, “Shall we not attempt
now?” and he added: “No, it would
not do to assume power now, as
nothing will come out of it, the sol
diers at the front being largely on
the other side and would come and
massacre the Petrograd workers.” As
a matter of fact, you will remember
in those July days Kerensky did
succeed in bringing over soldiers from
the front against us. What became
ripe two or three months later was
still immature in July, and the cap
ture of power at that time might
have been fatal. At any rate, Lenin
never hesitated for a moment on the
question as to whether the prole
tariat, in our revolution, ought to
seize the reins of power, or.not. All
his hesitations turned round the ques
tion as to whether it could not be
done earlier.
You know how things developed
subsequently. We passed thru a time
when it seemed that everything was
lost. Comrade Lenin for a moment
even doubted whether the Soviets,
corrupted by the compromise-mong
ers, could play a decisive part, and
he gave out the watchword that we
might perhaps have to seize power
without the Soviets. But he never
for a moment doubted that sooner
or later the power would be in our
hands, and that it was necessary to
fcurl the Mensheviks and the Socialist
Revolutionaries to the ground.
At first, during the July days, we
could not realize what was occur
ring, One night, on July 16th, Com
rade Lenin alone came into the edi
torial offices of the “Pravda” to hand
over a manuscript. Half an hour af
terwards, ensigns were already sack
ing those offices. On the morning
of July 16th Lieber took me to the
military staff of the district to ob.
tain redress in the matter of the
sacking of the offices of the “Pray
da.” General Polovtseff, the head of
the Staff, received me with great
respect. -He at that time did not
know what to do with us. But an
hour later the Bolsheviks were being
arrested and massacred.
Then the persecutions started.
Lenin and myself went into hiding.
We had formerly decided to be ar
rested—such was still our faith in
the Mensheviks and the Right So
cialist Revolutionaries. But the
party did not permit us to do so. We,
therefore, decided to go in hiding
ourselves. A week later Comrade
Lenin told me: “How could we have
been so silly as to think for one mo
ment v of trusting to this band and
getting ourselves arrested? There
Turkey-Trot From Texas to New York
By J. 0. BENTALL.
A TEXAS turkey has just earned
a four-story heading in the New
York World—earned it.
An uncouth citizen of our metrop
olis has registered a kick at 45 cents
a pound for an ordinary ten-pound
turkey and stirred up a regular fight.
This champion kicker had listened
to some irresponsible “hayseeds”
from the South who said that their
wives were selling turkeys for 14
cents a pound in Texas. He went to
the World and the World thought the
stuff was good enough for a sensa
tion, but makes the following
apology:
“A Texas ten-pound turkey at 14
cents a pound gave the farmer's wife
$1.40. The huckster who bought the
turkey charged 1 cent the pound for
transportation and 2 cents for profit.
The cost of dressing was 2 cents the
pound, grading and packing 2 cents
the pound. The shipper who pur
chased the turkey charged 5 cents the
pound to meet overhead expenses.
The freight to New York was 3Vi
, cents the pound. The commission
man charges 5 per cent. His charges
bring the cost of the turkey up to
is no other way but to fight this band
ruthlessly.”
In the same way as Comrade Lenin
in July, 1917, wisely declared that
there must be no attempt to seize
power, so after the Korniloff rebel
lion—especially since the end of Sep
tember, 1917, Lenin began urging the
workers to seize power, or else it
would be too late.
When, after that rebellion, the so
called Democratic Conference assem
bled at Petrograd, Lenin at first
came out with an article on “Com
promise.” He invited for the last
time the Mensheviks and Socialist
Revolutionaries to break with the
bourgeoisie, to renounce their policy
of treason, and td come to a settle
ment with the working class with -a
view to action against the followers
of Korniloff. But these two parties
were rotten to the core. They had
already sold their souls and could,
not-accept Lenin’s invitation. There
upon Lenin sent a letter from his
Finnish exile to the central commit
tee of our party saying that the time
had come to drop all procrastination,
that it was necessary to surround the
Alexandra Theatre (where the Demo
cratic Conference was holding its
session), to disperse all the scum
there by force, and to seize power.
Our central committee at that time
did not agree with Comrade Lenin.
Almost everybody thought that it
was too early, and that the Men
sheviks and Socialist revolutionaries
still had a large following. Lenin
then, without hesitating long, left his
asylum, and without consulting any
body, without considering the fears
of his friends, came to Petrograd in
order to preach an immediate rising.
Kerensky and Avxentyeff were at
that time issuing writs for the arrest
of Lenin, while Lenin, from his un
Where Lenin Breathed His Last
The Villa at Gorky, Near Moscow, Where Nikolai Lenin Spent
His Last -Days. Died on Monday, Jan. 21, 1924.
136.05 cents to the retailer. If the
retailer adds 25 per cent he will
■ charge the consumer 45 cents the
pound, which is in line with Tjhe
World Fair Price of 42 cents the
pound.”
The World forgets to multiply and
give the consumer the total as it did
to show the big $1.40 that the farm
er’s wife got. It tells you that the
consumer pays only 45 cents a pound
which looks much nicer than $4.60.
. The difference betweer $1.40 and
$4.50 is flout $3.10, which is the
gap between the producer and the
consumer.
It is a big sum to throw away on
only one turkey that weights ten
pounds. A big working class family
cannot get a good nieal out of a tur
key this size. It should be a four
teen-pound turkey at least.
see how the gap spreads. In that
case the farmer’s wife gets $1.96,
the retailer $6.30. The gap spreads
to $4.34.
Ihis gap is about the same on
every article that the farmer pro
-1 duces and the worker in the city
consumes. Take the matter of
bread. It takes a little over two
derground hiding, was preparing a
rebellion, arguing with those who
hesitated, castigating those who
were afraid, and writing and agitat
ing for an early rising. And he
succeeded.
At present everybody sees that
Lenin was right. It was all a mat
ter of touch and go. If we had not
taken power into our hands, Savin
koff and Paltchinsky would have
crushed us a month later. The ques
tion was raised by history in no am
biguous manner. Either we or they.
Either the dictatorship of the bour
geoisie, mad with fear and hatred
towards the workers, or the dictator
ship of the proletariat mercilessly
sweeping away the bourgeoisie.
Now, of course, it is all clear, but
( at the time, amidst the whirlpool of
events it required the exact eye of
j Lenin, his genius or intuition, in or
• der to declare: “Not a week later,
| now or never.” And it also required
j <he unbending strength of will of a
; Lenin to surmount all the obstacles
• and to start, at the appointed time
j the greatest revolution ever known
jin history. It is not that Comrade
Lenin did not realize the tremendous
difficulties with which the working
class would be confronted after tha
conquest of power. Lenin knew all
this to perfection. From the very
first days of his arrival at Petro
grad he had been carefully watch
ing the progressive economic ruin.
He valued the acquaintance of every
bank clerk, trying to penetrate into
the details of the bank business. He
knew well the food and other diffi
culties. In one of his most remark
able books: “Will the Bolsheviks be
Able to Keep the State Power?”
Comrade Lenin dwelt in detail on
these
latter proved still more formidable
bushels of wheat to make 100 pounds
of flour. To be exact, one bushel of
wheat makes 47 pounds of flour so
that two bushels make 94 pounds.
The bran, shorts, middlings and
other by-products more than pay for
the grinding and packing so that the
47 pounds of flour are net from the
bushel of wheat that weighs 60
pounds.
The farmer gets on an average
less than 90 cents a bushel for his
wheat. From this must be taken the
dockage and grading which reduces
that apparent price very materially.
But we will say that for his two
bushels he gets SI.BO. And these two
bushels make nearly 100 pounds of
flour.
To furnish “capital” to the farmer
is a mere mockery. It is merely a
surer way to get his land away from
him. Even at the lowest possible
rate of interest it is impossible for
the fanner to carry on his operations.
Even if money were loaned to him
free, with no interest, he would go
wider in the long run.
If the Farmer-Labor senators
want to serve the farmers they must
go deeper than to merely send money
—————————— — i —
By GREGORY ZINOVIEV
than even Lenin anticipated.
But no other way was open to the
working class than the one trodden
in November.
Both on the question of the nation
alization of the banks and on that of
our food policy, as well as military
policy, the decisive word was said by
Lenin. He alone drew up in all its
details the scheme of practical meas
ures in all these domains long before
November 7th. Clearness, precision,
concreteness—such are the chief fea
tures in Lenin’s work, and he alone
has generalized all these individual
measures in his work of the “State,”
which, to my mind, is the most im
portant one after Marx’s “Capital.”
The Soviet State has found in Lenin
not only its chief political leader,
practical organizer, ardent propa
gandist, poet and singer, but also its
principal theoretician, its Karl Marx.
The November revolution—insofar as
even in a revolution one may, and
indeed must speak of the part played
by the individual—as well as the part
played in connection with it by our
army—are to the extent of nine
tenths the work of Lenin. If anybody
could bring into line all those who
doubted or hesitated, it was Lenin.
I can say this for myself, that ff
I Bhail repent in my life of anything,
it will not be of the fifteen years I
have Been working under the guid
ance of Comrade Lenin, but of those
few November days when I thought
that Lenin was too much in a hurry,
was forcing events, was committing
a mistake, and that I would have to
oppose him. It is now as tlear as
noonday that if the working class,
under the guidance of Lenin, had not
seized power in time, we should, a
few weeks later, have had the dic
tatorship of the most ruthless, most
unscrupulous bourgeois rascals. It is
known now that it had been decided
to massacre us all by the time of the
meeting of the Constituent Assem
bly, and if the generals had had more
soldiers at their disposal, they would
have done so. Even after November
7th the Right Socialist Revolution
aries intended to massacre us, ana
one of their members, Massloff, even
recruited soldiers for the purpose. He
admitted very recently himself, that
he had succeeded in scraping to
gether only 6,000 champions of a
very doubtful quality. There was
the will, but there was not the way.
Comrade Lenin calculated the fo
ment to perfection. He did not want
to delay even for a week, and knew
how to raise the question to a direct
issue. He wrote article after article,
publicly, over his signature, in a
paper everybody could read, openly
appealing for an armed rising, and
fixing a definite date. And all this,
while Kerensky was still in power
and seemed to many to be still very
strong. Lenin challenged the entire
bourgeoisie and all compromise-mong
ers, telling them that tomorrow he
and his friends would overthrow
them. And everybody knew that on
the lips of Lenin this was not an
empty threat, that it would be fol
lowed by deed. This could only have
been done by Lenin.
to the banks in the farming regions.
The farmers do need money—not
mortgages.
Moreover, that pay must not be
followed by a higher price to the
consumer. That pay must be taken
out of that big figure that constitutes
the profit of the useless middleman.
To add to the burden of the consumer
will not help. He is hard pressed
already.
That one point to tackle fa the
capitalist. Not one of the senator* or
representatives dares to tackle him.
In fact, these liberals and near lib
erals do not understand the situation.
They flounder around with no clear
knowledge of the problem.
It is the task of the Communists
to explain this whole wasteful
method of handling the necessities of
life, and to show that the two main
factors, waste and exploitation, must
go before we can have a social order
worthy of its name.
“We will make out of the Russian
political revolution the prologue of
the European socialist revolution.”
—Lenin, in 1905.
J