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BOLSHEVIK POLITICAL ECONOMY 63
problems as industrial production from a purely theoretical
point of view has been given by the Bolsheviks in Russia.
The great shortage in the production of commodities and
in available labour, a direct result of the conditions of war,
has produced a rise in prices and in wages which is
economically unsound. In Russia the same reasons, conjointly with
the effects of the socialistic nature of the Revolution, have
augmented prices and wages by approximately 500 per
cent. The economic position is desperate. Works had to
be shut down, being unable to keep going at a loss. Those
which manage to exist under such adverse and abnormal
conditions simply drag on without making any profits, or
are able to do so solely on account of special orders given
by the Government, which are executed at exaggerated
prices. From such a situation the question arises, Is manual
labour from the economic point of view in a position to
assume a dictatorial attitude ?
Manual labour cannot possibly do without a guidance
of brain work ; the latter being even in a higher degree
than manual labour necessary for the production of the
requirements of life and its whole organisation. The
workmen and peasants in Russia are out for a fight, they will
have it. It is a fight between the directing brain-power
and the physical exertion necessary for its materialisation.
But can there be any doubt which side will win in the
contest between brain and muscle ? The history of the
evolution of the human race tells an eloquent tale of the
manner in which this evolution has come about. It was
not physical strength which marked the development of
man from the animal stage. Many animals, as, for instance,
the gorilla, the mammoth, the tiger, and the lion, were
endowed with infinitely greater muscular force than homo
sapiens, but the latter was able to overrule them all, relying
upon the strength of his superior brain-power, his social
instinct, and the faculty to fight adverse conditions of
nature more effectively than any other living creature.
Those reasons which made men victorious over superior
muscular force in the past still prevail in permitting that
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