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BOLSHEVIK POLITICAL ECONOMY 67
it were, foredoomed to degeneracy and premature death.
The rich are held responsible, their apparent idleness
standing in vivid contrast with the overworked poor. This view,
however, does not touch the root of the matter. The fact that
moneyed people exist does not necessarily imply that others
are thereby impoverished ; moreover, it is untrue to assume
that idleness and wealth are synonymous. Many rich people
work harder than the poor, and laziness is as much a vice in
the one class as in the other. The root of the evil does not
lie in the difference between the substance of rich and poor,
but rather in a faulty economic social organisation. It is a
fact that with proper organisation of State and Society it
would be possible to assure a healthy and decent mode of
life to all who are willing and able to do useful work.
In the sense of bringing the democratic principle more
strongly to bear upon State and Society, the war is bound
to involve great changes. The masses fully realise that the
war could not have been fought without their help, that
they have suffered immeasurably, and that millions of them
have lost their lives. It was not for them to decide as to
the making of the war, they had no alternative but to
follow the lead that was given. Thus in the future the
Voice of the People will make itself more distinctly heard
in the affairs of State, and greater influence in political
power will be exercised by them as an outcome of their
patriotic sacrifice in this tremendous struggle. The
remnants of political privileges now accorded to birth, rank,
and owners of property will disappear in favour of the
levelling of chances for all, even as Nature herself is "no
respecter of persons."
But what can be said about the differences entailed by
occupation and education ? Will the proletarians, by sheer
weight of numbers, pretend to rule the educated classes as
has been the case in the Russian Revolution ? Are the
theories of Tolstoy, the Muzhik philosopher and the extreme
Socialist, to hold the field in depreciating intellectual training,
learning, and accomplishments, and in viewing the
simple-minded but ignorant peasant as the best and most useful
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