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Page:George Lansbury - What I saw in Russia.pdf/115

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TRADE UNIONS AND LABOUR
89


water works near Moscow. At these works there was very great clanger that the whole water supply would stop owing to shortage of fuel. This, not because fuel was not available, but solely through shortage of labour and means of transportation. The workers themselves thought of a way out : they secured the material for a light railway and within a very short time laid the lines and are now able to transport all the peat and wood they need.

Looking back, it seems to me certain that given peace and freedom of trade, our Russian friends will succeed in building up a Socialist industry. There will be rigid discipline, but as I conceive it, no hardship. No one, outside Bedlam, has ever thought that modern industry can be organised and kept going by each workman being free to work in his own sweet way : like a football team we have understood that each person has a place to fill and must fill such place to the very best of his power. But mass production, production for use, the elimination of all waste, the clearing away of all competition and the substitution of emulation and co-operation must in a country like Russia result in abundance for all. Russia can only show us the way though, if she is allowed freedom to work out her own salvation, and the one service British Labour is able to render her is to see