position of the Trades Unions in a Socialist State. There
was general recognition that since the Trade Unions
themselves controlled the conditions of labor and wages, the
whole of their old work of organizing strikes against
capitalists had ceased to have any meaning, since to strike
now would be to strike against their own decisions. At the
same time, certain tendencies to Syndicalism were still in
existence, tendencies which might well lead to conflict
between different unions, so that, for example, the match
makers or the metal worker, might wish to strike a bargain
with the State, as of one country with another, and this
might easily lead to a complete collapse of the socialist system.


The one thing on which the speakers were in complete
agreement was the absolute need of an effort in industry
equal to, if not greater than, the effort made in the army. I
thought it significant that in many of the speeches the
importance of this effort was urged as the only possible

means of retaining the support of the peasants. There
was a tacit recognition that the Conference represented town
workers only. Larin, who had belonged to the old school
which had grown up with its eyes on the industrial countries
of the West and believed that revolution could be brought
about by the town workers alone, that it was exclusively their
affair, and that all else was of minor importance,
unguardedly spoke of the peasant as "our neighbor."
In Javoslavl, country and town are too near to allow the main
problem of the revolution to be thus easily dismissed. It was