Facts About Communist Hungary

by Alice Riggs Hunt

FACTS ABOUT
COMMUNIST HUNGARY

MAY, 1919.

 

BY

ALICE RIGGS HUNT.

 

PRICE FOURPENCE.

 

WORKERS' SOCIALIST FEDERATION,
400 OLD FORD ROAD, LONDON, E. 3.

FACTS ABOUT
COMMUNIST HUNGARY.

BY ALICE RIGGS HUNT.

Budapest, Hungary.May, 1919.

To one who has been in Budapest before the Communist rule the city appears to have undergone little change on the surface. To be sure the stores are all closed pending their organisation into socialised units, there is no alcohol for sale anywhere, and the "chic" population formerly attracted to the city by its famous racecourse is conspicuous by its absence, because the racecourse has been turned into an experimental food station worked by "intellectuals." At the cafés on the river bank you can now obtain only pink lemonade, but every table is taken, and the Hungarian population takes as many hours to sip their one glass as they did formerly over their wine. At the Soviet House I had better food, and ate my first egg since leaving Switzerland, although the seven or eight course dinners I remembered in 1910 are now reduced to soup, sauerkrout, or one other vegetable, and two pieces of pastry which one is devoutly thankful to get. One gets the impression that he has landed in a New England town on a Sunday and that the people strolling as usual along the bank of the Danube are good Puritans, far from the madding crowd, and still further from any suggestion of Red Guards or Red Terrors. Some of the posters on the walls read: "Proletarians! Do not drink but work!" "Proletarian Comrades! The Entente Peace is our ally for no such unjust peace can last!" "Comrade workers! will you have a proletarian dictatorship, or an Entente throttle?" "Elftach" (comrade) is the greeting you get from the tall Red Guards at the Hungarian side of the little bridge at Bruck, and the same word is addressed to you, with an attentive questioning inflection, by the porter at the hotel, (who refuses your tip, saying he earns a good salary), by the street-car conductor, or by the Red Guard at the entrance of Bela Kun's office. If you are not a particularly observant person, you do not notice the red flag floating from the Imperial Palace, or the red bunting decorating the pillars of the Grand Hotel Hungaria, now the Soviet House, where all the People's Commissaries and their families live.

 

DEMOCRACY AT SOVIET HOUSE.

 

Bela Kun says that he believes it absolutely necessary to have a show of force to support the Government until Communism is thoroughly established, but there are fewer soldiers in the streets than in Vienna, and entrance to the Soviet House is far simpler than showing credentials at the Hotel de Crillon in Paris, whore the American Commission to negotiate Peace resides, or at the Astoria, where I went to one of Lord Robert Cecil's interviews, to say nothing of approaching within a block of Wilson's residence. All members of the Red Guard are proletarians, as only Trade Union members can be admitted to the Army. There is such a rush of men volunteering for the army on the three fronts, where Hungary is now fighting invasion, that every day the recruiting station opposite the Houses of Parliament has two long queues of working men waiting for the chance to enlist. Most of the People's Commissaries are young "intellectuals," tried in the dangerous labour of Communist and Socialist teaching under a reactionary Imperialist Government. To one used to the formulas and evasions of Peace Conference "interviews," the hours spent with these Commissaries, discussing frankly work already accomplished in two months and hopes and problems of the immediate future, are a distinct surprise. Observation of these same Commissaries, from the vantage point of residence in the Soviet House, reveals them to be working all the hours of the day and night, utterly devoid of any ostentatious show of power, and although not one pretends that the Government is democratic (it is a dictatorship which they believe to be necessary during the transition period) the dining room of the Soviet House is filled with proletarians (chauffeurs, labourers, etc.) discussing questions of government with the Commissaries and eating the same food, which is no more than every other workman in Hungary is allowed to have.

 

SOCIALISED THEATERS.

 

The theatres and operas are running as usual, except that the performances begin at five o'clock in the afternoon and end at 8.30, to allow the workers to go directly from their employment to their amusement, find to get them home early at night. Ninety per cent, of the seats at the socialised theatres and at the opera can be obtained only by members of Trade Unions, while the other ten per cent, are for sale at higher rates for the burgeoisie. The actors are paid by the Government, which considers them among the most useful workers.

 

INTERVIEW WITH BELA KUN.

 

Bela Kun received me very promptly one hour after I had requested an interview on the morning of my arrival. His direct and explicit answers were a surprise to a press correspondent used to indirect formulas at the Peace Conference interviews. No time was wasted in needless formalities or evasion. "The object of the revolution was primarily to abolish classes" he said. "Our greatest problem is of course the international situation, but the blockade does not affect our food supply because we have enough, and our factories for manufacturing farm implements are running to a capacity of 200 per cent, greater than under the old capitalist system. We have more freight cars than we need for transporting food, but must depend on a meagre supply of wood for fuel. The principles of the revolution are the same as those of the Russian Revolution, but we think we have profited by the experience, as we are making use of the intellectuals in our government organization. Yes, I am in favour of a show of force and of terror, if necessary, until things are settled. The present basis of our Soviet system is purely political with economic organization separate. Only workers can vote, but unemployed who wish to work and find no employment can vote, and housewives are recognized as workers. In order to control wealth, all shares or other unearned increment are confiscated, but the value of the shares, minus the interest dividend, is credited to the account of the owner, although that owner can draw only two thousand crowns a month from it. This amount is the wage of the highest paid physical worker.

"The revolution was not brought about by lack of food, but by an active propaganda carried on for two months which convinced tho people. The great mass of the people of Hungary have never had enough food, clothing, or sufficient housing, and cannot expect the revolution to give them these things over-night, at a time when every country in Europe is unable to obtain raw materials. Women have helped greatly in the establishment of the Dictatorship, especially Adel Spady and Maria Gosthonyi, both of whom are of noble birth. Rosika Schwimmer is a counter-revolutionist." I asked if she was in prison? He laughed and said "certainly not." I asked: is Karolyi in prison? Ho said "no you can go and see him if you like."

"I cannot tell the exact organization or policy of the government until the Soviet convention on June 14th, when questions of the constitution and of Foreign policy will be decided."'

 

REVOLUTIONARY TRIBUNALS.

 

Bela Vago, the President of the Revolutionary Tribunal, states that crime has noticeably decreased since alcoholism was abolished, and that the organisation of local tribunals is very nearly completed. No lawyers are allowed in these courts, the forty-eight judges (who are elected by local Soviets) sitting in rotation, with four on the bench serving at the same time. The judges are paid the wage of specialists, which is equivalent to that received by the highest paid manual labourer, and so far there are neither women judges nor a women's court. Since the Communist revolution there have been only two cases of capital punishment, both of which were for counter-revolutionary activity. At the time of the establishment of this court there were five hundred libel suits pending. The Revolutionary Tribunal asked that unnecessary cases be withdrawn; and gave warning that plaintiffs found to have unsubstantial cases would be fined for obstructing the business of the court. In less than two days four hundred and sixty of the libel suits were withdrawn.

Shortly after their establishment the Revolutionary Tribunals took hostages from the bourgeoisie, as safeguards against counter-revolutionary activities; but although the opposition continued, the hostages were released. The public can obtain entrance to the court room, by permit from the President, and the case being tried the day I was present was that of an ex-officer accused of harsh treatment of working-men in the performance of his duties. The case took several hours, with witnesses for and against the accused; but the verdict was that while the accused might have been guilty, it would not be just to convict him for what he did in the performance of his duties as an officer in the old Austro-Hungarian Army, because he was then the victim of the old régime and psychology, and therefore could not be held responsible for indignities perpetrated against working-men.

HOUSING AND
SOCIALISED FACTORIES.

 

Budapest, Hungary, May 27th.—"Ten thousand couples have married in Budapest within the hist two weeks and come to mo for furniture and rooms," said the People's Commissary for Housing, Somlo, in answer to my first question as to the greatest problem for his department. "The business of my department was originally intended only as a clearing house to bring empty rooms and roomless proletarians together, but now that the working man and woman get a living wage with a surplus, they seem to get married very fast. As soon as the knot is tied, they come to this office, not only for rooms, but they must have kitchen utensils and other practical appliances to make the new home habitable. Therefore, I have to open a clearing house for household furniture, socialising the unused furniture of the bourgeois, and making sure that the proletarian brides and bridegrooms get what they need and need what they get." "Does this look as though Communism would abolish the home and encourage free love?" he asked.

 

APPORTIONMENT OF ROOMS.

 

"Of the two hundred thousand proletarians in Budapest about one half were living in misery before the revolution," said Commissary Somlo. "The Housing department originally intended to apportion one room to each person, but four rooms are about the maximum we can allow to each family, as eight hundred thousand persons came to Budapest during the war, principally for the purpose of trading in contraband food. These were mostly Galician Jews. The socialising of houses and rooms was therefore further complicated, but the intention of course is to build new houses for the proletarians as soon as materials are available. This office has already awarded twenty-one thousand rooms, and has tried to accommodate all specialists, such as physicians, artists, writers and dentists, all of whom we consider useful public servants, with an extra room for their work, when the workmen's council allows this award.

"All licensed houses of ill-repute were abolished by decree, but this department went further and removed the women to two hotels outside the City, and both men and women were replaced by proletarian families. We knew exactly where these houses were, as each householder had to fill out declaration blanks and our inspectors afterwards verified the records.

"In twenty-eight villages around Budapest, we have socialised the houses, and intend as soon as possible to include all the largest towns in the provinces. So far the peasants have not been disturbed. We have already planned to build ten thousand houses of available stone, but want of coal handicaps us. We have an engineering and building department for repairs, as most of the houses have deteriorated during the war, and must be kept up for the benefit of the whole community. As to the ownership of small houses: the owners of small, one family houses, who have bought their houses with their own wages, are generally allowed to keep and own their houses, but individual cases are decided upon by the local council of workmen."

 

DAY NURSERIES NEAR FACTORIES.

 

At one of the socialised factories which I visited in Budapest, I got another side-light on the lack of fear in taking up the responsibilities of married life which the Hungarian proletarians were showing. At this factory, the controlling council of workmen (women were represented on it) decreed that the extra rooms in the neighbourhood occupied by the prosperous bourgeoisie (who formerly received the profits from the factory) should be turned into day nurseries for the children of the factory workers. The family could therefore come to the factory itself in the morning, deposit the children in pleasantly situated houses near by, at noon the mothers and fathers could spend their two hours of rest with the children, and at night the family could again be united in their journey home. "The factory is no place for children." remarked the Chairman of the Controlling Council.

 

FACTORY SOVIETS RAISE WAGES.

 

At this socialised factory, work begins at seven a.m. and stops at 3 p.m., and there are fifteen hundred women among the twenty-five hundred workers. Before the war, it was the largest incandescent lamp factory in Europe, hut now, owing to tho lack of materials, it produces only fifteen thousand lamps a day, and the employees, in order to ensure work for all, are employed only four hours a day though a full day's wage is paid them all. The Controlling Council, of seven members elected by the workers, raised the wages from one hundred per cent, at first to two hundred per cent.

I talked personally to many of these men and women workers. The average wage for women in this factory before the war was twenty crowns a week, and under Communism it is from one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and fifty crowns a week. Older women are paid more than younger, women, not only for their experience, but as a social policy, which desires to minimise the attractiveness of factory life for young girls. In fact, the young girls of fifteen or sixteen years at present employed, because they are unskilled workers and can obtain no other employment, will be subject to compulsory education up to eighteen years, as soon as the schools are organized for their admittance. Some of the older women get three or four hundred crowns a week.

"Skilled men workers before the war got sixty crowns a week, their wages now averaging about four hundred and eight crowns a week," explained the President of the Controlling Council. "The Controlling Council has decreed that an apprenticeship of ten years for women and of six years for men is essential before either can be classed as skilled workers. They account for this apparent discrimination against women, by pointing out that women have only recently, during the war, entered the factories."

 

DEMOCRACY IN FACTORIES.

 

"What has that to do with their present ability, or the kind and quantity of work they can do"? I asked.

"It has nothing to do with it" he answered honestly. "The simple fact is that women have never been allowed to take part in public affairs, and therefore the mental attitude towards them is unconsciously unjust. When, however, the decision is made by the workers' own representatives, elected and recallable by them, this mistake is more apt to be rectified than under the old system when the factory owner made the rules."

"The Control Council meets twice a week at least, and two of the members devote all their time to its business, receiving the pay of the highest paid skilled workers in lieu of their wage for factory work. This council reports once a week to a government representative on its activities, and once a month to the trade councils."

Antol Pollak, the co-inventor with Vireg of the Pollak-Vireg system of rapid telegraphy, is a workman in this factory. His system increased the efficiency of the old Morse system from forty thousand words an hour to six hundred words a second over the same wire at the same time. Since the second revolution he has been installed in a private office of his own, where I found him closely absorbed, bending over some electrical appliances. His face on one side is badly mutilated by an accident during some of his experiments. "From America!" he said in very good English. "Well now I have a little grudge against America, because a long time ago, I went over there to try to sell a contrivance of mine. They told me it was no good, but after my return to Hungary, it was patented by the firm with which I had consulted and has been used ever since. That is the way they used to treat inventors here also, and workmen were forced to pledge their inventions to the firm, as they do still in America. Now, however, the inventor knows that not only one, but all factories will have the benefit of his discoveries."

THE ORGANISATION
OF INDUSTRY.

 

Budapest, Hungary, May 28th.—Bela Kun's policy of selecting "intellectuals" for some of the highest offices in the new Communist Government of Hungary has placed Gyula Havesi, the former secretary of the Hungarian Civil Engineers Society, in charge of the department of Social Production. These "intellectuals" are bourgeois men and women, experts in their particular line, who had supported the cause of Communism before the revolution, or after the revolution had signified their willingness to help in establishing Communism on a firm basis. The question of Communist policy towards such "intellectuals" was put to a vote of the Party after thorough discussion at Party conferences. Some members were of the opinion that no "intellectuals" could be trusted, but the great majority decided that as the "intellectuals" had never had an opportunity to practice the Communist system they should be encouraged to work for it and could be "trusted." The head of the Co-operative Society was selected as Food Commissary; a young engineer was put in charge of the socialisation of factories; and a young philosopher was made Commissary for schools.

Another policy, not followed in the second Russian Revolution, but pursued by all the People's Commissaries in Hungary, is that of retaining every useful man or woman in his or her former occupation, provided each consents to fit into the new scheme of things. Bela Kun told me himself that he thought the realization of the value of the "intellectual" by the Hungarian Revolution, was perhaps the greatest step in advance made, in comparison to the Russian attitude towards them a year ago. Charles Renyi, a writer on economics and ethics for many years, and now attached to the Foreign Office as one of Bela Kun's advisers, was assigned to me as my interpreter for all the time I was in Hungary. His clear analysis of the structure of organization built up for the important task of controlling social production, will clarify many hazy ideas concerning this economic change.

 

THE FIRST STEP.

 

"The first step was to transfer the factories from Capitalist to Communist control." said Renyi. "This was done almost without a hitch as production did not stop for more than half a day. The Production Commissary was first appointed to represent the entire community, while at the same time the workers of each factory elect a controlling council of workmen, to represent the interests of the workmen of that particular factory. The Production Commissary takes the place of the managing director of the factory, while, roughly speaking, the controlling council replaces the shareholders' meeting. The chief function of the controlling council is to see that no financial arrangements are made by the commissary to the detriment of the workers. This controlling council of workmen has the right to inspect every letter going out or coming into the factory."

 

THE SECOND STEP.

 

"The second step is to organize the manufacture of articles of the same kind into one unit. For instance mills or factories producing the same thing, such as flour mills, leather and hide trades, engineering works, etc., are organized into one centralised group, under the department of Social Production. Each group unites a certain number of factories producing the same article, and as there is no necessity for competition between the individual factories, they can be managed so as to produce the greatest amount with the least expenditure. For instance, there used to be a number of small flour mills throughout the provinces, and a few big ones in Budapest. Those in Budapest were only run twice a week, whilst the smaller ones in the country worked every day, and sent their products to the city, thus wasting coal, and leaving idle the city mills which have the greatest capacity. The Production Commissary stopped the operation of the smaller mills and concentrated the whole business into three mills in Budapest, where the need for flour was greatest. These three mills run day and night, the coal consumption being halved. In addition the maize, barley and grain of different kinds are regularly directed to one of the three mills, and the necessity of changing machinery, for grinding is obviated. Generally speaking they are shutting down inefficient plants, and the labour thus dislocated gets unemployed relief until jobs can be found. As we are short of agricultural workers, and need soldiers for the red army this unemployment lasts only a short time and consequently is not expensive to tho community."

"The intellectual work of tho factories, such as designing machinery, making chemical tests of materials and laboratory work, is now centralised, so that the best experts may be obtained at tho higest wages, and all results may be available to all branches of the work. Patents are abolished, but there are government departments where inventions are investigated."

 

THE THIRD STEP.

 

"The third stop in the work of socialising production is the organization of councils of representatives from the controlling councils from each factory. This links up the workman in the factory to his entire industry. The individual workman elects his factory controlling council, which in turn elects representatives to the Trade Control Council. The Trade Control Council in its turn elects representatives to the Production Trade Council, which is representative of all trades and industries, and works under the elected Commissary of Social Production who is the Government's representative."

 

CONTROL OF BOURGEOIS WEALTH.

 

"Closely connected with the control of production," continued Renyi, "is the control of the sale of the products. This is accomplished, first by limiting the possibility of wealthy people buying, and secondly by limiting the amount of money wealthy people may draw from their accounts in the socialised banks. The first step is accomplished by socialising all shops employing more than ten persons, and organizing them into central distributing centres in each district as Government Stores. No one can buy anything from these stores without a signed permit from the Council of Social Production in his or her district, stating that the article is needed. This is done to prevent people with money from buying up all the small supply there is. The second method is to limit the men with money to the income of the highest paid physical worker. If at the time of the revolution a man or woman had an account in a bank, that amount up to a hundred thousand crowns is credited to him or to her, but the power to draw upon the account is limited to ten per cent, of the amount, and not more than two thousand crowns a month. If a person's wealth before the revolution happened to be in merchandise, such as a grocers' stock book would show, the value of the property is credited to that person at the socialised bank, up to the amount of one hundred thousand crowns. The bourgeoisie is therefore not deprived of the means of existence, as one hundred thousand crowns is considered ail that an industrious workman can save from his earnings during his lifetime, and two thousand crowns a month is the highest wage paid."

 

GRADUAL SOCIALISING USELESS.

 

Gyula Havesi, the young Commissary for Social Production, only twenty-nine years old, said that the intellectuals as a class were not among the few who were antagonistic to the establishment of the communist state. He believes that the idea advocated in Austria that socialisation should take place by degrees is wrong, because the taking over of industry in Hungary was practically bloodless and the Austrian method cannot be called, in his opinion, even a half measure of socialisation so long as private capital is considered. He also believes that just as men and women can be persuaded to go to the battlefield for an idea, so they can also be taught to work for the community when once the schools teach them their moral obligations towards the state.

"Our present object is to make the management of production truly democratic by allowing the proletarian organizations a proper share in the management of industry," said Havesi, "with this object the People's Commissariat for social production, food supply and finance has been co-ordinated, so that things of economic importance can be done only through this council, and conflicting orders by different local Soviets can be avoided. Besides the board, composed of the presidents of these three councils, there is a committee of fifty appointed by the trade unions, which decides upon the economic policy of the country, and which co-operates with the Production Councils of the various trades and industries. It is now a matter of organizing the Production Councils in the provinces, as the work of establishing the democratic control by the workers is practically completed in Budapest. Perhaps from the standpoint of efficiency the problem of managing human labour is closely allied to the amount of democratic control which can he established.

 

SABOTAGE NOT EXPEDIENT.

 

"There is now a special organization of factory workers to look after the hygienic conditions of the workers. Until now there were no women inspectors, in spite of the great number of women employed in the factories during the war. It is essential, in my opinion, that those who do the work best should have the greater financial return, at least now during this state of transition, until real socialism is established. We have therefore established categories of workers with minimum wages, but the good worker gets higher wages, and those who commit 'American sabotage,' by working slowly lose in the end. Generally speaking, time rates, instead of piece work has been established.

"Another of our important problems is the distribution of raw materials. We cannot say that we have sufficient raw materials, but we have enough to fill present requirements, and we can hold out for a considerable time with our own production. We have made a thorough inventory and only those factories are supplied which are held to be absolutely in need. It is no longer possible for different factories to receive separate orders, as all orders must be transmitted through the Central Production Council, which assigns the order to the factories best fitted to fill them. The organization of a separate raw material department has become necessary, as it is a most difficult thing to furnish small establishments without the district distribution centre, and this is the only efficent method of rationing and controlling production."

The distribution of finished products is outside of his department, Havesi says, but there are already organized district offices for the distribution to the individual co-operative societies of the finished product. He states that the co-operative movement was fairly well developed in most villages before the revolution, and was generally modelled upon the English system.

 

IMPORTS AND EXPORTS.

 

Matyas Rakosi, the People's Commissary for Commerce and Foreign trade, states that there are at present in Budapest, English, French, Austrian and American commissioners with a view to making import and export agreements with the Communist Republic. He is organizing both the import and export trade such as it is at present, and expects to export wine, cereals, fruit and hides to Austria within a short time, in return for articles which Hungary needs. He has organized councils of workmen in the wholesale trade, and has limited the small shop keeper in his power to buy supplies, and his ability to pay for them through the socialised bank account. In his plan for the control of the distribution of future imports, he has classified all persons into one of six groups.

"My greatest problem is the devising of a plan of distribution, so that the most needful gets the imports first. For this purpose I distribute different coloured cards. Women with babies are in the first class, the sick are second, older children third, the families of red soldiers come fourth, the physical workers come fifth, and the bourgeoisie who must establish their need for the article come last. By the word bourgeois I mean those who do not work. In the same manner I am planning to regulate the distribution of goods in the order of greatest need. Therefore clothes are the first commodity to be distributed, then shoes, then kitchen utensils, etc. My object of course being to supply the neediest with their most pressing needs."

ORGANISING TO SOLVE
FOOD PROBLEMS.

 

Budapest, Hungary, May 29th.—If the Communist Government of Hungary can weather the dirth of food for one more month until the harvest comes, and can continue its advance into regained territory, there is every sign that it will become the permanent government of Hungary. Although 63 per cent. of the population are peasants who, according to the People's Commissaries themselves, are not in favour of Communism, these peasants are inarticulate, and the only real counter-revolutionary activity, comes from the bourgeois in the cities, and from the women of the working class, who now have to stand in line for hours with their food cards, in order to obtain the meagre supply allowed for their families.

 

COUNTER-REVOLUTIONISTS.

 

Of these three groups the most active seems to be the women who are influenced by the priests. The peasants are more or less inarticulate except for their withholding of food. The wealthy bourgeois, according to a prominent ex-statesman with whom I had a three hours' talk, are either thoroughly disorganized, or are waiting for the Government to fall under the weighty problems of food distribution. The ex-statesman, whose name is known throughout the world, as recently one of Hungary's most powerful citizens and politicians, told me that while his house was visited by the Red Guards immediately after the Communist coup in March, no member of his family was harmed, and all property seized by the State was preserved. This gentleman's attitude towards the new Government can be expressed in the one sentence by which he answered my query as to his opinion of Bela Kun. "They are all robbers and nothing but common Jews," he said. This gentleman applied the same terms to Karolyi for his part in handing over the government to the Soviets. This would appear to express the sum total of the bourgeois opposition, as there is no sign of their having any active organization, and as the work of disarming them was very thoroughly carried out by the Red Guard.

The Government met the discontent of the women by holding twelve public mass-meetings especially for them, at which Bela Kun and the other Commissaries explained the situation. The speakers stated that under the old government the proletarians had never had enough to eat, but that in spite of the Entente blockade, Hungary was now better fed than any country in Central Europe.

 

NO FUEL FOR TRANSPORT.

 

The traveller in Hungary is struck with the vast number of freight cars standing idle and the spasmodic train service. Wood is the only fuel to be had, as the Czechs and Roumanians occupy Hungary's coal areas. Nobody knows just when a wood burning engine will be available. The result is that not only all seats and corridors inside the trains are filled to overflowing, but the peasants, women as well as men, climb up to the top of the cars, and there sit clinging to their huge bundles of food, and probably praying that the wooden sparks from the engine will not set them on fire. Hundreds of peasants travel all night and all day in this way.

 

AT BUDAPEST SOVIET.

 

The problem of transporting food was the only subject discussed at the meeting of the Budapest Soviet which I attended. Of the five hundred members elected by districts in the city, twenty are women, and over sixty per cent, are proletarians, and few are over forty years old. The meeting was open to the public, and the most violent protests came from the soldiers. President Bokanyi opened the meeting quite informally by asking if anyone wished to speak. A Communist from Austria brought a greeting, saying if the people must starve, it must be for the revolution, and not for the capitalists.

Stephen Biorman, one of the governing city council said, "Women are protesting against standing so long at distribution centres for food. This food must be distributed justly, but now the bourgeoisie have time and money to go to the country to buy up the food. Unproductive people must go to the country to work!" Yells of approval and a commotion for over five minutes greeted this statement.

Tho Food Commissary reproved the members who shouted that food was not being distributed adequately, by stating that the proletarians were doing as much smuggling of food from the country as the bourgeois, and that they must not expect the Government to accomplish more than any other country in Europe had been able to bring about, namely the immediate control of an adequate food supply. Upon his statement that he had been working in the Socialist movement for twenty-five years, many of tho young soldier members shouted: "That is long enough to make you a bourgeois."

 

FOOD DISTRIBUTING CENTRES.

 

Mor Erderlyi—People's Commissary for Food Supply, told me that his first task was to district the distributing centres for food, and then to get the food from the country. "There is plenty of food in the villages," he said "but owing to the fact that transportation is not yet organized, the supplies are not brought in. The villages want salt, sugar and other things, which could be exchanged for agricultural implements. We do not expect to use force to persuade the villagers to give up their food, but we want to do it by exchange and propaganda. Just now we are gaining many cattle through the advance of our troops in the livestock district. The plains which are not occupied by the enemy have been practically devastated of cattle owing to the shortage of vegetables and the necessity of using up the meat.

"The rationing is very strict. There is no thought of starving the bourgeoisie, but we want to improve the bad system of food distribution which obtained under the Hapsburgs when there were red food cards for the value of four hundred crowns, and green food cards for less, which gave the workers less food. We give the heavy manual workers the highest rations, and have divided the people into three categories. (A) Heavy manual workers, (B) Brain and intellectual workers, (C) All classes not included in the foregoing. They will get supplies for ten days or more. I am now working out a plan to give children in all classes special food rations. I have a Commission to equalise prices, and a Commission to standardise co-operation centres, so that each person will have one place to get food, and thus queues will be abolished. My aim is to make the whole country one co-operative society, as without the co-operatives the revolution would have been much more difficult.

"With regard to the attitude of Austria in prohibiting food to us, we have always fed Austria, and therefore the advantage is with us, but notwithstanding the fact that we cannot be starved out, we must recognise the necessity of going without things, and therefore desire that economic negotiation be taken up, independently of the peace terms.

 

HIGHER WAGES BUY FOOD.

 

"There has been no special searching for hidden foodstuffs, but when houses were searched for arms, the food found was confiscated, although in every case the owner was compensated for its value.

"There is no possibility of lowering prices of food, but wages are so high that the workers can afford to buy it. Although the blockade has been largely raised from Austria, the prices here are cheaper. Our problem is to get the food from the country to the city."

Jeno Hamburger, People's Commissary for Agriculture, had already begun to organize the great Hungarian estates along communistic lines under the Karolyi Government. He is an organizer of long experience, and showed me charts of typical counties in Hungary demonstrating that formerly about thirty persons owned seventy-five per cent, of the land. I also saw charts, illustrating his method of organizing such counties for production and distribtion of food. From the Federal centre of Budapest ho appoints county superintendents, who in turn divide the county and appoint district superintendents. These district chiefs sub-divide their districts into inspection districts each with a chief inspector who controls the individual and local co-operative societies, which actually sell the food to the individual buyer. These local co-operative guilds have already begun to cultivate twelve million acres of unproductive land in the twenty-eight counties still left in Hungary, and Mr. Hamburger states that five and a half million acrces would be sufficient to feed Budapest.

 

BIG ESTATES SOCIALISED.

 

"The big estates covering such a large proportion of the country were so badly administered that they produced very little food." said Commissary Hamburger. "The small estates were well cultivated and have the cattle, and our policy is not to coerce the small farmer until we have the large estates socialised, because we are practically dependent upon these small estates for food. We have therefore organized tho large estates into districts of one or two thousand acres for each local guild to administer. All crown and church lands are already being worked by co-operatives, and we are establishing agricultural academies, which experts are colonising. These experts have at least ten years experience in farming, or five years in study of the subject, and are ranked among the highest paid workers. To ensure the harvest we left the same men on the farms, except where the man is politically opposed to this Government.

"It is a question of organization and prevention of export of food stuffs and not of food shortage. In the ten counties which I have taken over especially for the supply of food, on which I am concentrating, to the civil population there are ninety-five thousand head of cattle, which, with the harvest, is enough to feed the population for three months.

 

VILLAGE FOOD CENTRES.

 

"Every village has its selling organization, where the small producer sells the foodstuffs. This small producer can only obtain implements for his farm if he sells his products, but each farmer is allowed to keep a certain proportion of his produce for his family. The question of money is not therefore important, as food and implements are the essentials. Any man in the country who desires to work three hundred and sixty days a year can become a member of these co-operative societies. The wages are in food, which is debited to his community account, and at the end of the year the community divides the money profits, according to the number of hours worked by each person, and not according to population. Of these profits not all is returned to the workers, because a percentage is retained for schools, new houses for the workers and new machinery. At present the estates above one hundred acres are already socialised, and later we will socialise all estates above twenty acres.

"We have just begun to build small guage railways for transporting wood for fuel and have rebuilt some of our machinery to adapt it for burning wood and peat. The milking and cattle industry was in former times entirely individual, but now the co-operative machinery is in constant use. The owners of small estates, who are against communism are trying to send anti-communist propaganda to the Serbians, but in spite of this the Serbian peasants on the border are giving us one hundred head of cattle a day. If the Entente would allow us to work unmolested we could have accomplished more in these two months, as we are using every available man and woman."

THE COMMUNIST
WOMEN WORKERS.

 

Budapest, Hungary, May 30th.—Bela Kun told me that women helped considerably in establishing tho Communist Government of Hungary, but I observed that they are not yet holding high office in the Government. There are twenty women in the Budapest Soviet, and there are women heads of departments specialising in school and recreation work, but there is no woman Commissary. The work of women in public life in Budapest has been more for feminism than for revolution, and the feminist Leaders are not found among those working with the Communist Government.

 

WOMEN LEADERS SPEAK.

 

Adel Spady, the Secretary of the Social Democratic Party and a member of the Budapest Soviet, now has her office in the House of Parliament, and arranged for me to meet twenty revolutionary leaders there. Maria Gardos, leader of the women tailors, Landone Vinese, president of the organized office employees, Palno Kuno, Secretary of the women iron workers, Therese Braddstein, shoe maker, who is at present editing the revolutionary woman's paper: "The Woman Worker," Kalica Horvash, book binder, and Jenka Gergoly, President of the Women Clerks' Trade Union, proved by their presence that the group was truly representative. The most interesting woman present however was an old woman of sixty years, Maria Chober, an "earth worker," and member of the Budapest Soviet, who, all her life has been speaking, organizing and working with the peasant women in the country, who hire themselves out as day labourers to dig ditches and other hard earth work. She is a speaker of great power, and for twenty-five years has travelled throughout the provinces of Hungary preaching Communism to these women diggers and has many times suffered imprisonment. Practically all of the women present had been in prison more than once under the old government, and several had just recently escaped from the invading Roumanian Armies.

"The digging labourers were paid very badly under the old régime," said Maria Chober, "The men were paid three crowns a day and women one and a half crowns a day. The revolutionary spirit was strong under these circumstances, especially as institutions where women could get aid for their children were lacking. Many children were born on straw in stables, and in spite of the discoveries of the Hungarian physician, Semmel Weiss, thousands died without help. The hours of labour for these earth workers were so long that it was extremely difficult to teach the women, but we organized along socialist party lines. We had an enormous number of meetings wherever there was a new piece of work undertaken in small towns and villages, and our literature was distributed very thoroughly. Under capitalism women had worse jobs than men, as they were forbidden to organize, and they were terribly exploited. The proportion of payment for men and women was, for unskilled labour, twenty crowns a week for men, and six, eight, ten and twelve for women doing the same work. Skilled workmen got thirty to fifty crowns a week, while skilled women got twenty to twenty-four."

 

EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK.

 

"Under Communism," said Adel Spady, "Women are paid exactly the same wage as men, and the hard physical worker is placed in the highest paid rank. Scrub women and washer won? en now get 160 crowns a week and board, and household employees are now in the first class of workers also. How^ever, while the Soviets, in principle, make no difference between men and women, in reality women have to battle still against some people's ideas, and especially we have to combat the ecclesiastical influence which would keep women back We find little opposition to our proposals and bills when they are once brought to the attention of the men.

"In spite of the prohibition in the old days, women organized into trade unions, and even household women were of a revolutionary spirit. We had an underground press and a woman's paper called 'The Woman Worker' with a circulation of several hundred thousand copies, and the domestic employees also organized and had a paper of their own. In Budapest alone this organization of domestic workers had forty thousand members and branches in twenty-live provinces. Between the first and second revolution most of the women worked with the Social Democrats, as the overwhelming majority of women were socialist, but not communist. When however Karolyi formed the new government, with Bela Kun then in prison, the union of Social Democrats and Communists was brought about. There should not be any separate woman's movement, as this is contrary to the teachings of Marx. In the occupied regions hundreds of women are in prison, and how many have been hung by the Czechs we do not know, but we have direct knowledge that the Roumanians and Czechs have committed horrible physical crimes upon women as well as upon men.

 

NO LABOUR ARISTOCRACY.

 

"No, none of our leaders or trade union secretaries were paid, as we always believed that it was the plan of the capitalists to establish a sort of aristocracy of labour, which would combat the real revolution through its desire to retain its paid positions. We have been fortunate in having no so-called 'democratic' period, as we went from feudalism to communism without it."

 

COMMUNISM WILL SURVIVE.

 

Maria Gosthonyi, a very beautiful young leader, became a convinced socialist when quite a child from her observations of the way the peasants worked on her father's estate. "I never worked with the feminists but joined the Socialist Party at the beginning of the war, and volunteered for the front as a Red Cross Nurse," said Miss Gosthonvi. "All the four years of the war I was talking to the soldiers against the killing and for socialism, and held meetings in the hospitals to which the soldiers came in crowds. Three times I was brought up before the military tribunal and asked about my activities, but I refused to answer questions, and was released. I am against militarism and violence, but when the revolution comes it seems best to have a show of power, as there must be a temporary dictatorship, and the dictatorship of the proletariat is much to be preferred to the dictatorship of capitalism. The women did not take a very great part in the revolution and the peasant women are very ignorant and can be easily led. It really makes little difference whether the Entente succeeds in starving the Government of Hungary or not, as the seed of communism is planted and cannot be killed. I am not nationalistic or individualistic enough to care very much whether this particular government lasts or not, as communism is sure to triumph by the mere establishment of it in Russia and Hungary, so that the workers can see that it can be done."

Miss Gosthonyi was twice arrested by the Socialist Government of Austria during the month of May for her activities in the communist movement at Vienna after the establishment of the second revolution in Hungary.

Paula Poganyi, a strong anti-militarist and pacifist worker in Hungary, became a communist at the time of the first revolution last November. Although opposed to the use of force she strongly upholds the Communist Government, but believes that women must teach men the folly of organized murder.

"Revolution is not made by revolutionists, but by economic circumstances," said Miss Poganyi. " The revolutionists only educate the people to be conscious. Capitalism has fulfilled its historic task. This was proved by the world war, and is proved by the results of the Peace Conference in Paris. Its existence is of immense danger to the race, and keeps the greatest part of humanity in slavery, and drives the people to murder each other in new wars. The Leaders of this Hungarian Government do not want to kill for the sake of killing. Their orders punish most severely even quite unimportant illegal things done by the members of the Red Guard or other officials. But it seems that the prophecy, 'Capitalism will not consent to surrender its power without a struggle,' has become a reality in Hungary too, for capitalism here is not dead, it is only agonizing in the form of counter-revolution. It asks help from the Entente, and Roumanian troops march towards Budapest, Czecho-Slovaks approach and Austrian agitation begins in Western Hungary. With every possible underground method and artificially caused famine, capitalism is trying to weaken the young Soviet Government of Hungary.

 

THE WHITE TERROR.

 

"It is very difficult to believe that with these counter-challenges the embittered mass will behave pacifically. Besides, wherever the 'White Guards' put their feet, a terror never heard or dreamed of is beginning. They persecute and hang the communists, they even persecute the families of the communists. They begin it, and the proletarians answer. Men know no other way than to destroy each other when there is discord in their points of view. The task of women is to face fearlessly the situation and to try by education to reduce the resistance and collision to the smallest possible degree."

 

CHILD WELFARE.

 

Yolan Fried, a young woman only twenty-seven years old, is at the head of the Child's Welfare Department of the Government's Social Welfare Department. Her duty is to look after and organize recreation, amusement, health, and home conditions of the children. She has been working for six weeks, and has already established! public baths in each district of Budapest where seventy thousand children take one compulsory bath each week. "At these baths they are thoroughly rubbed, examined by a physician, given a cold water massage and tea after the process is finished. Each public school has a certain day of the week for the bath in that district and every child, whether rich or poor, must take the bath," said Mrs. Fried "or else it would be exactly like the old system."

"The Commissariat also takes charge of the amusement of the children, and I am planning to have stories written, especially adapted for children from six to ten, ten to thirteen, and thirteen to nineteen years. Childrens' playthings will also be distributed so that each little girl owns at least one doll. I have changed the orphan asylums into houses for all kinds of children, so that the unfortunate orphans need not feel their isolation, and other children, not orphans, may mix with them.

"An integral part of my work is the establishment of an office for psychological investigation of each child, so that we can adapt children to the kind and amount of work for which they are fitted. I am also establishing a colony for children on Lake Balaton and have adapted many confiscated villas and removed intervening fences, so that it is an open village for the children. Doctors and nurses accompany the children and later on I expect to do it on a more extensive scale, by placing the children in peasant families for their holidays."

 

VALUE OF WOMEN TEACHERS.

 

Fogarissi, one of the People's Commissary for Education, and a former student at the Sorbonne and follower of the French Philosopher Bergson, has placed the women teachers in the first category of highest paid workers, as he says under the former regime they were very badly paid. "The women teachers now get the highest salary which the best physical workers get," said Mr. Fogarissi. "They therefore have no more pecuniary troubles to handicap them in their work. For a year before the revolution the teachers were organized, because of their great misery, and they have all been assimilated into the teachers organization since October, so that there is concerted action, and many teachers are members of the Budapest Soviet. We have removed reactionary professors from their posts, because we do not want modified ideas taught, but their salaries are paid until we can place them as librarians, or in other suitable positions. at present we are restricting the method of teaching, but later when the system has been thoroughly changed the teachers will have absolute freedom.

"We have experimental schools in the method of teaching, and have stopped the study of law, as it is based on the old capitalist system. I am now organizing a new university on the lines advocated by Marx and Engels for a workers' university, and we are already using the building of the law school for preliminary classes. This university will give not only practical knowledge, but will train workers to take the leadership in the Soviets. The students will be accepted on the recommendation of their trade unions and will be paid while studying, with a subsidy of two hundred crowns a week, and will be exempt from other work. Some students will study two hours a day and work four hours a day, thus actually making the products of their chosen trade while in school. The subsidy eliminates the need for child labour to supplement the family income."

 

STUDENTS ELECT TRIBUNALS.

 

The People's Commissary for Education also plans for two types of high schools, one of which shall be compulsory for every student under eighteen. One type will unite the classical and industrial system, and the other will include technical and practical business schools. Already he has established in the higher classes of tho schools disciplinary tribunals, elected by the students and all students studying a trade or profession automatically belong to tho teachers union of that trade or profession, and can have a voice in their meetings.

At a meeting of five thousand women hold in the Buda Concert Hall several of the women communist leaders held the audience spellbound for five hours. Bela Kun addressed twelve such meetings during one afternoon, which were organized by Adel Spady, to explain to the women tho difficulties of food distribution. After the announced speakers had finished there were spontaneous speeches from the audience, and women young and old, rich women and poor women, peasant women and women from Budapest spoke vehemently for or against the Government. Whether the women took a great part in the communist revolution or not there is no doubt that the Hungarian woman can speak for herself in no uncertain terms.