CHAPTER III.
The Soviet Republic.
The fundamental principle of the new system was the sole control of the working classes. Only workmen had the right to vote, and only workmen could be elected. Anyone who is not a member of the union even received a smaller ration than the others. The situation was like a reversal of the Middle Ages, with the difference that during the Middle Ages power was exercised by those who were the most educated and most capable of government, whereas the hegemony to-day was in the hands of the least educated. The system of the absolutism of the minority was established. Properly speaking, the control was not really even in the hands of the minority, but in the hands of a few tyrants who violated the country in the name of the minority and under the protection of arms. The dictatorship of the masses developed as usual into the dictatorship of a few. The lunacy which inspired the system was characterized by its May festivals. At a time when the majority of the people were threatened by death from starvation, these modern Neros obtained, by bartering away foodstuffs and animals, red cloth and red dyes in order to shroud the capital in red and
