COl'-SUMPTION AND EXCHANGE . for it hardens a11ucorrupts you. '!'his is unqualifiedly true of your individual life ano v.ith the ~ame torce it appiies ·to the collective social existence. · On the foundatie,ns of liberty, justice and equality, as· also ·on understanding and s 1mpathy, must be built every phase of life in the social revolution. unly so it can endure. This applies to the problems of shelter, food, and the security of your district or city, as well as to the defence of the revolution. As regards housing and local safety Russia has shown the way :., the first months of the October Revolution. House committees, .:::.·.,en by the tenants, and city federations of such committees, take the problem in hand. }hey gather statistics of the facilities of a given district and of the number of applicants requiring quarters. The latter are assigned according to personal or family need on the basis of equal rights. Similar house and district committees have charge of the provisioning of the city. Individµal application for rations at the distributing centres is a stupendous waste of· time and energy. Equally false is the system, practised in Russia in the first years· of the Revolution, of issuing rations in the institutions of one's employment, in shops, factories, and offices. The better and more efficient way, which at the same time insures more equitable distribution and closes the door to favouritism and misuse, is rationing by houses or streets. The authorised house or street committee pr.ocures at the local distributing centre the pr'ovisions, clothing, etc., apportioned to the number of tenants,. represented by the committee. Equal rationing has the added advantai:;e of eradicating food speculation, the vicious practice which grew to enormous proportions in Russia because of the system of inequality and privilege. Party members or persons with a political 'pull could freely bring to the cities carloads of flour ·while some old peasant woman was severely punished for selling a .loaf of bread. No wonder speculation flourished, ,and to such an extent, indeed, that the Bolsheviks had to form special regiments to cope with the evi_l. The prisons were filled with offenders; capital punishment was resorted to·; but even the most drastic measures of the government failed to stop speculation, for the latter was the direct consequence of the system of discriminaition and favouritism. Only equality an~ freedom of exchange can obviate such evils or at least reduce them to a minimum. Taking care of the sanitary and !dndred needs of street and district by voluntary committees of nou,e and locality affords the best results, ~ince such bodies, themselves tenants of the given district, 87 81blioteca G no Bia11co
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