publicly call out the names of the voters asking who wanted to vote Number 3. There would be only two or three such people in the corridor. These would be immediately admitted, the rest subjected by the Electoral Commission to a series of obstructions ; their names could not be found on the register ; they would not be let into the voting room. This led to complete congestion and, as at 7 p.m. the polling booths were closed, hundreds and thousands of electors were deprived of their right to vote. Wild scenes ensued, especially in the suburbs; people cursed and shouted "thieves, twisters," abusing the electoral commissions and the Government most terribly. And this was done not by reactionaries, but by working people, by the Cracow proletariat. It is significant that the percentage of votes cast was very high in spite of the fact that such an immense mass of people had been prevented from casting their votes. This can only be explained by the absence of any sort of control over the correct conduct of the elections and by the absence of opposition watchers. No public act, especially an election, can be left simply to faith in integrity. It must always be subject to public control. Therefore the recent elections, not controlled by anyone, can have not the slightest significance for the nation. Such were the elections in Cracow. Apart from Cracow I also stood in the Chrzanow constituency where my list was banned under the pretext that I had terrorized the electors to sign it. That is an extraordinary thing. For the third time, those in power deprived me of my seat in the constituency where I have the greatest influence and the greatest number of friends. The first time it was the Conservative "National Council" in 1911,the second time it was Pilsudski in 193oand this time it was the Democratic Bloc whose list thus remained the only admitted one. Even so it was necessary to force people to vote for it by means of threats and intimidation. One of my friends told me with tears in his eyes, how-lined up-he had to make great show of voting for No. 3, feeling-he addeddisgusted with himself and ashamed that they had been able to break him morally. And when anyone did not submit, then they tried to break him and destroy him, as was done to my old friend, 49 Biblioteca Gino Bianco
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