SOVIET-MANAGED FACTORIES

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 301, 14 September 1920, Page 5

SOVIET-MANAGED FACTORIES

CRITICAL POSITION IN ITALY

MEN SUBMIT TO RIGOROUS DISCIPLINE (By Tolegraph-Presa Association-Oopyrliht London, September 12. The Milan correspondent of "The Times" writes that the Government is practically non-existent. Workmen are seizing without interference factory after factory, and tho Socialist leaders aro discussing whether the time is ripe for a revolution. They will probably conclude that it is not ripe, but tho question is whether the leaders are able to control the men. If the owners grant their demands, it is possible that tho storm will pass, leaving Italian Bolshevism a grotesque failure. Describing the seizure of tho factories, the correspondent says:—"The whistle sounds, and tho gates are rushed to prevent the exit of the masters and experts who direct the personnel. These arc requested to continue their duties. The men are then organised under a Soviet management, and hoist tho Red Flag. Stewards impose a discipline more rigorous than would he tolerated under the masters. Robbers and other offenders are punished more severely. The families of tho workers bring m their food, and emissaries pass between the factories and headquarters, exchanging tools, machinery, and other necessaries."

A Soviet organ boasts that under the new regime production has increased by 10 per cent.; but its own figures disclose that the output has been really reduced by seven-eighths. No raw material in arriving at the factories, no sales', have been arranged, and outside firms refuse to give or receive orders. A tour of tho city makes it hard to believe that it is nursing a Soviet. All is orderly and normal except in tho factory quarter. A typical incident of the new rule is that four policemen who were walking on tho footpath were ordered to walk in the middle of tho street by a sentinel on the top of a building. They hastened to obey the sentinel, and cried, "All right!" —!R enter. SHORTAGE OF BREAD AND COAL MODERATES WORKING TO PREVENT REVOLUTION. (Rcc. September 13, 9.10 p.m.) Rome, September 13. Italian workers havo to submit food cards There is a limitation of the bread supply and difficulty in getting rice, i flour, And, above all, fuel. Coal is selling at TOO lire a ton. Agitators, therefore, have many opportunities' for fomenting discontent. The situation is aggravated by the fact that railwaymen refuso to transport troops and police. It wns eh owe at the conference, however, that a strong body of moderates is working to prevent a revolution.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn, extrembtTcensdred USELESS AND IRRITATING CONFLICTS. Rome, September 12. On the evo of the conference between delegates of the General Workers' Union and tho executive of tho Socialist Party a powerful manifesto was issued, and the signatories, included Buozzle (who was largely responsible for tho metal-workers' agitation), Turati, Treaves, and Prampolui. Tho manifesto censured the extremists for their useless and irritating conflicts with the authorities and the capitalists, and said: "The extremists profess that violence is normal to a struggle of men, yet raise a« outcry when the violence of others, more rapid than ours, hurts, us."—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.