Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/69

 their demands until in the end they assumed fantastic proportions.

Certain characteristic instances were mentioned to us. Day labourers, for instance, employed in peat-cutting in a certain district in the centre of Russia claimed a fixed rate of pay of one thousand roubles per month; and again, the workmen in a large factory in Petrograd having in a few weeks trebled their wages, further exacted that the measure should have a retrospective effect, and date from the outbreak of the war.

The method employed by these workmen to induce their employers to accede to their requests is worth describing. One fine morning a delegation composed of thirteen members of workmen appeared before the administrative council, who had been summoned by means of a special and urgent letter written at the request of the staff, and who had hastened to attend. The delegation were the bearers of thirteen sacks. One man, speaking in the name of his comrades, pointed out that they were earning on an average eight roubles more than they did before the Revolution, and that consequently they had been daily