Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/72

 methods by which they intended to ensure its success. Promptly abandoning their project with as good will as they had worked for its realization, they went off to release their prisoners, explained the mistake that had occurred, offered them their excuses, and all went well from that moment, the cordial relationship existing between the management and the workmen not having suffered in the least by the incident.

The story of the thirteen administrators and the thirteen sacks is one that we heard repeated most frequently. It is made use of to point out the ferocity of the workmen and the insatiability of their demands. Does it not, on the contrary, show the simple, childish good-humour that the Russian workman keeps even in his excesses? A word was enough to make these terrible rebels give up all idea of the thirteen executions they had meditated. Moreover, had they contemplated it seriously? At the same time they gave up as readily their thirty-six million roubles, exacting no fraction of it even. Is that not a proof that by reasoning with them and exercising a little patience, without much difficulty