Page:Leo Tolstoy - The Russian Revolution (1907).djvu/55

 38 One would think it was evident that on an estate of that kind, neither the houses, clothes, nor conservatories of the rich proprietor would be suitable for the liberated peasants, and they would not continue to keep them up. In the same way, when the working people are emancipated from the power of Government and capital, they will not continue to maintain the arrangements that have arisen under these powers, and will not go to work in factories and works which could only have come into existence owing to their enslavement, even if such factories could be profitable and pleasant for them.

It is true that when the workers are emancipated from slavery one will regret all this cunning machinery which weaves so much beautiful stuff so quickly, and makes such nice sweets, looking-glasses, etc., but, in the same way, after the emancipation of the serfs one regretted the beautiful race-horses, pictures, magnolias, musical instruments and private theatres that disappeared. But just as the liberated serfs bred animals suited to their way of life, and raised plants they required, and the race-horses and magnolias disappeared of themselves, so the workmen, freed from the power of Government and capital, will direct their labour to quite other work than at present.

"But it is much more profitable to bake all the bread in one oven than that everybody should heat his own, and to weave twenty times as quickly at a factory as on a handloom at home," say the supporters of civilization, speaking as if men were se dumb cattle for whom food, clothing, dwellings, and more or less labour, were we only questions to solve.

An Australian savage knows very well that it would be more profitable to build one hut for himself and his wife, yet he erects two, so that both he and his wife may enjoy privacy. The Russian peasant know very decidedly that it is more profitable for him to live in one house with his father and brother; yet he separates from them, builds his own cottage, and prefers to bear privations rather than obey his elders or quarrel and have disagreement. "Better but a pot of broth, and one's own master