Page:Michael Farbman - Russia & the Struggle for Peace (1918).djvu/62

 50 Sundays, all under the pretext of the lofty ideals of national self-defence. It was a merciless waste of the physical forces of the working classes; of adults and children, men and women alike. Those were indeed terrible years for the working classes."

The workers had been too much exploited all their lives to be able to ignore the sudden apparent relief of their position. They gladly accepted the increase of wages which was offered them in place of the economic policy which the revolutionary democracy had proposed. The moderate Socialist parties were glad of an opportunity of compromise with the propertied classes, and the more consistent elements, who realised that the mere increase of wages could only lead to disaster, were powerless to resist this mistaken policy. The increase of wages was accepted, and indeed, as time went on, actually demanded by the workers, and the vicious circle thus began. It was indeed a vicious circle, for the rise in wages led to a still greater increase in prices, and the increase in prices to a still greater rise in wages. Both these factors—the increase in wages and the rise in prices—demanded a corresponding increase of currency, and the inflation of the currency led to its still greater depreciation, and so to an increase in prices, which again had to be met by a rise in wages.

This process did not finish till industry was completely destroyed. The Bolshevik regime abruptly put a stop to this game, but, alas! it was too late.