CHRISTIANITY AND COMMUNISM
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. The most suitable length is that of one of our "News of the Week" paragraphs. Signed letters are given a preference over those bearing a pseudonym, and the latter must be accompanied by the name and address of the author, which will be treated as confidential.—Ed. Tan SPECTATOR.] [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Si n,—These Communists are really very puzzling people. Some years ago Mr. Bernard Shaw. defined both Socialism and Communism in your columns with characteristic lucidity. He said, "As no other . distribution than an equal, one will Lear examination Socialism means in effect an equal distri- bution of the National income . . . Communism is the same as Socialism but better English." For years I have relied "upon these definitions, but now comes Mr. John Strachey who tells us that Soviet Russia is not a Communist but a Socialist society, that Communism means an order of society based on the public ownership of the means of production, but that it does not mean, and never has meant, equal incomes for unequal work. Exactly how Mr. Strachey distinguishes ,between a Communist. and a Socialist society does not very clearly appear. He may be correct in asserting that unequal remuneration for unequal work is a principle of Communism, but he is certainly. wrong in suggesting that Lenin and Stalin have consistently followed .it. I would invite Mr. Strachey's attention to Stalin's address to the Communist Party in the summer of 1931—" unforeseen financial difficulties have been encountered," he said, "and changes are necessary. The five day week must. be abandoned, at least temporarily, in favour of the interrupted six day week. In a number of undertakings wage rates are arranged in such a way that the difference between skilled and unskilled labour, between arduous and light labour, almost disappears. Wages even under Socialism must be paid according to work done and not according to needs." From this it would appear that the principle of equal incomes had been tried and was departed from because in practice it had broken down. It was only after 1931 that the principle of unequal wages for different work was generally enforced. The further development of piecework came later. The glorification of the Stakhanoff movement, a movement which would assuredly provoke a general strike in this country, is the most recent development of all.
Then Mr. Strachey tells us that the possession of a motor- car does not make a man a capitalist, but the possession of a share in a. motor-car factory does. Will Mr. Strachey tell us what is the position of a man who owns some of the high interest bearing State bonds which the Soviet issues to its citizens from time to time ? Is there any essential difference between the investor who profits by the output of a factory and he who 'draws his interest from the State which depends upon the labour of all ? Surely Dean Inge is substantially correct. The evolution from approximately equal to unequal wages, to piecework, and finally to intensive individual work, has gone on in Russia for the last five years and produced much the same sort of economic inequalities, although on an altogether lower plane, as exist in capitalist countries, and the investors in State bonds are the new capitalists. When Mr. Strachey suggests that Dr. Inge alluded to his contro- versial opponents as "Lenin's gangsters," he is of course mistaken. The allusion was obviously to the spiritual Fathers of the Bolshevik millennium—Trotsky, Kamenoff, Zinoviev, and the rest. Does not Mr. Strachey agree, or can it be that he differs from Stalin in this matter ?
Finally, Mr. Strachey concludes by telling us the rich blessings which will accrue to everybody in the Communist (or is it the Socialist ?) State. He really must not be allowed to forget that Socialism has been operating in Russia for eighteen years, and that five years ago those who died from hunger in the Ukraine, the richest food producing district in Europe, were numbered by millions.—! am, &c.,
310 Minster House, St. James' Court, F. H. IlAmivrost. Buckingham Gate, S.W.1.
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