Alice Riggs Hunt

“ The principles of the revolution are the same as those of the Russian Revolution, but we think we have profited by the experience, as we are making use of the intellectuals in our government organization. Yes, I am in favour of a show of force and of terror, if necessary, until things are settled. The present basis of our Soviet system is purely political with economic organization separate. Only workers can vote, but unemployed who wish to work and find no employment can vote, and housewives are recognized as workers. ”

“ If you are not a particularly observant person, you do not notice the red flag floating from the Imperial Palace, or the red bunting decorating the pillars of the Grand Hotel Hungaria, now the Soviet House, where all the People's Commissaries and their families live. ”

“ Paula Poganyi, a strong anti-militarist and pacifist worker in Hungary, became a communist at the time of the first revolution last November. Although opposed to the use of force she strongly upholds the Communist Government, but believes that women must teach men the folly of organized murder.
"Revolution is not made by revolutionists, but by economic circumstances," said Miss Poganyi. " The revolutionists only educate the people to be conscious. Capitalism has fulfilled its historic task. ”

“ The Controlling Council, of seven members elected by the workers, raised the wages from one hundred per cent, at first to two hundred per cent.
I talked personally to many of these men and women workers. The average wage for women in this factory before the war was twenty crowns a week, and under Communism it is from one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and fifty crowns a week. Older women are paid more than younger, women, not only for their experience, but as a social policy, which desires to minimise the attractiveness of factory life for young girls. ”

“ A Communist from Austria brought a greeting, saying if the people must starve, it must be for the revolution, and not for the capitalists.
Stephen Biorman, one of the governing city council said, "Women are protesting against standing so long at distribution centres for food. This food must be distributed justly, but now the bourgeoisie have time and money to go to the country to buy up the food. Unproductive people must go to the country to work!" ”

“ All members of the Red Guard are proletarians, as only Trade Union members can be admitted to the Army. There is such a rush of men volunteering for the army on the three fronts, where Hungary is now fighting invasion, that every day the recruiting station opposite the Houses of Parliament has two long queues of working men waiting for the chance to enlist. Most of the People's Commissaries are young "intellectuals," tried in the dangerous labour of Communist and Socialist teaching under a reactionary Imperialist Government. ”

“ Therefore, I have to open a clearing house for household furniture, socialising the unused furniture of the bourgeois, and making sure that the proletarian brides and bridegrooms get what they need and need what they get." "Does this look as though Communism would abolish the home and encourage free love?" ”

“ If at the time of the revolution a man or woman had an account in a bank, that amount up to a hundred thousand crowns is credited to him or to her, but the power to draw upon the account is limited to ten per cent, of the amount, and not more than two thousand crowns a month. If a person's wealth before the revolution happened to be in merchandise, such as a grocers' stock book would show, the value of the property is credited to that person at the socialised bank, up to the amount of one hundred thousand crowns. ”

“ The wealthy bourgeois, according to a prominent ex-statesman with whom I had a three hours' talk, are either thoroughly disorganized, or are waiting for the Government to fall under the weighty problems of food distribution. The ex-statesman, whose name is known throughout the world, as recently one of Hungary's most powerful citizens and politicians, told me that while his house was visited by the Red Guards immediately after the Communist coup in March, no member of his family was harmed, and all property seized by the State was preserved. ”

“ Some of the older women get three or four hundred crowns a week.
"Skilled men workers before the war got sixty crowns a week, their wages now averaging about four hundred and eight crowns a week," explained the President of the Controlling Council. "The Controlling Council has decreed that an apprenticeship of ten years for women and of six years for men is essential before either can be classed as skilled workers. They account for this apparent discrimination against women, by pointing out that women have only recently, during the war, entered the factories." ”

“ Until now there were no women inspectors, in spite of the great number of women employed in the factories during the war. It is essential, in my opinion, that those who do the work best should have the greater financial return, at least now during this state of transition, until real socialism is established. We have therefore established categories of workers with minimum wages, but the good worker gets higher wages, and those who commit 'American sabotage,' by working slowly lose in the end. ”

“ He believes that the idea advocated in Austria that socialisation should take place by degrees is wrong, because the taking over of industry in Hungary was practically bloodless and the Austrian method cannot be called, in his opinion, even a half measure of socialisation so long as private capital is considered. He also believes that just as men and women can be persuaded to go to the battlefield for an idea, so they can also be taught to work for the community when once the schools teach them their moral obligations towards the state. ”

“ It is no longer possible for different factories to receive separate orders, as all orders must be transmitted through the Central Production Council, which assigns the order to the factories best fitted to fill them. The organization of a separate raw material department has become necessary, as it is a most difficult thing to furnish small establishments without the district distribution centre, and this is the only efficent method of rationing and controlling production. ”

“ The third stop in the work of socialising production is the organization of councils of representatives from the controlling councils from each factory. This links up the workman in the factory to his entire industry. The individual workman elects his factory controlling council, which in turn elects representatives to the Trade Control Council. The Trade Control Council in its turn elects representatives to the Production Trade Council, which is representative of all trades and industries, and works under the elected Commissary of Social Production who is the Government's representative. ”

“ The owners of small estates, who are against communism are trying to send anti-communist propaganda to the Serbians, but in spite of this the Serbian peasants on the border are giving us one hundred head of cattle a day. If the Entente would allow us to work unmolested we could have accomplished more in these two months, as we are using every available man and woman. ”

“ The most interesting woman present however was an old woman of sixty years, Maria Chober, an "earth worker," and member of the Budapest Soviet, who, all her life has been speaking, organizing and working with the peasant women in the country, who hire themselves out as day labourers to dig ditches and other hard earth work. She is a speaker of great power, and for twenty-five years has travelled throughout the provinces of Hungary preaching Communism to these women diggers and has many times suffered imprisonment. ”

“ This was proved by the world war, and is proved by the results of the Peace Conference in Paris. Its existence is of immense danger to the race, and keeps the greatest part of humanity in slavery, and drives the people to murder each other in new wars. ”

“ The great mass of the people of Hungary have never had enough food, clothing, or sufficient housing, and cannot expect the revolution to give them these things over-night, at a time when every country in Europe is unable to obtain raw materials. Women have helped greatly in the establishment of the Dictatorship, especially Adel Spady and Maria Gosthonyi, both of whom are of noble birth. ”

“ My greatest problem is the devising of a plan of distribution, so that the most needful gets the imports first. For this purpose I distribute different coloured cards. Women with babies are in the first class, the sick are second, older children third, the families of red soldiers come fourth, the physical workers come fifth, and the bourgeoisie who must establish their need for the article come last. By the word bourgeois I mean those who do not work. ”

“ For instance mills or factories producing the same thing, such as flour mills, leather and hide trades, engineering works, etc., are organized into one centralised group, under the department of Social Production. Each group unites a certain number of factories producing the same article, and as there is no necessity for competition between the individual factories, they can be managed so as to produce the greatest amount with the least expenditure. For instance, there used to be a number of small flour mills throughout the provinces, and a few big ones in Budapest. ”

“ Any man in the country who desires to work three hundred and sixty days a year can become a member of these co-operative societies. The wages are in food, which is debited to his community account, and at the end of the year the community divides the money profits, according to the number of hours worked by each person, and not according to population. Of these profits not all is returned to the workers, because a percentage is retained for schools, new houses for the workers and new machinery. ”

“ In Budapest alone this organization of domestic workers had forty thousand members and branches in twenty-live provinces. Between the first and second revolution most of the women worked with the Social Democrats, as the overwhelming majority of women were socialist, but not communist. When however Karolyi formed the new government, with Bela Kun then in prison, the union of Social Democrats and Communists was brought about. There should not be any separate woman's movement, as this is contrary to the teachings of Marx. ”

“ There is no thought of starving the bourgeoisie, but we want to improve the bad system of food distribution which obtained under the Hapsburgs when there were red food cards for the value of four hundred crowns, and green food cards for less, which gave the workers less food. We give the heavy manual workers the highest rations, and have divided the people into three categories. ”

“ The first step is accomplished by socialising all shops employing more than ten persons, and organizing them into central distributing centres in each district as Government Stores. No one can buy anything from these stores without a signed permit from the Council of Social Production in his or her district, stating that the article is needed. This is done to prevent people with money from buying up all the small supply there is. The second method is to limit the men with money to the income of the highest paid physical worker. ”

“ Tho Food Commissary reproved the members who shouted that food was not being distributed adequately, by stating that the proletarians were doing as much smuggling of food from the country as the bourgeois, and that they must not expect the Government to accomplish more than any other country in Europe had been able to bring about, namely the immediate control of an adequate food supply. Upon his statement that he had been working in the Socialist movement for twenty-five years, many of tho young soldier members shouted: "That is long enough to make you a bourgeois." ”

“ Bela Kun addressed twelve such meetings during one afternoon, which were organized by Adel Spady, to explain to the women tho difficulties of food distribution. After the announced speakers had finished there were spontaneous speeches from the audience, and women young and old, rich women and poor women, peasant women and women from Budapest spoke vehemently for or against the Government. Whether the women took a great part in the communist revolution or not there is no doubt that the Hungarian woman can speak for herself in no uncertain terms. ”

“ In twenty-eight villages around Budapest, we have socialised the houses, and intend as soon as possible to include all the largest towns in the provinces. So far the peasants have not been disturbed. We have already planned to build ten thousand houses of available stone, but want of coal handicaps us. We have an engineering and building department for repairs, as most of the houses have deteriorated during the war, and must be kept up for the benefit of the whole community. ”

“ Maria Gosthonyi, a very beautiful young leader, became a convinced socialist when quite a child from her observations of the way the peasants worked on her father's estate. "I never worked with the feminists but joined the Socialist Party at the beginning of the war, and volunteered for the front as a Red Cross Nurse," said Miss Gosthonvi. "All the four years of the war I was talking to the soldiers against the killing and for socialism, and held meetings in the hospitals to which the soldiers came in crowds. ”

“ Bela Kun says that he believes it absolutely necessary to have a show of force to support the Government until Communism is thoroughly established, but there are fewer soldiers in the streets than in Vienna, and entrance to the Soviet House is far simpler than showing credentials at the Hotel de Crillon in Paris, whore the American Commission to negotiate Peace resides, or at the Astoria, where I went to one of Lord Robert Cecil's interviews, to say nothing of approaching within a block of Wilson's residence. ”

“ The students will be accepted on the recommendation of their trade unions and will be paid while studying, with a subsidy of two hundred crowns a week, and will be exempt from other work. Some students will study two hours a day and work four hours a day, thus actually making the products of their chosen trade while in school. The subsidy eliminates the need for child labour to supplement the family income."
STUDENTS ELECT TRIBUNALS.
The People's Commissary for Education also plans for two types of high schools, one of which shall be compulsory for every student under eighteen. ”