In addition, between July 4 and December 1, 1919, there was paid to the provinces a sum of more than two and a half milliards of roubles. There was assigned in aid of agriculture 200,000,000 roubles; to housing, 150,000,000 roubles; to pensions for Red soldiers, 100,000,000 roubles; to allowances to those invalided from the war 168,000,000 roubles.
One of the main defects of our social welfare work is the bad functioning of the apparatus. There is no proper record of the persons in receipt of benefit; the assignment of funds to the various localities is faulty; there is much waste of time in the subdepartments of the Commissariat for Social Welfare; and so on. It is absolutely essential that our party should devote itself to the better organisation of these matters.
133. Other Measures for the Improvement of the Condition of the Working Class.
In addition to the measures previously enumerated, several other measures prescribed in the Code of Labour Laws are of great importance to the condition of the working class. These measures are directly associated with the fact that the proletariat has become the ruling class, and they are therefore more comprehensive than the demands which used to be incorporated in the programs of the socialist parties. They may be summarised under three heads.
- The participation of the labour organisations in the decision of questions relating to the engagement or discharge of workers. These matters are referred to the factory and workshop committees and to the workers’ factory administrations.
- The State regulation of wages. The most interesting matter in this connexion is that the rates of pay are elaborated by the trade unions and are submitted to the Commissariat for Labour, which itself is actually composed of representatives of the trade unions.