n the front, in
having the certainty of being killed when other folk are merely taken
prisoners.

The following are a few examples of the sort of work done in the
"Saturdayings." Briansk hospitals were improperly heated because of
lack of the local transport necessary to bring them wood. The Communists
organized a "Saturdaying," in which 900 persons took part, including
military specialists (officers of the old army serving in the new),
soldiers, a chief of staff, workmen and women. Having no horses, they
harnessed themselves to sledges in groups of ten, and brought in the
wood required. At Nijni 800 persons spent their Saturday afternoon in
unloading barges. In the Basman district of Moscow there was a gigantic
"Saturdaying" and "Sundaying" in which 2,000 persons (in this case all
but a little over 500 being Communists) worked in the heavy artillery
shops, shifting materials, cleaning tramlines for bringing in fuel, etc.
Then there was a "Saturdaying" the main object of which was a
general autumn cleaning of the hospitals for the wounded. One form of
"Saturdaying" for women is going to the hospitals, talking with the
wounded and writing letters for them, mending their clothes, washing
sheets, etc. The majority of "Saturdayings" at present are concerned
with transport work and with getting and shifting wood, because at
the moment these are the chief difficulties. I have talked to many
"Saturdayers," Communist and non-Communist, and all alike spoke of these
Saturday afternoons of as kind of picnic. On the other hand, I have met
Communists who were accustomed to use every kind off ingenuity to find
excuses not to take part in them and yet to preserve the good opinion of
their local committee.

But even if the whole of the Communist Party did actually indulge in
a working picnic once a week, it would not suffice to meet Russia's
tremendous needs. And, as I pointed out in the chapter specially devoted
to the shortage of labor, the most serious need at present is to keep
skilled workers at their jobs instead of letting them drift away into
non-productive labor. No amount of Saturday picnics could do that, and
it was obvious long ago that some other means, would have to be devised.

INDUSTRIAL CONSCRIPTION

The general principle of industrial conscription recognized by the
Russian Constitution, section ii, chapter v, paragraph 18, which reads:
"The Russian Socialist Federate Soviet Republic recognizes that wor