ed. We drove round to the prison in sledges, and by way of supper
had some more soup and potatoes, and so back to the railway station to
sleep in the cars.

Next day the Conference opened about noon, when there was a long
discussion of the points at issue. Workman after workman came to the
platform and gave his view. Some of the speeches were a little naive, as
when one soldier said that Comrades Lenin and Trotsky had often before
pointed out difficult roads, and that whenever they had been followed
they had shown the way to victory, and that therefore, though there was
much in the Central Committee's theses that was hard to digest, he was
for giving them complete support, confident that, as Comrades Lenin and
Trotsky were in favor of them, they were likely to be right this time,
as so often heretofore. But for the most part the speeches were directly
concerned with the problem under discussion, and showed a political
consciousness which would have been almost incredible three years ago.
The Red Army served as a text for many, who said that the methods which
had produced that army and its victories over the Whites had been proved
successful and should be used to produce a Red Army of Labor and similar
victories on the bloodless front against economic disaster. Nobody
seemed to question the main idea of compulsory labor. The contest
that aroused real bitterness was between the methods of individual and
collegiate command. The new proposals lead eventually towards individual
command, and fears were expressed lest this should mean putting
summary powers into the hands of bourgeois specialists, thus nullifying
"workers' control". In reply, it was pointed out that individual command
had proved necessary in the army and had resulted in victory for the
revolution. The question was not between specialists and no specialists.
Everybody knew that specialists were necessary. The question was how to
get the most out of them. Effective political control had secured that
bourgeois specialists, old officers, led to victory the army of the Red
Republic. The same result could be secured in the factories in the same
way. It was pointed out that in one year they had succeeded in training
32,000 Red Commanders, that is to say, officers from the working class
itself, and that it was not Utopian to hope and work for a similar
output of workmen specialists, technically trained, and therefore
themselves qualified for individual command in the