The
servants one used to treat like animals and pay next to nothing, were
getting independent. A pair of shoes cost more than a hundred rubles,
and as wages averaged about thirty-five rubles a month the servants
refused to stand in _queue_ and wear out their shoes. But more than
that. In the new Russia every man and woman could vote; there were
working-class newspapers, saying new and startling things; there were
the Soviets; and there were the Unions. The _izvoshtchiki_
(cab-drivers) had a Union; they were also represented in the
Petrograd Soviet. The waiters and hotel servants were organised, and
refused tips. On the walls of restaurants they put up signs which
read, "No tips taken here-" or, "Just because a man has to make his
living waiting on table is no reason to insult him by offering him a
tip!"
At the Front the soldiers fought out their fight with the officers,
and learned self-government through their committees. In the
factories those unique Russian organisations, the Factory-Shop
Committees, [*] gained experience and strength and a realisation of
[* See Notes and Explanations]
their historical mission by combat with the old order. All Russia was
learning to read, and _reading-_politics, economics, history-because
the people wanted to _know...._ In every city, in most towns, along the
Front, each political faction had its newspaper-sometimes several.
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