. The complete works of Count Tolstoy. attempts end, as lately ended the uprisingsin the Governments of Poltava and of Kharkov, in thetorture and execution of the rioters, and the power ofthe non-workers over the workers is only made more firm. In trying to oppose violence to violence, you, workingmen, do what a man bound with ropes would do if, to freehimself, he should tug at the ropes : he would only tightenthe knots which fetter him. The same is true as regardsyour attempts by means of violence to take away what iswithheld from you by means of violence. It has now become obvious that the m
. The complete works of Count Tolstoy. attempts end, as lately ended the uprisingsin the Governments of Poltava and of Kharkov, in thetorture and execution of the rioters, and the power ofthe non-workers over the workers is only made more firm. In trying to oppose violence to violence, you, workingmen, do what a man bound with ropes would do if, to freehimself, he should tug at the ropes : he would only tightenthe knots which fetter him. The same is true as regardsyour attempts by means of violence to take away what iswithheld from you by means of violence. It has now become obvious that the method of riotadoes not attain its purpose, and that it does not improvethe condition of the working men, but rather makes itworse. And so of late, men who desire, or who at leastsay that they desire, the good of the working masses, havediscovered a new means for the liberation of the working .fif^miil 5)dt nl ^ItW gjH ??? ??1?1?? £??? ,?1?1?? Tolstoy and His Wife in the Crimea,March, 1903 Photogravure from a Photograph. ?? THE WORKING PEOPLE 133 men. This new means is based on the teaching that allthe working men, after being deprived of the land whichthey formerly possessed, and after having become hiredlabourers (which according to this teaching is to happenas inevitably as the sunset at a given hour), will arrangeunions, societies, demonstrations, and will choose theirpartisans for parliament, and thus will keep improvingtheir condition, and finally will appropriate to themselvesall the works and factories, in general all the implementsof labour, among them the land, and then will be abso-lutely free and prosperous. In spite of the fact thatthis teaching, which proposes this means, is full of ob-scurities, arbitrary propositions and contradictions andsimple absurdities, it has of late been disseminated moreand more widely. This doctrine is accepted not only in those countrieswhere the majority of the population has for several gen-erations fallen away from agricultural labo
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