Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - III. Tolstoi on the Famine
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
Administration and the municipalities have set themselves is nothing less
than to feed the people. To feed the people! Who is it, then, that
has undertaken to feed the people? It is we, the officials, who
have taken upon ourselves to feed those who are always
feeding and always have fed us. A suckling babe wants to
feed its nurse, a parasite proposes to feed the plant that
nourishes it! We, the governing classes, who do not work
and live upon what other people produce; we, who cannot take
one step without them, we are now going to feed them! The
very idea has something grotesque in it. Not to speak of all
other wealth, we may say that the bread is directly produced
by the people themselves. All the bread existing is sown,
raised, harvested, threshed, and distributed by the people. How
is it, then, that this bread is not now in the hands of the
people, but in ours, and that we are obliged, by a peculiar and
artificial process, to return it to them, calculating so and so
much for each individual? It is evident that we have taken it
without paying for it, and have taken too much, so that we
must now return it; but this restitution presents many
difficulties. What then must we do? I believe we must begin
by not taking what does not belong to us.
“Some children had a horse given them, a real live horse, and
they went out for a drive. They went on driving, driving,
always driving, up hill and down dale. The horse was all in a
perspiration; it lost its breath, but always went on obediently.
All the while the children shouted and cheered, boasted to
each other as to who best knew how to drive, and always
urged the horse to gallop. It seemed to them, as it always
does, that when the horse galloped, they galloped, and they
were proud of this gallop. So they amused themselves without
thinking of the horse, forgetting that it lived and suffered.
When they saw that it slackened its speed, they raised the
whip, struck it, and shouted still more. But all things have
an end, and the good horse’s strength was exhausted. In spite
of the whip, it slackened its speed. Only then did the children
recollect that the horse was a living creature; that it is usual
to give horses food and drink. But they would not stop, and
tried to find a way of feeding the horse while running. One of
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
