All these Congresses of Soviets elect their own executive committees for handling local affairs, but in small rural districts questions are decided at general meetings of the voters whenever possible. The functions of the local Congresses of Soviets and deputies are given thus in the Constitution: To carry out all orders of the respective higher organs of the Soviet Power; to take all steps for raising the cultural and economic standard of the given territory; to decide all questions of local importance within their respective territories; and to coordinate all Soviet activity in their respective territories. Roughly speaking, the Supreme Council of National Economy, which is established under the Council of the People’s Commissars, deals with the organization and distribution of production. It coordinates the activities of the federal and the local Soviets, and has the right of confiscation, requisition, or compulsory syndication of various branches of industry and commerce; it determines the amount of raw materials and fuel needed, obtains and distributes them, and organizes and supplies the rural economy. It works in close and constant touch with the All-Russian Professional Alliances, and under its direction the latter constantly regulates the wage scales in accordance with the rise and fall of prices of commodities. When I was in Moscow the average wage paid was 3,000 rubles per month, and in Petrograd 3,500. A member of the Council of People’s Commissars received 4,500 per month, out of which he had to pay rent and buy food and clothing. Lenin, as president, received the same amount, which was equivalent to about $180 in American money. All men and women of the republic belonging to the following classes are allowed to vote after their eighteenth year: Individuals doing productive or useful work; all persons engaged in housekeeping which enables others to do productive work; peasants who employ no help in agricultural labor; soldiers of the army and sailors of the navy; citizens who are incapacited for work; and foreigners who live in and are working for the republic. Suffrage and candidacy are denied to persons who employ labor in order to obtain profits; persons who live on an income, such as interest from capital, receipts from property, etc.; private merchants, trade or commercial brokers; monks and clergy of all denominations;[A] employees and agents of the former police, gendarmes, or secret service; persons under legal guardianship, or who have been declared by law as demented or mentally deficient; and persons who have been deprived of their rights of citizenship by a Soviet, for selfish or dishonorable offences for the term fixed by the Soviet.