“The commercial secret is abolished,” the decree declared. “The proprietors are obliged to furnish to the organs of labor control all their books and accounts and business correspondence, under penalty of law.” The decisions of the organs of labor control were binding alike on laborer and proprietor; but the decree provided for an appeal to a higher organ of labor control sitting in Petrograd and made up chiefly of technicians. The right of appeal was granted to both employer and employee. An all-Russian Soviet of labor control was created to coördinate all industries and direct the economic life. The quantity of production was to be determined by the needs of the community, and the price fixed by the cost of production as determined by the organs of labor control. The Soviet realized the impossibility of immediately putting into effect any such radical overturn of the competitive system, and the decree stated that the labor control must be effected by gradual steps and regulation. Just as the peasants frequently had taken the land without waiting for decrees, the workers also took the factories. The industry of Russia was disorganized, and the control of factories had practically passed to the workmen early in the Kerensky régime. The labor decree merely legalized an existing condition and attempted to regulate that control. The members of the factory committee, sobered by responsibility and a growing knowledge of what was possible of accomplishment, found themselves frequently in opposition to the workers who had elected them. The demands of the workers were naturally out of all proportion to the earnings of the industry, and the chief task of the committee was to educate the workers to understand this. The head of the shop committee at Sestroretzk, a young Socialist named Woscup, told me that his committee was frequently forced to resign rather than grant the impossible demands of the men. Sestroretzk is the oldest arsenal in Russia. It was founded by Peter the Great, and in 1917 employed sixty-five hundred men. The first strike of the March Revolution started there, and the first company of Red Guard was organized there. Five thousand of its members were Bolsheviki. The men demanded an increase of wages, which was granted, but they also demanded back pay beginning with May. The committee refused this, and a quarrel followed. The committee resigned. “This is our government, and our government can not pay,” Woscup explained. The men, on second sober thought, saw the justice of the refusal, and voted to reinstate the committee. “The majority is usually reasonable,” explained the young committeeman. A decree fixing the salaries of the People’s Commissaries at five hundred rubles a month proved an effective measure in controlling the demands of the workers.