Feeding the Hungry, P. C. Hiebert, 1929

trade, the polit- ical fortunes of Communism had favored him with au- thority, and he was determined to use all that he had. He objected to three of the five men on the committee— two of them because they belonged to the bourgeoisie, and the third because he had been a judge under the old gov- ernment. After some discussion it developed that Titov wanted friends of his to form the majority of the committee, so that he might control it through them, and get some of the credit. In an attempt at a compromise various other names were proposed by each side and rejected by the other. Finally Mr. B— said that the men he wanted were the committee, got up, said farewell, and walked out. The rest of us followed. Once outside, we went to the home of Dr. H—, who was to be the chairman of the committee. He had had some bitter experiences during the revolution, and was almost afraid to oppose Titov, but he consented to try. After giving the committee some instructions, we went home, but not without misgivings about the outcome. A few days later Mr. B— wired that Titov was making trouble for the committee, and would not permit the food to be unloaded from the cars. B— was not able 336 FEEDING THE HUNGRY to go, and asked us to do so. It was nearly a week before we were able to get away. Then our truck was out of commission, and there was no way except to take the freight train. We had a wild ride on a load of telegraph poles. The gnats that come with the spring flood season of the Dnieper were very bad, but the scenery was won- derful, and that compensated somewhat. It was late when we reached Nicopol, and we had two miles to walk from the station to our rooms. We got there safely, despite earnest warnings by natives that we might be eaten. The next day we went over the situation with the committee. On calling at Titov’s office, we learned that it was a holiday and that he would not see us officially. But just then he came through the corridor, and stopped a few minutes to talk. He was in an ugly mood, and threat- ened various things. We made arrangements to see him the next day, and spent the day seeing conditions in the surrounding villages. The next morning Titov was ready to talk. He stated his grievance. The committee had secured some farmers from the nearby villages to haul the food from the cars to the warehouse. ‘The union freight handlers in Nicopol came to Titov and protested against being robbed of their work. The logical thing to do, in his mind, was to stop the unloading. What could we do? The objection was fair enough, from the angle of the workingmen. The arrangement had been made by the committee to save time and money, and we explained this to Titov. We proposed that the local men do the handling, and that the farmers merely do the hauling. Of course he—Titov—would see to the paying of his men, we explained, because the government was to furnish all labor free. That was an une