" The keeper of a
little grocery store, even though his income is not greater than that of a
mechanic, and despite the fact that his store meets a local need and makes
his services, therefore, "useful" in the highest degree, cannot enjoy civic
rights, simply because he is a "merchant"! The clergy of all denominations
are excluded from the franchise. It does not matter, according to this
constitution, that a minister belongs to a church independent of any
connection with the state, that he is elected by people who desire his
services and is paid by them, that he satisfies them and is therefore
doing a "useful service"--if utility means the satisfying of needs--because
he is so employed he cannot vote.
It is clearly provided that "peasants and Cossack agricultural laborers who
employ no help for the purpose of making profits" can vote and be voted
for. But no persons "who employ hired labor in order to obtain from it an
increase in profits" may vote or be elected to office, _even though the
work they do is productive and useful to society._ A peasant who hires no
assistance may vote, but if he decides that by employing a boy to help him
he will be able to give better attention to certain crops and make more
money, even though he pays the boy every penny that the service is worth,
judged by any standard whatever, he loses his vote and his civic status
because, forsooth, he has gained in his net income as a result of his
enterprise.
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