Oil! by Upton Sinclair

There were so many things Bunny wanted to know about. He took Paul to dinner, in an outdoor café, and they spent a good part of the evening, French fashion, conversing there. Paul told about the schools; all the new educational discoveries that had been made in America, but could only be applied in Russia. And the papers and books -- the modern, progressive writers being translated and spread over the half of two continents. And industry -- the colossal labors of a people to build a modern world out of nothing, with no capital and no help from the outside. Paul described the oil industry under this Soviet system; a state trust, in which the workers' unions were recognized, and given a voice in labor affairs. The workers published papers, they had clubs and dramatic societies, a new culture, based upon industry instead of exploitation.

Then, of course, Bunny wanted to know about Ruth, and about Paul's arrest and his trial, and what was he going to do now. He was on his way back to America, and would probably be put to organizing in California, because that was the place he knew best. He had been in Paradise and held secret meetings with the men; until at last he had been found out and put off the tract -- the place where he had been born, and had lived nearly all his life! But that was all right, the party had a "nucleus," as it was called, in the field, and literature was being distributed and read.