March 5, 1961

Industrial enterprises come in large, medium, and small sizes; if they are too large, they become difficult to manage. Agriculture is not the same as industry, and when communes are too large, they are even harder to manage. This is because a commune includes men and women, old and young, unlike the army, which is organized, disciplined, and composed entirely of men.

Whether or not to divide the communes into smaller units, and whether or not to split them up, should not be decided solely by listening to the opinions of cadres; the main thing is to listen to the opinions of the masses. Some cadres are certainly unwilling to divide them; they will come up with many reasons, saying there are no houses, no this, no that, many difficulties, and so on. As long as we win over the masses, we will also win over the cadres. What is wrong with delegating the power of directing production downward? If we were to follow the opinions of some cadres, commune members would not be allowed to keep private plots, things requisitioned without compensation would not have to be returned or compensated for, and the power of directing production could not be delegated downward. In that case, we would not win over the masses and would not be able to gain the people's trust.