Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, TUESDAY, JULY 19, 1921. RUSSIA'S CRY FOR FOOD.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 15575, 19 July 1921, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, TUESDAY, JULY 19, 1921. RUSSIA'S CRY FOR FOOD.

I The appeal which has been made by Maxim Gorky, Russia's great patriot,' to' Europe and America to send supplies of food to prevent, the. people '. of.' Russia. from starving marks another stage of the great transition going on in that unhappy country. The harvests have failed and the spectre,of famine is over the -land. Side by side with this news we /haveV'the information that the Soviet leaders are mobilising a great army, with the object, no doubt, of detracting attention from internal woes, 'and in the hope also of. obtaining plunder of foodstuffs from the neighboring states. According to a Riga dispatch published in English papers early in everybody coming new from Russia —Communists as well as non-Communists—tells .that the economic situation there is growing worse day by day. The town 'populations, like the army, have been ! existing on hunger rations of food requisitioned from the peasants. The uStalo demanded work in exchange for these rations, in- accordance with the 'creed that "those who do-not work shall not eat," and the workers, though not 'very enthusiastic about work, felt that they made the best- bargain in the circumstances. And so—with iainine. i rations and half-forced and 'deficient labor, lacking a real incentive, \" with j agriculture decaying in bondage and industry rapidly disintegrating—Russia has been drifting towards the 'abyss. '• Suddenly everything changed. The! j Stale monopoly of grain ".and the obliga- | tpry food distributions ceased, Russia being thrown back upon the capitalistic [principles of "free trade." The workers las well as the rest of the town populai tiort, have now to rely for their food exclusively on free barter witli the peasants. Well and good. The concession of free trade? is considered a great vie-) tory of sanity and common sense. it is, and will undoubtedly prove hene-t fleial in the end. But, in order to get satisfaction out of the new economic situation, the workers need to possess something to give /the peasants in exchange for their grain. The formula has

been, changed. '"Now "those who have nothinglo barter with ; shall) not eat." Have the workers, has the .State, anything to barter with the peasants for food? These were, and they remain, the critical questions of the devolution.' It is the fundamental fact of the Russian, Revolution—it is probably the most serious effect'of"'the war upon European economics----, that industry and trade have .been 'ruined to a greater extent lb.au agriculture! The fact that .th'eJe was nothing to give the peasants in hxchange for their grain was the reason for converting the State grain monopoly into a most cruel and, devastating war on the peasants. The aim of tho grain monopoly was at first only to fight speculation in broad and prevent cornering of supplies. The theory was always to give the peasants an equivalent of manufactured goods for the agricultural products they were, compelled to deliver. But the advancing disorganisation of industry, and/the progressive exhaustion of tho-country as a 'result of the civil war and the blockade, made all promises to repay the peasants idle talk, and soon a, new theory vanced," that the Stale was taking the grain from the peasants "on credit/' and would repay (hem at a later stage when industry revived. This idea did not go down with the peasants,. who either refused to give up their supplies or failed to; produce; consequently at the last grain, fodder, and other agricultural products were being obtained by sheer force, by virtue of "war communism." In this war between town and country .--probably the most, cruel part of the civil war in Russia-—the peasants were ultimately victorious, .-but> their victory was achieved by the utter destruction o'l agricultnro itself. This was a kind of a -passive—typically Russian* "Jacquerie," with sporadic, fierce and ravenous risings, burning of Governmental stoxes and killing of Commissars, occasional going over to the side of■ counter-revolu-, tiori, 'and falling an easy prey .to the teachings of the wide-spread , anarchobandit movement. * However,, not these sporadic warlike activities, but '.the. decay of agriculture was the main armor of the peasants in this queer and;unprecedented war between ihe.. scattered and defenceless producers;and the armed consumers, imbued with belief in the justice of their raids. Tho more efficient the Bolshevik •'requisitionings became the less were the peasants" willing, to till the laud, and gradually they developed a burning desire to starve the towns even ' at. tho expense of starving themselves. The acreage and productiveness of, agri-, cnltuf-e fell to an that made requisitionings well-nigh impossible.' Seeing llie position, Lenin, forced his parly? to agree to the concession ofJ freetrader and the, revival ; of capitalism.. "l£ should bo now clear," said Economic Life, one of the Soviet journals, "that we are unable io revive industry by the methods of Slate control'' and State organisation, and that,we have to ericour- . age the initiative and enterprise of millions of small proprietors." Here was the Socialist doctrine gone bang; The most profound change is, that every, laborer (as well as'every Soviet official) has to secure something to sell or to barter for food with the sackman or peasant. The money wage, which was always inadequate, is now of^no, use at all, simply because it is technically impossible to print enough money to pay a. "living wage," at the present pjjee of roubles with such a, debased currency as the Soviet printing presses have brought about. The only alternative, since the Government is unable to . supply the workers with the necessaries of life, is to' pay them a "natural wage," i.e., a' part."of their produce, so"_ that they either consume it or barter it for other commodities, as the case may be. By tho new system introduced now in Russia, the workers receive a part pi their produce, if what they produce can be consumed or bartered fpV„ food;; • but' in cases when the articles'they produce arms, etc.), cannot,, .be, dis-ij posed of by the workers *on tho free market, the workers may ■use a part of tlicir time to produce any articles they consider valuable, for the* peasants. As, to transport workers and others; who are giving only their services to the State,>• hut -are not producing " any material goods, they will'evidently' be supplied by the State with marketing articles!; instead of a',wage; This system— irievi|>»bie in the circumstances', as it may.l»ve,been—is threatening the last remnants of Rus-: sian industry. The productivity, which is now even* in the model factories only a fraction of the normal, will' inevitably fall still lower. But this is 'hot all. There is already noticeable a tendency to leave, the factories and establish.''small, 'shops! The workers believe that they will be better off if they work for'themselves, instead of working six hours or so for the Government in order to gain the. right to work two or three hours for themselves, using tho fools, fuel, and materials of the factory. Tho big nationalised factories are in danger of! losing their -workers, since they lost the : position and the privilege pf a monopoly.' Such is the hapless state into which Rusisan industry has drifted. And on top of it all;epmes a failure of- harvests arid actual famine, with a poignant cry going out to' all nations to send help.,! Wo have no doubt that all civilised countries will be .willing to he]p./Russia through her transition agonies with supplies of food, but a distinct condition must be Jaid down, that. tjfafe ; Soviet's armies., threatening the* .world's peace, be disbanded. -, M ...