The Waikato Times With which is Incorporated The Waikato Argus. FRIDAY, MAY 20, 1932. RUSSIAN AFFAIRS.

Waikato Times, Volume 111, Issue 18641, 20 May 1932, Page 6

The Waikato Times With which is Incorporated The Waikato Argus. FRIDAY, MAY 20, 1932. RUSSIAN AFFAIRS.

After some interval we are beginning again to receive some news from Russia. There is of course the invariable suspicion that the news is unreliable, but in one point at least there is confirmation. Wheat has been bought on a considerable scale from Canada and Australia. In a country which has been exporting wheat and is capable of doing so on a grCat scale, to buy is an indication of a mistake in judgment respecting the amount required in the country. This is not in any way wonderful, and is really what we ought to have expected. Under a normal method of trading tho internal price would have risen, and less wheat would have been exported. Under Soviet rule orders are given to export so much wheat, the balance to be sold at a fixed price, until it is found that there is not enough wheat to last until the next harvest. We are told also that many workers have been put off because there was not enough meat to feed them. This lacks confirmation, though it is not unlikely. The truth Is -that market variations in price are tho guide to the production required, and if they are allowed to take their course, we shall arrive as near as possible at -a satisfactory arrangement. This is not peculiar lo Russia. In tho United States we see Ihe same working of the rule. There had been a fall in the price of wheat owing to -some extent to over production; tlio farmers appealed to the Government which set up a Board with funds to purchase wheat and hold it to raise the price. The price did not rise, for several other countries had surplus wheat, but the farmers continued io grow it, In reliance on the sale lo the Farm Board. The board has lost a very large amount of money; the farmers have produced an unsaleable commodity, and are In great straits.

Russia lias not reached the stage of producing a surplus of anything, but if the plan lasts long enough to enable her lo do so, there will be endless mistakes. Fluctuations in price are an automatic guide to what is required, bringing about an increase or decrease in supply. The most scientific of officials, silling in offices and working on masses of figures cannot achieve a result that will compare with what the older economists termed the higgling of Ihe market.

Among Ihe many proposals lo cope with our present troubles it lias boon suggested that we also should have a five years’ plan. The proposal is an imlicalinu of lack of imagination, Ini! lias no other value. The greatest difficulty of the live year plan lias ycl In lie faced. In Ihe early stages while raw materials were in course of produr.lion, Ihe proportion of skilled direel ors. foremen, and managers was nui lerale, and these have been oblained from abroad and largely from Ihe l niled Slates, ’file difileully begins when ihese raw materials are to he eonverled into eonstimption goods. This mtisl lie done in a much larger number of smaller factories and will require infinitely more supervision, which will not be obtainable. In

fact, there are not in the whole world enough of such men who are not already employed. Russia contains 15,000,000 people whose wants have hitherto been of the crudest, and whose capacity to supply even those few wants was small. The bare idea that in five years such a nation could bo trained to supply its wants is as ludicrous as the idea that in the same lime its requirements will be those of a civilised people. The Soviet authorities have done much for Russia. They have given the smatterings of education to very many. They have inspired large numbers of the youth with ideas and ambition. We think the ideas to be mistaken and that they will prove a failure, but like most things human they will probably turn out to be a compromise with less good than the Russians expect and more than we expect. We must remember that Russians are not Europeans in the usual sense of the word. They are Orientals, accustomed to accept direction and government from abroad. This is why it is possible for a small number to rule the rest. There is no indication of any counter revolution or of any man or group who could lead such an enterprise. The prime agent was Lenin who is now recognised as one of the remarkable men o-f all time. Circumstances put it into his power to carry his Ideas into effect. He came from aristOcratio stock which had been in the country long enough for him to consider himself Russian, but he displayed none of the ordinary characteristics of the race neither their artistic qualities nor their lack of business. If the Western world were not so engrossed with its own problems it would be watching Russian developments more closely. No such remarkable experiment has hitherto taken place at any time recorded in history.