Evening Star Newspaper, October 10, 1929, Page 40

USSIAN FARMERS - HATE “RED" PARTY ;mer Feeling Steadily Grows i as Stiff Taxes Continue to Mount. Y a) tation and prop o of his disiliusionment -mr months in Soviet Russia, What T Ruseia 10a Min 16 resign frob: ."In these articles he describes Ae found. BY PAUL MARION. PARIS, October 9 (N.ANA)—At a Mheeting of the Central Bolshevist Com- mittee last November a delegate called Froumkine was bold enough to say: “Outside a very small body of poor peasants, the countryside is hostile to us. Our agriculture is on the down grade. Oul_'. peasants have no sense of was the first time I heard truth uttered by official lips in Russia. I must add that Froumkine had to sub- mit to the severest kind of rebuke from Stalin himself. Nothing was bad enough to say of him, and he has held his tongue ever since. In spite of every kind of window , it is difficult for the masters of the U. 8. 8. R. to explain how, in an essentially agricultural country like Russia, which, according to them, en- Joys an economic organization far above the capitalist system, and whose gov- ernment is based on an alliance between workmen and peasants, corn is perma- mntl{ lacking, in spite of several con- ve ars of bumper harvests. icial explanation of this para- dox u a serles of considerations on the backward state of Russian agriculture. ‘We are told that the personal consuNp- tion per head among the peasants hay gone up, and our numlon is drawn to the anti-Soviet policy of the Kulaks (well-to-do peasants). Socialistic Remedy. | ‘The remedy for this condition of , we are assured, is a “great So- clalist offensive on the agrarian sec- tor,” the multlplication of immense Boviet, farms for the production of corn and the grouping into vast collective undertakings of peasants’ small hold- !n Thus, we are told, Russian agri- ture will develop. m, however, give the lie to these | bon explanations and to these forecasts. If the truth is told, the Soviet buying ma- el cannot find the ne corn to feed the cities, and consequen! y lull more to ‘export, because the peasant reduced the areas sown, as the present regime gives him no chance, even by working hard, or “}'ruur profits or en~ joying an easier life. Not only does the government buy lleheptlllnl'l corn at a very much he peasant indus of M quality at very high prices but, what is worse, the unhappy inhabitant of the country districts is often unable to pvuchue in the state co-operative goods he has to have— clm-hl.n( textiles, footwear and such elementary gear as he wants for his farms, Paralysed by Taxes. o As if this were not enough, there is also a system of agrarian taxes so vexa- tious and reactionary as to paralyze by itself alone the whole of agricultural production. The well known measures of wheat requisition by the police in the Spring of 1928 made this state of affairs, if anything, worse, and the concessions subsequently granted to the peasant by a government afraid the argiculturists would resort to sowing only what was strictly required for themselves and their families failed to restore confi- dence or to increase production of cereals. In such circumstances it is not diffi- cult to follow the frame of mind of the Russian ‘peasant, and the Soviet press tells all sorts of edifying stories on the subject. ‘To justify rernulve meas- ures inflicted on the villages, we are told that the kulaks kill the peasant correspondents of the newspapers, &s well as the tax gatherers, and generally the members of the Communist party, and that they set fire to Soviet farms. Still, except in Siberia, in the, Uk- raine and the Caucasus, there are, prop- erly speaking, no real kulaks in the U. 8. 8. R. “I have traveled between 5,000 and 6,000 miles trying to find kulaks,” I was told by an agricultural engineer who had spent 30 years in the country, “and I have only met poor moujiks who were with great difficulty making a bare liv- ing. The average income per head in a Russian village does not amount to more than 9 or 10 roubles a month. “Sometimes I have met peasants who were more active than their fellows or owned better land and perhaps some azricultural machinery and a few head o cattle, and they enjoyed & very humble measure of comfort, but that is about all. As for rich or very well to do peasants holding & village in the hollow of their hand (kulak in Russian means fist)—well, I have never met any. “One day one such was reported to me. I went a long way to meet him, and I found that he did possess two horses and four cows. but he also had 10 children, and was just skin and Personally I have only visited villages THE KEVENING STAR 'n.hl.n & radius of 80 or 100, miles of Moscow, but even my relatiyel enerlmoe enabled me to real has | those who fight in the country, using | the every means, including the most savage individual violence, against the Com- munists, are ot a mere handful of rich peasants, but the whole mass of the moujiks. Condemn State Farms. T have talked with dozens of people familiar with the Russian countryside, and tales np'ee at_every point. The Reasant not hear of these vast !'.lu farms, or, in other words, of corn- producing factories, where his only pon is that of a wage slave. And that why, if he should happen one night w be more infuriated than usual, he will go and set fire to Soviet farms. ‘The man the peasant hates above all is the so-called village correspondent, usually & loafer, who finds it euler to earn a living by sending reports to the Soviet news%lpers and authorities than by tilling the earth., If the peasant should meet such a fellow at night in some isolated spot, it may quite easily happen that he will knock the corre- spondent on the head or stab him with- out further argument. If the “corre- spondent” takes no risks and keeps to his cottage, he will be watched evening after evening, and if he should care- lessly show himself at the window it is likely that he will get & bullet through his head. These things have become so much part of the local customs that one day & young restaurant waitress whom I ‘Take the prize for de- licious pies. Make them with FLAKO PIE CRUST Easy to make Add water and bake | Buy FLAKO at your grocer’s N questioned about her very visible dis- small | tress said to me: Ilmtm husban that | three months ago. He was killed by peasan “And why7" I asked her. “He was & member of the party,” she answered quite simply. Any other explanation seemed to her unnecessary. Buch reiations with the peasants do not appear to-me without danger to the future of the bolshevist govern- ment. I admit that the l al tro of the political police will llwl able to get the better of iocal peasant risings, but if war or some serious crisis should break out, it might bring terrible consequences to the Com- munists. » A BSoviet official, very loyal to the regime, told me of a conversation he ?;d in Aul\lst, 1928, with peasants in e Uk: 'Well my little brothers,” he said, “things are going better now. No more requisitions or searches in your barns. Our Soviet government is going to sup- ply goods to you. It has raised the price‘of corn and will grant you credits, and it has also reduced taxation.” CHARACTER LOANS Government Employees T isn’t necessary for you to furnish col- lateral and it isn't necessary for you to possess property—it is only necessary for you' to furnish proof of your good character as a Government Employe to obtain a Character Loan. THE DEPARTMENTAL BANK 1726 Pa. Ave. N.W. District 2709 Under U. S. Government Sup THURSDAY, OuiubrR 10, 1929 ‘No,” he was told. “That's all over. We don’t believe in Soviet promises any more. We have had enough of you. comumptlcn “Come, come! Don't talk like that. You know very well that that bandit Pilsudski (the Polish dictator) is watch- ing to seize our Ukraine. You would not want him to benefit by our private difficulties and to come here with his soldiers.” “We don’t care. Let him come.” “But, look here, these Poles would rob you of everything.” “Nonsense! We only know one thing for certain, and that is that when the Ukraine 1s no longer bolshevist but independent we shall sell our corn at a better price and we shall gn lower taxes. And go to war again? Not on your life!” Do a Good Job My friend, upset by this conversas tion, added that nothing he could say ews. I do not doubt the bolshevists have done and are doing everything they pos. sibly can, both from the material point of view and by pi this hostile flood an production. But the very basis of their economic domination, which is the exploitation of peasant resources to main! develop an expensive and badly man- aged industry and to support the needs of a formidable state machine, forces them to act in such a way that the masses of the ts will always re- main pro!o\mdly hostile to them in one form or another. One day. this cost the Soviets to increase corn While You’re Painting Whether you do or not all depends upon what paint you use. 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