The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-10-26
STATE OF THINGS IN RUSSIA.
Shortage ofCrops Exceeds Reports-Con-
illusions from Personal Inspection.


London Cableeram to New York Times
With blind stupidity that would be in
credible if We had not the example Of
Spain in history, Russia has busted her
self in destroying her most active mercan-
tile class just at the time when its help
was most sorely needed to keep the
country going at all. There has
been great and calamitogs
failure of the crops in Russia this year.
the world already knows. What the
world does not know. and what the aa
thorities at st. Petersburg seem themselves
only dlmly to grasp, is that a very consd.
cradle proportion of the breadstuffs crop
which did survive hostile frosts and
drought, and which figures in the est-
mates of the yield. has not been harvested
at all, but lies rotten now on the vast
steppes of the corn belt.
The explanation of this is very simple.
The customary system in the grain-pro-
ducing districts of Russia is for the Jewish
merchants to go about the country and
buy the growing crops as they stand and
advance the money to the owner for his
harvesting expenses. This advance is
most essential, because the land owner
lives always upon his next years profits
and has no ready money of his own. TINS
ton staring him IN the face, the Jew hiss
done very little buying of any sort. His
whole notion has been to realize,
not to invest. The result is that
whole grain districts exist where no
purchasers have come around at ALL and
where the proprietors, getting no cash adj
vanced, were unable TO harvest more than
an infinitesimal portion of their crops.
personally saw numerous evidences OF
TINS, and IN Odessa received proofs that It
is widespread
Russia's official figures, which show that
she needs 170,0O0.000 bushels more of rye
than she has TO feed her people, are be-
Heved in Odessa greatly to understate
the case. For the reason given above
the official statement of the wheat
yield is also discredited. There is no such
tnlng as trustworthy statistics there
at best, and this year, with all business de-
morallzed and almost DESTROYED by the
raid on the Jews, nobody pretends TO ac-
curate knowledge about anything; but
believe from all | could gather and from
what has been written to me within the
last week that a famine in Russia is newt
able. The press Is already inundated with
stories OF starving districts, OF sanguinary
bread riots, and of outbreaks of the hunger
plague; these it is impossible to verify,
for the machinery of gathering news in
Russia Is OF the most hopeless char.
acter; but there are only too good
reasons to credit them. The Russian
papers are showing more concern about
the question of feeding the cattle through
the winter than of human beings and
naturally enough, because a hungry win
ter Will be no great novelty TO the latter,
whereas short food for live stock wouldbe
terrible calamity in a land where agri-.
culture makes up nineteen-twentieths Of
the general wealth.
Out OF such a situation as is thus fore
Swallowed it is impossible that there
should not proceed disorder and turbu-
Ience. For months back the proprietors
Oh blg estates have been accust0ming
themselves 10 carrying reyovers
and Keeping firearms in their bedrooms,
simply because of a feeling in the
AR that the agrarian discomfort was reach
ing the danger point. Obviously there
Will be an immense increase in this feeling
when the pinch of hunger really comes. L
found among Intelligent observers every
where, even in July, the most profound
encouragement about the future. How
much greater must it be now that the gov
eminent is bestirring itself TO raise more
money and provide help for the most dis-
tressed provinces, but if 4 genuine famine
sets in officials will be practically power
less to combat 1t where the vastness OF the
country and the distance between remote
and isolated villages will be an insuperaDie
obstacle 10 relief.
Besides, in cases of this kind the first
thing one always hears in Russia is thas
the officials are stealing the relief fund Tor
themselves. Disorder on a large scale
throughout the Central and Western prov.
inces, therefore, is very likely, with locaL
risngs, the burning of rural residences,
the killing of landlords and officials, ana
the sacking of Jewish quarters in small
towns. If there were any revolutionary
leaders of real capacity, this violence
might be organized and achieve big re-
1a all
sharp turn to the drift of policy at st. PEI
tersburg