The daily Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1916-1917, 1916-08-25
WAR PROVES A HELP
TO THE SLAv PEOPLE
Russia Has Not Shirked in
Battle--Gives Everything
She Has.
PENSIONS ARE PAID
Conflict Has Transformed
Drunkards Through Lack
of Vodka.
PENSIONS ARE PAID
WARS EFFECTS IN RUSSIA
BY WILLIAM PHILIP SIMMS

W
UNITED Press Staff Correspondent
PETROGRAD. Aug. 25.-TwO years
of war has done Russia good. She has
not shirked in battle, mas fought her
best, paid the price in blood and bone
and Notwithstanding. is better off to-
day than she was two years ago.
Russia's first big win was by abol-
ishing Vodka. Russia is without
drunkards. Her second was her econ
omic and industrial awakening She
is learning 10 walk alone. This double
social miracle wrought by the war
ought to prove a compensation to Rus
sia for all she has lost or stands TO
lose.
Russia has nearly POO million people
of whom about 100 million. or so per
cent are peasants. These are better
off than ever in their lives. They get
good cash prices for what they sell.
The high cost of living does not effect
them much as they live off their farms
Labor is scarce but what there is. is
sober and accomplishes mre tnan
used to be accomplished when it was
plentiful.
The peasants today have money
Prior TO the war, 500 million rubles
400 million dollarsI a year left the
villages and country TO pay for drink.
All this money now remains in the
country.
Some 800 million rubles year are
now paid by the government as pen
siOns or war allowances to the fami-
/ lies of soldiers. Therefore. at least
a billion 500 million rubles a year are
new in the villages and country which,
before the war. were not there.
ShidlOvSky. President of the con-
trolling bloc in the Duma, himself a
land owner, told me: 81 am now EN-
| ploying a number of men on my plan
tation whom | had been compelled to
| fire before the war on account Of
drink"
in the villages a veritable miracle
| has taken place. Characters | used to
recognize as drunkards, wife-beaters.
and ne'er-do-wells generally. have
| been completely transformed by the
lack of vodka. They wear good
clothes and are clean. On Sundays
| you see them at church with their
/ wives neatly dressed and without the
black eyes which used to be character
istic of them.
Carpenters. cOblers. joiners and
wOrkmen generally are doing better
work and more work now that they
can't drink Drink abolition has work
ed q social and economical revOlu-
tion in this country
Everything is expensive in Russia at
present largely owing to lack of
transportation facilities in the inter
| lOT dHu ldCh VI d SOou Stdloit' bu'
high prices really effect comparative
few-the college professors. lawyers,
members of professions. clerks. etc.
whose incomes have not increased
since the war The working classes,
as rule. are less hard hit because
work is plentiful and wages two or
three times as high as they were two
years ago. Various citizen Organiza-
tions have done good work along this
line keeping things going.
At the start of the war. Russia S
| crops. were threatened. Russia was
utterly dependent Gn her crops and if
they failed her. she would really be up
against it Tie Union of local, or
county councils all o5e, the Empire
got busy. joinej hands with the mill
tary and the job was done. Squads OF
laborers were told off to gather in the
produce. No corner of the country
was too remote to pass unnoticed. The
crops we're saved to the last grain, in
no time at all.
This was the work of the All-Rus-