Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-09-20
RUSSIA'S TROUBLE
CHIEFLY ECONOMIC
Complete Substitution of
Paper For Metal Currency
a Prime Cause

What is the matter with Russia
She is suffering from an economic
and financial crisis. This is the opin-
ion of Julius West, the representative
of the Fabian Society at the prelim-
mary Socialist Conference at Stock
holm. Mr.. West is an old student
of Russia affairs. He visited Russia
this summer and studied the situa-
tion there closely. On his return to
England a short time ago he wrote
for The Daily Chronicle" the follow
ing analysis of Russia's malady:
"On returning from a short jour-
ney to Russia the first thing which
strikes one about English opinion
is its tendency to attribute the dis
orders on the other side to political
causes. The root of Russia's present
difficulties is economic and financial,
and not political. So far as there
is political difficulty 1t is to very
large extent merely the reaction of
the prevalent economic conditions.
Coin Docs Not Exist
The outward and visible sign of
the troublesomeness of the situation
is paper. Metal currency has ceased
to exist. If you ask people where
it has got to, they shrug their shoul-
ders and talk about boarding. Illite-
rate peasants, it appears, dislike
paper money, and have collected all
the coin in circulation. During the
last three years the Romanoff gov
ernment attempted to get out Of
their financial difficulties by printing
vast quantities of paper money. This
had the result of driving coins out
of circulation and depreciating the
ruble.
With a banking system such as
exists in Russia there Is no limit to
the quantity of paper money which
the country can absorb, and conse-
quently to the liabilities which the
government can incur in issuing it.
The smaller coins-30, 20, Is and 10
copecks, and down to one copeck-
have been replaced by a special issue
Of postage stamps, printed on
specially thick paper. The one copeck
note (now worth about the tenth OF
a penny may be regarded as a
pathetic symbol of Russia's difficult
ties.
Wages a Serious Problem
There is also the wage problem 20
be considered. The Russian town
workman was until quite recently in
receipt of extraordinarily low wages,
standard of life. His wages, in Eng
lish terms, often came to no more
than a pound or two a month. He
and his family lived on black bread
and weak tea. and shared q room
or a cellar with perhaps several
other families.
Wages had been rising slowly
ever since 1905, the year of big
strikes. and they had been increasing
fairly rapidly between the outbreak
OF the war and the revolution. But
even so, they were appallingly in
sufficient, especially in view of the
extraordinary rise of prices during
the latter period.
Consequently, when the revolu-
ton came. the workmen felt they
were justified in asking for an in
crease of wages, which sometimes
came to as much as 900 or 400 per
cent. Immediately after the revolu-
ton these demands for higher wages
took place at virtually every factory.
Cases have been heard of when the
workmen demanded as much as 500
per cent. over prerevolution rates.
There have been innumerable
strikes, although they have seldom
lasted more than a few days. The
dangerous element of the new move
ment has been the tendency toward
syndicalism. Workmen have at
tempted to take control of factories