The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1918-07-01
PROPERTY CLASS
OF RUSSIA ASKS
INTERVENTION
Even Germans Are Preferred
to Bolsheviki Rule by Up
per Classes.
(By Associated Press.)

VOLOGDA. Russia, July If the
Entente Allies will not intervene. let
the Germans come. is the attitude of
the formerly wealthy and middle class
es OF the people Of Russia. Most of
them here would frankly welcome for
eign Intervention.
This feeling has been the greatest
obstacle In any attempt to bring the
Russian internal revolution out of the
whirlpool of disorder. according to in
formation in the foreign embassies
here.
Now that the peasants and work
men are having their innings. the
property classes are beginning to feel
the pinch of denial and even of star
walton. experienced by the poorer
classes In Russia for centuries. This
ia illustrated by the experience Of the
bourgeois" family in whose home The
Associated Press correspondent lives
as paying guest"
This family. once one Of the wealth.
est in the Vologda government. owned
thousands of timber land, several lum-
Der mills. a dozen ships, two glass fac
tories and more than 1000 acres of
land
This Is what has happened to these
holdings in the past two months:
The lumber land has been declared
a government monopoly and confis-
Gated; likewise the shipping. The glass
factories and lumber mills have been
taken over and operated by the work
men. The peasants have taken the
land.
Food Prices High.
A few days ago the city government
(Sovict imposed a special tax on the
capitalistic class. The family was as
sessed $4,000 rubles
Prices for foodstuffs, VIII 4 obtain.
able, are enormous, even VIII, figured
at the present rate Of International ex-
change-which these Russians don't
get. because their money is old money,
invested or made when the exchange
was two rubles to the dollar. Com
pared with old standards Of prices in
Russia. when living was cheap. the
prices now are almost unbelievable
White -four cannot be bought except
by stealth and in the tiniest quaint
ties. The black -four which all use
now makes the blacklist of bread. The
poorest peasants formerly ate some
thing similar The cost of this flour
formerly was the equivalent of about
25 cents per pood (36 pounds).
At present in Vologda each person
is allowed pounds Of this -four a
month. enough to permit about three
thin slices of bread per day. But more
is procurable through irregular chan
nels. The correspondents host bought
a pood yesterday for $50 rublesr, just
900 times the old price.
There Is nothing else quite as bad
as this, but, with meat, butter and all
other foodstuffs the prices are from
ten to fifty times the old amounts
Everything is by card: that Is. pur
chases are limited and city (Soviet)
controlled. but 1t is quite possible, If
one has enough money. to secure larg-
or quantities by stealth
But the Soviet has quite an effective
way Of controlling this underhanded
traiing--the "obusk" "Obusk" Is Rus
sian for search. A dozen or so armed
soldiers and Red Guard swoop down
now and then on the house the CORES
pendent occupies and confscate the
surplus supplies.
When to these difficulties are added
confiscation of bank accounts of the
wealthy families their plight can be
imagined.