New-York tribune., 1918-08-04

wv man armies or German in
trigue or Russian cheap
money that defeated Russia is a
question that will some day require
deal of investigation. At any
rate, so far as the Russian situation
is a financial debacle or an indus
trial paralysis, the primary cause
may we'll be in the lack Of a trust
worthy monetary system. The at
tempt to get government revenues
by a cumulative process Of diluting
the currency finally resulted in a
currency good for nothing for its
purposes, and in the entire lack Of
any other currency. This easy go
ing process Of government finance
finally inflated itself out of any pos
sibility of revenues. The money
that was so easy to supply in indefi-
mite quantities lost it's efficiency for
buying purposes. The producer
wouldn't let go Of his goods on
terms Of taking the money in re-
turn. He wanted money, but only
money that he could sell for
things, so that, for example, he
might get cloth or shoes with it.
When it became doubtful how many
shoes the money would buy, If it
should turn out to buy any at all,
the peasant declared that he would
trade his produce directly for the
shoes or keep his produce-no more
Intermediates that jammed halfway
for him; no more roundabouts that
would not go way round.
Precisely so stands the present
case. Still in Russia there remain a
few things for sale; still there are
wants to be supplied-a market for
goods-but the ordinary machinery
Of exchange has broken down. The
Russian war finance having discred-
tied all money, the only resource
now is to go back to the far away
primitive methods Of barter-so far
as there are products left to
trade in.
1t is thus certain that If America
is now to do business with the Rus
sian peasant the barter method IS
the only method that is available.
We don't want any Russian money,
agreeing with the peasant so far;
and he is so far disheartened with
money in general that he wants none
Of ours-depreciated not yet by
quite so per cent He insists on
things for things, with no traffic Of
intermediary symbols. With SYM
bols that stand for no substance he
has reached safety.
Can we meet his terms7 Shall
we attempt to run tin pedler wag-
ons over Russia. dickering for meat
and wheat and fish, eggs and chick
ems in return? We should not get
far. The domestic agencies that
are organized for it, or can organ
ize, and that can talk Russian, prom
Use better.
But why not these, then? Assur-
edly-for whatever they can do. In
such case we shall have only the
wholesale barter to arrange for
sending shiploads or trainloads OF
goods and bringing back similarly
large cargoes in Offset.
But this is precisely what we have
always been doing-so far as we
have done anything; this is precise
ly what international trade amounts
to. There is now no more difficulty
about this than there ever was;
whether with or without money,
goods will buy goods in Petrograd
or Moscow if only there are any
goods there to be bought or any
prospect Of finding buyers for the
newly imported goods, It Is not In
the wholesale markets that money
is important or that money is lack
ing; it is in the final markets that
money is discredited-in the village
communities, on the farm, in the re-
tail shops-at precisely the points
which we cannot reach.
The good people, therefore, that
are organizing a new thing in the
retail aspects of international trade
are pursuing what is for them an
impossibility; in the wholesale trade
this new thing is what has always
been.
But does not Russia just now se-
verely need our products? Verify
but only in the same sense that
Russia is now in serious need of It's
own products-and as merely an
other aspect of this need. Its In
ability to buy rests mainly in its
inability to produce-its demoral-
lied industry, its broken down
transportation, its discredited mech
anism of exchange. II conld uso