The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-10-14
HUNGER HASTENS
BOLSHEv|K END
Peasants Organize Against
Seizure of Food for
Big Centers
.POPULACE FACES
TERRIBLE FAMINE
Plight of Small Children Especially Pit
iable-All in Petrograd Threatened
With starvation-What Red Cross
Officials Are Doing.


fall of the Bolshevik regime in Russia |
far more than the feeble and disorganized |
efforts Of the opposing political parties.
The political stEfe in the isolated Soviet |
republic is now becoming pitched bat
tie for bread in which all political theo-
ries and theorists are lost and Moscow
and Petrograd are regarded as monsters
trying to steal the meagre food supply
of the rural districts.
On the eve of its first anniversary, the
Bolshevik dictatorship of the proletariat
faces the most terrible famine in modern
history, and the final test has come of
the ability of Soviet arms to maintain
what Nikolai Lenine the Bolshevfk pre-
mier, calls organized hunger"
An American who has just arrived
from Russia, and who for three months
was engaged in an effort to provide bread
for workmen in the industrial centers
of Soviet Russia, told the correspondent
today of a widespread military organi-
zation of the peasants against Soviet
authority which is nonpolitical and based
purely on self preservation. In three
districts of the Eyatka government alone
the peasants have organized and armed
| 5000 men, chiefly returned soldiers, to
resist Soviet attempts to take their
grain. The peasants pay the soldiers 500
rubles each monthly.
| Similar conditions exist in all the
grain-producing governments nominally
under Soviet authority. The Soviet
grain crusaders were able to obtain linn
tied quantities of rye this year which
was harvested before the peasants had
perfected their organization of returned
soldiers, but the loss of this rye fired
them To action. In many places the
wheat and oat crops are in the hands of
peasant organizations. which are guard
| ing them against the Bolsheviki. Where
the districts are not well organized the
farmers are cutting the grain only as
they can sell it. and win burn it or let
it rot in the fields rather than risk its
confscation by armed bands OF Boil
sheviki.
The food crusaders sent from Moscow
and Petrograd meet with such resistance
that many who escape death join the
anti Bolshevik forces, and assist in
tightening the moose of starvation about
the two Soviet strongholds, which are
undergoing hunger siege far more
death dealing than the spasmodic revo.
lutionary outbreaks directed against
them by the Social Reyolutionists and
the Social Democrats.
Infant mortality in Petrograd has in.
creased 30 per cent School statistic,
show from 81 to 81 per cent of the en-,
rolled children are absent on account OF
illness. The situation is growing worse
daily, and the juvenile population OF
Petrograd will practically be wiped out
this winter unless food is provided from
foreign countries.
Figures on adult mortality are not
available, but, according to Captain vii
liam Il. Webster of the American Rec
Cross, who has Just arrived here from
Pctrograd, starvation is claiming thou
sands, especially aged and infirm per
sons without resources, who are unabl.
to get food at the government restau
rants or return to their native villages
| In Moscow the situation is slight,
better than in Petrograd, but there i
| also is critical
Il In peace times the infant mortality il
II Petrograd was p per cent, but nov
II there Is an absolute lack of milk an,
II grain and the proper mothers food
II There are 10000 homeless children il
II charge of Mime. Lelena. Petrograd Com
II missioner of Social Welfare and Presi
II dent Iverdloff of the Russian Red Cross
II who are facing starvation in PetrograC
II Many of these children are orphans, Will
II Others We're turned over to the com
VI mune by their parents. who were unabl
to feed them. These children are house
:, IN hotels, barracks, and other institu
II tions in Petrograd. None is over |
II years of age, while the majority az
II under 10.
III Last winter the American Red eros
III provided timed milk for 10000 childre
III in Petrograd and Captain Webster
III now endeavoring to arrange to feed tn
III Petrograd children next winter in Ct
III operation with the Danish Ministt
III Skavpius at Petrograd, who propos,
ii that shipments of milk and other foe
III from Denmark be forwarded on DAMS
II ships under the protection of the DAMS
II Red Cross. Relief through this plan mu
HI come within one month, as the Finnis
Bay will then freeze and shipments Wi
III be impossible by other means unless Il
y political and military conditions chang
= Madame Lelena and M. Iverdloff ha'
given the American and Danish RI
Cross officials written guarantees TIL
milk and other children's food will N
go to the population other than CHI
q dren, and that they have adequate fun
y to pay for supplies and the cost of di
- tribution under proper precautions. IT
!" satisfactory distribution to needy Oh
dren was made last winter through t
same channels by the American r
Cross without abuse. 1t is estimat
n that the number of children who will
y public charges in Petrograd before [
y end of the winter will be 100000
The cholera epidemic is under cont
in Petrograd, but there are numero
- deaths from starvation attributed
" cholera. and these cause alarming /