The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-10-14
GRAIN FAMINE
 BALKS BOLSHEVIKI
Armed Peasants Withhold Sup pIies-SOviets Incite Poorer
 Farmers Against Richer.

AAAV OALl lO W HUI lI1S SIdl1 famine in Russia is driving the popu- lace, and the desperate methods adopted by the Bolshevist govern ment to cope with the resultant storm, are described by Hans Worst, Russian expert of the Berliner Tageblatt, in a dispatch from Moscow printed in that paper of Aug. "A, copy of which has just been received here. The writer tells of the growth of furtfve trading in small lots of grain obtained in dis tant and toilsome journeyings into the rural districts, the armed resist ance of the Russian peasants against government appropriation, and the counter-methods of the Bolshevist government in forming so-called Committees of Poverty" among the poorest farmers and melting them in turn against the peasants who are | better off.
 ''The famine in Moscow and the normal price conditions, the under 1 ground furtive traffic in foodstuffs, l have assumed tremendous proportions
 such as can scarcely be imagined even l in Germany" he says. This is true i equally in all parts of the country,
 not only the cities but the open land i itself is cursed with famine, particu-
 larly the northern territories, which 1 are naturally poor in grain.'' AS partial causes for this condition
 Worst sets down the decline in pro- ductivity due to the war and revolu-
 ton, the increased consumption, the
 difficulties of transport, and the re- luctance of the peasants to surrender
 their grain in exchange for the de- J preciated paper money. The Czar's government tried to meet the situa ton by fixing prices; the Provisiona
 Revolutionary government went further, by establishing a state mo
 nopoly of grain, and the Bolshevis
 government retained this monopoly
 Nevertheless, each of these govern
 ments found itself speedily obliged tC
 raise the fixed grain prices in greater
 and greater degree, and despite al
 this, the lack of grain supplies grey
 worse and worse.
 Under the new regime of the Bol
 sheviki and since the Brest-Litovsl
 peace" says the writer, new reason
 for the famine have been added tt
 the old ones. Through the German intervention, the north was dividet from the fertile south, and tn zecho-Slovaks took possession of tn } last district that had a rich grain sur plus, Western Siberia. The mean taken by the Soviet government il this terrible situation to bring ou the grain supplies held in concealmen by the frightened peasants in the ter ritory still left to it are still recalled T dictatorial powers or attorney fo U food commissioners, drastic penaltie for concealment of grain, high priz moneys for informers concerning sue 5 supplies, extensive dispatches of ez y petitions of the Red army to requ d sition grain, expeditions which wer e obliged to use most ruthless measure |. of force in order to separate tn t farmers from their grain. Of late th 2 penalties have been made still mo1 h drastic, and decree gives the work e mems organizations the right-an Y indeed orders them-to send out pal Q ties of requisition into the countr
 and thus to fight out the matter then
 selves with the farmers"
 Y All these measures, however tf > writer says, were futile, the farme u continuing well to conceal their SUI J. plies and well to defend them vii le force of arms when driven to e: 's tremes. The best hope of the go or ernment, to extract the rural gra le through exchange of manufacture " products, failed by reason of the lac IL of organized transport facilities IT -n net result of all measures of this so n was to emphasize and strengthen u E. conflicting interests of the peasant to and the urban proletariat and ] l. government. In the problem of u l. relationship between the urban pr nt letariat and the peasantry and t ly possible formation of united will a- the pasantry born of its own wish
 and needs, Worst sees the chief pro
 lem in the future development of t
 lrevolution. At present, he says, the