The Cordova daily times., 1919-02-10

RUSSIAN FOOD PROBLEM NOW
 BEING SOLVED

LONDON, Jan. Correspondence of the Associated Press). ized transportation, not lack of 1000, is responsible for the famine condl- tions in Russian cities and towns, ac- cording to Leslie Urquhart, capital ist with large meta1lurgical and mln- ing interests in Siberia. MT. Urqu- hart, who recently returned from Rus sia, has been appointed by the Brit ish government to assist ill the re- vival of Siberia's economic life.
 Considering the depreciation of the ruble, he told a representative of the Associated Press, food prices in Si- beria are practically normal. In West ern Siberia, he said, there is so much food on hand that considerable sur plus could be sent into other parts of Russia, and the same applies, he understood, to Southeastern Russia and to the Ukraine.
 Broadly speaking, it can be said that in the country as whole there is no shortage of food, and although the large towns of north and central Russia are starving, there is plenty of food in the villages. The difficulty of transport, due to the disorganlza- tion of the railways, the industrial strikes and risings which brought about the flooding of the Donetz coal mines and the decrease in the supply of fuel to less than 25 per cent of nor- nal production, civil war in the coun- try and economic chaos generally are all reasons for the state bordering on famine in the towns.
 "Ekibastous, the greatest wheat-pro- ducing province in Siberia, with large stocks of wheat lying less than one hundred miles away, is living from hand to mouth, as it is practically im- possible to transport the wheat for lack of strap iron, with which to make tires for wagon wheels.
 "The continual increase of wages in the industrial and manufacturing towns has raised the cost of iron, steel clothing, boots and other essen- tials-of everything, indeed, that the peasant wears and uses-and the peasant represents S5 per cent of the population of the country-to 20 and even 50 times their normal value. The town workers, or 15 per cent of the population, however, would not per init the Soviet government to raise tho maximum prices fixed for food. This one-sided legislation not unnat- urally incensed the peasant While he had to pay 20 and 50 times the normal price for all essential com modities produced by the industrial workers in the towns, he received only about double the normal pre-war price for the produce of his own labor.
 Therefore the peasant sits tight on his grain. He refuses to sell wheat to the Bolsheviki at the requisitiOn price of 11a cents pound when he can sell it at 96 cents pound, or even more. When it can be gotten, bread today in Petrograd or Moscow is 16 rubles or more a pound. The peas ant is willing to barter his food for cloth, steel, textiles and other neces- saries, but the industrial workers have ruined industry. Nothing Is be- ing produced there is nothing to bar ter with. The peasants have large accumulations of paper money, but this is of no value, for they can buy nothing with it. Meanwhile the peas ants are boarding their produce. "In sense, then, the peasant is master of the situation. He has the food, the townspeople have not. The Bolsheviki have tried with varying success to take wheat and other produce to feed the proletariat of the towns, but neither the Germans in the cost, nor the workmen in the towns can get food from the Russian peasant if he does not choose to let them have It."
 Since the foregoing statement was made it has been announced that the allied nations have made arrange ments to take over the operation or the Trans-Siberian and Chinese East ern railways, with John E. Stevens, the American engineer, in charge of