The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1919-07-09

monetary system is probably the
most spectacular financial experi-
ment in history. AT present it is a
neck and neck race between the
printing press and the decreasing
value of the ruble, as evidenced by
prices, which are soaring steadily
higher.
The bolsheviks began their finan-
cial experiment with the following
idea in mind. They said money was
the source of all evil. since it repre-
sented wealth According to the
bolshevik creed, individual wealth is
bad. 1t causes luxury and privilege.
they said So the bolsheviks decided
to ultimately abolish money
The bolshevlks had to tolerate
money since the people had guam
tity Of it and refused to counten-
ance its abolition outright Money
was needed to win support and build
up the bolshevik governmental ma
chine
Then some bolshevik had a happy
idea, which was readily adopted; 1t
was to print more paper money, and
print it in such enormous quantities
that the government could not pos
sibly be short of funds.
Since the bolshevik government
had confiscated everything and there
fore owned everything in Russia, it
could print money without bothering
to provide for special securities the
leaders reasoned Hence money was
not numbered serially. Nobody
knows how much exists.
The paper ruble is decreasing in
value. But that fulfills the original
idea. Eventually the ruble may be
worth nothing. Then nobody will
want rubles, says the bolshevik.
They claim that money will then
automatically disappear Thus it is
only question of speeding up the
printing presses.
However, money has not disap-
peared so readily, despite the sim
plicity of the plan Unexpected diff
ficulties have arisen.
In the first place, prices soar as
money decreases in value To meet
the cost of living, wages are raised
by the unions almost monthly. The
industrial unions dictate the wages
III Russia.
Even with the rapidly rising wages
it is difficult for the workman to
buy the necessary food, especially if
he has family In most families
everybody is working.
To make matters more compli-
Gated. the peasant is baking at sell
ing his products for bolsheyik mon.
ey. The peasant farmer has been
the conservative in soviet Russia
He wants to be shown. He is sus.
picious of this new small-sized mon
ey
So the peasants have insisted on
gold or money of the old regime, in
exchange for his products. He can
not buy clothes and implements
since none are manufactured He
refuses to hoard anything but the
old styled money, and he already
LAS a good share of that in his pos.
session. The peasant does not sub
scribe to the communist doctrine
that the government should own ev.
erything. and sees no reason why he
should give up his products fo1
either credit or paper which will buy
practically nothing.
In the cities the bolshevik govern
ment met similar situation with re-
gard to the shop-keepers by means
of confiscation. But the government
fears to confiscate from the farmer
The peasants are too numerous, and
would resist the plan too strenuous
ly. So far the government has been
meeting the situation by paying en-
ormous prices for products, which it
seels at the co-operatives at a loss.