East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1919-07-05

operatives. which sell a limited am
cunt on the card system for official
prices. The difficulty is getting en-
ough to sell to the people to keep them
lalive. At present there is not enough.
The government, through its CO.
operatives, is forced to pay eXorbitant
prices to get food for the people.
Peasants will not sell their products
unless they can be paid in gold or old
regime money unless they are paid
enormous amounts.
Now the government is selling much
of its goods at prices lower than cost.
The deficit is made up by printing
more money. But even fabulous prices
fail to secure enough. and people are
forced to rely upon the open market,
provided they have money.
1t is forbidden to bring food from
the country to the city privately. The
government is supposed to have a mo-
nopoly on food commerce. Guards at
the depots examine everyone's bag
gage, to see that each Traveller carries
only food for himself.
Commerce Uncontrolled.
There is sugar from the Ukraine,
apple sfrom Crimea, eggs, milk. cheese
and meat from the nearer country and
other products The government with
all it's diligence cannot control COM
merce.
Prices arc sl<y-high. In Moscow an
apple costs twenty-five rub1es. a
ruble formerly corresponded to the
American quarter. Now it is worth
five or six cents: Bolshevik rubles
are plentiful.
A few Moscow prices are: cheese
sixty rubles per pound; butter. forty;
lemons, sixty; milk, twelve rubles per
pint; meat, sixty: sugar. eighty: ba-
con ,one hundred; potatoes, fifteen
rubles per pound.
Petrograd prices are higher. Some
of them are: butter two hundred ru7
bles per pound; one egg. twenty-five
sugar. two hundred: saIer kraut,
twenty-five; pork. one hundred and
eighty; bacon, two hundred; bread.
seventy-five: white flour, thousand
rubles or more per pound.
Getting food into cities pays big
money Much ingenuity is shown.
Probably the greatest profiteers are
the railroad people. They are amass-
ing fortunes. A number of times along
the railroad the train will stop at the
edge of small town or even in field
The engineer and brakeman make a
dash for the nearest house and come
running back with sacks of food
which they hide usually in the loco
motive. Other members of the train
crew also stock up. often holding a
train for fifteen or twenty minutes to
buy food from farmers.
1t is seldom that trains are exam
ned. and railroad employees are abolt
to smuggle their goods to merchants
under cover of darkness. Both the
railroaders and the merchants make
from five hundred to thousand per
cent on their money. Railroad Jobs
are in demand
Restaurants "I3anned."
Theoretically restaurants catering
to the general public are under the
ban, You are supposed to be assigned
to certain place to eat all of your
meals, If you do not have family
and live at home The city commits
saire assigns you. If you do not like
1t, you can lump it.
As "A matter of fact. restaurants do
run in quiet spots, even in Moscow
You can get surprisingly good meal,
sufficient in quantity and quality |
soup, meat vegetables. dessert and |
coffee in one of these places costs you |
1 hundred and twenty-five rubles
But you can get enough. provided /
'ou have the money. In the country
prices are far better. At railroad sta
ions along the lines other than the
Moscow Petrograd route You can buy
MILK boiled eggs. cheese. butter and
'read from the peasants at prices that
re not unreasonable provided. you are /
'enefiting by the exchange from Am n
rican to Russian money.
The big problem is with the poor of II
he big cities. They cannot get enough i
t the co-operatives, even those who
et the full hard workingman's ra-
ions. which is allowed to growing chill
ren, also. The light workers ra-
ion is still worse, and the bourgooisie
llowance is not enough to keep one
4 health.
Despite the steadily increasing
'ages. people who do not have some
graft" or outside means of getting
loney are hard hit. in Petrograd es-
ecially. In other parts of Russia.
ven Moscow. people look sufficiently
Id The country has plenty. but it
lnnot be brought the cities. owing to
ne military demands on the rail-