The Connecticut labor press., 1919-04-12

ing to Finances and Popular Economy, tobacco smoking has increased enOr- mously since the beginning of the revo- luton; and owing to the large amount of money i'll the pockets of the people, 1t is still increasing This means that when clothes, boots, and manufac- tured articles cannot be had at any price, the useless money goes up i'll smoke. When your correspondent was last ill R,1ss1a he found at kronstadt a complete tobacco famine. No cigar vlleo were to be had III the town. lie
 explanation given was that the sailors and Worknen who all looked extremely
 ragged and hungry, had bought the to-
 bacco up. from experience they knew
 that, the purchasing power Ot the paper
 ruble, ot which they had enormous
 quantities, would continue to fall; com
 modlt1es, therefore, not paper, were
 wanted; and after everything else i'll
 the town had been bought lip there was
 a rush to la" Ill
 Soviet Russia's textile industries are
 in a serious plight Officially 1t IS stated
 that 54 factorles< i'll lYanovo-Vosnes-
 sensk (the so-called Russian ManChes-
 ter in the province of Vladlmlr) have
 ceased working owing to lack of ma
 terials and that only three per cent of
 employees Ill the West Moscow textile
 region are at work. These figures refer
 mostly to, cotton. Since April, Russia
 has exported a considerable quantity of
 flax to Sweden and Denmark; yet Il>
 own linen industry, like the cotton in
 dustry Is at a standstill. On the sugar
 industry a report has been issued by the
 SoViet's Director of the Department of
 Indirect Taxation. In Soviet Russia,
 i'll the provinces of kursk, Voronezh,
 Tambov, Orel, and Tu1a, says this re- port were formerly 232 sugar factories. ton is 4, 4,50O 900 puds. The State sugar monopoly (decided upon in 1917, but first put into operation by the Soviets) is about to take measures to increase
 >roductlon, and also to import from abroad At least 5,500,0O0 puds more are needed. The leather industreis are practically at standstl1l, but German tanning experts were brought to Mos COW last September and there are plenty of hides, due to slaughtering of stock III certain provinces as result of insufficient fodder. The Soviets are starting boot and shoe factories on the lines of the already existing state ready-made clothing factories. The out 300,000 suits, which in theory can be bought for 450 rub1es each, but which, as there are not enough to go round, are sold in violation of the Soviet anti-specu1ation law at 700 or 800 rubles. The expected State output of boots and shoes in 1919 is 1,500,0O0 pairs. -t 'r
 The economic undertakings, of the Soviets are being badly hampered by increasing railway troubles. The main trouble at present is being caused by mobilization. against the southern counter revolution The Pravda and the Insvestiya agree that this southern counter revolution is the most dan gerous foe sBo1shevism has yet had to face ,and proclaim that now that the Volpa has been reconquered by Bo1- shevism the whole of the Don must fol- low. The mobilization has resulted in great scarcity of locomotives and cars on the lines southeast of Moscow. From the Moscow repair shops several hundred unrepaired cars had to De taken, and used. The condition of the locomotives Is no better. Locomotives which cannot be completely repaired are 'provisionally repaired and put into use, with the result, as the Isves- tiya says, of an increasinp number of accidents, which only as result of the rxeteme s1owness of our trains are relatively cheap i'll cost of life.'"