The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1920-06-27
Tell Duckworth Anything Is
Better Than Conditions Un-
der Which They Live.
OFFICIALS BREAK LAWS.
Illegal Bargaining FIourishes In
Country Where Individual
ism Is Dead"
(ey HERBERT oUckwoRTH)
tcopyright 1920. BY The Newspapss
Enterprise Association.)

hhSipiiSSe ASSoClatlOn.1
Special Cable.
Reval. Esthonia. June 26.-I asked
many Russians
Are you afraid of a Polish inpas-
ion?"
eve welcome no invader. yet any
thing is better than this hell.l" they
told me-
complicated, firing and hazardous
chore.
Theoretically. all trade in Russia
is abolished
The stores of Pskov. once a thriy-
ing town of As 1000 people. new are
closed and boarded up. Grass grows
tall on Sergeyevaskaja. the main
street Of Pskov
But the illegal market flourishes
In an alleged communist republic.
old habits die hard
Russian people still buy. sell and
barter
The shrewdest and strongest and
most canning get sufficient and the
old. the weak and the ignorant starve
and die
went marketing with the women
at Pskov.
The wife of the superintendent OF
the soviet flax factory acted as my
guide.
This woman's problem is to provide
food for family OF five. Her hus-
band draws the insufficient workers.
ration and his wages are 3.400 rubles
month. Bread sells for 500 rubles
pound,
The ma rlSet square was filled with
Red soldiers and townspeo~le. Even
the commissar's employees we're the,,..
for recognized some OF them as beiux
for the Suppression OF the Couu@G
Revolution and from communi r.
headquartersl
What are you doing here?" L
heard one commissar ask another.
You are sabotaging the revolution"
We cannot accomplish everything
in "a day" was the reply of his COM
panion. I'VE must live"
The second commissar took salt
from as as well as money in exchange
for his goods.
The Russian peasant farmers do
not want. Soviet money, but they do
want salt for use in preserving meat
Jews Pslov have "cornered" salt
and now the townspeople are exchange
then buying salt with czar rubles and ,
exchanging the salt for farm produce.
The market stalls that are closed
belonged TO the petty bourgeoite.
! bought ten eggs for a pound and
a half of salt.
One fish cost a pound of salt and A
pound of cheese cost four pounds OF
salt
Six small carrots cost a pound OF
salt, while two pounds of beef might
be bartered for two pounds of salt
There is a prison penalty for buying
or selling, yet 5000 people thronged
the market place.
/ myself bought "the makings.o A
pound Of Siberian tobacco cost 5000
rubles Ga ruble was 81 cents before
the war;, while the paper to make
cigarettes from--a sheet torn from a
used office letter book-cost me 25
rubles (about $3.50 at the pre-war
rate.)
/ wanted some small souvenirs and
was taken to the back door OF a stall
An employe told me that the proprie-
tress would fetch things she had hid
den at home TO the market in the af-
ternoon. This she did
II is a strange thing, If the Boil
shevist revolution was really success
ful, that the Jews, with their proven
bial instinct OF bargaining. should
now be buying czar money.
1t is also significant and amusing
that on my second day in Pskov, a
commissar (Bolshevist official) visit
ed me at my hotel and offered as a
personal favor" to exchange my
ear and Kerensky money for Soviet
rubles.
You must keep IL a secret" he said.
You are liable to be shot"
There are no lights in Pskov Tn
der daylight-saving scheme, sthe
clocks are running three hours fast
and, as a result, the people wander the
streets at / o'clock in the morning
and do not rise until o'clock.
The only amusement in the city is
the open-air moving picture show
The program includes quotations from
the speeches OF Lenin and Trotzky
and bulletins from the front