The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-08-11
Press Correspondent Is First
American Thru Russia.
Describes Serious Situation
Seen on Flying Trip.
STARVATION SPECTRE STALKS
Even Lenine Admits Another
Winter Can't Be Weathered.
Siberia, Last Great Food Re-
serve, Stripped of Grain.

Viborg. Finland, Aug 1O.-Flushed
with success and confident of Poland's
defeat, soviet Russia faces the ap-
preaching winter with the grim prob
lem of food as it's supreme test of
power. From the Far East to the
Finnish frontier-4,OO0 miles of un-
disputed territory-the spectre OF
starvation stalks threatening as the
far reaches give up a cry for the ne
cessities of life, from a people whose
hearts. long sturdy in the struggle
for a new day are forced to heed the
demands of want
Writer Deported From Moscow.
The Associated Press corresponds
ent. just arrived here, has observed
these conditions in crossing Russia
and Siberia all the way from VIadf-
vostok to Moscow and Petrograd.
His arrival in Finland followed de-
portation from Moscow, because the
authorities had not given advance au-
thorization for crossing Siberia In
Finnish surroundings he is enabled to
send an uncensored account of the
straits of the Russian people as hur-
riedly observed while he and a num-
Der of refugees made the first trip OF
Americans across Russian in the last
two years.
Everywhere in all this trip from one
end of Russia to the other, the cry for
food and clothing was heard It was
voiced by the old Russian peasant
type at the Chinese frontier, where
the correspondent was first brought
into Russian territory. 1t was heard
again thru the heart of Russia where
! the crews of locomotives were clad
, in ragged garments with sandal-iike
shoes braided from the bark of trees.
/ Begged for Black Bread.
| As they stocked their engines they
begged for black bread from the lit
tie group of foreign refugees who
were passengers on the train being
sent from Moscow to the Finnish
frontier.
! The appeal for the necessities of
I living is universal from the people ex-
cept from the extra rationed class OF
higher military and civil government
authorities. To Nikolai Lenine, the
soviet president himself, according to
the accepted reports in Moscow. is
attributed the statement that the Rus
sian people cannot pass thru another
winter like the last. Even now, stories
are circulated for popular consump-
ton that Lenine himself is suffering
for want of food because of his in
sistence upon sharing the plight OF
the people. The story goes that he
refuses more than his allotted share
of black bread-three-e eighths of a
pound daily-which is the ration to-
day issued TO the civilian population
! in Moscow.
Onrest Is GrOW1nR.
Attendant upon the sore plight OF
/ the people economically is an ever
increasing spirit of unrest and revolt.
A military organization disciplined to
| the core finds a growing difficulty in
carrying out orders by the mailed fist
! tactics in which II has hitherto been
supreme. From east to west, the Boil
shevild soldiers are militarily trained
thruout and differed the same as any
regularly organized army. Controlled
I by the soviet political commissars,
they stand prepared at all times to
! fix firmly upon the people the new
social system prescribed in the su-
preme flats issuing from Moscow. At
the end of the second year that the
1 Bolshevikt have assumed direction Of
the proletariat, Russia remains in the
/ firm grasp of this military regime. It
is the same force which has beaten
/ back invading foreign armies on all
fronts. the same that has overcome
all counter revolutionary movements.
The soviet leaders are capitalizinR
| their victories to the utmost. They are
/ instilling into the minds of the people
! that the Red forces have defeated the
worlds armies seeking to enslave Rus
! sia and set up another form of Tsarist
| government They are urging upon
/ them that the tragic sufferings and
sacrifices will firmly establish national
security and spread the cause of social
revolution thruout all lands. In some
cases along the eastern frontier their
pleas fall upon the unwilling ears OF
/ the peasant pioneer who looked upon
, the former czar as his little father"
incapable of wrongdoing, and who be-
lieves still that all Russian troubles
began with the downfall of Nicholas.
Siberia Stripped of Grain.
! In their efforts to avert a rising
tide of counter sentiment, the leaders
have resorted to stringent methods.
Siberia. the last great food reserve to
be reclaimed to the Moscow power.
has been stripped of grain and manu-
featured goods captured after the
Kolchak debacIe. Supplies have been
transferred to relieve MOSCOW even to
the point Of placing the Siberian pop
ulation in need
The rich black soil 81 southern Rus
sia this year is said to have produced
less than half a crop because OF
drouths. The Don coal basins are
producing little. despite Denikine's
rout. necessitating that railroads and
industries. excepting in the small dis
tricts of Siberia. depend upon wood for
fuel The army is continually drain
ing the food stocks. while everywhere
women, girls and boys are replacing
men al all forms of labor.
The spectacle of stringency IS COM
piete with hundreds of dormant fac
tory stacks. from the small districts OF
Irkutsk and Omsk thru the larger in
dustrfal centers Of the Urals to the
1 great manufacturing district of Mos
!. COW. standing as monuments to an in
dustrial structure bearing all the ap-
pearance Of having broken down
i Observers on the trans-Russian
/; journey commented on the aspect OF
credited to Leon Trotzlzy. minister of
war. in addressing the seventh conven-
ton of aH-Russian commissars
Trotz1y was quoted as saying that ths