The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1920-07-22
Chaos or Reconstruction in
Europe Follow the Great
World War?
soWlETs' MISUSE OF W
Conditions in Russia Under That Form
Of Government Not OF a Sort to
Commend Themselves to
Thinking Men.
Article XVII.
BY FRANK

BY FRANK coMERFoRD.
Soviet government has been a costly
experiment. Russia is almost sue
cumbing to the treatment; notwith-
standing the RED" army is meeting
with success on the field, back of the
army conditions In Russia are grow
ing from bad to worse. The soviet
leaders are drunk with power and they
have conducted themselves as drunken
men generally do. Reckless waste, in
tolerant ~officiousness. greed for spells,
are the record they have made. The
political machine is the same plumber
ing graft organization under com
muniSm in Russia that 1t is under
democracy in other countries. The
soviet government is a political ma
chine, and communism has not
changed its character OF its methods.
1t has simply given it larger oppor-
tunities for spoils. Greater security
in its corruption.
The "Socialdemocratin' prints some
interesting extracts from the b~olshevik
budget for 1919.
According to this newspaper, the
revenue for the first half of 1919
amounted to 20.350, 000,0O rubles, AID
the expenditures to 80, 703, 100000 ru-
bles, so that the deficit for the first six
months OF 1919 of soviet Russia
amounted TO the enormous sum of over
10000, 100000 rubles. The acquisition
Of foodstuffs and n~ecessaries of life
has cost a deficit of five billion rubles,
and the railways four and a half bill
lion rubles; thus a half year of boil
shevik rule cost more than the total
outlay on the whole a
Money Expended RecklessIy.
The report of the boIshevik, Nemen-
sky, on the audit of the central soviet
commission in charge of all textile fac
tories, appeared in the "Sovietskaya
Ekonomicheskaya Zhizn" of February
%, 1919: "The finance credit division
of the central soviet commission re-
ceived up to February l, 1919, 3,400,-
600, 900 rubles. There was no control
of the expenditure of moneys. Money
was advanced to factories Immediately
upon demand and there were cases
when money was forwarded to fac
tories which did not exist. From July
j to December 81, 1913, the central
soviet commission advanced on ac-
count of products, to be received,
1,34S,61 900 rubles. The value of the
goods securing these advances re-
ceived up to January l, 1919, was only
143, 10000 rubles. The negligent way
of doing business may be particularly
observed from the way the central So
Wet commission purchased supplies of
raw wool. Up to January 1, 1919, only
129,803 pools of wool was acquired,
whereas the annual requirement is fig
ured at 100000 pools.
'The tremendous staff Of officials
(about 5000 persons) employed by the
commission are in the majority of
cases doing nothing useful. 1t appears
that there were on the payroll of this
institution 125 persons who actually
were not in the service at all, but who
were receiving salaries. There were
cases where the same persons received
salaries twice for the same period.
The efficiency Of the officials is negligi-
BILE to a striking degree"
Such soviet institutions, Nemensky
says at the end of his report, are a
beautiful example of d%eadening bu-
reaucracy and must be li~quidated.
1t would seem that the idealists in
charge of the communist program In
Russia are experts In "graft-ring'
methods. Payroll padding is among
their accomplishments. An innocent
~bystander might suspect some of these
soviet officials of having a leaning
toward private property, particularly
when 1t Is in easy reach.
Their Own Condemnation.
Probably It. Is fair TO the bolsheviks
70 state their case in their own words.
The bulletin Of the central executive
committee of the s~oviets, No. Is, 1919,
"We have created ex-
traordinary commissaries and extraor-
binary commissions without number.
All of these are, to a lesser or greater
degree, only mischief-makers
.The toiling population see in the
squandering Of money right and left
by the commissaries and in theif in
decent loudness and profanity duc'ag
their trips through the district, the
complete absence of party discipline"
Peoples Commissar. ~Lunacharsky.
according to the "Severnayna Com
muna" of March %. 1919, declared:
''The upper stratum Of the soviet rule
is becoming detached from the masses,
and the plumbers of the communist
workers are becoming more and more
frequent. These latter. according to
statements by workmen. treat the
masses In a nigh-handed manner and
are very generous with threats and
repressions."
The soviet machine has had Its run
N with the workers. The factory
rnmmIttoc> have bcen ~bulldOZed. The