Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-02-04
HALE OF MOSCOW LIVE
ON BUREAUCRACY PAY
People Grodn Under BetvLdering Red Tape as Lenine
BeuaitS Wholesale Corruption OF
Soviet officials
BY II. +. K0SPOTU

Special Correspondent Of the Evening Public
Ledger In Switzerland
COPYRIGHT, 1920. bv the Public Ledger Co.
Geneva, Feb, 4.-Present conditions
IN soviet Russia afford convincing proof
that corruption and ineficisncy are in e
hercnt vices of state socialism as taught
by Karl Marx and practised by the
Bolshevists.
The rule OF the Red chiefs is being
mortally undermined by the corrupt and
inefficient bureaucracy which they have
reared. Nikolai Lcninc and his AGO.
lytes are fully alive to this menace. and
are making desperate attempts TO avert
it, but all their efforts are proving
fruitless for the evil is rooted in their
unnatural doctrine itself
Bolshevism in Russia has degenerated
into vast bureaucratic machine
preying upon the community. \ great
army of officials is living in complacent
idleness on large salaries paid by the
people in taxes and is exploiting their
misery and Lenine's socialistic DEGREES
TO extort further money from them in
the form of bribes.
To be a BolshcviSt has become pro-
fession involving minimum of work
and maximum Of profit. OF the mem
bers of the Russian Bolshcvst party, G5
least 20 per cent more are elected dele-
gates of local sovicts This means that
almost every professed BolsheviSt holds
government position of some sort.
Extravaganza is Staggering
In Moscow alone there are 300 600
government employees, nearly half of the
present number of inhabitants. The
municipal budget of the capital last
year equals the budget of all Russia in
1918. The food department employs
no less than 1000 scribcs, whose an
nual salaries total 260 900, 900 rubles.
"a ruble formerly was equivalent to
Fifty cents in American currency.
But this sum dwirdlcs 10 insis,
nificance compared with the expenses of
the department of popular economy"
which pays out six milliards of rubles
annually in salaries. About seven
eighths of the income of the municipality
OF Moscow is consumed bv the salaries
of its employees. The distribution of
100 900, 600 rublcs among the families
of fallen Red soldiers involved the crea-
ton of bureaucratic apparatus costing
80, 900, 600.
To justify its existence this host of
officials has intrenChpd itself in au in
LlNult llluLt VA lfl NulIF1 luIpuSu which
the ordinary citizen waudcrs helpless
and bewildered.
The inhabitants of Moscow and
Petrograd spend much of their time
filing out forms of all kinds and stand
ing wearily in line in government
Offices awaiting their turn to present
them. The Simplest transactions OF
everyday life. such as having a pair of
boots repaired. or buying n spool of
thread. cannot be performed without
first obtaining permit
Even Officials Are Confused
The officials themselves have long
since lost their way in the labyrinth of
DEGREES issued by their doctrinary
and the applicants are sent
from office to Office on a pilgrimage that
often lasts many weeks before they find
an employe willing to take up their
case,
1t is necessary to file four different
applications in order to obtain an auth
orization to purchase a suit of clothes
at the co operative stores of the state,
and if any mistake has been made in
filing out the forms. the entire proce-
dure must be begun over again. And
all this tyrannical red tape costs not
Ouly llHlt, UuL also ulUueS. lOf eacN
Office levies a payment of costs on the
prospective permit, whether it is ever
delivered or not.
Driven to desperation by official
indeed is the intention of
the Red bureaucrats--the public nat
urally resorts to bribery. The offer of
. substantial present" causes all diff
fculties raised by surly or indolent
employees to vanish instantly.
All the fine DEGREES and regulations
issued by the Communist chiefs are ex-
plotted unscrupulously by their worth
less subordinates as a means of facile
financial gain and thus remain q dead
letter for wealthy citizens who can af-
ford to pay the price Of immunity from
Bolshevist legislation.
Money Is Magic Open Sesame
Everything is to be had for money
In this first Of Communist republics. An
authorization to visit Petrograd-whicb
Is forbidden ground. being in the war
Eone-costs 10000 rubles. Permission
to remain there costs from 5000 70
20 900 rubles. according to the govern
nent department which issues the fc-
titious passport describing the bearer
rs one OF its indispensable" employees
The corrupt Soviet bureaucracy has re
iuced bribery to a regular commercial
with fixed prices for the
of special privileges.
Thus capitalists, though ostensibly
,evered from their fortunes by the ma
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