New Britain herald., 1920-08-11
COMING WINTER
 BOTHERS SOVIETS
Food Scarcity Is NOted-Supreme
 Test for Success

Associated Press)-Flushed with suc- cess and confident of Poland's defeat, soviet Russia faces the approaching winter with the grim problem of food as its supreme test of power. From the Far East to the Finnish frontier 1000 miles of disputed territory the spectre of starvation stalks threat eningly.
 The Associated Press correspondent just arrived here. has observed these conditions in crossing Russia and Si- beria- In Finnish surroundings he Is enabled to send an uncensored ac- count of the straits of the Russian people as hurriedly observed while he and a number of refugees made the first trip of Americans across Russia in the last two years.
 Everywhere tho cry for food and clothing was heard. It was voiced by the old Russian peasant type at the Chinese frontier. It was heard again through the heart of Russia where the crews of locomotives were clad in ragged garments with sandal-like shoes braided from the bark of trees. As they stoked their engines they begged for black bread from the group of foreign refugees.
 The appeal for the necessities of living is universal from the people. except from the extra-rationed class of higher military and civil govern ment authorities.
 To NikoIie Lenine. accoring to re- ports is attributed the statement that the Russan people cannot pass through another winter like the last. Lenine himself is said to be suffering from want of food because of his insist ence upon sharing the plight of the people.
 Attendant upon this sore plight is an ever increasing spirit of unrest and revolt A military organization disci- plined to the core, finds a growing difficulty in carrying out orders. Bol- sheviki soldiers are militarily trained throughout and officered the same HIS any other regularly organized army. Controlled by the soviet political com mission they stand prepared at all times to firmly fix upon the people the new social system prescribed in tho supreme flats issuing from Mos COW.
 At the end of the second year that the Bolsheviki have assumed direction of the proletariat Russia remains in firm grasp of this military regime.
 The soviet leaders are capitalizing their victories to the utmost. They are installing into the minds of the people that the Red forces have de- feated the worlds armies seeking to enslave Russia and set up another form of czarist government. They arc urging upon them that the tragic sufferings and sacrifices will firmly establish national security and spread the cause of social revolution through out all lands. ass
 |. In. their efforts avert a rising nf time aYaf ho have resorted to stringent methods. Siberia. the last great food reserve to be reclaimed to the Moscow power. has been stripped of grain and man. ufactured goods captured after the Koichak debacle. Supplies have been transferred to- relieve Moscow even to the point of placing the Siberian population in need.
 The rich black soil in southern Russia is said this year to have pro- duced less thas half a crop because of drouth. The Don coal basins are producing little, causing a depend ence upon wood for fuel.
 Everywhere women. girls and boys are replacing men at all forms of labor. Many factories in the larger industrial centers are idle.
 The output of the few factories
  leaving nothing. it is declared. to ex- change with the agricultural popu- lation for their products, a basic point in the bolshevik program.
 Continued requisition of grain and livestock in return for alleged worth less paper money instead of supplies is said to have made the agricultural population the greatest potential en- enemy of bolshevism.
 Greater success seems to have att tended reorganization of the railroad transportation system, especially in passenger traffic than any other branch O. industrial life.
 The cost Of the 1000 mile trip across Russia Is 1900 rubles. The sum is less than one American dol lar but also is less than the amount needed at scores of trans-Siberian sta- tions to buy a pound of meat or salt.
 The brightest spot in the whole picture of bolshevik Russia is repre- sented in attempts everywhere to em- phasize education. Efforts are being made to stabilize reading rooms and schools for both civilians and sol diers and to care for children dur ing the food crisis.