The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-10-20
STRUGGLE FOR NORMALCY s IN RUSSIAN ECONOMICS
 SURPRISES POLITICAL PROBL EMS
tBy a Staff Correspondent
 Associated PreSs)

tBy a Staff Correspondent of The
 Associated Press) ,
 Moscow, Oct. 20.-Russia's struggle to >2cover economic normally over shadows all political considerations and IS the one subject which is com manding the attention of Russians of all parties and sects.
 The contention of the Bolshevists that food and manufactured articles had been hoarded has been justified to certain extent by the sudden ap- pearance upon the markets of nearly all kinds of food stuffs and notions
 Market stalls and small shops open ed speedily after the declaration of free trade in domestic commerce. cles. cloth, shoes, timed milk, Aus tralian corned beef English bottled pickles, pressed caviar, sugar, cheese, tea, coffee. biscuits and various house hold articles and furniture made their appearances suddenly.
 Prices are so high that only the wealthy, as wealth goes in Russia to- day. can buy extensively. But the ness that the Bolshevist claim about extensive hoarding of money, foreign as we'll as Russian. is also supported to considerable extent.
 Larger shops have not opened ex- tensively in the center of Moscow and the small matters, shoe dealers and clothiers have chiefly confined their activities to various street markets
 
 trade drag on, merchants are becom- ing more secure in their position and have apparently lost all fear that So- viet government threw open the mar RetS for the purpose of drawing goods out of hiding and confiscating them.
 In one of the worst famine centers on the Volga The Associated Press correspondent saw hungry refugees starving within sight of markets where bread. meat and all sorts of food were displayed in great Quanti- ties for sale at prices entirely beyond the reach of the average Russian peasant.
 why don't you seize the food and feed these peopIe?' the correspondent asked a provincial governor who was not able to obtain enough food to give 10000 orphans a scanty ration.
 That would only make food scarcer." the governor replied. "It would drive all the supplies back un- der cover and the welI-to-do would they would have to depend on the government rations and make the sit uation worse. When money and man. factured articles can be exchanged legally for food the peasants bring their supplies into the markets and the burden which the government has in collecting food is lennesed."
 Russians % who are in the worst who have not found employment un- der the Sovient government. Elm ployeS of the government all get some food. Consequently all departments are greatly overstaffed and the clam or for positions is deafening. Sal aries are small and the scale is SC varied that it is impossible to learn what the standard is. But employees work for food rather than money One woman clerk in the Foreign Of fee told the correspondent that she received 1000 rubles a month. A soldier employed as guard at a gov ernment guest house says his wages is only 1000 rubles a month, with ar allowance of one pound of black bread, two Jumps of sugar and a Him. ited amount of rice and cassia, ol rough meal made from millet and used by the Russians as a sort o1 breakfast food. With bread sellins at prices ranging from 5000 to 7,O0(