Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1921-05-05
Shall Chaos or Reconstruction in
Europe Follow the Great
World War;
S0vIETS' MISUSE OF POWER
Conditions in Russia Under That Form
Of Government Not of Sort to
Commend Themselves to
Thinking Men.
Article XVII.
BY FRANK COMERFORD.

cumblng to the treatment; notwlth-
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 officouSneSS. greed for SpOilS,
are the record they have made. The
political machine is the same plumber
ing graft organization under COM
munism in Russia that it is under
democracy in other countries. The
soviet government is Il political ma
chine, and communism has not
changed its character or its methods.
1t has simply given it larger oppOr-
tunities for spols. Greater security
in its corruption.
The "Socialdemocratin" prints some
interesting extracts from the bolshevik
budget for 1919.
According to this newspaper, the
revenue for the first half Of 1919
amounted to 2O,35O. 100000 rubles, and
bles, so that tl:c deficit for the first six
months of 1919 of soviet Russia
amounted to the enormous sum of over
10000 100000 rubIeS. The acquisition
of fOodstuffs and neceSSarieS of life /
has cost a deficit of five billion rubles, !
and the railways four and half bill !
lion rubles; thus a half year of boil |
Shevik rule cost more than the total
outlay on the whole war.
Money Expended 9eckIessiy.
The report of the bolshevik, Nemen- |
sky. on the audit of the central soviet |
commission in charge of all textile fac /
tories, appeared in the "Sovietskaya |
EkonoInicheskaya Zhizn" of February !
Is. 1919 THE finance credit division |
of the central soviet commission re- |
ceived up to February ], 1919, 3.4O0,- |
100000 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 |
/ to December 81, 1918, the central !
soviet commission advanced on ac- |
count of products to be received. !
I34S. $4,000 rubleS The value of the |
goods securing these advances re-
ceived up to January l, 1919, was only !
143.716.O0O 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 l. 1919 only !
29,SO3 pools of wool was acquired, |
whereas the annual requirement is fig |
ured at 100000 pools.
1.-The tremendous staff of officials !
(about G.000 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 1875 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 negllgl-
BILE to striking degree"
Such soviet institutions, Nemensky
beautiful example of deadening bu-
reaucracy and must be liquidated.
It would seem that the idealists in
charge Of the communist program IN
Russia are experts in "graft-rlnS
methods Payroll padding is among
their accomplishments. An innocent
bystander might suspect some of these
soviet officials of having leaning
toward "ilAte property particularly
when il s., easy reach.
Tn. ir Own Condemnation.
Probably it is fair to the bolsheviks
10 state their case in their own words
The bulletin of the central executive
committee of the sOviets, No. 10, 1919,
announces: I'VE have created ex-
traordinary commissaries and eXtraOr-
binary commissions without number.
All of these are, to a lesser or greater
degree. only mischief-makers
.9rhe toilng population see in the
squandering of money right ana ieTt
nv the commissaries and in their IN
decent loudness and profanity during
their trips through the district. the
complete absence of party discipline.
PeopIe's Commissar Lunacharsky,
according to the "Severnaynas Com
muna" of March %, 1919, declared:
1.-THE upper stratum of the soviet rule
is becoming detached from the masses
and the blunders of the communist
workers are becoming more ana more
frequent. These latter, according 10
statements by workmen treat the
masses ia a high-handed manner ana
are very generous with threats ana
repressions."
The soviet machine has had its run
In" with the workers. The factory
committees have been bulldozed. The
soviets have been brutal in their treat
ment of the proletariat.
1.-THE struggle between the soviels