Omaha daily bee., 1921-09-08
100000 Russians
Facing Death in
State Of Samara
Officials Unable to Keep Rec
ord Of Burials-Esiimate
l40 10 200 Persons Die
OF Starvation Daily.
By FLOYD GIBBONS.

Samara, Aug. y (By Courier TO
Piga. Sept 7.-Vladimfi sokolsky,
the son OF a village prizes, aud now
the communist governor OF the state
of SamaSa, says there are oDJWo
starving peasants IN the state. which
is three times as large rs ssitzer-
land and OF the 100000 population
only 100000 live in towns. The rest
are all agrarian.
by starving peasants, mean
those actually possessing nothing 10
sa,," said Sokolsky. "The live
stock for shipping has long since
been slaughtered aud the breeding
stock also. There have been many
reports OF cats and dogs being eaten
in the towns and field rats in the
rural districts. The peasants are
also eating kind OF swamp root
called 'susak,' which is like psst and
which chemists say is not poisonous.
but is not nourishing. Clay eating
has caused hundreds OF deaths, par
,icularly among the children"
The governor admitted tha. statis-
tics on the cholera and typaus cpl
demic had not been kept. Deaths
have come so fast that there has
been no time nor doctors 10 asccr-
tain the causes. There has been no
record kept OF the burials. Staff
men have been kept ia the. cemetery
digging graves all the time. but they
had to depend upon the town folk
> or the relatives OF the dead to carry
the bodies away. He said that as
near as he could figure between l4O
and 200 persons have been d, ing in
the city Of Samara every day since
spring. l.
Pass I2 Funerals.
Leaving the whit building. which
serves as the governors mansion,
above the park on the banks OF the
Volga, we entered the city streets
again, passing II funerals in Is
minute walk. Plain wooden boxes
were carried ON wagon drawn by
detected horses. The cofiins were
all open, with some one walking
ahead of the horses carrying cof-
fin lid on his head. Small boxes,
containing the bodies OF babies and
small children were simply carried
under the arms Of barc-headed peas
ants.
The changing back gradually to
the cid policy of private ownership
and the operation Of the small pri-
vate stores now makes the past fail
ures of the government all the more
apparent, particularly in view Of the
fact that the change comes at a
time when any other state in the
world faced with the same Crisis
would change from private ownc--
ship to the immediate governm cnt
confiscation of food supplies irr
feeding its starving millions.
1t is a strange commentary cn the
present stage of so-called commun-
ism in Samara that hundreds ate iy-
ing in the streets, slowly dying Of
starvation, while it is possible tor
me to walk into the principal res
taurant and order a 10000 .rouble
meal, consisting Of cabbage soup,
beef, potatoes, bread and butter, lea
and white cakes with stewed fruit
or walk out with two pounds o. the
finest Russian caviar under my a.,
for the modest cost of $4,000 roubles
o. not quite $l.50; which is much
cheaper than it could have been OBJ
tanned for before the war. And this
in days CT great hunger.
Orchestra in Park.
But one learns Russia by its con.
tradictions. For instance, after din
ner went to the public park or
the banks Of the Volga at the end
OF the town. Sleeping on the
ground or on the benches at III. hi
IS prohibited the same as in Amer
lea, only here in Samara the weary
hungry and sleepless ones stay out
side the park, peering through the
ratings at the more or less happy
scene under the electric lights. In
der 4 big collection Of arc lights a
five-piece orchestra was playing Sc
iec$ions from the Dollar Princess
The violinist and leader wore straw
hats because the night was ciiiIy
The man at the piano was in his
shirt sleeves. The clarinet piaycs
wore a rough, much-patched cordt-
roy suit with a visored white ha,
Of German band style. A Woman in
red waist and blue skirt played
Z cellc.
Soldiers and officers with theil
GIRLS were sauntering through tlls
paths, taking pains, proudly, not e
salute or to recognize one anothci
.shecause that would be like the bou-.
geois armies. Walters were serving
tea, cigarets and soda but no iiqior
at tables near the orchestra and
my communist guide proudly ex-
planned that the park was now be.
ing exploited by private interests
who rent the place from the gov
ernment