New-York tribune., 1921-10-16
Little Encouragement for
Local Owners Except by
Bribing Way Along;T Try
Leasing Factories TO
Groups Of Workmen

the new economic policy is to be OBJ
served in the change of atmosphere
among the people III regard to the
usual things of life. 1t must be re-
member red that until a month ago the
buying and selling even of q loaf OF
bread was technically crime in Soviet
Russia, being classcd together with
other similar operations, both big and
small, under the general title Of
"speculation."
1t is true that the Bolsheviki were
unable TO preven. the backstairs buy
ing and selling Of foodstutfs, but still
the danger OF arrest and Imprisonment
made even these simple transactions
extremely uncomfortable. day
however, they are openly permitted.
Free trading as it is called, is now
legal. The difference in the mentality
of the people is amazing. They walk
through the streets now as if they hal
right to do so, whereas when I ar
rived in August and the decree had
as yet barely begun to take effect they
still seemed to be living only upon
sufferance.
1t was curious to go through the
streets day after day and to see how
more and more shops and restaurants
we're opening up as time went on
When I arrived in Moscow there were
only two or three restauraNts-or
rather cafes-open in the whole of
the city. But fortnight later
counted q dozen cafes in one street
alone. 1t was the same in other towns
that | visited; day by day life grew
more normal and more animated But
everywhere two things stand in the
way-frst. the lack of definition of
the new privileges, and second. the in
competence of the Bolshcgik authori-
ties.
Experience IN Wosc0w
For an examyle of the former, let
US take the experience OF lady Of
my acquaintance who was one of the
first to open restaurant in Moscow
Together with three other ladies she
opened it in the first week of August
of this year. She had studied the new
DEGREES as they We're published, ana
by the advice of friend. a lawyer,
and with the assistance of her hus-
band, who vas q general in the Red
army. a. he had been in the Cars,
she thought that she could safely open
the restaurant SO long as she received
the permission Of the local Soviet of
the part of Moscow in which the shop
was and put the premises into repair.
She fulfilled these conditions and
opened the restaurant, herself and her
three colleagues acting as cooks and
Mattresses. The place was popular
and the four ladies thought they had
done we'll to start it. But In the mid
die of August she was informed that
under a new decree she and her friends
would be liable to pay 10000 000 rou-
bles rent annually for the shop
about $500 at the current rate of ex-
change, not that these figures mean
very much under present conditions.
Clearly this new decree entirely upsets
any calculations that she may have
previously made.
The other obstacle is still more re
Inarkable. Cases have been frequently
reported in the last few weeks Of the
Bolshevik police closing public mar
kcts, apparently being unaware that
private trading is now permitted.
To sum up the whole situation. may
ore not say that it would be absurd
to treat the present situation in Soviet
Russia as if it were comparable with
conditions in any other country that
exists to-day or has ever existed ?
The problems are so novel and the
circumstances so unique that special
point Of view and a special under
standing Of the peculiar conditions are
necessary before anything can be
clearly seen through the haze.