New-York tribune., 1921-12-04

OF age who before the arrival Of tho
Bolshevists occupied situations an law
yers, bank directors, merchants or ad-
ministrators. This regiment had to
perform the most humiliating tasks.
The men swept the streets and cleaned
sne cutters and latrines The women
cleaned the barracks and washed the
soldiers clothing. Meantime the jeer-
ing of the crowd, happy in gloating
over such humiliation, made the lifo
OF the regiment" even more unbeara-
Bile.
The speciality of the "Tchay -Ka," az
of the Bolshevists in general, and the
only works which their regime knows
how to terminate successfully, are the
perquisitions, an art in which they are
cret police of other countries. The
last perquisition they made in my
house was masterpiece. To search for
the gold and silver which might have
hidden they removed the floors in all
rooms, they demolished the walls, they
!, tore asunder the stoves and furniture
and even the water closets; they dug
up the yard, the garden, the granary,
etc. Furious at finding nothing, they
took away all that remained to me of
linen, clothes, and furniture and left
me only trunk, suit Of clothes, a
spoon, a fork and few other things
without value. The perquisition lasted
twenty-four hours, during which we re-
mained shut in under the guard Of FIVE
soldiers.
In the street spies were everywhere.
Indeed, while Bolshevism has destroyed
everything industry, fam
| lily test knew how to create an ad-
mirable system Of espionage, owing to
which it holds in it's hands the whole
population and, above all, the army.
Often an agent Of the secret police
falls suddenly upon a passerby and
asks him what he was thinking Of; if
the answer is not satisfactory or not
given quick enough it happens that two
other agents jump upon them, separate
them and ask each to tell them the OBJ
| ject Of their conversation. If the two
declarations do not agree, both Of them
are put into prison. Therefore, when
walking with friend the first thing is
to agree with him about the declaration
to be made to the policemen. You see
from this what liberty means in this
country. Never has there existed such
la serfdom. AS to the workingmen,
they have neither the right to change
I:heir places of employment nor to
strike. A strike is quickly brought to
an end by shooting down the leaders.
| Elections are free in principle, but il
| you vote against the Bolsheviks yet
are put into jail. Sometimes they act
preventively by arresting the day be.
| fore election all those suspected of be-
ing Of the opposition. The next day
long triumphal dispatches announce
the election of the Communists with an
overwhelming majority. That's what
has taken place at the municipal elec-
tions Of Ekaterinodar.
TO have the right to live to-day in
Russia one must be employed by ono
OF the numerous public administrations.
This is after all solely for the sake Of
form and for obtaining document es-
tablishing that one is employed by the
government. AS to the rest, the quality
OF the service does not matter; the
essential thing is to be present in the
of1ices from 10 a. m. to pm. In reality
they have never worked so little in
Russia, where they have never worked
much. There are in Ekaterinodar $50
different administrations, occupying
about $4,000 employees, whose work
could .be easily done by 500, The SAL
aries are almost equal for verybody,
from the Office boy to the head Of the
service. No one works in his speciality
AN engineer is occupied in revictu-
alling, butcher is an examining mag
istrate and other examples Of the same
genre. From this may be seen the
ardor with which they work in these
bureaus.
The highest salaries for tho en-
ployees Of the Kuban province and the
government Of the Black Sea are about
10000 rIbles q month. Besides every
employee receives gratis q bread ration,
which at first was IN pounds, but is
now reduced to n of pound. Now,
toward the beginning Of last June, the
prices of the different commodities
were as follows:
Rubles.
One pound of bread. .......T.. 1000
One pound Of butter. ............ $4,000
One pound of oil............... 5000
One pound of potatoes ......... 1000
One pound of meat. .......... 5000
a bottle OF milk. ............... 1900
a hen northumberland. 10000
A turkey .................... 10000
An egg -. Observation-Disclosures. 10000
A pound of salt. t................ 1000
A pound of sugar. ar.............. 10000
A pound of fout.. .............. 1000
a pound Of tobacco. ............ 5000
A box of matches. s............. 1000
A sazene Of fuel. 600, 900
The communist who reads these
lines will surely get indignant at our
4 r.