East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1922-08-31
staggerIng MonopoIies

eligible age and we have nearly two
million enrolled.
Staggering MOnopOiies
"Our head office in Moscow sup
ports itself by concessions which it
gets from the government. We have.
among Others the monopoly for sup
plying sporting goods in Russia"
/ was staggered. A monopoly like
that, with a market of two million
young people already organized! "Yon
must be making something" I said.
I'VE are" he admitted modestly.
"But what / wanted to talk about is
the concession we have for running
autobuses in Moscow. We have only
one autobus now, brought in from
Germany. 1t holds twenty people,
and it makes in profit about 500 a
day and 5000 on Sunday. Can't you
get some maker of autobuses to go in
with us, he to furnish the autos and
we to furnish gasoline and do the
operating?
AutObus Privilege
I'VE can get a monopoly of auto
bus transport in Moscow; in fact the
city would even take stock in our
concern. You know yourself how
crowded the street cars are, and it will
be years before they can be extended.
There is no subway or elevated, and
this is a city of two million people.
Figure for yourself the chances, if
only we had ten autobuses to stdrt!"
Before l completely grasDed the
possibilities / was hurried to another.
young mechanic, working in the
Supreme Council of Public Economy,
the highest economic organ of Russia,
showed me samples of electric light
bulbs 'They are made,' he said, "by
a factory in Petrograd, and the Gov
ernment department stores contract
to take all their output. They can
only make 1000 a day, but engineers
say the factory could easily produce
100, 600 a day if it had proper machin-
cry. Well, that would cost two hun
dred thousand dollars, so I'm not in
terested for | never could get that
much money
No Electric Bulbs
"But the thing that interests me |
is the metal part of the electric bulb.
These are made nowhere in Russia
The Petrograd factory makes only the
glass and imports the metal parts
from Germany. If we only had three I
or four thousand dollars there are
seven of us boys, mechanics, who
would put in our labor and set up a
little shop to make those little parts.
They have already promised, as soon
1,,
samples, to give us contracts for all |
we can make. Then we can begin to
expand toward the machinery and /
mass production we must have in the |
future If we can show a chance of |
this we can get the monopoly for lamp |
production in Russia.
Look here" I said, Suppose you |
find that you cannot make those |
metal parts as cheaply as Germany? |
VIII that factory buy from you then ?"
Sure" he said; 1.-The Government |
is interested in having those things F,
made in our country. They will put
on a duty to protect our development.
Infant industries he grinned, for he
had been in the states.
Sockets. But No Lights
remembered the conditions of /
lighting in Moscow: every room has
half a dozen sockets and only one
bulb! Electric light lamps do not sur
vive seven years of war and blockade. |
They are simply non-eXistent, and |
there is great demand. I bought !
one decent bulb for fifty-five cents, |
and when | brought it home my Rus |
sian roommate said: How cheap" |
And that was the kind of market those |
boys had to supply.
We talked after this to somebody |
higher up. He had documents all |
ready for a Russo american trading |
of exports and imports for |
The Russian government. 81 have
ready for export" he said-and then
he mentioned the number of tons of /
pigs bristIes, ferro manganese and |
other articles of commerce in which
Russia eXcells. There are private
trading companies already operating II
IN shoestring," he said, land they Il
ire making money. But a company
N which the government had a per-
'onal interest, owning half the stock,
while American capitalists owned the
'ther half-a company with the mo-
,opoly for supplying government in
titutions and exporting government
oroducts-would there be money in III
hat?"
The amount of capital he men,
ioned for such a company was so
mall that I'm not going to tell it,
or il gave me wild dreams of getting
ogether few friends and going into
he business myself!
UICIDE'S RESTITUTION