New-York tribune., 1922-04-04

tiog will do when all their supplies
ara gone, they shrug and s,pile. purt-
~ this is 10 indicate that they expect
skill 10 escape. that something w'ill
turn up. Partly it is the fatalism Of
the Slav nature that takes what comes
Ns FORE ordained. Above everything the
Russan peasant does not want syn
patby, He is not sorry for himself
or for his ueighbor.
Eut no lEan can como home from
Russia having seen the famine at first
hend without u mind pcrpetuaily
scared by memories never to be for
gotten. They tell stories OF canni
balism among The peasants in Central
Russia. For these ! cannot vouch from
\ personal experience. | do know that
dogs, cats and rats are eaten.
4 I have seen young girls so emaciatcd
with hunger that they looked like
! women Of seventy.
i j have Seen crowd Of refugees
/ thronging about E camel on the steppes
4 which had died Of exhaustion, cutting
It up for their dinners.
| have seen the naked bodies Of
areaways Of hospitals, 20 which they
hGo cclnc too late to be saved.
J have seen piles Of dead bodies in
q graveyard, one hundred or more in
the pile, waiting for burial, the prey
/ OF mur.uding dogs.
From the famine as an epic OF hu-
man suffering the mind turns again
TO the famine as n tragedy OF govern
! lnortal mismanagement.
Tho Russian government has told
the world, and still tells its own peo-
pie, that this is local famine o? e
type frequently recurrel1t in the VolGa
Valley. The government has referred
to the famines Of 1891, 1906 and 1910,
sudden droughts and were quickly coz
rected by the shipment Of food fron!
surrounding areas Of plenty. 1t has
sought to have it believed that This,
too, was famine which came from an
act Of God, and that this famine, too,
could be corrected by drafts upoa
areas OF plenty.
Time has demolished the argument.
| We now know that this IS an ali per
vayive famine that covers areas o.
ample rainfall as we'll as areas OF
drought We know that The sources OF
this famine do not lie only or primarily
IN the acts and policies q man.
A drought may explain reduced
harvests, bat it does not explain re-
duced paintings. IL 1912 there were
scwed in al crops in European Rus
s;a, outside Of the Ukraine, in round
numbers, l30.0O0,oo0 acres; in 1920,
s5,ooO,oOO acres; IN 1921, T0,oo0,o0O
acres Even IN the Ukraine tao reduc-
ton was in round numbers from 49,
0,00n to 5000 900 acres. The amount
ot seed sowed in Russia az a whole
was reduced rs per cent between l91G
and 1871.
No Excnse in Drought
For Countrywide Hunger
lhc Russian government has g.ve,!
wide currency TO the guiTerings of the
people Of the Nolga, where there wss
. drought. But It has only recent ;
ana grudgingly admitted the existence
Of d famine IN the Ukraine, where
there was 10 drought. We now know
tha. 100000 men, women and chill
dren in the Ukraine are hungry. Yes
tc*cay we were told that the Ukraine
was to feed the starving in the Nolga
We now know that the number OF
Is not 100000, as has been stated
b,,* 100 900 900, or 80 per cent 'o3 the
l!usoian people.
Behind The present famine there are
many th!ngs besides droughts and the
reGuisittons and the burninga b.
armies in civil war. Thera are the
draft" year after year from the peasant
TO satisfy the demands Of the arm.
and Of the protected workme.l ace
political employees. There is the
natural tax, which continues to thi:
day to take from the peasant coatribu
tions in kind, FOR the support OF the
purposes Of the government, From
every bushcl Of grain, every chicken
every egg, every quart Of milk ths
peasant produces. There is the re.
duction OF planr.ng9 duo 80 the lac,
OF seeds and incentive.
. And finally there is the capropria
t!o.i Of the great estates tronn which
came a large percentage o. the cx
portable surplus OF Russia. ESpro
prjation is more than & policy OF So
ciHl readjustmeut; 1t is q program o!
ecort ,nic suicide. appropriation means
the passing over OF cultivated estate
to wild brush urd the WOLF. Exoro
priation means destroyed dwellings
herds and bins, the scattering Of agri
cultural implements and horses, Che
: expulsion OF ovcrseera, experts ane
wise landlords. appropriation mean.
dazed peaeant9y walking over vide
scros which it cannot 3ructify, forget
ting il the pride o2 iict;vo oWncrbhil
tao Joy OF production.
liz these things lie the secret Of tn,
Russian famine.
L. Ais third article, ,rJa;c2s qatl
appser IN The T7-ibuase Tomorrow
: .Hr. Dic1i'asoas describes the despe1'
ufe 9?IiSEt Of JHc 12s,cx.c1, a,eu.o.f