Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1922-03-06

as Kalenin that 2O0,OOO0OO pools of grain
are needed to feed the hungry in the famine
area until the next harvest, and that the
Government can furnish at best only one
fourth of this. There are plans to borrow
the remainder from foreign creditors.
American relief is limited to the children,
and at the time | left Moscow 1t did not
provide by any means for all those in the
famine area, let alone the Moscow Pc.
trograd children, with their 60 per cent.
tuberculosis and their infant mortality Of
40 per cent.
As Many May Starve as Fell
On the French Side in the War
I asked Kameniev, who is in charge Of
official relief, what was to prevent as many
people dying from the famine as fell on the
French side in the war. He moved his
hands in a sudden gesture, as though he
would like to wipe my suggestion out OF
existence, and said It was impossible. But
his preventive measure was foreign loan.
Visiting villages eighty miles from rail
roads, where supplies can penetrate only
on sleds after the Yolga freezes in Novem-
Der, found no evidence of an organization
in that backward district. / do not know
how food should be distributed over the
vast spaces even II it might be obtained by
the Government. And then l am skeptical
about Russian plans" in those particu-
lar villages the population already had be-
gun to Gle out, whatever Kalenin was writ
ing in Moscow, and the rest cannot survive
unless rescued. The greater part Of the
famine stricken are like these doomed viii
layers; they lie far from railways, with
out modern organization to aid them.
Hundreds and hundreds Of thousands, even
millions, must die. And in Moscow, as in
America, little about 1t will be remarked.
In some quarters outside Russia it Is as.
sumed that the famine must breed discon
tent in the Voiga itself, so that if an army
invaded Russia bringing food the country
side would rise against the Government
The peasants are not by any means pro-
Bolshevik. l hear that their priests have
taught them that the famine is the punish
ment of God for their suffering the Bolshe
Wiki to remain in power, though more Of
them, imagine, may know it is the pun
ishment for barring the bottoms of theil
bins. But the Volga is land of death and
disaster, not of rebellion.
An army bringing food might count or
pitiful welcome, but not on recruits. And
what army is to march over scorched fields
bearing its own supplies and food besides
for 100000 people? The Volga is asking
for mercy, not revenge.
This generalization holds despite thu
smoldering enmity to the government O.
the Kulaki, or fists" who still are numer
GUS in and about the Samara government
These are bands Of rich peasants, class
created by special privileges in the wa.
If land ownership and endowment be
slowed in times of Czarist agrarian re
forms. They remained a cohesive groul
after the revolution, seeking to protec
their interests from the poor peasants
whom the Bolshevih backed against them
For a time their bands terrorized tn
, Samara district, coming into villages AM
killing off the Soviet Mayor, his Communis
comrades and the village school teacher i
she were Communist. If punitive ez
petition was heard of, they blew up bridge
and railroad tracks in its advance. Orde
was established in Samara only after
large force had been sent down, and tn
. fact of the Red Army had been borne HON
. to the peasant mind, both by heavy n
+ r-lsals and by its appearing in numbers n
+ longer to be flouted.
, No one can pretend that the disaster c
! 100000 peasants in country even {
= Russia's magnitude does not injure tn
g Government, which cannot adequately brin
relief The future is influenced by the abb
T ity OF the Volga to recover, and thong