Evening star., 1923-10-03

/ saw Alexander Kerensky in
July. He is the editor of "a Rus
sian daily paper in Berlin, where
100000 Russians now live. Still a
young man. in his early forties, pos
sessing all the fire and enthusiasm
of youth, he has become one of the
most interesting personalities in
Europe. =
Il do not know how long the pres
ent government of Russia will last
declared this; former premier of Rus
sia. but / do know that Russia, will
live. She has not yet started to write
her name on history's page. Russia
will come back.
Before the war Russian exports
exceeded imports. In 1918 her ex-
ports totaied 7S2 millions of dollars
and imports totaled TOT. millions OF
dollars. You see she had no prob
lem involved in. paying her. way.
More than half of all her exports in
that year were foodstuffs From 1914 to
1917 she imported more than she ex-
ported. Since that time both her i'm
ports and exports have dwindled al
most to nothing. Russia since 1917
has not been a factor in international
trade. AS a result prices of grains
have greatly increased on the world
market and the American and Cana
dian farmers have thereby received
higher prices for their products. The
return of the Russian grain to the
European market from this year on
as now seems very probable, can only
spell lower prices to the farmers OF
America and Canada.
She has many problems to, solve
One of the most serious of them, Is
that of transportation. !, Before the
war the old imperial "a govern tent
gave 500 million dollars a year from
the national treasury to assist the
railroads and to keep the railroad
rates down to a low figure. Now
after the wreck of war and revolu-
tion, the department of transport in
1922 asked the department of finance
for thirty-eight million dollars and
received fifteen million. Still the
railroads attained 80 per cent of their
pre-war transport in 1922. The pro-
gram for the next three years calls
Tor sos new locomotives, and the re-
pairing of 1890 old ones Both
freight and passenger service are
greatly improved over what they
were two years ago, but conditions
NV NcbS SCI touS.&
Trusts Run State Industries.
The state-owned industries of Rus
sia are now operated and managed by
so-called trusts of which there are
400, covering 4. 4s5 shops employing
$4,000 workers. These trusts are di-
rectly responsible to the supreme
council of national economy. The
entire profits of each trust is turned
over to the state treasury. but the
state, as such, is not responsible fol
the debts and obligations of the trust
The trust is responsible for it's obli.
cations only to the limit OF its capital
Each trust is managed by a board OF
directors. appointed by the supreme
council of national economy, which
intcrferes very little with detail OPP
Grafton. For the year 1922 most ei
the trusts in the lighter industries
show profit, while those in the heavy
ones, like iron and steel, show a loss
Seventy million dollars worth oi
products were taken from industry BY
tht government in the first half OF
1929, for which no compensation was
given. Not until October, 1922. did all
government departments pay for al
.he goods that they ordered This
| meant very severe strain on certain
of the trsuts. The lighter industries
began to improve first The trusts
handling cotton. wooden. sugar. furs
rubber. brass, paper, tobacco. matches
chemicals and leather are today
showing profit on the national
books. No great credit problem is
involv3a in the handling of these
Russian matches are being exported
and are undertaking, those, produced
in Sweden on the European markets
Rubber goods are now going; on the
and are underselling those produced
increased $50 per cent in, 1929 over
1922. AS result the price of sugar
has decreased within Russia from 60
cents a pound in 1922 to 10 cents a
pound in 1923. Cotton production is
now about .two-thirds of pre-war pro-
duction. Still Russia must import
$4,000 tons of cotton for 1923 and also
5000 tons of wool. The lighter indus
tries are coming back. 1t is the heavy
ones that cause the real problem.
OF the 274 men now on. the highest
boards of the department of govern
ment industries. 204 have had uni
versity educatio Before the revo-
luton seventy-five of this number
were technical engineers, while an