Evening star., 1924-08-12
RUSSIA SINCE LENIN
country today,
spent sadyng
BY SEYMOUR B. CONGER.

or more oppressive taxation than un-
der the czars, of crookedness and in
justice of officials. They resent in
reference with their religion. And,
having got the land, they are becom-
ing ardent believers in the doctrines
of private ownership.
Capitalistic Peasants Forming.
The most striking characteristics
Of peasant life at present are the
rapid separation of the peasantry into
classes of prosperous and poor and
the tremendous movement Il quote
President Kalinin, one of the few
prominent bolshevists who know any,
thing about peasant conditions) away
from the village community owner
ship toward the individually owned
farm. Only 26 per cent of the peas
ants have the necessary stock and
implements to work their lands to ad-
vantage. Three out of four are no
better of than they were before the
land was divided, the majority actu-
ally worse. A quarter of a million
peasants already have lost their
holdings and are reduced to working
as farmhands on the lands of their
prosperous neighbors. Agricultural
methods are stagnant and crop yields,
to quote the Pravda, ION Asiatic
standards"
Agricultural taxes are most oppres-
sive- When the ministry Of finance
submitted the decree for the unified
farm tax for 1924-25 to the commit
tee on agriculture of the central ex-
ecutive committee, farm members
pointed out that it called for one
tenth of the total agricultural crop Of
the country and 80 per cent of the
value of the marketable surplus
above the farmers own needs. The
tax is graduated because the poorer
peasants do not raise enough for
their own needs, to say nothing of
taxes. Hence the burden upon the
productive formers is far higher than
80 per cent. In addition there are To-
cal taxes for village and county ad-
minfstration, roads, etc.
The villages and district offices are
filled with bolshevists who get drunk,
take bribes and are disgraces to COM
munism. Strong demands are voiced
in the press that the central govern
ment bring pressure on the district
authorities to get rid of such unde-
sirables, who contribute to the un-
popularity Of bolshevism among the
peasantry.
Another and a great source Of peas
ant hostility to bolshevism will have
q IaIQ1lIar ring TO american reaQerS.
This is the disparity between the price
of what the peasant has to sell and
the products he is called upon to buy.
Only in Russia it was worse than a
disparity-there has been a steady
movement asunder Of the two sets of
prices, which gave the phenomenon
it's customary picturesque name OF
'the scissors
Peasant Thor0uEhly Shorn.
Last Fall and Winter the peasant
was shorn with particular thorough
ness, owing to the incompetence of
the bolshevist authorities, who failed
to make adequate preparations to buy
and move the grain crop, though
missing no bets on prompt collection
of taxes. Grain prices broke calam-
itously as a result, the peasants
dumping their grain for any price it
would bring to get ready cash.
1t may have been only blunder
Of the bolshevists, but the peasants
attributed 1t to design. And Krassin
foreign trade commissioner, who
handled the grain export campaign
stated publicly recently that the sue
cess OF the export campaign wal
largely due to- the che8p price at
which tAs gGvsrnment bought ths
go 81. =. s.a...se II ]. =. .