Evening star., 1924-11-30

beGEarS and unemployed. while large
sections of the population of the
towns receive such low wages that
life Is difficult. The writer knows
OF adult man workers who are re-
ceiving Is rubles and women who
get rubles a month.
Ever public enterprise is crippled
Sor lack of necessary money. The
correspondents impression is that the
situation in the cities is worse than
1t was q year ago. when he last
visited there. Many authorities, how
ever, believe that the worst is past
fhey base their optimism on i'm
proVcmeut of this cars agriculture
Over that Of 1929.
Mere Cultivated Land.
The harvest was 207,n00.un poods.
compared With lS&.0Ua. .nu" then. The
area OF cultivated land ha.. risen To- Is
per cent. Lumber. cattl" aud horses
have substantially Increased in value;
farm machinery is Il per cent greater
and butter exports are up 100 per cent.
Compared with seven Years aGo the
situation is less promising. The average
size of the farms then was l. acres. 1t
is now nine acres, for 5.onu.oUh acres
have passed out of cultivation. The eN-
portation Of butter, Siheria's great in
'iustry, is carried or still at only one
third Of the pre-war rate. The value of
'nachinery and the number of cattle is
sttil substantially Jess.
Tho peasants grImhlc loudly about
til" government fiAing tn maximum
price for grain at a low price at th il
tigh taxation and especially at the yeyv
drastic method Of enforcing the pa
ln.'nt of taxes. which causes even more
bitterness than the ta%tS themselves.
Cities Are Depressing.
The cities like T"msk. Krasnoyarsl
aud Novoikolaievsk, which the writer
visited and which were formerly busy
rich and gay, are now depressing be
rond words. AL private enterprise is
being rai1ly eliminated. Private traders
are refused credit and taxed out nt
existence. The number Of urban private
traders declined 80 per cent this Autumn
as compared with the Spring
The total decline for ali western
Siberia, compared with a year ago. is
81 per cent in the retail and Sc per
cent in the wholesale trade The
Communists justify this ON the
ground that there has been an cvr"s-
sivc rush OF people int. the retail
trade. Russia. they say. required pro-
ducers, and they were jUstifed in
using strong measures 10 reduce the
number of private traders.
The result has been greatly To Dc
-
temporarily 10 the existing large
army of the unemployed Every city.
with tho possible execution al
NovonikolaicNsk, has many uncm-
ployed. Most "f these receive no
public aid, hut the remainder are
given from ) = TO rublos Il month.
-rhe boom of NoyoikoIai,ysk u year
ag" was followed by u decided slump
caused 10y the lack of money. and
compelling the cessation "f public
works.
Educated Arc Gustcd.
Another cause of distress is th..
whoiesale clearance Of the public de-
partmentS, which is now proceeding
There is twcfuld process, first the
very necessary reduction Of Excess
i, siTe staffs, and next, the dismissal of
persons born Of int"iicctunIs or once
prosperous parents 70 make room for
Communist employees. Even teachers.
library indexers and typists are being
expelled. They arc given what is
known as wolves passports" that is.
their names are marked in employ
mcnt registers as having been dis
charged for their non urOlctarian as
'sociations, which effectiyely bars
them from other public employment.
Since the government is increas-
ingly absorbing every enterprise. q
tunates find suicide their only remedy
An overwhelming mass Of indust rial
enterprises which flourished in pre-
war DAYS are now closed or hay.
hasn greatly reduced in size The
authorities are unable TO devotion
them for lack of money and skilled
men, and are unwilling To allow
Foreigners to participate on what
they consider acceptable, terms
the ship Leonid Erassin. which last
summer made successfully tho Kara
sea journey. This route must sy.Dfu-
ally prove OF the utmost Importance
ror Siberia, but this years tourney
vas uncconomical. The only freight
the ship had Uas timber
Western Foreigners Absent.
Ono startling feature Of life IN
western Siberia is the almost com
plete absence of western forcignrrs
there. Between tho Trails ana CHita.
which arc over 1000 miles apart.
the writer knows only. n few Danish
butter traders aud cable officials. one
Norwegian vice consul and two
EnSlfshmcn. There i. not = single
American except for Il group Of COM
trLunistS III kemcTOVo. the American
autonomous colony. This COLONY. NOW
Is only nominally American being
under Russian and Dutch direction
Its leaders arc very optimistic owin..
to operation OF a big coke deyeIor-
rnent plant which is finding a market
III the Cral iron trade, bur I'raI en-
Rineers tell the writer that the coke
is so bad they arc seeking a sub
stitute. Then thcy expect The
Kemerovo plant to close.
Tho Siberian coal output in the
Kuznest basin has been SubStantiruy
increased, but there is no market for
coal which lies at the pit heads.
The authorities are taking Scyer,,
measures to insure honesty and .fi
cheney in state enterprises, and the
writer saw a. striking instance while
in TomSh. The manager and nine as
Sistants OF a village Cu-cperatiye So
tiety were convicted a few days ago
OF making Illicit gains by raising
prices or substituting inferior for b.t-
Ter goods. Their crime was defined
as economic counter revolution, the
prosecuting lawyer declaring they
We're the agents of international
bourgeois conspirators who aimed to
destroy the confidence of workers IN
Soviet institutions.
Five were sentenced to death and
the remainder to long terms of I'm
prisonment
Heavy taxation IL the root of MANY
Of Sibcrias difficulties. 1t formerly
received heavy annual subsidies from
czsrist Russia. Now the subsidies
have ceased and 60 per cent of the
cripples every public enterprise. The
stnr n h,,