Evening star., 1925-01-17

s72, ,500,o 600 constituted 81 per cent
foodstuffs, including grain, butter and
eggs, amounted to s9S,0G00 600. Hence
the total favorable trade balance was
covered by the forced food exports.
needed for home consumption. The
message of President Coolidge, above
quoted, contained this signifcaut
statement: we have relieved their
pitiable destitution with enormous
charity
Her officials now confess that no
longer will Russia be able to force q
favorable trade balance by robbing
her own food supply. She Is already
| importing grain from Canada Sokol-
| mikov, minister of finance, stated last
| November 10 in his official report u
the central committee of the Rus
| sian Communist party-the govern
ment-as follows:
This year we have no surplus
grain and we shall perhaps even have
to import a certain quantity in order
to prevent a sudden jump of prices
| of white bread in the towns"
Rykov, president OF the Soviet, dc
| clared November Il:
Earlier grain exports figured in
our program. Now We have entirely
renounced it,"
ne IeuuCllOH III the supply OL ram
| and other foodstuffs is not due to un-
| favorable weather, but to the funda-
mental Soviet policies of exploiting the
! peasantry for the industries of the
| townsville consumers of rwhite bread,
| whose welfare is referred to above b.
the minister of finance.
| In the beginning the Soviets decreed
that all grain above the amount deemed
necessary to feed the family and stock
| of ba he hA-
| the government for the commune.
The peasant soon saw that there
| was no incentive to produce more
! than his own requirements, since he
| was forbidden to sell or to retain it
| Hence he ceased excess production.
! This policy of seizure of the surplus
has been modified since 1922, but the
government takes 10 per cent tax
| 'in kind and there is much hiding
| of surplus products.
AS the government has continued
/ to export foodstuffs to initiate the
trade balance, the food supplies in
| cities and towns have fallen and the
cost of living has increased enor-
mously. This brought strikes for
proportionately higher wages. until
| the cost of production of manufac-
| lures has made exports impossible,
| in competition with other workers in
| foreign countries.
In a speech by Kaganovick, Com
munist labor leader. as reported in
| the Moscow Pravda, the official organ
| of the Soviet government, he said:
I'VE have in our economy, COM
pairing 1t with the pre-war period,
| the following picture: We have
| reached 60 per cent of the pre-war
| level of wages, but only 80 per cent
| OF the productivity OF labor. We
| have established the S-hour day. But,
| in reality, we have not in our country
| an 8hour, but 81 considerably shorter
/ working day. We must enter into
! action directly and with determine
tion, in the question of the produc-
tivity of labor. We must say to the
labor class: If you wish to maintain
contact with the peasantry you must
| increase the productivity of labor
| IF we do not place before the labor
| class the task of increasing the pro-
! ductivity of labor, private capital will
| beat us Private capital will estab-
lish, over our heads. contact with
| the peasantry, with the wealthy peas
ant class (kulak), and international
capital viii come to their assistance,
and thus a united front against the
labor class will result
X X 4 X
The economic ruin of Russia, thus
| confessed by its rulers and it's labor
| leaders - who persist in upholding
| communism as a theory, being blind
| to the causes of reduced productivity
in both field and factory--is paralleled
by the social and religious anarchy.
| Zinofieff, chairman OF the executive
committee of the Third International
(the Russian government), declares:
| I'VE shall pursue our attacks on AL
mighty God in due time and i'll an ap-
propriate manner"
This pictures the character of the
/ government protesting to want to en-
ter into international agreements
| even with governments whose stabil-
ity the Soviets are seeking to under.
| mine throughout the world.
Copyright. la25. By Paul VI CsalAnzA %