Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-12
Hungary Faces Problem in Land Reform;
FOrbids Use of Modern Farm Machinery

BUDAPEST, Hungary-The crucia
domestic problem Of Hungary Is lanc
reform. Frontiers or no frontiers, kins
or no king, the question Of the lane
remains.
Hungary is potentially one of the rich.
est agricultural countries In Europe. We
the poverty of Hungary Is all but In.
tolerable. Whereas the annual grair
surplus used to be 6,oO0,000 or 1000 ,00(
quintals (a quintal is 22o pounds, thi.
year estimates put 1t at scarcely 3,000,-
600. Why2
One reason is, Of course, the worlc
crisis In the price Of grain. Another L
the break up Of the old economic unity
with Austria and competition with for
eign states which once were domestic
| provinces. Another is the lack of In
dustry. Another Is the unwieldy size
| OF the great estates and the failure Of
the governments agrarian policy.
Many Horses, Few Autos.
There are upward Of 5000 900 horses
In Hungary today. And there are today
exactly 6,672 private automobiles. Hun
gary, IN other words, is backward-an-
other reason. Beyond all this Is some
/ thing more intimate and fundamental
have just taken q days ride across
the Puszta, the great Hungarian plain
where long-horned cattle roam the pas.
lures, where peasants wear costume:
that have changed little in 400 years
where the "czikos" (horsemen) patroI
the great stud farms. I saw incredible
nat miles after fiat miles Of perfectly
tended ground-rich, black, waving with
corn, curly green with beetroot. There
was hardly a waste spot In $50 miles.
Then something occurred to me. ]
FaffUArH al
some OF the most fertile land on earth
and had not seen a single machine
Not tractor, not a reaper I saw thou
sands Of long-horned steers and thou
sands upon thousands of bushels of ripe
grain. But did not see one tractor
The reason Is astounding. In MANY
parts of Hungary the use of machines
by the land owner Is forbidden. Ma
chimes would obviously displace the
$500 landless peasants, who must be
given work; therefore there must be nc
machines. Progressive farming Is op-
posed, not encouraged, by the govern
ment, else there might be revolution.
Land Reform a Failure.
Some attempt at agrarian reform has
1t Is true, been made. The courts were
empowered In 1920 to take over one
quarter Of the arabic land of the col1n
try and divide it. But to date only one
tenth of the land (about 400, 900 acres)
has been so divided. And, incidentally.
1t left $4,000 peasants without any
land.
The condition Of this mass of people
one-tenth OF the total population of
hungary. Is extraordinarily miserable.
Thousands are unemployed estimates
vary from $4,000 to 200, 0o0), thousands
more md only few weeks employment
a year, during the harvest. The wages
OF these peasants run from l.20 pengos
TO 2 pengoS GO cents to IS cents) a dav.
when there Is work. Their wives and
children get less
Some peasants, those who have held
jobs for generations on the estates, are
better OF. They are paid not in money
put In grain-50 quintals (11,00o
pounds1 year being the average Some
are little more than serfs.
Faced with the problem of keeping
the peasants alive somehow, and vet
not sacrificing the great land owners,
the government has resorted to inre-
NOUS measures. One of them is a
curious business known as the "belluta. /"
Tax on Consumer.
This is premium of pengos per
quintal of wheat produced, paid by the
government to the producer. The
normal price Of wheat is about IS
pengos per quintal the "belluta" raises
1t to ID pengos, about $3.05 The bel
luta," however, reaches the producer
only as tax recession--unless his taxes
have been paid. In operation 1t
amounts to nothing less than a con-
sumer'S tax on grain.
This system-and other items In the
governments vicious circle-has had
two inevitable results. First, it raised
the cost of living to the Hungarian
people. Second, it caused a rise in the
price of Hungarian wheat abroad.
Hungary Is wheat-exporting nation
one OF the few surplus producing
countries left in Europe. OF the total
1929 production of 19,240,000 quintals,
for instance, 3,112,600 quintals were
free for export. BY this grain surplus
Hungary lives. Agricultural products,
raw or manufactured (like -four and
sugar., are the absolute bases of Hunga-
rian export trade and of the whole ma
tional economy.
Cannot Compete Abroad.
But the breakup of the old empire,
the new frontiers, the undivided estates,
the lack of machinery, the "belluta,"
the unemployed peasant, have all COM
bined to prejudice and 1mpern this
is so uneconomically produced that 1t no
grain from the other Danubian states.
Both Rumanian and Jugoslav wheat
now undersell Hungarian wheat by
about ] pengo G7.5c) per Quintal.
This explains the avid interest Of
the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. In n Da.