Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-22
FOOD SHAKEDOWN
STARTED BY SOVIET
Decree Says Cooperative
System Must Be Purged
to Aid Production.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press
MOSCOW, December 22.-Soviet Rus
STA is shaking down her entire food
distribution system under a decree pub
lished today by the Central Committee
of the Communist party. It's prime OBJ
ject, beyond removal of sabotage agents
boring from within. appeared to be pro-
vision of more food for the stinted mil
liens in areas far from agricultural
centers.
The decree pillories the commiSsariat
of internal supply, describing its work
as unsatisfactory and reporting that
the meat and vegetable trusts are
clogged with anti-Soviet agents, 48 of
whom recently were shot" 1t asserts
that the cooperative agencies must be
Cleaned out from top to bottom" and
1t details 100 trusted members of the
Central Committee and others to the
provinces under orders to reorganize the
meat and vegetable supply system.
incidentally the report lists the Soviet
Cooperative Societys trade turnover
for 1880 at about 10000 100000 rubles,
approximately $4,000, ,0oO which was
Sc per cent of the years total internal
trade. The basic capital of the society
in 1880 was 500 0O0. 900 rubles over and
above 996000000 rubles which belongs
to the workers.
System Not Perfect.
In spite of its achievements, however,
Che cooperative system has not yet
abolished bureaucracy and the spirit of
private trade" the decree asserts, de-
claring that the "co-operatives must
establish such forms of food distribu-
ton as will correspond with the gen.
eral problems of Socialistic construc-
ton. The class principle in distribution
must be enforced more vigorously and
distribution of products must help to
stimulate and encourage SocialiStic
forms of labor"
The last means in effect that only
those who work and give whole-souled
cooperation to the Communist policies
will eat
The Central Committee indorsed the
principle of the CLOSED shop" an es-
tablishment at which only the workers
OF certain factories, unions and socie-
ties are permitted to make purchases,
and urged that the closed-shop prin-
Aid of Distribution.
Distribution. the decree said, must
help to increase the productivity of the
worker and to combat desertion from
the labor front. The cooperative sys-
tenn must be thoroughly purged and its
staff renewed. Workers must be in
stalled instead of wreckers. The Gull
tural growth of the masses and the
abolition of unemployment place before
the cooperative agencies the problem
of gradual conversion of the food sup
ply system from individual forms to
those of collective consumption. All
restaurants must be placed under con-
troll of the workers themselves, food
must be improved, prices reduced and
wasted time eliminated in order to
stimulate specialization of food distribu-
ton and to abolish domestic prepara-
ton of meals.
BE unreconcilable to the Let's the
Rights and to all other forms of oppor-
tunism," the decree urges Put your
shoulder to the wheel so that the true
policies Of Communism may live and
that the deviations of subversive ele-
ments may be crushed. We must rid
the Soviet of these elements from top
to bottom. During the period of Social
istic advance the party cannot recon-
Gle itself to opportunism. This practice
not only does not support bolshevik
construction, but actually encourages
sabotage and ignores the most impor-
tant decisions of the party"