Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-06-29

OF the crop as 1t needs without haV-
ing to overcome the shyness of hos
tility of the individual peasant owner
who has his own conception Of how
much his taxes should be-.
The Supreme Court of the Union OF
| Socialist Soviet Republics has been In
session. The five proletarian Judges
the secretary of trade union. metal
worker, woman weaver, a literate day
laborer and former lawyer of noble
birth. who had. however expiated his
unproletarian origin by his lifelong ca
reer as revolutionist-tried Ia men for
high treason to the Soviet State. It
was one Of those political trials of
which the Soviet government makes
a public function. Tickets were issued
to factories to send "workmen's dele
cations" I was in the court room nine
DAYS and evenings.
The ages of the defendants ranged
from 80 to 81. They were scientists
professors, economists, literateurs BY
conviction they belonged to a political
party. which, in the Soviet Union
where no parties outside of the Com
muniSt party are permitted by law to
exists is outlawed. In addition to sub
versive political work the IA defend
ants were charged with attempting TO
wreck the five-year plan.
Tried as Enemies.
Occupying highly strategic posts in
the governments Planning Commission,
in the highest economic councils, in
banks. these men. it was alleged, were
directing their various departments
and, in some instances, entire institu-
tions over which they had charge in a
manner designed to bring failure and
discredit to the plan.
Each of the IA men signed complete
and elaborate confessions before the
trial.
The trial, with its class approach to
the ominouS shadow of the Soviet DO
litical police. is not part of this article
But fleeing statement by one of the
accused. in a weak attempt at self-de-
Tense, belongs here
He and his fellow defendants. the
prisoner explained. had resorted to
sabotage. to "wrecking" as the word is
in Russian, because they felt the Stain
industrial program was eXacting from
the Russian people a price in suffering
| hardship and privation equal only 70
that OF great and exhauSting war.
Food Prices High.
Men come to Moscow from a distance
of five or six hours by train for the
sole purpose of getting once in a week
or 10 days square meal at one of
three hotels, the Savoy. the Grand, the
Europa. The price of such meal runs
from IL to 20 rubles, Sc to $40. A glass
Of hot milk, even in popular restau-
rants, is 80 kopecks; 2 or 3 cent roll
is rs kopecks. If one wishes bread
day for any one not common laborer-
| the price in MoscoWS free markets Is
ruble "A pound.
A washWoman demanded five rubleS
for washing three shirts and as many
! pairs Of socks When I protested hel
answer was that the five rubleS barely
would suffice to pay for a pound Of
salt herring On the provinces no her
ring is to be had at any price,. Ar
| iSvostChick - cabman - demanded ter
rubles to drive me a mile and half
| When I said I would rather walk than
pay such price, the peasant pleaded
| BARN. I pay eighteen rubles for q
pood thirty-six pounds) of hay"
| Men and women in every stratum
are persistently undernourished ano
nervous. A generation of weak, anemic
children is growing up. Ordinary all
ments frequently take on epidemic pro-
portions because Of the low vitality Of
the population.
Provisions Plentiful.
Yet the Soviet Union is not without
! food. There are warehouses filled 10
bursting with edibles. Supplies are
continually being rushed to the work
ers on the industrial front" and they
are being exported to foreign countries
1t is with her exports that the Soviet
Union very largely pays for the techni-
cal imports and machinery demanded
I hIy tho iy9crDocinO nXnanciny1 nf the
Five Year Plan. Grain is a principal
export.
Why must the country-old gap be-
| tween RuSsia's economic backwardneSs
and Western progress be filled violently
within five yearS-four is the slogan
Irow-instead of in fifteen or twenty
years? Why SO little regard for the
material wants of the Russian nation
| by the men in charge of its destinies
| Why the wild pace, the frenZied in
| tensity, the ruthless advance of the
| Stain program?
| I put these questions to a responsible
official in one of the highest govern
| ment departments in Moscow. He re-
piled:
I'VE are hurrying our building pro-
gram because events are hurrying us
Economic events in the principal
countries of the world are combining
to make war on us not only probable
| but inevitable"
He proceeded to amplify.
Objects Explained.
'I do not mean" he said, "that the
| principal nations will wake up one
morning and say, We do not like tht
Bolshevist order, let's combine ano
make war on it But the industrial
equilibrium of the world cannot be
restored until Russia is once more a
| part of the world market.
I'VE are willing, anxious, to rejoin
the world market, but we must do SC
on the new terms the new order of So
ciety in our country imposes. The worlc
Is insistent that We come back on the
| old basis only
Such irreconcilable conflicts have
at all times ended in war. If our in
dustries are undeveloped or INSULT
GENTLY developed before such a wal
comes the Soviet Union will emerge
from it a second China, semi-colonial
country. The pace of the Five Year
Plan frankly is war pace"
Plan Reflects Stain.
Unofficial views explain the pace
and tempoS of the Five Year Plan as
the heightened shadow of the man
behind it-of Stain. Such views place
Stain in class of Russian rulers
great rulers-who, convinced of the
r1ghtneSS of a certain course, proceeded
to force their conviction upon the
nation as a whole, regardless of the
nations willingness or unwillingness to
follow in the rulers tracks.
Thus Vladimir the Holy, in the