The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-06-29
MOSCOW DECREE
 HOPED TO BRING TRADE REVIVAL
Government Regulations Now Allow Farmers to
 Deal Privately
BY EUGENE LYONS

n 1ICuENE L1ONS
 United Press Stan Correspondent.
 Moscow.---Complete elimination of the present system of food pur- poses of the new regulations allow ing private and collectivized farm CTS to rade directly with the con sumcrs of farm products.
 Official comment on the series of recent decrees, as well as an article on the subject by President Michael Kalinin. receal that the Moscow government Is counting upon the revival of private trade more for the needs of the urban inhabitants.
 Responsibility Removed That. in turn, will remove from the shoulders of the@ communist regime the responsibility for feed : ing the population. The govern ment's function in that connection will be merely to regulate the mar ket by providing steady flow of manufactured goods to the peas- ants and to act through its own shops and cooperative socities to prevent excessive price inflations.
 The abandonment of rationing has been mistakenly described in some foreign newspapers as q symptom of Soviet successes. It is being received by the majority of the working population, how ever, in a totally different spirit. For them 1t means only higher prices on bread. sugar. meat and other products which they still re- ceive = in small amounts. it is true-from the government at low fixed prices.
 system Limited
 The rationing system has been gradually limited anyhow in the past year. One after another of the items formerly provided through the ration book were stricken off and thereby placed entirely on a market com- mercial basis. In practically every instance scarcity of the item in question caused its removal from the list. The number of rationed products is by this time extremely small. Nevertheless the complete ending of the rationed arrange nlent will hit the average con- sumer very hard, at least until such time as the wage level is brought more closely into line with the price levels.
 Small Response
 Thus far the response to the governments invitation to peas- ants to bring their surplus goods to the city and factory markets has been extremely small. The reasons for this are numerous:
 First: The peasants are not yet convinced, that the communist regime Is in deadly earnest about letting them trade without hind rance. They have been so thor Oughly attacked for such trading in the past that the sudden re- versal of policy finds them timid, suspicious and good deal be- wildered.
 Second: The decrees are still meeting routine bureaucratic ob- stacles placed by local officials. For the last few years the officials were obliged to concentrate on the job of exterminating the tendency towards private trade. Out of the sheer habit, therefore. many of them still continue their zcalous interference.
 Third and most important: The peasant, with some exceptions. have relatively little to sell at this juncture. The months before q new harvest are naturally the months of greatest scarcity of farm products. The real test of the new policy will come after the new harvest. In the meantime tens of thousands of peasants, in the Ukraine, Lower Volga and other regions, flock to the urban centersr as buyers rather than sellers of food.