The Washington times., 1935-05-24

tLfTl-IOOTkeTS OF Lne SODIEL, n"
r. Knickerbocker declares in
the eleventh article of his
Baltic SerteS.)
BY Fl. r. KNICKERBOCKER
Copyright, 1895. by International
News Service)
OLYKA, Poland, May pa
span of white Arab horses drove
us at a spanking gait through the
cutting wind to the Castle Of
Olyka, 800 miles southeast Of War
saw, just a step away from the
border Of the Soviet Union.
Here, on the estate Of one Of
the greatest Polish magnates,
Prince Janusz Radziwill, they live
like they did on the estates Of the
mobiles in old Russia. Our host,
the young Prince Edmund, a cool,
handsome young man in tweeds,
with an oxford accent, born in
1907 in the Radziwill Palace on
the Wilhelmstrasse Berlin, which
is now a part of the German for
eign office, can see across the
Russian border a part Of the
estates that used to belong to his
family.
Now Collective Farmers
Over there the men who used
to be farm-hands for the Radzi'
wills are now collective farmers.
They have had IS years Of Boil
shevism. The farm-hands here
today have had capitalism all
that time. How do the farm
hands here live compared to the
collective farmers across the
border?
That is impossible to answer
specifically because no stranger
in the Soviet Union is allowed to
come that close to the border.
But it is possible to compare the
standard of living here with the
standards of the first-class Soviet
collective farm "Frunze" recently
visited near Ivanono-Vozneshensk.
This makes the best comparison
Of any on this trip. For it was
precisely the farm-hands, the
poorest of the agricultural popu-
lation, "the land proletariat" as
the Bolsheviks call them. for
whom the Communist revolution
on the land in Russia was made.
Killed the Landlords
They killed all the landlords
in Russia, or drove them abroad.
Here in Poland this landlord con-
tinueS to live in the castle that
was sacked and plundered so
many time since its foundation
400 years ago that nobody knows
the number. All know, however,
that the last time was just 10
years ago and shells from its
last bombardment are still stick
ing in it's reconstructed walls.
They are still here, just figura-
tive stones throw away, but the
young prince and his bride have
gone about the reconstruction Of
their home with the same imper-
turbable tenacity that has brought
the Radziwills back to build again
after every war from the days Of
the broadsword to the era Of the
machine gun.
The princes apartments are
modern as Fifth Avenue flat and
not more pretentious. He had his
bookkeeper make out a complete
list of the income of everybody on
the estate from himself to the
shepherds. He draws salary and
keeps books even on his food. He
works at his job. That is more
than can be said for every Polish
magnate, but this one does.
We were chiefly interested in
the condition Of his poorest en-
ployes, precisely because they are
the people the BolShevikS are most
interested in. Here is a statement
of their incomes, and for the pur-
pose Of summing up and general
comparison between capitalism
and communism on the land there
are included parallel income state
ments gathered in Lithuania and
Finland.
INCOMES ON FARM LANDS UNDER
CAPITALISM COMPARED WITH IN
COMES OF COLLECTIVE FARMER IN
SOVIET UNION:
Paymentin land land ania Union