The Washington times., 1935-05-16
/ BY H. r. KNICKERBOCKER
d ACOpyriEht, 1885. by International
y News Servlce)

[ BY H. r. KNICKERBOCKER
4 ACOpyriEht. 1885. by International
y News Service)
KAUSALA, Finland, May Is Il.
N. S0.-CommuniSm on the farm
In Russia has not yet equaled
capitalism on the farm in Fin
land. A hired hand on Finnish
farm gets more wages, has more
to eat, better clothes and a bet
ter home to live in than the
beSt-off Russian peasant on the
best collective farm.
This is decisive because IS per
cent Of Firms are peasants and
80 per cent Of the Russians are
peasants. The fact is that after
18 years of struggling to drive
their peasants into collective
farms the Bolsheviks have sue
ceeded in doing that, but the col
1ective peasants still live worse
than they did before.
| Always Lived Better
In Finland the peasants always
lived better than the Russian
peasants. It has to be remem-
bered that Finland never had
serfdom, never was an integral
part of Russia, always enjoyed
certain amount of independence,
and though it suffered from Rus
sian rule for 100 years it had TOO
years Of Scandinavian culture
back of that.
Nevertheless the Finnish peas
ants today live even better than
they did before and their SUI
periority over the Russians has
increased since BolShevism came
to Russia.
Take Aarvy Yarvinen and COM
pare him with Ivan 1vanovltch.
To get to Aarvy Yarvinen we
travelled four hours out of Hell
singfors on trim little Finnish
train with it's woodworking loco
motive splitting red sparks IN
showers on the snow.
In KauSala a Ford, equipped
with a Finn and radio, carried
us to the tune of "Rigoletto"
deep into the Finnish night and
into a snowdrift. In the snow
drift we mounted sleigh, and
another Finn and a horse took
us careening over a lake many
fathoms deep and the ice creaked
and the horse groaned but we
finally pulled up at Aarvy's.
Aarvy was a farm hand. He
was just a poor Finn farm hand,
making a more than fair COM
parison with a first-class Russian
collective farmer.
He Has Family
Aarvy was a father. In this
capacity he could measure with
any father. He had five chill
dren and the youngest was just
2 years old and the Oldest not
quite Z.
Aarvy sat in q corner and four
little Aarvys stood around staring
while the littleSt Aarvy snuggled
in his mothers arms. All five
were neat, clean and full of life.
Mother made all their clothes.
They had two rooms. In this one
were a table, three benches, and
a stocking-making machine. In
the corner dinner simmered on
the Finn stove, and over it hung
D score of big rings of bread.
Proudly the mother showed us
the second room. A tile stove
kept it comfortably warm. Three
beds, a table, two chairs, several
plants were tidily arranged. On
the wall hung the obligatory pic
ture of man and wife as bride
and groom.
Bares Family Budget
Aarvy outlined his income. He
received most of his pay in kind.
Every month he got 100 pounds
of rye flour, 10 pounds of wheat
flour, 40 pounds oatmeal 40
pounds potatoes, 80 pounds barley,
four pounds peas, and 100 quarts
of milk.
In addition he received 300
Finnish marks which have pur-
chasing power far in excess of
their exchange value in dollars,
and could buy the equivalent of
about $12.
Now take Ivan Ivanovitch, back
IN Russia on the collective farm
which we recently visited near
Ivanovo-Vozneshensk. Ivan is a
crack worker and he earns an
average of 20 "Working-days" a
month. This means that he re-
ceives per month the equivalent
Of 80 pounds rye flour. 40 pounds