Evening star., 1938-12-27
BY EDMUND ]. LOWRY,

Gas Told to Selig Greenberg Of the Provi-
dence Journal Bulletin)
PROVIDENCE, r. l., Dec. q IN.
A. N. A).-The average Soviet
workers pay is about equal, in terms
of purchasing power, to what the
Russian worker earned under the
Czarist regime.
This in itself would be a devastat-
ing comment upon the achieve
ments" of the Stalinist regime after
81 years of tremendous sacrifices
and bloody terror. But that's not
all. The Soviet worker is actually
worse off than he was under the
czars Before the revolution he
could buy whatever he wanted so
long as he had the money, but now,
while theoretically he is in a po-
sition to purchase a similar amount
of commodities, he actually buys
less because there are not enough
consumers goods produced to go
around.
The average unskilled Russian
worker earns 200 roubles month,
or So a week. After various direct
taxes are deducted from his pay he
receives only IA roubles, and fur
ther reductions for his living eX-
penses, outside of clothes, leave him
with l rouble, or cents, month.
The clothing budget must some
how be met out of Scrimping on the
meagre allowance for food and other
essentials and out of pooling the
earnings of father, mother and the
grown-up children. In the case
of a highly skilled worker who
earns 400 roubles a month with
bonuses for speed-up, 81 roubles, or
1922, is left per month for clothes
and other "luxuries."
Matter of Arithmetic.
Even with all the scrinping in
the world, the Russian worker finds
it extremely hard to keep himself
adequately clothed. It's matter
of simple arithmetic. A suit of
clothes-and of exceedingly poor
quality-costs from 80 to 120 rou-
bles; an overcoat about $50 roubles;
shoes, 35 to rs roubles.
But, to make matters infinitely
worse, these are just the official
prices at which clothes are sold in
stores, owned like everything else,
by the government. 1t would be
fine If the worker, after he had
finally managed to save up 120 rou-
bles, could walk into a store, pick
out the suit he likes and buy it,
as he does in countries where there
is no planned economy" But
there are not enough suits made
in Russia to take care of every
body, including the bureaucrats, who
manage to indulge in the capitalist
luxury of two or three suits. That's
why many people have to resort to
buying from spectators and paying
anywhere from three to 10 times
the official prices.
There Is not a store in Russia
where you can go in with pocketful
of money, ask for anything your
heart desires and get it. Not only
is there a shortage of clothing, but
there has lately again developed a
shortage of some foodstuffs as well.
The food situation greatly improved
several years ago, following the abo-
lition of the ratiening card system,
but difficulties in production and
particularly distribution are once
more forcing city dwellers to do
without some staples or to pay ex-
orbitant prices for them.
Moscow Vegetable Shortage.
Thus, only a few weeks ago, one
Of the few revealing press dispatches
allowed to be sent out by the Soviet
censorship disclosed that there has
been for months an acute shortage
Of fresh vegetables in Moscow. Be-
cause 1t is the capital, Moscow al
ways gets the best of everything, and
living conditions there are far better
than anywhere else in Russia. If
vegetables are at premium in Mos
COW, there are practically none to
be had in most other cities.
Why should there be a shortage
Of vegetables in country with some
Of the richest soil and the biggest
farm population in the world? Part
of the answer lies in the Soviet ag-
ricultural policy, with its sweeping
collectivization of all farm property.
But the principal reason in this case
Is probably that of inefficient and