Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 April 1919 — BUDAPEST HAVEN FOR BOLSHEVIKI [ARTICLE]

BUDAPEST HAVEN FOR BOLSHEVIKI

Every Day Is Holiday in Capital of Hungary—All Shops Are Closed. • • AU MANSIONS NATIONALIZED Churches Converted Into Music Halls and Best Seats Reserved for the Proletariat—Red Rrmy Being Formed. Budapest. April 4.—Every day Is Sunday In Budapest. The shops are closed and the workers 4re having a holiday. The street cars are loaded with passengers, but few automobiles are to be seen except those used by officials. The commune has nationalized mansions; the richest families are restricted to the fewest rooms possible and huve been forced to discharge their servants. Civilians have been ordered to surrender all firearms, with the alternative of death. A red army Is rapidly being formed with Hungarian prisoners of war from Russia as its basis. These men are thought to be converts tozbolkhevism. Bela Kun, the foreign minister, himself a repatriated prisoner. It is prophesied that the present regime will live as long as there is food, after which uprisings are expected. Churches Become Theaters. In Transylvania, following the practice' in Moscow, the churches have been converted into music halls, the best seats tx- , g reserved for the proletariat. The government officials do not pay house rent and have priority on foodstuffs and clothing. The Pester Lloyd, w’hlch consists of four sheets, contains a large advertisement dealing with the benefits of the people Joining the red a J The news in this journal is confined to official acts of the government, one of which proclaims that boys may enter the training school of the army, which officially is designated ‘Ted.’ Prices Are Reduced. Prices have been reduced in the hotels. A commission of six men visited the Hotel Hungaria and asked one man what he was paying. Replying that he was being taxed 18 crowns the commissioners exclaimed: “Those robbers'. In future you will pay A>ne crown.” The people’s finance ministry also has fixed the prices foreign moneys, allotting for a dollar 15 crowns, and for an English pound, 72 crowns. All jewelry and precious stones of value of more than 2,000 crowns must be remitted to the state. Insurance companies have been socialized. The French and Italian troops have been sent to their own frontiers. The British commander, Major Freeman, is staying in Budapest until a vessel comes up the Danube to take away British subjects and allied or neutral persons desiring to Ifeave. Prof. Philip Brown, Lieutenant Weiss nnd Prof. Archibald Coolidge of the American commission are staying at the Hotel Ritz. » Won’t Last Long. The city is* orderly and the government is putting forth every effort to stabilize conditions. There are pessimists, however, who say the government will endure less than a month, it being pointed out that the success will be partially dependent upon the success of the Russian bolshevik army to establish a corridor from Kiev to Budapest by way of Bessarabia and Bukowina. Bela Kun, the foreign minister, receives hundreds of telegrams of an official every day, among them being messages from Lenine, the Russian bolshevik premier. He receives newspaper men freely, but orders that their dispatches he censored to eliminate objectionable features. Kun Denies Communization. Kun, who was formerly a secretary of Lenine, is most anxious to deny reports of the communization of women in Hungary, which he declares to be “preposterous.” He also denies rumors of assassinations and disorders. Of the 24 members of the government 19 are Jews.