Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 December 1893 — THE FAMINE IN RUSSIA. [ARTICLE]

THE FAMINE IN RUSSIA.

Heartless Manner in Which the TaxCollectors Treat the Poor Classes. In order to get a correct understanding of how the peasants have been reduced to their present hopeless state, it is not sufficient to know there has been a series of bad crops. The land is impoverished, and often the peasant sell their manure for many years ahead at ridiculously low prices It has been shown that tha recent droughts*were caused by the. cutting down of the forest. When it rains floods wash away the black soil, making the land as barren as a desert, says the" Century. A few estate-owners, who irrigate their land and carry on agriculture' on a rational plan* have had good crops during these bad years. The intelligent and thrifty Mennonites, who likewise cultivate the soil- in . a rational way, also have good crops, and none among them has suffered, from the famine. This alone is enough to prove that the terrible famine was not caused merely by the last failures of crops. When we consider the cruel way in which the authorities extort enormous taxes from the poor people, it is no wonder that the peasants live constantly on the verge of famine. I have myself seen the taxgatherer take the cqw of a pool widow because her taxhad not been paid Informed of his coming, I went to izba of the widow and found her in the yard with her arm about the neck of her only cow. The tax-gatherers frequently have the muzhiks beaten wiohrods until they promise to produce money in some way orother for the payment of tax. A prominent Russian lawyer, told me of a newly invented (as yet not patented) “beating machine.” The use Of this machine has many advantages over that of the knot and the rods. Among other things, there is no danger of the machine feeling any forbidden sympathy with the victims, and the force of theblows can be regulated according to the strength of the patient and the will of the representatives of the government. These extortions on the part cruel of officers of the government seem to breed the same heartless rapacity among the people. It ,is not only the nobles, but merchants, kulaks and upstarts of different kinds, who oppress the peasant. Most of the loans are taken in January, February and March; in January, because the taxes are then gathered: in February and March, because then the provisions of the peasants run short, and all kind of eatables used by peasants go up in price until they reach the climax in April. From April the peasant begins to earn a little, and the loans diminish until August. After that they rise again, because after tha crops have been gathered the peasants Begin to pay their debts with the harvest, so "that they themseves are soon without provision and must take loans again. Sometimes the interest charge on peasant loans amount to 300 per cent.