BREAD BOUGHT IN RUSSIA BY USING BOOKLETS

Shannon News, 5 July 1929, Page 2

BREAD BOUGHT IN RUSSIA BY USING BOOKLETS

Quality Is but More Cr.ii he Purchased Trying • Doubl: Prico

MOSCOW. With the introduction or thei varicoloured ■ bok.ets entitling the holder.-] to purchase spec.tied eu.ue.itics of brea/cl every d.iy in Moscow t:u' system in regulating t'i:y >ale cf La.at in tins Russian urban eentv:s hee b ,u made complete. Leningrad and the, provincial lfcrge cities had- the':- 'bread booklets a.-e a rule, for severil nomiis bef.n-:> it w:is decided to apply ra":i;r.:::ig ..ye.ures in, "he Soviet cr-.pilal. The -present arran;:me-.it, does, not compare in' strictr.cr-is with the more extreme food 'conservation measures durin<>- the 'World War oV during the period i.L M)-c:ille.l military ! eom::ai:;ism in Russia: It is both . i'og:U ami, possible, to-b'u'v bread without, the" booklet's, or in excess of the prescribed quantity./ by paving double prices. P>.e ul booklets are. issued onlv to cerl-ia definite classes of the population; to factory workers, office employees, ar'wans, rural teachers ami agricultural experts, poor peasants with no grain stocks of their own and peasants i:.< districts wliich suffered severely from drought. Daily Srviicns of \ The so-called "rio.n-toili"g elements" ji the cities .-.rid the great majority of he reirel po;nii:it;.m must depend either •n tl.e'.i- ov.-a revive:, or en the-stocks )f b.-...d which are 1 a enhancee prices. Workers-.receive 'wo pounds of bread i day on presenting their booklets, with an additional pound for each member of their families; the normal for employees is a pound a day. Two ex : plaiiations are usually offered for the rationing; first, that there has been an ibnormal demand for bread in the cities, much of which flows back into the peasant villages, where it is sold .it speculative prices, and, second, that peasants living in the neighbourhood of the cities have profited by the lowprice of baked bread, as compared with the high prico of fodder, and placet! their horses'on a diet of bread instead tof oats. Both these practices, it is iirgued, .will be eliminated under the rationing svstcni. Eliminate Waiting Lines. In preparing the population for the' introduction'of the bread booklets, the newspapers have argued that this system will eliminate waiting lines bo£or ; the bread shops and interruptions, in supply. During the first two or three flays the lines seemed to increase rather than diminish; but this is perhaps due to the" confusion which naturally accompanies the introduction of a new and rather complicated arrangement, under which people of different classes have different allotments' of bread. 'The ration of two pounds of bread «. day for the manual worker and one ionnd for the office worker would seem inpic, according to Amerifean or West ■iuropean standards. But in Russia ..■read plavs a big role in the, popular .irt .ami anv effort to restrict its cou- ; amption, even though the, restrictions e mild, arouses all sorts of! misgivings .iid rumours. Moscow,' with a population, cf L'.100.000 devours- every day over 1608 tons of bread,while Berlin, with in ore than twice the Muscovite population, consumes only 1310 tons, making up with a more varied diet.