CROATIAN PEASANTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 December 1938, Page 8

CROATIAN PEASANTS

MODERN METHODS ADOPTED LIVING STANDARDS IMPROVED. NEW ERA OF CULTURE. Travelling through Croatia over the main Paris-Istanbul highway one traverses an area, north of the Sava River, so thickly settled that a single village seems to be 30 miles long. North from Zagreb toward Vienna of Budapest there is a beautiful country of low, wooded hills, which is so densely populated the usual family holding is less than five acres (says the “Christian Science Monitor.”)

How exceeding low is the standard of living that five acres of mountain land can provide for a family. This situation in the level Posavina and in the mountainous Gagoria is typical of southeast European peasantry. And most of the 4,000,000 Croatians are. peasants. What keeps their condition from appearing hopeless is the effort of a group of men for peasant advancement.

The leaders are university graduates with doctors’ degrees, and a number of them have specialised in American universities. They are specialists in many branches of rural life. And, since Croatia is in conflict with the Yugoslav Government, they are not in state employ. NATIONALISM ENCOURAGED. One of their fundamental activities is what may be called “rooting” or working up “pep.” They are trying to make the people conscious of their needs and power, to make them proud of themselves and eager to work for themselves. They play up Croatian nationalism and arouse the masses to learn to read and write, to sing songs, to make beautiful folk costumes, and to beautify their homes and villages.

In this work of awakening they are having remarkable success. More than 700 local village societies are engaged in it. Daughters are teaching mothers lo read; sons, fathers; and neighbours, neighbours. When slates and paper are lacking—as is often the i case —letters are written in ashes or dirt or sand. A Croatian is beginning to feel ashamed if he cannot read and write. There is a revival of spinning, weaving and embroidery. No other peasant people in Europe has preserved more of their beautiful costumes in everyday life than the Croatians. This is one of the very few lands where women work in the fields in hand-embroidered clothes. At least a fourth of the Croatian villages have singing clubs that give concerts and participate in regional or national singing contests. PRACTICAL ACTIVITIES. But this cultural activity is only part of a crusade for a better life. To sing on four rocky acres and a dozen geese is commendable, but it is still better to increase the income from those acres along with the singing. So the Croatian swineherd not only writes poetry but is learning to raise better hogs and to sell them at a better price.

This practical activity covers increased production, homemaking, social hygiene, credit, marketing, buying, and every sort of co-operating. The peasants do not read about doing things, but do them. For example, they have to buy 1000 carloads of blue vitriol every spring for their vineyards. They used to pay about twice as much as necessary for it. Now they say, “Blue vitriol costs 5 cents at the factory; a merchant has a right to a 15 per cent profit so we’ll pay only 5.75 cents for it. If he asks more, we’ll buy it ourselves.” And because they’re organised they impose their will. “We’ve solved the blue vitriol problem,” they say, “and thereby saved millions.” INCREASING MILK RETURNS. The peasants around Zagreb, used to get half as much for their milk as it was sold for in town. So they arranged for a milk co-operative to collect and deliver all the milk with a “proper” profit. They took over the city market. They enforced their plan by rather crude public coptrol: they simply told their neighbours that it would not be safe for them to sell milk except through the authorised co-operatives. They very appreciably increased their own profits without raising milk prices to consumers.

In the selling of stock in the open market, at fairs, and on market days they agree on a reasonable price and refuse to sell below that. Their organisation is so comprehensive that they have a virtual monopoly.