Rubles to Burn

Josef Stalin is both the Man of Steel and the Man of Prudence. Ruthless he can be, but he knows the limit beyond which rashness lies. Also he has the G. P. U. (nationwide spy service) to tell him. Recently there have been signs that one feature of the Five-Year Plan would not be stood for by the people much longer: standing in line. Last week Dictator Stalin acted.

As General Secretary (leader) of the Communist Party, he signed with Prime Minister Vyacheslav Molotov (figurehead) a decree abolishing the card rationing system throughout Russia for most classes of goods and foods.

Previously a Russian has had to apply for a ration card in order to buy a pair of shoes or a scuttleful of coal. Having obtained this card (after wrangling and explanations as to why he needed shoes--it being no explanation to wiggle one's bare toes) the next step was to take the card and stand in a slow-moving line of perhaps 500 persons. In the boxoffice would be a clerk, bored and discourteous. When the barefoot man with the card got to this clerk, perhaps after standing in line half a day, he might be told that only women's shoes were left, or the boxoffice window might slam in his face. "Everything sold out! More tomorrow, maybe. Better come early!" Under the Stalin decree of last week Moscow's boxoffices will be replaced as fast as humanly possible by 200 stores. Also, several thousand stores will be opened in other cities and towns. The decree voiced confidence that the Government can fill these stores with goods faster than the people can empty them. That is the crux. Shortage of goods and standing in line had produced a state of affairs in which a Russian with 1,000 rubles might literally not know where or how to spend it. Months ago the Government ruled that anyone who wanted to deposit money with the State could do so at any boxoffice, and for this purpose could go to the head of the line. He could also go to the head if he wished to draw money out. But this arrangement was not widely popular. From a Soviet fiscal point of view, the effect has been to immobilize so many rubles in Russian pockets that the Government (which conducts nearly all business) has repeatedly run short of rubles with which to pay wages, has had to print more. This is inflation. Last week Soviet officials prophesied that the new Stalin stores will catch so many rubles and return them to the Treasury that no more will have to be printed. They hope to have rubles to burn, and for each burned ruble there will be that much deflation. But there was one flaw in the bright new plan last week. The Government, having switched from cards to stores, raised most prices 50%. This may or may not choke off the expected rush of buyers. If it seems to choke too hard, the State will prevent strangulation by lowering prices. German banks, who do a little bootleg business in rubles,* reported last year that they were getting batches of Soviet banknotes all bearing the same serial number. Naturally the holder of U. S. Treasury silver certificate number M71525894A entitling him to one silver dollar, hopes that nobody else has a bill of the same number entitling them to his dollar--for that is what such duplication would amount to. German banks have denounced the Soviet Treasury for "counterfeiting its own money." Object of such counterfeiting would presumably be to prevent the holder of a banknote from jumping to the conclusion that the entire issue was inflated when he saw a serial number in the billions. If some deflation can be achieved in Russia "state counterfeiting" may stop.

* Soviet law prohibits export or import of rubles.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.