The fact should always be kept in mind that, to the extent to which
the foreign born are from rural districts, they have the difficulty
experienced by all who are forced to adjust themselves to an economy
built on money, as distinguished from an economy built on kind. In the
country where things are grown, there is little opportunity for
acquiring a sense of money values.
It is then peculiarly difficult to value in terms of the new measure
those articles with which one has been especially familiar under the
old economy. For example, when vegetables and fruits have been enjoyed
without estimating their value, it is difficult to judge their value
in money. While meat was before thought out of reach, it may be
purchased at exorbitant rates under the new circumstances, because one
has no idea of how much it should cost. Evidence as to this kind of
difficulty is found among all groups. It takes the form, sometimes, of
apparent parsimony, sometimes of reckless and wasteful buying.
The Lithuanians seem, for example, to experience difficulties of this
kind everywhere. The small farmer in Lithuania was accustomed to an
irregular cash income at harvest time. Sometimes it carried over from
one year to another, while young stock was growing. He had little need
of money except for extraordinary expenses, such as those for farm
machinery, or building. The local store, which was usually
co-operative, carried only such imported articles as salt, sugar,
spices, tea, and coffee. All other foods were produced at home or
secured through neighborly exchange. All the clothing for the family
was of home manufacture, even to the cloth. If a boy were sent to
school in the nearest large town, his board was paid with poultry and
dairy products.
The tenant laborer had house rent free, a garden, a cow, a few pigs,
and all the poultry he cared to raise, in addition to the yearly wage
of from 125 to 150 rubles a year.
Other farm laborers had board and clothing in addition to their wage
of 25 rubles a year. Women received 3 rubles a year for farm labor,
in addition to board and all ordinary clothing. The food provided by
the farmers was coarse and monotonous, but it was plentiful and
nourishing. Laborers were housed in two-room log or board houses, with
thatched roofs; farm workers without families slept in the farmer's
granaries and ate at a common table.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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