The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-08-16
RUSSIAN COOPERATION.

Outline of the Peculiar system of COmbina-
tiOns Existing in Russia.
In these days of profit-sharing and CO.
operative movements in this country, it
is we'll to look to the success of older
movements in other countries. Colonel
| Wright has done a servive in present.
ing in his recent report of the Massa-
chusetts Labor Bureau a comprehensive
summary on cooperation in Great
Britain. We think it would be well if
the systems of other European countries
were presented in future reports.
The Russian people have a peculiar
form of cooperation, the following out
line of which will prove of interest to
the readers. 1t consists of a cOmbina-
ton or club, called artell, and is, to
certain extent, akin to the cooperative
societies of West Europe. They might
almost be called temporary associations.
In nomadic communities, artellS are
unions of handicraftsmen, carriers, serv-
ants, etc, the object of which is to pro-
vide work, and sometimes even food, for
all its members. There are, therefore,
different kinds of artells. In this way
the CustOm-house officers and mer-
chants provide work for the artelis, con-
tracing with them for the supply of
members to look after their goods, the
loading and unloading of the same, etc
Such unions are also found in barracks
to provide for the soldiers; travellers
who accidentally meet on the road, and
who separate after certain time, form
an artell and defray their travelling eX-
penses and the cost of their food out of
the common treasury.
An artell is sometimes formed even
for few hOurs-as, for example, in the
case of servants who have accompanied
their masters to a ball. These form an
arteII to look after the property, and
then distribute the gratuities received.
The workmen engaged in erecting a
building, or in doing any other kind of
work, join together to form an artell.
LIE Play, in his work Lies Ouvriers
Europeans. says: 'In Russia every per-
son belonging to the working class is
surrounded throughout his life by nu-
merous family, with which he lives in
absolute community as guard against
all misfortunes which might happen if
they were isolated. The workmen who
90 abroad and into the large towns to
undertake different kinds of work, and
who are deprived of this protection for
the first time, hasten to repair the loss
by forming voluntary associations,
which are known by the name of ar
tells"
This writer then describes an associa-
ton of this kind. He says: Zone work
man, on his arrival IN st. Petersburg,
joined about forty parcel carriers, each
of whom had put a certain sum of
money in the common treasury of the
artell. Four members were then APP
pointed to carry out the general bust
ness: the 'artelitschik. who had to look
out for work, to settle the price for which
it was to DE undertaken, and to divide
the work: the 'cloutschik.' who had
charge of the treasury, betrayed the
common expenses, and divided the
wages: amt two starch. to whom was
intrusted the control of the ch:ef and
the treasure At the commencement
OF the winter the artelI, which consisted
then of sixty-five members, was again
dissolved. The work which had been
done consisted in the loading and I'M
loading of ships, and in looking after
gardens in the town. The meals were
taken together, and the cost betrayed by
the artelI treasury. On the union being
dissolved the sum of money remaining
in the treasury was equally divided, the
amount of work done by each individual