The Wrangell sentinel., 1920-08-05
Shall Chaos or Reconstruction
 in Europe Follow the Great World War?
RUSSIA OUT OF BALANCE
That lts Industrial Life Has Not Kept Pace With Its Agricultural Has Been Fatal to country's
 Prosperity.
Article XVIII.
By FRANK coMERFoRo.


 Of Russia permanently" live in cities or towns. I write the word "perma- nentiy" to call attention to the fact that number of peasants and vil- lagers come to the cities and towns to work for part of the year In the industries. They retain their peasant status and their domicileS in the will lages. In 1910 there were only forty cities in the Russian empire with population of from 50,0OO to 100000; only four cities with a population of over 100000.
 Poverty forced upon the Russian people the cooperative spirit. In a great. long strain people can stand up together better than alone. It Is the idea of consolation in companionship. It is a principle of mass psychology that group of men will dare to do a thing, to stand suffering or dan ger that no individual in the crowd would undertake alone. The Russians have suffered from the dawn of his tory, and one of the oldest institutions of Russian life Is the Artel. The Artel very much resembles the cooperative society of western Europe. with this difference, that the cooperative soci- ety in Europe and America is the out growth of an economic trend. In Rus sia 1t was the unpremeditated result of necessity. It is the difference be- tween one who is hungry because he Is dieting and one who is starving be- cause he Is without food.
 The workers of Russia have suffered the same slavery the peasants have en- dured. The maximum wage has been starvation pay. So when the work ing men from province come to city to work in the textile industries or as carpenters, masons. etc. they at once unite in groups of from ten to fifty persons. rent a house. keep a common table, elect an elder of the Artel, to whom each one pays his share of the expense. All over Rus sfa one finds the Artel-in the cities. in the lumber camps. even in the prisons. When building is to be put up an Artel Is organized. When a rail road Is being built an Artel Is formed. In some instances the Artel resembles a labor union, in that the arrangement of the terms of employment is made by a delegate or committee appointed by the Artel.
 Live In SquaIor and Misery.
 Village life is primitive. The vll- lagers live out of the world. The vil- lages are very small, particularly in the extreme north. The houses are generally cheap wooden shanties. Ow ing to the great danger of fire, the will lages generally cover large area of struggling. The conyeniences found even in the American tenements are unknown. There Is no chance for cleanliness They live and sleep in crowded. smoky. unfinished houses Furniture-they haven't what we call furniture, even what the poorest farm tenant in America would call furnish ings. A board for table. shake down for bed.
 Russia's industrial life has always been out of balance with her agricul- tural life. Notwithstanding her riches of raw material and her great possi- bilities for a successful industrial life, Russia has continued to be a nation with 81 per cent farmers, ' or 8 per cent permanently engaged In industry. and or per cent of peasants who devoted part of the time to work in the industries. It has been said re- peatedly that the imperial Russian government from the time of Peter the Great has been unceasing in It's efforts for the creation and development of home manufactures. All of the evil dence I have examined refutes this statement. There never has been any security to the worker In Russia. The only protection he has had has been his interest in the family allotment. He could go back there and be hun gry; in the city starvation was the danger.
 The czars put every obstacle in the way of education and of course this prevented the growth of industry.
 In 1902 the principal industries in Russia. representing all of the facto- ries throughout the empire, of which the annual production was valued at more than S1.OOO. were textiles, food products. animal products. wood. pa- per. chemical products, ceramics. min ing, metal goods, miscellaneous. and all of these employed only 2,259,773 workers.
 Led Up to Bolshevik Problem.
 This dwarfed, stunted. paralyzed side of Russia-its industrial side has direct bearing upon conditions in Russia today and is an important part of the problem of the bolshevik gov ernment.
 A nation to be economically normal must have balanced agricultural. man. ufacturing and commercial sides. If these three departments of activity are not approximately developed the nation is economically a cripple. Rus. Ea has been and ts in this sense an