The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1920-05-20
Shah Chaos or Reconstruction
IN Europe Follow the Great
World War;
RUSSIA OUT OF BALANCE
That Its Industrial Life Has Not Kept
Pace With Its Agricultural Has
Been Fatal to countrys
Prosperity.
Article XVIII.
sy FRANK


Less than 10 per cent Of the people
Of Russia permanently" live in cities
or towns. I write the word "perma-
nertly. 20 call attention 10 the fact
that q number OF peasants and vii
layers come to the cities and towns
TO work for a part Of the year In the
Industries. They retain their peasant
status and their domiciles in the vii
lagos. In 1910 there were only forty
cities In the Russian empire with a
population OF from $4,000 to 100000;
only rour cities with a population of
over 100000.
Poverty forced upon the Russian
people the cooperative spirit. In a
great. long strain people a stand up
together better than alone. 1t Is the
idea OF consolation In companionship,
1t is q principle of mass psychology
that a group of men will dare to do a
thing, to stand a suffering or a 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 It was the unprecedented result
OF necessity. II 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
he same slavery the peasants have en-
dured. The maximum wage has been
a starvation pay. So when the work
ing men from a province come to a
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 q
comm0p table, elect an elder of the
Artei, Ito whom each one pays his
share NJ the expense. All over Rus
sia one finds the Artel-ln the cities,
In the lumber camps, eve in the
prisons. When a building Is TO be put
up an Artcl Is organized. When a rail-
road Is being built an Ariel 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 vii
layers live out OF the world. The viii
lagos are rery small. particularly In
the extreme north. The houses are
generally cheap wooden shanties. Ow-
Ing to the great danger OF fire. the VII
lagos generally v a large area OF
ground. The houses are scattered and
struggling. The co~nvenicnces 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 a table. q shake
down for a bed.
Russia's Industrial life has always
been out OF balance with her ass.c..i-
turai life. Notwithstanding her riches
OF raw material and her great posi-
bilities for a successful industrial life.
Russia has continued ia be a nation
with 81 per cent farmers. z or 8 per
cent permanently engaged In industry,
and 3 or 4 per cent Of peasants who
deynfed mart Of the time 70 work in
the industries. II has been said re-
peAtetly that the imperial Russian
government from the time OF Peter the
Great has been ~unceasing In It's efforts
for the creation ana development Of
home manufactures. All OF the EVIL
dence have examined rcfutes this
statement. There never has been
security to the worker In Russia. The
only protection ne has had has been
his interest IN the family allotment.
He could 60 back there end be hum
CRY In the city starvation wes the
danger.
The czars put every obstacle In the
way or education and OF ours 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 AZ
more than $1,000. we're textiles. food
products. animal products. wood. pa
per. chemical products. ceramics. min
Inc. metal goods. MISCELLANEOUS. and
All or fhese employed only 2259,77S