The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1920-05-20
Shall Chaos or Reconstruction
in Europe Follow the Great
World War?
RUSSIA OUT OF BALANCE
That Its industrial Life Has Not Kept
Pace With lis Agricultural Has
Been Fatal to Country's
Prosperity.
Article XVIII.
BY FRANK coMERFoRD.

Less than 10 per cent of the people
of Russia permanently" live in cities
or towns. | write the word "perma-
nently" TO call attention to the fact
that number of peasants and viii
layers come to the cities and towns
TO work for part of the year in the
industries. They retain their peasant
status and their domicleS 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 four cities with a population Of
over 100000.
Poverty forced upon the Russian
people the cooperative spirit. In Il
great, long strain people can stand up
together better than alone. 1t is the
idea of consolation in companionShip.
1t is a principle of mass psychology
that group of men will dare to do
thing. to stand 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 Ariel 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
STA 1t was the unprecedented result
! OF necessity. 1t 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
a starvation pay. SO when the work
| Ing men from province come to a
| city to work In the textile industries
or as carpenters, masOns, etc, they n
once unite in groups of from ten to
| fifty persons, rent house, keep q
| common table. elect an elder of the
| Artel, to whom each one pays his
| share Of the expense. All over Rus
STA one finds the Artel--In the cities
In the lumber camps, even In the
prisons. When a building is to be put
up an Artel Is organized. When rail
road is being built an Artel Is formed
In some instances the Artel resembles
labor union, in that the arrangement
of the terms of employment is made
by delegate or committee appointed
by the Ariel
| i've in SnuaIor and Misery
| Village life Is primitive. The vii
layers live out of the world. The vii
lagos are very 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 cover large area of
ground The houses are scattered and
struggling The convenienCes 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, n shake
down for bed
RussIa's industrial life has always
been ont of balance with her ngrlcn-
tura life. Notwithstanding her riches
of raw material and her great posi-.
bllities for successful industrial life.
Russia has continued to be n nation
with 81 per cent farmers, or s per
cent permanently engaged In industry
and or 4 per cent Of peasants who
devoted part of the time TO work In
the industries. II has been said re
peatedly that the Imperial Russian
government from the time Of Peter the
Great has been unceasng In its efforts
| for the creation and development OF
home manufactures. All Of the evi.
dehce | have examined refutes this
statement. There never has been any
security to the worker IN Russia. The
only protection he has had hns been
his interest In the family allotment.
lie could go back there and be hun.
CRY; In the city starvation was the
danger,
The cars put every obstacle In the
way Of education and of course this
prevented the growth of industry.
In 1909 the principal Industries tn
Russia representing oil Of the facto.
ries throughout the empire, Of which
the annual production was valued ~
more thar 81 600. were textiles. food
products animal products, wood pa
per. chemical products, ceramics min.
Ing. metal goods miscellaneous nnd
All OF these employed only 2.259,TI3
workers.
Led Up to 5olshevik Problem
This dwarfed stnnled paralyzed
side Of Russla--its industrial side
has a direct bearing upon conditions In
Russia today and Is an important part
of tine problem Of the holshovlk gov.
eminent
A nation To be economically normal
must have balanced agricultural man
ufacturing and commercial sides II
these three & pnrtments OF activity
are not proportonntely developed the
nation Is economically cripple, Rus
STA has been and Is IN this sense an