the situation among the Moscow works’ councils. The party controls the State and the works’ councils; it would also attempt to control the union organization.
All reports that come out of Russia unite in declaring that Russian industry is most inefficient. Apologists say that this is to be expected of a country isolated from the rest of the world and industrially backward. But it is also to be expected of a country which has passed from the industrial autocracy of the days of the Tsar to the anarchy. of 1917 and the industrial autocracy of Bolshevik. dictatorship. Still, whatever the cause, the fact stands. Industries generally are being subsidized by the State. This may be good policy for industries essential to the conduct of war, but for other industries it spells economic bankruptcy. There is no need of itemizing the very low efficiency of Russian industry; it is well known and admitted. One observer has recently said that the only nationalized industries in Russia which have not utterly failed are the war industries.[1]
Recently it is reported that a part of the Red Army, which is composed of members of the vanguard of the Bolsheviks, is to be changed from fighting to labor units. This is a new measure to bring about the "reorganization of national economy,” and prevent the vast unemployment consequent upon a demobilization of the Red Guard. But it remains to be seen what success will be met.
Besides the nationalized and State-controlled industries, there are also a great many small industries which have remained in the hands of individuals or coöperative societies. The coöperative societies of producers have been very successful. Moreover, the cottage industries, carried on by the peasants in their homes during the long winter months, have grown and have formed flourishing coöperative socities for the purchase of materials and the sale of finished goods. Some of the factories of the old
- ↑ Norman Hapgood in The New Republic, February 25, 1920.
