nomic crisis, due in the first instance to
the war and the isolation it imposed, has gone further in Russia than
elsewhere, so the shortage of labor, at present a handicap, an annoyance
in more fortunate countries, is in Russia perhaps the greatest of the
national dangers. Shortage of labor cannot be measured simply by the
decreasing numbers of the workmen. If it takes two workmen as long to do
a particular job in 1920 as it took one man to do it in 1914, then, even
if the number of workman has remained the same, the actual supply of
labor has been halved. And in Russia the situation is worse than that.
For example, in the group of State metal-working factories, those, in
fact which may be considered as the weapon with which Russia is trying
to cut her way out of her transport difficulties, apart from the fact
that there were in 1916 81,600 workmen, whereas in 1920 there are only
42,500, labor has deteriorated in the most appalling manner. In 1916 in
these factories 92 per cent. of the nominal working hours were actually
kept; in 1920 work goes on during only 60 per cent. of the nominal
hours. It is estimated that the labor of a single workman produces now
only one quarter of what it produced in 1916. To take another example,
also from workmen engaged in transport, that is to say, in the most
important of all work at the present time: in the Moscow junction of the
Moscow Kazan Railway, between November 1st and February 29th (1920),
292 workmen and clerks missed 12,048 working days, being absent, on
in average, forty days per man in the four months. In Moscow
passenger-station on this line, 22 workmen missed in November 106 days,
in December 273, in January 338, and in February 380; in an appalling
crescendo further illustrated by the wagon department, where 28 workmen
missed in November 104 days and in February 500. In November workmen
absented themselves for single days. In February the same workmen were
absent for the greater part of the month. The invariable excuse was
illness. Many cases of illness there undoubtedly were, since this period
was the worst of the typhus epidemic, but besides illness, and besides
mere obvious idleness which no doubt accounts for a certain proportion
of illegitimate holidays, there is another explanation which goes nearer
the root of the matter. Much of the time filched from the State was in
all probability spent in expeditions in search of food. In Petrograd,
the Council of Public Economy