to counteract the evil effects of the original dram shops. It aims to provide a purer grade of whiskey to the masses, and to break the power of the dram-shops, which have been so managed in the past as to make them pawn-shops as well as public-houses-even to the degree that it was possible for a muzhik to lose there not only his superfluities and his tools, but even his right to a share of village land-even his profit on his own labor. It was in 1895 that M. Witte began the building of the government monopoly scheme by introducing it in the provinces of Samara, Ufa, Perm, and Orenburg. Eighteen months later, in July, 1896, it was extended to Bessarabia, Volhynia, Ekaterinoslav, Kiev, Podolia, Poltava, the Taurida, the Black Sea, and Kherson provinces.

In these places the excise on vodka is abolished, and the government has established central liquor-depots in each province, from which supplies are distributed in sealed bottles and vessels to retail shops set up by the government in the towns and country districts. The little local distilleries, once so numerous and prosperous, are closed, and the drink is supplied to the state (by distilleries operated under government control) in quantities

and at prices fixed by the government. It is the law of South Carolina carried out consistently from the root-the purchase of the grain and its distillationinstead of being begun in the middle, as by Governor Tillman. For the public convenience, let us say (of course, not to increase the sale of the liquor), licenses are issued to tavern and restaurant keepers and grocers to sell the government liquor, the licensees being selected for trustworthiness and good repute, and they having to sign an agreement that their licenses are revokable at the government's pleasure. In connection with the scheme, temperance committees are formed in each province under the leadership of the Governor, and in the principal towns under the Marshal of Nobility, to prevent drunkenness and establish attractive tea-shops, to wean the people from their taste for liquor

tea, by-the-way, being the commodity which it is said the government means next to monopolize.

Wines, beer, and all other intoxicating beverages, as well as the government's vodka, may be sold by licenses under the same terms as the licenses for vodka-selling are given out.

The government's official announcements, after two years of experimenting

with the new law, are to the effect that it is working very satisfactorily. M. Witte made a tour of ten provinces in eastern and southern Russia where it is in operation, and was confirmed in his plan to extend the scheme all over Russia. It is declared that the better qualities of the liquor and the decrease of drunkenness have produced a reform whose good is already apparent. The unofficial newspapers of the empire do not altogether share this admiring and hopeful view of the new system. They declare that the government got a profit of fifty per cent. on the capital invested in the new enterprise, and argue that this came of increased sales of the liquor, in addition to increased excise rates, so that it is clear that there is the opposite of a reform in the drinking habits of the people. Where the new system has been longest in operation it is asserted that the temperance committees have failed to appropriate sufficient money to make the tea-shops attractive, and they are a failure. A serious loss to the unfortunate small farmer has come from the closing of the local distilleries-abandoned because of the advantages secured by the large ones under government control. The little distilleries afforded convenient markets for the sale of farm products, and produced a waste that was utilized to feed cattle and enrich the land. A considerable decline in cattle-breeding has followed the new system, and very small agricultural communities have suffered other losses which to them are very severe.

The muzhik is still being bled by the liquorsellers. Even the government admits that under the new system the licensees, though obliged to sell vodka cheaper than under the old plan, still manage to get more from him than the for

mer price of the liquor by charging for the use of glasses, corkscrews, and whatever the poor peasants need in connection with this liquor, and by exacting high prices for the relishes sold at the bars. These evils, being understood, are to be dealt with by law.

The muzhik, who possesses self or popular government in its purest and simplest form in the management of his villagewhich is all the world to him-has always shown remarkable skill and moderation in the use of this right. He has seen his own and his village rights shorn and invaded from time to time in ways and to an extent which must have seemed monstrous; but then, as always, he has proved himself the patient, amiable, simple, and docile creature that he is. He believed, for instance, from the beginnings of his nationality that, though he was a chattel

A MUZHIK FAMILY.

A VILLAGE MERCHANT-WINTER DRESS.

of the nobles, yet the land was his irrevocably. But when serfdom was abolished the land was partitioned, and the villagers got only a portion, which is now seen to be generally less than is actually necessary for the support of the inhabitants, whose numbers have greatly increased. New abuses have crept in, owing to the muzhik's simplicity, his lack of ambition, and the vices of drink, gaming, laziness, and aboriginal disregard for the morrow, so that the nihilist writers declare his present state as a freeman a worse and more hopeless one than his former serfdom. And the calmest men -even in official life-admit that the condition of agriculture is desperately bad. With a characteristic rebound into despondency that is a Slav trait, the journals which have recovered from their jubilation over the proposed reform of the drinking habits of the people now declare that there is no hope for reform by the government, and that the muzhik can only be turned from drunkenness by multiplying the primary schools and

spreading education among the

masses.

Of course this is true, and it is the hostility of the government to the spread of enlightenment by schooling, by travel, and by the introduction and multiplication of serious literature, that renders impossible a valuation of Russia's future based upon European comparisons. For myself, I cannot foresee the consequence of a long continuation of present Russian methods in Europe, because I cannot begin by conceiving their durability; and yet the Russians tell me that these must be maintained, that the self-interest of those who govern Russia demands the maintenance of present conditions, that with enlightenment must come rebellion, unrest, reforms in the direction of a constitutional government- and with this latter alone must come the breaking up of this huge feudal landlord's estate.

His government of his villages suggests the capacity the Russian peasant possesses, sadly

The

rude and undeveloped as it is. His "artels" prove that this capacity is strong enough for him to govern himself, which we are taught is a mightier thing than the taking of a city. They show that he can make himself industrious, honest, thrifty, foresighted, responsible (nearly everything, in fact, that he is not until such combination gives him the chance to redeem himself). artelshik is a muzhik revolutionized-a beast of burden in man's guise transformed into a full-fledged man, or woman, for the women make good artelshiks also. They are developed out of the familiarity with and training in co-operative management which the peasants get in the little communes or village governments. To a certain extent the artels follow the same line. They are an institution peculiar to Russia, and of great interest to all mankind. In a Foreign Office report of Great Britain they have recently been most carefully studied and explained-a task which the Russians have never undertaken for themselves. It seems that an artel is simply a company or associa

tion of peasants for the prosecution of a certain kind of labor or trade in a certain place, or for the performance of a single task. The custom of forming these companies has obtained there since the fourteenth century, though it grew out of a habit of certain Cossacks formed four centuries earlier. These Cossacks were fighters and brigands, who continued their warlike organizations in peaceful times for the division of their labor and of the spoils of hunting and fishing, and for the sale of their war booty and plunder. They carried their trade up the Dnieper, and so taught the boatmen of that river the advantage of forming the artels, which they still maintain. The system is to-day applied to the work of hunting, fishing, farming, mining, banking, customhouse, post-office, and railway work, and there are artels of laborers, mechanics, porters, factory - hands of many sorts, pilots, bargemen, stevedores, herders of every sort of cattle, musicians, beggars, and even horsethieves. It is impossible to say how many artelshiks, or even artels, there are, because no statistics upon the subject have yet been published. It is certain, however, that in the higher

1

A PEASANT GIRL IN NURSE'S DRESS.

fields of labor the institution is vigorously extending, though in the simpler relations of unskilled labor the practice of hiring individual muscle in the ordinary way is elbowing out the simpler artels of laborers.

Until recently the government has practically closed its eyes to the existence of the artels (except as it has employed them in certain works), regarding them with disfavor as being socialistic institutions, and yet refraining from opposing them because they confine their energy to the industrial purposes for which they are formed, and because they undeniably tend to the improvement of the muzhik, his work, and his value to the state. The Zemstvos, or provincial assemblage, has exercised whatever little governmental influence over them has been necessary, and there have not been until lately any laws concerning or affecting them. Even now these new statutes mercly record

A PROSPEROUS PEASANT.

and extend to minor artels the rules governing the more important ones, the "exchange artels." Nothing more has been necessary. The institution is so very old, time has so perfected the simple regulations and customs governing these bands of workmen, and the peasants are themselves so familiar with the system, and so well suited by character and temperament to submit themselves to it, that no interference by legislation has been needed.

When we come to describe these bands and their methods and operations we shall see that once again, as in the case of the selfgovernment of the villages, this absolute monarchy offers the strongest contrast to its own main system of government by tolerating the purest form of socialistic co-operation among its people.

In an artel each member has an equal share in the duties and work, and receives an equal share of the profits, except in

the cases of such elders or head men as are obliged to negotiate for the work of the members. Such a man may not be able to do his share of the labor, and may be entitled to more than an equal share of the profits. All the members are responsible for the work and conduct of each member. In choosing their fellow-members the artelshiks give the preference to relatives or members of their own village or district communities, though in some artels, like those of the fishermen, the mere possession of the necessary tools is sufficient. Age, character, and personal fitness for the work to be engaged in are, however, the usual qualifications, and women are only admitted to the agricultural artels, or those which are wholly composed of women, like the ones that cultivate tobacco in one of the provinces, and the great grain-handling artel which loads the ships at Archangel. An entrance fee has to be paid by each newly made member. This varies from 12 cents in the simple agricultural artels to $500 in the exchange artels-the chief ones of Russia. There are thirty of these exchange artels in St. Petersburg alone, some dating from 1714. They have three thousand members. Their business is of two kinds: loading and unloading merchandise from ships, railway cars, or wagons, and the work of clerks and messengers in the banks, business houses, and railway stations. They are preferred as bank messengers and carriers of money, and are obliged to deposit money for security for their honesty. If they steal or lose money, and the amount of security they have given is not sufficient, the artel to which they belong is held responsible for the loss. It is the same if an artelshik damages or loses any article intrusted to him.

Each artelshik is appointed by the elder of his guild, with whom alone negotiation for his service must be carried on; but when there is not work enough for all the artelshiks in any guild, a member will get work for himself as an independent individual. It of course also happens that there is sometimes more work than an artel can perform. Then it goes into the open market and hires labor, often paying more for it than its own members are receiving. But it is a fact that the artels