The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, August 23, 1920, Page 5

9 ““~Russian Central Union of = #1917, there were 46,057, ties'is 1mportant x dxstmcts Cne Hundred Million Co- Operators Russ1a, Once a Land of Serfs Now Leads the World in Mutual . Washington Bureau, - Nonpartisan Leader, USSIAN co~operat1ve unions “had,: at the end of 1918, a total: membership of 5 20,000,000’ persons, ‘representing 100,- 000 000 of the Russian populatmn, nc- cordmg toaw ‘most as- tomslung report on’ the ‘Russian’ co-operative ‘movement ‘- ‘which:' ‘has been issued by the Units “ed States department of commerce. The author: “of this study ‘is” Doctor Frederic E. Lee, an econ- omist who/ has - person- ‘ally © gathered a .wvast amount of materi®®, and’ | who took the’ occasion of the decision last Decem- ber of!'the ‘allied confer-. ence to-permit trade with = Russia, ‘through the'All - cow - Union’ of Consumers’ the . : ,\Tl‘lls phétograph ‘Consumers’ ‘societies, to’ “Uni Sty - prepare ‘for the world a . ‘picture of this’ nation- 3 wide eccnomic organization of 'a people repubed to’ be Jindustrially undeveloped’ and unable to ‘care for their own business affairs. . Half a century ago thefe co-operahves were’ first . Started in the realm ‘of the czars. Like all other - forms of organization, they were repressed by ‘the military. They existed despite all obstacles, how- - ‘ever, and when the revolution of 1905 had been put down the government ‘decided that it would “be better to enconrage the landed peasants to form eo-operatives than to keép them in ‘2 spirit. of revolt shared by, the poorer peasants and Wa.ge-Workers ‘By that tlme there was a national union of consumers’ co-operatives and a national union of credit associations, béside ‘a eonsiderable group of producers’ co-operatives, chiefly”dairying.’ In 1905 there were 5,700 local co-oper- ative societies of all kmd in Russia and Siberia. ©Of these 2,000 were cheese-dairy ‘groups, 1,275. were agrm ltural societies,. 1,000 were consumers’ societies, and 1,425, were credit and loan savings assoclahons In 1914, at the outbreak of the European - e war, the.re were 80, 831 local co- operatxve‘s in the em- pire.. In 1916 there were 39,753, and in January, Then came the February revolution and then the October revolutlon, ‘turn- ~mg Russia within less than a year from a feudal 0 a Commumst state. Economic conditions, which d been in hopeless confusion, were further con- fused by the fundamental change which two revo- Tutions brought. Yet the co-operatives ‘moved ‘steadily forward. On January 1, 1918, they num- bered 54,500 local societies, and a year later they. showed J‘total of 80,000. ‘How far they have grown in the year and a half Ei‘nce these figures were gath-' ered is not known. ‘EDUCATIONAL' WORK AN IMPORTANT PART “There were 500 Tocal umons among these 80 000 gocieties. in January, 1918,” says Doetor Lee's re- port,. “The\capl’cal was. 230,000,000 roubles. . The co-operative unions” owned 5000 industrial’ plants, with.:50,000.- employes.: Counting’ five to a fanuly,n the co-operative organizations represented 109, 000,000 of the Russian people, “The educational work of the co—operafive socie- “The 500 and ‘more wholesale unions in Russia have their staffs of traveling lec- Ly 5 e - turers, bookkeepers, managers and agncultural and mdustrlal experts who visit the societies in thexr Libraries aru community centers of in-' struction and recreation are conducted by ‘the co-- _operatives, and the central ‘wholesale unions. also rint books and pamphlets on a large scale. The gooks printed by the unions'during the last year +to be resold to the small co-operative societies num- - ‘bered 100,000 and the pamphlets 1,000,000.” e i Dairy. and creamery production in Western Slbena = 1s controlled by the Union of beenan Creamery as- The flolrr m,ill‘éf; E\'rdakovo is owned hy' the Mos- ; ain broker, buying -directly from the pro- - ducers’ societies, and selling the grain plus only . the actual cost. of milling te the consumers. his binder twine at cost. - ‘amount of credit extend- st < of factories, without the : ' , flax seed. . each of which usually : : 20 to 40 local SOCletleS . ‘sociations, established in 1908, with headquarters .-at Tobolsk, since moved to Omsk. It operates 2,088 creameries and 2,350 co-operative stores. _bership includes: over 500,000 :farmers, and. it; has * ibranches: at-40 -points in Siberia and agencies in eVladlvostok, London, Copenhagen, Boston and New. ¢ York. It sells and exports butter, - cheese, . eggs, “..grain, meat: .and. bacon, ;and through its distribu- tive stores it supplies its «'members with ordinary ““household necessaries. Its creameries produced 60 per cent of the Siberi- i:/'an ‘hutter output in:1918, ‘and - in the first: three years of the war it fur- nished the Russian army 200,000,000 roubles’ worth of food. After . the revolutxon societies. It eliminated co-operatives "began a mutualiinsurance of their ¢ own butter and merchan- ‘dising business. - i They also’ have established .taken. for ' the . government;- P (8 “saap: works, machme shops, flour mills, TOpE:! fac—" tories and prmtmg plants, besxdes ma.gazmes a.nd newspapers. Flax growing is a’ b)g Russxan 1ndustry ‘A mil- lion and a half is the Tatest report of the mémber- ¢ “ship of ‘the Central Association of Flax Growers, which was established as'late as 1915, Its capital m 1918 was 2353 000 roubles, and 1t‘s turnover “in Thm is where the Russian farmer in the Altai dlstrlct of Russia gets 11 month.s of the fiscal year 1917 1918 was 421-, /500,000 roubles. . The shareholders are the local unions and individual societies comprising: the mem- bership. - Bach shareholder is responsible. for the ‘association’s liabilities to. the amount of twice the value, of his shares. - Members of individual co-op=~ erative ‘societies belonging to this Central Associa- ition .of Flax Growers are usually liable for from two ‘to five times the ed to them. : ; “The purpose," /8ays Doctor. Lee, “is to organ- ize the sale “of flax fiber, both at home and abroad, | direct to representatives intervention ' ‘of 'middle- ‘men, and to improve the quality of flax fiber and [ *The peasantef : ,thexr flax to the local co~ - where it is sof'ted and'ap- “praised. . When the local society receives the flax, it pays ‘the peasant 75 to 4:90 per cent of the market: [price, the remainder ‘be-. dng pmd after the flax is ‘sold. The ‘flax- is stored in - warehouses . of the: Iocal co-operative unions, “covers half’ a” province and is composed of from " sumers unions. « PAGE FI VE Its mem- these Siberian. farmer - The factory is owned by the Altai Credit umon The photograph was taken for the United States government. ‘This is the’nam 'flice and stockroom in Moscow of ‘the! All Russnan Central Union of Con- ' ‘sumers’ soeleties, -one of.the, biggest con- -j States government photoglraph. Marketlng, Umted States Report Shows The flax is sorted again in. these warehouses and is packed. for export accordmg to the instructions of the central association. ‘All' the flax ‘collected by individual co-operatives and unions is placed at the disposal-of the central association for sale.” . Much space in the report is given, of necessity, 1o the financial backhone of the whole Russian co- »operatxve system—the great Moscow Narodny bank, .founded in.1912 with a capital .of 1,000,000. roubles and having on November 1, 1918, total assets of 1,283,000,000 roubles, . Its capltal in Decembe1 1918, was 100,000,000 roubles—an expansion un- heard of in prevmus banking history.. It gathers - up all idle money in the local co-operatives and for- wards it to the locahtles_ where money is needed. Peasant co-operatives in Russia get money in the -spring;. the Siberian creameries get the money in the fall. HANDLE ALL CLASSES o 'OF GOODS AND PRODUCTS But ‘the Moseo Narodny ‘bank, having contact with scores of millions of produeers and consumers, decidedto open a goods department. It charged : the local eo~operat1ve societies from 1 to 8 per cent for its services in'studying the exact meeds of its clients—as to types of agricultural machmery, fer- -tflxzer, clothing supphes, etc.—and in employing “technical experts in purchasing great quantities for _distribution® to ‘the local 'societies. When ‘the war cut off its export trade, it was beginning to ship great quantities of farm produce to England and other countries; "Whenever & central association of ‘co-operatives was formed: in any particular line— as, for mstance, in flax—the Narodny bank gave up its worl h{m that line and‘turned to some other ch was not yet organized nationally. "Of the consumers’ ¢o-operatives, the na- tional body*is called the A!l Russian Cen- tral’ Union of Consumers’ societies. ‘It has 46,000 locals with 15,000,000 members. did a' business’ of 2,000 000 000 roublefi in 1918. It has 50 offices in European Russla, 20 in Siberia, 7 in Turkestan, and 18 in_ foreign countries. Its affairs are man- aged by (2) the meeting of delegates, ~which is ‘a very large representative con- vention; (b) the council of not less than 20 members elected by the delegates for four- ‘year terms; (c) the board, or working executive, consisting of from b to 18 mem- bers chosen from the council. . This All Russian Central umon, or Centrasoyuz, has departments handling grain, fats, fish and gro- ceries, ‘timber and coal, ‘and miscellaneous goods. It has departments handlmg hardware, textiles, boots and shoes, and the launching ‘of new industrial _enterpnses, such ' as chemicals, confectlonery, starch, molasses, ‘soap, fruit drying, canning and bakmg It has a b1g transport department, which manages the railroads and steamship lines own- ed by the All Russian union 'and works out plans’ ‘of * transportation of goods' from point to point throughout the whole country. Then it has4ts own insurance de- partment ‘and its labor department, which deals “with the employment “ conditions " of ‘its em- . ployes. ' Since ‘the Soviet gov- ernment of Russia for- mally took charge of the entire co-operative ma- . chinery ‘of ‘the country, - by making it a part of the permanent economic system of the nation, the " meaning of figures as to “the capital and assets of ,;the co- operatwes \ largely modified, " "However, . further “and contmued growth of the Russian co—operatlve movement seems assured This, is & Umted 15—"