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
19l6 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