1910, still more difficult. In the 90's there was organized in Roumania a Socialist Party whose leaders were exclusively students, lawyers, doctors and other professionals and who had been educated in the universities of Western Europe. These ambitious gentlemen, whose Socialistic views were at best cloudy and confused, suddenly in 1899 left the Socialist movement, which did not progress fast enough to fulfill their expectations, and joined the Liberal Party. Here they became members of the Ministry and other high office-holders and made splendid careers. Even to-day the majority_of the leading men of Roumania are former Socialists. The effect on the Socialist movement itself was that it became too weak to come before the public and thus degenerated into a number of study classes.

It is due to the splendid work of Dr. C. Rakowsky that there is in Roumania to-day a proletarian Socialist movement. He and C. Dobrogeanu-Gherea, a famous writer and economist, took the movement in hand and succeeded in reorganizing and building up the remnants of the first unfortunate venture. They founded Socialist clubs all over the country, published the first Socialist newspaper, Romania Municitoare, in Bucharest and arranged for a national convention, which resulted in a loose organization of the existing Socialist forces. The new movement, even before it became a political party, went through a severe crisis. The farmers' revolt of 1907 was followed by a period of governmental persecution. All clubs were dissolved, their money confiscated and about a thousand Jewish Socialists-four-fifths of the 289,000 Roumanian Jews are proletarians-were banished from the country as foreigners. Particular efforts were made to banish Rakowsky, who was also denounced as a foreigner. Several years passed, before he was permitted to prove, in court, that he was a citizen of Roumania. A still more critical period came for the Party in 1913, when the Balkan War whipped high the waves of nationalist feeling. Two influential Socialists, the lawyers Cocea and Dragu, endorsed the expansion policy of the government, although the Party itself protested emphatically against it. The former were expelled from the Party together with a number of extreme opportunists. Then began a genuine Socialistic movement in Roumania.

The Social-Democratic Party has agitated unceasingly for peace since the outbreak of the world war. It still demands the preservation of Roumanian neutrality, and is an important factor against the outbreak of war. Huge Socialist peace demonstrations were held in Bucharest, Jassy, Galatz, etc., in June, July and August, 1915; altogether 284 meetings were held attended by tens of thousands of people

and 495,920 anti-war leaflets were distributed. At a number of these meetings there were clashes with the police and soldiery; in Bucharest 40 comrades were arrested and 20 wounded.

A Party convention held on November 7-9, 1915, as the first order of business, adopted a resolution of sympathy with those comrades "who remained true to the spirit of Internationalism and have refused to make common cause with their governments." It approved the resolutions of the Zimmerwald Conference against war, for the triumph of international Socialism, and promised material and moral support to the International Socialist Agitation Committee in Berne. After these declarations had been adopted by the convention, government persecution of the Socialist press and organizations was conducted with renewed vigor.

The Party is not yet well organized. The fourth Convention reported a membership of 2,980, mostly residents of Bucharest and a few industrial centres. The Secialist vote

there were candidates nominated in seven cities only-was 1,557 in 1910 and 2,047 in 1914. Women's organizations are springing up everywhere. Electoral and especially agrarian reforms are the chief features of the party program.

The Federation of Trade Unions works in utmost harmony with the Socialist movement. In 1914 it had 14.000 members. By the first of October, 1915, this number had risen to 16,700. The waiters, metalworkers, railway workers, textile workers and woodworkers are fairly well organized. Each of these possesses a monthly publication. Public employees are prohibited from joining the Federation.

The Secretary of the Party is J. C. Frimu, Roumanian Social-Democratic Party, Strada Piatza Amzei, 261 Buchar

est.

The Secretary of the Labor Federation is D. Pop, Piata Amzei 26, Bucharest.

RUSSIA.

Autocratic Monarchy. The Government is carried on by the Czar, the Council of the Empire and the Duma. The Council of the Empire consists of members appointed by the Czar on the advice of the Cabinet. The Duma consists of 383 members elected by the electoral bodies of the chief towns or governments or provinces and of the largest cities. The Czar is autocratic ruler and can override any decision of the Council of the Empire or the Duma.

Russia, with its vast territory is a mixture of modern industrial and ancient agricultural life. No Socialist movement in any nation has cost so much in human life as that of Russia; no working-class has suffered such awful persecution and oppression. In the first decades of the revolutionary

movement of the Russian proletariat many hundreds of the leaders, who then came from the educated middle class-were executed; many thousands were banished to Siberia; and even to-day, when the Social Democratic Party has become a recognized party, with its representatives in the Duma, membership in the Party is still heavily penalized. The brutal suppression makes organization and propaganda secret and secrecy produces a movement split up into many divergent groups. Only in 1910 did it become possible to unify the existing social democratic movements.

The International Socialist Congresses have recognized three entirely separate Russian labor movements: the Social Revolutionary Party, the Social Democratic Labor Party and the so-called Group of Toil. The last named is at best little more than a peasant party. It sprang up, just before the first Duma election, and was exceedingly successful because its semi-communist program bore a strong resemblance to the ancient Russian communism, whose traditions still have a firm hold upon the Russian peasant. It elected 104 representatives to the Duma but at the following election it lost ground and in the present, the fourth, Duma, it has but 10 representatives. The Social Revolutionary Party, which also played an important part in the first Duma elections, has also lost much of its importance, mainly because it still favors the use of terrorist means and methods, similar to those of the anarcho-syndicalist groups of Western Europe. The labor party of the greatest importance in Russian public life and thought is the Social Democratic Labor Party with its various factions and national groups.

It is difficult to determine the numerical strength of the Russian Socialist movement. The Duma elections are a certain criterion. Notwithstanding the undemocratic and anti-labor character of the complicated election laws, the Socialist groups in 1907 succeeding in electing 101, and the Group of Toil 116 representatives of the 504 in the whole Duma. Since then the election laws have become still more reactionary. Nevertheless it is beyond doubt, that the Socialists still control the majority of the industrial proletariat and that a steadily growing number of poorer middle class men and women see in the Socialist movement their only hope and are openly joining it. In six of the largest Russian cities, in each of which the workers as such have the right to elect one representative to the Duma, all six of the men elected were Socialists. To these were added in 1912 eight Socialists who were elected with the assistance of middle class votes particularly among the oppressed nations of Russia, where the more enlightened population votes for the Socialists rather than return to the Duma a representative of the Russian government. When the fourth Duma went

into session in 1912 it had a Social Democratic group of 13 men, to which was added a Polish Socialist Party representative elected in Warsaw. With the Group of Toil (10 men) it forms the extreme radical wing of the Duma.

The Socialist representatives have seized every opportunity to tell the government and the capitalist class the truth. The persecutions which were their reward, increased in severity when the outbreak of the war showed that the great majority of the Russian Social Democracy was more sharply than ever, in opposition to the government and to the Duma as a whole.

The Social Democrats in the Duma on August 8, 1914, when the first war credits were put to a vote, expressed their attitude in a declaration which assailed the government for its imperialistic policies and pledged international solidarity with the workers of the world.

After this declaration the Social Democrats left the_Duma, to be followed at once by members of the Group of Toil. Neither of these parties were present when the vote was taken. Shortly after the Czar's government saw a chance for revenge, and five Social Democratic members of the Duma, Petrowsky, Muranoff, Badaeff, Samoiloff and Schagoff, were arrested on the flimsy pretext that they belonged to a secret society and for attempted rebeilion. They were sent to Siberia.

The great majority of the Socialist proletariat remained opposed to war. When industrial war commissions were established, and elections were being held for the Central War Commission, the workers of Petrograd were called upon to declare by vote whether or not they desired to be represented on this commission. This election showed that not quite 35 per cent of the Petrograd workers declared themselves in favor of electing labor representatives. Of the 200 electors, who were elected by 225,000 votes, 91 refused to vote, so that the election could not be held, and the war commissions remained without labor representatives. Great strikes broke out in all parts of the country, particularly in Petrograd, Moscow and in the Caucasus, some of which are still unsettled. They have been particularly frequent in ammunition works.

The Socialist Press is limited to Nasch Golos (Our Voice) which is published in Samara, and belongs to the so-called Minority group of the Social Democratic Labor Party. A paper founded in Petrograd by the Majority group, the Utro, was forbidden after the first weeks of its publication.

Besides the main organization of the S. D. L. P. there are large national groups which also belong to this party: the Lettish and the Lithuanian S. D. L. P. and the Jewish

"Bund," all without exception in favor of the stand taken by the Social Democratic group in the Duma. These organizations are strong and possess great influence in their own national territories.

The Zimmerwald Conference was indorsed by the Central Committee of the Social Democratic Labor Party, by the Organization Committee of the Party, by the Social Revolutionary Party, by the General Jewish Labor Federation in Lithuania, Poland and Russia and by the three Polish Socialist Parties.

The Russian labor union movement has as yet no central organization. It was computed during the 1905 revolution that there were about 652 unions with an approximate membership of 246,000. In 1910 the number of unions was officially reported as 750. In 1912, the factory inspectors reported that 2,032 strikes had occurred in that year, involving 725,491 workers. Of these 1,300 strikes involving 500,000 workers were political in character. The labor union movement, in so far as the unions are not of the "yellow" category, is the victim of merciless persecutions by the government, and countless organizations and trade unions are every year sacrificed by the local satraps. Thousands of unionists are arrested or thrown out upon the streets;, the activity of the labor unions reduced to a minimum and robbed of the right to strike. New labor unions are rarely, in some places never, registered, that is, permitted. Nevertheless the unions have taken root and will grow as soon as political oppression has been removed.

On August 18, 1914, a Co-operative Committee was formed in Petrograd to give to the existing co-operative organizations its full measure of usefulness during the war. In December, 1915, the committee was dissolved by the police, who declared that the Committee had used illegal and rebellious methods.

Secretary of the Social Democratic Labor Party of Russia: Kouznetzoff, 102 Rue Babillot, Paris (France).

The Secretary_of the Social Revolutionary Party: E. Roubanovitch, 238 Boulevard Raspail, Paris (France).

SERBIA.

Constitutional monarchy; legislative authority vested in King with National Assembly (Skupchina) Parliament consists of 166 Deputies; Restricted manhood suffrage.

The labor movement in Serbia is weak because of the country's industrially undeveloped condition, and especially because efforts toward organizing the agrarian proletariat have failed. Nevertheless, the Serbian Social Democracy, like all other Social-Democracies in the Balkan States, per