274 THE ZEMSTVOS DURING THE WAR 
committees, the Zemgor turned its attention to the medium-sized and 
small industrial establishments and to the rural craftsmen, organiz- 
ing them in guilds (artels) under its local committees and making 
extensive use of the numerous peasant cooperative societies. It was, 
however, not easy to achieve such an organization at a moment’s 
notice, and to train the workers in new methods of production of 
unfamiliar articles. Apart from these natural obstacles, the Zemgor 
had also to reckon with the generally unfavorable situation created 
in the country by the protraction of the War. 
The local committees [wrote the official publication of the Zemgor] 
began their work on army supplies at a moment when everything had 
disappeared from the market or had become so expensive that the re- 
sult was the same as if they had disappeared. The supply of the local 
committees with raw materials was hindered by two almost insuperable 
difficulties. In the first place, the producers of raw materials found it 
impossible to execute all their orders promptly and had to accept them 
on increasingly long terms of delivery, stipulating as long as six months 
for the completion. The second difficulty was the disorganization of 
transport, which made it impossible to deliver the materials when 
ready to the committees.? 
The complaints about transport facilities were particularly fre- 
quent. The Zemgor’s consignments were not regarded as “military,” 
which might have secured them the necessary rolling stock with less 
delay. Applications of the Central Committee for permission to load 
goods without waiting for the ordinary freight schedule remained 
unattended to for months. The delays in the goods traffic at times 
became almost incredible. Thus, we find instances in the official docu- 
ments of iron loaded at the station of Taganrog not arriving at 
Kazan until three months later. Owing to the congestion of traffic at 
important junction points, cars destined for these points often 
found themselves dispatched to other places, in which case it would 
be extremely difficult to trace the misdirected cars, loaded with raw 
materials urgently needed for the manufacture of indispensable 
army equipment. In consequence of the general chaos that reigned 
on the railways, abuses and corruption were rampant. 
To cope with the difficulties, a special department of transport 
2 Izvestia (Bulletin) of the Zemgor, Nos. 15-16, p. 57.