The artisan movement in Russia is increasing in strength. It
stretches over the whole South, being perhaps the most decided in Odessa and Kieff, and evidently perplexes as well as alarms the local Governments and the Ministry of the Interior. It never occurs to them to leave it alone, and let employers and employed battle out their quarrel. They even, according to the secret correspondents of the Times, dream of a vast " organised conspiracy " among workmen directing agencies from Odessa to Tomsk. Though the hours of labour in some places are said to amount to eighteen a day, which is surely impossible, every strike impresses the local authorities as a sort of rebellion, troops are brought on the scene, and there are frequent instances of conflicts, ending often in something like small massacres. More than a hundred were shot in a fight at Kieff. The Cossacks, who are usually employed, simply will not bear being stoned and hooted.
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