A bright spot in Russian war administration was the work of the Municipal and Provincial Councils. The members of these bodies did valiant service in preventing the growing disorganization of the economic life of their country. Their activities are described by Prof. Harper of Chicago University, an actual eye witness of Russian conditions during the war, in the following passage: "So these organizations entered upon a campaign of 'saving' and 'production.' They saved the hides that were being thrown away, collected the discarded boots at the front and repaired them, and took over the task of supplying the underwear for the whole army--mobilizing the village coöperative societies to fill the large orders. And they did much to organize the refugees from the invaded districts for productive work. In a word, these men saw that the war was going to extend into years, and they realized that only foresight and organization of productive resources would make it possible for Russia to withstand economically the burdens of a protracted struggle. "The attitude of the governmental authorities (the bureaucratic departments) toward the work of these non-bureaucratic, but public, institutions (the Unions of the Municipal and Provincial Councils) was one of suspicion and antagonism, and difficulties were put in their way with the deliberate intent to block their activities. The institutions were suspected of pursuing political aims. Only when it became clear that the ruling group in the bureaucracy was consciously allowing the country to drift into a state of anarchy in order to bring Russia out of the war did these leaders venture to risk revolutionary methods of action. "The president of the All-Russian Union of Provincial Councils, the Zemstvo, was Prince Lvoff, the first Prime Minister of the new Russia after the revolution of March, 1917. In the monthly reports of the work of the All-Russian Union of Zemstva, Prince Lvoff, repeatedly issued warnings of the impending economic collapse of the country. But neither he nor Kerensky was able to liquidate the heritage received from the old régime in time to stave off the series of economic and financial crises of which the Bolsheviki availed themselves." FOREBODINGS OF RUSSIA'S COLLAPSE But it was not only foreign observers who were able to detect the prevailing rottenness in Russia's economic status. The following passage from an address made by A. I. Konovalov, a member of the Moscow Stock Exchange, shows that Russian business men were keenly alive to the dangers of the situation as early as April, 1917: