Evening star., 1924-08-26
RUSSIA SINCE LENIN
The truth about ta country today
articles BY observer yo spent sndytns
BY SEYMOUR B. CONCER.

l d DE- WOSl
Three grandiose plans constantly
| under discussion in Bolshevia, name
ly, the electrifcation and tractorixa-
| ton Of Russia and the general re-
placement Of deprecated factory
| equipment, would seem to offer big
openings for American manufacturers
OF electrical. agricultural and indus
| trial machinery. Tractorization-in
| other words. converting agriculture
in Russia, the most primitive In Eu-
rope. into the most advanced in the
| world by the general Introduction Of
| tractors and other motor equipment
| is at present the idea most in vogue.
l mention 1t not so much to expose
| the hollowness OF the tractorization
talk as to illustrate the bolshevist
disregard of property rights In pat
ents as in other property. and the
| certainty that the American manu-
faoturer will have machines for which
Russia may develop a need copied and
manufactured as soon as bolsheviSt
| mechanical skill is up to the task.
When 1 visited Russia three years
ago kameneff gave mo q talk about
tractors, which were to revolutionize
Russian agriculture within a decade.
When 1 arrived this year I was in
| formed that the tractorization pro-
gram, though unfortunately failing
| to keep it's appointment three years
ago, was now in full swing on a big
government subsidy, and that the
Russian factories were about to start
quantity production Of tractors-3,000
during the current year. The truth,
| as finally learned it, was. as follows:
The government has during the
| last three years imported a few hun
dred tractors of various types, studied
their adaptabi!ity to Russian aGricuf-
ture and conditions OF manufacture,
and picked out four foreign ma
chincs-the Fordson, Holt, Mogul and
a German machine known as the w.
D.--to pirate. The four types were
| assigned in 1892 to four of the big
F'ordson. as the type most in demand,
going to the Putiloff works at Lenin-
grad, the Krupps Of Russia, and his
toric in the old days as the scene of
Father Gapon's activities which led
up to the massacres OF Red Sunday"
| in 1905.
German Machine Reproduced.
None of these plants is in produc-
| tion yet, the work Of pirating the
| foreign machines proving more dim
cult than anticipated. The Harkoff
Locomotive Works produced the first
| tractor, an imitation of the German
w. D., in April. 1t is much heavier
and clumsier than the original, will
| cost about $4,000 to produce. and will
| be capable of plowing, according to
factory statements. from 80 to 40
| acres a day, turning the customary
| seven-inch furrow. for deeper plowing
| is not yet contemplated in Russia.
| The plant hopes to produce, not thous-
| ands, but ten in all during the current
year Il have not heard of the ap-
pearance of the second), and the as
sumption that it can go to 500 per
annum production basis from October
is highly overoptimistic. Nothing has
been heard from the other three fac
tories nor from a mysterious plant at
Yekaterinburg, which was to produce
| a lightweight marvel, weighing 1000
| pounds and costing $125. (Page Mr..
FordD
The urban proletariat in the boil
| shevist party might believe from
| reading the large talk in the daily
papers that the Russian peasantry
| was already equipped with thousands
Of tractors of imported and domestic
| makes. AS a matter of cold fact, the
Soviet ministry of agriculture re
ported on January 1 just 902 tractors
| in all Russia, considerable part Of
| which were: imported before the war.
They plowed last year 1000 acres
| only a small proportion Of which was
| peasant land. A large share was rep
| resented by Frau Bertha krupp's S.
0o0-acre farm In south Russia: much
| of the remainder by beet sugar es-
tates established and cultivated by
the. government sugar trust which
has found the truth Of the old eX-
perience that only large-scale agri-
culture produces large results.
This year, 1t is asserted, 200 Ford
| sons have been imported. knocked
down, to be assembled at Novoros-
| sisk that others are on the way, and
that small consignments Of Ameri-
can tractors have been received
| through Vladivostok. I.have not been
| able to check up on these figures.
which are quite possibly correct l
came in from the frontier with a Ger
man engineer who was shepherding
six tractors through from Germany.
| When 1 read about them IN the Mos
| cow papers they had mysteriously in
creased more than tenfold.
.Uhninted Talk.
An item recently went the rounds
| of the bolshevist press saying that
| the Soviet ministry of agriculture
had ordered 1000 tractors from the
Russian factories for distribution to
the peasants. Just falkland not the
kind that money utters. The gov
ernment has promised the four Sc
lected establishments big subsidies
to convert their plants and get into
quantity production. but Of the pre-
liminary 100000 ruble appropriation
promised the Harkoff works for this
purpose in the 1928 program only
ESQ. 900 rubles materialized, and SO
far not a kopeck of the millions
promised for the current year. This
was largely accountable for the de-
| lay in turning out the first expert
mental tractor. Tho same was true
of the great subsidies promised to