The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-09-15
Records Are Smashed By
Industrial Gains in the
Union of Soviet Republics
BY J. LOUIS ENoDAHL.

| uuctlon is increasing; ~ greater
numbers of workers are being drawn
into the industries; 90 the cost of
production is falling; (4) marked
gains are being shown in the heavy
industries, the last to recover from
the heavy blows of the world war,
the civil wars and foreign interven-
ton, The hopes and ambitions of
the not long ago are even now com
ing to pass. But there are new
problems.
The cement industry led the gen
eral increase, the output being 113
per cent greater than that Of the
same period last year.
The rubber industry increased 96.5
per cent and the output of cast iron
gained 92,6 per cent.
The coal industry, which advanced
very little last year, increased by
44.4 per cent during the period, with
an output of 12,410,OO0 tons.
The tobacco industry increased
4S.4 per cent, branches of the tex
tile industry showed gains of from
u to 46 per cent, the output of
Marten steel increased by 63.3 per
cent and of rolled iron by TIA per
cent.
You may inquire as to where these
production figures stand with rela-
tion to the pre.war output. What is
the output of the industry under
Soviet rule as compared to the out
put under the deposed czarist rule?
Here are some Of the figures:
The output Of the paper industry
advanced to nearly double the pre-
war rate. The newspapers today
have a far greater circulation than
under czarism, books and pamphlets
are being published in increasing
quantities and illiteracy is being rap
idly wiped out.
The linen industry has advanced
to one and one-half times pre-war,
and the match industry to one and a
quarter times the figures for 1913.
The coal, oil, cement, textile and
rubber Industries each showed about
80 per cent Of the pre-war output.
The most backward industry is
the metal industry, the cast iron out
put for the period being 4S.5 per
cent of pre-war and the output of
Marten steel 65 per cent. But this
condition is rapidly mending, as is
shown by the above figures for the
current fiscal year.
The peasants looking toward Mos
COW, as Duranty points out, learn
that industrial production in April
(this year, broke all monthly rec
ords since the Bolshevik revolution.
April production was 1926 per cent
greater than that of March, and so
per cent greater than that of April,
1925. This is the first time in four
years that the April output exceeded
that of March. The increased output
was accomplished despite decrease
in the workers employed by Is per
cent as compared with March.
AS compared with March nearly
all the principle industries showed
increases in April, ranging in the
case of the cement industry as high
as II per cent. New records for
monthly production were established
in the oil, cement and other indus
tries.
Another encouraging indication is
the fact that the Soviet Union con-
tinues to take up the production of
necessities that would otherwise
have to be imported. Thus the Putt
Low Steel Works in Leningrad are
being re-equipped in part for the pur-
pose OF turning out spare parts for
Fordson tractors.
At the present time the number
OF Fordson tractors working in the
Soviet Union is about 20,700, where
there were none before the war. IL
is expected by the end Of the pro-
posed five-year period their number
will increase to 1880. This will
nearly quadruple the present num-
Der.
The actual figures showing that
socialized industry In the Soviet
Union is winning the war against
private industry, over which there
has been so much argument, are as