The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-09-26
Progress Made by Soviet
Press Must Win Applause
OF Labor the World Over
BY ]. LOUIS ENGDAHL.

daily.
had spent nearly the full day at the Palace Of La
bor with Ivan Pirogow the editor and Victor Fin, the
foreign editor studying the type of material that went
into the paper, getting insight into the hopes and
aspirations of those who directly responsible for
issuing this outstanding labor daily in the world today
as well as investigating the methods used in handling
and developing the material sent in by thousands OF
neutrality-suspicious..
"Now we want you to printing plant" added
Comrade Pirogow.
The plant was at some distance from the Palace of
Labor where the unions headquarters and the editorial
rooms of its daily established. We made the distance
In automobile
"Gudok" is printed in an inconspcuOus building on
side street that off Toverskaya, of Moscows
main thoroughfares. I told that under the "old
regime" this the place of publication of "Russkoye
Vedomost' a socaled liberal" publication under car
ISM Now the plant belongs Russias railroad workers
First Of all, there editorial rooms here, too.
Here were editorial workers who received all the copy
intended for the who went over it and sent it on
to the printers The makeup editor who response
bic for the arrangement of the material the different
pages, also had his office here,
Going to the composing room, we find long row
of linotype machines, pretty much the same as IN an
American newspaper office. The hnotypes are up-to-
date machines the Mergenthaler type manufactured
in Germany They have been brought in since the revo
luton The composing is high-ceilnged and well
lighted providing excellent work place with the best
of health conditions.
The stereotyping also bore witness that new
equipment being introduced Here the metal forms
are being made, with the latest machinery, that are
fitted to the cylinders of the printing presses Some OF
the old equipment still remained unused. 1t will soon
be cleared out
The press battery consisted of two large machines
that would have been credit to any American
paper plant. One of these is new
"Gudok" appears mostly in six pages This is due to
the that newsprnt production in the Soviet Union
is still far short of the requirements, demanding that
the size of all newspapers must be kept down The two
presses therefore, able to print easily the required
100000 copies daily. Additional presses will be needed
however the size of the paper increased and its
circulation continues to grow. =
Then the mailing room, where the "Gudok" being
put UP large bundles for shipment to the far ends of
the Soviet Union. The mailers at work at long
tables and there the smell of paste and Irvine
that one gets in every newspaper mailing room. And
there the hurry and hustle to get the bundles
into the waiting automobile trucks that must make the
train schedules at the various railroad stations.
1t was as if the Times in New York. or the Tribune
in Chicago, the property of the railroad workers
in the United States be the official organ of
their trade unon to champion the interests of labor in
the transportation industry.
"But of course" said Comrade Pirogow, "such things
only be after the revolution, in the United
States of America"
Here 1 found, however, that other publications APP
peared in addition to the "Gudok."
The Railroad Workers Union issues numerous peri
odcas prints books pamphlets and leaflets fact has
developed of the most extensive publishing enter
prses within the Soviet Union, that compares well with
the work done in the printing plants of the Pravda the
organ of the Communist Party, Isvesta, the official
publication of the Soviet Government.
There is Sparks of Silence" technical monthly
beautifully illustrated that has reached circulation of
$4,000 copies "The Railway Worker" fortnightly,
has $4,000 subscribers deals with the internal prob
lens of the union.
zone Who Laughs" is the name of the comic weekly
that had circulation of $4,000 JAN 1, this year, but
by June, when was in Moscow this had gone the
100000 mark to 10000 copies weekly.
This phenomenal growth recalled the development of
other publications in the Soviet Union. There is
the theoretical monthly "The Boshevik, the subscrp
ton list of which has grown as follows: 1924 22840;
1925 100000 1926, $4,000, and 1927 $4,000, thus in
creasng almost four times in three years
That the peasants are reading more than is
shown by the following: they had 81 publications in 1923
with circulation of 100000 in 1924, 122 publications
with 1667930 subscribers; in 1926, 119 publications
with 1,466876 subscribers.
1t will be that there falling off from 1925
to 1926 This due to the fact that great deal of
waste in overlapping eliminated through the con-
sodaton of of the publications. This resulted in
the marked improvement of those remaining.
There publications for the various national popu
ations of which there many within the borders
of the Soviet Union. In 1928 there sc such publ
cations with circulation Of $4,000; in 1924 ia pub
catons with circulation of 257789; in 1926 ITO pub
locations with 673,371 subscribers in 1926, 206 such
publications with 753 subscribers thus showing
continuous gain
There are 20 youth publications in the Soviet Union
tba irdu The trv nd