The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-10-10
Machine | umb ering In
Soviet KareIia introduces.
Cooperation Into Practice.
(Second Article on Soviet Karelia)
Special DAILY WORKER Correspondence
By WILLIAM F. KRUSE.

| (SecOnd Article Soviet harella)
! Special DAILY WORKER Correspondence.
By WILLIAM F. KRUSE.
THE pine tree might well be adopted as the symbol of
Karelan economy just as the goldfish used to serve
Massachusetts before the regime of Murderer Fuller, by
the execution of Sacco and Vanzet substituted the cleo
trio chair for that older emblem The surface Of Karela
may be apportoned roughly follows: one-fifth farm
and town land oneffth water and threeffths forest
Practically the whole of the rural population engages
in numbering during part Tor alb of the year.
than half $3.50 of the industrial workers directly
engaged in working up timber in the mills and other
woodworking establishments, the income from their
products accounts for 1870 of the total returns from
Karelian industry and lumber yields 500 of all state
revenues Truly the pine tree is the Christmas Tree"
of Soviet Karelas Yuletde feast with the products of
other misunderstanding, quarrying, farming, metal
working etc-only serving spangles.
The world market for Karean lumber is said to be
without any limit Russian timber occupies first place
for quality mainly because it's supply is plentiful that
the producers do not bother to try work off second
rate sticks among the higher gradesit is not worth
while to transport anything but the best. Then, too
the backwardness in exploiting the forest for byprod
such resin and pitch foreign lumber buy
ers of timber from which strength has been drawn
In the future the trees to be tapped for year
for resin here also-but in America it is said that the
timber is often bed five and six before the
lumber is marketed.
There is limit, however, to the amount of timber
Soviet Karea put the markell purely domestic
mt-the amount of labor power to be thrown into lum
berng and also its productivity The economic impor
lance of the forest has already been stated-indusry
government, social development all based upon the
productivity of the forests In another the
shortage of labor power must be overcome.
This is being accomplished along two lines The first
is through the importation of workers from other parts
of Russia and from foreign countries chiefly Finland
and Sweden Thus last 1000 peasants and large
numbers of horses brought in from other parts of
Russia to work in the north woods The results were
not especially satisfactory, because, unaccustomed
the to the climate and to the vigorous
pace of the husky Karelan and Finnish lumberjacks
they could not produce than one-ha or even one
third of the local A much promising meth
cd of increasing the amount of available labor power is
the practice of active government help to settlers
homesteaders "colonizers" they known here.
This will be dealt with in a later letter
Machines to Help Out.
The second way in which the vital question of short
age of power is being met is by mechanizing the
work in the woods Thus far this is in its experimental
stage but the plans carefully worked out and
thoroy adapted to local conditions that success seems
certain An of 100000 hectars of virgin forest has
been assigned for the experiment. and of this $4,000
be logged under the old methods because of lack
of water transport So by of gasolene band-saws
caterpillar tractors and trailers solution to this
basic problem is to be sought.
But there is much more involved in the application
of machinery the forest than just the logging of 9TH
erwse inaccessible With the introduction of
chnery they go from extensive to intensive
numbering methods. Now practically all numbering here
is extensive e. virgin is denuded of its lumber
the waste sometimes high 5000 remaining to rot
the ground where it chokes off all chance for the
growth of young Sometimes this waste is burned
the ground by peasants seeking few years explota
ton of virgin SOIL and IN this process large of
nearby standing timber also burned down. On the
average the cuover land simply degenerates into scrub
within years This terribly wasteful method has al
ready been checked somewhat by introducing the 20
year extensive numbering method under which only one
twentieth of to be cut is taken each year. with
provisions for cleaning up the cutover land sufficiently
10 0i1ya tha tynpc chs In
Under machine numbering however, there will be no
Idenuding After the first cleanup of the forest-n
which about 10000 hectars worked to the extent Of
1880 cubic per hectar-only the best mature
trees those which give promise of further develop
ment will be taken each year, thus farming the forests
on perpetual longrange perspective After the first
year the taken out annually will be reduced but
the proportion between good timber and frewood (Which
at first is 3O:7O) will gradually be reversed
While the present forests to be inexhaustble,
actually there is such thing Experts estimate the
present annual growth of Kareas forests at 05 to
079but with the present wastefu methods the amount
Of lumber taken out during 1928 already reaches this
annual replenishment growth Thus if the old methods
were to be retained increase of exploitation could be
effected only at the of the lumber and
if continued would lead to condition of affairs like
that in the United States-where the people have been
despoiled by rapacous lumber of almost the whole
of their lumber heritage Under the proposed intensive
numbering methods the annual repenshment growth
will rise to 500, thus allowing a six times greater
ploaton while at the same time conserving the forests
in permanence.
Machinery the Road to Cooperation.
The mechanization Of the woods will bring important
social changes also in the division Of labor and in the
establishment of village organization and industry The
IS each, cutting of 1870 GU meters per g.
hour day. Each gang will have motor-driven saw