Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-06-28
MENACE OF RUSSIA
IS DECLARED MYTH
American Engineer in Soviet
Says U. S. Trade Rivalry
Is rs Years Distant.
BY ELLERY WALTER.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
MOSCOW tvia Berlin), June 81
Russia is no menace, and there is too
much hysteria, both inside and outside
Russia, about what the success Of the
five-year plan will mean" said E. P,
Everhard, senior engineer for the Freyn
Engineering CO. of Chicago, here today.
Mr.. Everhard, an intelligent, far-see-
ing man, has been for more than two
years in charge of 40 American engi-
neers scattered throughout the Soviet
Union, and his experience has kept him
in close touch with developments. Not
only has he travelled some so, 900 miles
often without~ an interpreter-in the
u. S. S. R., but from the conception of
each project to the actual purchase Of
the specified materials for 1t he has
worked with Russians. His firm has q
technical aid contract as consulting en-
gineers for the Gipronez Estate Insti-
tute for the designing Of steel mills) !.
for plants to be reorganized or con-
structed in various parts of the country.
Holds Rivalry IS Years on.
Tall, spare and -typically American.
Mr.. Everhard calls spade a spade. Il
don't think the flve-year plan will fail, y
he said, But 1 don't think its success
means very much to any one but the
Russians Russia it no industrial men,
ace for at least IS years. Even then it
will have all it can do to care for its
own people
The talk, on the part of young and
enthusiastic Communists, about how
Russia will outstrip America In the
production Of heavy machinery within
10 years." is absurd, according to Mr..
Everhard With every large steel prof.
ect far behind schedule, the production
of machinery for the fve-year plan
alone is threatened.
Kusnetz, which will BE- next to the
largest steel unit in the U. S. S. R.,
is scheduled to start october /. 1t will
not begin operations before early next
Spring. It is to have an annual capac-
finished steel. So Russia's industries
dependent on this one unit alone must
wait at least six months.
New Plans Less Ambitions.
Some of the extravagant estimates
never can hope to be reached" Mr..
Everhard said. One recent encourag-
ing sign has been that some Of the Rus
sian directors are making their new
plans less ambitious
Schedules that call for millions for
gineer While the impression seems to
grow in the United States that the Ave-
year plan Is going to transform the So
Wet Union into highly industrialized
nation within five years." 1t is fed
largely by stories from those who do
not know the actual conditions.
at is just physically impossible" he
said. THE Russians haven't the man
ufacturing facilities, the trained per-
sonnet, the financial credits, the pro-
ductive resources or the transportation
system to draw on that we would have
were we erecting the same plant in the
United States. There is just so much
that it is possible to produces here, and
Just so much that it is possible to pur-
chase.
Will Fail On Own Needs.
Russia is not going and cannot go
like a house afire.' no matter how many
DEGREES are issued to speed up the tenn
po The dearth of trained workers,
the fear of being wrong on the part of
young Russian engineers end the habit
of passing the buck are the most i'm
portant things delaying the. fulfllment
of orders and the execution of produc-
ton schedules.
IF Russia continues on the same
basis. the fve-year plan no doubt will
succeed in many of its departments.
However, they are not in position 10
threaten the industries of the United
States, since this will still be far short
of the requirements and demands of
the people of the Soviet Union itself"
tCopyright, 1879