Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-06-29

tenth century, converted to the Greek
Orthodox religion, drove the inhabi-
tants of his capital, Kiev, into the
waters of the Dnieper and gave them
the alternative of being baptized or
drowned
Peter the Great, returning from Hol-
land, sought to westernize Russia by
summary orders to his noblemen to
shave their boards and change to CIV
man clothes.
Joseph Stain, 1t is asserted, with a
not dissimilar zeal, Is determined to
make socialism within our lifetime"
reality in Russia, and himself the
mysterious and revered apostle Of the
cult.
Difficulties of Plan.
The difficulties of the Five Year pro-
gram-and they are rapidly coming to
the fore in this, its third and most
decisive year-are without exception
difficulties created by the governments
theoretical aims, by the Stain idea of
civil service In Industry, to which the
Plan is welded.
The peasant who year ago greeted
with childlike joy the rise Of every new
factory today thinks about its owner
ship. 1t has dawned upon him that his
share in it Is problematical. All the
government has promised him on that
score Is that when the country as
whole becomes rich, every one of us
will be rich individually" But even
this metaphysical conception of owner
ship was taken from him in recer.
months with the announcement that
the present Five Year Plan is to be
followed by another five-year plan and
that this, in turn, will be followed by
a sort OF general plan, extending
over Is years.
Rewards Far Of
Every man and woman in Russia
OF middle age, and many under middle
age, realize that the milk and honey
to flow as the result of the govern
ments industrialization program will
not come in their lifetime, possibly not
even in their children's lifetime. Some
very definite and ;ery aggravating con-
sequences come in the wake of this
realization. For example:
russian factories are working day
and night, but the goods they turn out
are to large degree damaged, defec-
tive. Here and there special groups of
young workmen, labeled "industrys
shock brigades'' and pampered by the
authorities and the press, manage to
instil a modicum of enthusiasm into
their work, but the rank and file of
workers have in recent months fallen
into an Indifferent, apathetic mood
1nattention to orders, drunkenness, even
theft, have become daily occurrences in
factories, on the job. Moscow, other
cities in the Soviet Union. are contin-
ually holding demonstration trials to
show up and to reform people derelict
in duty.
Another chronic ailment not only OF
the plan, but of the Soviet regime as a
whole, is the division between intel
lectual and physical labor 1t is Stains
view that to abolish classes in Russia
1t is necessary to intensity the contempt
and even the hatred of the manual
laborer for the worker in the white COL
lar professions.
PrOletarians Favored
The bread rs:ions a clerk, a doctor
or a teachsr receives are one-half the
ratlonS a common laborer gets. If an
apartment is vacant and two applica-
tons are made, the proletarian appli-
| cant will receive preference over an
economist, an accountant, a dentist.
Hatred begets hatred, and the so-called
'intellig ntsia" retaliateS by assuming
an attitude of personal disinterested-
ness" and by stunning responsibility
and initiative to a point where it be-
comes positively hurtful to the coun-
try's general progress.
The Five Year Plan has tremendous
odds against it-odds coming entirely
| from inside the country from the Rus
sian people themselves. Yet it is not
unsafe to predict that it will be car
ried through. The prodigal reservoirs
of the countrys raw materials, COM
bined with the unlimited patience Of
the Russian people, practically insure
its success.
Outcome Doubtful
Moreover, success of the Five Year
Plan, as interpreted by the Russian
temperament. does not call for 100 per
cent performance, If the plan is filed
out IS per cent the Russians will still
consider it a marvel of efficiency. The
successful completion of the Five Year
Plan will be equivalent to the discovery
OF the Soviet Union economically.
Will this mean the unbalancing of
the economic system elsewhere in the
world?
Those who answer offhand In the
affirmative lose sight Of two basic fac
tors. One is the needs Of the Russian
people; the other, their standard Of
work.
Homes Are Barren
The average Russian eats one-fourth
as much bread annually as the average
EngliShman. His meat rations run to
the same proportion, and he eats only
one-siXth as much sugar. The homes
of Russia's swarms of dark people" are
as bare as nomad's tent. Their clothes
are primitive, one man in four wearing
shoes.
To bring up the standard of living of
Russia's 160,000,000 is the soviet gov
ernment's first task; the Five Year Plan
is pledged to it.
AS for the other phase Russia's work
standard, it is safe to estimate that the
Soviet government today is paying out
for bureaucratic blunders resulting
from its civil service system, for waste
fulneSs and ineff1ciency, the greater
part of what it gains from being the
owner of its factories and raw mate
rialS.
Until the Russian has learned to work
and the Soviet government has freed
individual initiative instead of penaliz-
ing it, the alarming demonstrations
about the Sovet'S ability to upturn
systems elsewhere and to flood the
world with its own superior and cheaper