The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-04-14

Alcan Hirseh, New York: Chem
icsl Publishing Co. 300 pages. SO.
Reviewed by A. G. BOSSE
NR. HIRSCH is New York en-
" gineer who was employed under
q technical assistance contract by
the Soviet Government for two
years as chief consultant to its
chemical industry. He had been
oonsultsnt to various corporations
and to the japanese Government
during the year. His book is il
Illustrated with three-score photo
graphs and maps and an extensive
photography makes up an appendix.
1t Is comprehensive and very SYM
pathetic review of economic, poll
teal, cultural, and travel and living
conditions. I can almost say that
it is the sanest and most under
standing of the scores of books
written on the U. S. S. r. by non
Communists. 1t gives vast amount
of interesting detail on work and
life there, in simple, direct English,
A test of a persons attitude to-
ward the Soviet Union is his re-
action toward any one Of the fol-
lowing institutions or phases of
life: the o. P. G. u, the Red Army,
sex, prostitution, divorce, food
shortage, bureaucracy, and Soviet
position on peace. In every one Of
these test cases, and many others,
DR.. Hirsch comes through with fly
ing colors. Let us take some Of
them: The G. P. u. was necessitated
by the terror of its enemies, and
without such an organization the
Revolution would have failed" The
Red Army sets a standard by its
example of discipline, p ersonal
hygiene and coordiuated labor"
But the workers in leather jackets"
are the real military force, and they
gave the author a feeling Of abb
solute impregnability. Even If all
the front lines we're to crumble one
felt that with this kind Of organi-
cation, Soviet Russia was indeed
unconquerable"
Soviet citizens are very sane and
adult in sex matters" and the
gap between physical maturity
and economic independence which
usually delays marriage in our
western world does not exist" The
economic necessity for prostitution
"has been entirely removed" The
"lack Of suggestives or eroticism"
was striking. Scientific criminology
is further advanced in the Soviet
Union than anywhere else in the
world" Children are Served first
Of the best available"
DATA on vital statistics, scientific
~ research and the like are exciting
Canned blood for transfusions, dis
covery Of typhus virus and serum,
decline of a one-third in mortality
since pre-war and increase in life
span from 80 to AZ years, etc. Diff
ficulties are not CLOSED over. The
terrible living conditions at Mag
nitogorsk last summer (Which Ordz-
honikidze called a pig-sty) are re-
ferred to, and housing and trans
port shortages in Moscow. Since
DR.. Hirsch is writing for the aver
age American businessman, or per-
haps because he really believes 1t,
he characterizes the U. S. A., to-
gether with the U. S, S. r., as the
two strongest advocates of peace
today.
The section on the chemical in
dustry is the longest chapter in the
book. Pre-war Russia was chem
ically backward, despite the fame of
Mendeleyey and Tenteleyev, pro-
ducing only one -twentieth to one
thirtieth as much sulphuric acid as
the United States, Great Britain,
Germany or France. The war prac-
tically wiped out the industry, the
few, haf-ruined plants at work
producing at 1915 per cent Of ca
pacity. The Communists had to
raze them and start anew, and they
have begun from the beginning on
advanced processes which it has
taken years OF experimentation to
develop elsewhere, and which
through centralized planning are
being applied in an effective way
without duplication"
The success with which the U. s.
S. r. is producing the most COM
phcated chemicals in some of the
largest plants Is exemphfied by the
following facts: They have de-
veloped nephelite production in the
Arctic, q chemical worked indus
trially nowhere else In the world,
getting from 1t glass and ceramics,
leather and textile dyes, fertilizers,
etc. Sulphuric acid output in 1882
was four and one-half times Of 1918,
superphosphate ten times, and soda
ash twice. It has at Magnitogorsk
Europe's largest by-proqduct coke
plant and the third largest in the