The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-27
By Limbach

best and largest in Europe. A
tremendous feat, but are they salts
fed? They are not. A couple of
days ago terrific criticism of the
Lugansk leaders took place in the
press; however well they make this
new locomotive, they don't make
enough of them fast enough. Letters
from workers flock in criticising the
"handicraft" methods of manufac-
ture, though the method used is
that Of the leading foreign locomo-
tive factories. The workers, and the
experts and technicians, themselves
mostly workers in recent years,
workers who have passed through
the Soviet higher education, pro-
pose more INFLAMMATION, better or
ganization of the locomotive factory.
No country in the world has ever
had such a building campaign as
the Soviet Union. Throughout the
Soviet cities, dwelling room space
has been created at such a tempo
as never before heard of. Whole
new cities of workers. apartment
houses have sprung up around the
outskirts of the old cities, and in
altogether new places like Magni-
togorSk where only wind-SWept
mountainside existed before the
First Five Year Plan.
Want Beautiful Buildings
But now, while demanding still
more building, the Soviet worker
and his elected representatives have
raised clamor for beautiful build
ings. Congresses of architects have
been called and a furious discus
sion RACES around types of build
ings. To the average Westerner, for
example, the new Moscow Soviet
hotel just finished in the center of
town is beautiful building. I, have
said so in previous articles. Work
ers' delegations and capitalist news
paper correspondents agreed. But
now quite discussion has devel-
oped, not over whether the building,
which is a clever combination of
several styles with a classical mo-
tive predominating, is an improve
ment over the old buildings, but as
to whether it is the best possible
that could have been done with the
space available, whether another
style should not have been used,
and whether it shall be a model to
copy in the future, or horrible
example to avoid. In the end the
workers = industrial, architectural,
etc.-will decide.
Take a single meeting in kol-
khoz, a meeting in connection with
the present election campaign. The
| peasants and collective farmers are
giving instructions to their dele
gates to the village soviet. A 77-year
old woman proposes a plan for
better handling of fuel, peat and
wood A stableman demands
better radio in the club. Several
| declare, 'It is high time to electrify
all machinery here" Others pro-
pose list of new books for the
library. A woman calls for a new
accordion for the community &C
cordionist. The accordion player
himself calls attention to the need
of new truck for the kolkhoz.
Demands are made for new nurs-
cry, and for a second school build
ing, since now children who live
farthest away have to travel too
long distance to school.
When you remember that all
these proposals, which will un-
doubtedly be carried out, refer to a
farm, you will see how far the
Soviet masses have travelled in
recent years. Not many American
farmers can concern themselves
with such matters as these. Clubs
and nurseries and such like things
they don't have and never had;
trucks some of them had before the
crisis. Nowadays, they generally
don't use them much because of
lack of money for fuel and repairs.
Such examples might be null
tiplied indefinitely.