The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1935-05-03
SANGERS' JOBS
MAKE THEM
AR|STOCRATS

CONTINUED from Page y
concentrates. Ny wife worked in
the nursery.
Aftermath of Famine
Although "the famine which
never occurred"-a ccor ding to
Moscow officialdom-waS thr e
months past. We were immedl'
ately impressed by the pititully
lean rations available and by the
low vitality of the workers.
I worked in a brigade" OF 10.
When they knew me well enough
to speak their minds four said:
eve know from such letters
as come through to us that your
American unemployed live better
than we do"
This from the "aristocrats" Of
labor in Russia. I had been there
half a year and had seen much.
I knew this was true. But I was
surprised to find that so many
Russians realized it. But, although,
men were so weak then that in
the latter part of an 8.hour shift
production fell to half of normal,
my new buddies told me how
much better off they were than
in 1888.
It was common knowledge-and
I was told this often-that during
the terrible famine year the city
of Ordjonikidze lost $4,000 Of its
10000 inhabitants, or approx
mately IS per cent.
Wagons Carried Off Bodies
Men on my shift said that every
morning, going to work at dawn,
they would pass a line Of wagons
carrying bodies to the common
grave outside the city. From these
bodies, they said, much of the
clothing had been stripped by des-
perate relatives who had been un-
able to buy new clothes since the
revolution.
But the workers of this zinc
plant were aristocratS even in
death. The zinc workers who died
were not buried in common
trenches. To honor them collins
were made.
One of the carpenters told me
that the carpentry shop had made
1850 coffins, January to Septem-
Der. inclusive, in 1888. There had
been 5000 workers and workers
families connected with the plant.
In spite of all it's preferential
treatment as heavy industry, this
plant had a famine death rate Of
11h per cent.
And the carpenter shop was the
only part of the plant which over
fulfilled its "plan"-or quota
that year.
Early Beliefs Shattered
But that was in the past, Al
ready 7 had seen many types of
Soviet industrial plants. MY
earlier belief in the advantages
of "socialized planned economy"
had been shattered. I knew Soviet
factories were hopelessly inef-
ficient. But just how inefficient?
I collected information about
the Orjonikidze zinc plant. An
American engineer designed and
built it. He built another, iden-
tical in size and design in Amer
lea. Both were three years old.
They compare as follows:
American Soviet
Factory Factory
Office workers .. II 296
Production ......
workers -. go. $50 1850
Tons daily so.o SO 8
weekly .......$23.50 80 rubles
We bought rubles there so for
a dollar. The wage equivalent
therefore was so cents week.
The Russian plant had 10 times
as many workers, made one-Sixth
as much zinc, and paid one-forty.
sixth as high as the privately.
owned plant in America!
A Typical Plant
Since, in all, I visited at least
30 industrial plants during my
one years stay and 10000 miles
of travel in Russia. I know that
this large office staff was typical
of the useless paper work" and
endless "red tape" Of the Soviet
industrial system.
The major cause of the bad
record indicated above was the
inherent inefficiency of Socialism.
Second, the workers were weak
from malnutrition.
Third, they were hopeless and
indifferent. In the factory, when
anything broke, they would say:
Don't bother. 1t belongs to
the state, and the state will
give us another"
Fourth, there was not enough
electric power in the whole North
Caucasus to run all the plants the
Soviet had built there. It was
common knowledge around the
zinc plant that our factory had
to bride the power trust in order
to get its share of energy-Which
even then was not always suffi-
Gent.
Finally, conditions in the mines
back in the mountains were so
bad foreigners were not permitted
to 60 there. Workers told me the
government could keep labor in
these mines only by a system OF
1ong-term contracts.