Evening star., 1935-10-20
YOUNG MINER SPEEDS UP
SOVIET COAL PRODUCTION
Variations of Plan Have Been Adopted
by Railroads and Auto and
Tractor Factories.

of Stakhanov's discovery seems to lie
partially in the more intelligent organ
ization of the working shifts, 1t also
Is predicated on the use of tools.
What the ultimate effect the inno-
vation may be on production as
whole for the remainder of the Five
Year-Plan, no one as yet has cared to
forecast, but something may be in
ferred from the increase in plans for
the Donbas mines for the last quarter
and predictions that they now will full
fill the Five-Year-Plan in four years.
In the Prestakhanov days, these mines
were tagging rather far behind sched-
ules. The innovation also has given
something of wrench to the theories
about the position of the individual
worker in socialized industry.
In one respect the change might be
thought all to the good-or at least to
the good of the individual pocketbook.
In the past the ideas propounded by
Stain tolerated and even encouraged
this, but nothing that has brought
such rich individual rewards ever has
happened before. Most industrial
workers get fixed pay for fulfilling a
specified production norm, with re-
wards by piecework when they exceed
the norm Workers who have caught
on quickly have suddenly begun to
make into thousands of roubleS per
month. Only today the newspapers
reported a case of miner at the
Kriverozhski basin making 447 roubleS
a day.
Pioneers also have been showered
with praise and rewards of other
kinds. Two Vinogradov sisters who
have been tending 100 looms apiece
in the textile mills we're just pre-
sented with automobiles and cash
prizes of 1000 rubles for one, 750
rubles for the other. But there has
been a reverse to this medal. OBJ
jectors and "saboteurs" also have been
the by-products of the new method.
Deported to Siberia.
At Stalino two workers were de-
ported to Siberia for beating up a
"StakhanoviSt" in the DonbaS basin
two miners were sent to prison for
two years and another received five
years for threatening to maltreat one
of Stakhanov's emulators. The heavier
sentence was imposed because some
one discovered he was the son of a
Kulak. In some cases foremen and
engineers also are reported in oppo-
sition to the movement, as in the in
stance of the foreman at the Gorky
automobile plant, who used under
hand methods to discourage man
who was turning out $500 armature
rings per shift instead of 600.
There is one definite reason why
these objections already have come
to light Although the Soviet workers
are plentifully rewarded when they
exceed the daily production norm,
they also are penalized when they
fall below it. Generally the objectorS
seem to be found among those who
fear the new method will mean gen.
eral raising of normS. The oppoSi-
ton apparently cannot be dismissed
as trivial. Even the party commit
tees within the factories have shown
reluctance to deal very severely with
individual saboteurs Their laxity has
been criticized in the press and also
was scored in a telegram which S.
Orjonokidze, commisSar of heavy in
dustries. sent to meeting in Moscow
of shock workers from automobile and
tractor factories. The difficulty" the
telegram read, sis that some people
take a bureaucratic attitude toward
the 'Stakhanov- -Busygins'; others are
overwhelmed by the immensity of the
prospects opened by the Stakhanov
method; and others fear party organ
izations is essential. Only the splen-
did work of the Donets Province Com
mittee of the party in organizing the
movement of stamping out its enemies
has made possible its development
into the all-union movement
Copyright 1880