Evening star., 1938-12-30

formation supplied BY Rhode
Island engineer 1Dho tDas en-
ployed for eight years in many
OF Russia's key i,dustries.)
BY EDMUND ]. LOWRY.
(As Told to selig Greenberg Of the
Providence Journal Bulletin)
PROVIDENCE, r. l., Dec. 80.
CNAN.A).-One of the major fic-
tions pounded into the heads Of
the Russians and proudly pro-
claimed in their new constitution
is that of Soviet democracy"
Under this fiction, which boasts
OF the superiority of the Soviet de-
mocracy over capitalist democracy,
it is asserted that the Communist
party, the minority ruling Russia,
operates from the bottom upward
and the leaders merely carry out
the policies decided upon and trans
mitted to them by the rank and
file. The planning system in par
ticular is held up as an example
of industrial democracy in which
each factory decided annually how
much it can produce and the figures
submitted by the men on the spot
are pooled into master-plan for
the whole country.
In practice, as have had a
chance to observe In many Soviet
plants where I worked, the plan
ming system operates just the other
way around, and so does the po-
litical set-up, with the huge bureau
cratic pyramid resting, as it were,
on its apex of the despot in the
Kremlin rather than its base.
How 1t Really Operates.
Here is how the planned econ
omy" actually works:
In September, the State Planning
Commission in Moscow asks each
factory in Russia for its produc-
ton figures and inventory for the
year coming to q close, together
with the anticipated production for
the ensuing year. These figures are
usually wrong from the beginning
because in practically every shop I
CSCA WO1hCo AA VIC AldAAaSCA1lCI1I
was engaged in game of putting
up false front.
In the inventory, scrap is in
cluded and there is rarely adequate
provision made for needed replace
ment of run down machinery, which
in Russia is phenomenally Short
lived because millions of workers
r q jlno hNry %0 hovI1n
chine. In estimating production
for next year, sizeable percentage
Of increase over the current years
production is invariably added.
Then the ball starts rolling. The
factory figures are sent to the Offices
of the trusts in charge Of various
lines of industry. From there they
go to the combines, which are COM
binations of related trusts. From
the combines they go to the min
istries and then, finally, to the State
Planning Commission.
At each stage, there is usually
a "write-up" of production figures.
The further the planners are from
the actual production unit, the more
ambitious and optimistic they get.
BY the time the figures roll into
the vast NAV of the planning COM
mission in Moscow they give an
utterly false picture of what's ac-
tually happening throughout the
country and of the prospects for
the coming years production.
Bigger-Better Complex.
Now the planning artists COM
fortably ensconced in Moscow go to
work on this gigantic tumble of
figures. First of all, they jack up
the figures by lump percentage
once again, on the general prin-
ciple that Soviet industry must do
better every year.
One basis for this wholesale rais-
ing of quotas is the speedup system,
which under capitalism is invariably !
denounced by labor unions. When
some workers manage to outstrip
the others, their pay is at first raised
due to piece-work rate basis, but |
before long the piece work rates are
lowered on the assumption that all
workers can do as well as the best |
ones. The same procedure is fol-
lowed in setting goals for entire in
dustries on the basis of the strong
est, rather than the weakest, units.
Then the Planning Commission
turns around to get its orders from
Stain and the other men on top.
The leaders feel, for instance, that |
the tractor and tank industries
should raise their production be-
cause more grain and tanks are
needed both for Russia and for ex-
port to Spain and China. This ne
cessitates raised quotas for the steel
industry and other feeder lines.
Various other political orders usually
throw the entire plan. hloated and