Evening star., 1938-01-12

Russia to 1nsUer this and other
pital questions. His findings are set
forth in a series OF articles, OF
phich this is the ninth.)
BY JOHN T. WHITAKER,
Chicago Daily News Correspondent.
MOSCOW.-"TheS Stakhanov Move
ment Grows and Wins" says head
line In Pravda, the country's leading
newspaper. The Soviet worker Is
three times more productive than the
worker before the revolution. During
1886 alone the productivity OF labor
In our large-scale industry increased
81 per cent. The foremost workers
are exhibiting brilliant work in honor
of the coming elections to the Supreme
Soviet
So the article continues, whooping
It up. The reader gets caught up in
the swing OF the thing. The success
of the Soviet effort to increase pro-
duction seems plain. But then there
is snag-the following paragraph:
THE growth of the Stakhanov
movement is impossible without over
coming hostile counter-action. The
spies and hirelings Of Fascism, the
Trotzkyite- -Bukharinite wreckers man
ifest beastly hatred to Stakhanovites
There is no crime, however base, to
which they will not stoop to bring
disorder in this powerful movement"
This is an important paragraph.
In totalitarian state where every
thing Is censored a paragraph like
that takes lot Of reading between
the lines. Which Is right? Are the
workers increasing production or are
they guilty of sabotage. which by Com
munist terminology may be merely ly-
ing down on the job?
But They've Broken Down.
To get the answer to the question I
not only talked with the man in the
street and the expert but I also dug
up all the available statistics. Official
Soviet publications reveal the an
swer. The Stakhanovite movement
started off we'll in 1896, but it has
proved swindle in the last IL months.
The men and the machines alike have
broken under the strain. What do the
production figures show?
In the first six months of 1897 pro-
duction OF coal. coke, iron ore. pig
iron and petroleum failed to equal
production in the first six months of
1886. When figures are available for
the last six months of this year they
will show no improvement, experts
believe.
The metal-cutting machine tool in
dustry, the combine, the cement, To-
comotive and freight-car industries
are behind 1886 production. too. Only
the steel. rolled metal and copper in
dustries are ahead of 1896 production.
but they are far behind the produc-
ton planned for 1887. On figures Of
production for the first six months
of 1897 these industries can achieve
the program planned for 1887 only if
production in the last six months can
show increases of %, 43 and IS per
cent, respectively. This is impossible
The AutOmOtive Industry.
Let us analyze production in single
industry. Take the automotive in
dustry, which the Soviets in a few
months will probably cite themselves.
1t is ahead Of 1886 production (Which,
incidentally, Is very low, because q
change of model kept the plants idle
for many days., but it is behind the
production planned for 1887 In the
first eight months of the year the
plants at Cork and Moscow were be-
hind planned production by $4,000
trucks and $500 passenger cars. In
the eight-month period the conveyor
at the Moscow truck plant was idle %
per cent Of the working time. On No.
vember IA plant as hig as anything
Ford has got was producing 80 auto
mobiles and 425 trucks a day, which
brought output back to where it was
2l months ago.
Soviet production is failing in quality
Is well as quantity. To take a single
example (culled again from official
"revelationsD, synthetic rubber tires
made to do $4,000 kilometers are no
longer serviceable after runs of from
500 to 800 kilometers. It is a scandal
belabored in the official press that
when trucks are badly needed they
stand idle on the roadside for want
Of tires.
Terror May Explain 1t.
What is the explanation for this pro-
duction record at a time when Stain
has resorted to both the profit motive
and the speed-up process? The ex-
PLANTATION lies perhaps in the para
graph Pravda devotes to efforts to
wreck" and sabotage" Stakhanovism.
The executives have been frightened
half to death and they are not taking
any initiative. The workers have been
swindled and they aren't putting out.
The machines are breaking down
under more shifts than they were de-
signed to take. Morale is shaken by
Q purge" which defines "slovenliness
and inehiciency" as Fascist wreck
Ing"
AAOW SSC0Ay WouAu yO0 NC tAyAAS w
speed up" . loom If by racing it too
fast the darn thing broke down and
you got arrested as a "wrecker" who
was In touch with Trotsky, Hitler,
Mussolini. Vargas, Shirley Temple or
some other agent of the bourgeois
Fascist conspiracy to despoil the
Socialist fatherland? 1t gives me the
shakes trying to tell the story.
The Swindle Angle.
The swindle is perhaps as i'm
portant an angle as the "wrecking."
When our hero, Alexey Stakhanov
gave the boys an example two years
ago, production did speed up. As soon
as it was increased Stain said in No
vember, 1885, that the old norms were
too low. The norms of what q man
could do in a working day would be
Increased. They were. BY April, 1896
norms in all industries were 50 high
that few workers could surpass their
Aoilv v.roduot;o,, n,,otn. onrl nar,, v1ra