Evening star., 1938-01-07
VII.
Ry JOHN T. WHITAKER,

tuIIhku bdiS NEWS SOIlCspuhdSHt'
Since I saw Russia five
years ago incredible progress has been
made. You see it all around you in
warmly clad people in the street, wear
ing wooden overcoats and rubbers.
The long queues of bread lines 1 used
to watch are abolished and there are
actually plate-glass show windows with
delicateSSen foods and perfumes and
women's clothes on display. You have
to wait under street lights for sleek
Russian-built automobiles to pass.
The first five-year plan, which gave
Russia heavy industries, was nearing
completion in 1882. 1t was increasing
Russias share in the worlds industrial
output from to IA per cent. moving
the Soviets up from fifth to second
place 1t was 20 years work done in
five. and without foreign capital. 1t
was a great accomplishment but you
did not see it's results on the streets
or in the show windows.
Now the second five-year plan is
nearing fruition. The light industries
have been developed and the people
are promised consumers goods at last.
This is what you see in the streets and
the show windows today 1t looks too
good to be true-and it is! Only half
the things the people need are in the
windows and the prices on them are
prohibitive.
Fair Shoes Cost S44.l0.
For instance, take the shoes you
zee In the show windows. The only
pair Of mems shoes you could possibly
wear are the quality Of a 50 pair in
America and they are priced at 2205
rubles, If you figure the dollar at
the official rate of 81 to rubbles. this
makes them cost you S44l0 There
is pair of women's shoes which an
American would shake her head at,
but which she would buy if she were
Russian and could afford them
They cost 252 rubles. or S50.40
saw the following typical prices in
4 clothing store: Astrakhan fur coat,
4,l58 rubles; bad quality sable. 2,843;
mans fur hat, 6l3 The articles are
not like the coats predepression busi-
ness men in America were buying for
blonds. They are just ordinary serv-
iceable goods.
The trouble with the Russians and
these prices is that fully third Of the
workers are still in the bottom bracket,
for which Stain last month set a
minimum salary Of HOLLIS rubles a
month. This means that pair Of
good shoes would cost one of these
workers two months salary. The best
paid workers in heavy industry draw
only a little more than 5000 rubles
two five-year plans have enabled the
rubles per month. That fur hat would
cost the average man three months
salary. He could not buy the fur coat
with years salary.
Quality Goods Scarce.
Why are prices so high for good
shoes or anything else that is good
quality? The answer Is that while the
two five-year p lans have enabled the
state to provide enough second and
third rate goods for the people. they
have not been able to produce quality
goods. If the prices of good shoes
were cut. the whole supply would be
exhausted in a few days, it is ex-
planned.
And this is the crux of the Soviet
problem. the crux of what is likely to
become a jor crisis. The Soviets as
vet cannot speed up production and
they cannot make quality goods. An
American engineer said several years
ago that on every construction job
there are twice as many Russians as
there would be Americans on a similar
Job in the United States and that even
then it requires twice as long to finish
it. This is still true. and the Russians
say themselves in their own newspaper
discussions of industrial production:
with third the number of workers
Americans have an output three times
higher than ours"
Some armchair observers in America
have jumped to the conclusion that
the Marxist system simply does not
work. AS a reason for low productivity
in Russia no observer on the spot here
would accent it.
Ineed only leave my typewriter and
go out and see the Russian worker
himself Two women are holding a
ladder for a bricklayer. The foreman
says that one can do the job and that
the other should do something else.
'Da, da." they say. yes. yes and 60
right on talking together.
Like to Talk While Working.
They are not victims of system in
which the removal of the profit motive
has destroyed their initiative and am
bition. They are on piecework basis
and the more work their group gets
done in a day the more their pay
They are just Russians and Russians
like talk and companionship with their
work.
Or can go out to steel forge and
zee the latest conveyors and speed-up
schemes undone by the absence Of
cranes, which nobody evidently has
thought about.
The truth is that the Russian peas
ant is something of lummox And
the most lummox-like peasants off the
steppes have been brought in and put
into factories with newfangled ma
chimes During 1928-l932 alone in
dustry absorbed 12.500,000 such work.
ers Back on the farm they had a say.
ing which explains their feeling to-
ward work and their willingness to
fall idle.
Work is not bear" said the peas
ant. 1T will not run away into the
forest"
No one who knows the Russian
expects two hve-year plans to do
away with century Of "Nichevo!"
That Russian word for never mind
makes the Spanish manana sound like
Q call to arms.
In one hour I tried four times to
get = telephone number. Each time
the operator said she could not get