Evening star., 1938-12-31

But to the amazement the direc-
tor OF the factory was busy with
plans for enlarging the plant. In
stead Of starting all over again, re-
organizing the entire system and
starting to build some dredges with
the ample personnel on hand, he
was planning to expand 80 he could
employ between 10000 and $4,000
workers. He insisted that only after
the facilities Of the plant had been
increased four or five times would
he be able to begin manufacturing
dredges. Like many other Soviet
functionartes, he was the victim of
grandiose ambitions and, besides,
expansion was q good excuse for
postponing the inevitable day o.
reckoning when he would have to
explain why his factory couldn't
make a single dredge.
I told him 1t was ridiculous to
enlarge the plant when everything
was being done wrong with the ia
cilities he already had. He imme-
d1ately became my deadly enemy
and from that point on he and his
assistants sabotaged every sugges-
ton I made. Irkutsk is more than
1000 miles from Moscow, and I was
powerless.
Around Starts.
And so, for about three months,
I stood by watching the farce of
planning a bigger plant to manu-
facture more, bigger and better
dredges for the Socialist gold min
Ing industry" They even started
tearing down parts Of the old shop
to make room for the new one.
About 100 engineers and 800 drafts
men were busy on the new plans.
I threatened to return to Moscow
and complain to the chiefs Of the
gold trust, but they managed to
dissuade me from taking such q
drastic step and the director and
chief engineer finally announced
they were going to Moscow them
selves to submit their expansion
plans. insisted on going along.
In Moscow the usual run-around
between the various bureaus started.
The plant ofhcials maintained that
the present layout of the factory
was too limited for efficient pro-
duction, but after days Of discus
sion convinced the gold trust
chiefs that no such huge expansion
as recommended by the manage
ment was needed. In the end, q
compromise was reached and it was
decided to reorganize and slightly
enlarge the plant In accordance
with most Of the suggestions I had
submitted.
Feeling that the mismanagement
OF the plant had been too fragrant
to enable efficient production In the
future, then made the interesting
experiment of trying to prefer
"wrecking' charges against the di-
rector and his chief aides. I re-
lated in detail my experiences at
1rkutsk and told how gears were
stripped of costly imported ma
chimes on the first day Of opera
ton, how there was never sufficient
fuel to keep the furnaces going and
how tremendous quantities of valu-
able metal were being wasted and
coverted into scrap.
Charges Dismissed.
1t wasn't easy for me to go in for
this type of what you might call
denouncing, but after all I felt some
loyalty toward my employer, the
Soviet government, whose money
was being wasted. But nothing
happened. The oficial to whom
told my story dismissed my charges
as exaggerated. At that very time
the entire country was being raked
by the hysteria of "wrecking." Thou
sands Of people were being shot, i'm
prisoned or exiled on trumped-up
charges Of sabotage, but for reasons
Of their own the men in power