Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-06-10
Vast Soviet Power Dams
Impress Indian Visitors

profound euecC upon the Indian
engineers, who also have seen the
best that the West has to offer.
The Soviet method of mobilizing
capital was particularly impressive
for Mr.. Sain. the chief of the In
dian party. The nature and
amount of future capital invest
ment are based upon political con-
siderations which frequently have
priority over purely economic fac
tors" he writes.
".. The Soviet planners rejected
the appropriateness of taking into
account interest on capital invests
ments. A private investor in capi-
talist economy makes decisions by
comparing the expected rate of re-
turn from an investment with the
interest rate that ne has to pay for
borrowed capital. or that his own
capital could earn from investment
elsewhere. He invests his capital to
get the highest rate of return. In
any case he will not invest his CAPT.
tai in project where it is expected
to earn less than the prevailing rate
of interest. This type of explicit
use of the rate of interest in max
ing decisions is barred in the USSR
by their theological opposition to
the concept of interest. The Soviet
economists have been using instead
the concept of Coefficient of Rela-
tive Effectiveness
Mr.. Sain also struck note Of
eagerness to study the Soviet tech
niques and to have other under
developed countries learn from the
Communists.
THE Soviet economic planning
has given birth to new institutions
and entirely new techniques for
directing economic process" he
pointed out Economic textbooks
intended for the study of the work.
ing ideas of purely competitive
system OF national economy are not
of much use nowadays for analysing
the monopolistic economies preva-
lent in the socialist pattern Of
society.
"A study of all the aspects of
the planning technique elaborated
Iii the USSR during the last decade.
the early mistakes made and the
Lessons learned therefrom could pro-
vide extremely fruitful and instruc-
tive data for the revision of many
conceptions which pervade aca-
uemic economic criteria still fol-
lowed in underdeveloped countries"
Obvious implications
The implications to be drawn from
these competent Indians impress
sions of Soviet engineering compe-
tence in the water utilization field
are obvious. When Moscow sends
Dimitri Shepilov to Vairo to offer
massive aid in building the Aswan
Dam, it is no empty gesture. The
Indians found that the Soviet Min
lister of Construction of Power
Houses has some 10000 engineers
and $4,000 foremen, mechanics and
skilled workmen.
And for several years past a
special language training program
teaching all languages of the Mid
die East and ORIENT has been GO
ing on among these engineers and
skilled workers. American foreign
aid engineers may soon be faced
with Soviet competition which can
operate without the handicap of
working through interpreters.
Supreme Court Justice Douglas.
who also toured the Soviet Union
last year, comments in his new book
RUSSIAN Journey; Doubleday on
the worldwide Importance of the
Russian advances and the use being
made of them:
AN American who sees Russia'S
industrial plant will be surprised
that it works as we'll as it does UNI
der the cumbersome Soviet bureau
cracy. He may not be impressed
at Russian progress.
But the Asian who sees the
same industrial plant will likely be
excited. From his starting point.
Russia is far in advance. The
workers homes, the medical clinics,
the recreation halls, the wage scale,
the public schools and parks -
these are merely in the blueprint
stage in most of Asia. In Russia
they are living achievements. The
Asian is apt to be overwhelmed at
that achievement, forgetting the
means used to attain it.
This is why the impact of the
Russian industrial plant on Asia
is going to be penetrating and pro-
found. This is why the Russian in
dustrial plant is the most potent
forrn in Acio todoyO