The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1957-06-25
BY NORMAN LINDHURST
The Farmville Herald
Foreign COrreSpnndentl


East Berlin, June 23-Ever since
Karl Marx, the Communists have
buttered up the industrial worker
and the peasant, with the 'intellec-
tual" thrown in as an after-though.
This was the triumvirate that was
to build socialism
AS it is turning out, however, the
critical man in Communism i'm
mediate shaky future is none of
these. He is the coal miner. and
! Communism failure to pay greater
heed to this present all-important
individual may spell economic dis
aster to satellite Europe
Today. in East Germany. Poland.
Hungary and. to lesser degree. in
Rcmania and Bulgaria plummeting
coal production is hamstringing pro
duction Defiant h Communist
coal miners III Hungary have para
lyZed a large section Of that en-
battled nations economy In Poland
slowdowns in the mines are Grip
bling production In East Germany
the miners. by contrast with Hun
gary and Poland. are merely drag
ging their heels, but this Is suffici-
eut to create q critical power short
age
Janos Kadars hard-pressed re-
gime in Hungary has resorted to
the drafting Of peasants to dig coal
In Poland the government has had
to chop hard coal exports to East
Germany and other Soviet satellites.
II is doubtful if Hungary's draft
of peasants Will stave off disaster.
The coal miner. in Communist lands
as in Western Europe and Britain.
is the great-and virtually sole re-
manning rugged individualist
among industrial workers. The ma
chine has not been devised that can
replace him And no hastily-impro-
vised training program can produce
coal miners in a twinkling
Aside from Hungary. East Ger
many is being hardest hit BY the
coal shortage The Soviet Zone Com
munists are invoking number of
desperate expedients.
The Soviet Zone situation is lllumi-
mating for several reasons: II dra
matically illustrates the interde
| pendence Of the various satellites.
an interdependence stemming from
Russia s forced economic integra-
ton of the satellite bloc: it Illus
\ trates. furthermore, the vulnera-
bility of the Communist forced labor
system to defiant opposition from a
/ key group Of workers.
/ East Germany Communist party
/ daily newspaper. "Neues Deutsch-
land has come out with amaz-
/ ingly frank comment on the coal
| shortage
! Several million tons of coal have
been lost through the use Of faulty
designed machines But in essence
/ the coal shortage is due to defici-
encies in the labor organization, :"
I the newspaper conceded
Belatedly. and in recognition OF
I the miners strategic position East
Germany's Communist Party has
discovered the miner to be IAN es-
sential part Of the working classes. I
The Soviet Zone has been import
ing 4l66 million roubles worth of
goods annually from the Soviet bloc
OF this amount, 459 million roubles
were imported from Poland and 248
million from Hungary. largely hard
| coal
Hungarian coal deliveries have
been halted. and Polish deliveries
drastically reduced Overall Polish
coal production is down SO per cent
below that Of l938-the best index
of Communism failure to WOO the
coal miner.
What this means for the East Ger
man economy is Illustrated by the
German Communist 'E astern
Ruhr' steel center at Fuerstenberg
on the Oder River. Here the Com
munists have labored to develop an
artificial steel production center
wedding German technical skills
with imports of Polish hard coal and
iron ore from Krivy-Rog, in the
Ukraine AS a result of drastic cuts
in Polish coal deliveries. four of
FaersteEherg's six blast furnaces
have had to be banked.
II the main. the Soviet Zone De.