RUSSIA OF TO-DAY

Taranaki Daily News, 11 May 1935, Page 13 (Supplement)

RUSSIA OF TO-DAY

LENINGRAD TO MOSCOW

(By

J. R. Hanan

i—Copyright.)

(No. IV.)

There is little to be said about the factory. Most of the engineers were young men while the workers attending to the machines were mainly women. I had obtained an impression that the Russians were slow at their jobs and am still inclined to think that this is one of their national characteristics. However, in this particular factory, every worker seemed to be going at top. On occasions they looked a little disappointed when one of the machines would be stopped for me to see the progress of the work, and the guide gave us an explanation that they did not like to be interrupted with a resultant slowing down of their production —they being on the piece work system. I inspected some of the finished reels of cotton selected at random. It was reasonably but not as ' strong as a good British make of apparently similar thickness, but it may be unfair. of me to mention this as these reels of cotton may have been for a particular purpose and not for sewing purposes. They were certainly producing in great quantities. Their stock of completed bags of cotton reels would have filled a small wool store. From a mechanical point of view the factory presented no outstanding features but one thing I noticed in particular'was the elaborate device to, protect the workers from injury. We went into the factory restaurants where many workers were having their midday, meal. The workers, were sitting four at a table, each table covered with a clean tablecloth, and they were being served by waitresses. The fare seemed to be soup, fish or stew, and a pudding. The factory guide said that the three course meal cost 1 rouble and that the minimum wage ranged between 150 and 200 roubles per month for the unskilled workers. I suggested that the cost of the meal was high in relation to the wage, but I was informed that a good apartment house, capable of accommodating a whole family, was available for about 20 roubles per month. I was still unimpressed, so he went on to explain that everything connected .with the education of the children and health was free, and that the rent of the apartment house included water and light. I still maintained that it should be difficult to support a family on the wage. He said that the wife -worked as well as the husband and that there were thus two sources of income and that if the worker was skilled his salary would range up to 600 or 700 . roubles per month. I could add more learnt later with, reference to wages, working conditions, and workers’ privileges, but above will give the reader some idea (for what the evidence is worth) of the standard of living of the lowest paid unskilled workers in that part of the U.S.S.R. Visits to other factories and conversations with sundry tourists , as well as French or English-speaking Russians substantiated the account recorded aboveMay I here say that during my whole visit to the U.S.S.R. I saw no evidence to indicate that the standard of living in the U.S.S.R. was very high. JOn the other hand I saw no evidence to suggest that the standard of living was exceptionally -low. They all seemed to possess the necessities °f life and a little more. Goods produced in the Soviet seemed to be available at a rea-sonable-price in relation to the wage, but imported goods, e.g., fountain pens, .watches, <etc., are evidently not available to the workers, the price being ridiculous compared with the wage standards. This will become obvious when the question of exchange is dealt with in a later article. Next we were taken to the factory hospital. On entering, I was asked to take off my overcoat and put on a long white overall. The. matron, through the guide, stated that the children were brought there by their mothers when they went to work in the morning and then taken home again in the evening. On arrival the children were medically inspected and their clothing changed. Everything was free of expense to the parents. There was' a distinct air of efficiency about the whole place, the staff being apparently keenly interested in its work; If my memory serves me right I think it was stated that the nursery and hospital was once the residence of the Ca-pit-ilists who owned the factorji. I was shown into one room where there were about 20 cots containing very young babies. Ail were sound asleep. The matron said that children in the nurseries seldom cried owing to the great regularity of their life, and that children if properly looked after only cried when they were unwell. I went through three or four similar rooms and never heard a murmur. In one of the bigger rooms things were rather humorous. About 50 infants from six or seven months to one year were all separated off in little pens. Some clung to ropes hanging from the ceiling and amused themselves by half crawling half walking round and round. Others were pushing little carts or crawling up and then sliding down little shutes. I Was told, to my surprise, that they never hurt themselves. The matron stated that under such conditions the infants invariably walked at or before the end of twelve months. For all I know about infants that may be remarkable or otherwise, but the matron seemed to think it wonderful. It was stated that some months before and two months after the birth of her child, the mother had leave from the factory on full pay. ;

I came to tide conclusion that as far as I could judge the finest thing the Soviet had done was its achievements in regard to the welfare of the young children, if this factory nursery was really typical of the whole of the Soviet Union.

As we returned to the Hotel d’Europe we passed a factory where motor tyres were made, and the guide stated that it employed over 40,000 hands. The fiontage of the factory must’ have extended for more than half a mile. Although it looked a bit clumsy and possibly a bit antiquated I noticed that it appeared to have the revolving turret, an innovation comparatively recently adopted by the British Army! The temperature had become colder and as I exhaled my breath part of it froze on my eyelashes and I was continually wiping it away. I was glad to get back to the warmth of the hotel (a thermometer outside registered 25 below zero) and saying “cheerio” to the guide made to enter the lift to go to my room. The guide stopped me and asked me if it was not a custom to shake hands in my country, as it was in her’s, when parting with another person. Shamefaced, I apologised, shook hands, and beat a hasty retreat. Why do we Britishers consider ourselves the salt of the earth? (To be continued.)