REPORT ON THE RUSSIANS A 'inoAHBn.wr.nl in&LTE. The head of the Soviet labor movement was a very smart man of forty-three called Kuznetsov. He was really keen. He'd lived in America, graduated from Carnegie Institute of Technology with a mas ter's degree in metallurgy, and if you tried to point out that his labor movement here wasn't really free, he'd come right back at you with some American example trying to prove that ours was even less free. He outlined their set-up like this. All Soviet unions?representing 22, 000,000 workers?send delegates to the AQ-Union Trades Congress. This meets every year or so but hasn't since the war. This corresponds to our AFL and CIO national conven tions rolled into one. It's strictly labor?no soldiers or farmers are In it. This big Congress elects fifty five members to something they call the Plenum. These fifty-five elect eighteen to something called the Presidium. And these eighteen elect ed him its secretary, which makes him head of the workers. He said at least 90 or Si per cent of all workers belonged to trade unions. Stalin stayed in Moscow when Ger many advanced on city. So we asked him who didn't belong. "Well," he said, "some apprentices are too young, and then in the re occupied regions, it takes a little time to convince all workers they should belong." He said the dues were 1 per cent of a worker's sal ary. There is no initiation fee, but ? they sell you a book costing only one rouble. "Now, is this a perfectly free union movement," we asked him, "or is it directed by your govern ment?" < It was perfectly free, he assured as. Of course, he said, anyone they elected to their Congress must be approved by the government. He said, "in 1919 a strike in one steel mill lasted two days. And in 1923 there was another little strike In western Russia. We were chang ing over from the old czarist money to Soviet roubles, and it took time to get it all printed and out to the workers. As soon as the situation was explained to them, they went back to werk. There have been no strikes since, and in the future there won't be any because our workers understand they are all working for each other." ? "If a worker is discontented and gets discharged for any reason, would it be difficult for him to get a job some place else?" "Very, very difficult," said Kuz netsov. "Do you have any absenteeism?" "We simply don't have it without reason." "But aren't workers sometimes a little late?" "Occasionally," he said. "The first time he is warned. The second time he may be fined. If it happens again, he is discharged. If a work er fails to co-operate, damages too much material or does anything else which we consider serious, he may 'be arrested and tried before a judge, and if he is unable to prove his in nocence, sentenced to a number of years' penal labor. The rules in the -factories are very strict and rigidly enforced." And the union officials encourage the workers to testify against a man guilty of these of fenses ? maybe they themselves bring charges against him. "Joining the trade union in any plant is completely voluntary," Kuz netsov said. "How do you account then, for the fact that practically everyone who is eligible joins?" "It is to their advantage in any country, and particularly in the So viet Union, where the Trade Union Movement offers many benefits. Here a union member received greater sick benefits than a non union member. There is a housing shortage here and most factories own apartment houses which they rent to the workers. Union members receive first consideration. "All workers are entitled to vaca tion with pay, but non-union mem bers cannot spend their vacations in (be rest centers maintained for workers. If a worker is sick, the physician may recommend an ex ira week's vacation, and he can go to a special type of rest center equipped to care for invalids. But non-union members are not eligi ble." "Usually about A per cent of an employee's salary goes for rent in these factory-owned apartments," he said. "Young apprentices live in rent-free dormitories. Older workers may live in them, too, but they pay. Skilled workers, or those who exceed their norms, are entitled to better quarters. Because their pay is more, their rent is proportion ately higher." "What relations do you have with American labor?" we asked. "None at all with the AFL," he said. "We're very much disap pointed. Also, their representative, Mr. Watt, criticized our Russian Trade Union Movement at the last meeting of the International Labor Organization in Philadelphia. He claimed we were not a free move ment. You can see that we are. I don't understand why your govern ment would permit this criticism of our trade unions." "Russia is your ally," he said. "I can't understand why your govern ment would permit it, and we sim ply don't understand the AFL. It probably isn't the workers, but only the leaders who have these distort ed notions. Here we are sure that your workers really want to co-op erate with ours, only the leaders won't permit it. We do have some relations with the CIO?letters from Mr. Murray and several others. It is more sympathetic, and desires to co-operate, and more nearly under stands the true position of workers in America and workers here. We' hope some day we can co-operate with the American labor movement. After all, we are working for the same cause." ? ? ? Until we reach the Urals, which divide Russia-in-Europe from Rus <?io.in.Aeio ? fl ?Nauriuin, UJC VVUUU/ TTC kij UVCl is exactly as it was up from Teheran ?the same thatched villages domi nated by white churches with red painted onion domes. We crossed the Urals, which are, in this area, not mountains but low, rolling hills, wooded with birch, oak, elm, ma ple, but no pine. At this airport, as at all the others we are to touch, we are met by the local dignitaries and important Communists?all grave, cap-wear ing Russians, well-dressed by Com munist standards. Zeeses take us across the city to the house of the plant director, where we will spend the night. We drive through teem ing, unpainted slums which are worse than those of Pittsburgh al though we keep in mind that Mag nitogorsk is crowded because many industries have been evacuated here. We leave the slums and go up a hill where, overlooking the slums and the blast furnaces, are the spa cious homes of the executives? even as it is in Pittsburgh. We come into a paved residential street with gutters, sidewalks" and big yards. Except for architectural differences, we might be in Forest Hills, New York, or Rochester, Minnesota's "Pill Hill." Magnitogorsk was started in 1916. There are now 45,000 workers in his plant, of whom 25,000 are construc tion workers, for it is expanding Twenty open-hearth furnaces and six blast furnaces are operating, two of which were opened during the war. The mountain they mine contains an estimated 300,000,000 tons of ore which is 60 per cent iron, and an other 85,000,000 tons which will run from 50 to 45 per cent?quite a stock pile! Eric tells me that we have only about 100,000,000 tons left at Hibbing, and are using these up at a wartime rate of 27,000,000 tons a year. After lunch we drive to the big . steel plant. I am riding with a cor respondent. Suddenly our car turns to one side as we overtake a long column marching four abreast, on its way to work at the plant. Marching ahead of it, behind it and on both sides, are military guards carrying rifles with fixed bayonets. The sec ond thing is that the column itself consists of ragged women in make shift sandals, who glance furtively at our cars. The correspondent nudges me. Nick, the NKVD man, is riding in the front seat. I don't know how those women got there or where they were going, so I leave them as material for some mightier talent with greater imagi native powers. Entering the blast furnace section, the director bellows two noteworthy statistics at us; the first, that on a 1,200,000,000 rouble business this year, be hopes to clear a 50,000,000 rouble profit. Secondly, that in this inferno, they have per month only eight injuries per 10,000 employees. The armament factory takes the prize tor the most sloppily organized shop we have seen in the Soviet Un ion. Stockingless girls with crude sandals, lathing shells tor the Red Army, stand on heaps of curled metal scrap from their machines Occasionally they are protected from its sharp edges by crude duck boards. Some attempt is being made ta remove the scrap. We see two girls carrying out a load of it on a Rus sian wheelbarrow, which is a kind ol homemade litter, with one pair ol wooden handles in front and one be hind. It carries a modest wheel barrow-load but requires two people. They stumble along with it through ? the rubbish. We watch them milling shells for the Red Army. There is no as sembly belt but at one point they have devised a substitute. When one operation is finished, a shell is placed on a long, inclined rack, down which it rolls into the next room for the next operation. Only the rack is badly made and now and then a shell falls off. Instead of adjusting the rack, a girl is sta tioned by it to pick up the shells and put them back on straight. Now we go through a brick plant We watch the women laboriously moving bricks by hand after each processing operation. As we ai'e leaving the plant, we see another column of women marching under guard. A few hours on the plane brings us to Sverdlovsk, before the revolu tion called Ekaterinburg because it was founded by Catherine the Great. It was here in a cellar that the hard headed Bolsheviks shot weak-willed, well-meaning Czar Nicholas II, his wife and family, later changing the name of the town. Sverdlovsk is another Soviet Pittsburgh, bustling with a million people. Sverdlovsk is the Soviet center for the manufacture of heavy machine tools. In one big shop we see a gigantic drop forge, made in Duis burg, Germany. I can well be lieve that there are only four like it in the world. It can apply pressure of 10,000 tons. The plant itself is the same old Soviet story we have so far seen? no light, dirty, bad floors, and in this one the roof leaks. Outside there is a summer shower and we watch the water pour down from the high ceiling onto the hot steel and get soaked ourselves as we walk through. But they have mended the roof over the most important ma chines. Across the street from our flve year-plan hotel is the marble opera house. It is a little too ornate, but Russians like it that way. It seems to be the most substantial and care fully built structure in town. It is the provincial opera house, built in 1903 under the czar. At Omsk the delegation of digni taries shakes hands with us and tells us that our bags will be left at the airport, where we will spend the night The building is excellent, modern, simple and in good repair. Martial law was declared la Mw eow and aek-aelu brought to city in great numbers. It seems substantially constructed. Omsk before the war had a popu lation of 320,000 and now has S14.000 ?evacuated workers, of course. We inspect the Mayor of Omsk? Kishemelev Kuzma. This is his sec ond year in office. Before that he was Director of Automobile High ways, a confusing title since the So viet Union has few passenger cars and almost no highways. We ask him how he got elected and he answers promptly that the people did it and goes into detail. There were in all Ave candidates, each representing one of the vari ous trade unions. Everybody in Omsk could vote, he says, and of course the ballot was secret. In the empty airport waiting room, sprawled on the benches were two khaki-clad figures. One asked me something in Russian. The other one said, "Hell, Tex, he's no Rus sian.' I said, "I'm an American. You guys Americana too?" '1 should hope to kias a horse we are," said Tex. fTO BE OOMTDtUBM improved LLJ,JI 11 UNIFORM INTERNATIONAL Sunday i chool Lesson By HAROLD L. LUNDQUI8T. D. D. CM Th? Moody Blhte In.UtuU o* CtUcago. Rtlaaatd by Western Nivspapti Union. Lesson for June 2 Lesson subjects end Scripture tests se lected end copyrighted by International Council ol Religious Education; used by permission. FRIENDS AT BETHANY LESSON TEXT?Mark M:M; Luk. M: 3S-42. John 11:1-3. MEMORY SELECTION ? Let u lore one mother: tor love la at God.?1 John ?:T. Friendship comes to those who are friendly. That response of heart to heart, which opens up the deep wells of mutual devotion, is one of life's richest experiences. There is too little true friendship In the world because men and wom en have not learned of the Lord 1 Jesus what it means to be a real friend. There are mutual privileges and correspondingly mutual responsibili- 1 ties in friendship. There are sor rows to share as well as Joys, and ' there are times when there must be the outpouring of sacrificial de votion. "There's not a friend like the low ly Jesus, no, not one!" is not just 1 the sentiment of a hymn writer. There is no friend like the Lord. He? therefore, merits our fullest de- ' votion. There are three incidents in our lesson, all of which took place in Bethany, the little village near Jeru salem where our Lord had found real friends. He went there to rest, to pray, and to find companionship. These incidents reveal that I. Love Gives All In Sacrificial De votion (Mark 14:3-0). A rather shocking thing took place in the home of Simon. Jesus, his distinguished guest, was at din ner with the disciples, when a woman walked in unannounced and anointed his head with costly spike nard ointment. The disciples were surprised, and led by the betrayer, Judas, who had his hands on and in the money bags, they protested such awful waste. Think of it?the value of this oint ment was 300 pence, the equivalent (we are told) of 500 days of work. That means in our day it would be worth from three to Ave thousand dollars. She should have stopped to think I Some lesser gift would have shown her love, and this rich gift could have been used for the poor I Thus reasons the cool, calculat ing church member; but the be liever with his heart full of love for the Master, gives without stint. The Lord honored her gift, and ac cepted it as the anointing of his body for his coming death. He re minded them that they would al ways have the poor to care for, and he would soon be gone. Love which never overflows in the abandonment of sacrifice for the one beloved is a cold and distant thing; in fact, one wonders if it really should be dignified by calling it love at all. The Lord is looking for followers who are willing to give themselves freely and gladly for him, pour ing out the lovely fragrance of a life fully yielded to him. n. Love Shares the Fellowship of Joy (Luke 10:38-42). The little home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus in Bethany was light ed up by that Intangible but delight ful glow which comes with a friend who honors one's home by his or her presence. He had often been in this home. Here he found relaxation and com fort. Here he gave of himself in fel lowship and blessing. But there was a shadow over this visit Martha, eager to have a good dinner, was "cumbered" in heart and soon became critical of Mary because she sat at Jesus' feet. Do not assume that Mary had not done her share of the work. She had, but she "also sat at Jesus' feet." In other words, she knew when the time had come to quit fuss ing and to get some real fellowship out of the joy of having Jesus in the home. We who love and serve the Lord need to watch lest we become so "cumbered with much serving" that we lose out spiritually. We can be come so busy with church work, holding offices in religious organiza tions, yes, even with preaching and teaching, that we do not have time for personal fellowship with the Lord. III. Love Bears the Harden of Sor row (John 11:1-3). The very home where Joy was the portion one day, became the house of sickness, death and sorrow on another day. Life la like that?we may all expect that tragedy, sick ness and trouble will come. What then? Well, you will find that some of your professed friends will disappear. They are fair weather, companions. They have no taste for storms. Real friends will stand by, and what a treasure they prove to bet But here again, the best friend of all is Jesus. When Lazarus was sick, "his sisters sent unto him." Send for Jesus in the hour of need! Oh, it is true that he did not corns until Lazarus was dead, but he had a good reason Cor that, and in due time he came. In Our Town: Sallies b Our Alley: Rogers Stearns (the 1-2-3 host) says he didden go to the Derby this year just mailed 'em his shirt. ... Ox Nelson's nifty sum-up: "There are two kinds of people in H'wood?the stand-ins and the stand-outs." . . . Jerry Lester thinks the guy who dug up Mussolini's body and took only his leg musts been his agent. Mldtown Vignette: It happened the other afternoon in a Radio City elevator. ... A prim looking wom an was teddibly embarrassed when ber garter slipped from her nylon. . . . The elevator operator, noting her predicament, stopped the car and doused the lights until she made the adjustment. Irving Berlin's famous song hit, "Blue Skies," will be a click all over again this year when it is re vived in Paramount's film -of the tame handle. Count Basie waxed the first recording of it, due next week. . . , Both Louis and Conn tell lis teners they expect to win by kayos -on the ground both are now "old er" than they were. . . . The John Erskines (Helen Worden) are study ing Greek for their visit to Greece. Erskine plans a book comparing encient Greece with today's ver sion. . . . 20th Century-Fox bought "Foxes of Harrow," the best seller, for ISO Gs, outbidding Paramount and several Independents. . . . The Rockefellers and the broadcasting Brms have been having a auiet feud (or yean as to whether that part of the city should be called Rockefel ler Center or Radio City. Hotel rooms are so scarce for any purpose that the hotelmen find themselves the worst victims. . . . Needing a hotel for their annual convention they were unable to And a single leading hotel in the U. S. to accommodate them on the con vention date?except one. . . . That hotel is in Biloxi, Mississippi, and they can have it, because the sea son will have been over and it's the hottest time of the year down there. They took it! Sounds in the Night: At the Singa pore: "I hear Serge Rubenstein is in such deep water that he's gonna show up at his trial in a diving suit." ... At Ciro's: "She's so broke she doesn't know where her next heel is coming from." ... In the Stork: "Get a look at that beauti ful fiddle of a figure." ... At the Village Corners: "She's decided not to be 25 until she's married." . . . At Gilmore's: "Aw, stop talkin' through your halo!" . . .At the Mer maid Room: "Marriage is the magic wand that changes Pupply Love into a dog's life." ... In the Cub Room: "I got a novel idea for the radio. A Mr. and Mistress program." The Federation of Churches is go ing to raise heck with the Army for allegedly burning tens of thousands of Bibles left over in army camps. General Motors' Frlgldairs branch has the inside track, they say, on Bing's return to the air? if they can deliver a half-hour NBC spor. . . LaGuardia has refused to accept any part of the )15,000 sal ary as chief of UNRRA. . . . London reports that Sean O'Casey's play, "Red Roses for Me," is his best since "The Plough and the Stars." It is headed for The Big Apple. . . . Car dealers hear that 180,000 new ones trill be rolling off the assem bly lines sooner than suspected. . . . The authors of "Woman Bites Dog" will be amused to know that on the night the show premiered a woman publisher's mutt bit ber! Physicians and vets were dragged in, and there was an air of general hysteria. David Terry, who is of Italian de scent, was listening to a bigot be littling foreigners. . . . "And I sup pose your ancestors came over on the Mayflower," challenged Terry. "Well, yes," said the louse, "now that you mention it, they did." "Well." eairf the rfevnH.nl nt I Columbus, "where do you think they would have landed ? if mine hadn't 'odhd the place first?" At a round table discussion of lewspaper editors the other eve a publisher opined that Congress, on natters of OPA and such leglsla- , :ure, was running the country be hind closed doors. "That part isn't so bad," observed ?n editor. "What worries me is the way Congress runs things behind :losed minds." Horace Greeley's line on the ?raft: "Journalism will kill you, but t will keep you alive while you're it It" Street Scene: The little old lady, in institution on 50th Street (as she s the only peddler allowed to squat n the Saks' foyer) arriving there >y keb. . . . They say an Ameri :an Riviera may spring up at West port, Conn., the home of several ' rultural leaders. Via the Longshore 1 Hub property into which mucho 1 nazuma will be chucked. . . . Memo ' torn Jed Kiley at the St Francis ' iospital, Miami Beach: "Two years igo I was married in this town. 1 Ate year ago I was divorced hare. Rile year I eras only ran over." i ^oum Refuvite* Ik WASHINGTON By Wobar Shtod WNI/CmfMM WHU Wttkimtlom Bwu Ull Sf? St.. W. W Truman Gained Stature During His First Tear IUST about ail the newspapers J and magazines in the country have had their say at appraising President Harry S. Truman after his first year in ofRce. Your Home Town Reporter hat been able during this past year to watch the President, his policies and the operation of his adminis tration from a more or less de tached viewpoint. Luckily when I attend the President's press confer ences it is not necessary for me to rush to a phone or to my typewriter and hurriedly dash off a story of my impressions, for in covering for the weekly newspapers I have suf ficient time to deliberate over what has happened. President Truman entered the White House as an average Amer ican without too impressive a rec ord behind him at anything. He had done his stint at farming, at running a haberdashery store and at politics, and in the latter he was more successful. As chairman of the senate war investigating com mittee, he made a real contribu tion to the successful culmination of the war. But when he was catapulted Into the presidency by the death of his predecessor, he was untried as a statesman, unknown as to his abili ties and he faced the heaviest re sponsibilities any man had ever been called upon to faee. Be didn't want the )ob and confessed, his shortcomings, his average Ameri canism. The average American back in the home towns of the country like and are proud of our democracy be cause it gives them, as average citi zens, the chance to improve and ad vance socially, economically and in tallnoii tall" -*? *' . . . n gives uiem a chance to grow and better their standards of living. President Hum Crown This reporter believes that in the year the President has been in the White House, he has grown . . . grown as any other average Amer ican man would have grown . . . *in his proficiency to cope with the most powerful office in the world . .. grown in his ability to judge men and their capabilities . . . grown under the pressure of enormous events better to make decisions . . . grown in his contacts with other world leaders. But In this growth of the Presi dent he has built up no halos . . . no traditions ... no myths ... no superman, he remains an average American who is growing up to his job. During our incumbency down here in Washington, we have seen successful business men with fabu lous reputations as leaders in their fields, tycoons of industry, come to Washington to take part in govern ment . . . and make miserable fail ures. Your Home Town Reporter does not believe the President has made a miserable failure. He is not a brilliant statesman . . . nor is he a great orator . . . nor a great socialite. His voice on the radio lacks the human appeal which was so apparent in that of his predeces sor, but his speeches in cold type, matched speech for speech with the public utterances of the late President Roosevelt, do not suffer by comparison. v.. f?i? vi. -??* >?? ??U Ul >U? CUW1 IS W WW the co-operation of hla old col lea (uei in congress. Our observa tion has been, however, since the first few days of the "honeymoon" were over, congress has been more concerned with showing the Presi dent who was boss than in giving him co-operation, or considering the welfare of the American pecfiile. And that state of affairs has come about largely through reaction to the years when congress either went along willingly with President Roosevelt, or grudgingly when he used the big stick to bludgeon them into giving the people his progres sive program. 'Innate Democracy' Much has been made of Presi dent Truman's oft-repeated pleas lor help from the people, from in dustry, from labor, from agricul ture. He has said again and again that he cannot do his Job alone. This has been interpreted by some as a weakness. But in this column's opinion it is merely an expression of his innate democracy, since de mocracy after all, is only a huge co-operative governed by a major ity opinion. President Truman has made mis takes . . . mistakes of the heart, rather than the head ... In nam ing some advisors and in leaning upon their advice ... he has con fessed his mistakes ... he haa faced defeats . . . seen his administration program emasculated and beaten, even ignored by congress. Today be is lea* naive, leas humble, gray er, more dignified, more asaertive . . . than when he went to the White House in April a little mere than a year ago. 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