JUNE. 1959
PAGE 3
OUR RED RIVALS
Russia’s Challenge For Industrial Supremacy
First in a series of four articles by the author
of Vision and The Challenge (United Kingdom).
The author, director of public relations of Bosing
Airplane Company, recently visited the Soviet
Union as a member of a delegation sponsored by
the International Council of Industrial Editors.
Before going to the USSR, he learned the Rus
sian language as an aid to a better first-hand
evaluation of the efforts of Russia to surpass the
United States industrially. “Our Red Rivals’’ is
used by permission of Harold Mansfield, copy
right owner.
☆ ☆ ☆
You enter Moscow with misgivings. The thou
sand questions stored in your mind . . . Will
they be answered? The night about you ... Will
it be friendly? The silent, big-shouldered driver
of the black Zim limousine that is bringing you
from the airport up the dark Moscow River into
the city. How does he think?
Impressive facades of brightly-lighted build
ings loom along the boulevard. You try out your
Russian: “New apartments?”
“Da,” says the driver.
“Much progress here.”
“Da, da, da.” You can feci the quick pride that
is tongued in that triple yes. You imagine you
have already touched the keyword that is
moving the Russian people: “Progress.”
Two and a half years ago, you pondered the
speech made by N. V. Khrushchev at the Soviets’
first Communist Party Congress since Stalih’s
death. Said Khrushchev then: “The principal fea
ture of our effort is the emergence of socialism
from the confines of one country and its trans-
formance into a world system. The internal
forces of the capitalist economy are working to
ward its downfall, while the Communist economy
is steadily rising toward its goal of proving it
self to the world and transforming itself into a
world system through peaceful competition.”
“. . . Through peaceful competition.” A sober
challenge and a threat, aimed directly at the in
dustrial heart-stream of America and the West.
Not just defense industry, charged with the
task of exceeding Soviet ingenuity in arms, but
all industry and business.
Now Khrushchev has been running the show
long enough to reveal how he intends carrying
out his program. Could he possibly win this race
for industrial supremacy, and with it his sweep
ing political aims? You are here to investigate.
In the days that follow in Moscow, Leningrad,
Kiev, Kharkov, between supervised tours and
plant visits, you prowl the streets on your own,
anxious to meet and talk with workers and cit
izens. You find them surprisingly friendly. Using
your fractured Russian in impromptu conversa
tions, you try to sense the mood and the spirit
of the people. You form some impressions.
Russia has a serious look on its face. It is a
drab, purposeful, working civilization, in open-
collared shirt. Its people are proud and sensitive.
Self-conscious about their long isolation from the
West, hurt by its scorn. They are hungry for the
World’s esteem, and intend to win it.
“Russians are not barbarians,” says a young
School teacher, neat in simple skirt and wool
Sweater. With a slight, quick toss of blond hair
and a flick of manicured fingers she adds: “. . .
as you can see.”
YOU ASK a female guide if a luxurious train
between Moscow and Leningrad was not Ger
man-built before the war, which it was. She is
affronted. “Do you think it’s too good to be
Russian?”
Somehow you feel that this psychology helps
explain the daring push to launch the sputniks,
the jutting of astonishing white multi-storied
towers, nineteenth-century “monumental” in
architecture, out of the otherwise flat, grey Mos
cow skyline. It helps explain, too, the ornate sub
way stations under the streets. Marble-column3d,
sculptured and chandeliered, they appear at once
an effort to outdo the splendor of the czars, and
an installment on a future-day communist mil
lennium.
Communism exists on the basis of a great
hope, a hope kept alive by show of progress, and
contrasted sharply with a depressed people’s
past. The people go along with the objective,
little complaining if it is still out of reach. They
have set out on an enterprise and intend to prove
they can make it go. They have lived with the
system long enough now that most take it for
granted, much as Americans take theirs for
granted.
But the communist “millennium” is a dream.
The country is poor. The government knows
this and had had to take things in their order,
first heavy industry, next trucks and tractors,
then busses and subways for public transporta
tion, now apartments. Everywhere you see new
apartments being built like mad, thrown up by
brigades of mainly unskilled men and women;
uninspired, square-walled masonry buildings,
each a replica of the last.
By the thousands, the people are moving into
these apartments from dingy places on back
streets. They still offer only minimum living.
You suddenly realize why they looked so daz-
zingly bright that first night. No curtains. Frugal
ly furnished, they house often two or three peo
ple to the 10 by 16-foot room. But “they’re much
better than what we had,” the occupants tell
you.
PROGRESS keeps the people going. Press and
radio recite it daily. Colored charts in public
buildings display it. Progress toward a goal. And
always a promise. Tomorrow, refrigerators and
automobiles.
You ask a worker, unshaved and in crumpled
clothes: “Do you think a man with a five-room
house, a car, a television set, electric refrigerator
and washing machine is rich?”
“Da,” he nods.
“Do you think the average American worker
has these things?”
“I don’t know.”
“He does. Do you think the Russian worker
will have them?”
“I don’t know. We hope.”
You ask another, better dressed, the same
question.
“Da,” he answers. “We will catch up with
America.”
In school, in the factory, at the art exhibit,
work is touted as the basic virtue in Russia. The
brass ornament on your hotel room desk consists
of three men bent low and pulling a load. The
sculptor has made them appear to enjoy it.
SfiWS
Volume VIII, No. 7, June. 1959
Published by The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, Firestone Textiles Division.
Gastonia. North Carolina. Department of Industrial Relations
DEPARTMENT REPORTERS
CARDING—Edna Harris, Jessie Ammons.
SPINNING—Lillie Brown, Mary Turner,
Maude Peeler.
SPOOLING—Nell Bolick, Ophelia Wallace,
Rosalie Burger.
TWISTING—Elease Cole, Vera Carswell,
Katie Elkins, Annie Cosey, Catherine
Fletcher.
SALES YARN TWISTING—Elmina Brad
shaw.
SYC WEAVING—M a X i 0 Carey, Ruth
Veitch.
CORD WEAVING — Irene Odell, Mary
Johnson, Samuel Hill.
QUALITY CONTROL — Sally Crawford,
Leila Rape, and Louella Queen.
WINDING—Mayzelle Lewis, Ruth Clon-
inger.
CLOTH ROOM—Margie Waldrep, Mildred
McLeymore
SHOP—Rosie Francum.
PLASTIC DIP—Jennie Bradley.
MAIN OFFICE—Doris McCready.
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS—Flora Pence.
WAREHOUSE—George Harper, Albert
Meeks, Rosevelt Rainey, Marjorie Falls.
Claude Callaway, Editor
Charles A. Clark, Photographer
FIRST RODEO of original plant fishing club was at Camp
Firestone in June. 1941. Front row. from left: Carmon Robinson,
Joe Anderson, Jess Houston. Payton Lewis. Grady Church, Odell
Helms. Middle: Joe Bud Harris, DeCosta Morris, Lindsey Hunt-
singer, Jess Jones, Belon Hanna, Deuel Redding, Drifford Helms.
Back: Clayton Wilson, Hugh Siroupe, Rsid Deal, Fred Morrow,
Marshall Rollins, Shirley Bryson. Francis Welch. J. L. Shehane Jr.
Photo Recalls Fishing Club Memories
Time flies and changes come
along. But among the abiding
things of life is the enthusiasm
that goes with a fishing pole and
a handful of bait. So mused Pay
ton Lewis, president of the first-
shift fishing club, when he dug
out of his historical treasures a
“snapshot” of the original an
gling group at Firestone here.
The picture called attention
to the 18th anniversary of the
club, which now has two units
to include people on all three
shifts.
Mr. Lewis, of Carding, rscalls
that the organization came into
being in early 1941. In June of
the same year, its members put
on a benefit fishfry at the park
in front of the mill. That was to
finance their first fishing rodeo
trip to Camp Firestone on Lake
James.
Those who went along recol
lect that the fishing was un
commonly good. In the years
that have followed, several of
the original group have been
back to Lake James as the sea
sons have come and gone. About
half of the original group is still
employed here. These cl u b
members say that the fishing is
going to be better than ever
this summer.
20 Men Playing
In Golf League
Twenty men are participating
in the Firestone partners' golf
league which began play in early
April. Playoff tournaments will
follow the closing of the season
in mid-July.
Members of the plant league
play at the Municipal Golf
Course Tuesdays through Fri
days, beginning at 5:30 p.m.
Fourteen members of the
league here played in the Indus
trial Recreation Tournament at
Winston-Salem, May 10. Besides
Gastonia, Winston-Salem, Val-
dese, Brevard, Cramerton and
McAdenville were represented in
the tournament sponsored by
the North Carolina Recreation
Society.
V
k
Our jobs depend
on these friends...
lEHSTREKT THEM KINDLY!
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