e 2a enormous amount of building is going on in Mosca: I was there 15 years ago and on retu ming last year I literally ‘could not recognize the city. The main streets have altogether changed. Whole blocks of buildings have disappear ed and new blocks have taken their Naturally, I wanted to see how they did it. I had a four-hour visit to the Museum of Building Construction Methods. I had two long - discussions with leading Soviet architects —— the people who built Magnitogorsk and other places— and I went on to a big building site, saw the actual building go- ing on, and talked about it to the foremen and, workers on the job. I thought I knew something about building methods. I found, however, that both new materi- als and new methods which had been evolved in my own country with a good deal of research and trouble but not used, have been in use in the Soviet Union for the last two years—and in an im- proved form. What impressed me was that building had been taken away from its. traditional craft basis and made into a fully mechanized industry. This is something which — could be done, by the kind of. planning they have adopted in the Soviet Union. As a result, Soviet building technique is ahead of the whole world, and is advancing rapidly. One example of this advance is ‘that building has entirely ceased to be.a seasonal occupation. Work goes on all through the year. The foreman at the site I visited said they had been working last winter at. temperatures. below 40 degree below zero. They stopped outside work. only when. it was actually snowing; dow frames were put into the building already glazed and the whole building was heated. ‘ They have many dodges to en- able them to continue work out- - side in the winter — special pro- tective ‘clothing, heated cement, , and, no doubt, they had moments off to warm.up._, The whole’ business is planned and mechanized right through. All” components aré factory made — ‘not only doors and ‘windows, but Stan-. dard plumbing units are supplied _ that are. just put in, all ponnepsedl : complete. plumbing units. up... No internal, plumbing work, has. to be-done at all... - Alluinternal architec- ; . tural ee one prefabricatr, M! } It, is all pre- fabricated. - ed. ia are tray factuted in eight great factories throughout’ the Soviet Union. ‘The © ; too, you know. AS 2 matter of ‘fact, because of some odd quirk . ‘on the putting in of these components is doné by means of mobile cranes : capable of handling up to six-ton _ Mifts, This is for ordinary plumb- i % oe Pah Bee ‘ ; plaster. inside work . never stopped, -because the win-' ing. For bigger buildings there are much heavier cranes. The cranes lift skips of brick and hoppers full of mortar and put them down just by the bricklayers —- The bricklaying gang of five people — usually two men and three women or sometimes one man and four women — put down the mortar, lay out the bricks and place them at a standard rate of 1300 bricks per man or woman during an eight-hour shift. On the site which I visited, they ; were laying bricks at the rate of 4600 during an eight-hour shift. Some teams lay as many as 5000. The floors and similar compo- nents are pre-cast and dropped into place by the cranes. They have a mobile gun for plastering, by which the plaster is hsot at the wal) with compressed air. (The principle is similar to that of a st a sprayer). The buildings I saw were al- ready considered of an obsolete type, and in the future buildings are to be steéel-framed with pre- cast panels, not requiring any ‘ I saw one steel-frame building which went up four stories during the period in which I was in Mos- cow (under three weeks). Au welded construction, together with cranes which are raised automa- tically with the structure, permit continuous operation. “Ultimately, apart from ‘a few historic buildings, the whole of Mei Col WRE glad to see that the trade unions are moving be- hind the fight of the unemployed for jobs. It’s a natural step on jabor’s part, because the struggle for economic security cannot be separated’ from the fight eeningt unemployment. ‘ ers” * announce ‘with a’ shudder that their main aim in, proposing the establishing of union-guided - unemployed organizations is to’ eep the jobless out. of: the clut- ve of “Communists”, | How do they know that aie ‘The - Peres i ll aa jobless Communists won't infil- over ‘a: million houses - -under; the » Five-Year Plan are being’ manu- ‘ trate into the ranks of an un- employed organization establish- © ed by a right-wing labor leader? Communists become unemployed part of industrialists, Communists. usually become un- etter ses Rebuildin Moscow Old streets rebuilt, new buildings rise as plan for socialism’s city proceeds By PROF. J.D. BERNAL Moscow will be converted into a city of comfortable. and. modern ~ flats-and offices, plentifully inter- spersed with public parks. Homes for the people take a foremost place, built with speed to house a city which has grown from one million to five million in 30 years and still is terribly overcrowded. Modified skyscrapers also arise — not so tall as in the U.S. and less blatantly functional. They are, as their leading architect, Mordinov, and his fellow-archi- ‘tects explained to us, more in keeping with Russia’s traditional architecture, with its dependence ‘on sky-line and its sense of amp- litude. Magnificent new university buildings are arising on a nobly . sloping site and in spacious grounds running down to the Moscow River. A majestic central building of 26 stories is balanced by wide- spreading, flanking wings, looking out at the back on green lawns, and providing lodging for more students than any British univer-’ sity possesses. \ The streets of Moscow — “which have been made very wide — none less than 150 feet — were last year planted with 20 year old trees, which gave them a very pleasant appearance. One of ‘the most striking fea- tures of Soviet building construc- tion is the part which the buil- ding workers themselves, together with the public, play in it. Most of the new devices in use were actually put forward by building trade workers, who have received for their achievements decorations and prizes, Plans and appearance of new buildings are widely popularized and canvassed before they are finally settled. The people of the city keep up a lively interest in the building of the new Moscow — and this is possible because they can see visible progress day by day. But all this is only a begin- ning. ‘The new methods are being . rapidly improved in the direction . of economy and speed. There is no doubt that within the next 10 years, the people of the Soviet Union will live in finer” and healthier cities than any other people in the -world. 4 Can the unemployed become y employed as soon as it is known that they. are Communists. But how are you going to tell when a jobless man is a Com- munist? Does a Communist who — hasn't eaten for several days look more gaunt than a non- : Communist? Supposing a group ‘But we're ‘a Jittle perturbed | id hen some so-called “labor lead- of unemployed™ are sitting. on those hard benches at the. gov- ernment employment service and one ‘of them. says: “I could sure do a lot of damage to a sirloin steak right -now!” Would this Utopian statement make him a Communist? Or, ‘to protect him- poker: from even. being labelled; a fellow traveller, should he have softly muttered: “Gad, I haven't eaten for two days and could certainly do justice to a lettuce -and tomato sandwich!” And how about clothes and communism? We know a few Communists who always look neat, They haven’t the wardrobes a pillar of ‘ free enterprise 2. of Adolph Ménjou or some of the TLC and CCL leaders we know, but if they became unemployed, they’d probably be able to/strug- gle along for a while without looking as though they’d. been tied to a truck and dragged down the highway. This is. going: to create a problem: will it be the neatly dressed unemployed, or the unemployed who fail to keep their trousers pressed “who will be _ suspected ‘as Communists? And then there’s the question of points of view. How about the — _.“Humphrey _ Mitchell is an old poo-bah. ”, Is he, man who snarls: the Communist? Or is the real Communist the guy who softly argues: “There are lots worse ' people than’ Humphrey Mitchell — how about Simon Legree?* One: thing is certain: it's going to be awfully tough for a. right- wing labor leader to convince the police that all unemployed aren’t Communists. You can establish -a “right-wing” union, but there isn’t any right wing among Ae hungry. _We mention this because for: a. little while we could envisage right-wing labor leaders vying ‘swith each other in an effort ‘to become anti-Communist saviors of the unemployed. The horrible = thought occurred to us. that. we. _might see a group of jobless. or- ganizations spring up across - -the - country under ‘such headings as: The Dr. Conroy ‘Chapter of: Conservative Jobless Workers: ° The Murray ‘Cotterill -Associa- tion of Workers of the World ~ Unite. The A. R. Mosher Anti-Com-_ munist. Unemployed “Association. _ The Russell Harvey, Union: of Well-Dressed. Unemployed. : The C. H. Millard Association — of Right-Wing Jobless Wosiaers>: It won’t work, boys!» PACIFIC FRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 3, 1950—PAGE 5 *