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HIGHER PRODUCTION BEST ECONOMY

USSR gears for new advances

‘

People here know that policy originates from the Communist party. Public opinion erpects, above all, efficiency

The Kuznetsk steel plant.

Bn

... Heavy industry holds the key

to Soviet progress.

Heavy industry holds
key to more abundance

By RALPH PARKER
4 MOSCOW
Shortly before the Supreme So-
Viet met, the government issued
4 report on the economic state of
the country. As a whole, it was
a story of expanding production,
of a rising national income, of big
increases in consumption.
._ The Fifth Five-Year Plan is near-
_ 428 completion—in fact some of
its targets have been reached. The
Planners are at work on the 1956-
80 plan, ;
_However, the report showed
Signs that all was not well in one
ital sector,”

__ Production lags in the iron and
Steel industry, in the non-ferrous
Metal industry, in heavy-machine
uilding and in the machine-tool
Industry, P
At the same time, newspaper
‘rticles began to appear in which
- ©xPerts attributed these short-
Somings to old-fashioned meth-
 Ods, to lack of coordination be-
“Ween technical research and
Practice, and to weaknessess in
© ministers responsible.
},Lhese articles broke what had
fen many months of ‘virtual sil-
Bpce on the subject in: the press,
: here the problems of agricul-
jute, trade and light industry had
fen to the fore.
Although the national invest-
Ments plan continued to be heavi-
''Y weighted in favor of heavy in-
they? there seemed reason for
inking that less attention was
Paid by the government to the
Biality of its work than its very
Pid expansion required.
me that were true it is certainly
true now. Khrushchev, at the
neeting of the Communist party
eel committee which took
me before the Supreme Soviet
“tet, opened his review of the. live-
ean Situation with a forceful
ho ment on the development of
eavy industry as the main task.
th © idea figured prominently in
_<l® budget speech to the Supreme
Sinan and the deputies went home
tho the new premier’s assurances
* heavy industry would be the
°vernment’s main concern ring-
§ in their ears.
en S this mean a reduction in
yy emer: goods production? The
_ Viet public has been less hasty
in jumping to conclusions than

here take more trouble to read
the speeches of their leaders. |

In many of these speeches care
has been taken to avoid posing
heavy industry against consumer
goods production.

After declaring that in a period
when the Soviet people were en-
gaged in great construction tasks,
concentration on consumer goods
production was _ impermissible,
Khrushchov said:

“The Communist party has never
lost sight of the task of expanding
those branches of industry manu-
facturing consumer goods. On the
basis of a great upswing in heavy
industry, the central committee (of
the party) will always continue to
advance light industry and agri-
culture.”

Marshal Bulganin said: “On the
foundation of a further expansion
in heavy industry and increased
agricultural production, the out-
put of consumer goods—clothes,
footwear, foodstuffs, household
utensils—will be increased.”
‘Measures taken leave no doubt
that close attention is being paid
to meeting the ever-rising demand
for consumer goods.

. The ‘tremendous drive to raise
grain production to over 160 mil-
lion tons a year has been launched
— and the USSR is already the
world’s greatest grower of wheat.
Two-fifths of the grain is earmark-
ed. for livestock and poultry.

By the end of the next Five-
Year Plan (1960) it is aimed to
double the present production of
eggs and wool. Me

The compelling reason for the
government to improve the con-
sumer goods position is the con-
cern felt about the lag in produc-
tivity. Bulganin was frank about
this.

There were, he said, “serious de-
ficiencies.”” Organizational meas-
ures and new techniques will be
relied on to correct some of the
deficiencies, but much will de-
pend on the attitude of labor. This
attitude is large shaped by incen-
tives — in the present circum-
stances, Consumer goods.

The answer to whether the
government will go on reducing
prices and increasing consumer
goods output will depend on the
international situation.

Molotov put it clearly when he
said that ratification of the Paris
agreement would oblige the Soviet

ures that would call for great new
efforts and material sacrifices on
the part of the Soviet people.

The dangerous risks the Soviet
Union would be running in the
present state of world affairs if she
were to neglect her heavy indus-
try were stressed. Bulganin, in
his first speech as premier, laid
emphasis on its role in national
defense.

In the event of the rearma-
ment of West Germany within
the . framework of a Western
bloc, the Soviet Union does not
intend to be caught napping in
industrial and economic prepar-
edness for the world war which.
it is felt will be brought much
nearer by such a development.
That these precautions would re-
tard the fruition of agricultural
expansion plans is not to be ex-
pected, but that they would be
felt in the cost of living is very
likely.

At present economies have tak-

ings and taking up the slack.

The keenest sense of vigilance to
the dangers of another war which
seems to mark the present attitude
of the Soviet government has not
weakened the Soviet leaders’ alle-
giance to the policy of peaceful
coexistence.

Molotov was at pains to show
that the balance of forces in the
world was working in favor of
the countries of democracy and
socialism. There wére grave
dangers, but the overall picture
gives grounds for optimism.

The Soviet Union could best help
the world to progress toward free-
dom by using its influence to re-
duce tension. One successful way
which Molotov referred to was the
convening of conferences.

His speech left no doubt of
the importance the Soviet gov-
ernment attaches to a Four
Power conference like Geneva,
before steps are taken in the
West that would make that con-
ference pointless.

It is against this background of
impending developments in the
national economy — developments
that will give it a greater strength
and flexibility to meet an uncer-
tain international situation — that
Malenkov made way for a succes-
sor with a long-distinguished re-
cord as a civilian administrator

en the form of encouraging sav-|.

the national economy. *

They have seen no change
before is with the Communist

tion is focussed on Soviet leaders

‘/as personalities.

The Soviet public is satisfied to
know of its representatives what it
expects to know of anyone it elects
to a post of responsibility — their
political and administrative re-
cords.

In this light, Marshal Bulganin’s
record is better known than his
predecessor’s. Thousands have
worked in direct contact with him
in the responsible administrative
posts he held in industry, finance
and economic planning.

Though not a professional mili-
tary man, his work with the armed
forces has brought him in personal
contact with military units through-
out the country.

The public is looking to the goy-
ernment under its new head
to pursue with more energy
and efficiency a policy of retrench-
ment in public spending on non-
productive items that was intro-
duced recently.

This ‘has taken the form of re-

ducing staff in administrative posts
— redundant office workers being
offered jobs in production, reor-
ganising the social services so that
while benefits are’ spread more
evenly over the large groups to the
advantage of the old age pension-
ers, substantial savings are pos-
sible in the health services, and
thirdly, instructing all organisa-

grounds of inexperience in the area of

MOSCOW

Today far more attention is being paid to the text of Foreign
of Georgi Malenkov’s resignation as premier and his replacement

from the government. It sees
managing

in leadership, for leadership as
party.

Furthermore, the personal question hardly enters into the
picture. It is in the West, not in the Soviet Union, that atten-

tions to effect what economies they
can.

But it is being brought home
to the public that the best form
of economy is higher produc-
tivity.

Probably the most revealing fact
in the present economic situation
is that given by Nikita Khrush-
chev, secretary of the Communist
party’s central committee, at the
pbuilding conference last Decem-
ber, when he noted that the pro-
ductivity of labor was not keeping
up with the rise in living stand-
ards.

“In the course of the finst four
years,” he said referring to the
current Five-Year Plan, “the pro-
ductivity of labor has increased in
industry by 33 percent and in con-
struction by 32 percent. At the
same time real wages have increas-
ed 37 percent.” :

Under the fifth Five-Year Plan,
labor productivity in industry was
to increase by approximately 50
percent, with a rise in real wages
of 35 percent.

One solution to the urgent
problem of increasing produc-
tivity to which considerable at-
tention has been paid in recent
‘weeks is the improvement of the
heavy machine building industry
and the technical reform of the
iron and steel industry.

There have been serious com-
plaints in the past of shortcomings

.

Signatures against H-bombs

in these branches of industry.

More than 20 million Japanese

Vwlitical commentators in the
®st, perhaps because people

Union and her allies to take meas-

and in intimate knowledge of the
requirements of defense. ees

shy

was launched last August.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — FEBRUARY 18, 1955 — PAmie ti

The rising sun emblem reappears on Japanese war planes as
the United States turns over eight iets to Japan in a ceremony at
Tachiwaka air base near Tokyo. But while Japan is being rearmed,
the peace movement throughout the country is gaining strength.

have signed a petition against

use of the atom and hydrogen bombs since thé petition campaign