SOCIALIST FIASCO

Hokitika Guardian, 19 September 1933, Page 6

SOCIALIST FIASCO

MANY EMPLOYEES DISMISSED. MOSCOW, September 15. Tile;huge iron' and steel works at Magnitogorsk, which 'Soviet writers, painters and musician,4 visited in search of inspiration, and lauded, as ,a majestic symbol of the industrialisation of Russia,' appears to he a.pretentious failure judging from the report of the Commissar of Heavy Industry (M. Ordzhonikidze), who has ordered the dismissal of 2400' superfluous employees.

Magnitogorsk was projected as the first of Russians '‘Socialistic cities,’’ the ills of capitalistic cities. ■ M. Ordzhonikidze found that not one permanent house had been completed. There was a lack of sewerage and he found many evidences of great neglect and dirt. The workers’ barracks were unclean, and the dining-rooms filthy. Workers were “disgracefully cheated “ of their bread rations. ,JVT. Ordzhonikidze referret,! to the largo number of parts of plant started 'rind unfinished,' which, combined with 'fhp inefficiency and indiscipline of tiny, workers, led to frequent destructive accidents. Only 49 per cent of the quota of pig iron was produced in the last six months and'.the- whole plant was cumbered with rubbish. Among other blunders, a shipment of clay was sent- to an ore-crushing plant instead of ore. '