Salt Lake Telegram | 1935-12-24 | Page 4 | What's Stakhanovism?

What's 1 T WAS Wf when Dictator Stalin spoke briefly IT I for or an hour in Moscow to of Russia's heroes of labor that the real import of crept into the worlds world's awareness Something had been known about bout it It was a anew anew anew new technique that multiplied many times the production of a laborer Still it was not new I at that It was the old sp speed up up ed-up by another I name The up speed-up is an old and dreaded bogeyman bo ho- ho geyman of the labor agitator He resents it and blames it to the cupidity of his boss Sometimes he blames capit capitalism as an institution for it Some of the Russians dont don't seem to like it either At any rate recent dispatches from irom Moscow tell that the government is having men shot for objecting to the up speed-up and is sending sending send send- ing many others to prison It all started as far as Russia was concerned concerned concerned con con- when an ambitious Russian miner Alexei discovered that by making every move count he could increase his production production production pro pro- by per cent which cent which makes one suspect suspect sus sus- offhand nd that his original pr production could not have been anything to brag about Anyhow Anyhow Anyhow Any Any- how he made his discovery and acted on it and the government was duly impressed Now everyone is doing it willy-nilly willy willy from mine to fact factory ry to cooperative farm This is boosting production causing the setting of many new records creating a buying boom in the Moscow department stores This world is full of surprises but none of them is much more u unexpected than this business business busi busi- ness of workers in a workers' workers state suffering from workers' workers bugaboo the speed And it leads one to wonder if it isn't modern production in itself the itself the technological necessity necessity necessity sity for turning out constantly increasing quantities quantities quantities quantities' quan quan- of goods at a constantly increasing efficiency effi effi- which which is the basic cause of proletarian discon discontent ten t. t We Vc have devised a means of life which lays down its own rules It steps up the pace of life demands that we be ruthlessly efficient and breaks us if we cant can't stand it Having started it we cannot stop it but must keep pace no matter h how w it irks us The rule seems to hold good in Moscow as well as asin asin asin in Detroit