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Show Released by Western Newspaper Union. HOW RUSSIA WILL COMPETE WITH U. S. Russia is bidding for, and plan, ning to take care of, largely in. creased postwar world markets for manufactured products. In the post, war world she will be a hard com. petitor in the matter of price. That is not alone because of her supply of raw materials, of which she hag an abundance in many lines, or because be-cause of low wage standards as compared with other European and ' Asiatic nations. It will be largely due to the greater production of the Russian worker, a result of piece rather than hour time pay. To me the difference the two methods of compensation make in production was illustrated as I watched two men working at a job just across the street from me. One of them had undertaken to do the job at a per unit price. To him the quicker the job was completed anj he could get onto another the greater great-er his income would be. He was working at a piece price. The man who had undertaken to do the job had employed a helper at a price per hour. The more hours the job took to complete the more money the helper would receive. People passed along the street and some would slop to talk. The piece price worker talked but he worked while he talked. The hour price worker stopped working while he talked. The actual accomplishments of the piece price man was fully twice that of the hour price man. The one made two' moves to the others one. That was a simple demonstration demonstra-tion of why Russia will win in the competition for world trade. She uses, in her government-controlled government-controlled plants, a piece price compensation system that pays a premium for production. In those nations in which free labor dictates terms of employment such a premium system is not permitted. Instead, in all too many cases, slow downs are encouraged to force the employment employ-ment of more workers. In the end, such a method does not accomplish the desired result. It increases the cost of production and prevents sale of the product prod-uct In a competitive market. In Russia the workers must ac-. cept the system a one man govern- ' ment prescribes. Each Russian worker is paid in accordance with what he produces. The hour method of compensation naturally tunes production pro-duction to the speed of the slowest worker, and increases the cost In the postwar world markets with Russian products offered on a piece production cost in competition competi-tion with those priced on an hour production cost in this and other nations, it is a safe guess that Russia Rus-sia will get as much of the world business as she can handle. Because of that some of our workers may not have jobs. Russia is much to-be to-be reckoned with In the industrial world of the future. DEFICIT FINANCING IN POSTWAR ERA WHILE WE ARE CONSIDERING the problem of the world future, what about the problems America must face in the immediate years ahead? The budget submitted to congress covering the fiscal year from July, 1, 1945, to June 30, 1946, would indk cate an expectation of continued deficit financing following the end of the war.. It would indicate an expec-. tation of the United States, shouldering shoul-dering the financial load for the re-, habilitation of the devastated and Allied nations. Can we do that and avoid financial disaster? Can we. do it and maintain the American standard of living, our American civilization? It would seem the time Is ripe for a careful study of our problems prob-lems of the immediate future years. It will take something more than wishes or guesses to pull us through without a serious collapse. The problems prob-lems involve economics, world politics, finance, industry, agriculture agricul-ture and labor. It is demanding attention at-tention from the keenest minds In the nation representing all of these lines. It is not a problem to be solved through the passage of a bill introduced by any Tom, Dick or Harry who happens to be a member of congress. It calls for the establishment estab-lishment of a policy to which congress con-gress can work intelligently. . To devise such a policy Is something some-thing more than a few days' or a few weeks' job. It will take time, a long time, and the time to start is now. May lt be done as an American Ameri-can and not as a partisan job. THERE ARE IN AMERICA 40 CORPORATIONS each with assets of from $1,009,092,000, the Ford Motor company, up to $6,463,803,552, the Metropolitan Life Insurance company. These 40 corporations are owned by 69,454,924 stockholder. They directly provide jobs for 2.-432,889 2.-432,889 employees. Of the 40, 8 are insurance companies, 16 are banks, 8 are railroads and 13 industrials. Such concerns play a big part in keeping America ticking. They are the really big business ot the nation. |