Such supplies as are available in Soviet Russia are being utilized
with considerable skill. For example, in spite of the necessity of
firing with wood, the Moscow-Petrograd express keeps up to its
schedule, and on both occasions when I made the trip it took but 13
hours, compared to the 12 hours of prewar days.
The food control works well, so that there is no abundance alongside
of famine. Powerful and weak alike endure about the same degree of
starvation.
The Soviet Government has made great efforts to persuade industrial
managers and technical experts of the old régime to enter its service.
Many very prominent men have done so. And the Soviet Government pays
them as high as $45,000 a year for their services, although Lenin gets
but $1,800 a year. This very anomalous situation arises from the
principle that any believing communist must adhere to the scale of
wages established by the government, but if the government considers
it necessary to have the assistance of any anticommunist, it is
permitted to pay him as much as he demands.
All meetings of workmen during work hours have been prohibited, with
the result that the loafing which was so fatal during the Kerensky
régime has been overcome and discipline has been restored in the
factories as in the army.