A comparatively considerable increase of production has been noted on the works combined in the automobile trust
It would be absolutely impossible, within the limits of a newspaper article, to amplify the illustration of the above statements by means of statistical data, especially in view of the fact that the data pertaining to the latest period has not been arranged systematically. However, the figures cited above, we trust, give some idea of the process and results of the concentration of industry and permit the deduction that the productivity of labor in our large works, insofar as it did not completely depend upon conditions which under the present circumstances are insuperable,—has increased as compared with that for the preceding year, and in some exceptional cases, it has even arisen to the pre-war level.
Nevertheless, our large industry has been getting into even greater difficulties. A number of crises weighing on it are breaking down its last forces. Of these the most acute and serious are the fuel and food crises, the latter demoralizing labor. This enforced comparative idleness has been thoroughly utilized during the revolutionary period, for the purpose of preparing for the time when the external conditions would permit our large industries to run at full speed.
In addition to the work of adapting our industry to modern conditions of production (altering the mills to suit them to the usage of wood fuel, by changing the construction of the furnaces and cupolas) the Technical Council of the Metals Department of the Supreme Council of National Economy is conducting the enormous work of standardizing the industry and specializing the mills by means of a detailed study of the individual branches of industry. It is also engaged in the restoration of the old, and in the organization of new, industries on the basis of specialized labor and production on a large scale. This latter task has been carried out by a number of commissions organized by the Metal Department of the Supreme Council of National Economy.
The Technical Council of the Metals Department conducted its work chiefly on the plane of standardizing production within the metal industry, reducing to a minimum the types of construction of the same article. Under capitalist conditions of production the law of competition frequently led individual manufacturers to deliberately flood the market with a multitude of various constructions of the same machines in order to compel the consumer purchasing a machine or implement at a given mill, to buy all the parts and often have his machine repaired in the same shop. It is needless to point out to what extent this increased the cost of production and, what is still more important, the cost of exploitation. The Technical Council has tackled the question not from an abstractly scientific viewpoint, but from a practical standpoint, working in close cooperation with our metal works. Every master part, every detail is being worked out on the basis of data collected at the mills by subcommittees consisting of specialists. Then the project is submitted to the mills where the necessary changes and coordination are suggested. The comments given by the mills are compiled and revised, before this or the other table or drawing is introduced; the same applies to the technical specifications and assortments.
Master parts of three categories are being worked out: (1) for the production of metal ware on a large scale, (2) for general machine construction, (3) for the construction of Diesel engines, which is now developing into a general division of thermo-technics.
In addition to this, a project is being completed for a lathe designed for the needs of home industries, and for repair work. A project is being worked out for a series of lathes of all sizes, required for machine construction shops.
Besides work on the standardization of industry, efforts are also being made to lay down the technical conditions.
Of the above mentioned committees, the following deserve special mention:
(1) The committee on steam turbine construction is distributing orders for the construction of turbines of various types. The Petrograd metal works and the Putiloff wharf have already completed part of their orders. In addition to this, the committee has investigated the construction of steam turbines in Russia.