Mr. Davis. As your age increases?
Mr. Taylor. In other words, for length of time at your machine, for example. When you first come to work, like Lee, and you make 45 rubles a month, as he does it for so many years or for such a length of time, he gets a raise over and above that.
Mr. Jenner. Then, that increase comes purely as a matter of passage of time and has no relation to skill?
Mr. Taylor. That's correct.
Mr. Jenner. Did he say anything about—take the example he gave—machine operator—if the machine operator next to Oswald, for example—take a hypothetical person—is much more skillful then Oswald, is the compensation the same?
Mr. Taylor. Uh—to my knowledge, it would be.
Mr. Jenner. That's the impression you received?
Mr. Taylor. That is the impression I received. I believe he said that someone doing his job, by the time they reach retirement age—I don't remember what that was—would be receiving something just under 200 rubles a month for performing the same task.
Mr. Jenner. Did he indicate a comparative relationship between the ruble and the dollar—to give you some notion of what 45 rubles a month, for example, or 200 rubles a month meant in terms of American money?
Mr. Taylor. I asked Lee that question, as I remember, and he told me that a comparison was difficult because of the socialized or free services given to the citizen by the Government; that, for example, out of his 45 rubles a month that he had to buy little other than food and clothing; and that the 45 rubles a month would buy food, a bare minimum, and sufficient clothing to clothe one individual.