"Wreckers"

Josef Stalin heard last week in his mind's ear the groans of the dead and dying, the crack and crunch of wood & steel, which went to make up Russia's railroad disasters of the last month. He issued a decree: "Transport must improve. Some workers are so inefficient as almost to be wreckers. Unless their work improves, allegiance to the Communist Party will not save them." High spots in a month's wrecking which the Government dribbled out to the Press days late:

1) One morning a commuters' train wound across the rolling country outside Moscow. Its 21-year-old engineer had a record of twelve reprimands for misconduct. Its fireman had been discharged twice, arrested once. Its brakeman had been reprimanded for drunkenness. Coming into a station named Fraser, the playful engineer ran past two stop signals. A stalled train stood dead ahead. The roistering brakeman's brakes failed to brake. Result: 19 dead, 44 injured. Last week a Moscow court sentenced engineer and brakeman to be shot dead.

2) At Tavatui on the eastern slope of the Ural Mountains, 1,000 mi. east of little Fraser, the station master decided it was all right to switch a freight train on to the through track, if he closed the semaphore signal. In the opposite direction a local passenger train roared into view. The engineer in the cab ran through the semaphore, head on into the freight train. Result: 33 dead, 68 injured. Last week in nearby Sverdlovsk a Red Court sentenced engineer and station master to be shot dead. Five others of the train and station crews got prison terms.

Last week Stalin spoke his mind to young Andrey A. Andreyev who made such a name as Russia's ablest industrial "troubleshooter" two years ago that the Dictator promoted him to be Commissar for Land Transport. Result was another decree, aimed chiefly at Andreyev's railroadmen: Any worker who falls short of his quota "either in quality or quantity" will be fined; if his failures are due to abnormal working conditions, the deductions from his pay will not exceed 33% ; if his failures are his own fault, 100% will be the limit. After that, Stalin and Andreyev waited, listening.

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