The Soviet and other communist press devotes a great deal of attention to the speed-up system of work. According to the statements of the communist newspapers this system is being rapidly adopted all over Russia by all classes of people, beginning with workers and ending with scholars.

The Soviet workers sing quite a different tune--those workers who, according to the statements made by the communist papers, are beginning to show unprecedented creative enthusiasm.

In the latest issue of the Socialist Herald we read a very interesting letter written by a worker of Kharkov, in which he states that the preponderating majority of Soviet workers instead of displaying enthusiasm reveal an acute dissatisfaction with the new speed-up system.

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"Quite recently," writes he, "many workers sincerely thought that the new system was introduced only for the purpose of increasing the productivity of labor and of raising wages. The party press and the trade-union press in every way tried to convince everybody that all talk of a contemplated revision of the production quotas upward after the productivity of labor had been increased were counterrevolutionary, and that rumors to that effect could be circulated only by enemies of the working class. As a proof the newspapers submitted the decision of the Central Committee by which any revision of the quotas had been forbidden.

Now a great many things are becoming clearer. Everybody knows now that the considerable attainments of the speed-up system are explainable not by an improvement in the application of labor and in the technical processes alone but largely by the colossal exertion of the physical and mental powers of the workers. There is no doubt in anybody's mind that when the speed of a conveyor is increased threefold or fivefold, as it is being increased in the tractor works, the intensity of labor is increased still 3more. Under such conditions the officially ordered revision of the quotas upward from an already highly raised level arouses acute dissatisfaction among the working masses.

Despite severe reprisals numerous cases of assault on the speed-up workers are recorded. Even among the young workers the dissatisfaction is growing. It is quite reliably reported that a revision impends not only of production quotas but also of the structure of the wage scales, which will take place, it is said, in February or March. According to the same quite reliable reports discussions are already under way for the purpose of widening the powers of administrative personnel and restricting the rights of trade-union representatives in all management matters in industrial establishments. The trade unions, it is rumored, will also be deprived of any voice in fixing the wage scales.

From this letter it can be seen that a large majority of the Soviet workers regard the speed-up system as a system of the most oppressive exploitation.

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Even now the wages paid to Soviet workers may be considered miserable, and if the production quotas are raised again, and the wage scales are revised, their condition will become still worse.

Another correspondent of the same periodical devotes a whole article to the new class of privileged people. Members of this class ride in automobiles, occupy the best seats in theaters, and appear as the best customers in stores and the best patrons of the best restaurants. To call this class of people the communist bourgeoisie would be too crude. To name it the Soviet aristocracy would be too soft. They call themselves "the responsible people".

With the average earnings of the inhabitants of Moscow 190 to 200 rubles a month, "the responsible man" gets 1,500 to 2,000 rubles. Not infrequently such "men of responsibility" receive even as much as 7,000 rubles a month.

However, there is no end to Bolshevik hypocrisy. Neither the beastly 5exploitation of workers nor the appearance of the communist bourgeoisie above described prevents them from telling the people abroad that a socialist state has been built in the Soviet Union.