The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 2, 1924, Page 10

~~ agree EFORE the war, the only fac- tories in Russia that . made clothing were military, and in all Russia there were only a few ef these. I have seen in Moscow a mumber of clothing factories for civil work, organized since the revolution, and found them modern, well-equip- ped buildings, fitted out with elec- tric cutting and pressing machine equipment from America and Ger- many, and employing the mest up- to-date preduction plans. I was| rds. anxious te compare with these one of the old factories that had ex- isted before the war. Thru the All-Russian Ctothing Syndicate, I " secured permission and a guide to visit the “Clara Zetkin” factory, a private factory of the Mande-Raits firm, founded some twenty years befere the revolution, and called in those days the “Mars” factory. The son of the old owner, by the way, is now one of the financial experts in the State Clothing Syndicate, has worked with them faitl€utly for two years, and is one of the most valuable members of the.staff. The factory is on the ecutskirts of Moscow, a group of build- ings standing together and making a whole community in themselves. Inside the big gates we found the yard clean and well swept. Tho of buildings looked a bit! ; ston: beaten, but in good repair. Im the first was the manager’s of- fice. Here were remnants of by-/ 2 gone splendor—a large, cracked peer- glass faced the top ef the stairs with an ornate frame im a rather disreputable state. I ne- comeap: Sar: pudsthaal "Was caren stairways, etc—had been kept re- paired, even tho the decorations had training except the work he had done with his hands, but it was evident that he made a good ad- ministrator. During the course of the cenver- sation, the director had occasion to send out for some production and wage figures we had requested. The man who brought them was an aris- tocratic-looking old fellow in a brown suit, with a black ribbon on his glasses. He came in with a big ledger containing the wage rec- We di: wage scales with him and learned thft the workers at that time were receiv- wee Me an average of 22.50 tavarne (a ruble based on purchas- ing power and worth somewhat more than the old ruble—50 cents) to which was added 25 per cent or more every month, according to the amount of piece-work done above the required minimum. The man in the brown suit assured us that this came.to more than before the war, when from 12 to 15 gold m- bles a month was the average on military uniform work. This is in addition te the benefits in the way of medical care, cheap living ac- commodations, etc., now received by all 0 i workers in Russia. pplied te return to Russia, and was willing to work, they had taken him back as assistant di- rector. He and the new director had now worked together without avy friction for over a year. | Repreiare ty times 2,000 workers were employed in this factory. Dur- F full time, in the cloth- age te a bee the remainder at shoemaking. In spi of this cat, the applicants for new workers have The director himself we found to} exceeded the number of applicatinns be a plain, friendly man in the’ for work. prevalent well-worn black leather suit ‘of the Soviet worker. He formerly had been a skilied crafts- man in the clothing trade, and was well acquainted with the practical end of the business. He had come straight from his work bench to the directorship without Formerly the working day was 10 and 12 hours. With the present 8-hour day and the smaller number of workers, total output runs under the pre-war figure. However, they produced in* those days a lower quality of goods. Now their uni- The Bankruptcy of Germany Germany is bankrupt. The cap- italist state is impotent, and cannot maintain any system. Recently the state was not in a position to pay its officials their salaries. They re- ceived only half of their pay with the ise that the remaining half woul be paid later. The state rail- ways, which have recently been sep- arated financi from German state, are eq The y _ bankrupt. benkruptcy is not limited to the Reich and the business enterprises of the Reich: individual state and every town is likewise bankrupt. Production itself is involved in a most severe crisis. The number of unemployed among the six most im- portant trade according to the returns of the skilled trade unions, is as follows According to these figures, there are in the most important branches of production, al y 573 cent of the workers either unemployed or on part time. Production in Ger- many is laboring under the most se- vere crisis which can be ned. This crisis is bound we in the closest manner with the bankruptcy of the stato. The present bankruptcy of the Ger- man state finances, which is becom- ing so plainly apparent, is no new The German state was already financially bankrupt two years ago. But this fact was con- cealed by the continually increased output per money. In the an- tumn of 1923, all possibility of fur- ther co mt came to an end as the landowners and peasants refused to sell their products in exchange for paper monsy. As a’result, it be- came impossible to supply the towns with food, and the imperative neces- sity arose of creating a new cur- rency which would be ted by the peasants. This led to creation of the Rent Mark, eS to the further covering of the deficit and thereby to the concealment of bankruptcy by the unlimited issue of a ~~ money. cause of the bankruptcy of the German Reich—apart from the for- Part time (per- centage) THE CLARA ZETKIN FACTORY scan tern, to secure greater durability. Altho total production is less, invi- vidmal productivity has more than doubled over pre-war. This has been due chiefly to the introduction of the American sys- tem of dividing work into a great many separate processes, which has been substituted for the old method of each worker tailoring a whole garment. The director himself took us thru the various departments of the fac- tory. It was not as light and airy or well constructed as the factories for civil clothing which I have vis- ited, and they are still using the same clumsy machinery used in the old days, for they have not been able, as yet, to replace it with new. An interesting department of the plant was a machine shop, where a number ef mechanics are constantly at work repairing ma- chinery in order to keep it work- ing at capacity. They have found this much more satisfactory than sending out for extra parts, or for outside mechanics, especially since the old machines are in such fre- quent need of repair, The general atmosphere was not as efficient and “American” as in the Comintern factory, or the Mos- caw Experimental, which have the advantage of comparatively new ‘bnitdings, ‘fresh ma¢hinery and a fatr number of American trained workers. Still they have done re- markably well at the Clara Zetkin. Tke workers seem a” happy lot and tarn out a high grade of work. The director told us that when he had first tried to introduce the American mass production methods some of the workers had aed raged at him. In fact, a meet- ing was held to protest against giving up their old slow, waste- ful, but iliar, process. At last, lowever, he convinced them, and now they are proud of their new Re-| way of work, We were particularly interested in one room, where only women work- ed, all engaged in specialty ‘ight work. “These,” said the forewoman of the department, “are our moth- evs.” This special departmgnt is reserved for nursing mothers when they come back to work after the four months’ leave of absense al- lewed for child-birth, These moth- ers, for nine months thereafter, work only: six hours y, (at full pay) and may go e to nurse their bsbies three timés a day. The spe- mal departme: organized fot them in order to interfere with the other work@# the factory. They work. on the lightest opera- tions. “And these are our factory chil- litical and social relations in- to which we will not» go further in this connection—lies before all in the absolute taxation sabotage of the German capitalist class. The total taxation pai “+f the German people reckoned in gold marks at thg official course amounted: In the year 1922...........1,178.2 In the year 1923.........00 ae Wentn ewe inode re gt (peserrieryerseson: ae 48.3 43.3 A Store eee er eeeeweee 13.0 September Seeeeeeensenee 14 TOA : scvcce Coeeeser 474.7 TUNG .secceseccse cacecce July Hoon eere eee weseesee cursed | here some young operators at work. These were orphans the factory had adopted at the time of the famine. The workers had fed them and housed them out of their own slen<« der means, and now they had become skilled workers, employed four hours a day, and studying the remainder of the time in the factory school. Most of the workers seemed to enjoy their work, and several of the older ones who operated special machines, stopped their work to ex- plain the operations to us with parental detail, Several of the workers engaged on the more noisy and difficult machines were required to work only six hours a day. One of the most interesting as- pects of a Soviet factory is always the community life of the workers springing up around it, Near the factory one finds the community house, where living accommodations are secured at a very low rate, va- ried according to the salary. The Clara Zetkin has an unusually fine home, divided into small apartments, where most of its workers live. Here I found a fine day nursery, full of the younger children, who are kept while their mothers work, and are returned to them at night, fed, bathed and happy. Nearby was a workers’ club, formerly an officers’ club, run jointly by the workers of several factories in the district. Here there is a library, classrooms, and a large auditorium, where plays and entertainments are given every week, From the living conditions of the workers, it may be seen how the new regime, thru all its difficutlies and struggles. tries always to ad- to the principle of giving the workers the product of their work. While the clothing plants might develop faster and state industry grow richer if they kept wages lower. and reduced the worker’s health, cultural and living advan- tages, the first call on the indus- try beyond the fundamental needs of production is always the welfare of the workers, It ane — ible to raise wages enoug fe ion pace with all the workers’ needs, it is a rule never to low- er wages, and a standard once at- tained is adhered to. In the cloth- ing industry, in spite of its com- paratively recent development, the management is able to look after the needs of the workers, pay them comparatively good wages, and still run at a fair profit. As capital ac- cumulates, or is received from the American workers thru the Russian- American Industrial Corporation, all the clothing industry employes in Russia will benefit by the improved standards which will then be pos- any special forms are of a more complex pat- dren, they told us, as we came uponsible. Told in Figures German capitalist class and German re Pigs Breanne ed this year, at the very highest es- im: to more than 200 million gold nae It must also be remembered in this connection that, under the new regulations of the finance system of ~ |