The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 14, 1925, Page 13

Letters From To Our Fellow Workers in the West ITHERTO we, the workers of the world, used to communicate wit! each other thru our leaders (of the Communist Parties) at international congresses, s In this letter I wish to describe to you the life of the workers at the factory where I am working. UR factory, named Spartak, is engaged in the manufacture of spades. Before the war, and particu- larly during the war, the owner of the factory reaped huge profits, waxing fat at the expense of our underfeed- ing, But, as you know, we, the work- ers of U. S. S. R., have taken the fac- tories and workshops into our own hands. The factory came into our possession {it is owned by the state, but since the state belongs to the workers, we speak of it as ours) in an antediluvian state of equipment, be- cause the owner used all his profits for his personal pleasure, not for the improvement of the plant. We began normal work in 1922, and working in roofless sheds and on broken stands, we turned out from 20 to 23 thousand spades a month. Having gone thru starvation, it was not an easy matter for us to reconstruct our industries. EVERTHELESS, we have already achieved a good deal. We-now produce not 23,000, but 112,000 spades per month, the highest pre-war output was 85,000 and that with the same number of working people that we have now. But this is not all. We have re- paired and overhauled our factories. We now have new roofs, we now have new walls; almost with our very teeth we constructed our machines, which were destroyed during the years of civil war, and not only reconstructed but also installed a new press of im- proved construction, Hence we got an improvement in our living stand- ard. The wages of our unskilled workers are now 103 per cent of pre-|° war, and only the wages of skilled workers are so far at 87 per cent of the pre-war rate. T is true that our requirements have increased, too. We got used to books, to the newspaper and to the theatre. We can’t manage any more with our pre-war wages, but we know that we are working for the improve- ment of our own position, amd that our life gets better year by year, be- cause we are the masters in our country, having got rid of the para- ‘Phere has been begun in Soviet Russia a system of cor- respondence with workers of other countries, carried on thru the labor and Communist press, The letters describing working and living conditions are written by the workers and peasants themselves. WE urge all workers readers of the DAILY WORKER to answer the letters of the Russian comrades and sup- ply them with firsthand information of living and working conditions in America. No better way of establishing the closest bonds between the workingclass of the two nations can be devised and Russian workers are just as eager to hear of actual daily happenings in the workers life in America as we are to hear how the are progressing. WE publish in this issue a number of the first letters received. Workers who desire to reply can send their letters to the DAILY WORKER and they will be carefully forwarded to the Pravda, Isvestia, Gudock and other Rus- sian papers. Railway workers should write for Gudock—the official organ of the All-Russian Union of Railway Workers with sites who used to live at our expense We still have cases of two or thre: weeks delay in the payment of wages But it. is fully compensated by the credits which we get. HE workers of the Spartak fac- tory enjoy credit at the co-opera- tive store from pay day to pay day. and we also get on four to six months credit such articles as coal, wood, warm clothing, footwear, etc. Fur- thermore, we have our mutual loan society, which advances loans in case of need. HERE are many things which I would like to write about, dear comrades, but it is impossible to say 'everything in one letter. In my next letter I will tell you about the cul- tural activities in the various circles at our factory. We often speak about Germany, about your position, about the manner in which you are betray- ed, but I leave this for next time. With warm fraternal greetings, Dmitri Scepanovitch Kortezky. A worker in the “Spartak”, factory at Ekaterinostav. ss *¢« £ EAR foreign comrades: Being aware that your bour- geois press misrepresentst the life of our Russian workers, I will tell you the truth and nothing but the truth about the life and;doings of the Rus- sian proletariat. ,, WILL describe how we work. I work in a textile factory which a membership of approximately 400,000. employs 11,000 workers. swner of the factory has escaped (The former ‘broad). This very big concern is under the management of a worker. All our workers are doing their yt uost to revive and increase produc- tion, for they know that they do not work for their master but for them- selves. They work eight hours out of the 24. All questions connected with the factory are decided at the workers’ general mectings. Every worker has the right to point out by word of mouth or thru the press any shortcomings, and may suggest im- provements in the conditions under which the workers live and work, etc. 7 E have factory and workshop committees to which our best comrades from the bench are elected. There are also organs for the pro- tection of labor and motherhood and childhood, and above all, there is the trade union. All these organizations are composed ef working class com- trades whose chief aim is to work in the ests of wry ip Smad. lo t a ist in your country, and will not be as long as the bourgeois is in power. Our workers carry out by their own initiative all sorts of campaigns. For ‘stance, they come to the assistance of the unemployed, they help to liquid- ate illiteracy, they care for homeless children, open children’s homes and shelters, most of them are members sf the International Red Aid, etc. oviet Russia HOUSANDS of children of our workers and peasants have the benefit of higher education in the uni- versities and other institutions, a thing unknown under the czars. And dear comrades, I hardly think that your bourgeoisie will admit the chil- dren of the poor into the universities and other institutions for higher ed- ucation. T present our workers are doing their utmost to raise the pro- ductivity of labor and to reduce the cost of production. Results have al- ready been achieved on this field be- cause of the workers very sensible at- titude in this matter. Our workers are fighting for the complete recon- struction of our industries and agri- culture. One year of this work has shown our workers that as far as wages and output are concerned, they are approaching the pre-war level. All necessities of life are quite accessible to the workers. LL factories and works have clubs for the workers which carry on culturaleducational work. There are free libraries and reading-rooms, and the club has also various circles and sections; such as: art, dramatic, thoral circles, musical and other cir sles, in which workers and children eet instruction. This, comrades, you also lack. This can only be done by a workers’ and peasants’ government. The workers of our factory have made great progress during these years of revolution as far as culture and edu- cation are concerned. They are, there- fore, interested not only in the life of their fellow workers, but are also fol- lowing carefully the life of the op- pressed workers of all countries. Their hearts beat in unison with those of the workers abroad, and they are ready to come at any moment to the assistance of their foreign comrades. UR workers demonstrate openly, with red flags and posters against the bourgeois oppression of the work ing class. A few more years of such steady and strenuous work and our country will be 80 strong. economical- ly, that it will neo longer need the help of the western capitalist coum tries. I should like to close my letter with the slogans: Workers of the world unite! Long live the proletar- iatand the working class of the world! With comradely greetings, Malyshev, Workers’ correspondent of the Wall Paper, The Rudnikev Worker, Economics of World Opium Conference | (Continued from Page 4.) subsequent policy has developed in harmony with her special capitatistic needs—more or less modified by the strength or weakness of these coun- tries. Therefore, historically, and be- ‘cause at this moment she cannot sup- ‘ply fresh capital in enough quantities she is compelled to follow the old paths and customs. She cannot with- out serious damage to herself, or rui follow new ones. . N the other hand the roots of the American drug problem are in the East. Further American capital means American methods. In the United States in the interest of Am- erican capital it has been found neces- sary to heavily fence American labor with anti-drug laws. Much more so in China American capital finds simi- lar protection is necessary; the suc- cessful enactment and operation of which will prove more difficult than in America. Chinese labor, with Am- erican dollars to spend on European manufactured drugs, would react too seriously against America’s large ..scale intentions in China and would rapidly and ultimately destroy the liv- ing foundation of every investment. means of warfare employed by the phincipal adversaries are also instructive. Britain democratically shelters behind the alleged self-gov- ernment of India, The United States, thru Rockefeller supported church ef- forts and Morgan subsidized red cross, works altruistically in the best Wil- sonian spirit for the good of China alone. The truth is—each requires China for their own special purposes. The destruction of the opium trade in the East means for England—a huge loss of revenue and Chinese labor with the probability of revolution in India. The continuance of the traffic means that the United States cannot find a safe outlet for her surplus capi- tal. She cannot invest in China to any great extent unless there is an international guarantee that Chinese labor won't be doped and destroyed by Indian opium, or French, British, German or Japanese morphine, heroin or cocaine. Neither country is inter- ested in China for China’s sake. In other words the opium conflict is at this moment a beautiful Iliustration of the English between different levels of capitalist development. T is difficult to predict how the ex- tended negotiations will terminate. Already it is announced that a British cabinet minister will attend the next conference. No doubt Britain will en- deavor to trap America in her diplo- matic nets. For the league of nations, however, failure means death because already Britain’s attitude over the Geneva protocol, Egypt’s appeal and Treland’s registration, has struck it a mortal blow. Rut that which obvious- ly neither Britain nor America has sufficiently calculated upon is the in- fluence of Russia’s recognition of China—a contingency worth while watching! THINGS THAT NEVER HAPPEN By GENE BYRNES { SINCERELY WOPE WOMEN BECAUSE 1 GET THE voTEe KNOW iT wWiLt ADD A TONE OF REFI EMENT to POLITICS