The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 20, 1925, Page 4

Se "EASE PRISONERS INTO SLAVERY IN LOUISIANA One Worker Is Leased for $16 a Month NEW ORLEANS, August Southern Louisiana, originally settled oy the pirates, and home of the orig- nal slave owner of the South, has twain reverted to slavery. In Coving- ‘on, a small town, not many miles dis- ‘ant from here, where the inhabitants nake their livelihood by attending he wants of tubreculosis victims, who journey thence to the piney voods, the police jury has leased fohn Meyers, who is serving out a 30-dollar fine, for violating the liquor 18—| ; law, to Warren Thomas, a farmer, for $16.00 a month. John Meyers, a human being, is thus placed in the same position as a chattel slave before. the war of the states in 1861—toiling from early morning till the sun sets\in the west- ern horizon in the ehfvalrous South The parish, which glaims that it costs 75 cents a day to board each prison- er in its “hogs-groo,” welcomes the idea of getting rid of its prisoners and at the same time getting $16.00 per This tion is legal in the under the terms of , which permits the leasing of prisoners Trucks Kill Worker. JACKSONVILLE, Il, Aug. Milvin Smith, 27, Columbus, IIL. fatally crushed today when two he trucks of the Eoff Road Construction Company collided between Pittsfield and Barry. Two other members of the construction crew were painfully hurt. 18. Workers) Hear Dolsen Tell Story of Sino Fight for Freedom SACRAMENTO, Calif., Aug. 18.—- About one hundred workers heard James H. Dolsen explain the Com- munist position regarding the strug- gle of the Chinese workers and peas- |ants for the freedom of their country | from the “Great” powers. Copies of the DAILY WORKER and the Work- ers Monthly were sold. The audience listened , very attentively to the speech. Local DAILY WORKER readers helped to arrange the meet- ing and promised to continue building up the paper as one of the most ef- fective means of arousing the class consciousness of the workers here. In order to hold the meeting in the public square, it was necessary to se- cure a permit. Upon being asked for this permit, the chief of police asked only one quesion: “Is it going to be 2 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL A GLASS WAR PRISONER IN W. VA. MINE STRIKE SHINNSTON, W, Va., August 18. —Fifteen-year-old Helen Puschover defied the state police, and was ar- rested. 1 When Helen, an’ offphan, called a scab a “starve out,” a state police walked up to her and told her not to say that again. And she defiant- ly repeated jt. The real reason she was arrested was because she was one of the ac- tive persons on the picket line at Owings, W. Va. She was arrest¢d) af 6:30 a. m. Saturday morning, and taken to the Haywood police headquarters and held under $500 band... The yellow dogs and state police have been keeping a close watch, for her for the last four months, religious or patriotic meeting?” RUSSIA T (Continued from Yesterday's Daily Worker) . REPORT ON LABOR CONDITIONS PART | CHAPTER | Trade Unions Labor Conditions _A report on labor conditions in the Union of Socialist So- vietist Republics must begin by pointing out that in Russia the workers are the ruling class. For unless the reader bears this in mind throughout he will be misled by much in Russian labor conditions that at first sight seems very much the same as with us. Really everything is quite different; because in Russia we have a regulation of the workers’ rights that they have put upon themselves for their own well-being. Elsewhere we have a restriction of the workers’ rights put upon them by the wealthy. Such regulations are in Russia the result of agree- ment between the workers and their own expert governors and managers to whom they have entrusted their institutions and their industries, their factories and their farms. Elsewhere such regulations are the result of treaties and truces between the entrenched interests of a wealthy ruling class and the as- saults of a working class that as yet never rules but only rebels. No one who grasps this—and these reports will, it is hoped, make it plain—will ever be misled by the lies he can read almost daily that the worker in Russia lives a life as limited as, and with even less liberty than, with us. The Russian workers are the ruling class of Russia. They enjoy the rights ‘of a ruling class. They are beginning to exercise its responsibilities.. They still have much to learn, but they have made a start. In a village school visited by one of the delegates the children were learning to write in copybooks in which over “God save the - Tsar” had been pasted, “Once we were slaves, now we are free.” Elsewhere in Europe the industrial revolution in the course of a century had taken the power from the old rulers of the upper class, the landed gentry, and given it to new rulers from the middle class—the men who have made money. This has been for us a mixed blessing. The old ruling caste had its training and traditions, its sénse of public responsibility and its own personal relations with its dependents. The new ruling class has none of these things. The Bolshie who denounces the Bourjouy as a vulgar and vicious plebeian can make at least as good a case as the Bourgeois who denounces the Bolshie as a vile and violent proletarian, . But in Russia this process of transfer of power from the upper to the middle class, was only just beginning. The replacement of the upper class, whose economic power was their-hold on the land, by the middle class, whose economic power was their hold on capital and credit, was interrupted while in an early stage by the social revolution of 1917, that transferred power straight to the workers. What is now going on—has been going on since 1921—and will go on for the rest of our lives, is the working out of compromises in Russia between the Bolshevist ideal of a society based on pub- lic work and the Bourgeois ideal of a society based on private wealth. These compromises made to suit the very different condi- tions and characters of the Russian would not, as they are, suit us. But there is much to be learnt from them if we will bear in mind all the time—that the Union of Soviet Republics is not the United Kingdom—that Russians are not British—and that a Soviet institution is, in its origin and object, quite different from the English institution into which it has to be translated. All this must be remembered, for example, when we speak of a Russian Trade Union. . Trade Unions (a) Pre-War Period.—The course of the Russian Revolu- tion can be very well seen in the light of its effect on Russian Trade Unionism. Russian Trade Unionism must not be con- fused with the Russian medieval guilds and craft unions which kept a liveliness long lost elsewhere in Europe. Russian indus- trial Trade Unionism proper was, when the Revolution broke out, at the first fighting ‘stage of its development, and never was in Russia such a protection against armed revolution as it has been elsewhere. This was because the industrial popula- tion was of late growth, was shut out from any share in ruling the country, and was condemned to the worst possible condi- tions of life. Russian Trade Unionism which began, with a political movement, that of the Russian Social Democratic Par- ty, would in time have educated the people politically and ele- vated them economically. But it was shut down by Tsarism and remained illegal until, 1905; though at times it was en- couraged and even exploited by Tsarism, as in the “Gapon” and “Zubatoft” Associations. In 1906, after the first rebellion, Trade Union membership reached 200,000. But the unions were then again suppressed and driven underground, where they came fin- ally under the control of revolutionaries. ~ (b) Revolutionary—The Revolution, when it broke out, used the unions as a revolutionary force. But even so union- ism was from the first divided as to the class war. The more skilled a trade was and the higher its social status the more op- posed it was to class war. For example, the printers were against—-the metal workers for war. In the railways the clerks were peaceable, the others warlike. The anti-war unionists supported the middle classes with strikes and sabotage; and the first phase of the Revolution was fought within the ranks of the unions themselves. The Third Trades Union Conference (June, 1917), based on a membership of 1,500,000, showed a majority against class war. But after the Bolshevist Revolu- tion the First Trades Uniow Congress (January, 1918), with 2,000,000 mumbers, came out for,War Communism. Thereaft- er, Trade Unionism became throughout the reign of War Com- munism (1918-1921) an important instrument of government. The first thing the unions had to do on behalf of the Com- . ‘ MACDONALD’S ATTACK ON SOVIET. NOTES TO CHINA ARE ANSWERED MOSCOW—(By Mail) -2The Moscow papers reproduce Mry Coates,’ the secretary of the Anglo-Russian parliamentary committee of the former “Hands Off Russia” Society, coments upon Ramsay MacDonald’s statement recently published in the Daily Herald, in ‘which MacDonald criticized Karakhan's recent notes to the Chinese government. “Why has MacDonald found any-* thing improper or michievous in these | 1 notes?"—asks Mr. Coates, and he goes on to say that it is “not unusual for a government thru its diplomatic rep- resefitatives to express sympathy with another, nation, whose citizens may have been afflicted with some misfor- tune. “The labor government under Mac- Donald himself afforded an extmple thereof, when it sent a message of sympathy and condolences to the So- viet government on the occasion of Lenin's death.” Murder Per 5,000 in Open Shop Heaven. NEW ORLEANS, August 18.— St. Clair Adams, former, New Orleans prosecutor, tells the bar association that the city in proportion to its size is one of the wickedest in the United States. Chicago has 1 murder per 100,000 inhabitants, while. New Or- leans boasts. of one for every 5,000 population. ew Orleans is the open shop paradise. hd Build the DAILY WORKER with subs. UNION Thru,Courtesy of the International Pub- fishers Co. munist Government was to restore control over the Factory Committees. These committees were the first machinery of the Soviet system and the motor that drove the Revolution. As in Germany and Italy, the Factory Committees took. over the man- agement from the owners and the technical staff. As in Russia the former were absentees and the latter were sabotaging the Revolution, this was necessary. But it would have had in time a very bad effect on production. For the committees began to claim that they owned the factories; thus converting the workers into a new body of private shareholders. This, of course, was all wrong. The leaders of the Revolution accord- ingly turned to the Trade Unions as a means of enforcing na- tionalization and of protecting production. The Factory Com- mittee was gradually reduced to one-third of the membership of the Management Committee—the remaining members being appointed by the Trade Unions and the Supreme Economic Council. Finally, the Third Trades Union Congress in 1920 de- clared that the Factory Committee had nothing todo with the management, and began the movement back towards expert management. + F At the same time another move of the Factory Committees was checked in the interests of the union movement. The committees had started Central Councils in “rad Us and other large towns which were rapidly ousting the Tradé Unions. This was checked by the Third Trades Union Confe on in June, 1917, but was not finally stopped until the First. trades Union Congress in January, 1918, which put an end to} the Central Councils, and made the Factory Committees loc nits of the Trade Union by applying generally and compulsorily the prin- ciple of One Factory, One Union. This meant that, every work- er in one factory, whatever his occupation joined ‘the union to which the factory belonged. For example, in a Machine tool factory, not only were the carpenters and bricklayérs employed on factory repairs made to join the Metal Workers’ Union, but so also were the cooks. In the same way railway» repair shop- men_.join. the Railwaymen’s Union. and railway stock builders join the Metal Workers’ Union. ae This principle of “One Factory, One Union,” has become a permanent part of the Soviet system. .One result of it is the getting rid of all overlapping and competition between unions— another is the division of unionism into 23 national industrial unions which are permanent and not as elsewhere constantly amalgamating and seceding. . The giving of governmental duties to the industrial unions Wwas,a war measure, and the stability of the new State under the storm and stress of foreign invasion and domestie insurrection was undoubtedly due to the strength thus obtained. Instead of the State being, as it were, perched on one leg, that of parlia- mentary representation, the Russian State was ‘propped by a tripod—a representation through the Soviets, another through the Trade Unions and a third leg that was never fully grown, the Co-operatives. The next step was to make membership of a union compulsory, and to suppress the oppositién ‘maintained by the Menshevists as late as 1920. But, unfortunately, no sooner was this done than the unions began as Official organs to lose contact with and the confidence of the mass of non- partisan workers. As the Trade Unions became more and more: State organs controlling production, so their Central Executives grew in ad- ministrative authority. Out of them there grew several gov- ernment organs of the first importance. The first of these was the Council of Labor Control, which, as State ownership devel- oped, became the Supreme Council of National Economy, a change of name which expressed the changed nature of the Trade Unions’ responsibility. This Council was in fact an Eco- nomic Executive equal in importance to the Council of Com- missaries, the Political Executive. Meantime the Central Ex- ecutive of the Trade Unions themselves was, and still is, the Central All-Russian Council of Trade Unions created in July, 1917. During this period Trade Unionism and Communism were practically the same. The Third Congress in April, 1920, of whose 1,229 delegates 949 were Communists, passed a tesolu- tion to the effect that the Trade Unions should’ conform their policy to that of the party. : (c) Recent Reconstruction—When the New Economic Pol- iey was coming into force in the winter of 1920-21,the part to be played by the Trade Unions ‘was still under maehe Trade the Bolshevist policy of Trotsky, who wished to makéjthe Trade Un- ions into Government organs which should actu@fy themselves run the industries, and the Trade Union point of view, support- ed by Lenin, that the unions should look after the interests of the workers. The Trade Unions and Lenin won. And the New Economic Policy, as adopted, relieved the unions of much of their responsibility for managing industry and administering national production and restored them to their oniginal duty of regulating work and wages. The first move in this direction came from the Central Committee of the Communist Party on December 28th, 1921, and was adopted by the Central Council of Trade Unions in February, 1922. By the time the Fifth Congress of Trade Unions met in September, 1922, the new policy was already under way and the task of the Congress was to reorganize the unions on their present basis. " ‘The restoration of the unions to their usual functions, though it reduced their numerical strength, at once restored their moral status as the workers’ own organization. Village and Home Craftworkers (Kustarni) were dropped from the Un- ions, and membership fell almost by half, from 8,500,000 in July, 1921, to 4,500,000 in October, 1922, after awhich it again began to increasé. The process of restoring unions to a voluntary and contributory basis was thereafter continued without further loss of membership. Collective yoluntary mem- bership was introduced in 1923, then individual membership, and finally individual payment of contributions. Individual membership and payment is now the rule for 7 r cent. The ip in January, 1924, was 5, 000, and in October, 6,084)000, the membership having during § THE OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE BRITISH TRADE DELEGATION TO SOVIET RUSSIA Copyright in the United States by the International Publishers Co, All Rights Reserved. Copyright by the Trades Union Congress General Council in Great Britain. —_—_—__ 1923 by 32 per cent. for industrial and 31 per cent for non-in- dustrial members. ~The percentage of unionists to the whole body of workers was as high as 93.4 on January 1st, 1923, and 92.9 on January, 1924. The more important of the 23 unions are the railwaymen with a 750,000 membership, the clerks with rather less, the metal workers, teachers, textile workers with 500,000 each, sanitary, food supply, miners, landworkers, builders, all with about 250,000. The proportion of women is 28 per cent. and is decreasing. Trade Union Organization Enrollment may be collective or individual, and from it are excluded village and home craft workers (Kustarni) members of craft unions (Artel), businéss managers, landowners, eta® The Russian Trade Union Movement today is organized under the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions (A.R.C.T.U.), which contains representatives from the 23 Central Trade Union Committees, and is elected by the annual All-Russian Congress of Trade Unions:, Locally, the unions are organized under Provincial Trade Union Councils. More than 60 are un- der the direction of nine regional bureaux, the remainder com- ing directly under the A.R.C.T.Us The horizontal organization is first the Inter-Trade Union Proyincial Council, and at the head the All-Russian Council of Trade Unions. * Trades Uriion Congress Ae The All-Russian Congregs of Trade Unions consists of one delegate for each 10,000 members; but provincial branches have a delegate for 3,000 members two delegates for 15,000 and three for over 25,000, elected at provincial conferences. Branch- es with less than 3,000 are ‘grouped and elect one delegate per 10,000. Only subscribing members may vote. Trade Union Finance bag In the absence.of any published balance sheets of the un- ions it is difficult to get a clear idea of how they stand, more especially as any available funds are freely allocated wherever- they seem most wanted. Thus, since a year ago, the A.R.C.T.U. has given monthly grants. of 1,500 roubles to the Land and Forest Workers for organizing expenses, and another 5,000 rou- bles to make up the subscriptions of provincial branches to Pro- vincial Councils; and yet another of 1,500 roubles to support their organ the “Agricultural Laborer” (Batrak). The turning over. of the educational enterprises of the unions to the State is not complete; much adult education being retained by the unions as described in the subsequent section dealing with it. In respect of this, subsidies, as there described, are received from the State and it seems likely that this also allows the unions to undertake ‘expenditures which are only in- directly educational. It is clear that so long as the Trade Unions continue to. do so much work for the State they will, like the co-operatives, continue to receive support from State funds. There are, for example, large grants to Trade Union educational work from the co-operatives which themselves are subsidized by the State, The financial position of the unions seems to be improving. In January, 1923, the A. R. C. T. U. and about half the Central Executive Committees were in deficit, but in January, 1924, only three of the latter. In 1923, the Provincial Inter-Union Coun- cils in deficit were reduced from 60 to 15 and now ten; though more than half the Provincial Councils are still in deficit. Con- tributions are beginning, however, to be better paid, especially where individual payment has been re-introduced. In 1923, on- ly about 60 per cent. of the contributions were being paid—in 1924 about 70 per cent. The normal subscription which is 2 per cent. of the wage, is received by the Factory Committees and remitted to the section which administers the funds, pay- ing 10 per cent. to the Inter-Union Provincial Council, and up to 25 per cent. to the Central Executive of the union. Trade Union Status The legal status and the industrial functions of the unions are defined in the Labor Code and have little that is unusual. The legal function of the unions is defined as (a) representation and (b) protection of the workers. Trade Union Activities (a) Restriction of Activities—Under War Communism, contributions, were were paid by the State, out of national funds; but under the New Economic Policy the unions suddenly found themselves obliged to pay their own way. Their difficul- ties were increased by the depreciation of the currency and the heavy deficits in their budgets. Thus Central Committees’ ex- penditure sometimes is four times the revenue; and in local committees the deficit is generally one-third the total. This heavy expenditure is partly due to the efforts of the unions to carry on what remains to them of their political and education- al work for the State. Want of money soon put a stop to most of the useful educational work of the unions. Their primary schools were first given up, then the technical schools in many cases, and occasionally even the adult classes for illiterates. In most cases this work was transferred to the educational au- thorities. But although this work is being yearly cut down for want of money it still causes heavy outgoings on salaries and administration. In the course of 1922, provincial Trade Union officials had to be reduced by three-quarters, and central offi- cialdom by one-third. But salaries still constitute a very large part of the expenditure. In other respects economies have been so drastic that of the great scheme for linking up the Trade Unions all over Russia, only the central organization remains intact. The Provincial Councils survive, but the 504 district offices have been reduced while the local secretariats have al- most disappeared. In the central organization the 15 depart- ments have been reduced to 8, and the 268 officials, of whom 55 were Communists, have been reduced to 215 of whom 50 are Conununists. (To be continued in next issue.) ae \ \ a sia SOVIET MINING DELEGATION IN THIS COUNTRY Will Order I Machinery and Equipment NEW YORK, August 18—A dele gation representing the Combined Coal Mining Industries of the Doneta basin in Soviet Ukraine, known as the Trust “Donugol,” ‘has arrived in this country for the purpose of plac ing orders for mining equipment to be carried out thru the Amtorg Trad ing Corporation. The delegation i> headed by the Vice-President of the Trust “Donugol,” Simon V. Ivanow and the manager of the Department of Mechanization, Arkadi A. Kisselevs Other members of the delegation. are Prof. Sheviakov of the Ekaterino-.., slav Mining Institute, Chief Mechanic of the Trust, Robert P. Vagner, and mine directors and engineers Nicholas I. Levtschenko, Zakhar B. Zorin, Ivan S. Lebedev, Dmitri M. Sushevsky, and Michael M. Shibaev. To Study Mines. |. Prior to placing their orders, the delgeation will make a study of coal mines and mining equipment works in this country with a view toward determining | tlie types of equipment which are best adaptable to the in- dustries of the Dongz basin. According to Ivanov, the question of the kind of equipment will require careful consideration since the Donets industries occupy a leading position in the industrial reconstructon pro- gram whch is at present being car- ried out by the Soviet government. The Donetz Basin is the chief source of hard mineral fuel in the Soviet Union furnishing about 75 per cent of the total output. Output Increasing. In recent years the output of the mines in the Donetz Basin has been constantly increasing and the pro- duction program for the operating year 1925-1926 provides for a further increase of about 65 per cent over that of last year, bringing up the total to over 800,000,000 poods, or about 14,000,000 tons. The importance of the Donetz Bas- in is augmented by its situation in the vicinity of the large Ukrainian metallurgical industry which has also shown rapid progress during the past year, having increased the total pro- duction by 84 per cent over that of the previous year. The delegation of the Donugol will spend a month in this country. Some members of the delegation, however, expect to stay longer for the purpose of supervising the filling of the om dets. , TEACHER BARRED FOR DEFENSE OF SOVIET RUSSIA NEW YORK, August 18.—Dismissal ” of Benjamin Glassberg for “conduct unbecoming of a teacher” in 1919 is upheld after stx ‘ears’ consideration by the state board of education. The New York Teachers’ Union has been active thruout the period in fighting for Glassberg’s reinstatement. The American Legion protested. Frank D. Dilbert, acting commissioner of educa tion, handed down the decision which bars Glassberg from again. teaching in New York schools, Glassberg was accused of making statements which caused his “pupils to receive and retain sentiments of dsiloyalty to and disrespect for and contempt of the constituted authori- ties of the national government in time of war, and of the board of edu- cation of the city of New York.” Specifically, Glassberg was charged with stating to his classes that the United ‘States government was sys tematically suppressing true reports about Russia and the Soviet govern- ment and that he, Glassberg, as a* teacher could not tell the truth to his pupils. t “While the evidence presented upon the trial tending to show that, ap- pellant was guilty of the charges against him is hot conclusive,” ‘10 department states, “it is sufficieat to Justify the application cf the rule that upon appeal to the commissioner of education that person shall sustain the findings unless there is “some revers- ible error in the conduct of such * hearing prejudicial to the appellant.” Painter Killed; Wife Sues, NEW ORLEANS, August 18,—The Jefferson Construction company is de- fendent in a suit for $100,000, filed by. Mrs. Ruby Grice, who claims her hus- band, a painter, met his death owing to a scaffold falling 80 feet, which wag made up, it is alleged, of inferior and defective lumber, and insecurely erected. : German Economists Visit Black Sea, MOSCOW—A group of over 20 man learned economists, of Hamburg, has asked the Soviet Commercial Fleet Board to place a steamer at their disposal for a scientific trip in the Black Sea in September. This request. has been granted, If you want to thoroughly un. derstand Communism—study it. - <<