The Daily Worker Newspaper, January 21, 1926, Page 3

LAWS TO AID FARMERS NOT EASY 10 GET Who Is to Pay Subsidy, the Hard Question (Continued from page 1) jn future deliveries (which are never delivered) was “an insurance for the grower.” He added that if the grow- er lost on one transaction, he could “make it up on another.” Under questioning by Caraway, Du- vel admitted that the grain exchange dealings in futures would “control a runaway market.” This led the sena- tor to declare that if it could control a “runaway” market it could control any sort of market, and that the ex- changes were “fixing prices” and to the detriment of the farmers who grow the grain gambled with. Cotton ag well as grain is included in the bill among articles prohibited to futures trading unless affidavit is made as to actual ownership and deliveries. Jardine: Dodges Questions, dine’s letter, since he was unwill- rein face questioning, was read. He defended the grain and cotton om changes’ gambling in futures as : ‘a hedging function” ot “real necessity in the present day development of our markets for cotton and grains.” No ta ent- explanation how to avoid “pres| any” capitalist exploitation of the producers could be, or was, given. erely stated that “this func- ee shauld sae be. destroyed until some other means of accomplishing the same results are established. Meanwhile in the house committee. differences of opinion as to ae er ous measures proposed to “aid ie farmers resulted in some ill-feeling among the witnesses. Most of these witnesses, as usual, are not farmers. The three yesterday were E. D. Ad- cock, a Chicago attorney; John Wal- lace, editor of a farm journal, and an- other publisher, Harvey Ingram, of Des Moines, Iowa. No Cure Under Capitalism. The hopelessness of finding any real cure for agriculture within the frame- work of capitalist economy, is mirror- ed by the variety of cure-alls recom- mended. Any scheme that will give aid to the agricultural industry event- ually turns out to be some form of a subsidy from the pourgeoisié as a whole thru the government or thru'a pooling of pourgeois agricultural in- terests—the latter nearly impossible to coalesce into an effective organiza- | tion. Wallace of Iowa recommended to the committee that complete and ef- fective co-operation in production and marketing of crops and adequate finances to take care of the crop sur- plus are remedies for the agricultural depression. How this was to be done under capitalism was a mystery he could not explain. Who Will Finance Subsidy? He stated that the Farm Paper Edi- torial Association had given the mat- ter consideration, but had made no recommendation how the “adequate finances” were to be raised, even if the ideal “complete co-operation” could be arranged under the present system, He did not know, and his association could not decide, whether funds for this subsidy should come direct from the government (from the FOR THE UNITY OF THE CITY AND LAND “LONG LIVE THE FARMERS’ SECTION OF THE DAILY. WORKER”—KNUTSON M very glad to know that The DAILY WORKER is to have a special section devoted to the interests of the farmers. This shows progress for the revolutionary movement in the United States, ‘The farmers need a frank elucidation of their problems and how to solve them and no paper in the United States can do this better than The DAILY WORKER because it is a revolutionary organ and farmers will learn more afid more that they can only free themselves from the yoke of capitalism by the revolutionary method. Farmers, too, need to get closer to the city industrial workers, understand what their struggles. mean to them and to know that they are their best friends and that they can only emancipate themselves from the tyranny of the banks and the food gamblers thru close co- operation with their natural allies—the city wage workers. On the other hand, the workers in the industries should know more about the farmers’ struggles. While it is true that the leadership in the major struggles against the capitatists and the government must be taken by the city industrial workers, guided by the most class con- scious, of these, they cannot hope to win against the capitalists unless they make an alliance with the farmers who produce the food that the city worker must have in order to live. Land and city workers must solve their problems together, At the present time the farmers are loaded down with high taxes, Interest, high freight rates, mortgages, receiving less than cost of pro- duction for their products and being rapidly dispossessed of their land. The wheat farmer Is not as rich as Coolidge says he is and the corn farmer faces ruin. What stories can be told about these things and how The DAILY WORKER will tell them! A farmers’ section of The DAILY WORKER will serve the great purpose of telling the facts about the farming situation and also show the relationship between the farmers and workers and point out the revo- lutionary goal of both these classes of workers. Long live the farmers’ section of The DAILY WORKER! ALFRED KNUTSON, capitalist class a8 a whole) or be lev- ied from the co-operative associations he had in mind. Wallace favored the plan, however, of a fund*for surplus crop contro] to be assessed from the co-operatives, following the plan proposed in bills introduced by Representative Dickin- son of Iowa, which provides for the creation of a “farmers’ council” rep- resenting co-operatives and a market- ing board working with the depart- ment of agriculturé, which shall de- cide if there is a surplus, declare it, take it off the hands of the co-opera- tives, market it» abroad and collect from the co-operatives any loss that may result from the transaction in the world’s market. Pooling Losses Aids Small Farmers. This amounts to a pooling of losses among such co-operatives as are brot into the organizations, but leaves the “independent” producers which are naturally the small, isolated farmers, to profit by the higher domestic pric- es without paying any assessment This aid to the small farmer indirect- ly charged to the wealthy, large farm- ers in the co-operatives, would, of course, never do.for the politically articulate wealthy farmers. ‘ On the other hand, a subsidy to the agricuitural industry which »will get the government to shoulder the loss of selling the surplus on the world market, would assess the capitalist class as a whole, and is stoutly op- posed by the big business interests thru the Coolidge administration. Yet political necessity for agricultural dis- trict support to the administration forces it to propose something to aid the farmers. Another bright idea of Mr. Wallace was that investigation should be made, into using cérn in the production o' sugar. This silver lining to the cloud turns out to be, however, not so sil- very when the proposal is hotly op- posed by the beet sugar and cane su- gar producers. All in all, capitalism is capitalism, and there is no way farmers who actually farm the soil can be permanently aided except by overthrowing capitalism. COOLIDGE AGENT TRIES TO FOOL STOCK RAISERS Wants to Kill Commerce Commission (Special to The Daily Worker) PHOENIX, Ariz., Jan. 19.—Robert H. Carey, member of the Coolidge ag- ricultural conference, aroused consid- erable antagonism among the dele- gates to the American livestock as- sociation today when he*attacked the interstate commerce commission. He told the convention the commission had developed into a court, rather than a business board. He said the farmers and cattle men .cannot do business with the commission because of ifs antagonistic attitude. Political Rubbish. The delegates recognized this plea as so much political rubbish from the Coolidge propaganda agencies trying to smash every obstacle to the un- hampered exploitation of the country by big business. The interstate com- merce commission, tho ineffective in most cases is a menace to the merg- ers of industries in violation of the Sherman anti-trust law so the Coo- lidge machine wants to do away with every means of enforcing this law. The delegates, mostly stock raisers, and many of them well-to-do have felt the pinch of the packinghouse trust and the resent Coolidge agents trying to make them believe the defense of the combines by the administration in reality helps them. Cyclone Sweeps City in Mexico. MEXICO CITY, Jan, 19.—A cyclone has swept Monterey doing great dam- age to property and leaving many homeless, according to reports re- ceived here. THE DAILY. WORKER "YARD' WORKERS’ CONDITIONS BAD Meat Packers Build Labor Caste (Continued from page 1). he is “nigger,” just transplanted from southern race hatred to a new field. The white .“nigger” little realizing that, he is but a menial, along with his fellow-black worker and thatgthe hatred is wed to exist in order to keep ine vided to the profit and security ihe company. It is said to make things “equal,” the leader of the workmen at Armours is a Negro, who was'a scab in 1921, Just the other day) (this former strikebreaker, seems tojifhye taken the lead in protesting against the high cost of, liv- ing and humbly petitioned the com- pany for,@m increase in wages. The petition went, of course, to Chicago, where goes‘all the requests of Ar- mours 60,000 slaves in the United States, and ‘has been heard of never- more, Women Displace Men. Woman'labor is displacing man labor. Fifteen per cent are already women employes at the Kansas City packing plants. Mostly foreign wo- .|men. They work cheaper than the men at the same work. Their wage is 32 cents an hour displacing men who receive 42% and as high as 54 cents an hour. Already one half the help in the ‘sausage department at Armours are women. Cudahy is using women in the killing department and rapidly hundreds of women are dis- placing men in those depaftments that have hitherto been for ‘men on- ly.” Mothers are working amid filth and blood and vile smelling odors for the profit of the nice smelling daughters of Swift and Company. Up- on this situation the men look with alarm but what can they do with only a company union to hear their tale of woe? The slogan of the company con- ference committee of bosses and men is efficiency. If you see a chance to take up waste-slack or see where labor can’ Be saved you get “good marks,” like your little boy gets in school. Alféady the workers are getting thé ‘results of this. In the sealing department, an electric box sealing machine has been installed ‘hat eliminates one man at each ma- chine and légves one working. At this ‘very moment” the help is working part time go that all may have em- ployment (ho increase in pay how- ever per hour). Thus has efficiency worked the'workers out of a job and more and more are doomed to go. Being a partner to the boss, when he owns the job, and has all the gay, makes only for the profits of the boss and the defeat of the workers hopes and more certain his slavery. Maintain Police System. ‘The men'‘are well protected—from each other. Big fear-invoking police- men stride about the packing houses in full uniform at all hours. Inspec- tors are everywhere watching the men and being watched by one an- other. Spies are everywhere and the men keep close mouthed and are fearful lest their “buddy” next to them is a spy ready to report their utterances, deeds or even their ima- ginations. The piece system is.being displaced by the hour plus a bonus system. Some mysterious 100% estimate is KANSAS CITY No Landlords for Him “Why In hell do we need rich landowners when we can live better with- out them under the Soviets?” says the Russian peasant. reckoned in the mind of the boss What it is the workers do not know One worker reported to the writer that his bonus for a week was 61 cents and another got a bonus of 18 cents in four days. It seems to be working, however. An overtime pay of time and a half begins after the worker has put in a 54 hour week. If he works over 10 hours a day he then gets overtime. The machinists, boilermakers, sheet- metal workers and other craftsmen do not get in on the bonus so they have asked for an increase of wages. This was done two months ago but no word back from Chicago as yet. Minute Late; Docked Half-Hour. Altho the men are not prohibited from going from one department to another, during off time, still the boss usually wants to know where they have been. If they are a minute late in punching the clock they are docked a half hour’s time. - They must have their work clothes on when the gong sounds. The law requires that shower baths be installed but the worker in the killing, fertilizer and hides depart- ment finds his bath consists of but an old rusty pipe with a tin can suspend- ed in the air with holes punched in. Little of the stink is taken off by the bath and it is carried thru the town and to his home where maybe the. landlord supplies a bathtub to finish the scrubbing. To add to the joy of the workers, in summer the places where these men work are infested with swarms of flies. Yes We Have Inspectors. Oh yes, they have inspectors. They are not there to keep the men in health so much as to keep the meat looking clean when it reaches the public for consumption. The workers are examined in some plants once a year but we hear that Armours have had men there for twenty-five years who have not been examined since they came in. Since the meat goes in one direction and the contents of the guts and the hides in another direction it is of little concern as to the welfare of the hide and fertilizer men. We have no space to picture to your mind these departments as they should be. We can only advise you to get Upton Sinclair's “Jungle” and read it again. It tells the story of Kansas City as well as Chicago. Page Three By Deni, in Moscow Pravda, have ever been, Like all modern industry no one over 45 years of age need apply for work in the packing houses. If those around that age, who are working happen to get out of employment for a while they are sluffed off like so much refuse. Of course the compa- nies have the usual pension and sick benefit fees but these are so arranged that only the favored few reach the goal of their benefits. The outstanding fact is that the packing hofises of America, like in most every other industry, have hid- den away from the public those en- JUDGE ENGLISH'S LAWYER SAYS HE IS HONEST MAN Money Transaction Only “Gentlemen’s” Deal (Special to The Dally Worker) WASHINGTON, n. 19.—The clos- est examination of all banks with , George W. Eng- rt of Mlinois, did onal or official char lishonest trang ll, counsel for ay before ee in de impeach- Judge the ho’ fending ment ch s would show g crooked,” thing they English is the money e judge.” Money Only “Loan.” whether said Campbell evidence js that ‘broke,’ that he has not he had when he b das untrue the an employe omas, referee hat she saw sum of money Campbell denou story 1 of Gr d glish’s co Thomas divide a with Judge Eng “That story ployes in the ied by other eme e offices including Nora Montg nd D. H, Thayer, husband of G he declared, Campbell offered an explanation of an alleged advance by Thomas to Judge English of $1,435 to pay for an automobile. Me said this was an ar rangement between friends and the judge repaid the money in full ta Thomas. a mere Banker-Farmer Head of Farm Federation Denounces U. S. Budget The Chicago \ nendouaibide of the American Farm Bureau Federation yesterday announced that the recome vironments that rot the workers, and altho we.are supposed to be protected from decayed meat little care is being taken to protect the workers from being decayed men and women at ages when they should be in their prime of full manhood and woman- hood. Unrest Increases. Some day the “nice people” may learn that decaying men, spitting out their consumptive lungs are more of a menace to their welfare than de- caying meat. These underpaid, under- nourished filth environed brothers and | larger than last year, the suia foj™ sisters in toil are. murmering now, and are a growing threat to your damned smug complacency. The day will come when they will rise and throw. off your filthy rags and you along with the rags from their backs forever, set aside thruout the U. S., and a Labor Defense. The Chicago local of I. L. D. meeting on Friday evening, March 19th at the Ashland Auditorium, This demonstration will combine entertainment features—music, bolic pageant, etc.—and prominent speakers, including Bishop Wil- liam Montgomery Brown. Every effort will be made to make of this affair a great rallying of Chicago workers to the cause of labor defense. All workers are asked to reme sympathetic organizations not to arrange any conflicting affair. Reserve March 19th for International Labor Defense. To All Friendly Chicago Organizations: There has been little change since he wrote that book and we predict that when the company union reaches its | -omplete success conditions will be- come as bad or worse than they The week of March 18th (Paris Commune Day), to March 25th is mended budget for the U. S. depart ment of agriculture was a “mostrosi- ty” and declared that agricultural aides to the director of the budget were “playing politics.” The head of the “farmers” federa- tion, who is a banker of Quincy, Mlt- nois, Sam H, Thompson, denounced the budget as “seriously curtailing the work of helping farmers” by limiting the employment of county agents, up- un which county farm bureaus de- pend. Thompson is particularly arous- ed by the fact that tho the budget of the department as a whole was agricultural items is lower, Thompson's statement, coming im the midst of a crisis and just prior to the annual meeting of the Mlinois Agricultural Association at Chame paign, is expected to create a sensa- tion, I! over the world, for International® will hold a mass commemoration sym- mber and reserve this date; and all State Commerce Predominates in Union of Soviet Republics EDITOR'S NOTE:—In this instal- ment of. his address to the four- teenth .congress of the Russian Communist Party, Secretary Stalin shows the predominance of state commerce over private capitalist. commerce. He then takes up the class relations in the country. He spoke as follows: ‘ res 8S (international Press Correspondence) OSCOW, U. S. 8. R., “Dec, 18— (By Mail)—Proceeding to the question of commerce, Com. Stalin proved by statistical material—the \ predominance, of state commerce in comparison with. private capitalistic commerce. The total internal com- merce in 1923-24 was 61 per cent of the pre-war level, and in the year 1924-25 71 per cent. The growth of internal commerce is without any doubt, The share of the state in the year 1923-24 of the internal commerce was 45 per cent, the share of the co-operatives 19 per cent and the share of private capital 35 per cent, In 1924-25 the share of the state was 50 per cent,.the share of the cooperatives 24.7 per cent and the share of private capital 24.9 per cent, The share of private capital in the total is sinking whilst the shares of the state and the cooperatives are growing. ‘The same tendency also exists in . large and small trading, ‘The share of the state in large scalo trade in 1923-24 was more than 63 per cent of the whole. In the year 1924 68.9 per cent, The share of the co- has rigen from 16 per cent to 19 per cent. The share of private trade has fallen from 21 per cent to 11 per cent. The share of the state in small trading in 1923-24 amounted to 16 per cent, in 1924-25 almost to 23 per cent. The share of the co- operatives rose from 25.9 per cent to 82.9 per cent. The share of private capital fell from 57 per cent to 44.3 per cent, 4 aired amoynt of the share of the state in the provision of cereals is not growing so quickly as last year. This comes from the mistake which has been made upon this field. Not only the state organs, but also the party central committee have miscal- culated, for the latter is completely responsible. The miscalculation consisted in the fact ‘that the plan did not take into consideration the special market con- ditions and the new conditions of pro- vision, This year for the first time the Soviet state adopted a measure other that that of administrative pres- sure. The peasants and the repres- entatives of the goverment appear- ed on the market for the first time as equal factors. , The land organs intended to provide 70 per cent of the whole cereals to be provided up to January 1, 1926, They did not, however, consider that the peasant also maneuvers, that he holds back wheat for the future in expec- tation of a further rise in prices, and that he prefers in the meantime to bring less valuable cereals to the market, In this connection the plan for the provision of cereals was reconsidered, the plan for the export of cereals limited and ¢imilarly the imports plan. The new export plan must close with an at least a hundred millions, HE speaker then proceeded to a discussion of the class relations in the country and of the class activi- ties, The development of the people’s economy in the country produced a betterment in the material situation, in particular in that of the whole pro- letariat. The first dissolution of the working class has been overcome and the re- establishment and growth of ‘the working class is proceeding rapidly. This is illustrated by the following figures: On April 1, 1924, the total number of all workers, including the agricultural workers, was 5,500,000. Of this number one million were land- workers and 760,000 unemployed. On October 1, 1925, the number of wage workers was seven millions, 1,000,000 landworkers and 715,000 unemployed. This proves the undoubted growth of the working class. The average monthly wages of the industrial work- er in commodity rubles were: April 1925, 35 rubles, that is to say, 62 per cent of his pre-war wages. In September 1925, 50 rubles, that is, 95 per cent of his pre-war wages. In some branches of industry the pre- war standard of wages was overtaken. Together with the growth of wages the growth of the productivity of lar bor can also be observed. The speaker further dealt with the formation of a wages fund and a fund for social insurance, In 1924, the to- tal number of insured was 6,700,000, in 1925-26, the number is calculated at seven millions, The assistance rend- ered by the trade unions to the poor een in 1924-25 amounted to bles, including tax priv- ‘tmport ileges, to the struggle balanoe of Jagainst © the in 1924. For this ‘phrpose ‘the state budget contributed ‘@ sum of 71 millions, and apart from this, a further sum of 77 millions: for’ the struggle against drought. conditions for the im- provement ofythe material situation of the workers and the peasants are present, And parallel with them increases the political'-activity of the workers and peasants. They began to judge the mistakes of the state organs critic- ally. We are entering a period of the enlivenment of all classes and so- cial groups. This enlivenment is also present with the new bourgeoisie and their agents the rich peasants and the intellectuals, And'upon this basis the decisions of the fourteen party confer- ence upon the activisation of the So- viets, upon the concessions to the peasantry, upon the concretisation of the rent question, the question of wage labor, the material assistance for the poor in the village, the policy of the firm alliance with the middle epasantry and upon the liquidation of the remnants of war Communism, were passed. LL these decisions hed as their object the regulation of the rela- ‘tions in the village, the lifting of the authority of the proletariat and the party and the safeguarding of the firm alliance of the proletariat with the poor in the villages and with the mid- dle a coed ‘i This policy’ has proved to be com- pletely correct. With regard to the middle peasan- try, it will be recalled that the second congress of the Comintern (Commun- ist International) adopted a resolp- tion according to which the only ally of the bad harvest |ot the proletariat in the period nt 4 ‘ struggle can be the poor in the vil- lage, the middle peasantry can in the best case be neutralized. This is ap- Plicable, Lenin wrote this for the parties approaching power. We are however, a party which has obtained power, And in this consists the tre- mendous difference in the question of the peasantry. Leninism knew three basic slogans according to the three periods of the revolution. It is decisive that each slogan should fit into the correct period. When we advanced towards the bourgeois revolution, Lenin said, alliance with the whole peasantry against the czar and the large land- owners, neutralization of the liberal bourgeoisie, And with this slogan we won. In the second stage, in October, Lenin gave the new slogan out: al-) liance of the proletariat with the poor of the villages against the whole bour- geoisie and the neutralization of the middle peasantry. This is the slogan of parties which stand before the seizure of power, In the third period, after the beat- ing back of the imperialist attacks, and at the beginning of the work of socialist reconstruction, Lenin issued the third slogan: Firm alliance of the proletariat with the poor of the vil- lage and the middle peasantry, and this is the only correct slogan for the period of broad reconstruction, for socialism does not merely embrace the town. ‘ Socialism is an economic organiza- tion uniting industry and agriculture upon the basis of the socialization of the means of production. Lenin pointed this onteas early as the eighth party congress./\Those who wish to oppose this theoretical atuitude by call- ing upon the resolution of the second congress of the Comintern should say this outright. Leninism is not to be undérstood in isolated pieces, but as a whole, y RACTICALLY, the peasant ques- tion appears as follows: After the October revolution a process took plage’ involving a section of the vil-~ lage poor into the middle peasantry. The middle peasantry makes up at the moment the majority in the vil- lages. The differeftiation exists in the village, nevertheless, it proceeds slowly. The speaker made a polemic against the idea that the village poor and the rich peasants had grown nu- merically and the middle peasants strongly decreased. Just as absurd is the idea that 61 per cent of the cereal surplus is in the hands of the rich peasants, noth- ing in the hands of the village poor and the rest in the hands of the mid- dle peasantry, After the middle peas- antry, despite the differentiation, made up the majority in the village, and after the reconstruction and co- operative plans of Lenin demanded the drawing in of the masses of the peas- antry, the policy of the alliance with the middle peasantry in the N, EB, P. (New Economic Policy) is the only correct policy. The October plenum of the central committee passed de- cisions with the purpose of corrobor- ating still more the policy laid down by the fourteenth party congress. it was the task of the October ple- num to prevent a disorganization of the policy of the fourteenth party conference, as voices were loud in the party according to which the firm alliance with the middle peasantry was incorrect, inacceptable, Some declared that this policy of alliance with the middle peasantry - meant to ignore the poor of the vil- lage. That is stupid. The question of the village poor is not new, and for this reason the October plenum did not discuss it. The question of the village poor appeare solely in con- nection with the activization of the Soviets. The Soviet democracy means the leadership of the working class. The Soviet democracy under the leadership of the proletariat means that the proletariat must have its re presentatives in the village, these are the representativs of the village poor. In order to liquidate the voices men« tioned, the fourteenth party confer- ence had the task (1) to determine the means, the amount and the con- ditions of the material assistance for the village poor, (2) the slogan for the organization of special groups and fractions of the village poor to be used in a political struggle to draw over the middle peasantry and to iso late the rich peasant. Both of these tasks was carried out by Molotov thru the village commissions. The village poor is still permeated with the spirit of war Communism and the result of this is passivity, We must point out to the village poor that it is necessary to act inde-.- pendently with the help of the Com- munist Party and the state to organ- ize groups in the Soviets, in the co operatives and peasant committees and to work there, and fight against the rich peasants. Nevertheless, not thru administrative pressure, but thru @ political struggle, se 6 NOTE—The speaker then proceeds in concluding to enumerate the vart ous digressions with regard e the question of the peasantry,