The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 20, 1926, Page 14

and, The inevitable rapid cultural growth of the Soviet Union and the urgency of inereased work in the fields of science and fine arts in order to vanquish capi- talism. By M. J. KALININ, President of the Central Committee of the Republics. , (Translated by M. Mishkts:). of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics are behind Western Europe in science, in production and in everyday life. In their ordinary life the workers of Western Europe are better off than the Russian workers. The western workers have better houses, better furniture, better clothing and, besides that, their everyday cultural life is higher than that of the Russian work- ers, ; Only in the field of fine arts Russia has always been to a certain degree ahead of Western Europe. In. the past the fine arts were separated from the masses and served the interests of the ruling class. The nobles and the capitalists had their requirements, their things have been arranged cordance with these modes, modes,—and in ac- the population only. The cultural life of the old Russia was quite primitive and easily satisfied. The present Russian art has to re- flect the spirit of the people and to express its creative genius. This is much harder. It. is not enough now to adapt art to the more or less primitive require- ments of the “upper class.” It has to reflect. the basic characters of the Russian people. Quantity Changes Into Quality. The Russian people is numerous cording to the teaching of Karl Marx, “the quantity* determines. the quality. Let us take for an example a small brook and a large river. The difference between them is only in quantity,—the brook has little water and the large river plenty of it, How ever, no brook impresses us so force- fully as a large river. The sea makes a still stronger im- pression than the large river. So we see that the quantity determines the quality. The same thing is noticable also in the everyday life. The cultural needs, the cultural re- quirements of a great people are great. And no matter how the Russian people were enslaved in the past by the chains of czardom, it still counted in its ranks a considerably greater number of artists than some cultural western country. Let us take for an example Sweden. In the past, as well as at present, Sweden is culturally much higher than Russia. But Sweden had pro- portionately much less of talent than Russia had. F I am saying this, not in order to boast the talents of the Russian peo- ple, but to show that the Russian art must be a model for others. The Artist’s Task, Russian art has now a harder time. Before this the art had to satisfy the requirements of a thin stratum © In art must pulsate the life of the masses, the artist is the pulse of life. In accordance with this the work of the Russian artist must reflect the will and the aspirations of a great multi- millioned country. The fine arts of painting, of model- ling and of music reflect particularly the spirit of the people. We aspire to teach others, we aspire to produce works of art, and if that is the case, we have to produce them so that they should correspond to the state of mind and the spirit of our people. This is a very difficult task. Many of us think that the “toys” patronized by the czarist absolutism have to be broken up now, and that instead of them we have to produte surgical instruments and equipment for hospitals. But this is a wrong idea. The object of taking over the gov- The Soviet Union is Cat Union of Socialist Soviet * | a corresponding way of life, are ernmental power into the hands of the workers and farmers was not the con- verting of the people into stupid ma- chinery. The workers’ and farmers’ government was formed in order to sonvert the downtrodden and ignorant masses into a cultural people, Of course, a corresponding educa- tion (not only a school educaticn, as this alone will not accomplish much), required, When the worker’s economic condi- tion will be more or less secure he will buy beautiful cups, a demand will arise for beautiful articles, I think that economic security will Se reached in about two or three years. Obviously, then will also arise the demand for fine arts, The people will demand: “You, art and science! You beautified the life of the ruling classes for two hundred years. Try now to satisfy the artistic taste of us, the Russian people.” These are demands we’ll make up- on art. *~ - Let us pass now to science. In Russia science is undoubtedly behind. Surely Russia is not ahead of Western Europe. But I think that within five or ten years Russia must be, if not ahead, hen at least on the same line with Vestern Europe. Russia must advance in science, otherwise she'll be strangled. As a matter of fact the capitalist ountries are culturally worn out. The capitalist world cannot give anything new, But we are the new society, maybe »nly primitive at present 4s compared vith the capitalist society, but still ours is the new one. Lessons of History. In history it often happened that the old culture was destroyed by new, often a barbarian, culture, Let us ake the Roman empire: It was van- quished by the Germans. The latter were in a lower cultural state than ‘he Romans. But’thesGermatis were the bearérs of a new social order, of a new historical revival, and Rome was disintergrating. The old capitalistic society is at present disintergrating and we are growing. But in order to grow we have to be strong also in science, This is our task at the present mo- ment, , I am of the opinion that there is no disgrace for us in accepting the help of another country. We have“to get ‘he initial help of the western-scien- tists, but we have to advance farther .ndependently, The foreign countries helped us out for two hundred years, since the time of Peter the Great, but still we are behind. ‘ We have reached a moment when the revolution is pushing us to catch up with western scientists. It seems to me that everyone of us must make it his task, must determine for himself: “I must improve to such a degree as to be on an equal level with the best European workmen.” A clash between the capitalistic so- ciety and the new society is possible in the near future. But Russia, cannot win if it remains behind in technique. If the, Russian binoculars are to be inferior to the German binoculars, if the Rusian aeroplane it to be inferior to the French one—then Russia can- not win. Russia must be ahead of other coun- tries in science. Russia must be ahead of everybody, not in words but in reality. We must show that the Russian farmer and the Russian worker took the government angel in tfeir hands not for the fun of it.« We destroyed absolutism and the class of nobility and now we must jus- tify ourselves historically and must fulfill our obligations to mankind. We actually want to build up a new so- clety and to liberate the workers and farmers from slavery. Now every worker must not only do the work, must not do it mechanically, but must put into it all of his intelli- gence, his feelings, ami all his energy. ching Up With the West Wake Up! “ Get the victims of the class struggle out of prison. A working class that willingly permits its fighters to be picked off and imprisoned by the enemy, cannot emancipate itself. New Slant on the Rubber Controversy By Sylvan A. Pollack. IVING “a new slant to the question of rubber, which at the present time is the basis for a great deal of discussion, Congressman Ashton C. Schallenberger, democrat, from Ne- braska, denies the theory advanced by the’ Seeretary- of commerce, Herbert Hoover, that it is due to a monopoly on that product by British interests that the price has been advanced, Ac- cording to his opinion, which will be the basis of a congressional investi- gation to be pressed by him, the high prices demanded for rubber products in this country are not due to the British rubber growers raising the prices, but are a result of exorbitant prices charged by American manufac- turers who purchase the raw material from Britain. Apparently -the democrats are afraid that the political prestige of Hoover will be too much advanced as a result of the rubber controversy, and as a result we have an opportun- ity of hearing some very interesting figures, which Congressman Schallen- berger puts before us. Posing as the defender and protec- tor of the “people,” Schallenberger says: “Why should we not investigate the real profiteers to protect the Ameri- can consumer? We have had a mil- lion yells about foreign controls “but not one word against American pro- fiteers and manufacturers of adulter- ated tires.” ~ “I wonder if the secretary of com- merce reads his own publication,” he said, “The monthly summary of for- eign commerce for November last gives the actual figures of the amount of rubber imported into this country in 1925 and the price for the eleven months of 1925, and the entire amount of rubber imported was 798,000,000 pounds, the entire cost $364,649,144 and not $700,000,000. The remarks of Secretary Hoover to our committee were based upon the idea that the cost of rubber to the American peo- ple amounted to the enormous sum of $700,000,000 last year. Mr, Hoover said the public had been saved $250,- 000,000 by a drop in the price of rub- ber from $1.10 to 85 Gents because of his efforts to lower it.” Congressman Schallenberger denies that the price ever went to a dollar. We are builders of the new society.| “An investigation by our commtt- tee,” he asserts, “has brought out the fact that the Englishmen are not the only pirates in the rubber field. It has been developed that the great rub- ber manufacturers here buy their rub- ber in London, New York, or the East Indies on contract for long periods in advance of actual use, soi that the average contract cost of rubber used by the great tire makers in America has been below fifty cents instead of the high price quoted by Secretary Hoover in the public press. “Therg is no doubt that rubber is selling at a high price—a price con- trolled by a foreign monopoly—but the investigation-has already brought out that it is the American public and not the tire manufacturers that have een given the hot end of the poker. “The big tire companies all show the greatest net proftts for 1925 of any years in their history,” Schallen- berg added. “The Fisk company in 1925 more than doubled their previous profits; Goodrich netted fifteen mil- lion, Firestone reported earnings of $13,000,000 or net earnings of 26 per cent on fifty millions of stock. Unit- ed Rubber, the biggest of them all, shows earnings of 25 per cent, “There is about ten pounds of crude rubber in the average standard tire, according to testimony before the committee. The British control has advanced the average price of that rubber fifty cents a pound for this data. ‘That accounts for five dollars of the advance in the cost of making the tire, but a 33 by 6 Goodrich bal- loon tire and tube that cost $30 be- fore-the rubber advance now costs $54 in the Washington market, or an ad- vance to the American buyer of $24. “We have found out that the Eng- lishman got the $5, but who got the rest of the $24? It seems to me that instead of investigating English rub- ber we had better get after the Ameri- can rubber.” Thus we see the beginning of a merry little war starting in Washing- ton. The democratic party will not allow the Coolidge administration to pose as the only friends of the auto- mobile owners, for that would react on their political ambitions, so we see them (the democratics) advancing the ideas quoted above from Congress- man Schallenberger’s interview. It will be worth while to watch for the next*developments in thig inter- esting controversy,