The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 7, 1927, Page 3

Letter from Commune ‘Seyatel’ Following is a personal lett tural Commune “Seyatel,” Tselina, Union of Socialist Soviet Re- publics, The comrade who, received it asks that it be published in the workers’ press. * * * DEAR FRIEND: I have been for some time thinking of writing to you about the life ahd operations of this commune. To go into all of the details of the history of the past five years would require too much time and patience, so you will have to be content to hear only a short outline. The Commune’s first group arrived in the fall of 1922. It consisted of 85, of these 60 were men. In 1923 the membership grew to 121. In 1924 it inereased to 142. In 1925 it went up to 167. In 1926 the total was 204, All of these people, excepting a very few, have come from America, At present, 20 per cent of our members are Russian speaking, the rest being Finnish speaking. We have about 100 able-bodied men at present. The turnover of members has been such that about % of all that have come here have left, some going back to America, some to Finland, others have stayed in Russia. Good Black Earth. The land we have under our control consists of 18,000 acres of nearly level black soil, praiie tillable land with fairly good waters at the center. Also creek at both ends, with a rail- road crossing the strip. This land lies in 14 km. long and 3% km. wide. It is 12 km. to the nearest railroad station. We have our buildings in two places. At the southern end the ereek is dammed up. We use the water to irrigate our garden. Here we also have our hog industry, with a new 310 ft. long 26 ft. wide modern concrete hog house with double story kitchen in the middle. The place at the southern end is the remains of 2 former landlord’s place of residence. but hardly any of the buildings have escaped the civil war destruction. The new place is about the center of the land, one km. from the railroad. Here we have our headquarters, office, machine and blacksmith shop, car- penter shop and grainery. These buildings are almost al! concrete con- structions. The capital has been formed as fol- lows: in 1923--171,534r48n; in 1924-— 177,477r56k; in 1925—277,808r38k; in 1926—331,932r01k. (one ruble equal to 50 cents). The capital is divided as follows: Fundamental or undividable P| Reape ee rhe arses 68,178r15k From membership dues, capital .- 138,979.64 Outside capital . « 17,149.17 Reserve capital ++. 55,126.81 Operating capital from POMBE... ski. ysd cawafe 87,007.15 Operating capital from out- Me ice tins ear 2 15,508.09 Machinery is brought from Ameri- ca.- Tractor horsepower has increased in the following way. In 1922, 3 Fordsons; in 1928, 7 tractors with total horsepower of 280; in 1924, 7 with HP. of 280; in 1925, 11 with HP. of 320; in 1926, 13 with HP. of 460; in 1927, 17 with HP. 540. All tractors are from America except two 50 HP. caterpillar tractors bought here. More Machinery. Other farm machinery has increased accordingly. At present we have four threshing machines. Three are 36x 60 size and 1 is 24x40. The larger threshers are capable of threshing 1,500 bushels of wheat per day. We have 12, 8 ft. ent and 4, 6 ft. cut grain binders. Bicht drills or seed- ing machines. total width 77ft., can- able of seeding 250 acres per dav. ‘We have 48, 14” plow bottoms capable of plowing abont 160 acres per dav. We have six double disks which do not qitite fulfill our requirement. Of per tooth harrows we have twenty capable of harrowing 250 acres per day. We have 40 wagons. The heavy tyne have a cavacity of 5 tons, and 10 have grain tanks with a canacitv A. Rave Pamphlet ByLENIN | real good fortune we | e been able to pur- | e the only remaining f this little booklet nin, right after the No more are in print. Before these are sold out, we ask every worker who does not own a copy to secure one, ' 10 CENTS Other Books by Le ON CO-OPERATIVES STATE AND OLUTION ON THE ROAD TO INSURRECTION IMPERIALISM — Final stage of enpitalism 00 ON ORGANIZATION (Cloth) 1.50 8.05, —25 The Daily Worker Pub, Co. 38 First Street New York’ er from a worker in the Agricul- of 126 bushels, Of stationary motors | we have 2, 9 HP, semi-disel; 2, 3 HP. |gas motors; 1, 2% HP. gas motors and two lighting dynamos, one is 40 amp., 220 volts, and the other one is 15 amp., 220 volts. Two Letz feed | grinders; one Homemade busket grain |elevator, windmill pump and garden | irrigation pump. The carpenter shop is 30x50 with machinery. One single spindle shap- per, 1, 24” jointer, 1 combination saw table with boring attachment; 1, 36” band saw; 1 circle saw stand. For cleaning grain we have one Marshal Fields large motor driven fanning mill, three hand turned fanning mills and one Carters dise special seed grading machine. In the shoemaker shop we have a Landis’s heavy duty sole stitcher, and large size finisher. Also a singer shoemaker sewing machine. We use concrete mixing machine and block machine, two delaval cream separa- tors. Farm Machine Shop. To keep all these in running order we have a combination machine and blacksmith shop building 40x100. The blacksmith .shop side has three fires. drill press and emery grinder and other necessary small tool. The machine shop side has a storage room for spare parts, their value at pres- ent is about 30,000 r. Machine shop machinery consists of a lathe, drill press, shanver, and emery wheel, be- sides all kihds of small tool. This machine shoo is under reconstruc- tion to be enlarged. More machinery will be installed to take care of not anly our own renair work, but for the rapidly machinerized vicinity. Our Field Cultures. | In 1928 we had under cultivation about 900 acres, in 1924, 3200 acres: in 1925, 5000 acres; in 1926, 5000 acres; and our plan for 1927 is about 6,000 acres, Our field cultures this year will be as follows; under winter wheat (this is very promising) 2,400 jacres; for spring wheat (how being seeded) 1,600 acres; oats 640 acres; | barley 240 acres; corn 500 acres, and also other small cultures, |. Our average yield of winter wheat has been 77 poods per hectare for the last three years, The average yield of oats for the last three years has been .140 poods per hectare. Corn yielded- on the average for three years 124 poods per hectare. The net profits from our fields have been: in 1924, 15,470r86K; in 1925, 59,961.- 00; in 1926, 26,849.62. Then about our livestock. In 1922 we had 12 head of cattle; in 1923, 35 head; in 1924, 80 head; in 1925, 138 head; and in 1926, 200 head. Of these 45 are Red German milk cows weigh- ing on the average of 1000 pounds per head and producing about 10,000 pounds of milk a year per head with- out up to date equipment. The out- look for the dairy business is very good, therefore we have a three year plan of building a modern dairy barn for two hundred milk cows. The barn will be built in three sections. In the future we intend to bring the number of ‘milk cows to 600 head or more. Our cattle branch of the live stock department brought us over 2000 rubles of net profit. Our nog branch in 1928 consisted of 15 head; in 1924 of 108 head; in 1925 of 244 head and in 1926, 732 head. Most of these are pure bred English York- shires and are very profitable, net- ting last year over 12,000 rubles. Of sheep we have 420 head, one half of which are Spanish Marino breed. The twenty horses we have are used only for light hauling and saddle, no field work being done with them. of poultry we have a thousand head in all, The Soviet. The managing personnel is made of seven members in the soviet and its chairman, whose duties are those of a manager. Each department head leads his department and also attends all of the meetings of the Soviet. The Revision or Control Committee is made up of three members who meet once a month to audit all of the books, they also attend the meetings of the soviet whenever possible. All of the officials are elected at the yearly meeting for one year terms. Close records ate kept of each de- partment separately, and then of the commune as a whole. All of our of- ficial wotk is done by workers, we do! not have any intelligentsia (with higher education. We have tried to keep our labor efficiency close up to} the American standard which aec- counts for our rapid rise. The Peasants Come. For social life we have entertain- ments every Saturday night con- sisting of plays, moving pictures, radio, Age! and music by our own band, e neighboring peasantry at- tend these entertainments in great numbers, making our place a center of their social gatherings. Big Government Farm. Oor biggest neighbor is a govern- ment “Soyhos” with aboot 120,000 acres of land. They are also mechan- izing. At present they are using 50 tractors for their field work. Their ineome from sheep alone amounted to 250,000 rubles last year. Then near our station there is a large number of so-called Molacans and Duhabors, of whom some have come from America. They devote their atten- tion most to dairying. The famous German Krupp has a concession 90 east of us, where we visit quite often. They also practice machine farming. In compari man and America: tvih mi .@ THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 1927 Our Letter from Australia Aids Aviators Uollege Park, ‘Md., has the first radio beacon for use of civilian aviators. This apparatus used to guide planes by radio is a forerunner of 40 other similar beacons to be established at 200- mile intervals along the 8,234 milés of civil airways. Dr. George K. Burgess, director of the U. S, Bureau of Standards has his hand on the control. as a whole the American holds the lead by far. We also pay visits to the Esthonian-American Commune Kolt and Commune Pioneer, formerly | the Commune California. The dis-| trict capitol, Salsk, is 34 km. from| our place. It is situated at the junc- tion of two railroads. The streets have been paved recently and a num- ber of modern buildings have been built already and more going up. This is where our children attend high school. Four years ago our home| station Tzelina, did not have any| other than the station buildings, but now it is a village with a new hospi- tal, school house, clubs, grain eleva- tor, government official buildings and a population of a few thousand souls. In schooling the children at home we have two teachers for elementary grades, Only By Workers’ Rule. All these attainments have been} possible, only by the rapid rise of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Soviet | Government for in its short history it has gained political and industrial importance among the world’s great powers, Our Commune’s progress in agri- culture is yet quite small. New coun- try, new language, unfamiliar cli- mate, and added to this we had to teach ourselves the use of modern agricultural machinery for we lacked previous experience. Also the ar- ranging of the managing part was hard for there were no forms to fit our kind of an organization. But despite all mistakes and obstacles that were sometimes almost melo- dramatic, we can write on the profit side the experiences of the past years and a firm organization with a sound foundation, our fields for the first time #f the best condition, our livestock well started, machine shops were we can teach our young men the Page Three Dime Novelist, Very Pious, WELLINGTON, New Zealand.— Objection has been taken to the ac-| which seem to demonstrate that the|fend this outpost of labor’s struggle | Union, g tion of Zane Gray, the prominent American novelist and writer-—who at | present is enjoying an extended fish ing excursion in New Zealand-—in is suing propaganda on behalf of the New Zealand Bible-in-the-Schools Propaganda Committee. | Gray says he is of the opinion that the Bible should be in every school, that it is in all schools in the United States, that it has a beneficial effect on the minds of all young people in! the United States, and that U. S. judges are almost unanimous in the opinion that lack of religious train- ing in the homes is largely responsible | for juvenile delinquency. The New Zealand labor press ad- vises Gray to stick to his rods and lines and not poke his nose into other people’s business, particularly in a country where he is getting his pet sport, free gratis! Pauperize Unemployed. According to a statement made by Prime Minister Coates, the New Zealand government can find work for the unemployed only ona pauper- ization scale. Coates has, announced that the government is prepared to find work for the unemployed at $2.16 per day for single men, and $2.88 per day for married men. These rates are from 64 cents to $1.36 below the minimum basic rate declared by the| arbitration court to be absolutely} necessary to ensure an “existence of frugal comfort.” If this sort of thing becomes gen- eral, it won’t be very long before the eniployers will want the general wage mec reduced to the pauper level. Iready many are demanding that if the men are willing to work for the} government at these rates, they can wotk for employers at the same rates. | In the majority of cases, the unem- | ploved are indignantly refusing to ac-| cept pauper rates. The N. Z. Labor) Party has issued a vigorous protest | aytainst this move to break down the/| living wage for the workers. * * * The Land Myth. SYDNEY, Australia—One of the tricks employed to induce immigrants to leave Britain for Australia is that there is plenty of land for then on which they can soon become prosper- | ous farmers and get rich quick, But) in Australia things are not what they seem to be froii afar. In the state of New South Wales last year, 57 farm blocks were offered to farmers, | and for these no less than 14,402 en- tered the ballots to see who would get the areas. That Seems to be fairly conclusive proof that there is not plenty of farm land available for im- migrants, or that the land is waiting | for them to walk onto it and start farming.’ Incidentally, it also ex-| plains why the great majority of the} immigrants who come to Australia finally end up in the bread line. Want New Basic Wage. | There is 4 great deal of dissatisfac-, tion among the workers of New South | Wales because the labor government | of that state failed to bring down a} new basic wage this year in accord-| ance with the cost of living. The last | basie wage was declared in August, 1925, at $20.16 per week and since! then it has remained unchanged. al-| though the increase in the cost of liv. | ing warrants an addition of $2.88 per | week. Because of the non-declaration of a new basic wage, it is estimated that the workers of the state are los- ing $1,250,000 per week—-that is the individual loss of $2.88 per week. On the other hand, the government has brought down an endowment scheme, to come into operation when use and care of machinery and tools, etc., in all lines. Still we lack some- the next basic wage declaration is made. Under this scheme, a payment thing, and that is man power—young|of $1.25 per week is to be made for energetic men that want to learn the|each child ander 14 years of age, pro- use of machinery, for with machinery | viding the wage of the parent is be-| in all lines farm work becomes as pleasant as any other industry. Some over there may sometimes think that we are not weil off here, but experience has taught that there is really something worth while in this new life. With best regards to all the old ac- quaintances, I remain Your Childhood Friend, B..1. American, British Looters Sorry for. Sheffield Failure low a figure equal to the basic wage | plus the $1.25 per child. By this) means many children are excluded from the scheme. As the average wage in New South Wales is $23.28 per week, the endowment does not be- gin to operate till the fourth child. | The scheme is not considered a satis: | factory one, though the principle of endowmént is established. * * * Cheap State Housing. ADELAIDE, South Australia —| When Labor took over the govern-| ment of the State of South Australia| three years ago it was estimated there was a shortage of 5000 homes. Since} then Labor has built 4149 homes for! the ‘workers in or near the city of| Adelaide and a further 250 in country | towns, These have been handed over to the workers on deposits of $125/ MEXICO CITY, June 6.—United States Ambassador James R. Shef- field was given a farewell last night by members of the American and British colonies when he left for the United States. Ambassador Sheffield insists that his trip to the United States is mere- ly a vacation, but the reports of his resignation persist. Sheffield was so unfortunate as to permit President Calles of Mexico to obtain letters from Sheffield’s su- periors in the United States, order- ing him in effect to work for the downfall of Calles and his replace- ment by some more conservative leader, more likely to take orders from American oil companies. Coolidge to Back Slap Farmer. WASHINGTON, June 6.—All doubt that President Coolidge is go- ing to establish the summer white house in the black hills of South Da- kota disappeared t and small weekly payments of $4.44 per week to liquidate the cost of the| homes. Workers with large families get preference in the purchasing of | the houses, All houses have been built | by day labor under a mass production | scheme, at an average cost of around! $3250, and the workers are purchas-| ing them at the rate of $4.44 per week. | ¢ 4 | Hop Fields Exploitation. j HOBART, Tasmania——Perhaps the | most ‘shameless of all exploiters in, Australia are those who derive their profits from the underpaid labor of | men, women, and little children. | The picking is done on the piece- work system. For hops the picker gets $1.68 per 100 lbs, and for fruit berriés, the pay is $1.92 per 100 Ibs, The average picker can average, pver the season, about 75 lbs. per day and a working day in the fields is anything from 12 to 14 hours, The huts that ‘Reiger bi workers during the season re e most deplorable condition, Bhe et aiid cold. Many Gt thon ° are used as cattle smelters when the hop and fruit seasons are closed, empl rs think no more of their hu- ma ves than they do the beasts of the field. There are no sanitary ar. ‘angements, and males and females are forced to mix together. * ‘ * Inspect Milk. SYDNEY, Australia.-The Labor Government in the State of New South Wales has placed into operation a law controlling the handling and distribu- | ~ PLANES OF U.S, $.R, AMONG BEST (Continued from Page One) {all is the huge emblem of the Soviet the crossed Hammer and |for world victory. Sickle, with the Rising Sun of the | Voroshiloff enters at length into} ocial Ofder as the background, |the discussion of the strength of the |the symbol of their unity. | Red Army and one finds a few fleet Suddenly ¢ ve ot d ap- ing moments to look around. Michael determined as- Kalinin, the president of the Union for the peoples of Soviet Republics is quite con sixth of the eatth’s spicuous in the midst of the sidium, as is Alexis Rykoff, the iet Premier. There is Molatov, secre tary of the Central Committee of the Voroshiloff was de- we must always tion of milk in the metropolitan area} Communist Party of the Soviet Union |. i hay 3h At of the city of Sydney. A board, rep-|and near him is Uglanov, secretary ts Per gah rey resenting the farmers and consumers|0f the Moscow Committee of the world, ay regulates supply and distribution, and| Party. Ordjonokidze, chairman of oniy-.artene fixes prices. The board also has pow-| the central control comm on of the | | AD er tosacquire or resume the undertak- | Party, is also pointed « rith Ei ing of any wholesale or retail milk | unek secretary of the Executive | mh. cong vendor, to license vendors to distrib- | Committ of the All-Union Soviets. | 4, the Voro- ute milk on its behalf, and to conduct | Lunacharsky, the people’s com t | shiloff pointed out t he Red Fleet depots or shops for the distribution of ed: n. watches the proceed-| .nich was at one time the moat baék- and sale of milk, milk products. ice, ings intently, as does Skrypnik, the ward section of the Un defense, and other foodstuffs, It can establish | People’s Commissar of Education for wae pow conside well de- laboratories for the purpose of re- search work, and may prohibit the use of what appears to be unhealthy or unwholesome milk, * * * Strike Fails. BRISBANE, Queensland.—The strike by the building trades workers for a 40-hour week has collapsed and the men have resumed work on a 44- hour week basis. At the beginning of the strike there was plenty of sup- port for the men, but enthusiasm soon died away, and the men had no other option but to give up the fight. Big Ships Can Enter Port of Leningrad Due To Improvements Made LENINGRAD, June 6.—The Lenin- grad port has increased its capacity considerably, The sea channel has been deepened to thirty-one feet over half of its length, and the number of moorings has been increased to 62, Large ocean ships can now enter the port directly. Tsar’s Family Furs to Be Placed on Sale Soon LENINGRAD, June 6.—Valuable furs having formerly belonged to the empress and actually being kept in the museum palaces at Detskoie Selo and Pavlovsk are shortly to be sold publicly. Several coats and cloaks of sable, silver fox and beaver have been selected for the purpose. All these furs have been preserved in excellent condition. Diseuss Oil Crisis. Oil operators in the Seminole field are meeting here in the Standard Oil offices today to discuss the over-pro- duction in Oklahoma. While the big joperators are anxious to contrive some method to limit production, many of the independents threaten court action if limitation “in restraint of trade” is attempted. the Ukraine, from the box that was hiss: veloped. is “no once reserved for the czar’s ill-fated oy tle Sane z little force,’ premier, Sto! , Nocag ted Heated wei dager Applause greeted the declara- every Wearing tiene OF” | Hon that the development ders of the Red Flag, who cleared ; teat ‘ Yi oping its tech- Siberia of the white terror armies. heli gh Age has caught some of the lead- piloniie ite ¢ is also de- ers of the revolution like Midzachaya,| “14. soncluded “The Red Ary chairman of the Council of People’s |;. teen of the fe | bonecee ae Commissars of the Georgian Soviet SES Be nd pehiewie ” Republic, and Felix Kon, the Polish 7 a | Revolutionist, chairman of the So- oroshiloff |eiety of Former Polish Prisoners jand Exiles, who followed in the wake » Congr the crew of the presented by “Avrora” Ree Wa Ge toward | with a beautiful dupl 1 a good- ltionary ‘comtnittess in thts new terri, {sized model of their ship that played eee eras ant part in the revolution- ee ‘ ‘ a of 1917, coming up the Rudonny, the famous Red Cavalry | \; nelling’ tis i : ; . ningrad, | leader is there, as is Peterson, Com- u | mandant of the Kremlin. In fact the ‘° | entire front row of the second gallery of this State Opera House was oc- sina pach: | cupied by Red Army representatives. ee eg snag eA | There is Petrovaky, the president of Taningede were re: |Soviet Ukraine, and Belenke, the) ooaker from the | Commandant of the G. P. U., the po- Pee | litical Department of the State De- = | hosts of Speake partment, of Justicg: tudes listening all All Nationalities. \its environs, Speakers from organizations the Red Union. Reso- :pledged their t ¢ x ) bec e Among the delegates themselves | were broadcasted in fu ene can easily pick out the spokes-| The congress ended \ the elecs men’ of the various and numerous|tion of a Central I itive Com- |nationalities that exist within the | borders of the Soviet Union. This is} |the Fourth All-Union -congress fol-| lowing the 13th All-Russian Congress | | with the reorganization of the Soviet |State in 1923. Seventy per cent of mittee that chose a presidium of 27 members, headed by six presidents, Michael Kalinin, G y Petrovsky, Alexander Trherv Gasabekoff, Netirbaj Deysulla Khodgaeff. The co | these delegates are members of the |approved the composition of the |Communist Party. Thirty per cent |Council of People’s Commissars as |ere non-Party members. We had ar- |follows: President, Alexis Rykoff; | rived at the Bolshoy theater while the |Foreign Minister, George Tchitcher- Party fraction was holding its ecau-|in; War, Clement Voroshiloff; Com- cus. The non-Party delegates were | munications, Jan Rudshutak; Posts ,also meeting. Mutual representatives |and Telegraphs, Ivan Smirnoff; Pik |from both groups then meet together |nance, Nicholas Brukhanoff; Com- |for common agreement. |merce, A. I. Mikojan; Labor, Basil | The women delegates are the most |Shmidt; Workers and Peasants, Gre- noticeable. Most of them wear head-| gory Ordjonikidse; Chairman Econo- | cloths of various colors, white, black, | mic Council, Valeria Konibisheff, and red or gray. Men delegates can also | Director of Statistics, Valerian Os- be distinguished by their headwear, |sinski—Another congress has passed. the Tartars, Bashkirs and Kirghiz es- |It had witnessed the Soviet Union | pecially, to mention only a few. Over ‘stronger than ever. A Chance to Visit SOVIET RUSSIA Yn Ae Seven Weeks’ Trip JULY 14 to LABOR DAY > A round trip on modern steamers of the Swedish American Line, equipped with every up-to-date convenience. Three Weeks Stay in Russia, visiting all the places of in- terest—public buildings, factories, work- ers’ clubs, theatres, etc. A CHANCE OF A LIFE-TIME PRICE FOR ENTIRE TRIP $575.00 Inquire Now at the WORLD “TOO RPEZS ING, 41 Union Square, New York City Bip ee iodine i i