The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 1, 1927, Page 6

Page Six t } How the U.S.S.R. Builds Up Its Industry ' The world capita’ Democratic press and Socialist cial Democratic press to mix itself up| been paying/ with statistical calculations, it is not} considerable attention lately to the| in its interest to study the fundamental | economic problems of the Soviet! figures of the economic plan for the| Union. But one must say that the| current year, it is not in its interest Manner in which an attempt is made| even to have anything to do with an to throw light on these problems is| analysis of the figures of the past! rather peculiar. | 19: business year. It is much} This press does not want to go be-}in its interest to limit itself to gen- yond the limits of generalizations,—! eralizations about sources of accumu- it certainly does not want to take as! lation, relations between the working | its authority the conccete figures on!class and the peasantry, in order to the basis of which the public opinion| make, on the basis of these general- of the Soviet Union express itself on|izations deductions concerning the all fundamental questions of economic | impossibility of Socialist construction construction: questions of the econ-}in one country. ... But we will deal omie plan for the current somewhat more thoroughly with the even problems of the prospective} published figures and material and plan for five years ahead. Such| will give prominance to a few funda- peculiar methods when dealing with| mental questions. | the economic questions of the Soviet | For Electrification. | Union are very suspicious. | As already mentioned, the Govern-| Ignore Figures. | ment of the U.S.S.R. endorsed an ex-| Tt’ is of course splendid that the! penditure of 1,100,000 million roubles | Socialist and bourgeois press evinces|in the current year for the develop- @uch interest in questions concerning} ment of industry including electrical the industrialization of the Soviet} construction. A few days ago, a sup- Union, sources of accumulation, etc.| plementary decision of the Soviet of But it is certainly not to be com-|the People’s Commissars of the Union mended that in connection with this,! was published, giving details re ex-} res all concrete and | penditure for basic construction in in-| that for , Wheh| dustry and also fundamental direc-| discussing sources of accumulation| tions concerning the realization of | in general, it does not consider it|this plan. For a proper apprecia-| Necessary to say a word about the} tion of this plan of basic construc-| most important economic document] tion the most important question is of recent da —about the combined} of course that of its reality, that of production and financial plan for the|the real sources of financing this industry of the U.S.S.R. in 1926-27 plan. Without going into a more de- Why not tell inquisitive West-| tailed appreciation, we will quote the European readers that the Soviet| following interesting figures. Government endorsed an expenditure Product Increased. of 1,100,000 roubles for the develop- It seems that the profits of the ment of industry (together with]|industry and amortization increased electrical construction)? Why not|in the following manner: In 1923-24, disclose the ‘ce for which this cer-| 268 million roubles; in 1924-25, 585 tainly considerable basic construction | million roubles, in 1925-26, 802 mill- is being financed? The bourgeois|ion roubles, and the estimated in- and Social-Democratie press, looking] crease in 1926-27 is over 900 million | very wise, throws aside accumulation] roubles. Such are the “insignificant” within industry a negligible factot | figures concerning the sources of the in the industrialization of the Soviet} financing of basic construction which Union. the capitalist and Social Democratic ‘ But why not to analyze in all| press consider “in all good con- seriousness, for instance, the sup-| science” justified to ignore. | positions on which the five years’ We have no reason to think that it plan is b 1, according to which] will be impossible to carry out the | capital expenditure in industry is) proposed plan. The development of | estimated at 7 billion roubles, covered by three billion roubles profits of the industry itself, 2.6 billion roubles amortization deductions and only 1.5 billion roubles drawn from the State budget? The fact is that it is not in the interest of the bourgeois and So- {the entire economy and industry of | \the U.S.S.R. which was, generally speaking, normal in the first four months of the new business year, en- titles us to assume that the proposed | plans do not exceed the economic pos- ; sibilities of our country. LETTERS FROM OUR READERS Tron and Bronze Union. ist gallery. What were so many em- Editor, Daily Worker: | missaries sent for? Perhaps to in-| The building industry is now pass- quire after the good health of Chang) ing from a phase of prosperity to a Tso-lin? ” P slowing down stage. The prime rea-! By his own confession, Chiang son for the present state of affairs in| Kai-shek is not following the policies the building trade is as certain ai | ale down by Dr. Sun Yet-sen at the thorities declare, that the sharp de-| time of his death, but in order to mand for new buildings is no longer Compromise with the imperialists and existing. But whatever the reasons | ‘© bid for the support of the Chinese may be the result is that a great| bourgeoisie, he has adopted Dr. Sun’s number of building trade workers are |moderate policy of ten years ago. > 2 1 — $ Dr. Sun, like all great revolutionists, ; peeeploved. 5 4 grew and develbped with every day The building trade bo: = ; ) Be titae of the: opportin | that he lived; his growth was never ' by the dullness in the trade, are pre- arrested. He constantly shaped his Tete dete ee Tai ne atte Ad attains policies to the need of the time and : aati ii nae aoe ih eee ‘in the interests of the oppressed j The. eae ye: Paeiies Workers’ | (14sses of the population. He was | always for the complete emancipation of the Chinese people from the yoke of foggign imperialism. The slogan whicllhe pronounced before his death | was “Down with Imperialism!”} Chiang, in enumerating his policies, | did not say a word about imperialism; | instead, he talked about the “crush- ing of militarism in China, the unity | of the country (presumably under his} dictatorship), and the complete but gradual revision of all unjust and all unequal treaties and concessions with foreigners.” Even the word “im- perialism” is dropped from his pro- gram! Dr. Sun advocated the com- plete abolition of the unequal treaties at the earliest possible moment; | Chiang meekly murmurs a few words about “revision.” Chiang Kai-shek is not a follower of Dr. Sun Yet-sen, but the agent of the imperialists in their policy of disrupting and destroying the Chi- nese revolution.—Ch’ao-Ting Chi, San Editor, The DAILY WORKER: __| Francisco, Cal. Chang Kai-shek, with the stamp of | Mussolini on his back, has draped | i himself in ‘i brilliant robe ‘of liberal- neat Hid fee . XY. Frivate Nurses v 0 x ism, and is carrying’on an ardent i flirtation with the imperialists. In AY this week’s Sunday issue of the | NEW YORK, June 30. (FP)—Pay % Hearst _papers there is an article for organized trained nurses in pri-| nurporting to be written by this re-|yate duty is being standardized in negade General, but to the discern- | New York. The Associated Registry ing eye it is evidently the effusion of |Group, controlling about half the an experienced but unusually clumsy | nurses, is responsible. It includes lg publicity agent. i 7 nurses from training schools of the What right has Chiang-Kai-shek to | city’s large hospitals,—over 3000 in .. speak for the Nanking Government, | a)), except as its Dictator? In spite of 24-h duty r ia.| i his repudiation of dictatorial ambi-! Por ‘our duty, $10 will be pai 2 "| Three hours is guaranteed for recrea- pn qe ee ue abe ag ee \tion and six for sleep. A 24-hour is| laboration of Dr. Wu and my piles ees tern oer asf nee ‘advisers, on whose wise advice in « 4 sf 3 | eivil Lait political matters I totally | entitled to full ery any ‘part of | rely,” you cannot help but see al? at period. For 12-hour duty Phe Fete | second Mussolini emerging on the |}® $8. Where meals are not provided, Chinese scene. Dr. Wu, the Foreign $3 a day allowance must be ences Minjater, becomes a mere “adviser” | Traveling and laundry expenses must to the Dictator Chiang Kai-shek! jbe paid for out-of-town cases. Two Tt is a well-known fact that Chiang dollars extra is charged for each ex- Kai-shek, after his betrayal of the | tra patient, except in maternity cases. Koumintang and the Hankow govern- | These rates do not apply in the hos- ment. sought an alliance with Chang- Pitals, however. " | Tso-lin. His emmissaries have| The new nursing scale is based on knocked at the gates of Peking more|an investigation by the New York than once. Now that he has failed,|State Medical Assn. Average yearly he turns back and attempts to white-|income of nurses was found to be un- wash his sin by a flat denial. His/der $1400, although these women statement: “I shall never make, nor!workers spend thre: years in profes- have I attempted in the past to make | sional training. alliance with Chang Tso-lin” is the ee st brazen playing to the be ca Sacco and Vanzetti Shall Not Die! is not to be spared Although they were us that we do not be- » long to the 3 building . trade unions, but thi as far as granting us better conditions was con- A cerned. 8 The schemes that the iron bosses are making al- ready is an indication that they are hiding something in their sleeve. The Iron and Bronze Workers’ j Union being aware of all the prepara- i tions the bosses are making is seek- ing a closer contact with the other * local union in the trade and is also carrying on 2 wide organization cam- @ paign among the open shop men. The iron and bronze workers must line up solidly and strengthen their union wh will lead the defensive and offensive fight against their bosses.—A. Rosenfeld, New York. * * * Union, naturally, ” by the bos ) | always tellin > combinations t , a: at ~ = Byndwas The First To Fly Over The North Pole ‘ Above,'a recent photo of Commander Richard E. Byrd and, below, his plane, the America, tri-° motored Fokker monoplane, constructed for his New York-Paris hop. Upper right, artist’s sketch of Commander Byrd as he flew over the Arctic wastes last year in the “Josephine Ford.” Byrd, together with Floyd Bennett, was the first man to reach the North pole by airplane. . Professional Patriots. (Continued from yesterday) John G. McNutt, 1st Lt. FA-Res, Sec’y-Treasurer. Incls: 67th Congress 2nd Session, Senate Committee Print, ROTC at Educational Institutions. Copy of statement by President Elliott, Purdue Uni- versity, 1-28-26. St No 862 It so happened that these letters were mailed out in a penalty envelope—franked envelope—which privilege under Section 485 of the U. S. Postal Laws and Regul- ations is PeScricted to “officers of the United States Government” solely for the purpose of transmitting in the mails free of postage “matters relating exclusively to the business of the Government of the United States.” Just what this letter had to do wih government busi- ness it is diffieult to discover. When the matter of Lieutenant MeNutt’s violation of the law was referred to the Secretary of War and the Attorney-General of the United States it was explained that “the envelope, wih its enclosures, was sent out by authority of the chief-of-staff of the 84th Division, Colonel G. L. Town- send, an officer of the Regular Army, and competent under the law.” This was the opinion of the Secretary of War. Senator Thomas J. Walsh, of Montana, thereupon wrote to At- torney-General Sargent on December 4, 1926, saying in part as follows: “Will you have the kindness to advise me whether you concur in the view of the Secretary of War that Colonel Townsend is ‘competent under the law’ to send such matter in a penalty envelope without postage? I venture without hesitation to say that he is not, and that the matter sent out by McNutt is not such as re- lates ‘exclusively to the business of the government of the United States’ nor does it relate in any wise to the business of the government of the United Statse. It seems to me perfectly plain that the law has been fla- grantly violated in this matter.” A great deal of the propaganda of the professional patriots has been published in journals dealing with the army and navy such as the Army and Navy Regist- er, the Army and Navy Journal, and the Reserve Of- ficer, a publication of the Reserve Officers’ Association of the United States. None of these publications are in any sense official though they may seem so to the average reader. Practically every branch of the mili- tary service has an association connected with it which issues a journal. These journals can print anything they like, for they are also unofficial., Typical associ- ations issuing publications of this character are the United States -Infantry Association and the United States Cavalry Association. There are also various news letters sent out by the civilian aides of the Sec- retary of War, and bulletins and news letters of various corps and divisions of the army. All of these have been used to distribute indiscriminate and irresponsible pro- paganda chiefly against persons working for peace. Often they may be used for a wider field of propaganda as in 1925 when the Quartermaster Review issued a broadside of lies against the League for Industrial Democracy. This propaganda was in turn copied from the Eighty-third Division Bulletin, The Army and | Navy Journal has been especially active in this work, having printed much of the material issued by Mr. Mar- vin. A minor military organization which has lent itself to professional patriotic activities and to the propa- ganda against all shades of liberals and radicals is the National Society of Scabbard and Blade, whose head- quarters are in Canton, Ohio. Its stated purpose is “to unite in closer relationship the military departments of American universities and eolleges; to preserve and develop the essential qualities of good and efficient of- ficers; to prepare ourselves as educated men to take a more active part and to have a greater influence in the military affairs of the communities in which we may reside, and above all to spread intelligent information | concerning the military requirements of our country.” This society issues mimeographed bi-weekly “Special Situation Bulletins” to its members in which it details much gossip about the radicals, the pacifists, the youth movement, the League for Industrial Democracy, and all sorts of college and student activities of which it disapproves. It reprints the Whitney material on “The | Reds in America” and Congressman Blanton’s orations against the liberals. In one of its bulletins it attacks Sherwood Eddy, the Women/s International League for ( Oe sree Ten Bee CUM bere aver WituvEmtey bx subi Peace and Freedom and other persons and organizations that usually appear on the militarists’ blacklist. An- other bulletin is devoted to attacking all the signers of the preface to the Lane Pamphlet. It also circulates material furnished by the National Clay Products In- dustries Association. One offering from this source is a pamphlet called “Business Statesmanship,” an address by Harry Curran Wilbur, “Managers’ Consultant and Nationally Known Analyst in Economics,” before the sixth annual meeting of the National Clay Products In- dustries Association. The Scabbard and Blade Society, in sending this address, which is one long tirade against the radicals, tells its members, “You will notice it is punched ready for filing with the bulletins. Before you file it away be sure that you read it over casually and then read it making notes or underscoring phrases you wish to remember or find readily. Too much good cannot be said of this little booklet. ... To such men as Mr. Wilbur, the American people owe a great deal as you will decide when you have finished reading ‘Busi- ness Statesmanship.’ ” . Connections With Business and Organizations. We have noted above, in describing the support re- ceived by the various organizations, that their chief backers are business men or their wives. Some scat- tered contributions come from school teachers, clerks, and storekeepers, but in the main the financial ties run from the offices of the patriotic promoters to the office of the corporation attorneys and capitalists. The chief support of the American Defense Society doubtless comes from Mr. Elon Hooker, the manufac- turer of chemicals, while Mr. Dwight Braman and fel- low members of the New York Stock Exchange are the financial backers of the Allied Patriotic Societies. We have seen how the Security League received enormous defense funds from some of the wealthiest corporation directors in America. The officers of the League at the time of the congressional investigation included Mr. Menken, whose firm represented large business groups in this country and in England; Mr. Alexander J. Hemphill, director in over twenty large corporations, many of which tolerate no labor union on the premises; Mr. Franklin Q. Brown, director in the Haitian-Ameri- can Corporation; Mr. Robert Bacon, of the United States Steel Corporation; Mr. H. B. Harris, who was listed as a director in the Haitian-American Corporation, which has carried so much civilization to the Haitian’ Repub- lic; Mr. Frederick H. Coudert, a director in oil, real estate, and banking companies; and finally, Mr. Frank- lin Remington, director of the Great Western Chemical Corporation and many other large concerns, and pre- sent chairman of the Finance Committee of the Ameri- ean Defense Society. In reporting on the activities of the League the congressional report said it constituted, a serious menace to representative government. Refer- ring to such organizations, the report read: “Usually, as in this instance, they have access to al- most unlimited wealth, and borrow respectability by the use, in honorary positions, of the names of men of na- tional prominence. .. .” . We have noted above that the major contributors to the support of the Better America Federation are the open shop, power and other public utility corporations of California whose gifts have taken the form of sub- stantial annual subscriptions. It must be remembered that the organization once wore a franker name—the Commercial Federation of California—though its of- ficers, office, and staff remained identical when it changed to Better America. Its president remained H. M. Hadleman, president of the Pacific Pipe and Supply Company, and its directors still include mil- lionaire real estate, department store, and public utility captains of industry. Ernest J. Hopkins in his report to the California Commission on Immigration and Hous- ing writes: ‘ “The connection of this organization with the Los Angeles. Merchants and Manufacturers Association is universally alleged in Los Angeles. The same men are active in both.” As for the American Constitutional Association we haye shown that its support is exclusively from West Virginia corporations with an occasional check from outside the state, such as Judge Gary’s $5,000. The. National Civic Federation, though it carries a few labor officials on its letterhead, and swears allegi- ance to the A. F. of L,, is clearly a big business organ- ization, and has been so ever since Ralph Easley learned which class could write cashable checks. For the organ- ization is supported wholly by the contributions of the more than well-to-do. No labor organization ever voted it a nickel, and many, like the United Mine Workers and the International Ladies’ Garment Workers, have openly condemned it and forbidden their members to join it. R2BOOKSS A REVIEW OF THREE NOVELS. | ARIANE, by Claude Anet. Alfred A. Knopf.. $2.50. | WHILE THE EARTH SHOOK, by Claude Anet. Bard & Co, N. Y. $2.50. | FRESSURE, a novel by Margaret Culkin Banning. Harper & Bro, $2. When the mosquitos are biting and the fish are not, “Ariane” is a | good book to make life on a placid Jake tolerable. It is a novel that deals + | purely—this term is to be understood as synonymous with solely, as there jis very little conventional purity in the book—with the amours of a well- | to-do Russian girl of pre-revolutionary days. | Ariane, the heroine, started to step into the experimental sex wilderness jat thé early age of sixteen and as she was attractive, daring and intelligent she did not lack collaborators. She took her liasons lightly until she met a wealthy business man. The conflict between the two consumes most of the book, and ends as those things usually do by the principal charac- ters falling in love. The author is a Frenchman and deals sympathetically with the much- loved Ariane. One cannot help assuming that if Claude Anet were a girl, Ariane is just the kind of a girl he would be. Not a book for the serious thinker but good reading in a thunderstorm. * aaa? | “While the Earth Shook” is another kind of a story. Using Lydia Sergeuvna as the motor that pulled his narrative thru to a successful finis, Claude Anet has written as readable a novel based on the early days of the Russian Revolution as I have ever had the pleasure to read. |The author is frankly biased against Bolshevism as can be seen from the fondling words he employs in painting the virtues of the counter-revolu- tionists—or those of them who have any virtue. left—as against the strong and hostile terms he uses when dwelling on the alleged terror turned loose by the Soviets. Nevertheless, Aneti does not permit his prejudices to befoul a good story. He shows quite clearly the bankruptcy, incompetence and degeneracy of the Gzarist ruling classes and the vacillation of the Kerensky regime. On the other hand he cannot avoid expressing thru some of his characters, admira- tion for*the determination and fixity of purpose of the Bolsheviki, particu- larly Lenin, whose name from first to last aroused a holy dread in the breasts of the discomfited aristocracy. 4 Lydia Serguevna was a girl of eighteen, when she stumbled into her hero on the Nevski Prospect, that splendid avenue of Leningrad where the red sea of revolution was surging, on Saturday, March 10, 1917. Lydia was swept along with the human flood, driven by a hurricane of gunfire, until she was halted by the figure of a giant, who was as impervious to the human torrent around him as the rock of Gibraltar to the swirling tides. He turned out to be the president of a big bank, was well over middle age and married to an estimable woman who fed his vanity with a few chil- dren. Nevertheless, after a reasonable lapse of time, this honest man fell madly in love with Lydia but not more madly than she fell for him. * * * While such affairs usually lead to complications, in this case it saved a neck. Savinski—this is the fictional name of Lydia’s lover—thru his ac- quaintance with Semeonof, a high official in the Soviet department of For- eign Affairs, and because of Semeonof’s alleged desire to have Lydia learn stenography so that she could serve the workers’ republic in the Foreign office, got out of a couple of tight corners, tho were we in Savinski’s boots we would rather trust to the imagination of the novelist than to the mercy of the revolutionary Cheka, after being caught in illegal commerce with agents of Kaledine, Korniloff and the foreign imperialists, Unlike Ariane, which is free from social implications, outside of the fact that it revolves around the amours of members of the parasite class, “While the Earth Shook” explains the inability of the Russian classes to save them- selves from doom while the workers and peasants were painfully and slowly perfecting their governmental machinery and bringing order out of chaos. * * * Savinski tries to leave Russia on a fake passport but despite a liberal hirsute camouflage he only got as far as the Finland Station. In the last page of the book he walks out of Boutyrkii prison in Moscow a sadder but wiser man. Semeonof saved Savinski! Because the author insists, Savinski was the man who could bring Lydia within sight. Claude Anet is always searching for the woman and always finding her. Semeonof saved Savinski because the government needed the services of a good financial expert. This was Semeonof’s alibi. Judging from what we hear of the Cheka of those days we are decidedly of the opinion that were Semeonof influenced by the motives ascribed to him by the author he would be in need of quite a little salvation for his own personal use. Otherwise “While the Earth Shook” is a darned good tale. * * * When a book keeps a hardworking scrivener awake until 4:30 A. M. it is either a worthwhile book or the scrivener has gone crazy. This is what Pressure did to mg and I don’t think I am crazy. It is the story of life in a town which is dominated by a hardboiled banker. This banker and a flunkey are the only ‘worthwhile villains in the story. The banker’s chief competitor dies and leaves a daughter, accustomed to all the luxuries of life, with almost nothing. She is in love with a prom- ising young businessman who is a decent fellow but not yet sufficiently in love with her to suit her standard. The banker’s wife entices the young man te Palm Beach where he falls in love with a bathing suit belonging to the daughter of another wealthy resident of the town. Also to what was on the inside of the bathing suit. But when the girl changed her garments his love did the same thing. * * * Now it appears that a man finds it as hard to serve two mistresses as to serve two masters. When the young businessman returned to his home town, the girl he loved for what she had back of the eyes as well as from the chin down was running a book store aided by a young man with tawny hair, who was dragged into the story to keep her company and shock the local babbitry, Of course le fell in love with his employer in such a fashion that his case was hopeless from the start. He was about as wicked as the skeleton of a dinosaurus. He did not stay until the end of the book. The young businessman was not successful in convincing the girl he really loved, that fate was against him. The wicked banker is bringing pressure to bear on everybody, sparing neither youth, age nor sex. He owns a good part of the town, including a department store, which sells books. He winds up by putting the orphan, who runs the bookstore, out of business. A combination of carefully planned circumstances sends her to work in a restaurant where she is finally located by the young businessman who broke with the town banker and with the occupant of the bathing suit. Together they walk out into the rising moon, * CT * One might gather from this review that Pressure is a sizable chunk of literary hokum. It is nothing of the kind. There is enough sex in it to guarantee its appearance among the tall grasses and under the shady trees of summer resorts. But there is also a lot of havoc committed on the in- flated bladder of bourgeois society. —T. J, O'FLAHERTY. THE PLAYBOOK OF TROY, by Susan Meriwether. Harper & Bros, $2. “Once upon a time long, long ago there was a great war. The war Was fought over a beautiful queen named Helen.” And there you are. They have taken the ancient fairy tale as told by the blind poet and set it up attrac- tively to make it palatable enough for children to swallow in play. Too much of the mythical history of the siege of Troy is crammed into a couple large-size, large type pages to make it easily absorbed by the im- mature mentality of children. Following this is another brief section of selections from Homer’s Iiad and Odyssey cleverly using the original text. Following the text are eight pages of drawings of the figures in the story, including Greek galleys and the famous wooden horse, All these are the detachable cover of the book picturing the sea, the landing of the soldiers and the walls of Troy. % * * \ dae ‘bay The detachable cover and the cut-outs are ingeniously arranged to s' leave the story part intact in book form. All of it in colors, it is splendi illustrated. : expensive ing, of course, workers’ children. There are better and le: than this one. © H : arranged for children to cut out and use before the painted stage which is It is regrettable that the ingenuity, art work and general attractiveness | of the book do not grace a little volume of greater value for expense Dea Wie? hid