The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 5, 1927, Page 6

Page Six THE DAILY WOR KER, NEW YORK, TUESDAY, Housing Revolution in the USSR How Workers and Peasants Lived in the Days of the Tsar. By YU LARIN. According ments of the this population tariat (incl families! and t fice workers, petty geoisie and. de-clas town popul the same about half of letarian me families. T son between ¢ ing accomc prior to the re instructive. Give Homes to Workers. Already in the October Revo eree (which on and their so. a compari- , and ticularly of the up a de- was itmme y en- dorsed and issued by the Soviet Gov- ernment) which gave the power to the Soviets of Workers’ Deputies of all towns to transfer workers to bour- | geois flats and to evacuate bourgeois and other non-working elements or} restrict their housing accomodation | and also to confiscate dial owned houses. Local soviets began to transfer on a very large scale, workers and their families from damp and semi-dark| flats to better premises. In nine} months’ time, on August 20th, 1918, the decree was issued re the con- fiscation in all towns of the U.S.S.R. of all houses valued at not less than 10,000 roubles which were to be han- ded over to Soviet administrative or gans. ¥ | More than half of the confiscated | housing accomodation was put under the cooperative administration of the} householders themselves (‘“Coopera- | tive Leasehold”). Moreover, the old-| est and most unsanitary houses | which were accomodating over one million people were pulled down end} replaced by new housing accomoda- | tion put up mainly in 1924-1925 (part of it has bee by workers o: the principle ‘cooperative owner-| ships” and with the help of long-term | State loans). | | position) wa ‘ished death rate (about one half of The New Hou Built uses of Workers and Peasants, After the Revolution. by the non-prol (2) moving workin the 3) pulling down es and building (4) confiscation of big hov gz them Soviet prope The m r It of the housing revo- ion (together with other measures for the improvement of workers’ A very much dimin- the former death. rate) in U.S.S.R. towns, taking the year 1926 for com- parison with the usual pre-revolution death rate in the towns of Czarist Russia. For instance the yearly death rate decreased in Moscow to 13 | per thousand, whereas it was 30 per | thousand before the revolution. One Family Houses. One third of the entire proletarian and half of the entire non-proletarian urban population of the U.S.S.R. live at present in their own little houses built for one family. The remaining 60 per cent of our urban population live in flats which they rent, three- quarters of these living in Soviet houses and one-quarter in private cooperative houses. There are at present about 4 million flats in the towns of the U.S.S.R. of which 70 per cent are occupied by one family, 10 per cent by one family and some single lodgers, only 20 per cent being occupied by several families (the igger bourgeois flats divided now ong several families). Half of the housing accomodation belongs to the State and half to private people and cooperatives. As a result of the revolutionary re- distribution of the housing accomoda- tion the working population has now at its disposal double the pre-war housing accomodation (average per head calculation). This is accom- panied by a one-third decrease of the housing accomodation at the disposal f the non-working population prior to the revolution (hence the ever in- creasing complaints of the better- atures of the housing] to-do in and bourgeoisie | in the U.S.S.R. are: (1)| about ove compared with} ng ac-/| the pre. d 1 norm Healthier Conditions. The larger and much larger hous- i mmodation now at the dis- 1 of the workers does not cost} n more than the insufficient and | ‘Yy accommodation at their | prior to the revolution. Lighting, water, removal of refuse | and the flat itself cost U. R. work- je t present not more than their nita) and far too small flats them before the revolution (moreover the present real average jearnings are, general] speaking, equal to’ pre-war earnings, and in some cases, they even exceed them). Anyhow, workers and their families live now in much healthier conditions |than before. This has been achieved |firstly, by doing away with house- | owrf profit, and secondly, by fix- |ing rent according to earnings. | Czarist Legacy. On January ist 1927, the per capita housing accommodation, ex- clusive of kitchens, passages, bath- |rooms, etc. was about 6 square |metres per head in U.S.S.R. towns. |Such is the accursed legacy of the Tsarist-bourgeois order when the jgeneral inadequacy of housing ac- commodation in towns was aggrava- ted by a very generousallotment of | housing accommodation to the bour- geoisie and aristocracy. In accord-| | ance with credits for new buildings | endorsed by the organs of the Soviet} | power, and taking into consideration | increase of population, the aforesaid per capita housing accommodation will be increased in four years time by one square metre (ie. by 20 per | cent of the present clear average per apita housing accommodation in U. S.S.R. towns). We do not consider it prudent to promise a bigger in- crease in 1931, as it is essential to |spend in the coming years as much| as can be spared from the revenue of | | the countr; x the development of | industry, iculture and transport. | A‘ further ension of the aforesaid | for improved cultural and hous-| ons must for the time be-| ing remain in abeyance. | | How the Proletariat Manages Houses | inhabiting the houses, who are organ- The October Revolution expropri- ated not only the works, factories and estates, but also hou The expro- priation affected those houses which served in the hands of the owners as a means of exploitation; the small houses in which the owners lived were not confiscated by the Soviets. Out of 2,200,000 urban houses throughout the U. S. S. y 300,000, i. e. 13% were munici But the ho ized. es confiscated consti- tute 50°% of the entire housing capac- ity and 60% the value of the houses, as the largest and most valu- able houses were confiscated. On an average, every house confiscated is five times larger than the average house which remained in the hands of the owners. The importance of the municipalized houses is enormo' The municipal- ized houses are concentrated primarily in the large industrial and adminis- trative centres and from 50 to 90% of the population and also all State, trade union, co-operative and public institutions are located in those build- ings. In view of the fact that all com- mercial enterprises are situated in those buildings, the rent which they pay gives considerable revenue—it constitutes about 10°, of the entire municipal revenue. How are the houses managed and exploited? During the first years after the revolution, in the period of the civil war, when the success of the revolu- tionary struggle depended on the de- gree of centralization by the revolu- tionary government of all threads of state and economic administration, the administration of the buildings was directly in the hands of. the mu- nicipal Soviets. This was especially necessary owing to the fact that it was essential to revolutionize the liv- ing conditions of the population, to co! ate the private mansions from the nobility, to provide as many .peo- ple as possible with housing facilities in the luxurious rooms of*the upper classes and to take the, working pop-| ulation out of the basements, garrets, | and dark “corners.” | With the termination of the civil | war, and the restoration of economic | life, the policy of the Soviet Govern- | mént in exploiting the municipalled | houses, as in the exploitation of every | other branch of national economy, is| such as to encourage the toiling! masses to take the administration of affairs into their own hands. The ad-, ministration of the houses is from | year to year given over to a greater) extent into the hands of the population | } ized into associations of the people liv- ing in the given houses. The muni- cipal organs retain in their hands the control of what is being done in the houses and they see to it that the in- habitants fulfil all the obligations they have taken upon themselves, such as to repair and keep the houses in good condition; they see to it that the houses are utilized properly without allowing them to become a means of commercial speculation, etc. At the present time about 30% of the municipalized buildings are under the direct administration of the mu- nicipal organs, and 70% are in the hands of the housing co-operatives and partly in the hands of various insti- | tutions on leases. The first housing co-operatives were organized in Moscow, Leningrad, and several towns in the Ukraine in 1923. But at the present time there are al- ready housing co-operatives in all the gubernia and uyezd capitals; they are | securing an ever greater section of | the housing fund into their hands. | About three-quarters of the municipal | buildings in Moscow and Leningrad | are in the hands of the housing co-| operatives, and in the provincial towns they have not less than one-third of the houses in their hands. The num- ber of co-operative houses is continu- ally increasing. In every municipalized building the toilers (i. e. those who have the rights of suffrage) have a right to organize their house co-operative. The house co-operative has, according to the law, | priority rights in leasing the building from the municipal administration. | The housing co-operatives have vari- ous privileges in leasing a house. They can lease it for a term of 6 to 12 years, they are free from construction and income taxes. Rent collected by the town administration is as a rule sufficient to cover the amortization of the building; the houses, the occu- pants of which belong to the poorer sections, having a very small income are entirely freed from rent. The ex-| penditure for repair in considered as part of the rent. The municipal banks supply the housing co-operatives with loans on favorable terms for building repairs. | When a housing co-operative leases | a building it has the right to manage it and is responsible to the municipal | administration in keeping the build- ing in good condition. The questions concerning the administration and utilization of the housing facilities are decided by the management of the co- operative, which is elected by a gen- eral meeting of the members of the | given co-operativey—more important questions are decided by all affiliated to the central housing co-operative union, which co ts of: housing co-| |operatives, building co-operatives, town and provincial unions of hous-| ing co-operatives, housing co-opera- | tive unions of entire republics, and| |the All-Union Alliance. The housing| co-operative unions give their mem-| bers support and assistance in carry-| ing out organizational, technical and | juridical tasks. Finally, what is of} |special importance, the unions supply the housing co-operatives with build- |ing material at reduced prices and ad- |vantageous terms. Such material is| |purchased by the unions and kept in |store for the housing co-operatives. This system of co-operative man- jagement by the workers covers now | tens of thousands of the largest build- ings, the value of which amounts to about four billion roubles, Such an extensive utilization of State property | on a co-operative basis by the toiling masses is possible only in the Soviet State. Save Sacco, Vanzetti! Strike Thursday, July 7 Standard Oil Appeals | To Kellogg as Mexico |, Nullifies Land Steal WASHINGTON, July 4.— The American government is expected in a few days to ask Mexico for a full explanation of its reported ac- tion in refusing an oil drilling per- mit to an American oil company because the company has refused to comply with the Mexican petro- leum law. The Transcontinental Oil compa- ny, a Standard Oil of New Jersey subsidiary, is the company affect- ed. Officials of the firm have re- ported the action to the state de- partment, inclosing a letter from the Mexican secretary of commerce, Luis‘ N. Morones, by which the Transcontinental was refused a permit for drilling on the ground that the rights of the company were “considered as having been renounced.” Mexican oil lands were illegally granted by the Transcon- tinental, Morones charged. Under the Mexical oil law foreign companies were to have their rights confirmed by the Mexican govern- ment by December 31st. | deputy sheriffs guard the streets, not | breaker by name George Johnston at- awn by WM. GROPPER. The Doctors Are Busy in the Kings County Hospital, But Not With the Patients, Dr. Mortimer D, Jones, testi- fying at the Walker hearing which is delving into the charges | of religious and racial dis rim- | ination whieh three Jewish in-| ternes claim is rampant at the} Kings County Hospital, stated | that the Brooklyn hospital is un- | derstaffed. Jones, who is the superinten-| dent of the hospital under fire|' of the Tammany chiefs, declared | that in some wards there was} only one member of the staff on duty for every 70 patients. Last Friday, two of the “hazed” internes testified that several deaths were caused by criminal negligence on the part of gentile internes who ignored the pleas of dying Jewish pa- tients for medical aid. | Rabbi Louis Gross, who heads | a rabbinical investigating com-| mittee, submitted to the mayor} over 100 sworn affidavits in) which the internes’ statements | are substantiated. Nathan Sweedler, counsel for | the Jewish internes, says that all but one of the six expelled) “hazers” come from Klan states. Scabs Assault Striking Miners Under Eyes of Pennsylvania Cossacks Valley Camp’s strikebreakers can’t stay idle. If they don’t want to dig coal, they must go out and beat union miners up. A striker, Thomas Flater, of Kin- lock, was beaten up by a strike- breaker, right in the heart of New Kensington’s business district, where several dozen state troopers and saying anything about the local po- lice. The injured striker was taken to Citizen’s General Hospital. The strikebreaker fled, and police were not able to find him, or rather didn’t want to. In the meantime another strike- tacked some strikers, and aimed to hit a miner in the head with a stick, but didn’t succeed; instead he hit the window of G. C. Murphy Oo. and broke it. City Police placed him un- der arrest and fined him $10.00 cost, and $5.00 for the broken glass. That’s because he didn’t have a good aim. Now if he would have broken a strik- | and er’s head instead of a glass! ‘The Northwest Railroad Chaos Leads to Demand for Dictator By LELAND OLDS. (Federated Press) The dilemma of private railroad | operation with the separate carriers competing for traffic again comes to the fore in a discussion of the rate situation in the northwest by F. J. Lisman, New York dealer in railroad securities. Lisman suggests that only a “czar” dealing with the prob- lem as a whole can help the roads in the northwest to the abundant pros- perity enjoyed by railroads in other regions. “While the: bankruptcy of the St. Paul may be due to a variety of rea- sons,” says Lisman, “the low rate structure of the northwest. was un- questionably the largest factor. Rail- roads all over the country are doing better than. they did almost at any previous period, except the roads of the northwest. The great Northern, Northern Pacific and Chicago & Northwestern are all paying smaller dividends than they did previously; the Soo Line, formerly prosperous conservatively capitalized, has stopped payment of dividends on its preferred as well as on its common stock, Minneapolis & St. Louis are in bank- ruptey.” Lisman points out that an advance jin rates on agricultural products is| | probably out of the question partly | because Congress has enjoined the} commission from granting such in- creases and partly because this would involve similar advances in the west and southwest where the railroads are already making big profits. He charges, however, that the north- western railroad companies have been far from doing all they could toward getting the maximum earnings out} of the business handled and that there are many commodities moving to the northwest at abnormally low rates. The commission has repeatedly suggested a revision of these rates, but under individualist private man- agement the railroad officials don’t dare, “On the bulk of commodities,” Lis- man explains, “the rate structure is not being fixed by the carriers, but by the various trade associations—the cement associations, the lumberman’s association, agricultural implement association, packers association, etc. The officials of a railroad en- joying a large share of business in any given commodity lack the courage to join in a request for rate advances on such traffic, for fear of antagon- izing their patrons. It is well known in railroad circles that whenever a meeting is held on the subject of ad- while the St. Paul and the | vancing any given rate the interested shippers hear of such efforts within an hour and will, by the promise of | a substantial volume of business, pre- vail on some carrier to withdraw from the request for a rate advance.” Lisman thinks that if owners in- stead of traffic managers were oper- ating the railroads, steps to improve these conditions of the northwestern carriers would have been taken long ago. He continues: “Ownership of the railroads is scattered and the stockholders, as a rule, are not assertive. Too many railroad directorates are quasi self- perpetuating and the directors are too often selected by the officials rather than by the inarticulate stock- holders.” | This condition is of importance to | railroad labor because the unprofit- able operation of carriers in the northwest is a leading argument j against further advances in railroad |wages. If the government had power to work out a scientific rate structure without regard to the im- mediate interests of any single carrier, the western conductors and trainmen would undoubtedly have won wage increases in the recent ar- bitration case instead of suffering | a defeat. |News CampaignAgainst Labor Faker Thievery Praised by Painters (By A Worker Correspondent) | Last Friday night at the regular union meeting of Local 905 which | was the first local to begin an in- vestigation of the D. C., much praise and credit was given to The DAILY WORKER and “Freiheit” for expos- | ing the thieves of the union. If not! for these two workers’ papers the charges might never have come be- fore the great number of members and the public in general. | While the socialist “Forward” and “New Leader” branded these charges as “Communist forgery” and helped | in every way to cover the truth with the “red” scare, for the last six months, The DAILY WORKER and the “Freiheit” were militantly expos ing every crook and thief who ruled our union, The new and sudden change of policy of the “Forward” and “New Jeader” in coming out at last against their own Socialist Party “THE STRUGGLE IN THE. N.Y, NEEDLE TRADES THE POLICE AT WORK. By I. JEROME. A picket demonstration outside the shop of*Ganz and Bransilber, dress manufacturers, 118 West 27th. St. 7 a.m, Fifty workers, men and girls, earn- est, stalwart-spirited, file before the building back and forth. The firm has locked out its workers for refusing to register with the right wing of the union, and the Joint Board has declared a strike. 7.15. Workers from other shops on their way to work swell the picket line. There is life. Comrade greets comrade. Steps are resolute. Eyes gleam defiance. * * * The court has issued an injunction against the strikers and the left wing Joint Board. And the workers have come to answer with a mass violation of the injunction. The line grows bigger. looms. Surrounding the factories stand po- lice clubs emotional. Industrial squad men lurk in the doorways. Pickets march. Back. Forth. An automobile draws up. There are cries from the picket line: “Scabs! They’ve brought scabs! Look, Sigman’s guerillas!’ The right wingers—they ~ Ware > besphineen strike. ers! Down with the traitor Sigman!” * * * The automobile opens. A thin pale man emerges, A scab. His face is ashen with fright. The police clear a path for him. He runs. Runs the gauntlet of hoots and hisses. Into the building. The work of making the world safe for strike-breaking begins. The cops let fiy their clubs. The industrial squad spring from the hallways. Ti- gers pouncing from thickets. Men, Danger | women, bystanders, strikers, battered, felled, charged. The street is a bat- tle-field. The legions of the law and the right wing are routing the work- ers. A ruffian stands on the running- board of the automobile. He is recog- nized. A notorious gangster, hireling of Sigman, A girl picket passes him. He lifts his foot and kicks her square in the eye. The girl staggers. Falls. She is members who are leading figures in this robbery game is another proof of their own betrayal and the close al- liance between the socialist press and the thieves of the unions. GOODYEAR RUBBER TRUST WILL BUILD NEXT SKY TERROR This design for a huge dirigible has been awarded first prize of $50,000 in the United States’ navy’s rompetition for a new airship of 6,500,000 cubic fect gas capacity—more than twice as large as the Los Angeles. ‘Che design was submitted by the Goodyear Zeppelin corporation, Akron, O. The above picture shows how the ship would look over a modern warship of the line. Note the guns and the ab- sence of power cars on the hull. ‘This new giant of the air will cost $5,000,000, it is estimated, take three years to build, will carry five airplanes and a crew of 45 at a maxium speed of 80 miles an hour. Her length will be 780 feet and her diameter 185 fect, 15 percent longer and nearly 50 percent wider than the Los Angeles, blinded. There is a howl from the workers. Twenty police rush to the rescue and arrest—the girl. * * * A young worker leaps forward and seizes the gangster. “Why don’t you arrest him? assaulted the girl!” Fists of cops hail on his head, on his face. Blue-clad arms of the law jerk him, drag him into a hallway. Dark doorways tell no tales. But the grip of the young worker jis strong. He holds on to the gang- ster thru the beating and the drag- ging. “Officer, I demand that you arrest me together with this man!” “Shut yer month, or I'll shut it fer you, yer god damned Bolshevik!” And they drag him farther into the hall- way. He “Officer No. ---—— will you do your duty?” Officer No. growls. Bad business. The Bolshevik has spotted his number! He arrests the three---the gangster, the worker and the girl. He lines them up in the passageway, They | wait for the patrol wagon. | Two policemen arrive. | “Here you”—to. the gangster-—“get | the hell outa here!” | Before the eyes of everybody the gangster is taken out into the street and tipped off to slip round the cor- ner. bruised young worker and the blinded girl. * * . ‘The Editors have taken out of this article the names of the girl, of the worker, of the gangster who blinded the girl, and also the num- ber of the policeman who arrested the three and then permitted the gangster to escape. They will fur- nish these names and the police- man’s number for: purposes of in- vestigation by proper parties. The patrol-wagon comes for the —_ Down with the strikebreak- © |