The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 29, 1927, Page 5

THE DAILY WORKER, EW YORK, S } f TURDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1927 wage Five soviet Russia After Ten Years Report of the American Trade Union Delegation to USSR The following is the eighth instalment of the re- port of the first American Trade Union Delega- tion to Soviet Russia, in the words of the delega- tion. The report will be published in The DAILY WORKER in successive issues until completed. Insurance Payments to Families of Deceased Wage Earners. This is another unique feature in the Rus- sian social insurance system. In other coun-|P8id by the industries of the country and|around. Out of 2,200,000 urban houses in| tries ‘the workers are supposed to provide in-|forms an average charge of slightly over 13) the country, only 300,000, or 13 per cent, ; In| Per cent of the payroll. This is an apprecia-| were nationalized. However, these national- | surance individually for their families. ; Allowances are also made by the insurance | department to meet the costs of civil burial. | |The amounts paid vary according to the costs | lin the various belts. The amounts allowed) |tor children is one-half that for adults: The’ | country-wide average for the two amounted|The urge to nationalize property was intensi- | Teaie aka pani SAE Wed sparion ot \fied by the miserable living conditions of the | +1418) the capital o Gieeieweaes lin March to $14, | In all some $400,000,000 will be spent for! }social insurance this year. Housing. | ROM the moment when the Russian work- | ers took over the government..the ques-| tion of shelter has been in the foreground. | workers. Nationalized property offered more | Russia if a worker leaves dependents who|ble reduction of “the rate as compared with |ized houses made up 50 per cent of the entire | have no other means of support, they are en-| 1923-1924, when it was as high as 22 per|urban housing capacity. The remaining 87 | titled to pensions from the social insurance department. A husband or wife or parent of the deceased will be regarded as dependent provided they are unable to work or have children below the age of eight which claim their attention. Children under 16 years and those over 16 who have been disabled before} they reached that age are also classed as de- pendents. If a worker dies from an industrial accident or disease, his dependents will re- ceive somewhat more than if he dies from non-industrial causes. The scale for the first class of cases is one-third of the previous earnings for one dependent, one-half for two dependents, and three-fourths for three or more; while for the second-class the scale is two-ninths; one-third and four-ninths, respec- tively. Birth and Burial Allowances. Upon giving birth to a child, mothers are granted an allowance equal to one-half a month’s earnings. This sum, which in March was equal to $10.50 a month, is used to pur- chase the layette needed for the baby and to meet other incidental expenses. They are also paid one-eighth of a month’s salary for the nine months following child birth as a nursing allowance. This payment of slightly over 2.60 a month is used by the Commissariat of Health as a means of keeping in touch with these mothers and of getting them to follow. this was not collected, because of its highness | and the still crippled condition of industry.} | At present, however, virtually all the assess-)| ments are being collected promptly and the} learlier unpaid amounts are being reduced. Labor Administration. \ Progressive labor laws in other countries| are frequently nullified in practice by being! forcement. In Russia the officers of the labor | department are actually appointed by the} trade unions themselves. the heads of the Commissariat of Labor, and its decision is obligatory upon the govern-| ment, while the provincial heads are nominat-| ed by the respective trade union councils. This is also true of the local heads of the so- cial insurance and employment departments | and of the local arbitrators. The separate unions also nominate the heads of the various individual departments within the labor ex- changes. ‘The labor laws are therefore en- forced by representatives of the trade unions. The fact that the trade unions are also con- |sulted by the government trusts in the ap- pointment of managers and that the shop committees and unions have power to file complaints about the conduct of managers means that both the administration of the in- custries and of the laws is in the hands of the workers themselves. of the owners. The nationalized buildings were directly controlled by the municipal soviets during the | period of the civil war following the revolu- | tion. With the restoration of orderly eco-| form. This meant a building program entail- | ing the outlay of much capital. The infant |? lentrusted to unsympathetic officials for en-|#dustries of Russia needed this capital, and |? needed it badly. Therefore the program for better housing was deferred but when the] ara 7 fe aha at PRR EE lis, or in an The All-Russian |Strain of the first efforts in industrial recon- | : " reese : Sane eige Central Council of Trade Unions nominates|8ttuction had lessened, more time and rhoney | housed, but it does mean that the workers in! were given to housing. The accomplishments | of the past few years have been remarkable. | Still there is great. overcrowding in the cities | and industrial sections, thanks to the destruc-| tion of the revolution and civil war days and} the fact that for over five years, 1916-1921, | almost no building was carried on. | The difficulties of constructing better homes have been both financial and economic. The government industries put all possible! earnings back into the industry to increase | production, thus reducing the surplus for such | things as housing. A special tax on non-work- ing tenants designed to be used for building has been small and irregular, and the income) tax to be used for housing has been hard to} collect. Labor has been expensive and the} cost of building has not been standardized. | japartment type prevails, each building plans have been small. In addition, building materials have been inadequate. The trade unions, the codperatives and the industries themselves are now carrying on an |, Caucasian Soviet Republics, the trade unions, | Miia ite entirely | room, but there was not enough of it to go | With the help of government loans, have re- placed hovels with modern homes. Here the! with large.dining room and a kitchen where food} is prepared and served at cost. Large gard- ens surround these apartments, containing | one a| cent, although approximately two-thirds of|per cent of these houses stayed in the hands|Utdoor motion pictures, hand stands, and arrange to pay 10 per cent of stages for theatrical productions. In each building there is also a theater and a club-| reom. In apartment houses built by labor organi-! zations, the apartments are all alike, but rent | jnomie life a definite housing program took | Varies in direct proportion to the wage earned | In some of the best apart-| rom | $1.50 to $5.00 per month, and less. No rent charged to union members out of work. This does not mean that every worker in Tif- y other Russian city, is ideally by the tenant. ments which we visited the rent rans the new homes are far better housed than they were under the old régime. Another instrument for better housing is the codperative building societies which have developed chiefly in industrial sections. Over} 9,000 codperative apartment houses were built by these societies last year. In one section! of Moscow the coéperatives are now con- structing 22 large apartments which will alto- gether house nearly 14,000 people. These apartments all have a central building con- taining a large kindergarten occupying two entire floors. There is also a codperative laundry and coédperative stores. The average apartment consists of two rooms, with kitchen and bath shared with another family. The cost is $7 a month, exclusive of water. In the apartment just cited, the rent runs over ment is fully paid for and ongs to the owner, whose family or relatives may occupy during their lives, but cannot sell or:lease it at a profit. A person can join one of hese codpera ] cieties by making safter payments of e installments in- built occu- rubles a r after the easing c and pied. rouse is The great bulk dustria housing of the in- the industries by workers themselves. In cc tive ments made with the trade unions the ¢ nt trusts profits into a fund for the improver 1e life of the workers. Under the Labor Code 75 per cent of this goes to housing. Many fae- tories that v houses built or under cc 2 aid of these funds. In spite of these various methods for put- ting up houses the situation is still very bad, the new capital cities such as Moscow and Kharkov being specially in need of more liv- ing space. Leningrad and Kiev have been relieved by the removal of government per- sonnel, but there is no city or he U.S.S.R. which shortage. large town in not suffer from a The situation is not only difficult from the point of view does of shortage but. also »ecause of the depreciation of those facilities which do exist. Adequate repairs have not been made; and houses which once were ade- quate are livable at present only because the necessity is so great. (To be continued in tomorrow’s DAILY WORKER.) (The full report of the American Trade Union Delegation to Soviet Russia, as pub- lished here by courtesy of International Publishers, can also be obtained in book form at all bookstores.) medical advice in caring for their babies. The capital and resources of codperative house |a period of 44 years, by which time the apart- - 4 HERE’S WORKERS’ THEATER; WHO'LL SEE THE PLAY? By MICHAEL GOLD, There is a real need for a revolu- tionary workers’ theatre in New York, The idea has been in the air for years. All attempts to establish one have failed. — Just as the workers need their own magazines, cooperative houses and camps, just so do they need to express themselves through their own theatre. But how are we going to get our own theatre? There are already about e@ dozen language drama groups in New York but these are all amateur. They fulfil! a need but are too ‘crude {every night. us Yet to influence the general public. To run a first-class workers’ the- atre, of the type of Piscator’s in Ber- ling or Meyerhold’s in Moscow, one must have a semi-professional com- pany of young actors, playwrights and musicians whe work under a severe ive all their time to the s as seriously and ry werkers or la- ir fields. No one t eighteen hours a 1d of endeavor will d the thousand and one prob- are wrapped up in the job. A company of forty actors must re- hearse for a month, from twelve to fifteen hours a day. There is worry over light, janitor service, carpentry of props, scenery, ticket taking, pub- licity, carpets fer the floor and dress- ing rooms, posters, rent, war tax, legal. complications, contracts, sub- scriptions. and advertising. The play runs so smoothly on the stage. The actors move by clockwork a | GET ONE NOW 14-Karat Gold Emblem (Actual Size and Design) jean pack Madison Square Garden on SCREW-CAP TYPE $1.25 Sent by Insured Mafl for $1.50 On Receipt of Money by Jimmie Higgins Book Shop 106 University rare New York Ci In Lots of 5 or more $1.25 each. No Charge for Postage. ‘Health Simple No cult, no school, the good from all schools. Exposing healing quackery wherever found, Edited by a practicing physician experi- enced in health education. Rational Living, Box 2, Sta. M, New York. B. Liber, M.D.,Dr.P.H., Editor. 6 months’ trial subscription $1. Sam- ple copy free. With yearly sub the tamous book “As a Doctor Sees It’ free, if, requested. A MAGAZIN: AND A BOOK FOR WORKERS. eee The lights and music come in at the proper cues. It all looks easy to the audience. But what sweat preceded this smooth perform- ance! We have had several revolutionary plays in New York within the past few years. The Theatre Guild gave two; Teller’s Mass Mensch and John Howard Lawson’s Processional. Both were wonderful productions. But both were financial failures. The bourgeoisie were annoyed at both plays and practically boycotted them. And the workers did not go to see them, but preferred the movies. The same thing is happening with our New Playwrights’ Theatre. The workers are not coming out to see our first play, “The Belt,” which is a proletarian satire on Henry Tord. It is not a Communist’ play. It con- tains many weaknesses‘and deviations. But it is one of the few fine efforts we have had in this country toward a workers’ drama. Yet most of our audiences so far have been from among the bourgeois intellectuals. Where have the workers been? | We have offered a large discount to help The DAILY WORKER and the Joint Defense Committee of the Fur- riers’ Union and Cloak and Dressmak- ers’ Union. But there has not yet been the response that theorists have told us there would be if the workers had their own kind of plays ‘and the- atre, I confess I don’t know the answer to this problem. It is obvious there are about 100,000 revolutionary work- ers in and around New York. They any great occasion. They support a group of papers, schools and other in- stitutions. But why don’t they sup- port a revolutionary theatre when it tries to get born? You can’t have such a theatre with- cut an audience. The bourgeois in- tellectuals will not support such a theatre. How can you stir up the workers? I submit this problem to all participants in the working class movement who realize its importance. The perfect workers’ theatre, such as Meyerhold’s, will not come into existence full-born, Where are the revolutionary plays in America? Where is the group that knows both the theatre and the labor movement, that knows its Meyerhold as well as Marx? I don’t see any just now. But the nearest I have yet seen is the New Playwrights’ group. It is the tran- sition theatre toward the ultimate chain of workers’ theatres in Amer- ica. Why not help it iastead of criti- cizing it from the standpoint of rev- olutionary perfectionism? If the New Playwrights’ Theatre fails in its attempt it will be years before we have another experiment in workers’ plays in this city. The re- sponse so far has been mainly from the intellectuals. I repeat: where are the workers? prices, COOPERATION This issue is a special cooperative children’s is- sue. All articles and poems including many we could not print for lack of space were written by members of the Cooperative Pioneer Group. These children live with their parents in ene of the -Co- operative Houses in New York City. Their parents are members of the cooperative movement of Amer- ica. We are very glad to present this issue to the children of the working class who must learn the need for solidarity and cooperation. What is the workers’ cooperative movement? The workers’ cooperative organization is first a work- ers’ organization. Secondly, its purpose is to elim- inate the boss who gets something for doing noth- ing, in other words to do away with profits. This has already been done, for example, in the houses where the children live. The cooperative, or the workers themselves are the landlords, and they do not have to pay large rents which include big profits. The same thing has been done in the food industry. We have some cooperative bakeries where food is sold to members at cost. We have coopera- tive schools where even teaching is sold at cost. This movement is a very important one and should be supported by workers and children. Cooperatives play a very important role during a revolution and immediately after, as for example in Russia. They help to feed the workers where industry becomes paralyzed. But it is also very important to remem- ber that true cooperation can only exist under a workers’ and poor farmers’ government and that must be our main aim. THE PHILIPPINE Is By J. SHUPATLO, The Philippine Islands are mountain tops risen from the sea bottom. Many folds and cracks were made where voleanoes now stand. About 3,000 is- land are in this group, the largest is Luzon, the size of Kentucky. The Philippine Islands are near the Equator so the days are warm, and the nights are cool. Many people mine for gold, silver and copper. Many are engaged in fishing. Mindanao is import- LAND: » ant for lumbering, sugar, cotton, rice, tobacco and fruits which are raised there. Hemp is used for mak- ing rope, Cocoanut oil is extracted from cocoanuts which leaves the dry cocoanut meat called copra. There are over 8,000,000 people living in the Philippine Islands. They are peaceful, and are will- ing to work. The people wanted their freedom from the United States. A bill was passed in the U. S. for their freedom. It was signed in the senate and house of representatives, but when it came to the president he vetoed it. He said the Filipinos do not have enough power and education to rule themselves. What do you think about it? How Farmers Are Fooled Dear Comrades: I am going to tell you what my teacher told us about farmers, She said that if the farmers would only get together and demand higher prices for their cotton and peanuts and would not sell it until they did, they would probably get higher I think it is richt, Don’t you? tet Se ALEX. PINTER, YOUNG COMRADE SECTION BE A REPORTER Capitalist newspapers hire hundreds of reporters to investigate and write about all important events such as wars, strikes, revolutions, Soviet Russia, ete. This news is written up not from the point of view of the workers, not from the point of view of the reporters, not even impartial, but ONLY and STRICTLY from the point of view of the bosses. While this is undoubtedly true for the capitalist newspapers, it is not true for the few workers’ newspapers that exist, such as The DAILY WORK- ER, and is surely not true of the Young Comrade or Young Comrade Corner. In these newspapers everything is written STRICTLY from a workers’ point of view. In the Young Comrade Corner not only is this true, but more than half of the articles and poems are written by workers’ children. But that is not enough and that is the reason for this article. We want all workers’ children to become Young Comrade reporters. Report the strikes you hear about. Report your school activities. Report everything of interest to workers’ children. Be a Young Comrade Reporter. THIS WEEK’S PUZZLE No. 38 This week’s puzzle is another word puzzle. The rules are as follows: -No. 1 in the puzz!e stands for A in the answer, No. 2 stands for B, 3 for C, ete. Let’s go! 25 1 25:15 21147 18 5 16 15 18 20 5 18. 3161318145 Send all answers to the Daily Worker Young Comrade Corner, 88 First St., New York City, stat- ing your name, age, address and number of puzzle. Answers to Last Weeks Puzzle The answer to last week’s puzzle No. 37 is: WORKER. The following comrades answered correctly: Fannie Gervin, Bklyn, N. Y.; Jack Rosen, New York City; Sylvia Masler, New York City. More Answers to Puzzle No. 36 Matilda Schottka, Astoria, L. I.; Mae Feurer, New York City: Pauline Jurich, Wilkinsburg, Pa.; Vera Veli Tommany, Highland Park, TIL; Grace Zelnick, New York City; Estelle Goldstein, New York City; James Mishkis, Chicago, Ili.; Esther Cohen, Chicago, Ill: David Citrin, Detroit, Mich.: Homer RB, Chase, Hillsboro, N, H.; Mamie Kreopan- vich, McAdoo, Pa. YOUNG COMRADE SUB 1 year 50 cents — % year 25 cents SEND DELEGATES Third Annual Conference November 12th and 13th International LABOR DEFENSE Irving Plaza Hall (15th Street and Irving Place) Fortieth Anniversary Haymarket Martyrs For information write to National Conference Headquarters, I. L. D. ROOM 402 80 EAST 11th STREET NEW YORK CITY a :