The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 12, 1930, Page 4

at 26-28 Enion SUBSCRIPTION RATES: © Baily [2: Worker “ r ay Published by the Comprodaily Publishing Co., Inc, Gaily, except Sunday Page Four Square, New York City, N. ¥. Telephone Stu t 1a8e-7-3. Cat “DAIWOR By Mail ({n New York City only): $8.00 a year; $4.50 six months; $2.50 three months 4 Addres® and mail all ks to the Daily Worker. 26-28 Union Square, New York, N. ¥ By Mall (outside of New York City): $6.00 a year; $3.50 six months; $2.00 three months { ‘THE MEMBERSHIP DRIVE IN THE ANTHRACITE By P. FRANKFEELD. membership drive in the t so very pleasing: While carried on, meetings ar- s of leaflets distributed, we whole, fact that we t on the our t realize the e, and generally, the was not activized, or drawn recruiting new members. The rec we find, was not carried on m Most of the new r as a re- of meetings one kind or another. With exception of the Lithuanian comrades, the Party members in the different ] age failed to raise the of ive in their fra- ernal organizations. Personal recruiting is wn thing here. Even at the Party comrades did not con ary to speak to the workers s, and a few comrades esent, but the would do that after the appeal for members. Wanted: Shop Nuclei. shortcomings of One of the biggest our here has been—the failure to nd the failure to issue one shop or mine paper. We have had some good distributions of leaflets in the mines and factories, but surely that can never take the place of mine and shop papers. Daily Worker subs obtained during the drive are negligible. The Daily Worker has not yet been established as the central Party organ. Of cou be taken into cannot explain sponse to the Worker. drive organize and shop nucle consideration; but even that the fact that there is little re- appeals to build the Daily is a table of the new members re- Below cruited in the anthracite: | to e, language difficulties must {| No. of New Daily Unit -Members Subs Scranton ........ 9 2 Wilkes-Barre 9 1 Papers Nuclei 0 0 0 Minersville 6 3 0 0 Shenandoah 0 0 0 0 Plymouth . 1 (x) 0 0 0 Tamaqua ... 5 1 0 0 McAdoo .. 2 0 0 0 Nanticoke . 0 0 0 0 Jessup . 0 (xx) 0 0 0 Total 82 7 0 0 (x) The new member in Plymouth was ob- tained thru the National Office of the Party. (xx) As a result of Com: Candela’s visit to Jessup, the unit is being reorganized. In- stead of the 4 we now have, a unit of 11 is being established. This means the addition of 7 Italian miners into the Party ranks. The Party unit in Scranton has undertaken issue 2 mine leaflets as the forerunners of 2 mine papers. In Wilkes-Barre, we expect to organize one mine nucleus. Composition of Recruits. The taking in of new members into the 29 Party is a step forward, but absolutely in- sufficient. The social composition of these new members very excellent indeed, 27 of the 32 are mine work 2 are unemployed, (one a miner); 2 housewives and 1 barber- The national composition is rather poor. It is as follows: 3 American 1 Irish-American; 1 Span’ 8 Russians; 13 Lithuanians; 7 Ukrainians;. 2 Polish; 2 (nationality not known). On the whole, the age composition is not very good either. comrades taken in are over. Our Party must continue its recruiting work all the year round. We must especially try and win the more youthful and Americanized workers. The Party in the Anthracite must make an effort to.win Negro workers to the Party. In a word, the entire base of the Party must be shifted onto more representative ele- ments of the American working-population in the Anthracite. Italian and Polish workers, who form so large a bloc in the anthracite, must also be approached and won for our Party. The majority of the 32 years of age or Socialism and Red Putilov-. By CHAS. SUMMERS (Moscow). Note—The following is the final install- ment of this article. * * * (Continued) In 1924 “Red Putilov” began to build trac- tors, the total production for the year was | five tractors, which cost 9,000 rubles each to | produce. Last year the goal was 3,000 trac- tors, which was surpassed, and the cost went down to 2,000 rubles each. At the end of the Five-Year Plan, “Red Putilov” was expected to produce 10,000 tractors per year—but already this year that goal is being surpassed, for 12,- 000 will be produced, with a possibility that the figure realized may reach as high as 18,000. In the other departments such as machinery, | locomotives, freight cars, construction steel, etc,, great advances are also being made. Achievements By Workers. This tempo of socialist construction is due to the initiative of the workers. More than 8,000 workers participate in socialist competition. | There are also 157 brigades, composed of 1500 workers, giving special organized attention to increasing production. Socialist rfvalry is carried on not only between the various de- | partments, but also between different factories in the Soviet Union. For example, “Red Pu- tilov” carries on socialist competition with the Sokol and Colomno factories. There is also individual socialist competition between work- ers. There are more than 75 initiative and inventive groups, embracing hundreds of work- ers. We must keep in mind that the workers in “Red Putilov’ have the seven-hour day, and 75 per cent of them work under the system of the uninterrupted working-week, in which the factory operates every day but the workers work four days and rest the fifth day. This is quite a contrast to the capitalist rational- ization in the U. S., where the blood and life is squeezed out of the workers. Imagine work- ers utes rest every hour because they work on con- veyors! This is so in the Soviet Union, and of course the workers in the most dangerous departments work only a few hours per day | and get extended vacations. The trade unions participate actively in the sucessful building of socialism. The trade union “active’ in the Putilov works is com- posed of a thousand workers, who besides their regular functions on commissions, collection of dues, etc., lead also in the increasing of pro- ductivity lective agreement is worked out between the union and management, weeks in advance the workrs meet and discuss all the terms before its acceptance. All of the workers and em- ployes of “Red Putilov” are members of the trade union with the exception of 20 who have no vote. Modern Apartment Houses. In the vicinity of “Red Putilov,” the old shacks that used to house the workers under Tsarism have been replaced with the most modern apartment houses. Many more build- . are in process of construction. operative houses receive funds from the So- viet organization. If workers choogp to live in other sections outside this zone they are reimbursed for their carfare. Cultural advance proceeds side by side with the building of socialism, “Red Putilov” has a special culture fund that is received from the factory administration, amounting to 10 per cent of the total wage fund, and is used for cultural purposes. Next spring the construc- tion of a new club house will begin, at a cost of 2,300,000 rubles. The educational circles in the plant draw in thousands of workers. y, cutting down waste, etc. When a col- | These co- ; The rapid socialization and construction of i és : new machinery and technique can still be seen in the U. S., for instance, getting ten min- | industry in the Soviet Union demands the de- velopment of new proletarian cadres. The old specialists are very unreliable and the technical intelligentsia is ever ready to sabotage. The Five-Year Plan demands that the technical staffs as well as skilled workers must be in- creased four times, with the new technicians being drawn from the working class. “Red Putilov” will need 2,000 such worktrs next year. How will this be accomplished? The Labor Bureau cannot supply them. It means that these new cadres will have to come from the factory itself. At the present time there are 319 youths training in the factory school, while 600 more have enrolled; all are children of workers. Besides these there are evening courses in the factory technical schools, etc., to raise the qualification of workers. A new school to accomodate 1,000 workers is be- ing built. The agricultural question also concerns the workers of “Red Putilov.” By their practical activity these workers have given a decisive answer to the right wing vacillators. The workers have the “patronage” of a large ag- ricultural area comprising 850,000 people; 75 per cent of the peasants in this territory are involved in collective farming. “Red Putilov” sent 85 workers into this territory to work in the collectives. A delegation of 10 workers sent by the factory recently, reported back that in the very near future the entire district will be collectivized. This is a real picture of the “smytchka” in action. Over 4,000 workers of “Red Putilov” actively participated to strength- en the “smytchka,” carry on the class war against the kulaks, and socialize agriculture. Communist Party Leads, The Communist Party is the driving force and leader of all this economic, political, and social life. There are 33 departmental nuclei in “Red Putilov,” with around 3,000 Party members. The Y.C.L. has 2,246 members, or 84 per cent of all youth in the factory. There are many difficulties that these work- ers have to overcome. Side by side with the remnants of the old. Waste is still a great factor; sometimes the tempo of production is “Central Organ of the Comm A’*ROTTEN DYING SYSTEM! ro, of the U.S.A, eee By HARRISON GEORGE. GoP is being mobilized on the side of world Bolshevist Russians, the British Tories, their assistance in the “labor” government, the Mexico, which has made peace with the Pope by the intercession of Ambassador Morrow. Following the suggestion of the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury prayed on Sunday “especially for Christians in Russia.” For a time conveniently forgetting that the Church of Engjand itself has a rather bloody history of the massacre of the Catholics, the Archbishop indicates ‘a full agreement with the Pope in the necessity of prayers (and bullets) against Bolshevism. * If there is anyone less swayed by “religious emotion” than Stanley Baldwin, the leader of ist ready to murder millions for imperialism, such a one would be hard to find. But Bald- win joins with the Archbishop and the Pope in stating that “it is impossible for us to be blind to what is happening in Russia regarding the persecution of Christians.” Undoubtedly the Tory leader intended this as instructions to the “labor” government and it is certain that MacDonald and other leaders of the Second “socialist” International wish for no more than Tory support to take steps to expand readiness for war against the So- viet Power to actual aimed attack. The only hindrance is forethought of what British work- ers might do. MacDonald's bloodbrother, Kerensky, wel- comed to speak in Great Britain by a “labor” government which would not admit a Gastonia striker, speaking at the Oxford Luncheon Club Friday, gYew eloquent with indignation at the alleged campaign against Christianity in the Soviet Uniong This “socialist” counter-revo- lutionist, in tones of horror declared: “It has been officially announced that by 1933 there must not remain in all of Russia a single held back by delay in getting raw materials, etc. The building of socialism is proceeding entirely with their own resources, without the help of credit from the capitalist world. The workers understand the difficulties and are more determined in their march to final triumph under the leadership of the Party. The workers of “Red Putilov” are very much interested in the life of the workers in the U. S. They want to know about our struggles, our Party, ete. We can express our interna- tional solidarity with them by also engaging in socialist competition with them. We can pledge to the workers of the Soviet Union increased | activity in the class struggle, build more shop nuclei, increase the membership of our Party, build the Daily Worker, etc. while the workers of “Red Putilov’ and other factories in the Soviet Union build socialism. Some shop nuclei in the big capitalist plants in the U. S., like the International Harvester, General Elec- tric, U. S. Steel, should urge the workers to accept this challenge and carry on regular communication with the workers of “Red Pu- tilov’ and send materials describing our prob- lems for their newspapers and wallpapers. The workers of “Red Putilov” have a newspaper of their own, published several times a week, be- sides hundreds of wallpapers. Fight the Right Danger. A Hundred Proletarians for Every Petty Bourgeois Rene- gade! church, synagogue, mosque or sectarian religi- ous house.” Reports from Moscow of the Unitede Press meanwhile state, quoting an unnamed “anti- religious propagandist,’ that the Soviet Union is more apprehensive of earthly plottings be- hind the secret scenes at the London naval conference than at the prayers suggested by Pope Pius. ; The War Signs Thicken. However, the symptoms of a rapidly erystal- lizing offensive of world imperialism against the Soviet Union are daily more evident if we take into account the already known actual military preparation being made in all of the border states, the arming of Roumania, Czecho- slovakia, Poland, Finland and the other Baltic countries, the #bvious support of ammunition and money being furnished all the White Guard military bands by the imperialist powers. The present ideological and “spiritual” mobiliza- tion against the Soviet Union will thus be seen as an indication of a genuine menace. The American press which have from time to time printed objective reports of the social- ist advance in the Soviet Union, the benefits it gives to the working class and the realistic progress of the Five-Year Plan, have suddenly reversed their engines and are now for the last few weeks either printing nothing, or are in- tensifying all hostile reports an@ featuring such poison propaganda as that of the pope. What Is “Religious Freedom.” The Pope and the other religious counter- revolutionaries have their own slogans of “reli- gious freedom,” which to them means the pro- hibition of all propaganda against religion. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, is the only country where religious freedom is really imperialism along with the Kerensky anti- 7 Church of England, and the Government of | the Conservative Party and a cynical imperial- | The Imperialist Wolt Pack Howls’ for War on the Workers Government freedom, and this includes the freedom to be | anti-religious, and the freedom of those who believe in science instead of superstition to organize for the enlightenment of the masses. It is the progress of scientific understand- ing which proceeds thus, hand in hand with the advance of socialist economy, of tractors and combine harvesters, of #n agriculture that de- | pends upon deep plowing instead of the “will of God,” on fertilizers instead of prayers, and on selected seeds instead of making crosses be- fore holy images, that has won and will con- tinue to win the peasants of the Soviet Union | from medieval superstition to.a scientific un- derstanding of natural phenomenm that is call- ed atheism. Further signs of a rapidly crystallizing anti+ Soviet offensive are seen among the following incidents: The acquittal in Paris of forgers of prom- issory notes of the Soviet Government, which makes it next to impossible for the Soviet Union to trade with a country which will not bar, and which in fact gives its authority toe any one that wishes to forge and cash Soviet obligations; in the acquittal, after a month of trial in’ Berlin, of the ring of counterfeiters and counter-revolutionists who are involved with the British, French and German govern- ment officials in an anti-Soviet plot for insur- rection in the Caucasus, but who did a lucra- tive business on the side in frauds and swindles of various kinds. While this gentry are released by the Berlin court under the excuse that the “amnesty law” of July, 1928, is applicable to their case as “political offenders,” we must,call the attention of all to the fact that there a¥e at this moment rotting in the German prisons, thousands of revolutionary German workers whom the “so- cialist” government of German capitalism con- laws. This acquittal is, as the “Isvestia’ states, an official German announcement that a crime is no crime when committed against the Soviet Union. One must not forget either that the recent public linking up of Austrian fascism. and Italian fascism, and of Jugoslavian fascism and Bulgarian fascism are evident results of the influence of the imperialist powers to or- ganize a counter-revolutionary block against the Soviet Union. French Imperialism Backs White Guards, Again we have the ominous signal of. war behind the rather ridiculous figure of the elopment of the Czarist white guard General Koutiepoff from Paris. The French fascists, closely encouraged by the Tardieu. government and linked tightly with the white guard bordes in Paris, are sensationally campaigning for a raid by the police upon the Soviet Embassy, under the absurd notion that Koutiepoff. was “murdered there.” . Far from the government frowning upon such wild notions, its semi-official organ, the “Temps,” openly declares that the Soviet em- bassy is a “nest of murderers,” etc., accidental- ly showing the gapitalist cloven hoof by re- marking that Bolshevists are “corrupting our (sie!) workers.” And it adds that “it is high time to bring to an end” such conditions, and so on. Then we have the London Naval Conference, a veritable imperialist cofispiracy if there ever was one. The London Conference, aside from its farcical asnect, its delusion of the masses on the issue of disarmament and peace, shows by its very secrecy that matters are being discussed there against the interests of the masses and, as one correspondent .admits, that the Soviet Union is the “big question” at the conference: though none admits it publicly. And it was precisely at the nonment of the - By Fred Ellis _ STARVE OR FIGHT! A Challenge to the Unemployed By GRACE M. BURNHAM, Labor Research Association. Note—The second installment dealt with the extent of unemploynient. The following is the third installment. ¥ ITHIN fourteen years, 1914-1928, there have been four periods when the number of un- employed ranged between four and six million. Capitalist economists accept these peaks of un- employment as inevitable and conincident with periods of business depression. But the un- erhployment crisis of 1927-1928 came during a period of corporate prosperity. Profits had never been so high. A review of the profits of 900 corporations made by the National City Bank showed $4,064,049,000 profits in 1928, compared with $3,549,231,000 in 1927, a gain of 14.8 per cent. Yet the number of unem- ployed during the winter and spring of 1928 was estimated to be anywhere from 4,000,000 to 6,800,000. There were no profits distributed . among these producers of American prosperity. The same thing happened in 1929. A stock exchange crash, a sharp drop in production, and a marked increase in the unemployed in the last months of the year did not prevent the corporations from reaping a harvest of gold even greater than in 1928. In fact 800 corporations, surveyed by the National City Bank, showed an increase in combined net prof- its of 12 per cent over the previous year. As the bank calmly observes that is “a good show- ing for a year that ended with sharp curtail- ment.” «The time between periods of business depres- sion is shorter in the United States than in any other country. The general average im | only 3.2 years. | terim for European countries is 5.4 years, while for the United States it ig only four years, Moreover, the time between periods of depres- sion in the United States is decreasing. Bez tween the years 1888 and 1923 it averaged If figured out for 1923-80 it would be ever shorter. And already in 1929- 30 we ‘have a crisis following close on that of 1927-28 and promising to be much more severe. Another factor in the unemployment cycle is the greater duration of periods of depression over periods of business prosperity. Unfor- tunately, figures for the United States have not been brought up to date, but they are never~ theless of great significance. The periods of business prosperity between 1873 and 1882 last- ed on the average only 42 months, while those of depression lasted 57 months. American business management has been un- able to solve the problem of business. stability. Stabilization of capital is becoming .increas- ingly insecure with the more frequent recur- rence of crises. ° Diseribing the crisis of October, 1929-Jan- uary, 1930, the Annalist of. December 20, 1929 states: “The outstanding fact of the business situation is the decrease in activity which has already occurred. . . . 8.1 points below the re- vised index for October. This decrease stands moreover, as the greatest which has. occurred in any one month in the entire post war period; and in all probability it represents the most severe decline in business activity that has oc- curred in any one month in the last half cen- tury, with the exception of those which occurred in the years 1893and 1907 when business reces- sion and then stock depression followed closely upon exceptionally severe declines in stock prices.” (To Be Continued) U. S. Unemployed Over 7,000,000 By HARRY GANNES.- HAT is the extent of the present unem- ployment in the United States? Several months ago, the Daily Worker announced.the jobless army as being 5,000,000. On the basis of the Department of Labor reports stating that about 600,000 were thrown out of work during November and December, and with the report of the Illinois and New York Labor Commissioners declaring that unemployment was increasing in January, the figure wag set at over 6,000,000. These figures are entirely too conservative! In the United States there are no absolutely accurate guides to the extent of unemploy- ment. Secretary of Labor Davis is notorious for his lying on unemployment. This little habit of his, naturally, was intensified during the present crisis. But we have some guides, from conservative and reactionary sources, that show without the shadow of a doubt that there are unemployed in the United States at the presnt time at least 7,000,000 workers. In April, 1928, the Labor Bureau, Incorpo- rated, a research organization that kow-tows to the reactionary American Federation of La- bor, issued the following figures on unemploy- ment in the so-called year of prosperity, 1928: Secretary of Labor Davis’ estimate of shrinkage: 1925-1928 ......... 1,874,050 Similar estimate of shrinkage 1923- 19256 ......... ete tececge + 1,230,870 Farm workers moved to city ++ 500,000 Increase in population looking fo WORK: 2s. seecseee + 2,196,000 Unemployed in 1923 + 1,000,000 Total - 6,800,290 By “shrinkage” is meant workers displaced by rationalization, speed-up, ete—what Hoov- er’s publicity agent in the Department of Commerce, Dr. Klein, calls “technological” un- employment. ‘Unemployed in 1923” are the permanent army of unemployed under capi- talism despite the best business conditions. Senator Wagner, democrat, on the basis of Secretary of Labor Davis’ report said there were out of work in 1928 as high as 5,796,920 workers. And Professor Horace Taylor of Columbia University at the September confer- London Conference when the United Sues which once in the Stimson note and previously in the seizure of the Chinese Eastern Railway by its servile tool, the Nanking Chinese Gov- tinues to hold in pris@n regardless of “amnesty” |, ernment, atteyipted to take the leadership in the offensive against the Soviet Union, tried again to signalize its desire to lead the forces of world counter-revolution by instructing its servants at the head of the Mexican govern- ment to break relations with the Soviet Union. These gathering war clouds must be taken due note of by all workers, who should at the same time realize that an attack upon the So- viet Union is to be accompanied by a savage onslaught against the working class in all capi- talist countries, The Soviet Union, which is building a social- ist. society, abolishing unemployment as it edily industrializes the country under the e-Year Plan, which takes care through so- cial insurance of the unemployed, the sick and the aged, which allows workers to be really free in religion or anti-religion, and which raises the wages, shortens the hours and en- riches the cultural life of the masses with every passing day, is for these reasons the only progressive country on earth and the firm and impregnable fortress of the world pro- letariat. On Guard—Workers! While the forces of fascist reaction, of war, starvation and superstition darken the lives of the toiling masses of the capitalist world, the Soviet Union, desiring peace to continue its progress toward socialism, will nevertheless find its workers and peasants ready to make their (and our!) Red Army a solid wall of steél to repel any armed attack of arms made against it, It is up to the proletariat in the capitalist countries, understanding that the imperialist bide wish to attack the Soviet Union pre- isely to prevent further progress toward so- cialism, to let their capitalists and their gov- ernments know in no unmistakable tones that a declaration of war upon the Soviet Union will be answered by revolution. ence of the reactionary New York Women’s Trade Union League said: “The number of unemployed in this country at the present time is about 4,000,000.” From all these capitalist sources it is very | clear that at the beginning of 1929 there were between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000. unemployed workers. In the first part of 1929 production was at the highest rate in the history of American capitalism. But this absorbed ‘very / little of the millions of unemployed—plus the® population of new young workers evailable for ‘ work—due to the tremendous: speed-up. pro- cesses introduced by the capitalists. Beginning with September, 1929, hundreds of thousands of workers were thrown out of work because of rapidly declining production in steel, building, automobiles, etc. The An- nalist, organ of Wall Street, on the basis of the Department of Labor figures on unemploy- : ment for October, November and December early in January stated that atleast 700, workers in manufacturing plants alone became jobless because of the crisis. This did not cover railroad workers, miners, office workers, department store workers, farm workers, Or others. = Still, on this basis, though we realize that there are millions—anywhere from 6,000,000 to 8,000,000—unemployed, the capitalists. have been careful to see that no definite, authorita- tive figures are issued. 3 On the 1st of February, the American Fed- eration of Labor, under ‘the: signature , of Green, declared that- 19 per cent of the mem- bers of the A. F. of L- were unemployed. There are no means of directly checking, up Mr. Green’s figures. But we can take it for granted that they very much understate. the | actual facts. Green is working hand-in-glove with Hoover and Davis, and certainly would do nothing to embarrass them. . Hence he issued the most conservative figures he pos- sibly could on unemployment. But we will accept Mr. Green’s figures, as a basis of com- putation, and merely add 1 per cent for the unemployment that has occurred since the Sarco Federation of Labor compiled its ist. This gives us the round figure of 20 per cent unemployment in the American Federa- tion of Labor, on the admission of the most reactionary labor leader in the world; a close friend and associate of Hoover, and a strike- breaker of the first water. Production dropped most severely in the automobile and steel industries during. the past six months, Mainly unskilled workers are employed in these industries. ‘or in+ stance, automobile production dropped 81 per cent; the steel industry now is working at be- tween 15 and 25 per cent below the average of 1929 and 1928. 4 By applying Green’s conservative figure. of 20 per cent unemployment to the entire work- ing class—about 35,000,000—we come to the conclusion that there are at the presént time atdeast 7,000,000 jobless workers tramping the streets looking for work. c , One of the chief means of meeting the pres- ent crisis being devised by the bosses. is the rationalization of their plants. This is evident in every basic industry—steel, automobile, rubber, building. Even if the bosses. are able to raise production above the present crisis level they intend to ‘do it with their present working forces—ani possibly with even. re- duced numbers of workers. Mass, chronic, permanent unemplo: here to stay, under capitalism, i sits ‘a Workers! Join the Party of Your Class! } Communist Party U. S. A. 43 East 125th Street, New York City. I, the undersigned, want to join the Commu- nist Party. Send me more information. ac f TPO ener ence serrate en eee cmeeee Name . Address , Occupation . Party, 43 East 125th St., New le: Mail this to the Central Otticn Comuedniss