The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 30, 1931, Page 8

~ ORGANIZE AGAINST llows “The presidenf was authorized by the em- ployers who wete present at this morning's conferencé, to state on their individual behalf that they will not initiate any movement for wage reduction, and it was their strong rec- ommendation that this attitude should be pursued by the country as 2 whole. They con- sidered that aside from the human consid- erations involved, the consuming power of the country will thereby be maintained. “The president was also authorized by the representatives of labor to state that in their individual views strong recom- mendation-to ihe o> 15 a Whole, that. no movements beyond tho eady in negotia- tion should be initiated crease of wages, and that every cooperation should be given by labor to industry in the handling of its prob- lems. “The purpose of these declarations fs to give assurance that conflicts should not occur during the present situation which will affect the continuity ef work, and thus maintain stability of employment.” ‘The wage éut drive 1s Was organized stock mi + crash of of the } § the misleaders of the Labor On November 21s in Washington-of the “5 the whole offitialdom of the Am tion of Labor headed by Green, Woll and Mor- rison. At this conference was i strike” and “no wage cul ‘The Daily Worker of No’ pointed out that this was a wage slashing campaign, saying “As repeatedly pointed out fort the el} after “py the Daily Worker, especially since the crash of the Stock Exchange, American capitalism is launching a drive to cut wages, hoping to rescue itself from lessening profits at the ex- pense of the workers.” The A. Fi-ef-ix officials promised “that no movements beyond those already in negotiation shouldbe initiated for increase of wages, and that every cooperation should be given by labor to industry (taf is, the bosses) in the handling of its problems,” ‘The purpose of t was to aid the bosses in preserving their profits. Green and Hoover promised the workers there would be no wage cuts, there would be no strikes, and that the re- sult would be workers. The A. F. of L—Wall Street statement. said: That the bosses would “maintain stability of employment.” Who They Were. Among the A. F. of L. leaders who were pres- Publishing Co, Ine dail gonquin i958 50 eiephon st aily Workers AND STRIKE Breater employment for the | ent and entered into this strike breaking agree- | ment were: T. A. Rickert, United Garment Work- | ers; John Li: Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers of. America; William L. Hutcheson, president of the United Brotherhood of Carpen- ters and Joiners of America; William J. Mc- Sorley, president of the building trades depart- ment of the Ainerican Federation of Labor; John P. Frey, secretary of the metal trades depart- ment of the American Federation of Labor; B. M. Jewel, president of the railway employes’ de- partinent of the American Federation of Labor, Chicago; A: Job president of the Brother- By HARRISON GEORGE. ‘HE Soviet Union, being the especial target of all capitalist liars, is “going back to capital- ism.” the extension of piece work and other changes bringing Soviet’ workers’ wages nearer to ac- cordance with their production and relating it to the fulfillment of the production program. The capitalist*liars who say this, also said the | Soviet: was “going, back to capitalism” in 1922, when the New Economic Policy (“NEP”) was made under» Lenin's advice, But neither then nor now do the capitalists cease attacking the Soviet’ Union! Why is that? Because in. the Soviet Union the industries be- Jong—to the workers. While in capitalist Amer- ica industry belongs to the capitalist class. In the Soviet Union the workers are very glad to help industry--their industry—even sacrificing many comforts. they might have right now, to build up new and greater industries, the basis @f a really socialist economy. Because American capitalists are using piece work to cut down wages here in America, they try to make American workers think that the same thing is true in the Soviet Union. Yet there, where. the ‘workers own industry and gov- ernment, tod, piece work does not lower the workers’ staridard of living, but on the contrary —it raises standards. For under workers’ rule and ownership, there are no fat-bellied capitalist stockholders seek- ing to slice piece rates down so they can get more profits, but a workers’ industry, interested in beth advancing wages and in producing more goods. Piece work is not bad just because it is piece work, but because under capitalism the capitalist owners of industry use it to cut wage standards and drive the workers half crazy with speed-up to get more production for Jess wages. It is not “fhe-same” in the Soviet Union. The Sixth Soviet Congress which authorized the pres- ent change in “wage methods, did not order a wage cut. On’ the contrary, Molotov reported that in 1931 the Soviet would pay out $1,430,000,- 000 more in wages than in 1930! How can any- one make a wage cut out of that? But the capitalist lars ‘of America want American work- ers, who lost ! 000,000 off their total wages in 1930, that, and get excited about “piece worl Soviet Union.” At what 1 the piece work wages? Ah, the capitalists don’t tell you that! They do not tell you what proportion of the national income goes to those who toil to produce it! Yet in 1930, the share of the national income of those ed” in the United States was while-in the Soviet Union the share of the nd toiling farmers who do not, it the labor @f others was 77.1 per cent of the national A Almost ai ‘rest went to build industry— So shout many capitalist papers about | ‘also for the workers, for pensions and other ben- | efits gare by the workers, and only wo per WAGE CUTS! , assis , the Central Committee of the , U.S. A., warned the American e would follow nation-wide wage cuts for the workers, The Central Com- mittee’ told the American worker “Phe bureaucrats of the A. F, of L. pre- tend to speak in the name of American labor. Hoover called them in to discuss plans how the bosses can continue operation of indus- tries in the crisis without disturbing by what they call ‘labor troubles.’ Hoover and the capi- {alists know that the pressure of the crisis will force the working masses to organize and fight against the bosses as the only means to secure a decent existence. The program agreed upon was: MAKE THE WORKERS PAY! The A. F. of L. bureaucrats accepted this program and pledged themselves, on their part to make the workers submit, They pledged themselvs, ‘No movement should be initiated for increase of wages, and that every cooperation should be given by labor to industry in the handling of its preblems. You workers of America might have the illusion that the bureaucrats of the A. F. of L. ought to discuss the question. how our problems can be solved. But that it is not the bureaucrats’ point of view. They concern themselves with how the bosses’ prob- lems can be solved. “The first step in Hoover's plan is to in- tensify the speed-up and to slash wages. This is supposed to revive the falling profits and help the American capitalists take more mar- kets away from their competitors, But this measure also, which must meet the energetic resistance ef the workers, cannot solve this crisis for capitalism, even to the extent that it is successful. The reduction of the earnings of the working class, as likewise as the re- duction of the purchasing power of farmers, may give capitalism immediate profits, but sharply cut down the domestic market. As a re- sult, the crisis will be intensified.” What was the result of this conference? The total payroll of the American workers during 1930-was cut over $12,000,000,000. In the unions represented by the A. F, of L. misleaders who were present at Hoover's conference, wage cuts have been repeatedly handed out. At the present time there is a drastic wage cut drive impending in the railroad industry with the officers of the railroad unions aiding Hoover and the bankers to prepare the wage cut drive. One of the officials of the railroad unions, Doak, is now Secretary of Labor. His sole func- tion is to prepare the wage cut drive in the rail- road industry. The result of the agreement be- tween the bosses and the A. F, of L, officialdom has been an effective wage cutting drive while the A. F. of L, bureaucrats acted as strike- breakers. Now as a logical result. of this process, a new wage cutting drive, more drastic than the $12,- 000,000,000 cut in 1930 is under way. It will hit first in the steel industry and on the railroad. All workers who received wage cuts in 1930 will | get further cuts as the result of the present wage cut drive. ‘There can be only one answer to this drive: Organize and strike against wage cuts! Unite with the unemployed for a battle against the except Sunday. at 50 B § able: * E t cet, New York, N. ¥ capitalist starvation program. Into the streets May 1 to demonstrate your determination to take up the challenge! Soviet Wages and Anti-Soviet Liars cent went to exploiting classes (rich farmers who hire labor and some city capitalists, small fish), compared to over 50 per cent of the national in- come of the United States, grabbed by a small number of utterly useless parasite capitalists. ‘Wm. Green, head of the A. F. of L., speaking at the Conference of “Progressives” at Washing- ton in March, admitted that in 1929 American | factory workers received only 16.5 per cent of | the value of the goods they produced. “Oh,” said Green, “considerably less than was paid in 1899.” Of course, any sensible worker knows that the Russian workers took over a country ruined by capitalism, not only industrially but culturally. ‘There was and still largely remains, a vast dif- ference between skilled or professional labor and unskilled and unschooled labor. Marx has shown that until the difference is wiped out between the labor of hand and brain, there cannot be complete equality in compensation for these two kinds of Jabor. Marx and Lenin also showed that between capitalism and complete Communism, there is a historical period of transition, during which the workers rule, as today in the Soviet Union, but which is burdened by these differences between laborers inherited from capitalism which make a mechanical equalization of wages economically impossible, The liars for capitalism try to make workers believe that this is the fault of workers’ rule! So there are wages paid in the Soviet Union that vary. As the Communist International Program puts it: “The productive forces of so- cialism are not yet sufficiently developed to assure a distribution af the products of labor according to needs; these are distributed ac- cording to amount of labor expended"—by the worker. Marx, even before the Bolshevik Revolution, wrote the folowing about the necessity of a varia- tion in wage rates paid to different workers under workers’ rule such as exists in the Soviet Union today: “. 4. the indivigual producer receiver back precisely what he gives to society.’ What he has given is his individual quantum of labor....He receives back from society the same quantum of work in another form’—in articles of consump- tion, Again he says,”..if labor is to be the stand- ard of measurement, it is necessary to take into ALWO SUBSCRIPTION RATES: By mall everywhere: One year, $6; six months. $3; two months, $1; of Manhattan and Bronx, New York Ctly. Foreign: one year, $8 cepting Boroughs siz months. $4.50. PARTY LIFE Conducted by the Organization Department of the Central Committee, Communist Party, U.S.A. Some More ‘6 P.M. Communists’, By P. 8. (Niagara Falls, N. ¥.) iB is necessary to point out the things which | I think will be of great help.in strengthening our-roots in the shops. We have been asking ourselves why we fail to get the workers from the shops into the Party and ‘into. ofr unicns, but we have not gone ay further than that. In many units of the Buffalo District we have members who are working in very important in- dustries but we have failed so far to utilize them properly in doing shop work. And in many in- stances when they are apprdached by some lead- ing comrade, or a lower comrade to work out a way to be able to get some new blood into our ranks,, they raise their hands in the air and give all kinds of excuses that the workers don’t want to get organized, For example in myjunit we have a comrade who is working in a very im- portant and big shop. It is known by everyone that he is a-Communist. He knows that’ the workers in his department: are well oppressed. But when the question comes to do some con- crete work, inside of the shop here the fun starts. Then in one of my former units to which I belonged we had 3 or 4 of our comrades work- ing in the same shop. This is the most impor- tant industry of our district where they are em- ployed. It is known by everyone what they are. We started many times to discuss the question of doing shop work with them, but instead of contributing some suggestions of means and ways of doing it, they give you hell, with ‘the excuse “we don’t want to -be exposed.” 2) As far as I know this is happening in all of our units. The comrades are well advertized, out not activized in the proper way. It is best to point out that these “Bolsheviks” are not even members yet of their respective unions. _They want to do, and hold 101 other positions, but. not shop work to help in-the organization of the workers in the shops where they are working as the best way of improving this situation, I would suggest these things: 1. The district leadership to try to explain to these comrades carefully and-personallythe im- portance of doing shop work, by using the best possible tactics in approaching, and organizing the workers. If the comrade is not well ac- quainsed with the English language ,try to have ‘an interpreter, so the points raised can be made clear. , 2. Work out a plan with those who are work- ing in the shop, a plan how to carry on the activities. “Let the one that is working give sug- gestions how to do the things. If an outsider, who is not in the shop, starts giving the sug- gestions, maybe they will say, “Here this guy comes along and thinks that he knows all about the shop,” and it may discourage him more. 3. That they be released from all outside re- sponsibilities, and be put on responsible work in the shop. f 4, To be explained to ther the importance of. why they should be members of a union, and how to help in organizing it. Organize Unemployed Councils to Fight!’ for Unemployment Reiief, Organize the Employed Workers Into Fighting Unions. Mobilize the Employed and Unemployed for Common Strug-— gles Under the Leadership of the Trade Union Unity League production is shattered; with the standard of living (which is the real wages) already 167 per cent above pre-war and.still rising, while millions are starving, in capitalist America; with the seven-hour day established, while American bosses enforce nine, ten, twelve and ever more hours of those still working; with unemployment wiped out under Soviet rule, while America has 10,000,000 jobless—the capitalist Nars‘have a lot account the duration of the intensity of the labor ‘Thus we see that the new methods of deter- mining wages in the Soviet Union, are not a “step toward capitalism” as the American boss. press liars would have us believe, but are in line with socialist development. Piece work already existed and is merely extended by the new meth- ods hut without injury to the workers; on the contrary, to theirbenefit. With Soviet production leaping ahead at around 25 per cent or more annually, while capitalist of nerve to blabber about Soviet conditions! | As productive forces are developed in the’ Soviet Union to the heights foreseen by Lenin and Marx, and as the last remnants of the inequalities inherited from capitalism are wiped out .by the socialist undermining of their material basis. in social relationships, money and wage payments will be done away with altogether, The higher stage of Communism will be reached, wherein each will give according to his abilities, and each will receive according to his needs. i they tell you about in the capitalist papers.) ‘country, killing thousands. Standard of Living Goes Up in the Air By J. BARNETT. URING the first two years of the Five Year Plan alone the wages paid to the workers of the Soviet Union were increased by 4,700,000,000 rubles (a ruble is worth 51!5 cents.) This was an increase for the two years of 12 per cent. The real wages, that is wages in terms of what the worker can buy, thus reached 40 per cent more than they were in Tsarist Russia, just before the War. For every $100.00 of wages under the Tsar, they now get’$140.00 under workers’ control. In 1931 there will be a further increase, during one year, of 6 per cent. Thus the wages mount higher and higher. At the same time hours are steadily lowered. The Soviet workers have the shortest hours, broken by frequent rest periods, and the short- est week in the world. Almost all industries will be on the.7-hour day at the end of this year; the 6-hour day in dangerous and arduous trades has existed for a long time. Work is steady, | there being no unemployment, and the number of wage earners is rapidly increasing—2,000,000 more will be added this year, making the total 16,000,000. Of course all workers get vacations with pay. In addition to wages the Soviet workers haye any extra advantages, which must be considered in their. standard of living. There are such bene- fits as social insurance for sickness, accidents, old age, etc., bonuses from net profits, free use of municipal institutions, tramways, etc., hous- ing, education, public health services and public feeding services. Last year 6,571,000,000 rubles was spent by the Soviet Union for these benefits. When they are added to real wages, we find that the workers’ standard of living was 67% above pre-war, or, for each $100 of wages before the war, the workers now get, the equivalent of $167. This year the expenditure for social benefits ‘will be 9,699,000,000 rubles. Thus the standard of | living advances. Rents and prices are the lowest for the work- ers (private business men pay high prices, which In the Moscow Kitchen Factory No. 1, the price of a hot two course dinner is only 15 cents. This year community restaurants according to esti- mates will serve up to 37,000,000 hot meals a day at a very low price. The well-being of the Soviet workers is shown in many ways. They and their familes are healthier. In Moscow the death rate for in- fants was 28.7 out of every 100 births in 1912-13, whereas in 1928-29 the death rate was only 12.7. | The death rate of the working class has been | cut by more than half. ‘The country is rid of the | epidemics and scourges that used to sweep the Great strides are being made’ in education. In 1913, at most, 27 per cent were literate, 62 per cent were literate in 1930 and in 1931 the figure is to reach 75 per cent. In 1930, 10,500,000 went through special schools for making them literate, while in 1931, 25,000,000 more will go. Compulsory education now exists for the young. In Tsarist Russia during 1914-15, the number of pupils in primary schools was only 7,236,000, while in 1931, in the workers’ state there are 16,000,000. Universal education in the native language has been established for all minor nationalities. Newspaper circulation for 1931 is 27,000,000 while in pre-war it. was only 2,728,000. In 1914 only 130,000,000 books were published, which in the main the workers could not not. read or en- joy, while last year 500,090,000 were published for the benefit of the toilers. Radios are being provided as rapidly as pos- | sible. In 1929 there were 400,000 individual sets, while at the first of this year there were 2,746,000 individual sets; °2,100,000 of these in the country and 646,000 in cities. 1,800,000 more sets are to be added in 1931. Then there will be one set to every 36 people. But this is only a very small proportion of the radio audience, for in addi- tion tt the cities and nearly half of the “reading huts” in the villages have sets with loud speakers, A new kind of workers’ city is being developed. In Stalingrad region, five new cities are being built, each to have a population of 50,000 to 60,000 in which’ there is. to be the greatest possible socialization of houskeeping and cultural acti- vities. club rooms, libraries, gymnasiums, etc. The en- tire population is to be fed from a central “Food Combinat” where food is procured, stored and prepared. Semi-prepared food will be delivered to differerit: sections and there prepared for final serving. There will be no individual kitchens de- signed for anything beyond the simplest. cook- ing. These cities will be combined with the surrounding farming region so that there will be the advantage of city and country living. It is any wonder that the workers are enthu- siastic about these conditions and these pros- pects? While capitalism suffers the most severe crisis, and carries on the most frenzied attack against the workers’ standard of living, in the Soviet Union, industries are prosperous and work- ers live better every year. The difference ‘between capitalisrh’ run for the profit of the bosses and socialism run for the toilers, stands out in unmistakable terms, Be- sides the immediate benefits, the industries that. are being built beling to the workers, 95 per cent. of industry is socialized. In the basic heavy in- dustry, the socialized section furnished over 99 per cent of the output last year. Over 45 per cent of the peasants households belong to the collective farms, and the number is rapidly in- creasing. All of these things mean enormous in- creases in the standard of living in the near future. ‘ Why They Cut Wages By HARRY GANNES. | More! step of the sharpening of the present { crisis proceeds with heavy attacks against the. workers. Last year the American workers suffered the loss of $12,000,000,000 through wage cuts, and we are only in the first stage of the wage cutting drive. The “Boston Financial News,” on February 17, 1931, in a leading edi- torial entitled “The Big Economic Bump Ahead,” said that the main task before the bosses was “deflation of wages of skilled labor.” — They go on to sey: “There must be not only a lowering of wages fo conform with the new living standards, but there must concurrently be an improvement in © the quality of labor given in return for these wages,” i Py "i ‘This is. pretty plain talk. Here we have them tell the workers: “Your wages are coming down. What is more, you are going to work harder for -less wages!” The “economic bump ahead” is planned for the steel-workers, railroad workers, textile work- ers, automobile workers, and along with them the rest of the workers who already have re- ceived pay cuts. The “No Strike” Agreement. » Such is the fruit of the Green-Woll-Morrison agreement with the bosses to adhere to a “no strike” polley, At the time this agreement was made in No- vember, 1929, Hoover felt confident that the crisis would be over after a brief attack the workers. But. Green, Hoover and Woll had made the same mistake that Lovestone made when he said the basic structure of American imperialism was untouched as a result of the crisis, i 7 Now Lovestone ‘in his latest issue of the “Revo- lutionary Age” gives the bosses heart by intimat- ing that there will be an “improvement” by sum- ‘mer. Eyen Hoover would not dare to come out with any such bold promises. ‘ But the facts of the crisis show nothing of the kind. The demagogue LaFollette is already plan- ning for the tremeridous unemployment that will exist_next winter due to the continuation of the crisis. Transferring the Burden, ‘The profits of the American capitalists have been slipping rapidly due to the. break-down of the capitalist productive machine. They have saved billions out of the hides of the workers al- ready by wage-cutting, by refusing unemploy- ment relief, and by speeding-up the workers. ‘They are not satisfied with this, as the burden they have transferred onto the. backs of the workers, huge as it is, has not been sufficient. to make the sli t dent in the crisis. Now they propose to double this burden, to make more profits by tearing the bread out of the mouths of the workers who are lucky enough to have Jobs, by squeezing more work out of them, by lengthening theiy hours. © ah M the individual sets, every workers’ club in | Connected. with. the living quarters are | Kone. | By JORGE —nemeeece Why, Oh, Why? “Asking a few friends of mine to come to the May Day celebration at the Coliseum, I was quite unexpectedly met with a refusal. They said they had been at Central Opera House, New Star Casio and other large halls the Com- munist Party and other revolutionary organiza- tions use, and at not one of them, could they hear the speakers. “There is such'a constant buzz of conversa- tion in the audience that these workers, and probably many others, have become disgusted. “One of these friends of mine is a Canadian, and he says that in contrast to the way Party members behave at meetings in New York-- making social gatherings of meetings—Canadian meetings are so still while a speaker is on the Platform that you can hear a pin drop; no matter how poor a speaker he may be, he is attentively listened to, “Here, even when Comrade Foster speaks, there are a great many separate little cliques in the audience that do not give a damn whether others around them want to hear the speaker or not. And these cliques are made up 100 per cent of Party members who think that the speeches are not for them, and who attend only to be ‘correct.'—A, Lerner.” » comrade, and usually those who come to chew the rag with each other are the ones who think they already know more than Lenin did, but who, far from being “correct” are po- litical cripples. We suggest, purely on our own initiative, that some examples be made of of- fenders. Their name and unit number should be demanded at the meetings they disrupt. If they refuse to give it, they should be ejected. When ascertained, their unit should be informed and a record kept. Repeated offense to. be punishable under the Baumes law, or something the Control Commission may decide. Anyway, something must be done. Some Progress Well, we are glad to see the “Needle Worker,” organ of the Needle Trades Workers’ Industrial Union, coming out in English, The boys and girls are learning something. But while we were looking around for a N. T. W. I. U. official to pat on the back for it, we were handed a letter from Chicago, from some- one named John Hecker, who can’t see why the heck he got a letter (which he enclosed) entirely in Yiddish. It, seemed to be—as we learned after consulting with a. Jewish comrade—a circular sent’ out by @ committee for what is called the “United Bazaar” which was, is or will be held by the Needle Trades Industrial Union and the Work- ers Cooperative Society of Chicago. But the “united” bazaar was evidently meant to unite only the Jewish workers, although the Industrial Union in Chicago, as elsewhere, ought | to know better, Nor is there an indication why | the Workers Cooperative Society is limited to | Jewish workers—the name doesn’t tell us any- thing but “workers.” Anyhow, the worker who cannot understand Yiddish was mystified and sent it to'us to figure | out.» At the bottom it was signed, so our trans- lator says, by Held, Gersh, and Orlov. Maybe they can explain how come, but if they want us to read their explanation, we hope they'll send it in English. sharpening the wage cut drive will be intensi- fled as one of the capitalist levers for oyercom- ing the crisis. ‘The steel industry is the most important single industry in the United States as it accurately re- flects conditions in the automobile, building, railroad, electrical and other enterprises, Where Dividends Come From. It is interesting to remember vhere the last, dividends of the U. S. Steel Corporation came from to learn where they propose to get the next from. One thitd of the last quarterly divi dend (profits) paid by the U. S. Steel Corpora- tion came from tax returns (that is, Mellon paid himself and the other steel stockholders millions of dollars out of government funds); another third came from reserye fund (that is, from profits preduccd by the workers in years gone by); and the last third came from the current Profits. But current profits are being cut down. The next dividend the bosses Propose to pay ont of the wages of the steel workers, by slashing them, by firing thousands of workers, and mak- ing those who stay on the job do twice the amount of work they did hefore. ‘The facts of the continued decline in steel pre- duction show this to be inevitable. “Steel,” one of the leading mouthpieces for the steel industry said last week: 2 “One of the chief supports of the steel mar- ket thus far in 1931—moderate demand from the automotive industry—has been somewhat undermined this week by a decline in the Ford Motor Co.'s requirements, which seems to lend substance to the report that the company will shut down at Detroit for two months this sum- mer while its assembly plants work off a large surplus of parts.” ag So Mr. Ford has been overproducing again and will shut down in the summer when Love~ stone promises the bosses prosperity, and the demand for steel will go still lower. But we have some later and sadder news for the steel bosses, and that is the most recent re- ports that steel and fron orders are the worst in the history of the steel industry. The Journal of Commerce (April 28, 1921) has this to say about it: “Dullest in Their Memory.” “Not only are pig iron sales.the smallest of the year, but some sellers who have been in the iron business for a generation or more state that it is the dullest in their memory.” ¥ i All this is based on facts such as the follow- naz : 1) The railroads have the largest number of unused cars on their hands than ever bAfore. On April 8 the number of these unused é in good repair was 628,704; this was an fn crease of 7,195 cars in one week. 2) The General Electric Co. on April 22, 1931, reported that there was a decrease of 33 per cent in orders billed by that company for the first quarter of the year. ‘ 3) Automobile production is going down with the prospect of Ford shutting up entirely. 4) Building construction “the first half of the month showed a decline of 9 per cent, aguinst a normal seasonal rise of 10” (An- nalist, April 24, 1931). it All this shows that the capitalists see only ons