The Daily Worker Newspaper, November 7, 1931, Page 6

rage ‘Iwo DAILY WORKER, NEW YURK, Capitalism Collabses-- Socialism Marches On We are printing excerpts from various statements by Comrade Stalin and those made by leading representatives of the ‘capitalist class. Contrast the statements made by Comrade Stalin, which reflect the enthusiasm of the Soviet Union and its triumphant march toward socialism with these of the repre- sentatives of the capitalist class which reflect the gloom, uncer- tainty, decay and bankruptcy of the capitalist system and their growing fear and panic for the rising giant -the Five-Year Plan. - Statements by Comrade Stalin. “We are becoming a country of metallurgy, a country of autome- biles, a country of tractors, and_ when the Soviet Union will be put on the automobile and its peasant on a tractor, let the worthy capitalist gentlemen who boast of their ‘civilization’ try to keep pace with us. We shall yet see which countries may be ‘de- fined’ as progressive and which as backward.” . . . “Is our production program ac- complishable or not? Most cer- tainly it is. It is accomplishable because all the con. tions necessary for its accomplishment exist. It is accomplishable because its accom- plishment depends on ourselves, on our ability and willingness to make use of the vast possibilities at our disposal. How else can we explain the fact that a large number of en- terprises and whole branches of in- dustry have already more than ful- filled their plan? It wce-'’d be stupid to think that the production plan is a mere enumeration of figures and tasks. As a matter of fact, the production plan is the embodiment of the living and practical activity of millions of toilers who are en- gaged in creating a new life. The reality of our plan consists in live people, you and me, our will and our labor, our readiness to work in the new way, our determination to carry out the plan. Have we got that determination? We have. Well then, our production plan can be carried out, and will be carried out.” (From Stalin’s speech, deliv- ered on June 23, 1931, to the lead- ers of industry.) * s oD “It is clear that the question asked as to who will beat whom, as to whether Socialism or Capitalism will beat in industry, or vice versa, has already in the main been de- cided in favor of Socialism. It has been definitely and irrevocably set- tled.” s > 2 “We are rapidly marching for- ward, and we shall overtake the most advanced capitalist countries from the point of view of their economic development.” . . > Statements by Representatives of the Capitalist Class. W.._ P. Simms, Scripps-Howard foreigh editor, in an article on Oct. 5, referring to the recent interna- tional conferences, states: “The object of these epochal go- ings and comings, it is admitted be- hind the scenes, .is nothing less than to prevent, not merely the collapse of this or that particular country, but of the white man’s universe as a whole. For recent events have driven Washington, London, Paris, Berlin and Rome to thé startling realization that only some sane ac- cord on international finances, economics and armaments—and that promptly—can prevent a gen- eral smash.” ‘ ct * > The Commercial and Financial Chronicle of Sept. 26 says: “The far-reaching consequences of this action (the pound sterling losing its gold. standard) can hardly be over- estimated. It is one of the catas- trophic events of the century, sure to be aitended by a long train of ill consequences, from which Great Britain and perhaps the world at large is bound to suffer.” * * . Bertrand Russell, in an interview published in the New York World- Telegram of Oct, 24, says: “The capitalist system is failing, under pressure. The world is look- ing to Russia to see whether a bet- ter system has been found. If the Five-Year P’lan succeeds the evi- dence will be overwhelming and the propaganda enormous.” POVERTY FOR THE AMERICAN COAL AND By W. M. The exploitation of workers in Central Pennsylvania is immeas- urable. The coal miners are not paid for dead work. The miner has to work sometimes three days cleaning up the mine, laying the rails, putting up props, all for nothing; they are cheated on the scale from 30 to 50 per cent; and robbed in the company stores. On the pay day, they draw 27 cents, 5 cents or just a statement without any pay. In the steel mills in Johnstown, Bethlehem Steel (Schwab interest) and Lorain Steel (United States Corporation), the speed-up has hours cut down from 10 to 8 but they have to produce more in 8 hours than they did in 10. The steel workers have to report to the mill every day but they hardly get one day a week to work. The slave condition was not sat- STEEL. WORKERS isfactory to the bosses and Octoo- ber 1 they cut the wages of ali steel workers and coal miners 10 per cent. The ranks of the unemployed are increasing every day. Just before the wage cut took place, the Beth- |lehem Steel shut down two mines laying off over 1,000 miners. In the city of Johnsttown and its boros there are about 20,000 unemployed workers in actual starvation. The coal and steel workers in the Soviet Union have received the largest wage increases. In the Uni- ted States the coal and steel work- ers are the victims of the heaviest wage-cuts, On the very day when’ the Steel Trust announced a 10 per cent wage-cut, the workers in the Steel Industry in the Soviet Union received a 30 per cent increase in wages. The largest number of unemployed in capitalist America is to be found amongst the coal and steel workers, IN CAPITALIST AMERICA «. Unemployed miners near Pittsburgh evicted from the miserable eompany shacks by the coal barons. «4, 1931 Wage-Cus in Capitalist America~-- Wage Increases 'HE rapid progress of the Five Year Plan means continuous improvement in the standard of living of the toiling masses in the Soviet Union. The increase in production means more wages, better living conditions. The success of the five- year plan completely liquidated unemployment. The wages of the workers in the coal industry in the U.S.S.R. has for the past year increased 41.5 per cent, steel and iron, 30.9 per cent; oil, 40.4 per cent; machine building, 33.. per cent, and woodworking, 30.3 per cent. In all of these industries the workers in capi- talist America have received heavy wage cuts. Compare the above-mentioned wage increases for the workers in a country where therp is a Soviet system with the following figures of wage cuts for workers in a country where Morgan, Ford, and other parasites are the rulers. > * * * WAGE CUTS and mass unemployment have re- duced the earnings of workers in the United States during the year 1931 by at least $10,- 000,000,000 below the 1929 level. In 1930 the loss in workers’ earnings was estimated as over $3,- 000,000,000. Even before the steel wage cut, effective Oc- ( tober 1, 1931, and the landslide that followed it, the buying power of workers employed in the manufacturing industries alone had dropped, as a result of unemployment, wage cuts and part- time work, by $4,454,000,000 between June, 1929, and June, 1931, or 39 per cent below the 1929 figure of total wages. (U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.) Between December, 1925, and June, 1931, the total amount paid in wages in manufacturing industries dropped about 40 per cent, it was ad- mitted by Ethelbert Stewart, U. S. Commis- sioner of Labor Statistics. Wage cuts, unem- ple-ment and part-time work account for this tremendous loss in the income of factory workers. In the one month ending August 15, 1931, an incomplete report of wage cuts, as made to the U. S. Department of Labor, showed 221 cuts in 50 separate industries, affecting more than 20,700 workers. Incomplete records kept by the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show that by August 15, over 292,000 workers in manufacturing indus- tries alone had been forced to take pay slashes since the stock market collapse in 1929. This report includes only “such cuts in wages as have been reported to the bureau” and covers only factory workers. Between June, 1930, and June, 1931, earnings of iron and steel workers dropped by 23 per cent; of automobile workers by 15 per cent and of workers making agricultural implements by 18 per cent. Outside the manufacturing industries, wage re- in the USSR ductions were even larger than in the factories. Earnings of metal miners dropped by 19 per cent; of soft coal miners by 21 per cent, and of hard coal miners by more than 21 per cent. Cuts of October 1, 1931. The long-expected drive led openly by the largest corporations against wage scales began with the announce- ment that the U. S. Steel Corp., Bethlehem Steel Corp., American Smelting & Refining Co., _ and Utah Copper Co. would cut wages 10 per cent on October 1. At the same time General Motors Corp. announced a salary cut of from 10 to 20 per cent, and U. S. Rubber Co. announced that the plant would work the 5-day week with & wage and selary cut of 9 per cent. Over 00,000 workers were immediately af~ fected by these cuts. U. S. Steel alone employs 220,000 -wage-earners, including steel workers, IN THE SOVIET UNION A New Home for a Miner in the Urals coal miners, railroad workers and others. Beth- lehem Steel employs 50,000 and Youngstown Sheet and Tube about 30,000. In the Pittsburgh district alone, over 100,000 workers were included in the cuts which totalled $15,000,000 a year. Nor is the 10 per cent cut the most serious reduction in steel workers’ earnings, Wages in August (before the latest cut) were only 45 per cent of the 1926 level for those still having jobs. But only 63 per cent of those working 5 years ago have jobs now in the steel industry. [New Auto Plants Rise in the Soviet Union— Mass Unemployment and Starvation in Detroit N October 1 the new plant of the Amo factory in Moscow was opened. It will produce the largest trucks in-the world. The Nizni-Novgorod auto plant is making rapid headway. The num- ber of workers employed in the auto industry in the Soviet Union is increasing. The wages are constantly going up. The auto industry was at one time the pilary of prosperity. The pride of America. Ford was supposed to have ushered in a new era in capi- talism. Not Marx showed the way of emanicpa- tion to the working class, but Henry Ford. ... So preached the misleaders of Labor, And* now! “Dynamic” Detroit presents a pic- ture of mass poverty. The industrial giants of Detroit cannot feed their own slaves. It stands out today as a condemnation of capitalism. Capi- talism cannot develop any more its own produc- tive forces. The growth of the auto industry “in the U.S.S8.R., the decline of the auto industry in capi- talist America stand in marked contrast, proof of the contrast between the decaying capitalist system and the growth of Socialism in the Soviet Union. Wage Cuts in United States. What are the conditions of the workers in Detroit, so typical today of every industrial town of capitalist America, ‘ see that starvation in Detroit has already assumed mass proportions.’In Detroit alone, over 250,000 workers are walking the streets looking vainly for jobs that cannot be found. Over sixty per cent of the workers in the auto factories have been laid-off, More lay-off’s taking place daily, accompanied by the drastic wage-cuts, The working masses face the sever- est winter ever experienced, with no improve- ment of the situation in sight. Undernourish- ment, lack of shelter and clothing are taking a heavy toll of the poor this winter, Where Ford rules mass unemployment, mass hunger and drastic wage-cuts are the lot of the workers in the automobile and other industries. Thousands of unemployed workers have beén evicted during the past year. In a like manner, thousands of small home-owners have lost their homes to the bankers and real-estate sharks be- cause they could not keep up the payments and big taxes. Furniture has been forcibly seized and workers who have invested their entire life savings in their home and furnitures has been lost. General Motors just announced a 10% to 20% wage reduction on a general scale all along the line. Even before this official announcement, the wages of the workers have been slashed left and right, at the same time the workers have been. speeded-up beyond the limit of human en- durance. Working girls are receiving as lew as $8 a week and even less in some factories. A great portion of the unemployed only work part time, with means a substantial reduction in their standard of living. By cutting wages as low as possible, by speeding them up tp the limit by refusing to grant Unemployment Insurance, the eapitalist class is putting the whole burden of the present crisis on the shoulders of the work- ing masses while their huge profits, squeezed out of the sweat and toil of the workers, remains intact. During last year, in spite of the mass uvem- ployment, the Ford Motor Company cleared a net profit of $45,000,000, while General Motors cleared $124,000,000. Besides these huge profits, these companies have hundreds of millions of accumulated reserves, while those who actually produced these vast sums have been thrown into the streets to starve and die. Wage-cuts have become the general program of the capitalist class throughout the country, with President Hoover in the lead. n Detroit the Heover plan of wage-culs, the speed-up and stagger system are being applied with full force. It is gainst this program of the capitalist class; it is against the methods of demagogoy of Murphy an@ others that we must organize and prepare as never before in order to be in a position to successfully fight them. Down. ‘with Capitalist Misery, War and Chaos --- Hail the Triumphant March of Socialism in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics! !