The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 23, 1931, Page 4

Page Four FINANCIAL AND Address and mail all eb ty, N. ¥. Telephone ALgonquin 4-7956. Cable ECONOMIC POLICY OF THE SOVIET UNION Foreign Workers Delegations Interview Comrade Grinko By TH, NEUBAUER. Moscow, November 2nd, 1931. T= workers’ delegations from Germany, Aus- tria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, etc, met to- r this evening at the People’s Commissary Finances in order to interview the People’s Commissar, Comrade Grinko, Comrade Grinko heartily weleomed the work- ers’ delegates in the name of the Soviet Govern- ment and requested them to put questions to im, to which he would gladly reply. The Soviet government, he said, carries on its work under the control of the broad masses not only of the Soviet Union but of the international proletariat. The first delegate to put a question to the 's Commissar was a member of the Czech ional socialist party (Benes Party); he was followed by a German social democrat, and then 4 member of the Polish delegation. A number of other questions were submitted to Comrade Comrade Grinko gave ex- First question: What means has the Soviet Government for socialist constraction and from where does it obtain these means? Answer: This year the Soviet government has nvested 17,000 million roubles in economic un- dertakings, whilst last year it invested 10,000 million roubles. Under the Five-Year Plan about 100,000 million roubles will be devoted to social- construction. The question, from whence we obtain these enormous sums, is perfectly justified. We have the possibility of obtaining them, and we are obtaining them from the exceedingly rapidly growing national income. In the richest ,most developed capitalist countries, and in times of prosperity, the national income increases by 2 to 3 per cent annually, or in the best case 4 per cent. With us, however, the national income increased last year by 18 per cent, and in this year we expect it to increase by 30 per cent. The rapid growth of the national income renders possible our socialist construction. Further, I will explain to you why our na- tional income is increasing so rapidly. Fir: we have cancelled all the: pre-war and war debt This is rather a painful subject for he representatives of the bourgeoisie; but it is a fact that if we had not cancelled these debts, we should have to pay 2,000 million roubles in gold every year as interest alone to foreign countries, Secondly, with us the national income is no jonger eaten into by the parasitic classes, the big landowners and capitalists. In our country you do not see a parasitic class leading a luxurious life. Many foreigners who observe our life only receive the impression that we live yery poorly. This impression ts not correct, but, it, is true to say we do not live opulently. We do not squander the national income on unpro- ductive expenditure. But we thereby save vast sums which we devote to socialist construction. Vhirdly, a further important fact in this con- nection is the expenditure on militarism. Every- one of you knows what a large part of the budget in the capitalist states is swallowed up by the army. In England nearly 40 per cent of the budget is devoted to the fleet and the army, | to the apparatus of power for maintaining rule over the colonies. France, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Rumania and Italy devote nearly the half of their budgets, and other countries even more than the half, directly or indirectly to military Purposes. We, too, incur expenditure on national defense. We are surrounded on all sides by capi- talist countries, It would mean neglecting the cmse of the proletariat if we did not protect oujselves against any attacks by capitalism. But our outgoings on national defense do not con- fitute more than 68 per cent of the State Wudget. How is this fact to be explained? First- ly, we are not preparing to attack anybody. We have only in mind the defense of our country. Secondly, we have no colonies and we do not need any apparatus of power to maintain colon- ial rule. Thirdly, in addition to technics, our Gefensive power is based upon the socialist con- sciousness of the proletariat and of the peasants of the collective farms. Fourthly, we have the sympathy of the proletariat of the whole world. ‘These are the reasons why we expend so much Jess money on armaments than the capitalist countries; and what we save in this direction we are able to expend on economic development Another reason why our national income increasing so rapidly is, because in all spheres of the state’ and economy we strictly pursue the policy of promoting national economy. Of the 31,000 million roubles which we are spending this year on further economic development, we are investing 17,000 million in new works and fac- tories, 6,000 millions we are devoting to extend ing’ and enlarging the already existing works and factories, and the rest we are devoting to cultural purposes, From this it is to be seen that the greater part of these means serves to develop production and thereby to increase fur- ther the national income. This year we have given to agriculture tractors representing al- together 700,000 horse power as well as other complicated machines amounting in value to 700 million roubles. This year we are starting 500 new works and factories, including a number of giants which you have already seen. Just imag- ine what effect this will have in increasing pro- duction and raising the national income. In ad- dition, take into account the increasing activity of the masses, the socialist competition, the shock brigades, the masses. All this taken together enables you to understand how such a rapid in- crease of the national income is possible with us. The socialist system of national economy gives quite other possibilities in this respect than the capitalist economy. I would ask the comrades to consider the pe- culiarity and the difficulty of our situation. How have. the capitalist coyntries built up their industry? After the Franco-German war, Ger- man industry made a big step forward with the is *help-of the 5,000 million marks war indemnity vi which the French had to pay at that time. Eng- land brought under its rule and exploited whole Continents in order to be able to build factories on the little English Isle, in Manchester, Liver- pool, The U.S. A. has, before our very eyes, exploited the whole of Central and South America, and by means of the world war acquired nearly the whole of the accumulated capital in Europe. Moreover, the capitalist states grant each other loans; they all exploit their workers and peas~ ants. Jt is from these sources that the bourre- * ( oisie of all capitalist countries bave built up their industry. We have no colonies, As successors of the ‘Tsarist government we had the right to draw from China thg compensation for the Boxer war; we renounced this right. In the interior of our state there exist a number of districts which, un- der the Tsar, as colonies or semi-colonies, were ruthlessly exploited and bled white. We are ex- pending large sums now in order to promote the cultural and economic development of these backward districts. We receive no contributions; we receive no long-term loans from anybody; although we always most punctually meet the ob- ligations which we have ourselves undertaken. There is not a single country, there is not a single firm that can say that the Soviet Union does not strictly fulfil the obligations undertaken by it. Just imagine how difficult it is when every year we build. gigantic new undertakings with the means which we have-to collect during the year in the midst of the-process of constriction. You will easily understand that this is a very difficult task. We are very short of capital. ‘There is much that we are unable to build at such & pace and on such a scale as is necessary. Nevertheless we have such a rapid growth of the national income that it is unattainable in the capitalist countries, and by means of which we are building up socialist industry and socialist agriculture. I would call your attention to another point. ‘You have travelled through our country. You have seen the Urals, Magnitogorsk, Nishni-Nov- gorod, Dnieprostroy, Kharkov, Donbasin, Soviet ~ farms,collective farms. All these big undertak- ings, as well as the new railway lines, were built with our own Soviet rubles, with our Chervo- netz. ‘There recently came to me a former Finance Minister, who wished to stabilize his country’s currency, in order to study why our currency does not fall He was incapable of grasping the causes of the, stability of our chervonetz. He could not und&rstand how we are able with our valuta to carry out, such huge constructive work. About a year. ago, at the commencement of the third year of the Five-Year Plan, the whole of the capitalist world was declaring that we were on the threshold of bankruptcy, that the chervo- netz would fall, that we were immediately be- fore an inflation, that we were not able to fulfil our plan. A year has passed since then. The cheryonetz stands firm; the work of construction is being carried on. On the other hand, how- ever, the English pound has fallen, the dollar is shaky, and the currencies of other countries are threatened. Why does our valuta remain firm? Our means of payment haye a gold cover. That is not the chief matter for us, however. For us gold is a commodity like every other commodity; we can export gold like any other commodity if it is necessary, and our ruble will not become Shaky as a result, The foundation of the stability of our ruble is the quantity of goods which the state has in its hands and the fact that we ourselves determine the prices. The bourgeois economists cannot grasp the idea that these two factors guarantee the stability of the ruble. They are incapable of imagining an economy without com- petition and carried on according to plan, with fixed prices determined by the state. Our ruble is independent of the fluctuations of the capital- ist exchanges. We can deliberately raise or lower prices, but we are protected from the disturbing effects of the anarchic economy of the capitalist ecks to the Daily Worker, 50 Hast 18th Street, New York, N. Y. “DAIWORK.” SUBSCRIPTION RATES: a By mail everywhere: One year, $6; six months, $3; two months, $1; excepting Boroughs of Manhattan and Bronx, New York City. Foreign: one year, $8; six months, $4.50, THE 1931 EVERGREEN ae non't Se Save DEMAND MENT UNEMPLO ENSUIRANCE # pepkenietes By BURCK. —_____ WARNING AGAINST A REN- EGADE AND TRAITOROUS ELEMENT George Papcun, Council Bluffs, Ia.; is a des- picable renegade and unreliable adventurer, who fascist attacks, and who assumed, as a mask for his desertion and cowardice, the attitude of ‘Trotskyist opposition to Party policies and tactics Once before, in 1929, he was expelled from the Communist Party for financial irresponsibility and general unreliability and adventurism. Then, in 1930, he alligned himself with and acted as @ secret agent for the Lovestone renegades. ‘When faced with fascist terror in Council Bluffs, he turned ‘against the Party, made slan- derous statements, which were published in capi- talist newspapers, and aligned himself with thé Tfotsky reriégades. It is now apparent that his re-admission into the Party, in 1931, after he had shown signs of self-correction and had promised to carry oul Party policies and activities faithfully, was a mistake. ~~ ‘i All workers and workers’ organizations should beware of this turn-coat and cowardly renegade. COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE U.S. A. CENTRAL CONTROL COMMISSION, TO HERBERT HOOVER world. You workers should get to know the mechanism of our currency in order to explain it to the workers in the capitalist countries and thus defend us against the campaigns of calum- ny in the capitalist countriés. We shall never allow prices to develop against the interests of the broad masses of consumers, against the in- terest of the working class. (LO BE CONTINUED) Smash the Hoover Gov't Attacks on the Foreign ‘HE Hoover Government has come out openly for a policy of discrimination and persecution of the foreign born workers. In her message on the opening of Congress Hoover demanded that the deportation laws should be strengthened. With his usual brazen hypocricy he urged that: “Aliens lawfully in this‘country should be pro- tected by the issuance of a certificate of res- idence.” “Which means, in other words, the maugura- tion of a federal system of finger-printing and registration for the millions of workers who cannot become citizens of this country. ™ But Hoover's message does not tell the full tale of the hostile plans of the government against the foreign born workers. Secretary of Labor, Doak, in his report to Congress is less secret-false. No more talk by the Secretary of Labor to deport only those aliens who entered the country unlawfully. No more pious declar- ations of cleaning the country of the, “criminal alien” of underworld connections. Doak has thrown all his former excuses aside, He states in his report to Congress explaining the two- fold purpose of the new immigration law thus: 1) To protect the social and political struc- ture of the American civilization from persons with strange new doctrines of government which threaten the institutions and practices that we here regard as essential. Second: The “Protection of the employment of those who are entitled to live here on legal and mora] grounds” is pure deceit. Doak him- self was forced to admit in the same report that “immigration is no longer an economic menace.” In a severe crisis like this one there ts not go- ing to be any rush of immigrants to this coun- try. In fact the number who left this country is larger than the number of arrivals. Doak’s lying argument is aimed to incite. the native workers against the foreign born workers and thus to make easier the passing of the new law. ‘To make this blow against the foreign born. workers more crushing the Secretary of Labor has introduced a bill which when passed will give his department the sole and autocratic right to cancel the citizenship of any foreign born after five years of naturalization, without . By H. H. LEWIS ‘We ‘ask Yor the bread of social insurance, You give us the stone of charity. All right then,’ x It’s a whetstone On which Hunger may sharpen That insurrectionary edge. xn Workers. even going to court and for no crime whatso- ever except working-class activities. ‘The vicious purpose of these bills is to terror- ize, to intimidate and to outlaw millions of for- eign born workers, non-citizens and citizens alike. This is a weapon to annihilate the en- tire working-class movement. Never did @ government dare to submit such reactionary, blackguard laws for the oppression of millions of workers who helped with their heavy toil to create all the riches that are not theirs. Unable to find a way out from the severe crisis. Helpless in the face of the economic situation that is becoming worse daily. Scared of the growing militancy and unity of all workers, nat- ive and foreign born, white and black against ‘wage-cuts and starvation, the Hoover-Hunger~ Government is trying to throttle the resistance to the workers employed and unemployed by dis- crimination and persecution of the foreign work- ers who form a considerable section of the Am- erlcan working-class. Of course, the finger- printing and the passport system will not rest with the foreign born only. If the capitalists and their government are going to succeed in carry- ing out the new laws against the foreign born workers, then the native born will come next for the same oppressive measures as has been al- ready in Lawrence, Mass. Fellow workers: Only firm, determined strug* gle can and will stop the vicious plans of the government which are supported by the bureau- cracy, of the American Federation of Labor. The very fact that the Michigan Registration Law was annuled under mass pressure of the workers in that state is a demonstration that only thru militant struggles can the workers gain. ‘The government is now trying to revive the dead Michigan Law on a naitonal scale. It is up to you workers to defcat the huge deporta- tion plans of the Doak’s and Woll'’s. Organize @ powerful fighting front against the bill tor registration and discrimination. Demand: Con- gress shall not pass these anti-workingclass measures, For @ United Front Mass Movement to fight for the protection of the foreign born workers, NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR THE PROTECKION OF FOREIGN BOEN. deserted the Communist Party in the face of | The United States Is Drawn Into | the World ¥ inancial Crisis By MAX WEISS. 1 “On the eve of the crisis, the bourgeoisie with the self-sufficiency that springs from in- toxicating prosperity, declares money to be a vain imagination. Commajlities alone are money. But now the cry is everywhere: money alone is a commodity! As the hart pants after fresh water, so pants his soul after money, the only wealth. In a crisis the an~ | tithesis between commodities and their value form, money, becomes heightened into an ab- solute contradiction. Hence in such events, the form under which money appears is of no importance.” (Capital, Vol. 1, page 155.) wea he PART 2. The most important criterion of an inflation- ary movement, is the increase in note circula- | tion. In the last few weeks, the amount of Fed- eral Reserve notes in circulation has steadily swollen in volume. It has grown from $2,269,- 989,000 for the week ending Oct. 7th to $2,449,- 959,000 for the week ending Nov. 11 and thence to $2,478,130,000 for the week ending Dec. 2nd. | Every intervening week has registered a con- tinuous gain in the amount of Federal Reserve Notes in circulations When comparison is made with the circulation for the week ending Dec. 8rd, 1930, of $1,450,898,000 then the significance of this unprecedented gain becomes clearer, The total amount of Federal Reserve credit: outstanding as measured in its combined bill and security holdings has risen from $1,801,217,000 on Oct. 7th to $2,039,578,000 for the week ending Noy. llth. At this point a decline may be noted in the amount of Federal Reserve credit out- standing to $1,888,227,000 for the week ending Dec. 2nd. This decline, as well as. a slightly downward movement in several of the preceding weeks is doubtless the result of the efforts of the Federal Reserve Banks at a cessation of the inflationary, movement. It has tried to check this source of inflation by raising its rediscount | rates. Yet even at this “low” figure, the amount, of such credit is $709,813,000 in excess of the outstanding total credit a year ago. The ratio of reserves to liabilities, according to the report of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dec. 2, stood at 62.1 per cent as compared with 76.2 per cent for the same week last year, Due to manipulations by the Federal Reserve Bank, the published reserve ratio figure must not be accepted at its faca value. When the prospects for the inflationary movement getting beyond control became evident, a species of financial jugglery was resorted to. The Federal Reserve Bank issued paper notes in return for which it received gold notes. Since it is required by law to hold only 40 per cent reserve-on its outstand- ing notes, it added the remaining 60 per cent to its gold reserves, thus bolstering up its shaky position. The ineffectiveness of such'a method of checking inflation has been recognized by bourgeois economists. Tlie Financial Chronicle comments upon it in stich a manner as to gently chastise the Federal Reserve for concealing from the eyes of the financial world the real extent of the inflationary movement. In its Dec, 5 issue, it says: “Evidently this process has been resorted to in recent weeks. It follows that the improve- ment in the ratio of reserves does not possess the significance it otherwise would have.” The trentendous increase in hoarded money is a factor of decided importance in gauging the extent of inflation. Under the term “money in circulation,” it is used by bourgeois economists as a sign of capitalist healthiness, This identi- fication of hoarded money with “money in cir- culation” is the cause of much confusion in the minds of bourgeois economists and has led to statements that the crisis is being overcome, whereas in reality it is being deepened PRE- CISELY BECAUSE OF THE OPERATION OF THOSE FACTORS WHICH BOURGEOIS ECONOMISTS REGARD AS A. SYMPTOM OF CAPITALIST RECOVERY. ‘The extent and increase in hoarding can be seen very graphically in the chart presented in the “Annalist” for. Noy. 27th, Although the chart is headed “Money In Circulation,” it is obvious that toward the end of 1930 and thru- out the year 1931 we are dealing with hoarded money, i @, MONEY OUT OF CIRCULATION. Analysis of the chart shows that the’ curve of money in circulation followed very closely the curves of commodity price and business activity indices up until the latter part of 1930. Then it turned sharply upward and with the excep- tion of a short period in the early part of 1931 continued its upward course in exactly the same measure that commodity prices and business activity went downgrade. The last few weeks have seen a slight de- crease in the amount of money hoarded. This can, however, be disregarded in the totality of the movement which is unmistakably of a sharp- ly upward character. Minimizing any exagger- ated importance likely to be attached to the slight decline in hoarded money, D. W. Ells- worth comments as follows in the Annalist for Noy, 27; “The peak of money in circulation (and pre- sumably of currency hoarded) came in the week ended Oct. 24; the subsequent decrease, though large in dollars, is a mere ripple on a tidal wave. Every tidal wave may have a ripple at the top, but not every ripple is the top of a tidal wave.” Thus the perspective is clearly for a “tidal wave” of further hoarding with all of its im- What Does Fascism Defend3 On November 23, Dino Grandi, foreign minie= ter of fascist Italy, made a speech in America, sé which he said: “The issue is whether we shall or shall not be able to defend the greatest achievement of modern éivilization; that is to say, the highest moral and material standard of life secured by our working classes.” Well, now, what is this “achievement” worth? How “high” is the “material standard of life” that fascism has allowed the working class of Italy to “secure”? Not so high, apparently, if the inferences inherent in Mussolini’s instruc» tions” of December 12 are to be taken as means ing anything at all. Firstly, Benito admits that there is a serious crisis in fascist Italy. By the way, this fact should be explained by those dumb clucks and Mars wha icture fascism and Bolshevism as “the same thing” because, forsooth, “they are both dictator= ships.” Fascist Italy is a capitalist dictatorship—and it has a crisis; but Bolshevism in the Soviet Union is a dictatorship of the working class— and there is no crisis there, quite the contrary, there is unheard of industrial and social progress. The difference is in the class nature of the two dictatorships, and what flows from that differ- ence, s But Grandi was spouting about “defending” something which he called the “highest material standard of life” of the working classes. But how high is that of the Italian working class when Mussolini has to admit that the crisis he con- fesses to has brought on “the suffering of the poor” and can only suggest that such a condition be “alleviated” by “charitable institutions’? Not very high! In fact this is the Hoover Hunger Program applied to Italian workers by Musso- Jini. In effect, then, it is NOT a defense of any “high standard” of the workers—because there is no such thing; but a defense of capitalism AGAINST THE WORKERS WHO DEMAND A HIGH STANDARD! This is further proven by Mussolini’s instruc- tions that fascist authorities must remain on the job twelve hours a day—not defending the work~ ers—but suppressing them. This comes out when he says the authorities must “combat defeatism and ruwmor-mongering.” And it is added that— “All such enemies must be eliminated from cir- culation.” Hence it is clear that what Mussolini is doing is ordering more repression against the workers who object to being starved to death under the capitalist crisis, That is what all capitalists meas when they talk about “warring on depression.” * - * ‘No, Comrade; They Are Eligible “Jorge:—In a discussion about religion an@ its relation to Communism, I expressed the opine ion that workers who siill had religious beliets were not eligible as members of the Communist Party. A member of the Party informed me that this, however, is not the case. This seems to me to be entirely at variance with the teath- ings of Communism. Should the Communist Party, the vanguard of the proletariat, contain within it elements who are ignorant of even one of the basic principles of Marxism? How can such msmbers conscientiously proceed to edu=- cate the masses toward Communism?—A Syme pathizer, Girard, Ohio.” The comrade is mistaken, ‘The class struggle, not religious belief, is the test of a worker for membership. Who can expect that we must plications for the increase of the inflationary } #W@it the elimination cf all religious supere movement, Equally important in this connection is the fact that the amount of hoarding would have been tremendously increased but for the mount- ing wave of bank failures. For, since one of the most important sources of hoarded money is bank deposits, the increase in bank failures means that money which would otherwise be hoarded is “frozen.” A similar situation confronts the capitalists whose money has taken the form of investments in securities. Depreciation of the value of such paper has tied up their ‘money almost complete- ly. Their money is out of circulation not merely because they do not wish to reinvest it in in- dustry but because they cannot. ‘The cheapening of credit toward which the capitalist class looks for relief from industrial stagnation cannot be achieved through the me- dium of hoarded money. This money is not merely temporarily out of circulation. ‘because the capitalists wish it to be there but more or less permanently because the capitalists cannot, help themselyes. All attempts to overcome tightening of credit. caused, in a large measure by hoarding, lead inevitably to inflation. The formation of the National Credit Corporation to extend credits to banks whose assets are frozen and who are on the verge of corhplete bankruptcy is just such a step. It permits the functioning of banks which have no-economic basis for existence. The credit structure thus reared’is without founda- tion and but a stone's throw from final collapse. The tendencies toward inflation are further strengthened by the projected creation of an Emergency Finance Corporation by Pres. Hoover. The creation of this corporation is a tacit ad- mission that the Federal Reserve Board has failed in its purpose to provide an elastic cur- rency and credit apparatus. Its function will be to extend credit to corporations on collateral which the Federal Reserve Bank refuses to ac- cept. The question will also be brought up in the present session of Congress to permit of an alteration in the banking laws so as to allow the Federal Reserve Bank to extend credit on securities which it has hitherto ruled out. The government. deficit of approximately two bil- lion dollars makes necessary the issuing of a tremendous volume of offerings, the first batch of which have already been offered on the mar- ket to the tune of $1,300,000,000, ‘These various developments towards expansion at a time when there is absolutely no economie basis for it only serves to heighten the wave of stition from the proletariat before it will overe throw capitalism. That is putting the cart bee fore the horse. There is a bar, you bet, against’ workers or other elements who come into the Party with the idea in mind of propagating religion, using the Party to that end. Such dope peddlers will be expelled. And any worker who is burdened with strong religious beliefs will fail to be pro- moted to responsible posts, because such beliefs counteract revolutionary class struggle policy. But the Party would do wrong to bar honest rank and file workers who come to it because it leads their struggle, the class struggle, merely because they have not yet shed their supers stitions dinned into them by capitalist influe ences. The centralized control of the Party teadere ship, of Party policy, prevents such rémnants of religion among the rank and file from injur- ing. work among the masses, and this work, pare ticipated in by workers who come to the Party with remnants of religion, together with the theoretical study required of them, dissolves these remnants. Just think, comrade, how it works in practice, Was there any working class more pumped full of religion than the Russian workers. Yet the demands of the class struggle caused them—with the help of the Party of Lenin, of course—to rise superior to that and overthrow the basis of re- ligion, the exploitation of capitalists and lande lords, Catholic Bavaria was one of the first in poste war Germany to “go Soviet”—not because it was religious, certainly, but because the necessity of class interest demanded that the workers take revolutionary action regardless of religious bee lief. So the Party does not bar workers whe want to fight capitalism, merely because they still have religious beliefs. i It is, of course, the absolute duty of the to teach this new convert Marxism-Leninism, which is materialism; and it is the duty of the worker to study and thus become a materialist, ‘The comrade sympathizer is correct in demande ing that the Party fight religion. But the quese tion is: How? The anti-Soviet campaign of the Pope and all churches was an example of how the class enemy tried to split the working class over the question, of religion. And it was our duty to unite th® workers on the basis of their class interest i defense of the Soviet Power regardless of religion. If we would make a bat of their re- ligious belief against the workers entering the class struggle as active fighters against captial- ism, we would be playing into the hands of the capitalists and weaken the united front of the inflation that is now under way and which will very shortly sHake the financial centers of the country, have its repercussions in a mighty deep- ening and sharpening of the crisis, and mark another step forward in the march of capital- ism toward final destruction, a a Ne Y¥. a: (To he concluded =. = working class, 0 Re A Smart Feller: At an A. FP, of L, meeting in Los Angeles, a union official was asked by @ member: “What about the China situstion?"— OE eve * i