The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 2, 1934, Page 6

Page St i DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, MONDAY, APRIL 2, 1934 Letters from Our Readers HAMMER AND SICKLE ON BARBER’S WINDOW Philadelphia, Pa Editor: I've been a reader of the Daily Worker for the past 7 years. I am a barber by trade and have been discha: a m many a shop for e Daily Worker into the ag forward to own when I the “Worker,” r’s papers. Now p of a comrade, I pen a shop of my own the Proletarian sign on e Hammer and 2 also have the Moscow News Labor nder and the Young Comm! t in the shop. My sign is drawing considerable attention an ulation from sympa- fact, I think this is the in state, if not the ike to have a window, and so it would —GEV. WORKERS UNEM- INSURANCE BILL New York, N. Y. FOR TH PLOYMENT iew of the interest of many the Workers’ Unemploy- and Social Insurance Bill (H. 98) and the day-to-day re- S of increasing support being po aroused for this bill in A. F. ty councils, etc., a regular similar to the masthead “ culation Drive” reports should be- come a feature of the “Daily,” un- der the heading “Progress on H. R. 7598” or some such title. A daily summary of progress to date could be given. It could be inserted in the midst of any story about the bill or else it could have a definite place of its own. I’m sure many workers, speak- ers, etc., would welcome this feature, which would also save repetition. Ez. F. B. Food Worker Gets 49c. for 3 Hours (By a Food Worker Correspondent) MILWAUKEE, Wis——On my day | ware Box Co. and had the job of | off, they called me to work on some party. After I worked three hours under the so-called NRA, I got 49 cents, 25 cents taken out for the NRA Johnson meals. The house got $80 from the party. For three hours I used to get $2. The NRA spends $3,000 or $4,000 yearly to take care of the dogs and the producers only get $10.50 a week, The Food Workers’ Indust7ial Union has 40 members. We've only had three meetings. WORKERS CORRESPONDENCE SHOULD BE PUSHED Peoria, Til. Editor: Seems to me the Districts are very lax in pushing Workers’ Cor- respondence. It is an organizational factor of highest importance if properly synchronized with the cir- culation of the paper. There should be items of interest coming in to the D. W. from every point where the Party has an organized group. I note the regular appearance of items from a certain number of places but not so many new points. Why not get the Center to bring the heavier pressure on the Districts to correct this? Again, what is the Chicago “Mid- west Bureau” doing? As close as it is to District 8, it should be able to cover matters of importance out- side Chicago, over the state, and entire district as to other states. HEK, BOURGEOIS “REFINEMENT AND CULTURE”—THE GLORIFICA- TION OF SNOBBERY In the question and answer column conducted by Anne Hirst, on | the women’s page of the New York} Evening Post, appeared, some time | ago, the following challenge: “You always take the man’s part!” cries an indignant reader to Anne Hirst. Others are as con- | vinced she’s on the woman's side. | Follow this column and see what | you think,” A class-conscious worker does not have to “follow” it very long to ob- | serve that she is on neither of the; sides she mentioned: she is simply de of the bosses, be they | men or wom Her question itself | is designed to serve the interest of | the bosses—to split the ranks of the ers with futile and endless sex- | , as with race-prejudice, and} so on. | Apparently Miss Hirst’s copy is| syndicated (sold to a chain of news- | papers: the bosses thus save money, | needing fewer writers)for a reader) sends from Atlantic City, N. J., a! column by Miss Hirst, clipped from | the Philadelphia Record, where it was twice printed because “it’s so/| good.” This column admirably il-| lustrates the function of such bour- | geois-hired writers: to persuade the poor to take poverty and like it. “I stand on top of a hill today. | Head raised to the brisk wind, | arms stretched wide te weicome Yhe new day. The sky blue and gold above me, bare trees point- ing their tips upward, like fingers | reaching to a rainbow. “A woman's letter set me there . .. she wrote for encouragement herself. Instead of which, she has given it to me. “She is 40 and says so. She’s the mother of several children. . . . Her husband recently died, and grim necessity stared her in the face. “She was a woman of education,| of culture. In times like these, what could such a woman do? | “She tried to find work in her own} field and among her own kind. No! duck. | “What she did find to do—the| only thing she found to do—is so menial a job that I shall not dis-| close it. | “That is what she is doing today. “And did the work her mother used to pay servants to do... . “Her letter, however, was not} written to glorify herself. It was written because she has not let this job defeat her. Her only fear is that she may ‘become like other people who do such work’ and sink with them to their peasant level. And she is determined not to do that. “She seems to have the urge to write. “I second this idea. She won’t sell anything at first—the field is over-populated, and learning to write is a long road and a hard one} —but she will find in it a release) from just the fears which torture her sensitive soul. Through it she will escape for a little while from the harsh realities of her new life and lose herself in the images which her pen creates . . . even if it is only for an hour a day, she will) be practicing a style, learning the} glory of simple words. .. . I suggest | she read and read the works of those writers she most admires. “I am glad and proud that a woman like that lives in this world, and lives even nearby. “Particularly in these days of strife and sorrow, when all about us our comrades fall one by one, stricken by-dear and false pride and selfishness. “Take off your hats this morn- ing, as my own is off, to one of God's gentlewomen, fighting the ‘xht that appals the strongest of en. “And winning it!” Priest Is Interested Refuse to Bury Loyal | Member Who Was Behind in Dues | SYRACUSE, N. Y—A certain | Adam Erlin, aged 50, of 126 Wil- liams St., who worked in the Dela- fireman there wasn’t feeling well one day and couldn't go to work. | He was laid off right away. After jhe heard this, he took it all into his head, and not wanting to go back ‘to relief again, he hanged |himself. Surviving are his wife, Raymond. He was a member of the Polish | National Church and whenever he \ didn’t work elsewhere, he spent time working at the church for no pay whatsoever. He worked there | quite often. | After he died, his wife went to the priest of this church and asked to have him buried by them. She was told by the priest that her hus- band wasn’t accepted as a member of that church, and therefore they would not be able to do as she asked. This was because while out of work he hadn't paid his different fees, although he did do plenty of work for them. This shows you what these dif- ferent churches do. When you have money you are accepted, but the minute you are out of work you aren’t any good as a member. Mrs. Erlin did not plead with the priest or anything like that but just wanted to hear what he would tell her. Her husband was buried without the aid of church or priest, even better than the church mem- bers, at a lower rate, as the only thing a priest would do is a little bit of “Dominus vobiscum” (The master be with you) and they take more money for just 5 minutes than a working man earns in about 2 weeks. CUNweieD BY bf Well, I didn’t know god had a caste system, but anyhow... . | Miss Hirst has neglected to ex- plain why the literary field is so “overpopulated”. . . she has also neglected to explain what sort of literary products are marketable under our remarkable capitalistic | system, so we'll fill in this last omis- | sion. | What the bosses are looking for these days, is “literature” designed to instill a vanity which will prevent workers from uniting; which will glorify docility, humility, abject sub- mission in the destitute; which will blind the workers to the fact that machinery and raw materials exist, which, if used, would supply all of us with a decent standard of living and freedom from worry. You can decorate your composi- tions with a blue and gold sky, if you like, and a brisk wind and a rainbow or two (if you don’t charge extra for such frills); the bosses don’t object to “style’—provided the ideological content is what they | want: the shaming, threatening, or flattering of workers into accep- tance of rotten standards of living! Can You Make °Em Yourself? Pattern 1809 is available in sizes 36, 38, 40, 42, 44 and 46. Size 36 takes four yards 39-inch fabric. | Illustrated step-by-step sewing in- structions included. Send FIFTEEN CENTS (165c.) in coins or stamps (coins preferred) for this Anne Adams pattern. Write plainly name, number. SIZE. address and style BE SURE TO STATE Address orders to Daily Worker Pattern Department, 243 West 17th Street, New York City. f 3 i ‘ 2 Png | “LIVE WIRE,” issued by the Com- Conditions in New Brunswick County Workhouse By a Worker Correspondent PERTH AMBOY, N. J.—Condi- tions in the New Brunswick County Workhouse are very bad. The food is terrible. I told them that I was sick, that I want a treatment from Dr. William C. Wilentz. The prison doctor told me, you'll get the treat- |ment. But they brought me to the Warden's office and a lady came |in and they started asking me ques- tions. She asked me: “What kind of trade have you got?” I told them I’m a barrel maker, and she said “where is the city I worked in?” I told them in Philadelphia on Reed St. Then they asked me a lot of foolish and personal questions. Then a week later they took me to the Warden's officé and they sent the Bug Doctor. The doctor told me to shake hands with him and he said he wants to talk to me. I sat down in the chair. Then he said, “Pass me the basket.” I passed it to him. Then he sat down at the table and he started asking me questions. He asked me Katherine, and his 4-year-old son, | | CHURCH A | SPREAD BOSS POISON Only in Fee (By a Worker | STATEN ISLAND, N. Y.—Since the article about the priests ap- | peared in the Daily Worker, ther minds of the workers. Michael D. once had a home. ND SCHOOL Correspondent) ‘e has been plenty of discussion on the job. Here is how priests break up families and try to poison the Also, teachers poison the minds of the workers. Belonged to the A. F. of L. for 27 years until last fall, when he joined the Party. He is living here all alone; the wife and daughter hold down a job in another town at | starvation wages. paid him a visit. The son is out She said: “Mic! | Spread Anti- them.” Soviet Union.” The workers are forced to do work at the point of a gun.” When Henry K. is eight years old ai country.” Teacher’s reply: “It is too proud to ask for help.” Hen the Relief Bureau they will not gi blackboard: “Children in Russia are not.” Mrs. Erickson said: * The teacher praises Hitler, and sa: to death. Priest Fights why he does not read it. the priest you belong to the Communist Party. best thing for me to do is to separate from you.” | Sam U. has eight bright children. and asked him to send his children to the Catholic School. answer was: “Talk to the children, it is up to them. I cannot force Sam said: “I wish we had schools like they have in the One nun said: “Why, in Russia things are terrible. “Well, some West. hael, I went to confession and told The priest said the Soviet Slander Two nuns came to his home Sam’s Sam went to the next room to show them a copy of “Soviet Russia Today” and the Daily Worker, they walked out. Teachers Also Tell Lies nd attends public school. Teacher was telling the pupils that in China and Japan thousands are starving due to floods. Henry said: “Teacher, thousands are starving in this true, but the American people are ry replied: “Yes, when they go to five them anything.” Last week the same teacher, Mrs. Erickson wrote on top of the are starving.” Henry said: “They of them are.” * Teacher Praises Hitler Joe C. has a relative on Long Island who attends high school. ys Hitler is doing wonderfully and has the strongest army in the world. This clearly proves that the schools in this country poison the minds of the children, instead of teaching them something worth while. The teachers and parents seem to worry more about the starving people in far-off countries than their own here, who have been sup- porting them when times were good and now are slowly starving . * * Daily Worker Pat. L., who works for Clay Smith Co., has been a regular reader of the Daily Worker. Suddenly he stopped reading it. Sam asked Pat's reply was: “The priest said it is a mortal sin to read the Daily Worker.” what day I came into this country, and I told him New Year's Eve, 1911. Then he said, “So you're a barrel maker?” Then he asked me if I was a citizen. I told him yes. Then he started to examine me. He looked in my mouth, eyes, chest; then he asked me some high-toned questions. Then I asked him what the hell he was asking me so many questions for? About two weeks later, the inves- tigators came to ask how long I lived in the county. I told them I just came to this town Dec, 29, and I got arrested. Comrade, I can’t write any more, I'm tired. You know why I want you to be in touch with me. Be- cause they might send me away without anybody knowing it. Now, comrade Clarence Hathaway, in case I’m not in the city on March 25 I want you to tell the Labor De- fense. Then tell them to investi- gate in the Middlesex County Workhouse for me, This letter is being smuggled out of the window secretly, and, if I give it to them they would hang me. Now, I hayen’t any more to write. When I come out I'll explain to the Daily Werker. A crippled fellow knew that I was selling Daily Workers, so they are all against me. A.W. Sign Painters’ Local | Vice-Chairman Tries to | Help Bosses Cut Wages (By a Worker Correspondent) NEW YORK.—At the last meet- ing of the New York Sign Writers Union Local 230, we discussed the new agreement, the creation of a fund to defend three of our framed leading members who are now in prison, and also a fund in regard to the emergency which might arise of the new agreement of April 1, In regard to the new agreement for the three different branches in our trade, wall advertising, show- card writing and commercial sign painters, the former two adopted Several weeks ago his wife | | wage. Covers Up Long Hours \Clerks Who Work 1114 Hours on Saturday Sign Up for 10 (By a Worker Correspondent) | NEW YORK.—Even though you've had articles exposing some exploita- | tion of the chain stores, I think this | gives some angles. | Under the N. R. A., the grocery workers are supposed to work 10 | hours Saturdays, 56 hours per week. | We worked 11 and a half hours as an extra Saturday clerk, with a 10 minute lunch at 5 p.m, no eats from 7 am. Then the manager forced us to sign a company state- | ment that we worked 10 hours with | our regular lunch hour, at the rate of 35 and a half cents an hour. I hear that the clerks come in earlier and leave later than they should regularly. The A. & P. claimed to have hired 9,000 with the N. R. A., but I hear that many were just temporary. | Later the higher paid clerks and | even managers and superintendents were fired or rehired at a lower In stores with approximately the same business volume we notice | less help. The enclosed delivery form shows another form of speed up for the lowest paid help—checking the time one leaves and returns, and thus setting one worker’s speed against another, A descrimination against the poor by the chain stores that seems to have escaped notice is the fact that they pay higher prices for their food, since they pay for the deliv- eries to the rich (main users of the delivery service), for the unpaid bills of the rich mainly, which the managers make up by overcharging, for the de luxe stores and extra help in the richer neighborhoods which is made up by stores in the poorer neighborhoods. Even the managers who speed up their clerks, are in continual fear of losing their jobs after each weekly and monthly check-up, and many are actually fired. If short more than a few dollars once or twice, no matter how honest and how many years of service, they may get the gate. For with the insuffi- cient spoilage allowance, 6 per cent, every manager must make up any greater losses by overcharging the public. new demands for wage raises and reduction in hours. When the discussion came up for the commercial workers, our vice- chairman, Brother Bortnick, made an attack on our present wage scale. Not only was he against reducing hours but also made a proposition to reduce our present wage scale, which was cut once. About 90 per cent of the com- mercial sign painters are unem- ployed, with the rest only working two days on an average, suffering starvation and poverty. If Brother Bortnick claims to be a sincere fighter for the betterment of the conditions in our trade, how can he allow himself to give the boss the sharp knife to cut our meagre two days’ pay enevelope—which means more than a cut of 65 per cent? munist Party in Bridgeport, Conn., in the General Electric Co. Issues 1 and 2. By SIDNEY BLOOMFIELD We have before us the first two issues of the Live Wire, organ of the Party in the General Electric Co., Bridgeport, Conn. To our knowledge this is the first time in the history of Bridgeport that a shop paper has been issued by the Party in this plant, which employs over fifteen hundred workers. The location of the factory in a heavy industry city and its strategic posi- tion as a war industry makes the paper extremely welcome. The comrades have made efforts to politicalize and tie up the con- tents with general agitation, which is a good idea; but their good ef- forts are weakened by some bad approaches to and formulations of problems, which we point out below. The articles are short. This is an- other good point. In the first issue there is a letter from a General Electric worker which has appeared in the Daily Worker. This method helps in popularizing the central organ of the Party. Some of the letters, however, are not carefully consid- ered by the Editors of the Live Wire. In one, “an old timer” writes about a fellow worker who was fired from Department 24 for having spoiled some wire. In deal- ing with the firing of his fellow worker, “Old Timer” states that “if there was an organization, maybe he would have been punished by re- ceiving a week off, or two, but he would not have been fired.” In other words, the writer erroneously cre- ates the impression that the role of a real workers’ organization in the shop is to punish for the boss, but in a milder way. The editor should have explained to the writer his wrong attitude and have had him rewrite the letter, or an edi- torial note should have been printed. There is a letter in the second issue under the title, “Break the Compulsory Insurance Racket.” It is signed by “a G. E. Worker.” This worker expresses himself in a tion of the letter he shows class- consciousness, while in the other section he expresses himself in a backward manner. In arguing in favor of the Workers’ Unemploy- ment and Social Insurance Bill and for support of the Steel and Metal Workers’ Union, he raises the ques- tion, “Do you think that your daughter should walk the streets and the married women hold down the jobs that single girls should have? If not, then show your col- ors, Come together and fight for a living wage, so that your wife and all married women should stay at home and take care of it and the children.” We must be careful not to use the argument of reactionaries in de- priving women of a livelihood. The editor should have used this letter to point out how the enemies of the working class use such arguments to create an impression that they can overcome unemployment by throwing women out of work. Also that the issue is not that of married versus single women, or whether women ought to work or not. In- stead, the struggle for equal wages for women and better conditions and higher wages should have been connected up with the demand for social insurance and building the union, An article in the Live Wire deals with the question of the com- pany insurance fund racket. It starts out with the thought-pro- voking question, “Do the workers need additional insurance?” In an effort to show the workers how not to become victims of the boss’s in- surance racket, the writer unwit- tingly praises the private insurance racket as being “real protection.” Since when do we denounce the company insurance racket only to praise the private insurance racket? The editorial note correctly brings forward the Workers’ Unemploy- ment and Social Insurance Bill, but fails to criticize the illusion regard- ing private insurance. An article in the first issue reals with the high cost of living and the N. R. A. A good attempt is made to connect up these questions with the role of social-fascism in expos- ing the Socialist Mayor MacLevy of Bridgeport, Conn., and in pointing played ‘in the recent strike of the Greek seamen. In dealing with MacLevy’s use of his police to break the strike it would be well to ex- plain briefly the nature of that ac- tion, for not all workers are fa- miliar with this strike. In the same article the writer ap- peals to the workers of the shop to join the movement already under way in the Schenectady and other plants of the G. E. for an industrial union. This is an excellent way to connect up various questions. But he spoils the good article in calling upon the workers to organize the union “of the workers, controlled by the rank and file’ when he adds, “and not outside labor officials.” This is a serious mistake. It plays right into the hands of the bosses, who use the very same cry against “outside labor officials” in calling on the workers to support the company unions. An example of this kind of boss appeal to the workers for company unionism can be seen in the full-page ads re- cently in the capitalist newspapers by the Automobile Chamber of Commerce and the New York Taxi Corporations, who used the same language to combat strikes and or- ganization of their shops. In another article in the second issue dealing with the A. F. of L. as agents of the bosses, the com- rades rightly tell the workers to fight the company union, but make the mistake of telling them in the same sentence to fight “its twin brother, the A. F. of L. crafts union.” This is a wrong way of raising the issue, since it does not see the distinction between com- pany unions and the A. F. of L., and since it does not differentiate between the rank and file of the A. F. of L. in the shop and the bureaucracy. This creates a danger of developing the theory that all in the A. F. of L. are on reactionary mass. This attitude will make it difficult to win over the rank and file. In dealing with the N.R.A., com- pany unions, etc., it is not enough to boost the Metal Workers Union. The question of action committees, grievance committees, shop and de- partments committees and various forms of action of the rank and file as concrete forms of organization on the job, to better conditions, on the basis of struggle for partial demands. It is also important that in pointing out how the National Labor Board and the A. F. of L. leaders act as strike breakers, spe- cific instances should be given in order that the exposure shall be concrete, and A. F. of L. workers must be invited fo participate in united action of the rank and file. There is an effort to bring for- ward the Soviet Union in dealing with some of the questions raised in the Live Wire, but in doing so it is very important that the com- rades should deal more specifically with electrical workers and the elec- trical industry in the Soviet Union, to contrast the life of workers in whom the G. E. workers would be interested An article on the youth in the first issue is very general and shows lack of familiarity with the youth in the shop and the problems and program of the youth. A good fea- ture is the advertisement of some important pamphlets. It would be better, instead of printing the title and price of the pamphlet, to have a brief review of one in each issue, telling where and how to obtain it. The review could connect problems of the shop and show why every worker should get a copy. Still an- other point in connection with cor- respondence. The workers must be assured that correspondence will be treated confidentially in order to induce them to write. Emphasis must be laid on the question of specific department problems and demands as well as on the general approach. While im- portant questions, such as old age pensions, insurance, company unions, the N.R.A., etc, have been raised in the two issues, there is need for still more pressing imme- diate day-to-day questions affecting the workers in the various depart- ments, no matter how small these problems may be, together with clear demands, explanations of the demands and directives. The Live Wire is still new and consideration must also be given to the fact that there are insufficient forces in the shop. There is evident absence of developed technical help to get out the paper. With proper guidance from the Section and District leadership, the shortcomings will be eliminated. The situation in the General Elec- tric in Bridgeport is rotten ripe for real Bolshevik factory work. The Party, must pay serious attention to the building up of the contents of the Live Wire and the greater cir- culation of this paper. By doing so it will not be long before the Party will be able to become the leader contradictory manner. In one sec- A out the strike-breaking role he should be brought into these articles of thw workers in the shop, How A & P | Unit Gets Relief for Workers | But Neglects Own Comrade PARTY LIFE Inexpensive Literature After an enthusiastic discussion at our last unit meeting on how our | comrades stormed the Home Relief | Buros, forcing them to give relief to unemployed workers, we discov- ered in our midst a unit member who has been without food and homeless for a number of weeks. This comrade, who speaks English Poorly, had registered at the Home Relief Buro with no result and had also “gone down” to the unemployed council a couple of times. He has not fought for relief either by him- self or with a group. This comrade is not alone among Party members who do not struggle or are not brought into struggle for relief. I know of an instance where ;@ young unemployed Party worker | in charge of the unemployed com- Militancy Wins Demands at B’klyn. Paper Bag Plant (By a Worker Correspondent) NEW YORK.—On Feb. 25th, the Brooklyn Standard Paper Bag Co., branch of the Paper Plate and bag Makers’ Union, Local 107, affiliated with the A. F. of L., decided, by a vote of 108 to 12 to go out on strike should their employer refuse to recognize the union, a branch of which they are. The Brooklyn Standard is the largest bag concern in New York, now employing some 130 workers. The day following this decision, the shop committee, headed by Fred Balestrieri, presented the demands of the morkers. These were for recognition of the union, for an in- crease in wages, for a lunch room and for a men’s dressing room. (There was already a dressing room for the women.) A several minutes’ stoppage oc- curred when the workers heard that the employer in charge, whose father left for a European trip, wanted to postpone negotiations for their demands. Upon this, the em- ployer, Mr. Salzman, reconsidered and agreed to hold conferences. The conferences which followed, with Hyman Gordon, local presi- dent, present and a later confer- ence which was backed up by a one day strike of the plant, won a vic- tory on each point demanded by the employees. The employer in charge promised to recognize the union and shop committee, granted a 10 per cent increase in wages for the en- tire shop, and agreed to the lunch room and men’s dressing room. ‘The headquarters of the Brook- lyn Standard Branch are at 147 Hamilton Ave., Brooklyn, N. Y. The official union headquarters are at 73 Ludlow St., New York City. . CG Editor’s Note: Local No. 107 has done a good job.. Such action is forcing the capitalist class in many parts of the country to grant concessions to the work- ers. The Daily Worker as the organ of the Communist Party of the U. S., urges you to go forward in improving your daily condi- tions. We add, also, that it is only because Communists are in Local No. 107, because union -members in the Bleyer shop fol- low a militant line of fighting for better conditions and because you yourselves are good fighters, that you have won your battles up to the present. In order to keep these victories, to prevent the bosses from robbing you of them, urge you to join the Communist Party. It is oniy the clear line of the Communist Party, only the fight to get rid of the bosses altogether and to establish a Workers’ and Farmers’ Govern- ment, which gives a way out for permanent imprevement of con- ditions. Read the Daily Worker care- fully. Get in touch with the Com- munist Party Section, nearest to your shop at 132 Myrtle Ave. Workers in Basic Industries Needed to Reach the mittee of a mass organization failed to apply for relief because he said the city was not giving aid to single | workers. | Comrades like these are not al« together to blame for not demand- ing relief. Many of them, especially | the newer Party members, do not know how to battle capitalist insti- tutions. They are awed by the ad- | ministrative apparatus of Home | Relief Bureaus just as some work- ers facing trial are frightened by | the formality of a capitalist court. One of the first duties of the units, therefore, is to check up on | tha activity of the comrades, to | have the more experienced teach | the newer members how to struggle, | Also, the unit discussions must be | concrete, avoiding a tendency to | over-theorize and to make a prob- | lem so abstract that a worker, meet- ing the problem in real life, cannot handle it. Comradely yours, * * | Cheap Literature Needed to Reach Workers in Basic Industries The letter in the Daily Worker of |March 8th, dealing with the en- | thusiasm over the very good pamph- let written by Comrade Olgin, ‘Why Communism,” reveals two impor- tant points which should be taken into consideration by the Party when dealing with the question of | how to get to the American masses with our literature and with our program of struggle for better con- ditions. The example of a member of the Mechanics Educational Society who has succeeded in selling over 200 copies of this pamphlet is certainly worthy of praise, but from my ex- perience in selling literature I know that this seemingly gigantic feat could be surpassed and repeated so many more times. To illustrate what I mean I want to write you of my experience in selling this very same pamphlet. I was assigned by my unit to sell lit- erature at the Cooper Union meet- ing where Comrade Hathaway spoke on the Austrian situation in con- nection with the Madison Square affair. I had no difficulty of dis- posing in a short time all of the pamphlets given to me (“Why Com- munism”). But this I accomplished despite the fact that many workers present at this meeting freely expressed themselves that they can’t buy this pamphlet because of the 10 cents which they can’t afford to part with, I am positive that had the price been lower, this pamphlet would have been in many more hands than now. The second point to consider is who is to be reached with such pamphlets? When we speak so much about concentration, about reach- ing the basic sections of the toil- ing masses, we must bear in mind that as important as it is to win over to our side the middle class (certain sections of the middle class) who can still afford to pay 10 cents for a pamphlet, perhaps, it is even more important to reach the workers in basic industries, the unemployed and the youth, as well as the Negro population of New York City and that is why we must draw the conclusion that the Party commits an error when it publishes such important literature at a price that helps to narrow our infiuence and makes it impossible to carry out the provisions of the Open Letter. Yours for mass circulation of our literature, P.M. Section 1, Unit 33, Join the Communist Party 35 E. 12th STREET, N, Y. ¢. Please send me more informa- tion on the Communist Party. Name Street City ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS Miscellaneous Items About Medicine in Russia D. V., Detroit, Mich., F. M., Bos- ton, Mass., Mary D., San Diego, Cal, —Some of the information that you requested has already appeared in this column. Before the war (1913), there were only 19,000 physicians in the entire Russian Empire with a population of 150,000,000 people; most of them practicing in the cities and larger towns. In some areas there was only one physician to a population of over 30,000 peo- ple. In 1932 there were 76,000 physi- cians in Soviet Russia; or exactly four times as many as in 1913; 90 per cent of the physicians working exclusively for the state. The death rate in 1913 wis 27.3 per thousand of population;! while in 1926 the death rate came) down to 20.3 and has been steadily de- creasing for the last eight years, In Moscow the death rate fell from 23.2 to 13.4 during the same period; the death rate in New York City being 12.8. The mortality in Im- perial Russia was twice as large as that of England and four times that of Norway. In 1912, there were only six medical colleges in Russia, In 1933 there were 106 and the number of medical students had increased Dector By PAUL LUTTINGER, M.D. their medical subjects) military science, economics, sociology, me- teorology and hydrology and in Marxism-Leninism terialism). Medical students visit factories to inspect their sanitary arrangements; also public schools and the homes of workers and peasants to discover any conditions of faulty hygiene. Every three years each medical practitioner is expected to take a post-graduate course for three or four months. Pain on Tip of Tongue A Comrade and Reader, Phila- delphia—If you paint the tip of your tongue with iodine every night, keeping your tongue out un- til the iodine dries, you will find that the pain will disappear. In addition, you must not smoke for at least one week, nor eat any spicy or acid food. Acute Bronchitis—Viosterol and Anemia A. B. Jersey—The best treatment for your condition is to take one teaspoonful of Syrup Cocillana Compound every two or three hours until your cough improves. Viosterol has no direct effect on anemia. It is much better to take some iron preparation; but this will not help, if your anemia is too severe. For (dialectic ma- to 36,000. In 1930, about 75 per cent of the medical students were women, All medical students are required to receive instruction, in (besides such a condition there is no bet- ter treatment than injections of followed by ultra-violet lamp ations, i