The Daily Worker Newspaper, December 29, 1934, Page 8

f : \ Letters from a New York taxicab- , s€. 8 Daily,QWorker SERTRAL ORGAN COMMUNIST PARTY U.S.A. (SECTION OF COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL) “America’s Only Working Class Dally Newspaper” FOUNDED 1924. PUBLISHED DAILY, EXCEPT SUNDAY, BY THE COMPRODAILY PUBLISHING CO,, INC., 50 E. 13th Street, New York, N. Y. Telephone: ALgonquin 4-795 4. Cable Address: “Daiwork,” New York, N. ¥ Washington Bureau: Room 934, National Press Building, l4th and F St., Washington, D. C. Telephone: National 7810. Midwest Bureau: 101 South Wells St., Room 705, Chicago, Rl Telephone: Dearborn 3931 Subscription Rates: Manhattan and B $2.00; 1 month, 0.75 cents and Canada: 1 By Mail 6 month: Manhattan, @ months, $5.00 $3.00. By Carrier: Weekly, 18 cents; monthly, 75 cents. Saturday Edition: By mail, 1 year, $1.50; 6 months, 7 cents. 1 year, $6.00; except $3.50; 3 months Bronx, year, $9.90 SATURDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1934 Destitution Increases RESIDENT GREEN of the American Federation of Labor yesterday re- ported that 420,000 workers lost their jobs last month, a drastic increase in un- employment. He gave the total number of unemployed at 11,459,000, the highest figure re- ported by the A. F. of L. since July, 1933. He fur- ther says that “200,000 farm laborers who had jobs last year,” are now unemployed. Yet, in cold figures, Green underestimates the actual number of unemployed—a figure that is closer to 16,000,000 than the figure he gives. Green is forced to a in one Month. To sofien thi bs he cloaks the a figures by di he had previously given Thus, the December, 1934, issue of the American Federationist, official organ of the Executive Com- mittee of the A. F. of L., gives Green’s previous estimates. For November, 1933, the figure is given in the Federationist at 10,651,000. Yesterday, to cloak the devastating losses in employment during the past year, Green suddenly changes this to 11,030,000 for November. Actually, on the basis of his previous estimates, 806,000 workers lost their dobs in one year of the N. R. A. Green issues figures; he complains piously that the “employers are not doing their share.” But at the same time he follows out the plans of the Roosevelt administration and the employers. He supports the Roosevelt schemes on relief cuts and denial of unemployment insurance. He supports the policies of Roosevelt to deny all unemployment insurance benefits to the present army of the un- employed. ae HE Roosevelt administration will not loosen up without a persistent struggle. The relief to the unemployed and the granting of real unemploy- ment insurance is dependent upon the fight which is waged by the employed and unemployed workers. United front actions involving the membership of the American Federation of Labor and the So- cialist Party, unity of all workers and farmers in local relief struggles and in support of the Workers’ Unemployment Insurance Bill and the National Congress for Unemployment Insurance, will deter- mine the effectiveness of the fight waged. The vast millions of workers who are supporting the Workers’ Bill and the National Congress for Unemployment Insurance can be the determining factor if swung into immediate action. Rally all workers behind the National Congress aa e-Jan, 7 demonstrations in all cities and towns! Those Executed in the U.S.S.R. INEMIES of the Soviet Union are busy trying in every way to spread every conceivable lie about the executions of the assassins and white-guard terrorists in the Soviet Union. One of the usual tricks employed to Prejudice opinion against the Soviet Union is to de- clare that the criminals executed were hastily gath- ered up and shot without examination. This is deliberate, conscious distortion. These lies and slanders ignore the established facts, that those executed were of known terrorist groups. They had been sent into the Soviet Union by capi- talist powers intent on speeding war against the Soviei Union. These facts are openly bragged about in the “Fascist,” Russian paper in the U. S., and in the Hearst press by Levine. They were sent into the Soviet Union for the specific purpose of assassinating Soviet leaders, They had been gathered up over a period of months, after their connections and their plots had been carefully traced. Their guilt was established by a Soviet tribunal, that is, a tribunal of the prole- tarian dictatorship. The only thing that remained Was what sentence was to be carried out, Their fate was sealed by the fact that one of their terrorist groups, to which Nicolaev belonged, had accomplished its object of assassination by murdering Comrade Sergei Kirov. ' A sample of the instructions given to these ter- » rorist groups who had been rounded up py the Soviet Union is contained in the “Fascist,” pub- DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1834 lished in Putnam, Conn. It is taken from a bul- letin of the Brotherhood of Russian Truth, a ter- rorist organization with which Nicolaey admits he had connections Inge the as ary cor r tion of military i cC S, political commande: or: militar P as well as the most stalwart Communists. Assassinate Chek. ble workers, Ss, members of the G. P. U., retaries and chairmen of the Party, village correspondents, worker corre- spondents, and generally all who unequivocally favor red power. Smash state red banks, treasuries and safes. Use the money for the brotherhood. By every means shatter the red apparatus of power. ire to or explode the buildings of the G. P. , of all Party committees, and all clubs, sinate, first of all, the Party secretaries, ogs of the power of the commissars. Cause confusion. Not only do not carry out but sabotage all orders of the red authorities.” It is bands proved to have worked under such instructions who had been found guilty by the workers’ courts, and shot when some of their groups succeedec carrying out the murder of our Com- rade Kirov. Sixteen Miners Are Dead IXTEEN miners lie dead, five more will probably die, and thirty-eight others lie in agony in Montgomery, West Virginia— a gruesome and horrible tribute exacted from the workers and their sons by the greed of the railroad magnates. In three “accidents” on American railroads in three days, two score are dead. The criminal blame lies with the railroad monop- olies, whi tk y name of profits, underman the roa z hours and es, drive the men to the breaking point; and use the hundreds of millions of P. W. A. loans given them by the Roosevelt-Wall Street government to amortize and refund their debts (that is, to pay off profits) rather than replace worn out rolling stock and re- pair roadbeds that have been allowed to become dangerous to traffic during six years of crisis. Sixteen miners lie dead in Montgomery, West Virginia, murdered in the holy name of profit. Support the Farmers National Weekly HE Farmers National Weekly, launched last March as a paper expressing the conditions, needs, program and movement of the oppressed farmers of the country, is the only national farmers’ paper pub- lished in the interests of the small and middle, the rank and file farmers. All other national papers without exception voice the programs of the capital- ist farmer and other exploiting interests. They are really concerned about how to get more out of the smaller farmers rather than with how to solve their problems. The maintenance of this paper is of vital con- cern to not only the ruined and hard pressed farm- ers, but all workers and workers’ organizations as well. We are all fighting against the same enemies. Today we need more than ever this champion of the struggle for relief to the needy farmers. We need its exposure of the New Deal-A.A.A. plans to eliminate millions of rank and file farmers from commercial production and to push them off the farm altogether or into subsistence farming. Hitler has also been degrading German farmers and work- ers to subsistence farming, since he came to power. Today the cotton farmers suffer under a com- pulsory reduction program. And as a result of the vote on the Bankhead Bill, which forces through the reduction, a vote carried through by high sound- ing phrases and promises, pressure from the land- lords, denial of free voting, and discrimination against the Negroes, Secretary Wallace hails this victory for fascist methods, and speculates on how soon compulsory reduction can be extended also to the northern farmers. Forty cotton farmers out of every hundred who were eligible to vote did not do so. This reduction program means greater ruin for the smaller farmers and greater control of the market for the capitalist farmers and marketing rusts. ‘The Farmers Weekly is needed to expose all the schemes cooked up by the reformist farm leaders to benefit the rich at the expense of the poor, ‘The paper must have 6,000 more subscribers in order to become self-supporting. Every organiza- tion interested in the struggles of the impoverished farmers can help get these subscriptions. It is a small number, but it means the continued existence of the paper. But in order to keep going until it gets these subscriptions, it needs $100 per week to cover its deficit. All sympathetic organizations of individuals can help by sending in paid greetings to its Anni- versary Campaign, which begins Jan. 1 to March 1, by suying shares in the Farmers’ National Educa- tional Association, which publishes the paper, and by donations. Address 1817 South Loomis St., Chi- cago, Ill. Surely these tasks are not great, and should easily be carried through. The Daily Worker sup- ports this campaign and requests all interested papers to reprint this appeal and to give publicity to this campaign for subscription, funds and sup- port to guarantee the continued existence of the Farmers Weekly. | Share Cropper Sends Cash | Workers’Enemies driver, and from an Alabama share- cropper, accompanied by contribu- tions for the $6,000 Scot! Herndon Defense Fund of ternational Labor Defe 3 among those received yesterday. “T enclose five dollars to aid your so important and necessary work,” | the taxi-driver wrote. “I am a member of the Taxi Drivers’ Union of Greater New York. “We know how stoutly you have defended taxi driver victims of po- ice oppression and those of us prosecuted for strike activities.” The contribution of the Alabama share-cropper totalled a dollar and a half, a huge sum for the poverty- stricken croppers to raise and snare. | The contributor was T. E. Gray, of Dadeville, Ala., brother of Ralph Gray, sharecropper’s leader mur- dered by the landlords three years ago, “You will find enclosed $1 for the Scottsboro and Herndon Defense,” he wrote in his first letter. “I am always glad to do whatever I can for the LL.D. to help them put over their program. “Y, give the I.L.D. credit for get- ting] me and some thirty-odd of us out pf jail in 1931, when my brother Ralph was mobbed. account of my activity for he movement I have been black-) fense, Room 610, 80 E. 11th St., New| wherever he may appear in their| for as long as two and a half ted for three years by the land- for Scottsboro-Herndon Fund lords and bosses here. They have | been trying to starve me out and! force me to leave the country. “Though I have a hard time here, I am still fighting in defense of the movement. They may kill me like they did to my brother Ralph. but I mean to die in defense of the cause.” “The landlords here accuse me of | being the one who started the move- ment here. Which I was after the first terror when my brother was/ mobbed. The movement was still and quiet for two months that I} was in jail. As soon as I got out| of jail I began working and I have | been working ever since. And I} mean to continue to fight in de-| fense of the movement until the| | program is put over or until I die| trying. You will find enclosed 50) | cents for the Scottsboro-Herndon | |fund. Wishing I could do much} |more for the cause.” | Funds for the $6,000 Scottsboro- | Herndon Defense Fund, urgently needed for the work of carrying | through the legal steps and mass | campaign to force the U.S. Supreme | | Court to reverse the legal lynch | verdicts against Haywood Patterson | and Clarence Norris, Scottsboro | | boys, and Angelo Herndon. should | be sent directly to the national of- | fice of the International Labor De- | | York City. $ i Exposed Anton Meierhofer (alias Lothar Mannheimer), last. known address— 618 West 138th Street, New York City, has been exposed as a Hitler agent and spy, who has been hang- ing around the German Workers’ Clubs, the New York League Against War and Fascism, the Anti-Nazi Federation and other of- fices and headquarters of working class organizations. He has stolen organization letter- heads to forge activity certificates for himself. On Dec. 24 he was caught steal- ing photographs, an address list and a number of bulletins from the of- fice of the Anti-Nazi Federation, later bringing in a policeman, de- manding the arrest of the person who took these stolen things away from him. Description: About 30 years of age, speaks with slight German ac- cent, about 5 ft. 9 in. tall, thin, dark complexioned, very dark slightly wavy hair, had a little stub mustache when last seen, straight nose and face, is alart and moves quickly, Observes quickly what goes on around him, but speaks with a low apologetic voice. All workers and their organiza~ tions, should be on their guard against this spy and drive him out mids* Some More Tips On Mimeographing And Printing MIMEOGRAPH INK. We buy ink for our mimeograph this way: 50 Wb, kegs. It is black, news ink (the technical name is 39M). keg of this ink costs only about $6.50 F.O.B., LA Coast). ‘This brings the price down to about 13 cents a Ib., and a pound | of this ink thins down to nearly! twice as much! Our first keg pro-| duced 450.000 leaflets and we still have about 15 Ibs. left! When we} are planning on buying a keg of} this ink, we start collecting cans| (6-lb, capacity) with air and water- | tight lids (this ink is messy and a tight receptacle is needed for it)! |into which the ink is transferred, | where it can more.easily be handled, | | safeguarded and hid in reserve. | TO THIN INK FOR MIMEO- | GRAPHS. We use plain gasoline| (without anti-knock dope, etc.) to thin this back, news ink to a creamy consistency. The gasoline eventu- ally evaporates, so we never fill the | ink fountain in the drum, but drop | the ink right into the drum with a teaspoon. Two teaspoons will make about 100 to 150 leaflets. If on cold mornings or nights the in-| side of the drum, the brush and| the ink are stiff, we drop a little gasoline into the drum and briskly use the brush. When the stencil gets. linty and soiled, we wash it| | off with a rag soaked in gasoline. Our experience is that a gallon can | of gasoline consistently. kept with | | the technical apparatus so as to be | always at hand, is one of the most {helpful aids . to mimeographing. Gasoline, when compared.to turpen- | tine, paint thinner, ete., is much | cheaper, since it costs. from 15¢} to 25¢ a gallon, | Leaflets in two or more colored inks mean a lot of hard work, care | | and time. In illegal periods we | hardly believe they would be prac | | tical because of this. However, we | found out that they do not cost much more than ordinary leaflets In our section we began to use | a combination of red and black ink | on some of our leaflets, last June | and July. These leaflets were very attractive. However, since then, we have discontinued colored inks. The brief period of fascist police terror on the Coast in the latter part of July, taught us the lesson | that the reactionary forces and po- jucee first of all attack our leaders and headquarters, and that second- ly, they attack our distribution and | production of literature. This les- | son was also taught us in Germany. | During this period when all our ef- | forts were needed in an intensified | production of leaflets, we fooled an entire day and much of that night, producing a leaflet in red and black jink. If we had followed the regu- lar procedure and turned it out in black ink alone, it could have been | done in two hours! | When we have to depend on homes of sympathizers and friends | in which to operate our mimeo- graphs, it is not safe to use these | Places longer than the time abso- | lutely essential to the production |of a readable leaflet. In Germany | the technical production of our lit- jerature is one of the most serious offenses, in many cases punished by death. If our Party ever be- comes illegal in the U.S.A., there is no reason to doubt that the same | conditions for production of litera- ture will face us as faces our Ger- man comrades. We must begin im- | mediately to plan our technical pro- duction of literature with a serious consideration of these factors. | LEAFLETS IN TWO COLORED INKS. We used colored printers’ poster or news ink, thinned with gasoline. Colored mimeograph inks are too expensive, costing from $2.50 to $4 a pound. This colored print- | ers’ poster ink costs on a-range of |75 cents and up per pound, and jless in quantities. | TODO TWO-COLOR WORK ON | |A -MIMEOGRAPH. (1) Remove | black ink pad from drum and place between two sheets of wax-paper, which will keep it fresh. (2) Cut | piece of stout wax-paper to width of drum, place it on drum (which | does not have to be cleaned of | the black ink), tuck ends into the drum, (3) Place new cloth pad | over wax-paper, just as you would \if renewing pad; then use small hand brush to put colored ink de- sired on pad, from the outside of the drum; when leaflets get dim, the stencil will have to be lifted and more ink brushed on to the pad from the outside of the drum. | (4) Follow the same procedure for | the different colored inks you want | to use, but always use a new pad for a new color (the colored pads | | when not in use can be stored be- | tween wax-papers). (5) When ready to use black ink again, remove the | wax-paper cover from the drum and replace the black ink pad on drum; | now you can resume inking the pad | from inside the drum. | CUTTING STENCILS FOR TWO OR MORE COLORED WORK. A (different stencil must be cut for each color used. For example if the | main title and all subtitles are to be in red, the balance of the text | in black, and at the bottom a box _calling to a meeting, in green— | three stencils will have to be cut, (1) For the main title and the sub- | titles. (2) For the balance of the text. (3) For the box calling to the meeting. Extreme care must be taken to have the three stencils fit together as a whole. Spaces and margins must be generous enough to allow for inaccuracies in running | the paper through the machine, | since the paper must go through the machine three times, once for each color. RENEWING INK PADS ON | MIMEOGRAPHS. The manufac- turers of mimeographs caution the | users that ink pads must be re- | newed frequently and they advise ‘every two weeks. Since these pads ‘are made by the same manufactur- {ers and usually sell for 15 cents | apiece, this is lucrative business for | them, and it’s easy to see why capi- talists get rich. | However, we have used ink pads Party Life | | A 50 Ib.| (this is for West | | hand-brush, paint the outside of | SUPPORT YOUR CONGRESS! ~By Limbach (xr wat | FUNDS FoR 4 DNEMLOVED By Toivo Antikainen | i ‘HE border of Finland and the | Soviet Union is approximately | 550 miles long. borders on Finland. This fact explains why interna- | tional capitalism considers Finland | an important base for an attack | against the Soviet Union. Finland has asked the League of Nations | for permission to double its num- | ber of submarines. The bourgeoisie | of all Baltic countries have formed cists and social democracy are, openly allied against the Soviet Union—in fact, the fascists recently asked Waino Tanneri, a social- democratic leader and at present the secretary of the International Co-operative League, to be their | leader. The former Tanneri gov- ernment refused to sign a non- aggression pact with the Soviets. In 1925 the Finnish social-democratic | leadership sent a delegation to Marseilles, France, to discuss armed intervention against the Soviets with the Menshevik emigres. But back of all this are the big imperial- ist powers. Finland is literally a vassal State of England. The Finnish fascists propagan- dize for their war plans with the slogan, “Help our kinsfolk in the Soviet Union.” Within the Soviet Union there are, namely, several national groups related to the Finns. But these “‘kinsfolk” would scarcely understand one another without an interpreter. Further- | i} national policy, these nations have , Union. They would not trade it for | the whip of the Finnish butchers. | Ten years ago Finland had three | munitions factories. Now it boasts | of fifteen. The cannon are brought from Czecho-Slovakia. Guns are obtained by bartering eggs for) rifles, paper for ammunition, etc. At the same time the workers are eating bread prepared from the slimy substance found between the bark and the wood of the pine tree, Its nutrition value is 50. per ‘cent of ordinary rye bread. It is unnecessary to mention that tuber- culos~ and stomach diseases, espe- cially cancer, are very widespread. Mortality from tuberculosis is higher in Finland than anywhere else in Europe. The money is spent Finsish Fascism Exchanges Food for Armaments Arms for War; for arms, so nothing remains to) take care of public health. The war budget is continuously growing. In 1921, 340,000,000 Fin- Karelia is the) nish marks were used for war pur- | barracks with red flags. The offi- autonomous Soviet Republic that | poses; in 1926-28, the average ex-|Cers could do nothing but curse, for | penditure was 556,000,000 and in| the overwhelming majority of the| 1929-31, 650,000,000.. Besides, there are many “special expenses” which | amount to hundreds of millions of | marks. Now the government is/| proposing to spend 800,000,000 marks for war purposes in 1935. During the war the Finnish army : | had 225,000 men. (The entire pop- B strong) Selemdly alliage. The TRE 1 teams abou a kONOA. Ge arco tion, the army contains 100,000 “Defense Guard” men (a fascist military group). As there are many lakes in Finland, the army has about 2,500 motor boats to be used in civil war, Each of them has room for a small cannon. Lust for More Land The Finnish fascists lust for the forests of Soviet Karelia and for the gold in the Urals. ‘“Hakkape- liitta,” a military paper published by the fascists, regularly publishes a map of “Great Finland,” which shows the border at the Urals. Len- ingrad would be the capital of “Great Finland.” The Communist Party of Finland is carrying on successful propa- ganda among the soldiers. Church attendance is compulsory for soldiers, although probably no more than 25 per cent of the sol- diers are religious. Once the min- ister of the Viborg garrison tried to more, as a result of the Leninist | Show the soldiers “the road to the! against a police attack. Urals” on the map. The soldiers complete autonomy in the Soviet | turned off the lights and gave the rights in the army. minister a send-off he won't: forget for a long time. The government has provided 150 hours of schooling annually for each soldier. The following list of sub- jects gives an idea of what this Schooling offers: national herces: history of the War of Liberation (the fascists’ name for the war. against the workers’ and peasants’ revolt), of the Fatherland and of the troop; morality, etc. Special text books have been drawn up for the army.. The in- structors. are officers, soldiers pos- sessing a medium education, and preachers. But they have not been able to crush the rebellious spirit. of the masses by either terror or mis- leading propaganda, agriculture, | Military papers write that on December 6, 1930, the soldiers inj | Viborg decorated the entire road |from the drilling grounds to the | soldiers were behind the affair. The red flag has been raised and | slogans have been painted in many | Places. Most of the slogans say: | “Down with imperialist war,” “Long | live the Soviet Union,” “Long live | Soviet Finland,” etc. Soldiers Sing Red Songs. The singing of revolutionary | songs is common among the sol-; diers. It is related that while re- | | turning from drills an officer com- | manded his men to sing a patriotic song. But the command was not} heeded even when renewed. The} | officer said, “Well, then, go ahead and sing whatever you know.” The soldiers came out with “The March | of Free Russia.” Pretending not to | understand what it was all about, the officer said, “That’s much bet- | ter, I knew that you are good at! singing.” | When the governor attempted to | speak in Kuopio the soldiers made | such a racket that the speech had | to be stopped. After that the sol- diers sang revolutionary songs. The | soldiers have organized other dem-} | onstrative mass actions in drills,| |during dinner, in entertainment, ete. | In 1931, the soldiers in Abo pro- tected a workers’ demonstration \ | The soldiers have no_ political | Military ser- vice does not give the toilers any} advantages or improvements. No} | attention has been paid to demands | for the improvement of the soldiers’ | conditions. Such demands have in- cluded the increasing of the daily | allowance, the removal of certain | officets, the abolition of inhuman | Punishments, furloughs, formation of soldiers’ committees, promotion | on the basis of ability, etc. The de- mand for the dispersment of the Defense Guards, which have become a regular plague on the country, | has not been carried out. This is ‘quite natural for the bourgeoisie jcannot cut down the branch on | which iti s sitting. That branch the | workers and peasants must hew | down with their axe of revolution. after that time. A good practice to insure long life to ink pads, is to: (1) Before applying stencil, with the pad with pretty thin mixture of ink (thinned with gasoline), rub- | bing into pad well. (2) Lift pad | from drum and paint the inside with brush and this mixture of | ink, briskly brushing over the little | round ridges which have been caused by the perforations in the | drum. (3) Replace the pad on drum | and go over the outside of pad once more with brush and mixture. These ink pads cost 15 cents apiece here. We priced the ma- terial and it is flannellette, which costs about 25c a square yard. A square yard will make about eight of these pads, bringing the cost down to about 3 cents or 4 cents each! Whenever we have more of these tips and experiences to offer the comrades, we will send them in to the Party Life column of the Daily Worker. Now is the time to make use of the Daily Worker in ex- changing these experiences, while it still enjoys a wide circulation Italian Jobless Battle Police in Three Cities RONCHI, Italy, Dec. 28—At a meeting of the fascist syndicate here, numerous workers, men and the reduction of their piece-work wages and the continuous lengthen- ing of their working ‘hours. Fifty workers of a bonafica (ser- vice for agricultural improvements) were unable to make 20 to 25 cents a day on piece work. They struck and committed acts of violence against their bosses to make them which guaranteed a salary of eight cents an hour. At Gradisca, Aurisina, Aquileia, Agrado and other places the unem- ployed demonstrated in front of the amongst the working class, Per- haps sooner than we expect, it will then be up to us comrades, those of us doing technical work, to pub- lish the Daily Worker and Western Worker, as weli as we will be able, on our mimeographs, hectographs, and other apparatus, ~ RT. months and they were still good 8. D. Sect. Dist, 13. Town Hall, sent their delegations to the Podestas (Town Councils) ;and succeeded more than once in obtaining some relief in money or | food, | When scores of men were ar- rested after demonstrating at | Cezari, the women surrounded the | Wagons in which their husbands | and sons were to be taken to prison women, protested vigorously against | respect their contract of work, | ,;and, in order to free them, led a |pitched battle with the pozice. The | ‘unemployed and the women of! Lanisca, Bovec. Soviet Union Decree Gives 1,295,549 Tons | Of Seed to Farmers (Special to the Daily Worker) MOSCOW, Dec. 28 (By Wireless). —In the United States more than | 10,000,000 farmers and farm work- ers must accept drought, zamine, ,and the crop-destruction and cattle- slaughter program of Roosevelt's Department of Agriculture as “acts |of Ged” working in the interest of the grain monopolisis and bankers. But in the Soviet Union, as ex- ampled by today’s decree of the workers’ and peasants’ government j to set aside 1,293,549 tons of seed and fodder for any collective farms | which have suffered from drought, the well-being of the Soviet collec- ine farmer is the first considera- | tion, The collective farmers and toiling jindividual peasant in regions and republics which have completed their annual plan of grain delivery and have completely provided the seed reserves for 1935 sowing are being encouraged to sell their sur- plus grain both to the government la few World Front —— By HARRY GANNES ~-—~ Saar—Dynamite Bread Card System N.R.A. in Porto Rico E can see the tension throughout Europe visibly heighten as the Saar plebi- scite date draws near. Only weeks remain befsra the voting. Though an ex- tremely small territory, with not more than 800,000 veovle, po- litically the Saar is concentrated dynamite. Hitler and his gang of butchers look to the Saar as Goering does to a dose of morphine after an un- usually heavy day of slaughter. The fascists want to inject this piece of conocmic medicine into their pci- soned political body, hoving it will stave off their collapse for a while, Meanwhile, the British imperial- ists have sent into the Saar, under the guise of an “imovartial, inter- national police force,” the worst col- lection of “bill collectors,” as Gen- eral Butler would put it, ever sent against a rebellious colonial people. The British sent their brass hats ex- Perienced in shooting down Indian workers and peasants, and the old black and tan regiments, whose guns have more than one notch of an Trish life taken. * eee N the first of the new year a tre- mendous advance step will be taken in the Soviet Union that will speed socialist development, The rationing or bread card system ends. Originally the bread card system was inaugurated in 1928 at the be- ginning of the Five-Year Plan, in order most effectively to distribute the available supply of bread. An indication of the progress made during that time can be seen from the fact that at that time (1928) 650,000,000 poods (one pood equals 36 pounds) of grain were harvested, while in 1934, despite the drought, 1,500,000,000 poods were available for breadmaking, or more than double. In 1928 there were 416,000,000 poods of other foodstuffs grown, while in 1934 the figure had reached over 1,000,000,000, or two and a half times as much. ‘The ending of the bread-card sys- tem is not only concerned with bread. It is the key to an accelera~ tion of commodity distribution, a more rapid turnover of all goods, as well as the improvement of the financial structure of the Soviet Union, ‘With the ending of the bread card system will come a rapid spurt to the improvement of living stand- ards, a lowering of prices generally, an increase of wages, and a speed- ing up of retail trade throughout the Soviet Union. Already the stores in the Soviet Union have increased to 238,000 in 1934 as against 123,000 in 1928. The bread-card system was & necessary’ transition step in the transformation of small peasant economy into the socialist collec- tive. The ending of the bread-card system indicates a still more tre- mendous leap forward. Y Say Ae 1O ONE can accuse Roosevelt of denying the benefits of his New Deal, especially the N.R.A., to the tuberculosis and pellagra - ridden masses of Porto Rico. ‘The largest number of workers af- fected by the N.R.A. codes in Porto Rico were the needle workers. Now the N.R.A. administrators, after that careful research so well. known to the American workers, set the munificent minimum wage of $2 a week for Porto Rican needle trades workers. But. Roosevelt’s administrators lately have discovered this did not work fast enough in increasing tuberculosis and starvation in Porto Rico, so they decided to lower the $2 weekly minimum, In_ Release No. 9395 of the National Recovery Administration, piece work rates on needle-work in Porto Rico are or- dered reduced, becoming effective dan, 8. “The Commission found that some of the rates [$2 a week— H. G.] are excessive, in view of conditicns within the Porte Rican industry.” Pa eee OW your skilled capitalist econ- omist, more concerned with capitalist “reality,” as he would put it, would say that life is cheaper in Porto Rico, and that one cannot say if wages are cut down below $2 a week, that that is of itself unjust. The answer which every worker in Porto Rico knows is that most of the foodstuffs is imported from the | United States, and costs as much er more than it does in the chief industrial centers in the United States. It is for this reason — the special exploitetion of American capitalism, the unusually high profits made by the hosees — that Porto Rico. though itself a country like Florida and California, has more disease than any other spot under Wall Street's flag. Another code dealt with by the N.R.A. in Porto Rico, is that for bakers. The bakers’ minimum wage is set at $5 a week. And the bakers are told “tile code affords very real health and sanitation.” In fact, if the process of the needle code (the most important in the islands) is continued, the em- ployers will undoubtedly grow much healthier and happier. Soviet Shop Meetings To Discuss Production (Specicl to the Daily Worker) MOSCOW, Dec. 28 (By Wireless). On Jan. 1 in factories meetings will take place summing up the results of the second year of the Second Five Year Plan. The gathering of information on the social competi- and to cooperative organizations, as well as in town and village mar- | kets and at railway stations, tions which took place during the year will be a major subject of dis- cussion. Presentation of awards to the best shock-workers will be made, hope of progress in the field of