The daily worker. [volume], July 01, 1927, Final City Edition, Page Page Six, Image 6

About The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958

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Page Six
How the U. S. S. R. Builds
Up Its Industry
The world capitalist and Socialist
Democratic press has been paying
considerable attention lately to the
economic problems of the Soviet
Union. But one must say that the
manner in which an attempt is made
to throw light on these problems is
rather peculiar.
This press does not want to go be
yond the limits of generalizations,—
it certainly does not want to take as
its authority the concrete figures on
the basis of which the public opinion
of the Soviet Union express itself on
all fundamental questions of economic
construction: questions of the econ
omic plan for the current year, or
even problems of the prospective
plan for five years ahead. Such
peculiar methods when dealing with
the economic questions of the Soviet
Union are very suspicious.
Ignore Figures.
It is of course splendid that the
Socialist and bourgeois press evinces
Mich interest in questions concerning
the industrialization of the Soviet
Union, sources of accumulation, etc.
But it is certainly not to be com
mended that in connection with this.
It ignores all concrete figures and
calculations, that for instance, when
discussing sources of accumulation
in general, it does not consider it
necessary to say a word about the
most. Important economic document
of recent days—about the combined
production and financial plan for the
industry of the U.S.S.R. in 1926-27.
Why not tell inquisitive West-
European readers that the Soviet
Government endorsed an expenditure
of 1,100,000 roubles for the develop
ment of industry (together with
electrical construction) ? Why not
disclose the source for which this cer
tainly considerable basic construction
is being financed ? The bourgeois
and Social-Democratic press, looking
very wise, throws aside accumulation
within industry as a negligible factor
in the industrialization of the Soviet
Union.
But why not try to analyze in all
seriousness, for instance, the sup
positions on which the five years’
plan is based, according to which
capital expenditure in industry is
estimated at 7 billion roubles, covered
by three billion roubles profits of
the industry itself, 2.6 billion roubles
amortization deductions and only 1.5
billion roubles drawn from the State
budget? The fact is that it is not in
the interest of the bourgeois and So
LETTERS FROM OUR READERS
Iron and Bronze Union. ,
Editor, Daily Worker:
The building industry is now pass- j
ing from a phase of prosperity to a I
slowing down stage. The prime rea- j
son for the present state of affairs in ;
the building trade is as certain au
thorities declare, that the sharp de
mand for new buildings is no longer
existing. But whatever the reasons
may be the result is that a great
number of building trade workers are
unemployed.
The building trade bosses, taking
advantage of the opportunity offered
by the dullness in the trade, are pre
paring to launch an attack against
the building trade unions.
The Iron and Bronze Workers’
Union, naturally, is not to be spared
by the bosses. Although they were
always telling us that we do not be
long to the family of the building
trade unions, but this was as far as
granting us better conditions was con
cerned.
The schemes and the combinations
that the iron bosses are making al
ready is an indication that they are
hiding something in their sleeve.
The Iron and Bronze Workers’
Union being aware of all the prepara
tions the bosses are making is seek
ing a closer contact with the other
local union in the trade and is also
carrying on a wide organization cam
paign among the open shop men.
The iron and bronze workers must
line up solidly and strengthen their
union which will lead the defensive
and offensive fight against their
bosses.—A. Roscnfeld, New York.
* * *
Editor, The DAILY WORKER:
Chang Kai-shek, with the stamp of
Mussolini on his back, has draped
himself in a brilliant robe of liberal
ism, and is carrying on an ardent
flirtation with the imperialists. In
this week’s Sunday issue of the
Hearst papers there is an article
ourporting to be written by this re
negade General, but to the discern
ing eye it is evidently the effusion of
an experienced but unusually clumsy
publicity agent.
What right has Chiang-Kai-shek to
speak for Ihe Nanking Government,
except as its Dictator? In spite of
his repudiation of dictatorial ambi
tions the tone of the article betrays
him. In the phrase: “with the col
laboration of Dr. Wu and my other
advisprs. on whose wise advice in
civil and political matters I totally
rely,” you cannot help but see a
second Mussolini emerging on the
Chinese scene. Dr. Wu, the Foreign
Minister, becomes a mere “adviser”
to the Dictator Chiang Kai-shek!
It is a well-known fact that Chiang
Kai-shek, after his betrayal of the
Koumintang and the Hankow govern
ment. sought an alliance with Chang-
Tso-lin. His enimissaries have
knocked at the gates of Peking more
than once. Now that ho has failed,
he turns back and attempts to white
wash his sin by a flat denial. His
statement: “I shall never make, nor :
have 1 attempted in the past to make j
07) alliance with Chang Tso-lin” is the
mW brazen playing to the Motional- J
cial Democratic press to mix itself up
with statistical calculations, it is not
in its interest to study the fundamental
figures of the economic plan for the
current year, it is not in its interes 1
even to have anything to do with an
analysis of the figures of the past
1925-26 business year. It is much
in its interest to limit itself to gen
eralizations about sources of accumu
lation, relations between the working
class and the peasantry, in order to
make, on the basis of these general
izations deductions concerning the
impossibility of Socialist construction
in one country. . . . But we will deal
somewhat more thoroughly with the
published figures and material and
will give prominance to a few funda
mental questions.
For Electrification.
As already mentioned, the Govern
ment of the U.S.S.R. endorsed an ex
penditure of 1,100,000 million roubles
in the current year for the develop
ment of industry including electrical
construction. A few days ago, a sup
plementary decision of the Soviet of
the People’s Commissars of the Union
was published, giving details re ex
penditure for basic construction in in
dustry and also fundamental direc
tions concerning the realization of
this plan. For a proper apprecia
tion of this plan of basic construc
tion the most important question is
of course that of its reality, that of
the real sources of financing this
plan. Without going into a more de
tailed appreciation, we will quote the
following interesting figures.
Product Increased.
It seems that the profits of the
industry and amortization increased
in the following manner: In 1923-24,
268 million roubles; in 1924-25, 585
million roubles, in 1925-26, 802 mill
ion roubles, and the estimated in
ci'ease in 1926-27 is over 900 million
roubles. Such are the “insignificant”
figures concerning the sources of the
financing of basic construction which
the capitalist and Social Democratic
press consider “in all good con
science” justified to ignore.
We have no reason to think that it
will be impossible to carry out the
proposed plan. The development of
the entire economy and industry of
the U.S.S.R. which was, generally
speaking, normal in the first four
months of the new business year, en
titles us to assume that the proposed
plans do not exceed the economic pos
sibilities of our country.
ist gallery. What were so many em
missaries sent for? Perhaps to in
; quire after the good health of Chang
| Tso-lin?
! By his own confession, Chiang
j Kai-shek is not following the policies
' laid down by Dr. Sun Yet-sen at the
! time of his death, but in order to
compromise with the imperialists and
to bid for the support of the Chinese
! bourgeoisie, he has adopted Dr. Sun’s
! moderate policy of ten years ago.
Dr. Sun, like all great revolutionists,
grew and developed with every day
that he lived; his growth was never
arrested. Fie constantly shaped his
policies to the need of the time and
in the interests of the oppressed
classes of the population. He was
always for the complete emancipation
of the Chinese people from the yoke
of fojeign imperialism. The slogan
wlricKwe pronounced before his death
was “Down with Imperialism!”
| Chiang, in enumerating his policies,
did not say a word about imperialism;
instead, he talked about the “crush
ing of militarism in China, the unity
of the country (presumably under his
dictatorship), and the complete but
gradual revision of all unjust and all
unequal treaties and concessions with
l foreigners.” Even the word “im
perialism” is dropped from his pro
gram! Dr. Sun advocated the com
plete abolition of the unequal treaties
at the earliest possible moment;
j Chiang meekly murmurs a few words
about “revision.”
Chiang Kai-shek is not a follower
of Dr. Sun Yet-sen, but the agent of
the imperialists in their policy of
disrupting and destroying the Chi-
S nese revolution.—Ch’ao-Ting Chi, San
j Francisco, Cal.
Standardize Pay for
N. Y. Private Nurses
NEW YORK, June 30. (FP).—Pay
for organized trained nurses in pri
vate duty is being standardized in
New York. The Associated Registry
Group, controlling about half the
. nurses, is responsible. It includes
j nurses from training schools of the
city’s large hospitals,—over 3000 in
I all.
For 24-hour duty, $lO will be paid.
| Three hours is guaranteed for recrea-
I tion and six for sleep. A 24-hour is
i reckoned from 9 to 9; 12-hour duty
from 7to 7, or 8 to 8. A nurse is
! entitled to full pay for any part of
| that period. For 12-hour duty the rate
is SB. Where meals are not provided,
is 3 a day allowance must be made.
Traveling and laundry expenses must
be paid for out-of-town cases. Two
dollars extra is charged for each ex
| tra -patient, except in maternity cases.
These rates do not apply in the hos
pitals, however.
The new nursing scale is based on
an investigation by the New York
1 State Medical Assn. Average yearly
! income of nurses was found to be un
der SI4OO, although these women]
workers spend thre: years in profes
sional training.
Sacco and Van/etti Shall Not Die!]
THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK. FRIDAY, JULY 1, 1927
j COMMANDER BYRD AND TRANSATLANTIC SHIP [
KorthVole 1 "
'' S ' s ' s \_ - y
Above, a recent photo of Commander Richard E. Byrd and, below, his plane, the America, tri
motored Fokker monoplane, constructed for his New York-Paris hop. Upper right, artist’s sketch of
Commander Byrd as he flew over the Arctic wastes last year in the “Josephine Ford.” Byrd, together
.with Floyd Bennett, was the first man to reach the North pole by airplane. /
Professional Patriots
(Continued from yesterday)
John G. McNutt, Ist Lt. FA-Res, Sec’y-Treasurer.
Incls:
67th Congress 2nd Session, Senate Committee Print,
ROTC at Educational Institutions.
Copy of statement by President Elliott, Purdue Uni
versity, 1-28-26.
St No 862
It so happened that these letters were mailed out in
a penalty envelope—franked envelope—which privilege
under Section 485 of the U. S. Postal Laws and Regul
ations is restricted to “officers of the United States
Government” solely for the purpose of transmitting in
the mails free of postage “matters relating exclusively
to the business of the Government of the United States.”
Just what this letter had to do wih government busi
ness it is difficult to discover. When the matter of
Lieutenant McNutt’s violation of the law was referred
to the Secretary of War and the Attorney-General of
the United States it was explained that “the envelope,
wih its enclosures, was sent out by authority of the
chief-of-staff of the 84th Division, Colonel G. L. Town
send, an officer of the Regular Army, and competent
under the law.”
This was the opinion of the Secretary of War. Senator
Thomas J. Walsh, of Montana, thereupon wrote to At
torney-General Sargent on December 4, 1926, saying in
part as follows:
“Will you have the kindness to advise me whether
you concur in the view of the Secretary of War that
Colonel Townsend is ‘competent under the law’ to send
such matter in a penalty envelope without postage? I
venture without hesitation to say that he is not, and
that the matter sent out by McNutt is not such as re
lates ‘exclusively to the business of the government of
the United States’ nor does it relate in any wise to the
business of the government of the United Statse. It
seems to me perfectly plain that the law has been fla
grantly violated in this matter.”
A great deal of the propaganda of the professional
patriots has been published in journals dealing with
the army and navy such as the Army and Navy Regist
er, the Army and Navy Journal, and the Reserve Of
ficer, a publication of the Reserve Officers’ Association
of the United States. None of these publications are
in any sense official though they may seem so to the
average reader. Practically every branch of the mili
tary service has an association connected with it which
issues a journal. These journals can print anything
they like, for they are also unofficial. Typical associ
ations issuing publications of this character are the
United States ■ Infantry Association and the United
States Cavalry Association. There are also various
news letters sent out by the civilian aides of the Sec
retary of War, and bulletins and news letters of various
corps and divisions of the army. All of these have been
used to distribute indiscriminate and irresponsible pro
paganda chiefly against persons working for peace.
Often they may be used for a wider field of propaganda
as in 1925 when the Quartermaster Review issued a
broadside of lies against the League for Industrial
Democracy. This propaganda was in turn copied from
the Eighty-third Division Bulletin. The Army and
Navy Journal has been especially active in this work,
having printed much of the material issued by Mr. Mar
vin.
A minor military organization which has lent itself
to professional patriotic activities and to the propa
ganda against all shades of liberals and radicals is the
National Society of Scabbard and Blade, whose head
quarters are in Canton, Ohio. Its stated purpose is
“to unite in closer relationship the military departments
of American universities and colleges; to preserve and
develop the essential qualities of good and efficient of
ficers; to prepare ourselves as educated men to take
a more active part and to have a greater influence in
the military affairs of the communities in which we may
reside, and above all to spread intelligent information
concerning the military requirements of our country.”
This society issues mimeographed bi-weekly “Special
Situation Bulletins” to its members in which it details
much gossip about the radicals, the pacifists, the youth
movement, the League for Industrial Democracy, and
all sorts of college and student activities of which it
disapproves. It reprints the Whitney material on “The
Reds in America" amd Congressman Blanton’s orations
against the liberals. In one of its bulletins it nttacks
Sherwood Eddy, the Women’s International League for
Peace and Freedom and other persons and organizations
that usually appear on the militarists’ blacklist. An
other bulletin is devoted to attacking all the signers
of the preface to the Lane Pamphlet. It also circulates
material furnished by the National Clay Products In
dustries Association. One offering from this source is
a pamphlet called “Business Statesmanship,” an address
by Harry Curran Wilbur, “Managers’ Consultant and
Nationally Known Analyst in Economics,” before the
sixth annual meeting of the National Clay Products In
dustries Association. The Scabbard and Blade Society,
in sending this address, which is one long tirade against
the radicals, tells its members, “You will notice it is
punched ready for filing with the bulletins. Before
you file it away be sure that you read it over casually
and then read it making notes or underscoring phrases
you wish to remember or find readily. Too much good
cannot be said of this little booklet. ... To such men
as Mr. Wilbur, the American people owe a great deal as
you will decide when you have finished reading ‘Busi
ness Statesmanship.’ ” „
Connections With Business and Organizations.
We have noted above, in describing the support re
ceived by the various organizations, that their chief
backers are business men or their wives. Some scat
tered contributions come from school teachers, clerks,
and storekeepers, but in the main the financial ties run
from the offices of the patriotic promoters to the office
of the corporation attorneys and capitalists.
The chief support of the American Defense Society
doubtless comes from Mr. Elon Hooker, the manufac
turer of chemicals, while Mr. Dwight Braman and fel
low members of the New York Stock Exchange are the
financial backers of the Allied Patriotic Societies. We
have seen how the Security League received enormous
defense funds from some of the wealthiest corporation
directors in America. The officers of the League at
the time of the congressional investigation included Mr.
Menken, whose firm represented large business groups
in this country and in England; Mr. Alexander J.
Hemphill, director in over twenty large corporations,
many of which tolerate no lalbor union on the premises;
Mr. Franklin Q. Brown, director in the Haitian-Ameri
can Corporation; Mr. Robert Bacon, of the United States
Steel Corporation; Mr. H. B. Harris, who was listed as
a director in the Haitian-American Corporation, which
has carried so much civilization to the Haitian Repub
lic; Mr. Frederick H. Coudert, a director in oil, real
estate, and banking companies; and finally, Mr. Frank
lin Remington, director of the Great Western Chemical
Corporation and many other large concerns, and pre
sent chairman of the Finance Committee of the Ameri
can Defense Society. In reporting on the activities of
the League the congressional report said it constituted
a serious menace to representative government. Refer
ring to such organizations, the report read:
“Usually, as in this instance, they have access to al
most unlimited wealth, and borrow respectability by the
use, in honorary positions, of the names of men of na
tional prominence. . . .”
We have noted above that the major contributors to
the support of the Better America Federation are the
open shop, power and other public utility corporations
of California whose gifts have taken the form of sub
stantial annual subscriptions. It must be remembered
that the organization once wore a franker name—the
Commercial Federation of California—though its of
ficers, office, and staff remained identical when it
changed to Bettei; America. Its president remained
H. M. Hadleman, president of the Pacific Pipe and
Supply Company, and its directors still include mil
lionaire real estate, department store, and public utility
captains of industry. Ernest J. Hopkins in his report
to the California Commission on Immigration and Hous
ing writes:
“The connection of this organization with the Los
Angeles Merchants and Manufacturers Association is
universally alleged in Los Angeles. The same men are
active in both.”
As for the American Constitutional Association we
have shown that its support is exclusively from West
Virginia corporations with an occasional check from
outside the state, such as Judge Gary’s $5,000.
The National Civic Federation, though it carries a
few labor officials on its letterhead, and swears allegi
ance to the A. F. of L., is clearly a big business organ
ization, and has been so ever since Ralph Easley learned
which class could write cashable checks. For the organ
ization is supported wholly by the contributions of the
more than well-to-do. No labor organization ever voted
it a nickel, and many, like the United Mine Workers
and the International Ladies’ Garment Workers, have
openly condemned it and forbidden their members to
join it.
j[SB B O OK S SB j
A REVIEW OF THREE NOVELS.
| ARIANE, by Claude Anet. Alfred A. Knopf. $2.50.
WHILE THE EARTH SHOOK, by Claude Anet. Bard & Co., N. Y. $2.50.
j PRESSURE, a novel by Margaret Culkin Banning. Harper & Bro. $2.
When the mosquitos are biting and the fish are not, “Ariane” is a
good book to make life on a placid lake tolerable. It is a novel that deals
j purely—this term is to be understood as synonymous with solely, as there
I is very little conventional purity in the book—with the amours of a well
| to-do Russian girl of pre-revolutionary days.
Ariane, the heroine, started to step into the experimental sex wilderness
at the early age of sixteen and as she was attractive, daring and intelligent
she did not lack collaborators. She took her liasons lightly until she met
a wealthy business man. The conflict between the two consumes most
of the hook, and ends as those things usually do by the principal charac
ters falling in love.
The author is a Frenchman and deals sympathetically with the much
ioved Ariane. One cannot help assuming that if Claude Anet were a girl,
Ariane is just the kind of a girl he would be. Not a book for the serious
thinker but good reading in a thunderstorm.
* * *
“While the Earth Shook” is another kind of a story.
Using Lydia Sergeuvna as the motor that pulled his narrative thru to a
successful finis, Claude Anet has written as readable a novel based on the
early days of the Russian Revolution as I have ever had the pleasure to read.
The author is frankly biased against Bolshevism as can be seen from the
fondling words he employs in painting the virtues of the counter-revolu
tionists—or those of them who have any virtue, left—as against the strong
and hostile terms he uses when dwelling on the alleged terror turned loose
by the Soviets.
Nevertheless, Aneti does not permit his prejudices to befoul a good story.
He shows quite clearly the bankruptcy, incompetence and degeneracy of the
Czarist ruling classes and the vacillation of the Kerensky regime. On the
other hand he cannot avoid expressing thru some of his characters, admira
tion for the determination and fixity of purpose of the Bolsheviki, particu
larly Lenin, whose name from first to last aroused a holy dread in the breasts
of the discomfited aristocracy.
Lydia Serguevna was a girl of eighteen, when she stumbled into her
hero on the Nevski Prospect, that splendid avenue of Leningrad where the
red sea of revolution was surging, on Saturday, March 10, 1917. Lydia was
swept along with the human flood, driven by a hurricane of gunfire, until
she was halted by the figure of a giant, who was as impervious to the human
torrent around him as the rock of Gibraltar to the swirling tides.
He turned out to be the president of a big bank, was well over middle
age and married to an estimable woman who fed his vanity with a few chil
dren. Nevertheless, after a reasonable lapse of time, this honest man fell
madly in love with Lydia but not more madly than she fell for him.
* * *
While such affairs usually lead to complications, in this case it saved a
neck. Savinski—this is the fictional name of Lydia’s lover—thru his ac
quaintance with Semeonof, a high official in the Soviet department of For
eign Affairs, and because of Semeonof’s alleged desire to have Lydia learn
stenography so that she could serve the workers’ republic in the Foreign
office, got out of a couple of tight corners, tho were we in Savinski’s boots
we would rather trust to the imagination of the novelist than to the mercy of
the revolutionary Cheka, after being caught in illegal commerce with agents
of Kaledine, Korniloff and the foreign imperialists.
Unlike Ariane, which is free from social implications, outside of the fact
that it revolves around the amours of members of the parasite class, “While
the Earth Shook” explains the inability of the Russian classes to save them
selves from doom while the workers and peasants were painfully and slowly
perfecting their governmental machinery and bringing order out of chaos.
* * *
Savinski tries to leave Russia on a fake passport but despite a liberal
hirsute camouflage he only got as far as the Finland Station. In the last
page of the book he walks out of Boutyrkii prison in Moscow a sadder but
wiser man. Semeonof saved Savinski! Because the author insists, Savinski
was the man who could bring Lydia within sight. Claude Anet is always
searching for the woman and always finding her. Semeonof saved Savinski
because the government needed the services of a good financial expert. This
was Semeonof’s alibi. Judging from what we hear of the Cheka of those
days we arc decidedly of the opinion that were Semeonof influenced by the
motives ascribed to him by the author he would be in need of quite a little
salvation for his own personal use.
Otherwise “While the Earth Shook” is a darned good tale.
* * *
When a book keeps a hardworking scrivener awake until 4:30 A. M. it is
either a worthwhile book or the scrivener has gone crazy. This is what
Pressure did to and I don’t think I am crazy.
It is the story of life in a town which is dominated by a hardboiled
banker. This banker and a flunkey are the only worthwhile villains in the
story. The banker’s chief competitor dies and leaves a daughter, accustomed
to all the luxuries of life, with almost nothing. She is in love with a prom
ising young businessman who is a decent fellow but not yet sufficiently in
love with her to suit her standard. The banker’s wife entices the young man
to Palm Beach where he falls in love with a bathing suit belonging to the
daughter of another wealthy resident of the town. Also to what was on the
inside of the bathing suit. But when the girl changed her garments his love
did the same thing.
* * *
Now it appears that a man finds it as hard to serve two mistresses as
to serve two masters. When the young businessman returned to his home
town, the girl he loved for what she had back of the eyes as well as from
the chin down was running a book store aided by a young man with tawny
hair, who was dragged into the story to keep her company and shock the
local babbitry. Os course he fell in love with his employer in such a fashion
that his case was hopeless from the start. He was about as wicked as the
skeleton of a dinosaurus. He did not stay until the end of the book. The
young businessman was not successful in convincing the girl he really loved,
that fate was against him.
The wicked banker is bringing pressure to bear on everybody, sparing
neither youth, age nor sex. He owns a good part of the town, including a
department store, which sells books. He winds up by putting the orphan,
who runs the bookstore, out of business. A combination of carefully planned
circumstances sends her to work in a restaurant where she is finally located
by the young businessman who broke with the town banker and with the
occupant of the bathing suit.
Together they walk out into the rising moon.
* * *
One might gather from this review that Pressure is a sizable chunk of
literary hokum. It is nothing of the kind. There is enough sex in it to
guarantee its appearance among the tall grasses and under the shady trees
of summer resorts. But there is also a lot of havoc committed on the in
flated bladder of bourgeois society.
—T. J. O’FLAHERTY.
THE PLAYBOOK OF TROY, by Susan Meriwether. Harper & Bros. $2.
“Once upon a time long, long ago there was a great war. The war was
fought over a beautiful queen named Helen.” And there you are. They have
taken the ancient fairy tale as told by the blind poet and set it up attrac
tively to make it palatable enough for children to swallow in play.
Too much of the mythical history of the siege of Troy is crammed into
a couple large-size, large type pages to make it easily absorbed by the im
mature mentality of children. Following this is another brief section of
selections from Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey cleverly using the original text.
Following the text are eight pages of drawings of the figures in the
story, including Greek galleys and the famous wooden horse. All these are
arranged for children to cut out and use before the painted stage which is
the detachable cover of the book picturing the sea, the landing of the soldiers
and the walls of Troy.
#* * •
The detachable cover and the cut-outs are ingeniously arranged to still
leave the story part intact in book form. All of it in colors, it is splendidly
illustrated.
It is regrettable that the ingenuity, art work and general attractiveness
of the book do not grace a little volume of greater value for
ing, of course, workers’ children. There are better and less expensive books
than this one.
i —W. C.