The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-07-30
TROTZKY TELLS
WHY INDUSTRY
BROKE DOWN.
(By the Federated Press.l

Editors Note: Leon Trotzky, who,
according to information received at
the state department last week, had
again "been arrested" by Lenin, was
free enough on July 5 to deliver a
speech before the Congress of the
Third International at Moscow in
which he criticised the economic
theories of Secretary of State Hughes.)
Moscow.-Reporting to the Congress
of the Third International on the
general economic situation, Leon
Trotzky dealt at length with the letter
Of Secretary of State Hughes to
Samuel Gompers, made public last
April.
"Mr. Hughes" said Trotzky, "is
reported to have declared that Russia
is gigantic economic vacuum and
to have stated that the impoverish-
ment and decay of Russian economy
cannot be blamed on the blockade and
civil war, because, according to Mr..
Hughes, the ruin has affected in
dustries which were independent of
foreign countries prior to the war.
Gas regards the mobilization hav-
ing been less than under the czar,"
said Trotzky, "this argument is truly
childish. In the first place, Russian
industry was ruined not only by the
mobilization for civil war, but by the
preceding imperialist mobilization.
The argument that the soviet govern
ment mobilized less men than czarism
lis automatically correct, but sub
stantially wrong. Czarism left the
qualified workers at the factories and
workshops, recruiting the army from
the aristocratic and middle class youth,
with professional officers and student
volunteers, while the soviet armies
are expressly comprised of the ex.
perienced workers. Thus the mobiliza-
tion imposed upon the soviet govern
ment by the intervention of France,
England and America hit Russian in
dustry harder than did the imperslist
war.
"The argument that the ruined in
dustries were independent of foreign
countries before the war;" continued
Trotzky, Exhibits an amazing forget
fulness of the ABC's of economies. All
branches of industry are inter- linked
and inter-dependent. Russia before the
war was component part of the
worlds economic system and became
even more closely dependent upon the
entente countries during the war. The
blockade Immediately severed these
vital ties. AS a result all the most i'm,
portant branches Of Russian industry
suffered and in individual cases fre.
quently were paralyzed for the lack
of small essential parts previously
imported from abroad. For instance
we lack many precise measuring in.
struments, as well as such articles al
spiral drills. For coal mining we lacl
the necessary flat and round meta
cables, formerly obtained from Eng
land or Germany.
ITO begin manufacturing these ar
ticles in an economically exhausted
country, isolated from the rest of tn,
world, naturally presents tremen1ou
difficulties. The wire screens used il
our paper mills were also foreign i'm
portations and the shortage Of thes,
has greatly handicapped our paper in
dustry. This list could be multiple,
many times. There was not a singh
industry in Russia which was no
directly or indirectly dependent upol
foreign countries before the war. /
. Mr.. Hughes were able to grasp thes
phenomena in their inward economi
: significance and worldwide inter-re
lations he would have to say: 'Th
fact that Russia, divorced from tn
/ worlds economic system. shaken an
exhausted, first by the imperialis
; war and then by the civil war, ha
+ been able, under the soviet govern
( ment, to Withstand three years of ur
/ interrupted intervention and wars
E and to feed, clothe and equipe an arm
at times exceeding 100000 mem
5 this fact is nothing less than miri
Gle. No other regime, under simila
circumstances, could have develope
, such vitality"
I'll -
Il