The labor world., 1922-12-16
CLOTHING MAKERS Will llpES1.
$l0oO;o0O IN RUSSIAN INDUSTRY
A,alamatetto Act on Recon- endaton Of Their President
8 Who Talks on Soviet Life and Labor.
BY GARDNER d. HARDING

to invest $1,00O,00V IN the co-opefa-
tive, garment industry Of Russia,
100000 Of which is to be paid
within two months of the publica-
ton of the contract. This capital
ana a guaranteed annual dividend
rate Of per cent is to be under
written by the Supreme Council of
Labor and Defense, the highest
authority in Soviet Russia. Ample
banking and credit fauities under
the direction Of the joint Russian
and American directors of the
enterprise :. as well as a system Of
exchange agencies similar to those
OF the American Express Company
are to be added to this industrial
undertaking. Such were the broad
outlines Of the scheme described by
sidney Hillman, president of the
Afnalgamated. Clothing Workers, as
the welcome-home meeting given
him last week at Carnegie Hall, as
the result Of Mr.. Hillman's second
mission to Russia.
Mr.. Hillman described the new
economic policy in Russia in candid
and elaborate. detail before he came
to his own proposals, and in spite
Of the strong, ,tinge Of propaganda
that constantly: crept into his style,
he made the background Of present.
day, industrial Russia vividly illu-
minating.
II found too many cabarets," he
u,h0 n
bought food and wasted it, while
others had none, just because they
had more rubles. If anything,
there are too many retail shops now;
but tho new economic policy has
done wonders. It has restored free
dom, it has given human nature a
chance to use its initiatives; and
under it Russia is an absolutely
changed country. Last year. an in
vasion was feared; now there is
security and I was assured by Pc
trovsky that a heavy program of
rehabilitation in the army was
under way.
As to industry, I can only say
this: thetest Is going to be not
make revolution, but whether they
can run a factory. The Russian
experiment is an experiment in La
bor running the industries OF q
country. To US Bolshevism and
Communism matter little; to us
what is important is that if Russian
labor fails on the job her revolu-
S1h 10 <1
do our little part to see it does not
fail"
The present total Of the garment
industry in Russia's three chief, CT
ties, Moscow, PetrograA, and Kazan,
Mr.. Hillman said, amounted to 80
factories with 2O,s10 workers and
1929 units of ma chin3ry, With the
average factory Employing about
4s7 men and women. This, and
other factories as they come in, Is
the plant the Amalgamated. is &C.
pufring. In Russia it is under the
sdirection Of the Clothing and Tex:
tile Trust, cooperative organiza-
ton Of workers which, under the
new economic regime, functions as
banks it's money, and aims to make
a profit. Mr.. Hillman admitted
that the piecework system was in
vogue in Russia, against which the
New York garment workers have
waged desperate struggle for years
and he stated the average monthly
%aSe of Russian garment worker
from 81 to SIS. still compares IA
vorably with garment workers wag-
es in Berlin, which are now about
4S.25 month. The scale on which
the, Russian tailors are enabled tc
live, Mr.. Hillman claimed, was well
within their income, government
furnished houses costing them 81
cents month-where two rooms
cost bourgeois $40 to $25 month
operative meals near the FAC.
tory costing from 4 to cents, and
heat, light, and q common nursery
provided.
He admitted there were still strike:
which in Soviet parlance were called
"stoppages''-but the fact that thu
vote OF the members can remove {
hiSh-handed industrial leader pro
tects the system from too much in
dividualism, both in the direction O
labor and capital. Il liked the idea,
said Hillman, because it seemed t.
be forceful, elastic and as democratic
as anything on our imperfect eartl
that desires to live dares to be-.
The privileges accorded to the nev
company, Mr.. Hillman concluded
are enjoyed by no other foreign con
cern; they are unique in Russia ant
unique in the labor world. "Th'
Question is," he said In closing s
whether labor can run industry, O.
whether. 1t must continue to be ru1
by it.. Give this experiment two O.
three more years time, and thi
question, for. present-day Russia, q
any rate. will be pretty clearly ans
Wered."
Flows BETTER Than FOOD
FOR RELIEF OF RUSSIAN!
i American p1ows,- not free Ameri
can, food, were prescribed by Davi,
A. Brown of Detroit, who returne,