The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-08-26

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In connection with the activities Of
the District Organizers, it is also in
teresting to note a fact which does
not appear in the table. Quite num-
Der of District Organizers send their
reports to the National Office with
out totalling the number Of new mem
bers or the total members on the rolls
or the total members who paid dues
for the month. In other words, these
District Organizers have not suffici-
ent interest in learning the facts
about the standing Of the membership
in their districts to add up a column
of figures which will enlighten them
on this point and give them material
for agitation and work to improve
their District Organization.
Turning from the Districts to the
branches, the efficiency in performing
this simple task drops very low in
deed. There are on the records in
the National Office some 1900 func-
tionioning branches. The reports of
the District Organizers show $40
branches in the Districts reported.
Out Of these go branches, all of
which receive report cards from the
District Organizers, only 37s, or 43
per cent, returned the cards to the
District Office.
What shall we say about a party
organization engaged in a revolution
airy struggle in which only 40 per cent
Of the secretaries are interested
enough in the party work to perform
such a slight routine task as to fill
out five or six questions on a report
card requiring, all told, ten minutes
time.
Certainly we have a long way to
go before we can really call ourselves
a Communist Party when such lack
of discipline exists in our ranks.
Leaving the sphere of the Branch
Secretaries and turning to the mem
bers of our party, we find just as bad
a condition. The 379 branches report
ing stated they had on their rolls a
total of 11,039 members. OF these
1903, there were e,912 in good stand
ing, or only 81 per cent. One out of
every three members in the party had
not paid dues for at least one month.
The Total Members on our Rolls.
The figures in this table Indicate
that there are on the party rolls at
the present time between 81, 500 and
10000 members. The fact that only
two out of three OF these members
are paying party dues is also attest
ed by the reports of dues stamps
sales and payments for stamps receiv.
ed by the National Organization. The
highest figure which dues stamps
sales have reached for any month has
been 10000 which has left from eight
to ten thousand members with dues
unpaid.
One fact explaining the discrepancy
between members on our rolls and
those paying dues has been brought
to light recently in the practice in
some branches Of receipting men,
bers' stamp books in place of past.
ing stamps in these books. To root
out this practice, the Central Execu.
tive Committee has adopted the rule
that any member permitting his
stamp book to be receipted in any
other way than by putting a stamp
therein, thereby sacrifices his mem
bership in the party and shall be ex-
PEELED together with any secretary
guilty Of this practice.
We must improve the conditions
shown by this table Of reports and
dues payments. District Organizers
who fail to comply with the elemen-
tary duty Of learning how their
branches are functionlng in the mat