The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-04-17

Mass Consumer.
During the year 1923, of the total
quantity of the production Of the
state industry, seven-tenths were sold
to consumers in the sowns, while only
three-tenths went to meet the needs
of peasant consumers. This proves
that our industry is far from being ca
pable of reaching the peasant mass
consumers.
The level Of prices attained by in
dustrial products in the last year, is
to be attributed not only to objective
causes, but also to a considerable ex-
tent, to defective organization and to
the lack Of economizing with regard
to additional expenses, which is abso-
lutely necessary to the reconstruction
of the economy of the Soviet repub-
lies. In order to arrive at a reduction
Of prices, the attention Of industry
must be directed to reducing the cost
Of production, by means of improving
and augmenting the production and
the greatest possible reduction of the
additional expenses, and also to the
Improvement and cheapening of it's
trade apparatus.
In connection with this 1t is neces-
sary to revise the existing syndicates
and only allow those to remain, the
existence of which is proved to be
economically justified. Only by a
strict carrying out of the policy of
adaptation to the mass market, of the
reduction of the cost of production
and Of the augmentation of produc-
ton of articles for mass consumption,
will the state industry be in posi-
ton to compete successfully with pri-
vate capital in regard to meeting the
demands of the mass consumer-the
peasant and the worker.
While in every way adapting the
state nationalized industry to meet
the demands of the mass consumer,
the Party will, at the same time, con-
tinue to recognize the necessity of
helping to a certain extent the small
industry, which does not need any
great expense for its reconstruction
nor require any special stocks of raw
materials, fuel or food, and can render
certain amount of help to the peas
ant economy and can raise the level
of it's productive forces, thereby in
creasing the amount of the total turn
over of goods for the whole country.
Concentration Of Industry.
An indispensable element for the
Improvement of the organization of
our industry in its concentration. We
have received as heritage from the
old economic regime, a great number
Of undertakings which had been set
UP without regard to any general eco
nomic plan and to that structure of
economic life which we have today.
These undertakings lie as dead
weight on the state budget. The ex-
penses of their maintenance, while
they are only partially or even fully
occupied, unavoidably enter into the
brice of the products and thereby help
To swell them. But the Party must
not for moment forget that here,
more than in any other sphere, COM
mercial and fiscal considerations must
be subseryient to political considera-
tons, l. e., as to the preservation of
the political power of the working
class. In those cases where the shut
ting down of any undertakings would
strike blow at the political forces
Of the proletariat, and scatter its best
elements, the drastic carrying out Of
the policy of concentration would be
an objectionable political error.
In the preceding period the Party
devoted its efforts to strengthening
and increasing the production of coal
(Don basin) and Of naphtha (Baku)
as, unless industry were provided
with fuel, there could be no talk Of
strengthening of other branches of
industry. The success now obtained
with regard to the production Of fuel
renders it possible and necessary now
to concentrate the attention of the
Party on the metallurgical industry.
The metallurgical industry must in
the next period be given the first
place and receive from the state a far
greater measure of all round help, in
particular, financial, than in the last
year.
III. Wages and Trade Unions.
The economic difficulties which
arose in the autumn were accom-
panied by wage fluctuations and have
also given rise to number Of defects
in regard to regularity of payment, as
we'll as to the method OF payment. In
the beginning OF August the Political
Bureau and in September the Plenum
of the Central Committee adopted
several resolutions which aimed at
preserving the wages from deprecia-
ton and increasing them among those
groups of the proletariat which were
backward in this respect (for in
stance. the railway workers).
The Party is OF the opinion that the
situation of industry and of the state
4.