The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-09-26
BY EARL R. RRowDER.
First Article.

-THE toiling and exploited masses
4 Of the countryside whom the ur-
ban proIetariat must lead into the
struggle, or at least win over, are
represented in all capitalist coun-
tries by the following groups:
First, the agricultural proletariat,
the hired laborers (by the day, by
the year, and for the season. who
have to earn their living by hiring
themselves out to capitalist agricul-
tural enterprises, and to industrial en-
terprises connected Herewith.
Second, semi-proletarians or semi
peasants, i. e. those, who earn their
living partly by hiring themselves
out to capitalist agricultural enter
prises and partly by working on their
own or rented plots of land which
yield only part of the food stuffs nee
essary for the maintenance of the fam
lily. This group of the rural work
ing class population is very numer-
GUS in all capitalist countries. How
ever, the representatives of the bour-
geoisie and the socialists adhering to
the Second International do their ut
most to ignore the existence of the
position of this group of workers,
partly deliberately deceiving the
workers and partly submitting blind
ly to customary petty bourgeois views
and merging this group with the gen.
eral mass of peasantry.
"Third, the small peasants, l. e.
those who own or lease small plots
Of land, which are just sufficient to
meet their requirements and elimin-
ate the necessity of employing hired
labor This section of the rural pop
ulation certainly stands to gain from
the victory of the proletariat.
these three groups taken together
form in all countries the majority of
the rural population. Therefore, the
ultimate success of the proletarian
revolution is guaranteed not only in
the towns, but also in the country"
Oenin; Theses Second Congress,
Comintern.)
TT is the purpose of these articles
l. to examine and analyze the stat
isticals information available on agri-
culture in the United States, in the
light of the thesis of Lenin, in an
effort to fill out the exact American
details of the picture so far as pos
sible. Each country" said Lenin,
develops prominently some particu-
lar feature or group of features" The
analysis of class relations in the ru-
raj districts is particularly difficult
and requires particular care. This
is all the more true in the United
States, which presents so many diff
ferences from the rest of the world,
and in which the statistical informa-
ton is not designed to bring out the
facts which we seek.
Loose CONGRATULATIONS and hasty
conclusions about agriculture. in the
u s. have been particularly habitual
in the revolutionary movement. These
inaccurate and even false conceptions
which are current do not contribute
to the formulation of a sound pro-
gram for establishing the leadership
of the urban workers over the rural
masses. Examples of sEch looseness
and inaccuracy may, foiH example, be
found in the recent resolution of the
Parity Commission of the w. p, and
in a report on America at the recent
sessions of the E. G. G. l., reported
in Inprekorr VOL 5, No. s5, mage 46S.
Among the examples may be men
toned the statements: To-day more
than 20 per cent of all improved land
is operated by tenants"-almost 100
per cent from the truth-'two million
agricultural workers are disfranchis-
cd because they are migratory'-a
wild exaggeration-"the same bankers