The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-09-20
RETURNED WORKER
TELLS or SOVIET
UNIONS ADVANCE
Los Angeles Workers
Get U. SIS. r. Greeting
BY L. p. RINDAL.
(Worker Correspondent

LOS ANGELES, Cal, Sept. 49,
A. j. Woomer, a Yankee mechanic,
delivered a very instructive lecture at
the Cooperative Center last Wednes-
day, September 18th, on the subject,
my Six Years Experience As A
Worker In Soviet Russia"
Helped Reconstruction.
Comrade Woomer, who spoke under
the auspices of the Workers Com
nlunist) Party, went with a group of
mechanics to the First Workers Re-
public in 1921 Their object was to
help in building up the industries of
the most hopeful country in the
world. His description of the trip
from the home of the cracked Liberty
Bell to the land of the harmonious
workers rule was a treat to the work.
ers of Los Angeles.
Initiating the Statue of Liberty,
Comrade Woomer turned his back to
the land of freedom to starve-the
home of the free where innocent men
have the liberty to die in the electric
chair. When this freedom Ameri-
can, six years later, came back on a
visit to his native Yankee land-he
faced this same Liberty Lady" as a
terrible Bolshevik" Why the Secre-
tary of State Kellogg permitted this
rebel to re-enter the kingdom Of the
plunderbund is as much of mystery
as the secret documents in the Pal
merized offices of the department of
Justice concerning the Sacco-V anzetti
case.
Progress In Soviet Russia.
Conditions in Leningrad were
dreadful years ago, Woomer said,
and this was the case all along the
line to Siberia. Tsarism, the invasion
of the armies of capitalist countries,
as we'll as the terrorism of white
guard bandits, etc, were responsible
for all this misery, it was pointed out.
Housing and hospital conditions were
likewise unbearable. All this has
been changed, however, under con-
tinuous Soviet Rule. The railroads,
shops and hospitals are in a fine
condition. The Soviet Union can, in
many respects, compete with the most
advanced industrial countries, ac-
cording to Woomer. The progress
has been enormous in the last 5
years. Old railroad engines are re-
placed with new ones from Sweden
and the Baldwin Locomotive Works,
L. Sin spite of the hostile attitude
of Coolidge-Kellogg & Co.
Siberia.
The industrial group, of which
Woomer was a member, consisted Of
125 persons, 27 car loads of
machinery and food for two years.
On the way to Siberia, Woomer was
elected car Inspector His first home
was holy one-a church; his first
job the building of a community
house, then a machine shop. AS
there were but few houses, many
were compelled to sleep in the open
with So below zero. At the so-called
hospital Woomer's cot was placed be-
tween two long-haired preachers;
that protected him from attack on the
part of the devil-but not from the
savage monkey at the place, the play
full animal was always trying to
scratch his eyes out. Under such
trials and tribulations it must have
been hard for Comrade Woomer to
keep up his faith in Communism to
say nothing about Darwinism. That
priest-monkey combination, however,
did not convert him to savagery-
and, of course, to bring him back to
christianity was out of the question.
1900 people are working at that
place now under civilized (Commu-
nistic) conditions. The workers get
the best of everything. Priests and
ether social parasites must go to