The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-01-28
Chicago Daily News Questions
Answered by Russian Communist

since the world war, and the USSR,
which always was an industrially
backward country, which has recent
ly passed through a civil war, I'M
precedented by it's ruthlessness and
duration and the Intervention of the
United States, Great Britain and
France, and which is to this day to a
certain extent a blockaded country
and boycotted by bourgeois states.
The question should have been put
like this how much better would the
condition of the working class in the
United States be than that of the
working class in the USSR if they
should gain power there and estab-
lish the same regime as in the
USSR? If the question should be
put this way, it might be answered
that the economic condition of the
workers would be considerably bet
ter. The working class would gain
possession of great industries with
q highly perfected technique Of pro-
duction, enormous riches which would
enable the American workers to solid
fly their power without such grave
sacrifices as were borne by our
workers.
The wages of American workers
are higher than in the USSR. But
out of 100000 people gainfully
employed, 100000 are out of work
the whole year round and in the win
ter their number reaches 6,000,000,-
600; large percentage of the en-
ployed work on the average to s
months in the year, because of the
seasonal nature of their work. The
unemployed are left to shift for
themselves, they suffer hunger and
cold and are evicted from their
homes. No one is sure that he or
she may not at any moment lose the
job without any advance notice.
Among the people gainfully en-
ployed there are million women and
over 100000 children between the
ages of 10 to Is whose conditions of
work are not regulated by national
law of the trade unions. In the Uni
ted States prostitution is widespread
not only among the unemployed, but
even among the women and girls en-
ployed in factories and stores, be-
cause of their extremely low wages.
The law does not fix the work
hours of women and children or of
men in harmful trades and in many
cases they work more than hours
day. Despite the high technique Of
/ production, labor is not protected and
there are on the average 2,453, 400 in
dustrial accidents in a year, of which
number 1882 result in the workers
death. In industrial accidents the
workers lose 2,250,000 work-days and
more than a billion dollars in wages.
| The workers are not insured against
accidents. AS there is no social in
surance in the United States in case
of any sickness the worker is placed
in an impossible position, being liable
to find himself in the street and
enduring pauper's existence. Can
such condition of the working class
as such be considered good?
Labor Is Protected.
Ours is a poor country, yet the
S-hour day has been established
everywhere and in harmful trades
in the chemical industry, in mining,
in the manufacture of gas and in a
number of other industries, there is
a 6-hour day. Night work of wom-
en- is forbidden for the most part;
they are also forbidden to work at in
i furious occupations. Labor is pro-
tected. Child labor in factories and
shops is forbidden. Minors of ID to
l6 years Of age are allowed to work
only 6 hours a day.
At all offices and institutions those
engaged in non-manual work Except
those directly connected with the in
dustry, as factory-office employees,
have the 6-hour day. All workers
j get an annual vacation of two weeks,
minors get one month, workers at in
furious trades, one month, all with
pay Women during pregnancy are
entitled by law to months vaca-
ton in the case of manual workers
and to months in the case of nom
manual, with full pay. We also have
unemployment insurance which COW
ers all persons who work by hire and
which is carried at the expense Of the
employers.