The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-12-29
Soviet Railroad Workers
Get More Than Wages
System of Old Age Pensions, Sick Benefits,
Contrasts With Boss Dole in u S.

are being sent each years for their
vacations to health resorts and rest
homes which were once the pleas
Te haunts of the rich. About q
quarter Of million Soviet railroad
erS have been accommodated in
rest homes, sanatoria and health
resorts in 1882, according to union
figures. And the great majority
of these had all their expenses paid.
Try to imagine an American
rail, being sent for his vacation
to the Florida home of a former
millionaire, if you want to get the
comparison-and imagine the rail-
roads paying all his expenses, Just
because he happens to be a workerl
WHEN the Soviet worker goes to
W the theater or some other
amusement, his union card en-
titles him to admission at lower
rates. And the union provides spe~
cial club, sport and recreational IA
cilities of all kinds for him. There
are some 642 clubs in the country
just for rail workers.
In the little railroad center of
PeroVa, for instance, the clubhouse
IS the center of the community life.
The auditorium, with revolving
stage, is finer and more modern
than you would find in any town
OF similar size in the United States.
Workers meetings are held here,
and there are regular entertain
mentS-moVies part of the time,
and some of the best stage shows
come from Moscow to play to the
railroad workers. Gymnasium and
library are other features of this
club.
But perhaps the finest clubhouse
we saw anywhere in the Soviet
Union was the recently completed
railroad workers club in Kharkoy.
1t is a fiye-story building with
semi-circulsr front and enormous
windows which make its rooms as
bright as day. Each of the main
club-rooms is painted different
color, producing q pleasing rainbow
effect as one walks through the COR
rider.
There are conference rooms. for
photography, art circles, games and
all kinds of social activity. There
is gymnasium, library, restaurant,
and a huge auditorium with revoIy-
ing stage and all the latest fix
lures. The best artists in the Uk-
raine were hired to decorate this
workers clubhouse. What con-
trast to capitalist America, where
the finest clubs are reserved ex-
clusiVely for rich loafers who either
do no work or work only at ex-
plotting the real producersl
RETIRE ON PENSION
AT so
Soviet railroad workers are en-
titled TO retire with pension at the
age Of go. Their pensions are no
company dole, as in America, which
the employers may cut or abolish
at their will. Nor are they, like
Brotherhood pensions, something
for which the workers must nav
themselves. Soviet pensions are
guaranteed by law and paid for
from the social insurance funds to
which each industry is compelled
to contribute II per cent of its pay
roll.
The miserable pension scheme
being pushed in Congress by Broth
erhood officials would get a laugh
from Soviet rail workers, nor would
they have much more use for Roy
ster's National Pension Plan. For
both these plans would require
workers to pay from their wages
for pensions which should be theirs
by right, besides being hedged
around with many Objectionable re-
StrictionS.
Next article: "An Industry
Owned by the Workers.").