The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-03-30
BY WALTER WILSON

Editors NOte:-This is the con-
Guiding instalment from the new
book, Forced Labor in the Uni
ted States" by Walter Wilson. The
book was prepared by the Labor
Research Association, and has an
introduction by Theodore Dresser.
International Publishers, 3Sl Fourth
Ave, New York City. Price 81.
As the one country OF socialism, the
n Sovit Union has been gaining in
power and in the sympathy OF the
world proletariat. The capitalists
have thus felt an urgent need to
create a sentiment against the Soviet
Union. To this end they have tried
many devices. One of the latest iG
the charge Of dumping. But since
dumping is a regular capitalist prac-
tice, the capitalists themselves saw
that it did not hold water. So the
charge Of dumping was changed to-
dumping Of goods produced by con-
victs and other forced labor"
The scurrilous campaign has been
conducted on an international scale.
BY the House of Lords in England;
the French Parliament; journalists,
industrialistS, bankers, socialists, pa
trioteers, rabbis and archbishops.
All have echoed the charge. The at
tack has been specially venomous in
the United States where the Fish
Committee, the National Civic Fed
Grafton, the National Lumber Manu-
facturers' Association, Matthew Vol
and his American Federation of La
Dor clique, and a host of others have
been most vehement in their assaults
Largely through this campaign, a
provision was put into the Smoot-
Hawley tariff act of 1880 forbidding
Importation OF goods produced by
convictS or by any other form of
forced labor The real purpose of
the bill was to destroy the market for
Soviet goods on the grounds that
these, especially Soviet lumber, were
produced by other than free labor"
FAKE CHARGES
Timber experts, who analyzed the
specific charges of the manufacturers
OF forced labor" myths in connec-
ion with Soviet timber, found them
to be false on their face For in
stance, it was found that two al
legged timber centers, where convicts
were supposed to be employed in cut
ting wood for export, did not exist
at all!
One absurd charge was that pris-
onerS We're forced to work 16 to 10
hours day and to begin work in the
forest so early that matches had to
be used in searching for the trees
to be cut! Actually, as experts point
ed out, in the northern districts,
during the telling season, the maxi
mum daylight lasts six hours and
therefore if this were true, the pris-
oners would have to fell trees from
10 to 10 hours in darkness! Any
logger knows this would be practic-
ally impossible and altogether i'm
practical.
Another statement was that each
prisoner must fell a total OF a trees
day. If this were true, it would
take only 10000 men, working 80
days, to produca all the timber that
is exported annually rom the Soviet
Unionl But look at the next charge.
According to one statement, May /,
1880, there were $4,000 prisoners
producing timber in concentration
camps. At the work rate given above,
these would produce more than 100
times the total timber exported.
Another affidavit" gave a still
more impossible figure of SIS to 50
trees day. These trees, according
to the same charge, must be cut at
soil level-this in winter and with
several feet of srow Another wild
rumor had it that 100000 kulalls
had been sent to timber cutting in
the north country. But, as a mat
ter of fact, in 1881, there were only
1,134,000 workers in the entire lurn-
Der industry.
CHARGES REFUTED
Dozens of statements were made
by European and American author
tiles, all of them voluntary, refuting
the charge of the use of convict and
other forced labor in Soviet timber
cutting. These statements are from
capitalist and liberal. as we'll as
working class sources.
Lumberjacks from Finland, Can
ada and various other countries, now
working in the Soviet Union, have
added their protests to that o. work.
ers everywhere at the attacks.
AMERICANS ALSO
DENY CHARGES
HEANY American authorities who
tiS visited the Soviet Union have
reported that there is no forced labor