The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-11-28
Van KIeek Reports
On Planning
Continued from Page y

IlTdl6Q Dy LIE experiences OF Dl6
one country which has already
established a planned economy
under workers control, the Soviet
Union.
There was, she said, lack Of
data sufficient for significant meas
urements of standards of living or
the limits of productive capacity.
This research is hampered by the
secret patents of monopolies, and
the unwillingness of manufacturers
to set up standards.
But enough information is avail
able to show the glaring made
quacies of the living standards Of
the American working people. Miss
van Kleek challenged the conten-
ton of resctionaries that the
masses have to endure low stand
ards because production is too eff
cient She called attention to "the
alarming insufficiency of the food
supply of the American people, the
low standard of housing for dwell
ings, the growing obSolescence in
machiScry, the insufficiency Of
clothing, and the menacing dete-
rioration in education and in health
service, not to mention the i'm
possibility of maintaining or de-
veloping the arts and the sciences"
She used official figures to illu~
strate that enough food was pro-
duced in 1929, a so-cslled prosperity
year, to furnish liberal diet as
worked out by experts in the De-
partment of Agriculture. In terms
of this standard the present diet of
the American people is poorly ball
anced and inadequate in total
quantity. This is because poverty
drives workers and farmers to eat
salt pork which is cheaper than
milk and vegetables. A recent sur
vey showed that in. 10 cities over
IA per cent of the families were
unable to afford any fresh milk at
all.
Because of the limitations of cap
italist production in 1929, there was
a shortage of q billion pounds Of
milk and cream, two billion pounds
of butter, seven billion pounds of
vegetables, three billion pounds Of
fruits, fourteen billion pounds of
eggs, besides a shortage Of other
vital foods in terms of the govern
ment's own standard as to what a
liberal diet requires.
Besides food, there was shortage
of decent housing, DEFICIENCIES in
clothing SO that only about one
half a suit per man and boy was
being manufactured. Then there
were deficiencies in provisions for
education. In the school year, 1888
"a, two thousand rural schools failed
to open in "a states, and some
$3.50, 1000 children who should have
been in school we're forced out be-
cause the present system will not
provide for such "luxuries" as edu-
cation for the masses.
Miss van Kleek then spoke on
lack of adequate health services.
She said that large numbers Of
the population are unable to pay
for medical services if it is avail
able in their communities, and that
in many communities and indeed in
whole counties there is no adequate
medical service as measured by
very moderate standards of actual
practice"
On the basis of facts such as
those cited above, Miss van Kleek
ridiculed the ballyhoo raised by re-
dictionaries that the crisis is due to
the production of a surplus" What
is needed, and what could be pro-
vided in functional economy I'M
der workers control, is increased
productive output to meet the real
needs of the masses. For example.
in 1888 the A. A. A. called for the
retirement of 100000 acres from
production at a time when the
needs of the masses required the
cultivation of an additional 10000,
600 acres.
In discussing the dynamics of
planning, Miss Van Kleek en-
phasized that planning would cover
every phase of the production
cycle: the establishment of stand
ards, actual production, distribution,
utilization and final liquidation in
order to meet progressively rising
standards of living. All phases
must be under planning control.
otherwise friction might develop
that would wreck the whole pro-
ductive mechanism. Planning would
see to it that there would be an
uninterrupted flow from one phase
to the other with the constant OBJ
jective, not profits, but the fulfill
ment of human needs.
Her conclusion centered around
the important problem of control.
At all points in an integrated social
economic plan there emerges the
problem of social controls. Without
the solution of this question, it is
impossible to speak meaningfully Of
the fulfillment of planning.
Only workers controlled econ
omy could push through the neces-
sary rise in living standards, once
the profit system was destroyed. 1t
is workers control that is con-
sistent with chronological develop
ment and the applications Of
science, and the full utilization Of
the services of technicians in a So
ciety in which they, too, would be
workers.
Miss Van Kleek appealed to the
technicians to become aware of the
significance of the working class I
modern industry" She posed tie
fact that the technicians must oe-
eide whether they would continue
to face in the direction of an OUT
NODDED economy which does not
| utilize the DotentiaI plenty that