Voice of action. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1933-1936, 1934-10-12

uACh anu tn6 o0tsAaVho
Friends Of the Soviet Union.
Now he is touring the United
States, telling what he has
seen in Russia.
While we were in Russia, we
were the guests of the trade
unions there. They paid our ex-
penses and gave us the Opportun-
ity of investigating all industries
we were interested in, also in
participating in their social and
cultural life. As American work
ers we were privileged to see the
INSIDE of the Russian workers
life-nOt just the surface scenes
tourists see
The standard capitalist cry that
religion is forbidden in Russia
is bosh. Our English compan-
ion delegates attended church
two and three times a week all
the time we were in Russia. In
Arkhove the Finnish workers
have just built their own church
But ordinarily the churches are
closed by the congregation
themselves, and converted into
nurseries, club rooms, art gal
leries, etc.
We visited huge electric ap-
plianee factories-One of them q
plant that had designed and
built four of the hydro-eleetric
turbines now in use on tie Dniep-
rostroy project. The other five
turbines at DnieprOstrOy were
built by General Electric. The
Soviet built turbines are per-
forming as well as the Amer
lean built.
This is remarkable, when you
remember that IL years ago
there was not an electrical ap-
pliance factory In all Russia!
There is a shortage of skilled
workers in the USSR. The ma
jOrity of unskilled workers are
paid for learning a trade. They
work four hours and study two
hours, per day, and are paid
for a six-hour day No working
day is longer than seven hours
this only in light industries
although there Is a great
shortage of workers.
Social Insurance-It works!
A wOrker-mother is allowed
two months vacation before and
after her child is born, on full
salary with free disqualification
and the best of medical care, and
the child is furnished complete
clothing free. There are day.
nurseries at all factories, and
the 'wOrker-mothers are given
time off to nurse their children.
Generally in industry, work
ers are given full pay during
periods of sickness, and life pen
sions for any disability sustain
ed on the job. Women are retired
on full pension for life at So,
men at 60.
Being a seaman myself, I was
particularly interested in work
ing conditions in the marine in
dustry This is what [ found on
all Soviet ships | visited:
Seamen live in stateroOms,
two to a room, furnished with
table, reading lamp, radio, rock
ing chair, lockers; clean linen,
towels and soap and workclothes
furnished free by the ship.
The deck department has two
weeks vacation year - with
pay! The engine room crew
whole month with pay.
Seamen are paid So to lis ru-
bles per month, with As per cent
of their wages in foreign money
if they are in foreign waters. If
the ships crew operates the YES
sci at less than the estimated
budget, everybody receives bo-
nus.
The officers and seamen on
freight ships all eat at the same
table. There is a big recreation
hall on every ship, called the
Red Corner" exclusively for the
crews use, equipped with piano,
photograph, library, musical in
struments and navigation in
struments for self-instruction.
As to the morals of the Rus
sian youth, and we read plenty
about their degradation" in the
American capitalist press, l
have never seen a more healthy
or more physically perfect race
of young people
Because they glorify physique
and not sex, as American jOurn-
alists and movie producers do,
the younger generation has a
far higher moral code than we
profess.
Russian Communists have
new wife each week." American
capitalists tell us. Let them
chew on this-there are far less
divorces in Russia than in Amer
lea, despite the easy divorce
laws of the Soviets! Because, in
the first place, they are entirely
free to do their own choosing,
and enter marriage knowing that
either party is able to divorce
the other instantly at the first
sign of unfaithfulness And II
there are children, both parents,