The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-07-25
LABORATORY
AND SHOP
= Notes on Science and Technology

using scale models before drawing
, the finished designs. Streams Of
water are made to flow across re-
/ productions Of rivers and falls.
1 Canal locks and dam spillWays are
studied with cameras so that strUc-
1 tural flaws can be avoided. In con-
nection with the great SVirstroy
hydro-electric and navigation prof.
| ect 10 be built on the Svir river in
Northern Russo, twenty sets Of
scale models were made and studied
before the final plans we're drafted
The work Of the Institute is Of
great practical importance for study
ing in miniature the problems Of
canals, power development, land
reclamation, irrigation, and the gil
gantic project Of reforesting over
100000 acres to insure adequate
rainfall for barren plains. There
are now AL engineers and research
scientists engaged in the Institutes
work. Last year, research expendi-
/ lures amounted to S2,160,000, and
this year they will be considerably
greater.
/ It is interesting by way Of COM
/ parison that in this country the
Vicksburg Laboratory, operated by
the government to study Mississippi
River problems, employs less than a
hundred men and its budget is but
/ S2l5 ,000-only one-tenth Of the exc
penditure Of the Soviet institute.
This is another example Of how fast
science is progressing in the work
ers' and peasants republic - and
/ how it is in stage Of relative
stagnation under capitalism.
Death Rates Rise Under the
New Deal
THE answer to Roosevelt's question
L as to whether American workers
are better of this year than they
were last year is to be found in the
rising death rate. The cumulative
effects of the crisis in terms of ill-
ness and death have become so
heavy that they have broken thru
the statistical lies of bourgeois
experts.
According TO the Metropolitan
Lie Insurance Company, the NOR
tally rate up to the end of May
was A per cent higher than for
the same months in 1888 The rec
ords of the U. S. Census Bureau
for the Sc largest cities show that
the death rate up to the week end
ing June 2 was 81 per cent above
that for the corresponding part Of
last year.
The bourgeois statisticians pre-
tend that there is no explanation
for this phenomenon. All workers
know that the answer lies in five
years Of decreasing food consunp-
ton, the breakdown of health
standards, and similar products Of
the capitalistic crisis.
Whom Does Science Benefit?
A CLUE to the answer to this quess
n ton is furnished by a study re-
Gently made by DR.. c. J. West Of
I the National Research Council He
found that 200 research fellowships
and scholarships in every field, from
! the YitanlinS of cranberries to the
psychology of pekinese pups, are
supported directly by lis industrial
concerns and associations. OF these,
n corporations openly subSidize
students because they have been
found to be fertile source Of prof.
it's. The other 38 associations dis
guise their motives by posing as
"non-profit" institutions This SIM
ply means that group Of COM
panies, instead of single corpora
ton, benefits from the research
work of the student
The process works somewhat along
these lines. The chemical trust gives
fellowship to x University, which
uses the money to train young
chemist. He discovers new knock
out gas that is used to kill strikers
at the Y plant owned in common
by the chemical trust and the uni
versity. (The chairman Of the
university's board Of trustees is also
the head of the chemical truSt)
and when the chemist makes few
more profitable discoveries, he comes
back to the university to lecture on
THE Healing Qualities of Poison
Gases, and Their Relation to the
] Therapeutic Effects of Religion"