The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-07-04
A Rich Cultural Life Is
Enjoyed by the Don
Basin Miners

dreds Of thousands of acres Of veg
etables planted this year by the
workers themselves, in their. own
little kitchen gardens. The miner
and steel worker here doesn't mind
any more than he would in Arneri-
ca, If he could get the land, spend
ing few hours a day in spring
planting, in order later to have his
own new potatoes, radishes and
fresh tomatoes and lettuce growing
near his house. Since here it is
his government and the government
owns the land, he gets what ground
he needs for the garden, without
question.
THERE is story in itself around
the clay and other sorts Of mud
Of the Don Basin. For a couple of
weeks when the snow melts in
spring, it makes the stickiest mud
I ever saw. and a campaign of hard
road building is going on full speed
to insure no more begged down
autos or wagons. The mud Of the
Don Basin is on the one hand, an
other Of those obstacles that work
er-farmer energy is conquering. and
can conquer because no capitalist
system interfereS.
But on the other hand, Don Basin
mud, particularly that from the
shallow lakes, is an almost miracu-
lous remedy for rheumatism; a big
hospital at Slavyansk uses it, and
it is shipped to Kharkov and other
places hundreds of miles away.
Then, clay brought up from the
mines unavoidably, turned out to
be super Excellent for use in rnoulds
in the iron and steel industry. Clay
from certain areas was so very good
for this purpose that chemists were
prompted to analyze it, and found
huge percentage Of aluminium in
it--so now the Don Basin has an
aluminium industry starting up.
Someone remembered an old &C
count, Of how the Empress Cathe-
rine II gave gold mining con-
cession to an Englishman in the
Nagolny range. The capitalist found
gold, but so mixed with zinc that
he didn't know how to extract the
gold, and abandoned the job. A lit
tie prospecting found rich zinc
mines, and that makes another new
industry for Donbas.
There is also gold. And there is
cement. They have electricity, too.
They are located between the mex
haustible water power of Dniepro-
ges, and the just developing hydro
electric power of the Caucasus. They
are also building their own power
stations, using coal for fuel.
And you must not get the idea
that all this is static, everything
found, and only diminishing with
the years. Twenty years ago thew
thought the DonbaS mines were
worked out. But every mine in the
Donbas, almost, has within the last
couple Of years found new deposits
OF coal, either below the old work
ings, or near by.
IN A capitalist country such a
treasure trove would be sliced up
IN every direction by private prop
erty lines. Grim and dirty COM
pany towns would house the min
ers; smoky steel towns would swarm
with workers half dead from H.
hour shifts. The law would be the
whir11 OF coal and steel barons. en-
forced by their armed guards. Ex-
ploitation, hunger, bitter class
struggle, arrests, jailings and muir
der would be the order Of the day.
L have just spent month among
the workers Of the Don Basin. see
ing everything and talking to ev-
eryone. I have seen them at work
at play, at study, governing them
selves in their Soviets, running their
trade union, at their Communist
Party meetings, in their homes sur
rounded by their families, at their
meals in mine and factory dining
rooms, and engaged in whole sys-
tenn of useful and pleasurable &C.
tlvlties that, unless explained in de-
tail, mean absolutely nothing to the
American miner and steel worker
he has had absolutely no contact
with such things, doesn't even know
they are possible.
JUST as finish this account. the
newspapers report the formation
OF new trust known as Donbas
"Polymetals" to mine recently sur
veyed deposits of lead, zinc, eadmi-
UNI, tellurium, gallium, germanium,
plehlorine, anthony, chromium and
platinum; all rare metals very use
1ul IN industry, especially some of
them, for alloys with steel.
Stage and Screen