The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-18

18th ST., New York City, 10 Cents
Reviewed by
A. A. HELLER
"TN THE Soviet Union miners work
1 for eleven months and get paid
for twelve" writes Anna Rochester,
author of Labor and Coal" in an
authoritative article on Mining in
the Soviet Union" in the December
issue of Soviet Russia Today.
If you state this fact to an assem-
bly, Of miners in the United States
you will see something like an cleo
trio shock pass over the gathering
To men who are getting only two or
three days work in the week
through the winter and not much
Of any work at all in the summer,
whose families are ION relief" be-
cause the combined earnings of all
who are working is still so meager,
it seems incredible that anywhere
in the world there are mines where
the whistle blows every day in the
year, except on regular holidays,
and where the miners get paid for
taking months vacation. But it
is true"
Pointing out that in the United
States there are more than 100000
Surplus" coal miners who will
never again work in the mines
under capitalism" while in the
U. S. S. R. there are no unem-
ployed miners" Rochester states
that under the first Five-Year Plan
the number of Soviet workers in the
coal industry increased from 100000
in 1923 to $4,000 in 1882, with a
corresponding further increase TAX
ing place under the second Five
Year Plan.
WHILE total wages paid to miners
W in the United States are less
than half the 1929 average, in the
Soviet Union there has been an I'M
broken rise in miners wages and
earnings since 1924, the average
wage having been doubled under the
first Five-Year Plan, and increased
by another 10 per cent in 1888.
But money wages, Rochester points
out, are only part of the story in
the workers state. when a mine
worker is so sick or badly injured
that he must go to the hospital, he
is cared for free of charge and in
addition receives rs per cent of his
regular wage if he is married, and
so per cent if he is single. If hoSpi-
tai care is unnecessary, he has free
medical attention and full pay
throughout the time of illness or
disability. Housing is free, or the
charge for rent is so small as to be
merely nominal. Electric light, fuel
and other municipal services are
entirely free. Working clothes, boots,
tools and lights are supplied by the
industry. New houses, bath houses,
kindergartens and children's play
grounds have been built near the
mine pits. New socialist workers
colonies have been established, with
electricity, water supply, drainage
and street paving-all unknown to
! COdt IIlIlGlo DClOLG 1S1 -
THE December issue of Soviet Rus
STA Today also includes contribu-
tons from Ilya luxembourg, the
noted Soviet novelist and journalist,
H. w. L. Dana, Ben Field, Dr. Alice
M. Parsons, Anna Louise Strong,
Granville Hicks, Liston M. Oak and
Myra Page.
Prof. Dana writes on New Ten
denotes in Soviet Drama" basing
his article on observations made
during his recent visit to the Mos
COW Theatre Festival.
Ben Fields sketch of Soviet
Subbotnick" is in the best style of
this vigorous American proletarian
writer. DR.. Alice NJ Parsons, a
member of the Chicago branch of
the Science Bureau, reports on
Workers Health in the U.S.S.R,"
having recently returned from a
tour of the U. S. S. r. in which she
visited and studied at the leading
hospitals and clinics.
JLYA EHRENBOURG'S "A Frank
Chat" is written with the charac-
teristic wit and charm of this mas
terly Soviet novelist and journalist.
SatiriZing sharply the silly efforts
of certain hotel to please the
vulgar tastes Of some foreign tour
lists in the Soviet Union, he goes on
to tell these same tourists not to be
misled into thinking that the hotel
they are visiting is the real U.SS.R.
Beyond the five functionaries of
the hotel and the fifty involuntary
extras, we have a hundred and fifty
million people who live and think,
struggle and live. In your travels,
you have come across many cara
vansaries, menials and absurdities.
In our country, however, you can
see something you never saw before.
If I were your guide, I would lead
you to the men and women who
build our plants, smelters and sub
ways, and 1 know how deeply
amazed you would be: for though
you have seen the Niagara Falls
the Chicago stockyards,. Westmin-
ster Abbey, the ruins of Pompeii,
the lights of the Paris boulevards-
there's no denying it, you've been
lucky, you've seen great deal-yet
you have never seen this; our new
men and women
The attractive cover of the De-
cember issue of Soviet Russia Today
and the layout of unusual photo
graphs of life in the U. S. S. r. are
the work of John Gilmore.