The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-29
World Front
Saar-Dynamite
Bread Card System
MIRA. in Porto Rico
By HARRY CANNES

" throughout Europe visibly
heighten as the Saar plebi.
scite date draws near. Only
a few weeks remain befere
the voting. Though an ex.
tremely small territory. with
not more than 100000 people, POI
litically the Saar is concentrated
dynamite.
Hitler and his gang of butchers
look to the Saar as Goering does to
a dose of morphine after an un-
usually heavy day of slaughter. The
fascists want to inject this piece Of
economic medicine into their pei
soned political body, hoping it will
stave off their collapse for while.
Meanwhile, the British imperial
lists have sent into the Saar, under
the guise of an impartial, inter-
national police force" the worst COLI
lection of bill collectors" as Cen
eral Butler would put it, ever sent
against a rebellious colonial people.
The British sent their brass hats ex-
periencsd in shooting down Indian
workers and peasants, and the old
black and tan regiments, whose guns
! have more than one notch of an
Irish life taken.
IN the first of the new year ire
" mendous advance step will be
taken in the Soviet Union that will
speed socialist development. The
rationing or bread card system ends.
Originally the bread card system
was inaugurated in 1928 at the be-
ginning of the Five Year Plan, in
order most effectively to distribute
the available supply Of bread. An
indication of the progress made
during that time can be seen from
the fact that at that time 1929
$50 5000 pools Zone pood equals
Sc pounds Of grain we're harvested,
while in 1884 despite the drought.
800 000, 900 pools we're available
for breadmaking, or more than
double.
In 1928 there were 416,0000O0
pools of other foodstuffs grown,
while in 1894 the figure had reached
over 1000 ,000,0 900, or two and half
times as much.
The ending of the bread-card sys-
tenn is not only concerned with
l.x.oi II ;c 4I,o bow RI an aonalara-
ton of commodity distribution,
more rapid turnover of all goods, as
well as the Improvement of the
financial structure Of the Soviet
Union.
With the ending of the bread card
/ system will come a rapid squirt to
the Improvement of living stand
ards, a lowering of prices generally,
an increase Of wages, and a speed
ing up of retail trade throughout
the Soviet Union
Already the stores in the Soviet
Union have increased to $4,000 in
1884 as against $4,000 in 1928.
The bread-card system was
necessary transition step in the
transformation of small peasant
economy into the socialist collec-
tive. The ending Of the bread-card
system indicates a still more tre-
mendous leap forward.
MO ONE can accuse Roosevelt OF
IN denying the benefits of his New
Deal, especially the N.R.A., to the
tuberculosis and pellagra ridden
masses of Porto Rico.
The largest number of workers az
fected by the MIRA. codes in Porto
Rico were the needle workers. Now
the N.R.A. administrators, after
/ that careful research so well known
| to the American workers. set the
munificent minimum wage of 81
week for Porto Rican needle trades
workers.
But Roosevelts administrators
lately have discovered this did not
work fast enough in increasing
| tuberculosis and starvation in Porto
Rico, so they decided to lower the
So weekly minimum. In Release
No. 1895 Of the National Recovery
Administration, piece work rates on
needle-work in Porto Rico are or
dered reduced, becoming effective
Jan. 8. "The Commission found
that some of the rates [S2 week
! H. GIL are excessive, in view OF
/ conditions within the Porto Rican
industry"
NOW your skilled capitalist econ
~ omist, more concerned with
capitalist reality" as he would put
it, would say that life is cheaper in
Porto Rico, and that one cannot
say if wages are cut down below 81
a week, that that is of itself unjust.
The answer which every worker in
Porto Rico knows is that most OF
the foodstuffs is imported from the
United States, and costs as much
or more than it does in the chief
industrial centers in the United
States. 1t is for this reason - the
special exploitation of American
capitalism. the unusually high
profits made by the bosses = that
Porto Rico. though itself q country
! like Florida and California, has
more disease than any other spot
under Wall Streets flag.
Another code dealt with by the
NR.A. in Porto Pico. is that for
bakers. The bakers minimum wage
is set at IS week. And the bakers
are told tile code affords very real
hope of progress in the field OF
health and sanitation"
In fact, if the process of the