The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-08-01
On the
World Front
HARRY CANNES.

War Barometer
Japan Gets Most
A Rabbi on the U.S.S.R.
CHIPMENTS of scrap iron
" are generally taken as a
sort of barometer Of war
preparations. This is especi-
ally true of countries which
do not have iron ore resources.
On the basis of the ire
mendous rise of scrap iron ship
ments from the United States, in
the past six months, for example,
the Herald-Tribune, is forced to
admit that the danger of war is
indeed great. Says a Herald Tribune
report from Pittsburgh:
Runners of war fit into the
recent buying of scrap iron and
steel. 1t seems more than mere
coincidence that several countries
prominently mentioned in war
scare stories have developed enor-
nous appetites for scrap metal. 1t
is assumed that these purchases
represented demand for metal for
the making of war material or the
building up Of reserve in case
regular sources of supply are
blocked"
THE greatest purchasers have been
Japan and Italy. Japan took
407 .592 tons of scrap iron from the
United States. This is SIS per cent
of the total exported from this
country, and represents an increase
of 140,S10 over shipments in the
similar six-month period of 1888.
And the 1888 scrap iron shipments
were about 100 per cent over 1882.
That for six months japanese i'm
perialism has been greatly speeding
up its war preparations, lends added
Significance to Foreign Minister Hi
rotas abrupt breaking off of all
negotiations with the Soviet AM
bassador Konstantin Yureneff over
the proffered sale of the Soviet
share of the Chinese Eastern Rail-
way in Manchuria. japanese inn
perialism, at this stage of world war
maneuvres, is deliberately attempt
ing to provoke war against the
Soviet Union hoping to divert all Of
the imperialist conflicts into the
channel of attack against the work
ers' fatherland.
ANOTHER fact on japanese war
a preparations is one we receive
from Kobe, Japan, in the Japanese
Chronicle, namely, that during the
month of April, 1884, Japan bought
1899 ,258 of arms from the United
States. Though this is huge sum
for one month it does not tell the
whole story. This sum of nearly
S8,000,000 is listed for war munitions
that cannot be disguised, such as
machine guns, rifles, reyolvers, ex-
plosives, airplane bombs, shells, etc.
Many more millions were spent for
fertilizers" (nitrates for eXplosives),
cotton for gun cotton, metals, and
other raw materials for war pur-
poses.
Besides, millions more were paid
to the du Pont chemical corporation
for construction of a huge nitrate
plant in Japan.
MORE interesting news on the
HA Soviet Union comes from st.
Louis. There Rabbi Samuel Thur
man, one of the most prominent
rabbis of that city, returned after
visiting the Soviet Union. Because
of his leading position, the st.
Louis papers prominently display his
interview on what he found in the
Soviet Union.
While the rabbi forgets to men,
ton what would be of the greatest
Importance to Jews, that Jewish
autonomous region has been estab-
lished in BRO Bijan. he does say
lot which the capitalist press finds
it hard to answer. We quote from
his statement:
I'D USSIA is advancing culturally,
~ industrially, morally, and Is
rapidly becoming model which it
might behooye other nations to
consider The old pre-revolution
Russia has vanished. The Russia
of today is nation of happy people,
healthy, ambitious, every want salts
fled, every hope either realized or
its realization this side of the hori-
zon. 1t is nation of students,
every one of whom is being schooled
in his particular aptitude and being
paid salary by the government
while studying.
Work is assured for everyone. If
a worker is found to be untitled for
a certain job he is placed in an
other and if he is found to be fit
for none, he is paid social insur-
ance. There is no such thing as
charity or social service in Russia
today. There is no need for them.
Everyone works and therefore earns
his own way Those who are men,
tally or physically deprived of this
privilege are taken care of by the
best medical talent. Those who re-
fuse to work simply vanish in time.
Fifty per cent of the nation Is
industrialized, I cannot describe
the fruits of their construction pro-
gram except to say they are literally
colossal. An example is a tractor
mandatory employing 10000 per-
sons. This factory is the center Of
a separate community. 1t has its
own recreation grounds its our,