The daily worker., 1935-01-10
Questions
and
Answers

This department appears daily on the feature
page. All questions shouid be addressed to "Ques-
tions and Answers" 70 Daily Worker, 50 East
18th Street, New York City.
Question: Is it true that the average monthly
relief benefit in the United States is s2S month,
as Relief Administrator Harry L. Hopkins claims7
D. W.
Answer: At the present time the administration
is spending less than s12OOOO0O0 month for tho
relief needs Of almost 10000 900 men, women, and
children This means that on the average about
six dollars month Is given per person But sc-
tually few families receive that much per person.
Those families on home relief receive little as
eight or ten dollars per month in some southern
states For the average family of five this amounts
to about forty cents week per person.
Families on work relief used to average S2s a
month or about $1.40 per person week. This
pitifuly small sum has now been cut by the adj
ministrstion order reducing wages below the mini
mum of thirty cents an hour. OF course, the figures
cited above average figures and in some cases
the level of relief is somewhat higher It is never,
however, high enough to sustain family any
thing except poverty level.
1t must be emphasized that this relief, made
quate as it is. is given only to a fraction Of the
unemployed and their families. 1t is safe estimate
that more than half of the unemployed and their
dependents who are In great need do not receive
any relief at all
Question: Why do Communists call for demonstra-
tions? They result in workers being injured and
thrown into Jail wouldn't it be better to save the
money spent on defense cases and utilize it instead
on furthering the revolutionary movement?
NEWCOMER.
Answer: In capitalist society there is a constant
struggle going on between the capitalists backed up
by the force of the capitalist state and the work.
ing class The only way that the workers ever win
concessions from the ruling class is through mass
struggle. Neither persuasion nor logic will make an
employer or capitalist government grant benefits
to the toiling masses.
One of the forms of this struggle against the
ruling class is mass demonstrate or mass protest.
The effectiveness of this form of struggle can be
gagged from the history Of the past few years in the
united States. Mass protest and demonstration
won relief demands; stopped foreclosures and evic-
tons; and helped free many political prisoners,
notably, Dimitroff.
While demonstrations are not the only form OF
struggle their role in the class struggle is very
important. There is nothing the bourgeoisie fear
so much the exposure of their policies
through the organized protest of the working class
You speak of injuries to workers. But the only
way TO stop brutal attacks and all capitalist OPP
preston is through mass actions. If the workers
we're to meekly submit to every capitalist outrage
they would place themselves completely at the tender
mercies of the police and thugs 1t is mass action
and protest that make the capitalists hesitate to
attack the workers and their representatives The
best way to stop ruling class terror and the most
effective way Of defending the workers against op
preston is through greater and greater mass pres
sure and not through non resistance that would
hand the workers over to the capitalists. Con-
sequenty there is no better way of furthering the
revolutionary movement than by actively particp-
atng in workers defense cases In these struggles
the workers learn the value Of organized action,
and receive valuable lessons in the strategy Of
fighting the ruling class and it's instrument Of
oppression-the capitalist state,