REPORT ON THE RUSSIANS A 'inoAHBn.wr.nl in<E. The head of the Soviet labor movement was a very smart man of forty-three called Kuznetsov. He was really keen. He'd lived in America, graduated from Carnegie Institute of Technology with a mas ter's degree in metallurgy, and if you tried to point out that his labor movement here wasn't really free, he'd come right back at you with some American example trying to prove that ours was even less free. He outlined their set-up like this. All Soviet unions?representing 22, 000,000 workers?send delegates to the AQ-Union Trades Congress. This meets every year or so but hasn't since the war. This corresponds to our AFL and CIO national conven tions rolled into one. It's strictly labor?no soldiers or farmers are In it. This big Congress elects fifty five members to something they call the Plenum. These fifty-five elect eighteen to something called the Presidium. And these eighteen elect ed him its secretary, which makes him head of the workers. He said at least 90 or Si per cent of all workers belonged to trade unions. Stalin stayed in Moscow when Ger many advanced on city. So we asked him who didn't belong. "Well," he said, "some apprentices are too young, and then in the re occupied regions, it takes a little time to convince all workers they should belong." He said the dues were 1 per cent of a worker's sal ary. There is no initiation fee, but ? they sell you a book costing only one rouble. "Now, is this a perfectly free union movement," we asked him, "or is it directed by your govern ment?" < It was perfectly free, he assured as. Of course, he said, anyone they elected to their Congress must be approved by the government. He said, "in 1919 a strike in one steel mill lasted two days. And in 1923 there was another little strike In western Russia. We were chang ing over from the old czarist money to Soviet roubles, and it took time to get it all printed and out to the workers. As soon as the situation was explained to them, they went back to werk. There have been no strikes since, and in the future there won't be any because our workers understand they are all working for each other." ? "If a worker is discontented and gets discharged for any reason, would it be difficult for him to get a job some place else?" "Very, very difficult," said Kuz netsov. "Do you have any absenteeism?" "We simply don't have it without reason." "But aren't workers sometimes a little late?" "Occasionally," he said. "The first time he is warned. The second time he may be fined. If it happens again, he is discharged. If a work er fails to co-operate, damages too much material or does anything else which we consider serious, he may 'be arrested and tried before a judge, and if he is unable to prove his in nocence, sentenced to a number of years' penal labor. The rules in the -factories are very strict and rigidly enforced." And the union officials encourage the workers to testify against a man guilty of these of fenses ? maybe they themselves bring charges against him. "Joining the trade union in any plant is completely voluntary," Kuz netsov said. "How do you account then, for the fact that practically everyone who is eligible joins?" "It is to their advantage in any country, and particularly in the So viet Union, where the Trade Union Movement offers many benefits. Here a union member received greater sick benefits than a non union member. There is a housing shortage here and most factories own apartment houses which they rent to the workers. Union members receive first consideration. "All workers are entitled to vaca tion with pay, but non-union mem bers cannot spend their vacations in (be rest centers maintained for workers. If a worker is sick, the physician may recommend an ex ira week's vacation, and he can go to a special type of rest center equipped to care for invalids. But non-union members are not eligi ble." "Usually about A per cent of an employee's salary goes for rent in these factory-owned apartments," he said. "Young apprentices live in rent-free dormitories. Older workers may live in them, too, but they pay. Skilled workers, or those who exceed their norms, are entitled to better quarters. Because their pay is more, their rent is proportion ately higher." "What relations do you have with American labor?" we asked. "None at all with the AFL," he said. "We're very much disap pointed. Also, their representative, Mr. Watt, criticized our Russian Trade Union Movement at the last meeting of the International Labor Organization in Philadelphia. He claimed we were not a free move ment. You can see that we are. I don't understand why your govern ment would permit this criticism of our trade unions." "Russia is your ally," he said. "I can't understand why your govern ment would permit it, and we sim ply don't understand the AFL. It probably isn't the workers, but only the leaders who have these distort ed notions. Here we are sure that your workers really want to co-op erate with ours, only the leaders won't permit it. We do have some relations with the CIO?letters from Mr. Murray and several others. It is more sympathetic, and desires to co-operate, and more nearly under stands the true position of workers in America and workers here. We' hope some day we can co-operate with the American labor movement. After all, we are working for the same cause." ? ? ? Until we reach the Urals, which divide Russia-in-Europe from Rus y keb. . . . They say an Ameri :an Riviera may spring up at West port, Conn., the home of several ' rultural leaders. Via the Longshore 1 Hub property into which mucho 1 nazuma will be chucked. . . . Memo ' torn Jed Kiley at the St Francis ' iospital, Miami Beach: "Two years igo I was married in this town. 1 Ate year ago I was divorced hare. Rile year I eras only ran over." i ^oum Refuvite* Ik WASHINGTON By Wobar Shtod WNI/CmfMM WHU Wttkimtlom Bwu Ull Sf? St.. W. W Truman Gained Stature During His First Tear IUST about ail the newspapers J and magazines in the country have had their say at appraising President Harry S. Truman after his first year in ofRce. Your Home Town Reporter hat been able during this past year to watch the President, his policies and the operation of his adminis tration from a more or less de tached viewpoint. Luckily when I attend the President's press confer ences it is not necessary for me to rush to a phone or to my typewriter and hurriedly dash off a story of my impressions, for in covering for the weekly newspapers I have suf ficient time to deliberate over what has happened. President Truman entered the White House as an average Amer ican without too impressive a rec ord behind him at anything. He had done his stint at farming, at running a haberdashery store and at politics, and in the latter he was more successful. As chairman of the senate war investigating com mittee, he made a real contribu tion to the successful culmination of the war. But when he was catapulted Into the presidency by the death of his predecessor, he was untried as a statesman, unknown as to his abili ties and he faced the heaviest re sponsibilities any man had ever been called upon to faee. Be didn't want the )ob and confessed, his shortcomings, his average Ameri canism. The average American back in the home towns of the country like and are proud of our democracy be cause it gives them, as average citi zens, the chance to improve and ad vance socially, economically and in tallnoii tall" -*? *' . . . n gives uiem a chance to grow and better their standards of living. President Hum Crown This reporter believes that in the year the President has been in the White House, he has grown . . . grown as any other average Amer ican man would have grown . . . *in his proficiency to cope with the most powerful office in the world . .. grown in his ability to judge men and their capabilities . . . grown under the pressure of enormous events better to make decisions . . . grown in his contacts with other world leaders. But In this growth of the Presi dent he has built up no halos . . . no traditions ... no myths ... no superman, he remains an average American who is growing up to his job. During our incumbency down here in Washington, we have seen successful business men with fabu lous reputations as leaders in their fields, tycoons of industry, come to Washington to take part in govern ment . . . and make miserable fail ures. Your Home Town Reporter does not believe the President has made a miserable failure. He is not a brilliant statesman . . . nor is he a great orator . . . nor a great socialite. His voice on the radio lacks the human appeal which was so apparent in that of his predeces sor, but his speeches in cold type, matched speech for speech with the public utterances of the late President Roosevelt, do not suffer by comparison. v.. f?i? vi. -??* >?? ??U Ul >U? CUW1 IS W WW the co-operation of hla old col lea (uei in congress. Our observa tion has been, however, since the first few days of the "honeymoon" were over, congress has been more concerned with showing the Presi dent who was boss than in giving him co-operation, or considering the welfare of the American pecfiile. And that state of affairs has come about largely through reaction to the years when congress either went along willingly with President Roosevelt, or grudgingly when he used the big stick to bludgeon them into giving the people his progres sive program. 'Innate Democracy' Much has been made of Presi dent Truman's oft-repeated pleas lor help from the people, from in dustry, from labor, from agricul ture. He has said again and again that he cannot do his Job alone. This has been interpreted by some as a weakness. But in this column's opinion it is merely an expression of his innate democracy, since de mocracy after all, is only a huge co-operative governed by a major ity opinion. President Truman has made mis takes . . . mistakes of the heart, rather than the head ... In nam ing some advisors and in leaning upon their advice ... he has con fessed his mistakes ... he haa faced defeats . . . seen his administration program emasculated and beaten, even ignored by congress. Today be is lea* naive, leas humble, gray er, more dignified, more asaertive . . . than when he went to the White House in April a little mere than a year ago. 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