- ond

HAT can the Czechoslovak

workers buy with his wages?
How does his standard of living
©ompare with that of workers in
ether European countries, and
with the much-advertized “high
Standard of living” in the U.S.
and Canada?

There are ample statistics to
Show that while in Western Euro-
-Pean countries prices have sky-
tocketed and unemployment in-
rteased, and that while in the

‘S. prices are 262 percent above
the 1939 level, in Czechoslovakia

eal Wages have risen steadily
‘ince the beginning of the Five
Year Plan in 1949.

Bote oserneunies argued, even by
fe se who admit that the trend of
ving standards is upward in the

fople’s Democracies and down-
Ward in the West, that neverthe-

®ss the average worker in Britain
or the U.S, still has more comforts
and can do more with his money
than the Czechoslovak worker.

i Western propaganda. outlets
tke the Voice of America. boast
@@ nauseum about American kit-
. sy American washing mach-
‘Nes, American radios, about how

utckly the “average worker” can.

on a shirt (provided he doesn’t
en to buy milk for his children
"pay the doctor's bill).

weet best way to test this propo-
‘On is to study. the actual living
Rditions of real Czech workers.

oroslay Rozmbach and Jaro-
fami Hamsa both live with their
tec @S in "Solidarita,” the
Sys completed cooperative
4 sand development in Strasnice,
aoe of Prague. They are
or i among the highest paid
<3 © lowest paid Czech workers.
in. Pt that they live in new hous-
. Which is not yet available to
Meaeente working population,
On ed of life is, generally
Mista the way of life of in-
‘ iy Workers throughout the
Way lands, and its becoming the
entp of life in the industrial
®S of Slovakia.

far :
ang ®V@ilable to them, the school

for fey ption facilities provided
Paring. children, are with minor
Ale eae those that are avail-
Thoiy © all Czechoslovak workers.
sik UXury purchases in the last
Soaring wos help to explain the
WE ik & figures for consumption

Xtiles, furniture, radios,. bi-

pha Sy ,
he basic expenses, the health

eae

}

cycles, and other larg consumer

items.

“Solidarita” is made up of four-
storey blocks of flats and rows
of attached one-family houses.
Each house has its own small
yard, and between the rows of
houses is. an ‘expanse of lawn,
where the children can play.

Rozmbach, and his wife, Fran-
tiska, their twelve year old
daughter Jaroslava, and their six
year old son Jaroslav, moved into
one of these houses in 1949 when
that section of the development
was completed. Jaroslav, a fore-
man in a medium-sized’ plant
manufacturing metal laboratory
equipment and furniture, earns

7,000 crowns ($140) a month. His

wife works in the same plant as
a galvanizer, and makes 4,000.
Their net income after deduction
for National Insurance, taxes and
unions dues is 9,600 crowns. .

For their two-storey house, with
three good-sized rooms and a
modern kitchen with a gas stove,
central heating and hot water
and a balcony big enough for
four deck-chairs, the Rozmbachs
pay 6,000 crowns a year ($120).
Heating is another 3,000 a year,
and their utilities bill is 300
crowns every two months,

“Since both parents work, little
Jaroslav attends nursery school
while: his sister belong to the
druzina, the school organization
which provides hot lunches and
an extra-curricular program for
children of working mothers.
This costs 10 crowns (20 cents) a
day for each child. The parents
eat their big meal in the factory
canteen: seven crowns for a din-
ner consisting of soup, meat, po-
tatoes or dumplings, vegetables
and desert. re

In addition to this, Mrs. Rozm-
bach estimates that they spend
about 4,500 crowns a month on
food at home, of which 2,000
crowns is spent in the free mar-
ket, Part, but>not all, of their
ration coupons are turned over
to the factory and the schools to
cover the meals eaten there.

They are entitled to 68 kilo-
grams (15 pounds) of meat on
ration each month; in addition
they buy an average of 45 kg.
(10 pounds) in the free market.
Their butter ration provides them
with 2.5 kg. monthly and they
buy an additional half a kg., or
a total of 6.5 pounds of butter.
They consume an equal amount

of cooking fat.

Since their sugar fation en-
titles them to 6.2 kg. (13.6 pounds)

’

‘

at the ration price of 14.5 crowns
a kg., they do not need to buy
any at the higher free market
price. They consume 74 eggs a
month; 24 on ration and 50 in
the free market. They buy one

- litre of- milk a day, since both

children receive milk in school.
(School serves a mid-morning and
mid-afternoon snack in addition

_ to the noon meal.) :

As far as clothing is concérned,
the Rozmbachs spend about 10,-
000 crowns ($200) a year. In the
past six months Mr. Rozmbach
has bought a winter packet, two
shirts, three cotton knit sport
shirts and a wool pullover, all on
coupons. Mrs. Rozmbach has
bought material for a silk print
dress in the free market (650
crowns—$13), new shoes, work
shoes, and stockings. For their
son she has bought two pairs of
shoes, six knit cotton sport shirts,
two pairs of shorts and two pairs
of swimming trunks. Their
daughter has acquired three new
pairs of shoes and underwear.

The Rozmbachs have a radio
gramophone and buy at least 15
new records a year. They spend
1,500 crowns on books ($380).

They all go to the films at least ~

once a week, and the parents
have been to the theatre twice so
far this year.

Children’s school supplies and
outlay for school excursions come
to 600 crowns a year. Mrs. Rozm-
bach used the cooperative electric
laundry twice a month, at a cost
of about 150 crowns.

Fortunately no one in the fami-

ly has been sick this year, so
that except for a few trips to the
dentist, they have not taken ad-

_ vantage of their National Insur-
ance. However, between 1946-1949

Jaroslava, who was born in the
grim year 1938, when Mr. Rozm-
bach had 24 crowns in his pocket,

‘and lived through the hardships

of the occupation, was in the
hospital six times and had three
operations, with all costs com-
pletely covered by insurance.

Net income (after deduction

for National Insurance, taxes,
union dues -.- 9,600
Expenses —
Rent , 500
Heat 250°
Utilities 150
Nursery school ; 260
Druzina (Jaroslava) ~~ 260
Canteen meals 365
Food 4,500
Clothing 835
Laundry _ 10
Household supplies 150
Books ARMAS P55
Cinema 150
Newspaper and
magazines . 100
Children’s school
expenses 50
Phonograph records 50
Jaroslava’s allowance 50
: total 7,945
balance 1,655

“a serious’ economic

UU De eee eee Te eee eee eee er eet ee

How do Czechoslovak
living standards
compare with ours?

: s
Pre ML ee Tt eee ee PULL UL eR L DRL ME MEE tt i Mt tt ie iit it it Gt aie ne nr ein

In the past six months, the
Rozmbachs have bought two car-
pets, once for 6,000 and the other
for 8,000 crowns, curtains for 1660
crowns, and three paintings for
the living room for a total of
3,600 crowns.

They paid 180 crowns to send
their son to camp for four weeks
in June, and 140 crowns for their
daughter’s camp which will begin
the end of July. The whole fami-
ly will also spend two weeks at
fLazne
trade union holiday scheme, at a
cost of 3,200 crowns.

.

The past, only a few years

Marianske under’ the

away,. seems like. another . cen-
tury. Mr. Rozmbach began work
as a painter’s apprentice in 1931
when-he was 14. That year saw
crisis in
‘Czechoslovakia, and Rozmbach
was able to get only seasonal
work and temporary odd jobs;

often he had nothing to eat but

black coffee and potatoes.

Things improyed slightly when

the came to Prague in 1935. Al-
though he was unemployed in the
winter he managed to get steady
work in the summer, and made
3-4,000 crowns a year.

When the Germans came in
1939, he was sent to’ do road
work at 1.5 crowns a day, while
his wife received an allowance
of an additional 3.8 crowns daily.
When their first child was born
that year, they were living in
one room and a kitchen, together
with Mr. Rozmbach’s mother who
received a pension of 120 crowns
a month. (Now 81, she lives in
a home for the aged, receives a
pension of 800 crowns monthly.)
He was deported to Germany by
the Nazis and spent seven months
there.

After his return in 1945, he
worked a 12-hour day in an air-
craft factory tor 1300 crowns a

. month, t

Mrs. Rozmbach, before her
marriage, worked as a domestic
servant, first at 80 crowns a
month and after three years ex-
perience, at 120 crowns. No won-

* der she says:

. “Our children will never know
the hunger and misery we ,had.
We never want the past to come
again. We are turning our mach-
ines against those who want war.
We are fighting for all the work-
ers in ‘the world so that they can
live as well as we do here and
have the freedom that is here

for everyone.” ‘

Jaroslav Hamsa is 51. For-
merly a street car motorman, he
has worked since 1938 in the
telephone servicing department
in a division of the Prague trans»
portation system. Although for
many years he did the work of

the department head, he did not
have the title or the salary.

Before the war, he received
800 crowns a month; during the
war his pay was 1,500 and then
1,800 monthly.
income (with the 115 crowns a
week which his wife earns for
keeping an eye on a neighbor’s
child) is 8,200 a month. Whereas

His present net

‘his pre-war yearly rent for one

dark room and kitchen was 3,200
crowns, he now pays 6,000 crowns
for his four-room house and the
tiny garden where Mrs. Hamsa
grows roses and_ strawberries.
Heat costs him another 3,000 a
year, and utilities-250 a month.

The Hamsas spend 4,000 a
month on food, of which about
1,200 goes for free-market sugar,
fat, eggs and meat. Clothing on
coupons cost them 4,000 spent
chiefly on socks, shirts, under-
clothing and snowpants for the
two boys, Zdenek 7, Jaroslav 11.
In addition, Mrs Mamsa bought
a ready-made winter coat and
material for a cotton, dress in
the free market for 4 total of
7,000 crowns.

The boys go to the cinema every
week, but Mr. Hamsa prefers his
cigarettes and his books. He puts

- aside 900 crowns a month to cover

30 cigarettes a day. His news-
papers and magazines cost him
another 150 a month, and last
year he spent 3,000 crowns on
books.

The Hamsas are able to save
between 500 and 800 crowns a
month. Since 1949 they have
bought new furniture, and a
vacuum cleaner,

In the last six months they

_have had the house painted, and

bought a bicycle for .the older

boy for 2,500 crowns.

Mrs. Hamsa and the boys will
spend the summer at a friend’s
cottage in the mountains, but Mr.
Hamsa has been chosen by his
trade union for a three-weeks
vacation at the seashore in Bul-
garia in recognition of his good
work. The whole holiday, in-
cluding transportation by air,
will cost him 1,500 crowns.

Figures, says Mr. Hamsa, can-
not express the difference be-
tween yesterday and today. “We
have had to- learn how to live.
The kitchen used to be our flat.
Our meat for the week was a
quarter of a kilo for Sunday din-
ner. é

“We know that it wasn’t the
English and the American people
who sold us to Hitler. We know
that if it weren’t for the capital-
ists in ‘the United States and
England, and their war drive, we
could live even better than we
do now. No matter what they
tell us, we just don’t believe in
them any more,”

® 50 crowns equals $/; 140
crowns equal £1.0.0.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — OCTOBER 26, 1951 — PAGE 5

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