=

es of these two items would avet-
age 36 per cent provided that a
man shaved himself 120 times for
each time he got his hair cut.
e
OW many times have you
heard it said that a wage in-
crease is useless, because ‘it only
leads to higher living costs, and
the worker is no better off than

before.

This theory has respectable
standing among the intelligentsia.
When an economics professor is
in his subjective, or consumer de-
mand phase, he will explain to

you that prices depend on the »

demand for goods, therefore the
more money consumers have the
higher the price level, therefore
higher wages mean higher prices.
When he is in his objective, or
producer,cost phase, he will say,
the cost of production determines
prices, therefore if wages go up,
cost of production goes up there-
fore prices go up.

Hither way you're beat.

“Until you look at the facts, that

i

na

In 1939, the average weekly
wage in B.C. was $26.80 a week.
in June 1950 it was $47.60. That
is an increase of 77 per cent.
That is very little nipre than the
increase in the official cost of
living index and certainly less
than ‘the real increase in cost of
living.

We see therefore, that just as
Karl Marx predicted, wages have
been held down to what it costs
the worker to maintain himself.
It is absurd therefore to say that
the worker has been ig oe bd
prices up. ; : .

Now consider what employers
get... !

In 1939 total corporation profits
in Canada amounted to $587,000,-
000.. In 1949 they amounted to
$1,914,000,000. That is an increase
of 225 per cent. : oe

‘

So! Prices go uP 70 per cent.
Do we blame this on wage increas-
es of 77 per cent or on profit in-
creases of 225 per cent? Consult
your daily newspaper, your radio,
your professor. The answer 18
always the same. How, they ask
you, can the employer pay higher
wages without increasing his
prices? How, indeed!

JOR AOE ere SUS
(940508 xe ie

~The gigantic war preparations

which ‘are now being planned
will raise prices more. To protect

Ss EE iar as 9.9 points

The railways have recently in-
creased their freight rates.

They have also granted a wage
increase ‘of four cents an hour to
their employees following a na
tion-wide strike broken by a com-
pulsory arbitration law.

They are now threatening

further rate increases,

_ Now look at the wage and profit
figures. In 1939 the average CPR
employee earned $1610. In 1949
he earned $2770. That is an in-
crease of 76 per cent, just abreast
of the cost of living.

The company on the other hand
had a net profit of $9,782148 in
41939 and $29,724805 in 1949 an in-
crease of 204 per cent. And the
1949 profit is after setting aside
over $25,000,000 for depreciation.

'Few prices have risen as spec-
tacular as lumber during this

period.

The average woodworker earn-
ed $27.14 a week in 1939. By
August 1950, this was up to $51.91
--an increase of 91 per cent. Was
this the cause of a 228 per cent
increase in prices? ;

Or was the price increase due
to profiteering — as reflected, for
instance in the figures of Can-

adian Western Lumber Company, "

$826,508 in 1939 and $3,699,483 in
1949 — an increase of 348 per cent.

Scores of examples could be

given to show the same relation-
ship between prices, wages and
profits. The validity of the rela~
tionship is not affected by the
fact that reaction can point to
some instances of workers whose
wage rates have increased more
than the cost of living index.

These are at least offset by
cases where the reverse is true, as
exemplified by two recent concili-
ation board hearings where the

workers involved were shown to ;

have had no increases since 1947
although living costs are up 35
points since then. At one of these

hearings, an employee with six

years seniority as a skilled oper-

‘ative testified that her monthly

wage for full time work never
exceeded $75. Needless to say, her
employer, a large and well known
Vancouver company, opposed her
application for a raise.

NEEDLESS to say prices are
fF ‘still going up. The post war
changes in the official cost of liv-

ing index are as follows:

4.1 points
11.9 points
19,5 points
5.8 points

living standards, organized labor
will need to demand higher wages,
and prepare for militant action to
achieve them.

C1) ee

enetics works

in the USSR

T has been widely assert-

ed in this country that
when Soviet scientists re-
jected the Morgan-Mendelist
theory of heredity they put
an end to the science of
genetics in the Soviet Union.

But recent reports of Soviet
progress in this field prove these
assertions to be far from the
truth.

Significantly enough,
gloomy predictions are made by
those scientists who like Profes-
sor Julian Huxley in Britain, are
equally pessimistic about the ap-
plication of science to problems
of food production. Such ideas
are only the refiection of the im-
possibility of solving the social
problems of production within
capitalism.

In the Soviet Union the estab-
lishment of socialism has long
since put an end to those social
contradictions which in the capi-
talist world hinder the progress
of agriculture, and lead to the
position where millions are short
of food while farmers are threat-
ened with ruin because they have
produced too much wheat, pota-
toes, meat and eggs.

The Soviet collective farmer
does not have to worry about
whether he can sell his crop
when it is harvested. His prob-
lem is to produce as much and
as efficiently as possible, since
every increase in yield increases
his own and his country’s pros-
perity and speeds the advance
to' communism.

The conditions. of socialist ag-—

riculture thus provide the basis
for applying science widely and
completely to every phase of ag-
riculture.

The tremendous development of
agricultural science and its close
connectipn with the (practical
tasks of the collective farms is

‘ . '
‘one of the most impressive fea-

tures of Soviet science, In this
development, genetics has played
its ‘part, and does so increasingly
now that it is guided by Michur-
inist theory. b
Genetics in this country is a

rather academic subject, largely ~

thesd

By ALAN G. MORTON

cut off from practical agricultur-
al problems, and this is doubt-
less one of the reasons why many
geneticists have been slow to un-
derstand the theoretical advan-
ces of the Michurinists.

‘ Soviet genetics is, however,
very closely iinked both with
practical agriculture and with
other aspects of biological sci-
ence. This is clearly seen in the
actual organisation of genetic
work.

®

Apart from the number of in-
stitutes of genetical research, an
enormous amount of genetical
work is carried on in the state
breeding stations, of which there
are now 72, situated in all the
main soil and climatic zones of
the Soviet Union.

These stations have the prim-
ary purpose of raising new high-
yielding varieties of plants, adap-
ted to local conditions, and of
producing high quality seed, suf-
ficient to satisfy the requirement
of the collective farms.

In addition research work is
carried on to work out. the best
methods of cultivation and man-
uring in order to secure high
yields. Many stations also car-
ried out research in agrochemis-
try, physiology, plant protection,
animal husbandry, mechanisation.

Fundamental genetical research
is thus closely linked with the

work on plant breeding, seed pro-’

duction, and agronomy.

It was in these favorable con-
ditions for advance in genetics
that many of the results were
obtained which led Soviet scien-
tists to turn from Mendelian to
Michurinist genetics,

e i

In the practical work of the
breeding stations the fruitfulness
of the new theories has been
fully demonstrated.

In the past 12 years, using Mi-
churinist methods, some 650 new
varieties have been produced and
sent for state testing, including
over 200 new varieties of wheat.
Some 280 of these varieties are
already grown as regional varie-
ties on a large scale.

At Krasnodar, for example,

Lukyanenko produced the valu-

able winter wheat Novo Ukrain-
ka, which is already grown on
more than 1,500,000 acres.

Vegetative hybridisation is be-
ing used by A. S. Pushkin at
Kamalinsk to get new varieties of
spring wheat by transferring the
embryo from one variety into
the grain of another.

This remarkable work is actu-
ally done in field conditions and
has already yielded valuable
forms which are now being wide-
ly studied and tested. =~

In breeding and selection work
great use is made of the methods
introduced by Lysenko of cros-
sing between one variety and an-
other, combined with continuous
selection and training of the
plants in conditions of the high-
est and most suitable agricultur-
al technique. :

Lysenko’s method of produc-
ing hybrid seed by free wind
pollination has led to phenome-
nal increases in yield, and this
method is now being intensively
studied and employed on a large
scale,

In many places, work is going
on to transform winter into
spring cereals and vice versa. In
addition to its theoretical interest
this has already had valuable re-

sults in breeding new varieties.

@

Some very interesting bio-chem-
‘ical work is being done in con-
nection with fertilisation, graft
hybridisation, and other prob-
lems. Other investigations are
concerned with chromosome be-
havior, cytology of fertiilsation,
etc. Taken altogether, a vast
amount of fundamental “pure”
genetics is in progress.

Clearly, genetics in the Soviet
Union is not dead, but is flour-
ishing vigorously and making
rapid practical and _ theoretical
advances.

The fruits of these advances
will be a higher standard of liv-
ing fer the Soviet people and
the rapid attainment of «commu-
nism.,

The moral for. us is that science
advances when it serves the peo-
ple and that science can only
fully serve the people under so-
cialism. ;

x y ag

and Kameraz examine high-yielding, disease-resisting potato plants.

\
\

An experimental field of hybrid tomatoes in the USSR (left) and (right) Soviet biologists Bokaswv-

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — DECEMBER 15, 1950 — PAGE 5

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