Page:The Labor Laws of Soviet Russia (1920).pdf/8

 Let us examine each of these charges seriatim.

1. Mr. Redfield believes that "no American workman should (meaning: would) submit … to such a tyrannical and oppressive system." He seems to be unaware of the existence of vagrancy laws in most of the States of the Union, to say nothing of the laws enacted in many States during the late war, which require every able-bodied male to work a certain number of hours per week. The only difference between the American and the Soviet legislation on the subject is that under the laws of Soviet Russia the duty to work has its correlative in the right to work, whereas in the United States a worker who can find no employment may be sent to prison for vagrancy.

Has Mr. Redfield never heard of the chain gangs in the Southern States, where unemployed negroes are sentenced to prison terms for vagrancy and hired out by the authorities to private contractors to work on public roads? In Soviet Russia, under Section 10 of the Code of Labor Laws, "all citizens able to work have the right to employment at their vocations." This is not a mere theoretical right. Under Article III of the Code the right to work is enforced through the machinery of the Soviet Government. Every unemployed wage earner is furnished work by the Department of Labor Distribution. In case no work can be found for him he is entitled to an unemployed benefit which must be equal to his regular wages, fixed by the wage scale committee of his labor union. (Section 61 and Appendix to Section 79: Rules Concerning Unemployed and Payment of Subsidies, Sections 5 and 6.)