K. This is the 1st working draft of vol. VI. It still ... - From Marx to Mao

ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL PROBLEMS IN THE ANTI-JAPONESE WAR
ter this was done, only 1 jin of millet was consumed per head per
day. Before a month was up more than 5 tan of “millet was saved.
Another example was the collective meals at the nursery. In the
past when the people there took meals in separate groups, the nursery
consumed 150 jin of flour a meal. After collective meals were
introduced, they only consumed 100 jin saving one-third. You see,
comrades, what a surprising amount this is. Similarly the central
departments and committees have implemented collective mess-halls
and have also got good results. The Central Party School planned
in the first half of the year to raise 2,000 chickens which required
300 bowls of millet a day. The waste was quite large. Afterwards
they killed most of the chickens and only sixty were left. This saved
FROM MARX
TO MAO
quite a lot of grain. In addition, it is necessary to foster the habit of
⋆
using meal-tickets. It can reduce the issue of large amounts of grain.
In sum, in order to ensure that there are absolutely no shortages of
grain, on the one hand we must levy and produce it and on the other
we must seek to economize. This is the work for leading comrades
and it is a mass-movement. Everyone must pay attention and complete
the task given by the Party.
(Two chapters on taxation and economizing originally planned
for this book could not be written in time because the Senior Cadres’
Conference closed. They had to be left out.)
NOT FOR
COMMERCIAL
NOTES
DISTRIBUTION
475
The Author
1 These figures are the totals paid in agricultural tax (public grain) by the peasants
of the Shaan-Kan-Ning Border Region from 1940 to 1942.
2 For “better troops and simpler administration” see “A most Important Policy”,
Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung, Eng. ed., FLP, Peking, 1967, Vol. III, pp. 99-102.
3 The “Three mountains” refer to three mythical islands where magic spirits
are presumed to live.