2a Ff f a i PRL RR at ee REPORT ON WARSAW CONGRESS and other interior points. about January 24. Gardner, Gordon, to make peace tour through B.C. Ray Gardner and Alex Gordon, B.C. delegates to the recent Warsaw Peace province this month to report on their trip. Gardner speaks in Kamloops on January 18; Salmon Arm, January 19; Armstrong, January 21; Trail, Jan- ‘uary 25, and Grand Forks on January 28, may also be arranged in Kimberley, Cranbrook, Fernie Gordon will address meetings in Sointula, January 16; Owen Bay, January 19; 22; Campbell ‘River, January Conggess, are touring the Meetings Heriot Bay, January 20 or 21 and Powell River on or Labor movement mourns passing of Kay Erickson The tragic death of Mrs. Kay'Erickson last Sunday, Jan- uary 7, atthe age of 36 years, has come as a shock to.the pro- gressive labor movement in this province where she was wide- ly known among miners, seamen and loggers as a result of her many years’ work in trade union offices. Only a month earlier, the B.C. district convention of the International Union of Mine Mill and Smelter Workers, of which she was assistant district treasurer, had congratulated her upon the birth of a daughter as its first item of business. Born. Kathieen Maude Gregory at London, England, in 1914, she first came in touch with the left- wing labor movement through a group of Canadians living in Lon- don and joined the British Com- munist party a few months before she came to Canada in 1936. In Canada, first at Victoria and then at Vancouver, she took a prominent’ part in the | activities of the old’ Communist Party of Canada, being first elected to its B.C. provincial committee in 1937. In 1948, when the Labor-Progres- sive party was formed, she _ be- came a foundation member and at the time of her death was a member of its Central Burnaby club. ’ As provincial secretary of the League for Peace and Democracy from 19387 until its disbandment in 1939, Mrs. Erickson was a well-known figure with the late A. M. Stephen in the Japanese boycott and embargo movement here and undertook much of the organizational work in campaigns to raise medical aid for what was then the Chinese Eighth Route Army. It was in the course of this work that she developed a friendship with the late Agnes Smedley, the American writer who devoted her life’s work to the cause of the Chinese people. During the war years she work- ed in the B.C. district office of IN) MEMORIAM ‘To you who have fallen . ”’ COMRADE Kay Erickson We pledge to carry on and build ‘the LPP for which you worked so consistently ‘ Burrard Section, LPP Fairview, Halperin. Kitsi- lano, Olgin, Point Grey and A. E. Smith Clubs i REE KAY ERICKSON | the International Woodworkers of America and later in the office of the IWA’s New Westminster local, and in recent years she had worked in the office of the West Coast Seamen’s Union and the district office of the Inter- national Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers. Always keenly interested in cul- tural activities, and particularly in the labor press, Mrs. Erickson was a capable writer and a fre- quent contributor to left-wing publications. In 1942-43 she held the position of managing editor of The People for a few months and her column, “Books and Peo- ple” under her maiden name of Kay Gregory, continued to be a regular feature in that paper over two years. Aa She is survived by her husband, Frank Erickson, and an infant daughter, Linda Frances, and by relatives in England. Funeral services will be held from Simmons and McBride fun- eral chapel, 1995 West Broadway, this Friday, January 12, at 2°p.m., with Harvey Murphy, Mine-Mill regional director, and Tom Mc- Ewen, editor of the Pacific Tri- bune, speaking. Pallbearers will be: Nigel Mor- gan, George Anderson, Dave McGhee, James Thompson, J. M. “Digger” Smith and William Stewart. Interment will follow in Forest Lawn cemetery, Burnaby. Poll shows maiority of people think peace most vital issue for country It doesn't take a lot of thinking to realize that in the past period people have come to make war and peace their main item of conversation. By LESLIE MORRIS You can hear it everywhere. That was not the case in December, 1948, when in Toronto the first peace conference was called together, to be followed by the first. national peace congress in May, 1949. What foresight the organizers of that Congress possessed, and how correct were Dr. James G. Endicott, Miss Mary Jennison and other peace stalwarts, is to be seen in the eloquent Gallup Poll figures published last week. In January, 1950, 4 out 100 Can- adians polled said that the threat of war and maintenance of peace was the biggest single problem facing Canada. In January, 1951, 53 out of 100 Canadians polled said that this was the biggest problem today, far outweighing the high cost of living, housing, unemployment or any other single question, al- though many people undoubt- edly connect these matters up with peace. A remarkable transformation of public opinion! No wonder Prime Minister St. Laurent tries to con- ceal his complicity in Korea and tre rearming of Germany by talk about “peace.” Any government which openly and callously pro- claimed it warlike aims would he defeated by the people’s wrath. This 538 percent is not confined to people of one party. It cuts across all parties and all strata of the population. The poll re- ports say that “in all areas of Canada the threat of war was rated the most pressing problem by a clear-cut majority.” In June, 1950, the U.S. people expressed the same opinion in a poll con- ducted there. It is not said what part of the 58 percent favored war, *but on the basis of a former Gallup Poll wkich showed that two-thirds of Canadians polled were opposed to using the atomic bomb, it is safe to say that a vast majority of the. 58 percent were concerned with the maintenance of peace. Peace y7is. mot a | * Communist movement, it is the desire of the majority of Canadians, regardless of their ideas about the Com- munists. In fact, only three per- ceut of Canadians polled said that “Communism” is the biggest provien: for Canada. That shows that the feverish and lying efforts te inflame the people into a war against sovialism are not having the successes the professional liars and red-baiters would like. All these facts prove that there! exists in our country, as it does in all countries, a profound de- sire for peace among the people. Politics—the politics of peace and war—the central issue in the world today, is uppermost in the popular mind. It is the key to everything. The weakness in Canada is that desire for peace is not yet trans- formed into an organized will for peace. It is not enough to ‘be concerned, to be afraid, to be deeply perturbed; it is not enough to worry and to hold private opin- ions about the need for peace. What is neéded to make desire for peace an organized movement is that in every organization, in every home, it shall be taken up and given voice and expression. No public spokesman, no leader in religious, political, cultural or economic life should be free from the pressure of the people for peace. The trade unions can no longer be stifled under the gags impos- ed by leaders who support the plans for war, Trade unionists are included in this Gallup Poll. * UNION HOUSE ZENITH CAFE 105 E. Hastings Street VANCOUVER, B.C. How, then, can they refrain from speaking on the union floor and demanding that the deathly sil- ence of hundreds of unions be broken, and a clamor set up to step the vicious, antilabor arma- ment program, the re-arming of Germany, the rape of Korea and the attempts to provoke a war against China? Can Canadian workers silent- ly condone the fact that they are drawing wages and working full time im industries keyed to @& war program of slaughter in Korea, China, Malaya, Europe? What church congregation can remain dumb in the face of such bloodeurdling war hysterics as were shouted over the CBC on Sunday, January 7, by the Rev. E. Pike of Moncton, N.B.? Will they not arise to end this war propaganda in tne name of Christ? How can Slavic-Canadians and Jewish-Canadians, no. matter what their politics, refrain from join- ing in a world-wide revulsion at the re-arming of the Nazi mon- sters who cremated and buried alive countless numbers of their fellow Jews and Slavs? And French Canada can be ex- pected to lead the battle against conscription. Truly the fight for peace has entered a new stage—from being a minority idea it is seizing the minds of the majority of citizens. The Canadian Peace ‘Congress has earned the gratitude of all Canadians | for raising this su- preme question in good time. But the fight has only begun. The Peace Congress — the hest and most unified instrument of the peoples peace fight—cannot do the job alone, in time to beat the determination of the men of war. The cause of peace has to be ‘taken up everywhere, now, to stay the hand of desperate and ferocious aggress6rs who will net listen to reason, only to the power of the people. The Third Canadian Peace Congress, called for April 6, should be attended by hundreds of new representatives of pee- ple’s organizations, so that the Nine Points for Peace, adopted by the people of the world at Warsaw, will ring out to give all Canadians the confidence and will they require to make ‘ their will for peace felt by the government of Canada and iw the United Nations. Halt living cost spiral, Labor Council demand _ Greater Vancouver and Lower Mainland Labor Council (CCL) decided this week to launch a campaign for price and rent control aimed at halting the cost-of-living spiral. (Vancouver ranked second, be- hind Montreal, in a list of seven cities which showed a sharp in- crease in the cost-of-living during November, according to the Bureau of Statistics index released this week.) The CCL body hopes to carry on a joint campaign with Vancouver Trades and Labor Council (AFL- TLC) and the railway brotherhoods, “Recent wage increases have been wiped out by rising living costs,” said council secretary Jim Bury. Bury was unanimously re-elected as secretary-treasurer at Tuesday night’s council meeting. Pen Bas- kin (steel) and Bill Stewart (marine workers) are contesting the presi- dency; Fred Jackson (longshore- men) and George Mitchell (IWA) are running for vice-president. Election night in January 23. ~ Ruddell sfafes Hume pointing fo obvious Mayor Fred Hume’s announce- ment this week that he intended to “tackle the hospital bed shortage immediately” was commended by Elgin Ruddell, Civic Reform chair- man, who added that “the mayor however, has only discovered a situation which has been known to all Vancouver citizens, for a long time.” Hume gave this “exclusive” story to Al Williamson of the Vancouver News-Herald, whose paper splash- ed it all over Page One. The next day the mayor sought city approval for appointment of Williamson to the post of “assistant to the mayor’s secretary” at a salary of $345 per month. Council delegates rejected a Fur and Leather resolution opposing re- arming of Western Germany by At- lantic Pact countries; ruled ‘that a letter protesting screening of civic employees could not be dealt with because it was sent to council by a private individual; and decided not to state its position on the draft of a new city charter until it gave the matter further study. MILO CAF “We Specialize in : : Ukrainian Food” 242 E. Hastings St. PA. 3037 * Vancouver UT TT Et EAST END TAXI UNION DRIVERS HAstings 0334 Un = = = = = = = = = = FULLY 24-HOUR INSURED SERVICE ' §11 E. HASTINGS ST. ts tL UT Ce TEL od TENSE) WooD SAWDUST STANTON & MUNRO Barristers, Solicitors, Notaties _ SUITE 515, FORD BUILDING, 193 E. HASTINGS ST. (Corner.Main & Hastings Sts.) MArine 5746 PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JANUARY 12, 1951 — Page 6 tT.