~ half-a-million

McEwen

[" USED TO BE that when you went

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Tom

after the elusive job and finally caught
up with it, the deal was clinched forth-
With.
main factors—your ability to “cut the
mustard” in the expending of labor

energy, and the surplus accruing to the ~

boss in the exercise of his God-given
right to exploit the labor of another.

That concept of landing a job is now
old fashioned’ — all except the boss’
profitable gain. That, of course, is still
of prime importance. :

In the capture of the elusive job today
the “science” of modern labor relations
is brought heavily to bear in the course
of the hunt. Nowadays the boss doesn’t
only buy the labor power of a worker
for a specified wage, but seeks to make
the purchase include body and soul.

The following incident will serve to
show what I mean. :

9 bos 5°3

One of Vancouver’s leading free en-
terprisers indicated its need of a new
stenographer in one of those touching
“help wanted” appeals. -

The applicant had to be competent,
comely and cooperative in all matters
Pertaining to the firm’s interests. _

A girl of my acquaintance who lives
on a slightly lower economic plane than
the Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton,
applied for the job. The application.
required that she fill in a lengthy ques-
tionnaire like a triple-sized income tax
form, setting forth, all details as to
family, age, sex, religion, marital status,
a brief history of the life and labors
of her parents, etc., etc.

After some lapse of time she was
Called in for an interview with the per-
sonnel director, who also serves as a
sort of psychologist in determining the
Suitability ,of aspiring clients.

The seance with this man consisted

of an elaboration of more intimate ques-

tions than those in the lengthy applica-
tion form she had already filled in.

Was she happy in her love life? Was
she ever crossed in love? Did she love
her husband? What did he do, and
what were his general ideas on econom-
ics, religion, politics, peace and what
not—and did she share her husband’s
views? Was she sedate in her habits
or did she love to gad around a lot?
Was she a patriotic Canadian (“patriot-
ism” being subtly defined with current
“hate Russia” ideologies)? What sort
of books did she read — if any — and
which authors did she like best?

And one final question, quite intimate,
but important—was she constipated?

Along about the umpteenth question
on the private life and affairs of the
Prospective candidate for a mediocre
job, the girl timidly inquired what sal-
ary might be attached to such a job?

This undiplomatic query started the
company’s psychologist off on a new
tack, this time on the sordid trend of
“materialism.” Why did people of her
Station of life only think of such mun-
dane matters as wages? Shouldn’t labor
have a higher sense of public duty and
performance than the mere question of
“how much pay”? Weren’t there some
Spiritual values much more. important
than mere remuneration? The psychol-
ogist bemoaned the spread of these
“communist influences” and brusquely
terminated the interview with a “we'll
let: you know” finale. \

To date, despite a lapse of several
weeks, the girl hasn’t as yet ‘had the
final verdict of the psychologist whether
she gets the job or not.

Meantime, for her, and approximately
other workers, “Time
Marches On’—and ‘so does the problem
of living.

Se

Its tenure depended upon two’

Some of the members of the National Deputation Against the Revival of
German Militarism at Ottawa last week.

The issue before the House

HIS coming Tuesday, January

25, the Second session of the
24th British Columbia Legislature
will open.

Many important issues, some of

them bearing on the whole future
of our province and our country,
will come before the House for de-
cision. In every issue affecting our
natural resources the question is
whether they are to be developed
for the U.S. trusts or for the Cana-
dian people.
Every MLA must be required
| by his or her constituents to give
the answer that corresponds to the
need and the demand — for the
Canadian people. ;
- During the past year, in its pro-
jected Columbia River deal with
the U.S. Kaiser interests, the poli-
cies of the Social Credit govern:

ment of Premier W. A. C. Ben-
nett have differed in no major
respect from the give-away policies
of its LiberalConservative prede-
cessors, for all its impassioned de-

clarations on the hustings to pro- ©

tect the interests of the people of
B.C.

Similarily with its readiness to
give away the greater portion of
our natural gas to the U.S., to hand
our forest resources in perpetuity
to giant monopolies — the legis-
lature must be compelled to act in
the people’s interests before it is
too late.

The Bennett government must
be made to know that it has no

mandate to barter away the re-
sources, jobs, markets, and econ-

omic welfare of B.C. At this ses
sion, which will determine how
our heritage is to be used, whether
sold to the U.S. for a pittance or
developed wisely for this and future
generations, every MLA must be
made to feel that he is a trustee for
the people and will be held by the
people to account.

No Canadian worthy of the
name will agree that our resources
should be given away to the U.S.
and that is why those pursuing this
anti-national policy strive constant-
ly to confuse the issue. But the
people’s demand is clear. Essential:
ly it is: Stop the U.S. grab of Brit-
ish Columbia’s resources. The legis-
lature must be compelled to heed it.

Hal
Griffin

‘a the Soviets proceed with their re-
. ported plans to create a new sea in
the wastelands of Central Asia, change
the courses of rivers and modify the
climate over a vast area of Siberia,
they'll have to do it without the help of

’ Dr. Gordon Shrum, head of the University

of British Columbia physics department.
He just doesn’t believe they will do it.

Of course, in the 37 years since the
Soviet state was founded, the once back-
ward peoples of the old Tsarist empire
have wrought ga industrial and social
transformation that places them in the
van of humanity’s long climb to the stars.

In that short space they have built in-
dustries, created cities, harnessed rivers,
irrigated deserts, and in so doing fash-
ioned a society founded on the dignity
and enlightenment of man

Two generations of men like Dr. Shrum
have said they could or would not do it.
But their denial does not alter the fact
that the Soviets have linked the waters
of the Baltic and the Black seas, that the
great Kuibyshev bydro-electric project
will be completed this year, that apples
grow in the tundra and cotton in the
desert. It merely demonstrates that men
like Dr. Shrum are so bound by their own
thinking that they attribute their own
motivation to others.

% Tee TE

Dr. Shrum bases himself upon his be-
lief that the Soviet Union needs its
nuclear materials for bombs.

“TJ think the Russians are not going
to use many atomic or hydrogen bombs
for moving the eartht,” he says. “It’s too
costly and they need their bombs for
other purposes.”

Having fallen into the trap of his own
thinking, which sees the prime import-
ance of atomic energy as a weapon, Dr.
Shrum might perhaps have been a little
disconcerted by the Soviet Union’s an-
nouncement that,it was making its atomic
knowledge and fissionable materials
available to China and the People’s De-
mocracies for peaceful use, at the same
time offering to share with other coun-
tries the experience it has gained in
operating the world’s first industrial
atomic power plant.

Dr. Shrum may persist in his disbelief,
but a country which has Already har-

. nessed the atom for industry is quite cap-

able of carrying out the greater projects
of which Soviet engineers dream.

As a footnote it might be added that
the report the Vancouver Sun and other
dailies made headlines of when it was
eabléd from Moscow by Eddie Gilmore
was carried by the Pacific Tribune five
years ago in an article by John Weir on
December 9, 1949. So much for up to
the minute news reporting by the daily

' press!

eerie ee

What John Weir concerned himself with,

-and Dr. Shrum might better have com-

mented upon, was the possibility of using
atomic energy to carry through some of
the great engineering projects to change —
the face of our own country that now

become feasible.

Canadian engineers also dream of
diverting rivers to link the Mackenzie
and the Fraser, to transform the Western
Arctic. But so long as our governments
think of atomic energy in terms of war
and our fissionable materials go to the
U.S. for atomic bombs; so long as deve-
lopment of our natural resources is sub-
ordinated to U.S. needs, their dreams
must be barren.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JANUARY 21, 1955 — PAGE 5