. the hj

TWO APPOINTMENTS

By CHARLES CARON
QNLY
on Bloedel, con-
wie e main timber re-
ae of this province,
Bae 1 speak too highly of
a sen He was re-
2 a In glowing terms as
oy promising young
a and replaced H. R.
ae : himself as chair-

ci e board of directors.
Without en his replacement
eee. pa maton Dyaeea:
Clyne Ourt Judge, J. V.

Just befo
PoiIn.eg

Bloede),

te Clyne was ap-
2 ‘MacMillan and
é € provincial gov-
ee also made an ap-
ade oa Chief Justice Gor-
Ge 0an of the B.C. Appeal
fret became adviser of
ob 45 “sania at a salary
rs 0 a year. This ap-
lation nt led to wide specu-

» Particularly in view of

‘gh Salary being paid.

ing oN cverything is becom-
governme, The Social Credit
revolt lent was faced with a
Cause ae the province _be-
timber its giveaway of our
polies Tesources to the mon-
the best Therefore it felt that
Would Raced to extricate itself
UNbiag € to use the allegedly
in ed Tole of the judiciary,
cover Is Instance Sloan, to
Up its giveaways.

eae the appointment
respect € 1S an attempt to lend
ie ability to the lum-
their aed planned attack on
ards, ee living stand-
- Clyn a5 is the job that J.
$75,000 € 1s going to be paid
about i year for. Any doubt
Sa Was dispelled after
x mee Clyne made before
on Fep €r Board of Trade
ets 12 and his com-
ie archiac method”
& labor disputes.

The j;
that = eee he advanced was
rh Isputes be taken out of
ion of the parties af-
Dar oe dealt with ‘by “im-
ney al experts’ like himself,
Ne the courts,
ef = deception was answer-
Ra ver a’ century ago by
arx, who pointed out

ment

tha

eee State, of which gov-

Dart = and courts are a
? Or 4

regula €s not control and

th te capitalist society but

State a the contrary, the
S cont =
lateg b rolled and regu

Y Capitalist society.
Susy ees barons and the
contro] Orest monopolies they
State themselves demon-
= the _truth of this.
ee rep their ownership _of
and eed resources, mills
ations €r woodworking oper-
Bars. ¢” they play no small
a the control of the gov-
i Nt of this province. The
“Up between government

and ;
q Mdustry is clearly shown

a few years ago Mac- ~

JOHN VY. CLYNE

in the granting of large tracts
of land to MacMillan and
Bloedel and others in per-
petuity. And not without rea-
son did H. R. MacMillan refer
to Premier W. A. C. Bennett
as his “good friend” — as
Premier Byron Johnson and
John Hart before
his ‘good

Premier
him had _ been
friends.”

x 5e4 a

Clyne pointed out in his
speech before the Board of
Trade that the woodworking
industry depends to a large
extent on export markets.
This is true now, but does it
follow that it should continue
to be so — particularly at the
expense of the domestic mar-
ket? The problem of a limit-
ed home market is due large-
ly to the inability of working

GORDON SLOAN

What's
behind

changes
in the
lumber

industry?

people to buy the homes they
need.

If Clyne wants new mar-
kets, they are on his door-
step. But he won't realize
them by repeating the old re-
frain of big business, that
labor is pricing itself out‘of

a job. They can be had only .

by raising the purchasing
power of the workers, by

giving priority to the needs of
the people rather than to the
profits of those for whom he
speaks.

Another argument Clyne
advances to justify changes in
the method of settling labor
disputes is the loss that oc-
curred in the recently .con-
cluded pulp and paper strike.»

How could this strike last
for twelve weeks since it was
led by “intelligent men of in-
tegrity?” Clyne asks. The
strike, of course, was led by
U.S. international union rep-
resentatives. Does Clyne mean
that the leadership did not
deliver the goods and the em-
ployers were let down? The
workers, in their settlement
of 2 percent above the origi-
nal rejected offer also felt

_that they had been let down.

Clyne proceeds to answer
his own question. He criti-
cizes union leaders by “‘ques-
tioning certain trends _in
union leaderhip”. His refer-
ence this time is to the mili-
tant kind of union leaders and
his point is obvious. The em-
ployers’ stooges in the labor
movement cannot cope with
the membership and a “cer-
tain type” of union leader. So
there must be recourse to the
courts to shackle the labor
movement in the interest of
monopoly profits.

The working class does not
bear responsibility for shrink-

ing markets at home and
abroad. It has been fighting
{to maintain real wages and
consequently purchasing power
at home. It has been agitating
for lifting of cold war re-
strictions that keep Canadian

products out of a large part
of world markets.

Unquestionably the majori-
ty of Canadians agree with
Clyne that recognition of
China would help to lift the
lumber industry from its pres-
ent depressed state. But again
Clyne advances the view that
to trade with what he wishes
to call the “totalitarian” sys-
tem we require a lower
standard of wages at home to
compete.

What is he saying, that the
vaunted capitalist system can-
not compete with the social-
ist system, where real wages
are constantly rising? Not
wages, but the impelling de-
mand for super-profits, is the

(obstacle to capitalist com-
petition.
Clyne and his _ associates

would do well to reconsider
their plans for _ restrictive
measures. against the labor
movement of this province. If
they think they have prob-
lems now, let them consider
labor’s reaction to their pro-
posals and the problems they
are. creating for themselves,

CHANGING HEREDITY

By DONALD MICHIE

RENCH scientists are play-
F ing ducks and drakes with
the laws of heredity. Profes-
sor Benoit and his colleagues
claim to have changed one
kind of duck into another by
injecting a chemical extract.

Genetics, the science of her-
edity, has always held that you
you cannot change your in-
herited traits. Your blue or
brown eyes, your tendency to
baldness or otherwise, your
intelligence or lack of it, are
with you for good.

And — like it or lump it —
you cannot change what you
hand on to your children.

Greyhounds have greyhound
puppies. Siamese cats have
Siamese kittens. The child of
Negro parents is black, or if
it is not, then it is a “throw-
back” to a white ancestor.

Before the scientific age
men believed differently.
Some primitive tribes today
drink the blood of a lion
which they have killed, be-
lieving that the animal's
strength and courage passes
into them and becomes part
of them.

Superstition? In Professor
Benoit’s Paris laboratory last
week I had second thoughts.

I was shown a group of
Pekin ducks. Some were true
to their breed: large, white

_ French scientists play

''ducks and drakes’

birds with fat cheeks and

yellow bills.

Others had been injected
with a substance known as
D.N.A. (deoxyribose nucleic
acid) extracted from Khaki
Campbell ducks — _ small-
brown thin - cheeked birds
with dark bills,

The injected birds, like the
savage who drank the lion's
blood, had acquired some of
the characieristics of the don-
ors. Although white, they had
dark bills and were small and
thin-cheeked.

More than this, I saw some
of their offspring. They
clearly showed some of the
changed characteristics.

D.N.A. has for long been re~-
garded as the “stuff of her-
edity.’” The genes and chrom-
osomes which determine our
inborn qualities are largely
made of D.N.A.

But the idea that some of
the “heredity” could be trans-
ferred with the “stuff” would
have been laughed at a little
time ago.

On the other hand it has
long been known that bacteria
(germs) can be transformed
in this way in the laboratory.
And for some years Soviet
scientists have been claiming
that this kind of thing might
be possible in plants and ani-
mals too.

Today, scientists
reserving judgment.

Father Leroy, the Catholic
priest who is one of the team
engaged in this work, caution=
ed me:

“We cannot expect results
in a hurry. We can only breed
one generation of ducks a
year. Many'\snags and possible
faults in the work remain to
be dealth with.”

But he agreed that if they
can confirm these extraordin-
ary results they will open up
a new chapter of biology.

No end can then be pre-
dicted to the ways in which
man may learn to change the
nature of his plants and ani-
mals, and even (who can
tell?) his own nature, too.

are still

February 21, 1958 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 9