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Vancouvtr, British Columbia, October 24, 1952

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New phone boost
puts big crack in
Howe’s crystal ball

“Living Cost Drop Forecast by Howe,” headlined the Van-
Couver News-Herald on Wednesday this week. A couple of hours
later the first edition of the Vancouver Sun hit the streets. “Phone
Rate Hike Asked” said its banner headline.

“You can’t win,” commented John Q. Public. “If they don’t
get you coming, they get you going, and most of the time they
get you coming and going.” But organized public resistance can-

win, ¢ Rie

Trade ‘Minister C. D. Howe,
facing the Canadian Chamber of
Commerce at Toronto, confident-
ly predicted a “sharp drop” in
the next cost-of-living index.
(Most officials consider one
point a big drop, but’ consumers
think otherwise.)

BCTelephone Company, mak-
ing its third demand for higher
rates in four years (the others
were granted) has applied to
Board of Transport Commis-
sioners in Ottawa for permis-
sion to boost home and business

Stalin’s speech to
19th Congress telephone charges 14.6 percent
and long distance rates 12 per-

page 3 cent. ay

That’s not all. With the same
effrontery displayed by BICElec-
tric when it hits the straphang-
er, BCTelephone wants to penal-
ize pay station telephone users
by upping charges from a nickel
to a dime—a 100 percent in-
crease.

In 1949 BCT was granted a
20.9 percent increase in ex-
change revenue, Last year hikes
of 12.4 percent in long distance:
and 12.7 percent in exchange
rates were granted.

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10th anniversary
by Hal Griffin
page Il

Heritage of Yale
by Keith Ralston

page 8

Great Defender
by Beckie Buhay

Vancouver and New Westmin-
ster city councils have announc-
ed they will ‘‘oppose”’ the com-
pany’s latest demand. Past ex-
perience shows that such “op-
position’”’ is usually no more
than a token fight, except where
public pressure forces the ‘‘city
fathers” to take a firm stand.

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“And what about the doping of humans to make them rup in the Arms Race!”

BY BERT WHYTE

While the rest of Canada is
gradually sliding into a slump
brought about by the St. Laurent
government’s war and trade
policies, this province’s fragile
economy, built on exports of
lumber and fish, is already in a
stage of crisis.

Lumber export figures for

1952 prick the “boom” balloon

sent up by the Howe Street
speculators, for lumber is the
base on which ~ this province’s
economy rests,

Total lumber exports from
January 1 to July 31 this year
to all markets were 1563 mil-
lion feet, compared with 1751
million a year ago. Production
was down 1516 percent; ship-
ments to Canadian points drop-
ped 10 percent. The U.S. is also
cutting down on the amount of
our Jumber it buys,

How do the lumber operators
view the market situation? One
indication is their desire to slash
wages by 10 percent in Decem-
ber, when the IWA contract can
be reopened and bosses have the
right to demand a change of the
basic wage because of market
conditions or “other relevant
factors.”

There is no market for B.C.

salmon. Half of last year’s pack
remains unsold.

The gold mining industry is
in a slump.

Workers are feeling the pinch, .

One in every ten is unemployed.
Jobs are growing scarcer from
day to day.

There is a solution; trade with
all the world; put an end to
Yankee domination; change our
war policy to.a peace policy.

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