ay ; Hore ashing lear re ee yt yall, i ae) “laden ret ecilt Wee MOL, 11.’ No..43 i ' ' PUR AA ONG Vancouvtr, British Columbia, October 24, 1952 i fa 4ithad TEN CENTS ieee PRI ry 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. ee 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. at AG Bae + th. ‘RY iehersae (/ ARaMAR OREN oth FOLD UP AS” AT TRADE TS CRISIS EMP now ON. ‘ THE hiielpod Hullabaloo Screen Shaw “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. a to ibe ated os