By HAL GRIFFIN

Conservatives, Liberals called for
public ownership - back in 1903

Qeeure Deane Finlayson, . the
new leader of what i8 left of
the Progressive Conservative
party in this province, tells an-
other questioner, as he did in
Grand Forks last week, “Don’t
try to sell me on~ government
ownership of industry,” he
should study his own party’s his-
tory. He might be surprised.

The same thing might be
“said of Hon. A. G. Bonner, at-
torney general in the Social Cre-
dit government. At a. meeting
last week in Vancouver-Point
Grey, where he is standing as a
candidate, he derided public own-
ership. But Bonner was once a
Young Conservative and unless
he wants to claim that he left
the Conservatives because they
were too radical, he might learn
‘something by studying their past
platforms and promises in the
light of his own unfulfilled pro-
mises in the Clemens case.

Arnold Webster, the CCF’s new
provincial leader, should also re-
member, in declaring his inten-
tion to take over the BCElectric
if the CCF is elected, that the
CCF Opposition at Victoria - had
the opportunity to prove its good
faith — and voted instead for
the BCElectric’s 20-year fran-
chise in Vancouver.

Cynical politicians are always
ready to assert that the public
memory is short, and the Lib-
erals have no lack of cynics how-
ever they may feel privately that
perhaps the public memory is
longer than they would wish. In-
deed, if Arthur Laing, the new
Liberal leader, repeats the claim
he, made last weekend that the
Liberal party has done more to
implement Socialist legislation
than any other party in Canada,
he may find the memory of past-

Liberal platforms returning to
haunt him. And this despite the
contradiction in his “inability to
understand how union men can
vote for socializing of industry.”

The fact is that Finlayson,
Laing, and in aa sense Bonner
too, are 50 years behind the
times. Half a century ago they
would have been far more caut-
ious in opposing public owner-
ship of industry — not all indus-
try, to be sure, but important
Sections of it. They would not
have wanted to oppose their own
platforms.

A glance at the platforms of
the Conservative and Liberal
‘parties in 1903, when the first
provincial election on party lines
was fought in B.C., is sufficient
to prove the point.

In 1903, the Conservatives
(they were Liberal Conservatives
then — it’s only as they have
become progressively less liberal
than they have presumed to call
themselves Progressive) stood
for:

+ Government ownership of
telephone systems. ®

+ Government ownership of
railways wherever possible
and provincial control or
rates, with right of pur-
chase, in all bonused lines.

+ Government reservation of a
portion of all coal areas
granted. or sold in future
with a view to possible es-
tablishment of state-owned
mines.

+ Taxation of metalliferous
mines on a basis of per-
centage of profit. (How the
B. C. Federation of Trade
and Industry would have
liked that!)

Of course, they left them-
selves an out by inserting the

HERE’S THE RECORD

gee are some of the state

Senate on February 8, 1953.
churian bases should have been

Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaking to

a “tight blockade” of the whole

miral Radford as demanding “a

Senator Wiley, chairman of
Committee, February 1953:

mainland.”

ruary 1952:
“The United States ‘should

Senator E. C. Johnson (Nove
should be used in Korea.”

other kind of bomb.”

Who wants war with China?

People’s China made by U.S. leaders:
Senator Robert Taft, leader of the Republican party in the

“We are at war with the Chinese Reds now. Their Man-

Admiral Arthur W. Radford, now chairman of the U.S.

Armed Services Committee in February this year demanded

Governor Dewey, chairman of the committee, reported Ad-

Russian as well as all other deep-sea shipping” and more Am-
erican warships for Chiang Kai-shek to attack the mainland.

_ “If Chiang has any strength at all, and he’s getting planes,
he will disrupt the vital north-south railway on the Chinese

John Foster Dulles, now U.S. Secretary of State, on Feb-

China to remain under Chinese Communist control.”

Senator O. D. Johnson: “Drop an A-bomb, H-bomb, or any

ments calling for war with

bombed long ago.”

the House of Representatives

coast of China.

blockade tight enough to halt

the Senate Foreign Relations

not allow the mainland of

mber 1951): “Atomic weapons

word “possible” wherever pos-
sible. And, after 50 years, they
find their own promises more
impossible than ever.

The Liberals were every bit
as forthright then under J. A.
Macdonald as they are now un-
der Arthur Laing. They wanted:

+ Government ownership of

public services and utilities.

-— (This was before the BC

Electric became the coun-

try’s 11th largest monopoly

with proportionate influ-
ence at Victoria.)

+ Retention of provincial re-
sources as an asset of the
people and greater care in

alienating the public do-~-

main.

Even Arthur Laing will hard-
ly presume to claim that the Lib-
erals have done more to imple-
ment these fine-sounding propos-
als than any other party. The
Liberals are suffering their pre-
sent eclipse in public favor pre-
cisely because their government,
under -Premier Byron Johnson,
did more to alienate the public
domain to U.S. monopolies than
any other government before it.

In 1909 the Conservatives, ig-
noring their own failure to do

Political chameleons

N.P., Vancouver B.C.: In cer-
tain parts of the subtropics and
especially in the south-eastern
United States there,is a _ re-
markable lizard known as a
chameleon. Upon the approach of
danger it instinctively changes
its color to blend with its sur-
roundings in an attempt to avoid
detection and harm.

In like manner, we here in
B.C. have our own brand of
‘chameleon.’ Though they do not
belong to the reptile family,
they react in pretty much the
same way. To wit:

Beause of the desire of the
people of this province for a
change in the government from
the old-line Tory and Liberal
parties to a more democratic and
truly representative government
of the workers, farmers and
small businessmen, our ‘chame-
leons’ who were in that Coali-
tion government began in many
cases to change their color to
‘Social Credit.’

Since \the natural instinct of
the lizard is to survive, so it may
be said for our Liberal and Tory
politiciass. In surviving, they con-
tinue to serve capitalism under
a different label. The capitalist
class needs such ‘chameleons’ to
divert the people with lies and
slander, thereby ensuring the
continued existence of their sys-
tem of exploitation . . . but not,
let me add, for long.

Why he'll vote LPP

J.B., Vancouver, B.C.: Here
are just a few reasons why a
freelance voter sot belonging
to any political partty is sup-
porting the LPP in the June 9
provincial elections.

First, because of the LPP’s
Senuine fight for peace, backed

anything about it after six years
in office, repeated their proposal
for public ownership of tele-
phones. And, in 1912, the Lib-
erals, not to be outdone by the
Conservatives, reaffirmed their
“adherence to the principle of
public ownership of public utili-
‘ties’ and> also came out for
ownership of telephones.

up by plenty of action, not just
mere words. Peace is the No. 1
‘must’ today.

Second, the LPP has an inter-
national policy in accord with
other Communist parties and so
is in a position to plan ahead
to meet whatever crises occur.

Third, the consistent fight of
the LPP for unity between the
labor movement and_leftwing
political parties for the benefit
of all workers.

Fourth, the LPP’s scientific ap-
proach to problems of world

“economics and _ politics.

Last, but not least, I am vot-
ing LPP this time because of the
LPP’s firm stand for a_ better
deal for our senior citizens, who
are entitled to more than the
mere pittance they now receive.

One LPP member in the leg-
islature can do more for the
people than the other 47 mem-
bers, who are all more or less
reactionary.

Liked article on POW’s

Tinsmith, Kamloops, B.C.: That
article by Alan Winnington
about POW’s (April 24) made
me decide to send you the en-
closed money order for $5.

If I had read the same story
in the CCF News I would do the
same for them.

Could you please tell us about
the speech in the House of
Lords, London, about ‘a packet
of fabricated lies of cruelty to
Allied POW’s.’ Ed Murrow men-
tioned ‘it recently on a_broad-
cast, but I haven’t seen the story
in the daily papers.

The ‘Big Truth’

A.L., Vancouver, B.C.: Hitler
used “the big lie.” Evidently the
Soviets have a more vile weapon.
In this age of international ‘in-

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MAY 22, 1953 — pace

Who wanted public ownership of public utilities—and when?

-ment, even the promises

pi i }

SR

i
But the record speaks {oF a

self. After half a cen

Conservative and Liberal 80¥

been abandoned because get |
business finds them too d@ it
ous, and Conservative ane —
eral leaders tour the province nf
1953 denouncing their ow! Me

planks of 1903.

trigue, doublecrossing,
and brute power, their
ed” minds have come UP ve
“the big truth.” They sa a
they mean, and mean what s
say. In today’s politics tH ie f
practically stabbing us 2
back!

salsityi™® |

“pera

From the ‘fourth bent |

READER, Vancouver: poe
About 10 years ago this Vink |
was sent to the old NeW of §

crumpled paper. The ay yt
address was given ab, mI 5
bench, City Hall Park... enc
the poem, titled To a Nin®@ .
Gun:

—
f e 3
_Whether your shell hits the ‘
get or not, : i 7
do 7
Your cost is five hundred
a shot. aut '
You think of noise and © &
and power, (6
re
We feed you a hundred ba
of flour

flat
Every time you roar. YOU"

is fed of

o>
With twenty thousand 10? ;
bread. ie

me

Silence! A million hung’? uit
Seek bread to fill theif
again. :

More on schools an

READER, Nelson, ee sive
enclosed is for the Pre. i
Hope it is successful. ed cali?
preciate the article 0”
and if it is»possible
print more on this
would welcome it. plem
have been quite a Pre somew
though the situation 15
better now. re