“deductible”

=z
m
Ls

S
Z
mt
%

SHOW QUALIFICATIONS)
JOUNI.CLOY :

U.S. HIGH COMAR.™ GERMANY

# G,000,000
y JEWS

ees es What a racket! Pa

CCORDING to Coalition government. sol-
ons, automobile owners just love to,
knock each other’s cars into something. te-
sembling a battered accordion. Consequently,
as a means of curbing this strange and reck-
less behavior, allegedly, latent in all car driv-
ers, a $25-dollar “deductible” clause is in

serted in their car insurance policies. This |

“deductible,” like the high car. insurance
premium, comes directly out of the car own-
er’s pocket — to iron out the dents in, his
car not-covered by the insurance policy be-
cause the dent isn’t big enough.

Alt of which would be very funny if it

weren't so expensive, but high nonsense and °

high taxes seem to go Hand in hand With our
Coalition government.

Now it is proposed to apply the saine
gyp clause to the hospital
Insurance Scheme. Brazenly waving aside all
legitimate criticisms of a maladministered
hospitalization scheme, for which the people
pay through the nose without any assurance
or guarantee of a hospital bed, if and. when
needed, Coalition “statesmen” belabor. the
point that the main trouble with their hos-
pital insurance scheme is not insufficient
beds to meet the hospital needs’ of the peo-
ple, but that British Columbians have. too,
much of an urge to get into hospitals. Hence,
the “deductible”. proposal of “$25, or per-

haps $35, against every patient entering hos-—

in this uncan-

pital” in order to put a crim
lation to climb”

ny urge of our sturdy pop
into a hospital-bed.. Rg on ee

But that’s not all, The Hospital Insur-
ance premiums are to be jacked up another

$9 a year, perhaps more, bringing the heads
‘of familiés up to $42 and single persons up
to $30 a year, with no greater chance of
getting a hospital bed when needed.

Any private concern attempting to op-
erate business on the same basis as the Coa-
lition has operated and still operates its phon-
ey hospital insurance scheme, would have
faced two alternatives; either imprisonment,
for fraud in extorting money under ‘false

‘pretenses, or bankruptcy from grossly in-

effecient business practices. Under a phoney
hospital insurance scheme the Coalition gov-
ernment has been selling goods. it cannot
deliver, and knowing beforehand, while it is
calculating, hoisting, and collecting premiums,
that it cannot deliver. To alibi its utter busi-
ness, ethical, and political bankruptcy, the

Coalition government insults the intelligence

of British Columbians by proposing a “de-
ductible” penalty to cure them of an alleged
craving to get into a hospital!”

It is long past the time when the public
should be.informed as to the real purpose
of the Hospital Insurance Scheme — wheth-
er it is intended as a scheme to provide hos-
pitalization when needed (and the medical
profession is still moderately capable of de-’
termining when such is needed), or a scheme
whereby high taxes are levied (under the
pretext of “insurance” to pay handsome
subsidies to private enterprise? As it stands
at present the scheme is little better than
‘% more than crude racket — a racket where
the promoters /don’t even have to give their
victims ‘a scrap of paper, setting forth who
are the beneficiaries.

Maneuvers against peace

HILE peace-loving people all over the

AW world look hopefully towards Paris. and

the projected conference of, the Big Four
foreign ministers, hoping that somehow or

other a herculean effort will be made to

ease the tension of war, it is already all too
clear that the United States, with Britain —

- and France tailing along, is seeking pretexts
' for torpedoing the conference.

Swaggering Yankee imperialism, through
the public pronouncements of its spokesmen

on what it intends to do and propose at this

-

historic conference, is already lettipg it -be |

known that, come what may, it will not al-
ter its provocative war policies in Europe: or
Asia to “appease Moscow”. It also wants
Russia to “stand up and be counted,” as to

the strength of armed forces between that

country and the Western dollar-bloc count-
ries. Such a proposal will not serve the
cause of universal disarmament, but it is
confidently hoped that it will serve to side-
track the key issue of genuine peace, and
perhaps help obscure the existence of Yankee-
controlled war bases in scores of areas out-
side U.S. territory. :

“

The Big Four declarations of Yalta and
Potsdam are readily forgotten, no. longer of
service or acceptable to the U.S, in a dollar-
designed “peace,” and consequently, rendering
the finalization of peacé treaties with Ger-
many and Japan immeasurably more diffi-
cult. Yalta and Potsdam have been scrapped
for an Atlantic Pact, allegedly for “defense”
but in reality for war. fee '

_ Despite the existence of nearly 700-mil-
lion people of China and the USSR, without

whose consulations a lasting peace with Jap- |
an is impossible, U.S. state department -
spokesmen

have noisily indicated LS:
intention of negotiating such a treaty—alone!
. This

augur well for compromise, concession, or
mutual agreeement for peace, In fact it is not

“an exaggeration to state that right now the

U.S. warmongers and their dollar-sattelites
are doing their utmost to scuttle the Big
Four conference before it gets under way.

Those who scheme for war find it increas-

ingly difficult to talk honestly of peace.

‘deathless brigade. Thousands of members of International Brigade

._ than ever before.

‘pain and travail, a homeland for hhumanity’s most. oppressed people.

provocative ~ chip-on-the-shoulder * |
approach to the Big Four conference doesn’t” —

Published Weekly at Room 6 - 426 Main Street, Vancouver, B.C.

TOM McEWEN

As We See It |

Legere it says here in the paper that our boys in Korea need socks « ~
awfully bad.” There was no response. This phinx-like silence iy
wasn’t because of advancing years. In her heart Mama suffered with = e
all the fads who are gripped in the talons of war, whether on the
Korean frost-escarped mountains, in the jungles of Viet-Nam, or >
wherever men fight and die, Something was lacking in fhe appeal.

“Our dear boys, they must have socks,” twittered the fine ladies ©
of Snob Hill as they fluttered around to get their pictures in the
paper, displaying a pair of machine-made socks. 4 ,
“Those horrible Chinese.” : :

Trouble is with these ladies, they can’t knit.
Don’t get us wrong. They can knit a pair of
lovely bootees (if given plenty of time) for the
unfortunate dffspring of some stockbroker or
financial tycoon, or a dinky sweater coat that our
next door neighbor’s poo¢éh wouldn’t want to be
found dead in, but to really knit, to knit with the
zeal of a great cause—no, they can’t knit.

They may start a fund to buy a few bales of
machine-knit, mass produced socks for the boys, -
which will flatter their own “patriotic” esteem
and perhaps bring a fleeting hour of temporary) ’
aomfort to some of the boys of the Prin¢ess P: ts or other regiments,
but they can’t knit. :

To really knit’ one must have a great moral issue. Let us recall
an unknown, scattered, ‘but magnificent battalion of Canadian women,
who fought age, fatigue and infirmity, in order to knit for a cause.

. On the shell-torn heights of Guadalajara, at Teruel, on the Ebro a
and before Madrid, the men of the International Brigade swept for- yee
ward, hungry and in rags’... mén who had come from the remotest
corners of the earth to stem the first bloody tide of fascism. Twelve
hundred Canadian boys of the Mackenzie-Papineau were part of that

fighters, including 600 Canadians, gave the only thing they possessed— | }
their lives to halt this black menace of fascist savagery and op- 4
pression. - ; ; PA \

Back home Mama knitted, like one possessed. Socksf socks, and ~
more socks. Socks that might serve for socks, a toque, a scarf, a Re
pair of mittens, to turn the cold, to clean a trusty rifle or precious ‘
field gun, all to turn the tide for freedom’s cause, eo

Her glasses high on the brow, low on the nose, offtimes on the
floor, an aged women knitting for a cause, determined as the “boys
for whom she knitted, that the cause would triumph. Fighting -back
the ravages of age, care and worry, holding to a single purpose, told
in every stitch, that our boys of the Mac-Paps and the people of
Spain were not fighting alone. A Bye) Ata 3 ba aN

The scene changes. The International Brigade is no ‘more. Only
its deathless achievements live on, some day to be recognized by a_ !
new Canada. Aided by the war conspirators of. Munich, a knife is
stuck in the back of Republican Spain, and Hitler, thus abetted, °
sets the torch of war to the world,. Canadian boys are again far
from their homeland, scattered on many continents, fighting the !
ageless battle of freemen against fascist-imperialist tyranny. “Tis”
the final conflict, let each stand in his place....” 0.

‘A great battalion of aged, women knit again, knit
Socks:and more socks .. . a pair a day, seven
days a week. Never less, sometimes more. Working class organiza-
tions carted in wool, and carried: out socks for the boys on the firing
line. A great battalion of aged women, fighting age, infirmity and
fatigue, knitted as though victory depended upon their knitting. Who
will dare to say it didn’t? /

~Mama’s glasses will no longer stay put. Her little grandson like
a retriever pup, scampers around her feet gathering up glasses, oa
knitting wires, wool, for she drops them often in. her drive to reach '
new objectives. Sometimes she drops off to sleep with sheer fatigue,
knitting grasped tight, then wakes with a guilty start as though she
had slept while on sentry duty, had unforgivably let her boys down,
and her aged toil-bent fingers would fly again, as though to make up
for the time lost. Knitting for a cause.

Again the scene changes. This time it is on the Negev, at Tel
Aviv, at Haifa, in the sun-baked deserts of Palestine. The “Hagana”
—our boys—with arms in’ hand’ are restoring a little strip of sacred
land to its ihistorical people—to those who survived the death ovens
of Buchenwald and Oswiecim, who survived the Ghetto of Warsaw, aa
the ghettos of world-wide centuries-old oppression. The war intrigues
of “refined” diplomats, studied in the black art of doublecross and ‘
betrayal have still to be met and overcome. The Hagana meets it,
standing up, with faces to the future. Israel is being born again, in ;

3%

more intensely

ok And far away in many Canadian homes a battalion of magnificent
women, old in years, but young in their untiring devotion to a cause,
knit their hopes for the victory, peace and prosperity of Israel, into
es has the people’s army of.a free Israel. — . ev

0 can say what visions of a better world this goodl m1}
of grand old women knitted into the billions of Satanes they cbs eans i
gether for,our boys? To them, as to the men who fought, and to
those who gave the last great measure of devotion it was for a
great cause. eto tans He Beh he :

“Mama, it says here that our boys in Korea need socks, RyRAp
do you say?” But Mama is silent, her eyes closed, while a glistening

drop like a tear courses down her aged cheek, furrowed with toil

and anxiety. Perhaps she is thinking of our boys in Korea, |
the nameless millions of young boys A lives have one DSS ie
cauldron of war—without the moral cause which makes even the
pe he pair of socks. a'sacred. duty:/.' =.) ih ae * ve
‘. “Our boys need socks,” cackle the fine ladies of Snob
they: fuss and fret with each other for a little cheap public Pete)
Vancouver stores are giving special price reductions on socks
purchased for Korea” (Vancouver Sun, February 27), A grand bat-.
talion of Canadian women who knitted for 4 great cause, remain _
silent, and grieve. Perhaps their silence means that a great cause >
cannot be equated by “reduced prices”? Something is lacking in the

appeal for socks.

2

es pe

\ acl il CG. ms . San la ying af
es WIR

;
| eae oat eal LP)
"

)

Teel |

if lly el
L; INIB KE

Jonsaet att isovethiusnsens

cour Nsrersoenal

ee

_.. By THE TRIBUNE PUBLISHING COMPANY LTD. |
lgigeea Telephone MA, 5288 pee
) Pom MCHWOn 2 os. tis. 6) ah NQEDs JT 8 cee .. Editor
Subscription Rates: 1 Year, $2.50; 6 Months, $1.35.
Printed by Union ‘Printers. Ltd., 650 Howe Street, Vancouver, B.C.
Authorized as second class mail, Post Office Dept., Ottawa

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MARCH 9, 1951 — PAGE 8

nN