“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