| Art Evans =~
aa History will

remember
him

By G. P.

_ geven years ago death struck 5

down Arthur H.. Evans, the

man who led the Ottawa Trek of
the unemployed in 1935 and who
 Symbolized in his Icadership the
Tevolt of the people against. the |
‘hated Bennett government which,
like the St. Laurent government
loday, refused to. heed their de-
mands. Here, a Pacific Tribune®
Contributor writes of Evans after
the style of Edward Ballamy, his

Setting the Socialist Canada of 0 our
ulure,

Oo a day in February in
the year 1988, a 12- -yeat ,
old Vancouver boy came
ome from school mildly ex-
Cited over a project present-
_ £d to the class by his teacher.
i He shouted ‘Hello Mom’ to
& pleasant-faced woman sewing
in the sitting-room, then let his
Baze go quickly over a shelf of —
KS. Not seeing the book he

_ Wanted, he asked for it.
“Where's my “History of the

dian Labor Movement,
om?”

“Grandad took it into his bed-

J SPDSHL, Ssrol Scniowh what day it is,

- don’t you?” ors: Hardy looked up
from, her sewing.

“I sure do! ‘Teacher was tellin’ ’
us about ‘Slim’ Evans. Boy, Mom!
ie), at sure was some man! He
ay Was born just a hundred years

ett ‘He died when he was 56,
tee weeks after Ne was knocked™
fae on Evansway. Teacher said
syd to be Kingsway.”
+ “Ie you ae so much about it

Cee Johnny, why do you want
he ‘History’ ?”

“There's a contest | on. The one

‘© writes the best essay on the

Trek To Ottawa in 1935 gets a

ok around the world in the
ew atomic-propelled jet.”

} v Tae Something, John ny.
nk you CAR win. it?”

en don't ; see sey, not. Grandad
i a Slim’ Evans about as well
; Su anybody. With my ‘History’ -
bet What Grandad can tell me; I

% rT cig) write the. best essay
Ver.” PORK

/

Mrs, a

; “Atel Hardy etnted \affection-
7 Pies at him. “Better run in and

Grandaa) -about.‘Slim': . He'll
s you Write your essay.” Then
ie cautiously: “Don’t in-
‘8 Pt him too much, eh? Let
feng A ramble through | his mind .
“everythi you acting as if you knew
that’ hing, eh? -He was part of
history and gets a bit chok-
‘ Sat When he ene ee: of ‘Sue's x

pen

Aan. son? 2

all parts |

arrived in Berlin is the son of

ART EVANS

; ei ean
Johnny. Hardy stepped into the
hall, tapped on a bedroom door
and walked quietly into the room.

““ffello, Grandad,” he said.
~» “Mom said you borrowed my

_ ‘History’.”
“Your history!” his grandfath-_

er exclaimed. “Your history, I
sure like that, you young rascal.
All I see in it about you is your
- name written badly on the flyleaf.
“what do you want?” Johnny told
him

“But what. did ‘Slim’ really look
like, Grandad?” Johnny insisted
after the qld mah had rambled on
for half an‘hour. 4

‘ “Well, Siete he said closing

-ny—Pie-card artists’. t
jaw of his, Johnny There was

his eyes. “He was a big man in
every way. And his face, it was
lean and full of humor when -he

‘talked to us but hard with hatred

for the ‘big shots’ as we used to
call the politicians of those days.

| We didn’t have statesmen those

days, Johnny. As I was sayin’
though. When Slim ‘talked to

them, his eyes’ flashed his hate

for ’em: But it was ,his jaw that
made everybody sit up an’ take
notice. You just knew he wouldn't
let you down or sell you down the
river like so many of them ‘pie-
card artists’ did in those days.
That's” what he called ’em, John-
But that

steel - that jaw of me — steel

ance

tempered in the fire of his ex-
periences in the ITWW, the OBU,
the CP, the WUL, the CLDL and
other workers’ organizations he
helped to build. All had their
share in the shapin’ of —”

“Yes, Grandad,” Johnny inter-
rupted, forgetful of the promise
he had made to his mother. “I
got all those organizations in the
book. You tell me more about
Slim.” , a5

“Who's tellin’ this? Me or ‘the
book?”
““You are; Grandad.

better than the book.”

“All right then.
rupt.”

You're.

“He worked here in Vancouver,
didn’t he?”

“He sure, did. Y’know that old.
Marine Buildin’ down town? You

_ go down there with me sometime,

_Bridge.

Tll show you somethin’. I’ll show

you hundreds of’winders in that.

buildin’ .as tight, ag snug, as

weather-proof as the day ‘Slim’

put ’em in.” ; }
yhen can we go, Grandad?”

“We'll go Saturday. We'll drive
over the, old Burrard Street
Slim’ worked on that,
too, Built forms for concrete. He
worked on dozens of jobs—little
and big. And there were mighty
few men'who could touch him as
a carpenter,

“He was a good carpenter, eh,
Grandad?” :

“None better, Johnny.”

' “Teacher said he was a miner.”
“He was, Johnny. None better.”
“An, organizer?”

“None better. Knowing him
was the biggest thing of my life.”

“You make me proud too, Gran-
dad. Know what I’m goin’ t’do
right now?”

“What?”

“Goin’ down to the Palace of
Culture in Stanley Park. ad ;

“To study that big mural, eh?”

“Sure the biggest one. ‘The
Trek to Ottawa’.”

“That’s the idea, Johnny. If
you don’t win that essay contest,
Tl take the hide off you.”

“Tll try hard, Grandad. Know
what I’m goin’ t’do if I win that
essay contest?”

“What?”

“Y’know that ine beats of Slim
they built on the spot where he
calied the Premier — what'’s-his-
name — a liar?”

“I ought. to, Johnny. I helped

build it. What about it?”

“Well if I win that trip an’
get to Ottawa, I’m goin’ t’climb
up that statue an’ sit on Slim’s

_ arm. Won’t that be fun, ‘Gran-

dad?” .
“Tf you can do it, Johnny, I

Don’t ‘inter- ©

can't think of 4 better place to
sit. Slim took the boys out of

the concentration camps and the
camps never opened again, be-
cause what Slim did was to put
the skids under Bennett so that
he just went to England and curl-
ed up toes. Slim roused the peo-
ple of Canada so much on that
Ottawa Trek, Bennett was done
for. The farmers fed the boys
along the way, the trainmen Jet
them ride, the people welcomed
them, the —” ,

“Yes, Grandad. That’s all in
the ‘History.’ What else can you
tell me that isn’t in the book?”

“Let. me- tell you this. It’s
* never appeared in any book. No-
body but me ever heard it.”

“What is it, Grandad?”

~“I went to Slim’s funeral. All

kinds of people were there. Well,
there’ was. a fine little man’ who
had the same surname as that
Premier Slim called —’”

“Oh yes, Grandad. You mean
‘OY Bill” Bennett. Teacher told
us about him speaking at Slim’s
funeral. She said ‘Ol’ Bill’) Ben-
nett. said, ‘Deeds! not words.
Fight! not. beg. March! not sit.
Demand! not pray. Do! not.
preach. Stand! not kneel. Organ-
ize! not’—not—what’s that word
I forgot, Grandad?”

“Philosophize?”

“That's it. Philosophize. Is
that what you wanted to tell me
about?”

“In a way, Johnny, but this bit
of philosophy I want to tell you
‘about not even old Bill Bennett
heard that day. As I said, there
was a big crowd around Slim's
grave. But standin’ in the snow,
quite a way from the main crowd,
I stood with a man after the
funeral just before he got in a

big car. He was talking to a
. bank..manager,.. This is what. he
said: .

““Eyvans will live when R. B.
Bennett is completely forgotten.
I'll tell you why. Bennett‘s phil-
osophy can be summed up into
one sentence — ‘How much can
Canada do for me?’ Evans—if
he ever had time to formulate a
Pphilosophy—would have said, be-
cause he lived it, ‘How much can
I do for Cana

“T get it, Grandad. ‘How much’
can Canada do for me?’ That’s
* Premier Bennett’s epitaph. ‘How
much can I: do for Canada?’
That’s Slim’s. I’ll remember to
put that in my essay, too. Topeka
Grandad.”

Johnny Hardy swung jauntily
through the sitting-room to the
kitchen. With the middle finger
of his right ‘hand on top of the
index finger, he looked at his
mother. “In the bag, Mom. In
the bag,” he said.

Scholarships the British gov't strove to deny

_ Whe first eight of a group of 25

Nigerian youth who will study
in eastern Gy rmany’ on scholar-
ships provided by the Free Ger-
Youth . have “arrived

man
Berlin. The scholarships. were
awarded® in memory of the 21 ice

gerian coal miners murdered by.

police bullets at ‘Enugu, Eastern

_ Nigeria, on November ae, 1949.

iy

The. Slurdecs axes an ii
_ day strike of. 6,000 African miners,
‘employed in Povernment. owned

‘mines under the direction of a
The 900 policemen,

-white staff.
who were rushed to the’ strike
‘scene shot the miners. without
provocation. In addition to the

21 killed on the ‘spot, 51 workers,
Not one ppolice:

were wounded.
mian was hurt,

Among the Nigerian youth who

a slain miner. Others, from

pnt

f’ the colony, are the
aes of de Ge ia in the Niger-

jan trade union and national ie
Piepeidance movements. The stu-

_ dents range in age from 14 to

28, three of the eldest being
themselves leaders in the Dae
ation movement.

“Some of the students will study
engineering, others m'edicine, |

science and agriculture, On their.
arrival in Berlin, they told of

the many obstacles placed in their’

path to prevent them from get- '

ting here by the colonial admin-
istration in Nigeria and later by
British ‘colonial Officials in Lon-

oe BOS &

tae pte: “when me Nikers

ian Labor Congress, and student

leaders tried to raise funds to
provide travelling ’ expenses for
the» students, the campaigners
were lheavily fined or sentenced
to jail under an ordinance which
bars Africans in Nigeria from

raising’ public funds.

The British - acon authorities

gave specific instructions that ‘the
students were not to be given
‘passports. —
placed on any African leaving
the colony even to cro _into
adjoining territory for any rea-
~ son whatsoever. Individual -pass-
ports had to be obtained by. re-
sorting to special measures. In
some cases, the youth were
forced to leave illegally. ==,

The first of the eight scholar-
ship recipients arrived in London
five months ago.
delayed in Nigeria until two
_ months later. Two were able to
~eatch a plane to Paris and
travelled to Germany via Prague.
All had to leave their -homeland
under deepest secrecy. _

ape P

During their three-month stay
in London, the students were sub-
jected to intimidation and pres-
sure when their destination leak-
ed out. The colonial office sought
legal advice in an effort to pre-

In fact, a ban was.

Others were; .

vent them ‘from continuing on
to Berlin, A 14#year old girl stu-
dent, who is still being held in.
London, was arrested by the Brit-
ish authorities, charged with vag-
rancy and threatened with de-

tention in a “correction home”
and deportation — although she

was received by rélatives as soon
as she arrived in London. While
she was under arrest, the police
officials tried to persuade her to
go back home or remain in RN ;
land a study nursing.

Sir, John MacPherson, ‘gover-
nor of Nigeria, frankly admitted —
that the government was trying
to prevent the students from —
studying in Berlin. The British
government feared, he said, that
the students were going to the ©
German democratic ani for
; “ulterior motives.” A

PACIFIC: ‘TRIBUNE