He wants controversy

FRANK AYRES,
B.C.: Bert Whyte’s “Rock ‘n’

Roll” article
issue is really too much. Sure-
ly he is not expressing the
editorial staff position in re-
to this latest American

import.

gara

I don’t know whether
majority of I

would

Cx ff

Whyte

it was more
d by “Cap-
vote for its
ptom of American

decadence ‘
But one thing is clear. There
are thar

* fro

“Rock ‘n’

a It the armaments pro-
gr rs from
a of sinceri a fault

ana Xr 2 } ww > o
made inevitable by the choice

yf aterial
of material.

9age contains
r annoyance—“Plumb-
vote.” -This
been presented as
story. Instead
thePacific
demands of

,
labor.

r identif
Tribune with: the

the aristocracy of

How many and

an
decent wage?
any among

Pacific Tribune ho-

ha $9 e5
that $2.65

not a

pes to cn
thing makes me
staff of the
have any clear
idea of what the function of

the paper should be. When the
paper is pretty well put to bed
With clippings from the Cana-
dian Tribune, New York Daily
Worker or London Daily
Worker, your writers seem
embarrassed as to how to fill
up the little bit of
affairs.

ha
the

space left

plunge into the

problem. Unfor-

government
f the Douk-
come up
re solution,
x that per-
Suggests that
read-*

be set up for

without
| ro ™ }
idren might be

that any

country has
ication that
0 take ad-

i and

of other
solution
a%

arrive at must
to considera-
, 171 ahnr
Doukhabor

a short-

up with
perhaps
: me had bet-
be left the embarra
ment to the party in power.

Or they wander off into the
field of Indian affairs and the
culture of our first Canadians

But hing could be worse

than Hal Griffin’s recurrent
Sniping at the Social Credit

Langley,

in your July 6

this province are almost unan-
imous in believing that more
and better roads. are -being
built under the present
government than ever before.
Let’s attack Social Credit
where it is politically vulner-
— and leave its strong
points alone. National inde-
pendence is the weapon for
this campaign.

too often
to dabble
minor or

And so on. Far
your writers. seem
aimlessly: with
doubtful issues.

x x

*

Now for a suggestion or two.

How about making it a
tiuly B.C. paper by increasing
somewhat the space for B.C.
affairs at the expense of the
clippings ?

Then formulate a_ clear
definition of what the role of
the Pacific Tribune should be.
Such as: The Pacific Tribune
is a paper for mass circulation.
It’s aim is to rally the masses
of workers and farmers around
a new national program and

help lead them forward to
Socialism.

If some _ such definition
could be arrived at it would

be logical to scrap the totem
pele, which symbolizes noth-
ing in particular, and substitute
seme such slogan as: “For
Peace, National Independence
and Socialism !”

All articles submitted could
be tested against such a
and the editor could
uxhesitatingly run his blue
pencil through such effort as
Whyt’s “Rock ‘n’ Roll’
story, the Doukhobor series,
etc,
How

page or

)
slogan,

Rert
Hert

ete.
about a consumers’
column? A column in

which products or firms could
be recommended on the basis

£

of their employing Canadian
abor, with side trips into
various facets of the economic

life of our country — for ex-

ample, the current war be-

tween Eaton’s and Simpson-

Sears.

How about a more imagin-
ative treatment of the ques-
tion of trade? Why couldn’t
a feature writer speculate on
the market for thousands of
Canadian cars and trucks in
the Soviet Union, China, etc.
and the implications for life
in Canada? Or ship contracts
for Vancouver to get the ship-
yards humming like they
were in wartime ?

Since our Washington-dom-
inated government will yield
on the q uestion of trade only
in the face of tremendous
popular pressure it is the job
of a progressive press to help
build up that pressure.

It should not be necessary
to mention that the farmers
in the Fraser Valley are in a
bad way. If the Pacific Trib-
une could give some attention
to their problems, and offer
something in the way of
leadership, there would be
quite a market here for the
paper, with all that implies
for the cementing of a sound
farmer-labor relationship.

How about a lively letters-
to-the-editor section, in which
minor or doubtful issues like
“Rock ‘n’ Roll” or the Douk-
hobor question could be de-
bated by readers. A few good
lively controversies in this
section would be of interest
to the average reader. ;

It would also be a recog-
nition of the fact that the paper
does not have all ready and

complete, an answer to every
little issue that may crop up.

If you consider any of the
above to be constructive crit-
icism you can credit “Rock ‘n’
Roll” with being the irritant
that produced the pearl.

(We hope reader Ayres will

provoke the controversy he
wents.
One point should first be

A picture no artist would paint

set right — what reader Ayres
refers to as “clippings.”

The Pacific Tribune main-
tains an exchange service of
news and features, not only
with the papers he mentions
but with other progressive
papers in Australia, NeW Zea-
land, India and South Africa,
so that all participating papers
may have sources independ-
ent of the big commercial
news-gathering agencies. In
addition, the Pacific Tribune
subscribes to services from the
Seviet Union, China and the

People’s Democracies which
are also received by these
other papers.

Not more than two percent

Reidford in Toronto Git
of the Pacific Trib
ers subscribe to all
papers named by re#
Would he suggest
Pacific Tribune e
readers news and fe
national and interné
portance because
appear in other
lished elsewhere ?
be equivalent to
that people in Van
teria, New West
son and Prince Rw
not read their local
cause they can get!
news dispatches a
the same syndicate
in any daily publ
other province.)

party.

}

formity - with

views.

his_ politieal
But this reckons
without his constituents,
the men and women who
worked to elect him in the
: belief that he
stood for the things they
themselves wanted.

There are those who tell
you they vote for the man,
not the party. But the man
i entified with ideas and
ideas are fought for by ‘po-
litical parties expressing
the needs of classes in so-
ciety. It is the ideas, how-

\
I

mistaken

IS

ever mistaken they may
prove, that move people to
work without reward for

election of the man they

identify with their cause.
Thatcher’s views fre-

road policy. The

Hal Griffin

O Ross Thatcher has joined the Liberal

It can be said that the MP for Moose
Jaw — Lake Centre who left the CCF to
sit as an independent is only belatedly
bringing his political affiliation into con-

quently embarrassed even
right-wing CCFers’ and
they may be glad to see him
go. Perhaps, as a govern-
ment backbencher, he will
find it easier to accept Lib-
eral dictation than CCF
discipline. But, by joining
the Liberals he has set him-
self above the people who

elected him and betrayed
their hopes.
7 + *

Thatcher is not the first
to turn his back on his
party to accept the evils

“he once professed to op-

pose, nor will he be the
last.
One man who might of-

fer him a word of advice,

if he would, is J. S. Taylor,
one-time CCF MP for Na-
naimo.

1 sometimes see Taylor
walking along Granville
Street and nearly always
alone. He is an old man
now and perhaps it is only
the passage of the years,
but if I say “Hello, J. S.”-
to him he will nod uncer-
tainly and I know he has no
idea who I am.

Yet 21 years ago, in the
election of 1935 that com-
pleted the debacle of R. B.
Bennett’s Conservative gov-
ernment, I sat in the old
Commonwealth office, tal-
lying up the votes as they
came in. And when the last
poll from Nanaimo was in
and Taylor he was
treasurer of the Common-
wealth then — was elected
I felt as though it were a
personal victory.

It was the working people
of Nanaimo, the unemploy-
ed miners and loggers, the
families on relief who had
looked to Taylor to cham-
pion their cause, who were
betrayed by Taylor’s de-

fection.
The CCF lost
and only regaine@
253, but the working
lost’ the voice thi
counted upon to rab
grievences in the
Commons. Taylor %
attempt to run aged
retired to a fading
ignominy. Today it BY
ful if many people
animo even rem
name.
As
might be
that his
tions did not con
his political views
his fuzzy theories Oy
etary reform he w0
been much more 2
in Social Credit, th?
cely heard of in t
vince. But, like 74
he accepted CCF ®
tion and professed
cept CCF policies.
It is to be hoped
Thatcher runs aga
voters of Moose 4%
Lake Centre will reF
him as he has alré
pudiated himself.

of Thatce
said of

political

people of

July 27, 1956 —PACIFIC TRIBUNE