| Open the
_ hearings

ESPITE nation-wide protests to
the St. Laurent government from
the ranks of organized labor, and
“tom business and public spokes-
Men generally, the “Combines In-
‘Y@stigation Act” inquisition under
the Diefenbaker government into
the internal affairs of the United
fishermen and Allied Workers
‘Yhion is again scheduled to pro-

| Sed this month and next in Van-
| Ouver, -

Designed to prevent monopoly
ind cartel price-fixing and general
‘king of the Canadian consumer,
the use of the Combines Investiga-
Mon Act against the UFAWU can
_ttly be interpreted as a direct at-
| tack by government agencies upon
the Whole trade union. movement.
hus the continued inquisition forc-
“d upon’ the union by the Restric-
We Trade Practices Commission
*Perating under the CIA, is an in-
| "’ion upon the rights of trade
"ion organization and collective
‘tgaining, a purpose for which
© Act was never intended.

Thi >
his fact is underscored by the

ign WU request to the Commis-

4; unable to have these inquisi~
Stial hearings discontinued, the
wil requested that such hearings
ape € open to the public, to union
aa and to other trade union
the esentation or observers. This

Commission seeks to hedge up-
and evade, describing the re-

u
West as “most unusual.”

t The whole business of attempting
eat the collective bargaining
bh Ss of a trade union under the
i, Hey charge of “price fixing” as
Unde © done against the UFAWU
A the Combines Investigation
Is also “most unusual,” and

‘houtg be terminated forthwith!

Failing that, these hearings should
‘thrown wide open to the public,
oe all would get. a closeup,
7 bes and view of who and what

Ing “investigated,” and for

Pacific Tribune

Ro Published. weekly at
Om 6 — 426 Main Street
Vancouver 4, B.C.
Phone: MArine 5288
Asso Editor — TOM McEWEN
Ciate Editor — HAL GRIFFIN
Subscription Rates:
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fy Six months: $2.25
Countian and Commonwealth
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ng Year, Australia, United States
all other countries: $5.00 one

a year.

EDITORIAL PAGE

Speed the press drive

N THE current press drive to ex-
[ tend the circulation of this pa-
per, it should be noted by all read-
ers and supporters that we are just
a little better than half way to our
objective of 1,200 subs, with only
two weeks of the time set to go.
That means that we have to secure
as many subs within the next two

‘weeks as we have done in the past

six.

Of course it can be done, but it
will require an all-out effort on
the part of everyone concerned

with the problem of bringing to

his or her fellow workers the truth
of events — which are very rarely
found in the columns of the daily
press.

Let’s pull up our socks in every
community and get after those sub
scriptions, old and new. Since it
is now fashionable to have “brain
pools,” let us get going on a big
province-wide one for the PT. Cir-
culation is the guarantee of survival
for any paper, and in this the PT
is no exception! y

Sputnik,
Mac and lke

HILE the “beeps” coming from

Sputnik’s epoch-making flight
are now ended, their effects upon
Anglo-American top brass have act-
ed like a burr under the tail of a
leocoed. mule.

Last week Britain’s prime minis-
ter Harold Macmillan journeyed
post haste to Washington to confer
with President Eisenhower on how

best to meet the “threat” of Sput-

nik. One result of this conference,
and very much publicized, is the
plan to form an Anglo-U.S. scien-
tific “brain pool” in an effort to
catch up with Sputnik.

The other, as our own Prime
Minister Diefenbaker chimed in
with his gratutious thanks to “little
Sputnik,” is that the “free world
must hang together,” which is an-
other way of saying that his govern-
ment will continue spending 2%
billion dollars annually, not for
the , advancement of science and
education which the socialist ach-
ievement of Sputnik symbolizes, but
to pour down the NATO arma-
ment rathole.

Tom
McEwen

aponey this week Mr. Justice
J. V. Clyne rolled up the
curtain on the Sommers-Sturdy
“slander” case ... and let the
public have a glimpse of some
of the sordid facts.

For nearly two years the Soc-
ial Credit Bennett-Bonner cabi-
net has managed to shield its
ex-minister of lands and forests
R. E. Sommers from the charges
of lawyer David Sturdy that the
minister was in receipt of sub-
stantial bribes in return for for-
est licences to some of our big
lumber tycoons; a*partner in a
conspiracy to alienate the peo-
ples’ timber resources and pock-
et a fat rakeoff in the process.

Three big lumber firms were
involved in this particular grab,
with a cash transaction in the
conspiracy around $193,000, of
which Sommers’ “honorarium”
was some $40,196 of the forest
licence boodle.

Grab and graft in our capital-
ist way of life is nothing new. It
has been part of our “Canadian

development” ever since Confed-
eration. The early history of our
transport, lumber, coal, hydro
and other industrial barons, is
replete with financial buccaneer-
ing, grab and graft. Voluminous
tomes gathering dust in our par-
liamentary archives give eloquent
witness of the ravaging of a con-
tinent by our pioneering “empire
builders.”

If any change has taken place
during: the years in this monop-
oly grabbing with government
connivance, it is in form rather
than in content. In the early days
the grafting tycoons has some-
thing of the old swashbuckling
don’'t-give-a-dam holdup frater-
nity. They took what they want-
ed; the party they had elected
to power took its cut and braz-
ened it out with the critics, and
that was that. If too much of a
political ruckus blew up a “roy-
al commission” might follow —
and after months (or years) of
investigation another bulky tome
of “evidence” would be cere-
moniously laid on the shelf to
gather dust. Meantime the people
had forgotten the old grab in the
hubub and excitement of a new
one.

Nowadays the technique is a
bit different. A highly sanctimo-
nious mantle is draped over re-
sources. giveaways, and should
any critic, such as lawyer Stur-
dy allege that all is not well, court

proceedings are instituted, not
to prosecute the grab and run
grafiers, but to shield the politi-
cal hierarchy of which they are
a part. In this case it is Social
Credit, which is nothing if not
sanctimonious. ;

Thus by keeping the Sommers-
Sturdy case under “sub judice”
judicial wraps (which means that
the public, individually or
through the medium of their
press is effectively gagged) the
Bennet-Bonner government man-
ages to keep its holier-than-thou
“sanctity” intact, win one provin-
cial election and several byelec-
tions, and preserve its “integ-
rity” despite the fact that a mem-
ber of its inner cabinet was and
is (as now can be seen) up to
the ‘ears in a conspiracy and
graft in the giving away of the
province’s timber resources.

It will be interesting from now
on in to watch how the Socred
halos. of Premier Bennett and
Attorney-General Bonner shine
(or dim) with the lifting of the
Sommers-Sturdy “sub  judice”
curtain. Of one thing the people
may be sure; if sanctimonious
hypocrisy will save the day So-
cial Credit will win. They have
even a greater supply of that
commodity than had Mackenzie
King when the Liberal Beauhar-
nois electric power conspiracy
and graft sent him toddling
“through the valley of humilia-
tion” back in the roaring 20’s.

a

November 1, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 5