Vol 6. ogeeO No. 10 Vancouver, British Columbia Friday, March 7, 1947 Five Cents —— Plead miners’ cause reg leaders of Nova Scotia’s thir, Coal miners , now in the hi A week of their strike for aoe er wages, flew to Vancou- “ala from Cape Breton this B Sy to enlist the support of tish Columbia labor. They are John R. McDonald pnd Michael Higgins, both lead- aa Ofticials of District 26, pated Mina Workers (CCL), pe the purpose of their trip to inform the B.C. labor movement of the miners’ fight Sainst: the-Dosco trust,-and to &ppeal for financial aid. It is understood that a com- pee sponsored by the B.C. ederation of Labor (CCL) and representative of the main CCL ulions in the province will be Set up here to aid the miners. McDonald and Higgins, both veterans of many miners’ strug- Sles in the Maritime province, Plan to visit the main indust- Tial centers in this province. | ces eration of Labor (CCL) this week issued a call to all af- filiated unions, AFL locals, and a large number of broad, public organizations to pre pare to be in the capital on March 16. The Federation’s call noted that “six weeks have passed, and on this date, March 6, no indication is forthcoming from the minister (George S. Pear- son) as to what his proposals are, or when the labor move- ment is to become acquainted with them. In the meantime, government supporters on the floor of the legislature are flaying the labor movement, and carrying out a propa- ganda attack that.can have no other purpose than to prepare the legislature and the public for a betrayal of labor’s interest.” Pointing out the urgent neces- sity for a powerful lobby was Harold Pritchett, IWA district president, who is chairman of the Canadian Congress of Labor’s Wage Coordinating Committee. Pritchett, on his return to Van- couver from eastern Canada this week, said: “It is my impression that the federal government’s pro- posed national Jabor code will not meet the requirements of organized labor, particularly in BG. Its therefore essential that the labor movement here exert every POS- sib] effort to see that the legis- lature passes an acceptable piece of legislation. A powerful mass lobby to Victoria can make sure that this comes about.” As the Tribune went to press, 2 huge, overflow crowd was expect- ed at the Pender Auditorium mass meeting, sponsored by the Van- ecouver Labor Council. Speakers were to include CCL Regional Di- rector Daniel O’Brien and Harold Pritchett, secretary of the Be, Continued on Page 8 See LABOR LOBBY LABOR LOBBY WILL GO TO. VICTORIA MARCH 16 Determined to spike big business’ c Columbia‘s trade union mov enactment of labor’s proposa a move designed to counteract t ampaign for crippling legislation, representatives of British ement will converge On the legislature in Victoria on Is for definite amendments to the ICA Act at this session of the House. In he efforts of the Canadian Manufacturers’ Association, the B.C. Fed- March 16 to press for Maneuvers this week’ pointed to public Prime Minister Minister Louis St. Laurent. First was the crash of an American B-29 superfortress, originally reported by officials at Ladd’ Field, Alaska, as be- ing down on Borden Island in the Parry Islands group, 700 miles from the Pole, and later Here a U.S. mobile machine gun unit is shown in training “Somewhere in the Canadian Arctic.” The King government’s sacrifice of the country’s national interests to U.S. military schemes is arousing widespread, concern. War plans revealed Two linked developments in the Canadian Arctic the extent of American-directed war schemes and exposed as attempts into complacency recent statements made by r Mackenzie King and External Affairs to lull an alarmed represented as being down in northern Greenland, 700 miles to the east of Borden Island. Conclusion was that neither American nor Canadian govern- Continued on Page 8 See WAR PLANS Labor charges Coalition trying to railroad BCER bill through House Introduction into the legislature of Bill 19, an a to proceed with its agreement renewing the B Payers’ approval, was strongly protested by week as a violation of accepted constitutiona Ordon Wismer introduced the bill, John Stanton, Van- Wy labor attorney, sent a inst wire of protesteto Wis- mer pointing out that Turner ad an action to quash the tty council’s bylaw before the Supreme court and con- teeing that any action by the €gislature before the court action was decided would be Prejudicial to the case. iter on Friday, wired Prem- art on behalf of Vancouver one Council and other inter- inet ce udie urging the cab- peochanin ear a delegation before g with the bill, as it had already heard a delegation from! Vancouver City Council. one Civic Reform Committee, oh; its brief to the government, arged that Ald. Charles Thomp- nN, transportation committee airman, had misrepresented OP; Position to the BCElectric agree> Continued on Page 8 See BCELECTRIC CElectri John T ct to enable Vancouver's Non-Partisan City Council c franchise for 20 years without first obtaining tax- urner, secretary of Vancouver Labor Council, this | practice. On Thursday last week, when ‘Attorney-General Liberals anxious over slim House majority, successor to Prime Minister Mackenzie King OTTAWA —After four weeks’ delay the Liberal telling the Liberal By ROBERT M. LAXER . e : Federation has finally got around to cabinet the recommendations of its recent conference—health insurance, retirement pensions, increased immigration, lower taxation, low-priced housing and no 30 percent increase in freight rates. It is an open secret here that the Liberal Conference was a ne- cessary piece of window-dressing to conceal the ugly truth that the party has held no full national convention since 1919, when King was chosen leader. It is well known too, that the ‘old man’ makes all decisions without con- sulting the parliamentary Lib- eral Party oor other Liberal members. Usually his procedure is to tell the cabinet what’s to be done and who is to receive apointments after he has made up his ow mind. Liberal members have become so accustomed to this type of leadership that the thought of into a panic. Will the party hang together when the ambi- tions of Gardiner, Claxton, Ab- bott or Martin are no longer held in check by the boss? Or will the splits and dissatisfac- tions evident in Tory ranks since Bennett’s ‘iron heel’ re- King’s retirement throws them | gime likewise become the order of the day in the Liberal ma- chine? This though has been in the minds of Liberal stra- tegists ever since King announc- ed he would not lead the party into another election. But it has become very evident that Prime Minister King is now soft-pedalling talk of his retire- ment. The recent scare about his supposedly serious illness and Continued on Page 8 See LIBERALS —VICTORIA It was Finance Minister Anscomb who let the cat out of the bag this week. Much to the embarrassment of some of his fellow-Coalitionists, the Tory lead- er told how the government had not provided the approximate $1,- 000,000 necessary to meet the ex- tra $5. cost-of-living bonus for old age pensioners. “That, in itself, is a clear in- dication that this bonus is purely of a temporary nature,” he apolo- getically assured the big business interests who vigorously oppose every move for progressive social or labor legislation, and for whom Anscomb is the best ‘line-holder’ they have. The government, he said, intendead to pay it out of surplus revenue for a few weeks until the federal government im- plemented its ‘green book’ pro- posals. In other words, the provincial government is going to pass the buck to Ottawa again, and intends to do ngthing more than this tem- porary bonus to take care of those pioneers who helped to build this wealthy province and are now forced to exist on the dis- graceful amount of $35 per month. * * While the debate continues on the budget, the largest in British Columbia’s history, the cold, calcu- lating voice of ‘financial ortho- doxy’ reverberates through the lobbies in Anscomb’s statement: “My primary responsibility is to protect the exchequer of this province, and I must frankly in- form ‘this House that we have nearly reached the limits of spending . . .” Smarting indeed, were a few of his more Liberal colleagues in the Coalition, who frown upon increasing Tory dom- ination of that unstable combina- tion, and who view with concern Continued on Page 8 See THIS WEEK