~~ Review Published weekly by the Tribune Publishing Company Ltd. at Room 6, 426 Main Street, Vancouver 4, B.C. — MArine 5288 th countries (except Australia), 1 year $3.00, 6 months $1.60. Australia, U.S., and all other countries, 1 year $4.00, 6 months $2.50. Authorized as second class mail, Post Office. Department, Ottawa Canada and British Commonweal EDITORIAL PAGE TOM McEWEN, Editor — HAL GRIFFIN, Associate Editor — RITA WHYTE, Business Manager. Printed by Union Printers Ltd., 550 Powell Street, Vancouver 4, B.C. Comment Tom McEwen small eightline news item in a local Paper caught our attention last week. 8 Was about an Italian named Alfred Titus of Dawson City who had won $1800 : ‘a the annual sweep on the ice breakup °f the mighty Yukon River. To those WQo have experienced the “spell of the” Xukon,” that figure of $1800 is the por- €nt of a losing fight. et always however, does an estab- Shed (and steadily shrinking) sweeP- Stake reflect the evolution of a ghost ed a town situated in one of the rich- a: Spots on earth, which only a little sane than half a century ago was the “tea of sturdy pioneer men and wo- N—Dawson City. than Years ago the winning ticket on vot River sweep would have been 4b some $10,000 to the winner. City is like an individual, it can- oe live on tradition alone. When the heer placer miner, the prospector, the nity handed gambler, all those who once ie . Dawson City its vigor and glamor, ‘ Squeezed out by monopoly exploita- ; n, then the city dies. fat the fall of the year, just before the zeup, a pole is anchored well out in Arent of the great Yukon River. the electric cable connects the pole to city clock at the river landing wharf. Sie the ice begins to move, taking the ping downstream, the wire snaps, stop- seu ne clock at the exact minute and Ing off a gong. he purchaser of a sweep ticket fills 2B his ticket at the time he buys it, stat-° the day, hour and minute he thinks © ice will go out. eee years ago I felt this magic whi in the City of the Midnight Sun much brings with it a little of the old Be Of ’98” excitement. Spring was and hat year, the ice was slow to move, tra ain’, tenseness in a city born and Was €d in a gamble for life and riches _Tazor-edge sharp. Ward © and again we were drawn to- erful that mighty river, as by some pow- of oy wagnet. And it wasn’t the “ure ft because the most of our sweeP al ets were already cancelled out. Fin- 7 ¥ the hour came, That night our trio shee On hand as usual, a beloved daugh- “t and an old veteran of the ’98 days. | roland the rising waters of the Klon- Yuko iver were pouring in upon the he au With an urgency that could not denied. Eyes glued upon the pole and a land- «cn the distant bank of the Yukon, slowh, arth seemed to be moving — S0 ae and scarcely perceptible — but Thee’ moving—gaining momentum. and ct the long clanging of the bell — Q He winning day, hour and minute. Be minutes flat Dawson’s Orpheum hoe theatre was empty. The .boys en- alone a beer in the old but still garish for ®ns lowered a fast one and raced Tea € river. Old Yukon pioneers al- the is abed responded to the clang of rs ell like an old pensioned-off fire stage, and headed for the river in various in aad undress. Mothers with babies €ir arms and little ones scampering .t} i cnpeehind responded to that magic call, are egain, the floodwaters of the Yukon tace : Ing once more in their 1600-mile Than ee, Bering Sea. Yu ate why I am sure that when the Slee R River broke her long ice-bound the act 10.42 am. last Saturday, those Titus CPt Vigil by her side gave Alfred Ws a sincere and resounding cheer. there 1. City is like that — even when isn’t much left except Yesterdays. ice has broken’—the spring has Forty years ago (From the files of the B.C. Federationist, May 29, 1914) French Socialists won 103 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. Among those elected was Marcel Cachin. (Cachin later was a founding member of the French Communist party and its first senator.) Fifteen years ago (From the files of the People’s Advocate, May 26, 1939) The People’s Advocate’s annual sus- taining fund campaign for $2,800, direct- ed by Wilfred Ravenor, was oversub- scribed. Total amount raised was $3,496. Ten years ago (From the files of The People, May 27, 1944) An estimated 6,000 people saw Van- couver Public Library’s “Russian Book Week” display, arranged in cooperation with the American Library Association. Typically, Vancouver dailies gave prom- inence to the two individuals who pro- tested the display. ‘ Hands off Giatenalel Hands off Guatemala! This is the cry | that needs to be raised by the demo- ically. minded people of Canada as it ee iy being raised throughout | the world. The idea that an_ industrially undeveloped country of some 3,000,000 people poses a threat to the United States is too ludicrous to be entertained seri- ously by any except those in the U:S. State Department cultivating the lie. Guatemala is a threat only to the United Fruit Company’s monopoly and, by its democratic example, to those dictatorial regimes in neighboring republics that exploit their own people for U.S. gain. po of rath 5 . > a “HURRY! WE MUST PREVENT THE SPREAD OF COMMUNISM!” How U.S. defines ‘conciliation’ es modern diplomatic jargon the word “‘conciliatory’”’ has high priority. Last week at Gen- eva, External Affairs Minister L. B. Pearson found it an extremely handy moral drape. It would appear that all those countries represented at Geneva, and especially the Asian coun- tries, are not considered ‘‘concili- atory’ when they fail to accept John Foster Dulles’ plan of “‘Asia for the Asians’’—which in actu- ality means Asia for the USA. _ At the opening of the Geneva conference on the vital issue of peace in wartorn Korea and In- dochina, it will be recalled that Dulles arrived’on the spot breath- ing threats against those Asian countries. which hold other ideas on a ‘‘way of life.’ Because. these countries remain undisturbed by this Yankee bluster, they are ac cused of failing to show a proper ‘conciliatory’’ attitude. False arguments--and leaders Wie profits most by a six day shopping week? The answer to that question will be . found, not in the blurbs of Pol- lyanna labor “‘leaders’’ now whooping it up for Wednesday shopping in the infantile illusion that it will provide “‘more jobs,’’- but by a brief look at the anti labor record of the big monopoly stores — which have never ceas- ed their campaigning against Wednesday closing. Of course there is a 40-hour week statute in B.C., but the sci ence of monopoly exploitation of the ‘‘white collar’ worker (as with others) is not confined to simple mathematics, and it does not follow that additional “help” will be employed for the extra work day. Where profit is con- cerned, it will be no trick at all for those high-powered personnel to get six . PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MAY 28, 1954 — PAGE 5 “efficiency experts’ _ lies that intervention in Indochina According to the thinking of our ‘‘free world’ diplomats, any- one who rejects their “‘peace-by- the-big-stick’’ treatment is lacking in a ‘‘conciliatory’’ spirit, and the proposed approach, of course, is to convince them by force and violence, as in Korea. That is precisely the “‘accord’’ which is said to have been reach ed over the weekend by Britain and France, under U.S. pressures. That is also why Pearson is con- ditioning the minds of the Cana- dian people on the art of “‘con- ciliatory’’ thinking — should the U.S. succeed in persuading its al- is essential to make that country safe for French colonialism and the profits of Yankee bankers. And that is also John Foster Dulles’ concept of “‘Asia for the Asians,’ with massed atomic ‘weapons as the prime ‘“‘concili- ator.” days work out of a.five-day staff. In most of the large U.S. depart- ment stores the management has already achieved this by having half or more of* the staff on a “‘part-time’’ basis—at the call of the boss when needed, and at no extra labor cost. Some of Vancouver’s largest’ retail stores can undoubtedly “‘pre- serve’ the 40-hour week, keep open for 48 hours, do it with the same or an even smaller stag and satisfy their Yankee custom- ers, all in a week’s operation. But the benefits, like the ‘‘assurances’’ won't extend to labor or the peo- ple generally — not even if we were to believe the fairy tale that the “‘interests’’ of the exploiter and the exploited are ‘‘identical.’’ Keep Wednesday closing and the 40-hour week. Labor should never swap gains for “‘assur- ances.”