ONGRATULATIONS.
Jake! Many happy re-
‘turns:of the day!” I shook
hands with Alderman Jacob
Penner. It was Jake Pen-
‘ner’s 70th birthday and he seem
ed surprised that anyone should
remember. Not only was his
birthday remembered but we
‘were completing plans for a ce-
debration on September 16.

«

“How does it feel to be three
‘score and ten?” I asked him.
“Fine.” Jake’s eye twinkled. “I
feel as young as ever.” It’s true.
Jacob Penner in action is as
young and refreshing as the
‘ideals he champions. He has an
“enthusiasm and vigor for his
“work that makes some of the
younger men in the movement
look jaded by comparison.

Jacob Penner has devoted more
than a half century to the strug-
gles of the people. <A_ brief
sketch of his life (far too in-

_. adequate here) will serve to in
“spire and teach us how to be
better Communists — especially
today, when the whole future
and the peace of our country
demands inspired and incorrup-
‘tible leadership.

Jacob Penner was born of pea-
Sant stock, August 12, 1880, in a
village on the Dnieper, today the
site of the famous hydro-electric
power plant, Dnieprostroy. The
village was predominantly Ger-
man, well-to-do farmers whose
holdings — 160 to 260 acres —
were the equivalent of Canadian
- farms.

Jake took up the teaching pro-
fession, entering normal school at
the age of 12 some 20 miles
from the village. It was there
he came in touch with revolu
tionary thought then stirring in

_ Russia.

He graduated at the age of
16 and was given a one-roomed
school in a village 50 miles from

_ home. A year later he decided
to become a land surveyor and
“entered college. On graduation,

19-year-old Jacob went to work
at Ekaterinoslav (now Dniepro-
petrovsk). 70 miles from his own
village. He worked there three
years and learned much from
the political discussions with the
_ progressive and friendly depart-
ment heads. :

His outlook was deeply influ-
enced by the Bryansk strike in
1902, a huge metal factory which
employed 2,000 workers. A
strikers’ demonstration was bru-

_ tally assaulted by the Cossacks
and a number of workers were
killed or injured. Shortly after

_ that Jake joined a small student

. group to study Marx.

e

Juke and his parents came to
Canada in August, 1904. His
first impression was a poor one.

.a)

Travelling to Winnipeg he was

3

it appatiea by the long dreary
oe ee
‘| Later; when he got his first job
‘)as a school teacher near Altona,
‘Eas aun br ee something of

'} the . primitive life of the farm.

_ Jake’s letter to the local paper.
» Shortly after, a CPR immigra-
_ tion official visited Jake and told

him “our agent in Russia has

sent us clipping of a letter from
‘you published there.” He told
' Jake it could get him into all
. kinds of trouble and that the
‘government wouldn’t stand for
Vit When Jake naively asked,
{Is this not a free country?” he
ee

P when'te eivived iy Winning:

‘Jake's first concern was to es

© A lifetime devoted to the working people

Alderman ‘Jake’

a)

is seventy

ALD. JACOB PENNER
Seventeen years in public office

In 1906 he led a move to orga-
nize a local branch of the new
Socialist Party of Canada. orga-
nized in Vancouver the year be
fore. A room was rented in the
AFL Labor Temple and a group
of over 40 met and organized
activities such as open air meet-
ings and study. groups. Unable
to raise the funds to continue
additional studies, Jake had
abandoned the teaching profes-
sion and got a job in a florist
shop.

All was not clear Sailing in
the SPC ranks. Sectarian ten
dencies marked party activities.
All that was necessary, some lea-
ders preached, was to educate
the masses in the tenets of
Marxism, and socialism would
be the inevitable outcome. AlI-
though in the interests of this
education these leaders agreed
to take part in the federal elec
tions, provincial and municipal
elections were’ neglected, the
trade unions were ignored and
the immediate needs‘ and de-
mands of the workers were ‘look-

ed on as “unimportant” and left

alone.

Jacob Penner was predomin
antly among those whose were
in growing disagreement with
this. _He and others were strong-
ly supported by many of the
immigrant workers who had
been members of the social demo-
cratic parties in Europe.

This group led a strong fight
for a change in party policy, to
turn to the leadership of the
workers as part of the struggle
for socialism. Thus in 1908, a
separate party was formed, the
Social Democratic Party of Ca-
nada, with a program of im-
mediate demands and a _ long-
term, historical objective for so
cial change. A branch of the
party already existed in Toronto.

Soon branches were organized |

throughout western Canada. in-
cluding Vancouver where the
SPC was entrenched and strong-
eau ;

This was a period of great.

struggles for freedom of speech
and freedom of assembly and
the right to organize.
attention was paid to the fight
for workers’ representation in

city council. The first labor -

break through ‘in the civic field
came with the election of R. A.

Rigg in 1915, who, together with —

Jake Penner, was one of the
SDPC. In 1916 and 1917 others
were elected to city council,

The storm center of the strug-
gle, however, was the imperial-
ist war of 1914-18, especially on
the issue of conscription. The
Social Democratic party played
a big role. The fight was pio
neered in Toronto under the lea-

dership of Isaac Bainbridge.

Those were hard and bitter

years, Jake recalls, and the go-~
ing was tough. Meetings were_
broken up; socialist leaders and
anti-conscriptionists fared no bet

ter. After 1917 public support

Serious _

tion. The trade unions and the
farmers played a prominent part
in the struggle.

' So powerful was the move-
‘ment against conscription and

against the war that the bour _
retaliated by outlawing

geoisie
the Social Democratic party.
Bainbridge was jailed. His paper,
The Forward. was banned. Not-
withstanding the repressive mea-
sures of the war camp the so-
cialists continued their activities
underground, giving considerable
leadership and support to strike

movements of 1918 which culmi-.

nated in the great Winnipeg
General Strike of 1919. Pres-
sure on Jake’s employer brought
the loss of his job,
e

In 1919, the SDP’ began to re-
organize and re-group itself. In
this process were the beginnings
of the Communist movement in
Canada as we know it to€ay. In
1921, Jake ran as a Communist
candidate in the dominion elec-
tion. Jake played a leading role
and worked with Tim Buck on
-his visits to Winnipeg to extend
and build the new Communist
party. He was one of Tim’s old-
est and closest comrades-in-arms.

From this point on Ja¢tob Pen-_

ner’s story is identified with that
of the party he helped to found:
the party of Communists. It
would require an article more
ambitious than anything here to
recount even briefly his work and
experiences in the ensuing years.
This is something that the move-
ment may enjoy reading in an

autobiography which many of us~

are urging Jake to write.

In 1933 Jake was elected a
Winnipeg alderman, a position he
has held ever since.
cord unexcelled by any Commun-
ist on this continent. It is as an
alderman that Jake has become
known far beyond his city, which
elected W. N. Kolisnyk alderman
in 1926—the first time a Com-
munist party member was elected
to public office in North America.

Elected: in the “Hungry Thir-
ties,” Jake was a tower of strength
in the great relief battles won,

It is a re-

By MITCH SAGO

in the national struggle for jobs
for a million, unployed and their
families out of work.

My earliest recollection of Jake
in action is of him addressing a
large unemployed demonstration
in January, 1930, on the Market
Square,*three years before Ward
Three workers sent him to coun-
cil as their spokesman.

In the massive struggles the
‘crisis brought with it the name
and figure of Jacob Penner be-
came familiar ‘to thousands
wherever men met and fought
for the right to live. Uncounted
number of men and women came
‘to. know him personally in these
years.

Unlike any other public repre-
sentative before him, and joined
later by his colleague, Alderman
Forkin, Jake established daily
regular hours when workers could
come to see him and ask his
help in settling grievances and in-
justices, Day after day, year
after year, in good health and bad,
in snow, flood and prairie heat,
Jake was always “in” to workers
anxious for his aid. His patience,
his great heart and deep under-
standing, are qualities which al-
Ways inspire respect and love in
those who meet him.

Jake has felt the whip of reac-
tion. Because he ‘fought the
“phony” war and never faltered
in his advocacy of anti-fascist
unity, he was interned for almost
three years, only to throw him-
self on release into the all-out
war effort of the Great Coalition.
* g

The secret of his success? Jake
modestly explains that it is due
to his effort “to always take a
working class position on every
issue, no matter how big or
small.”

In the working class movement
Jacob Penner is known not only
as one of the respected founders
of the socialist movement, but
also as the beloved teacher of
successive generations of rx-
ists. Dozens of the’ leaders of the
working class movement in Can-
ada today owe their inspiration
and much of piss Ne ihoanan

.

. symbolize

to the patient, brilliant example
‘and. exposition they learned from
“the old man.” :

Any tributes to Jake Penner
would be incomplete without an
equally heartfelt tribute to his
wife and comrade, Rose, whom he
married in 1914.
from Tsarist Russia, Rose Shapak
first joined the revolutionary
movement at the age of 14 when
she led the organization of fellow
workers in an Odessa factory.
When she’ came to Canada she
joined the Social Democratic
party and was active in that early
period, “As long as I can remem-
ber,” Rose said, “I have been act-
ive in the struggle.”

Today she is as active as in her
younger days, full of youthful en-
thusiasm for the cause to which
she and her husband and family
are devoting their lives.

But the Penners have made 2
further contribution to the move-
ment which is beyond reckoning.

_ Every one of their four children,

Walter, Norman, Ruth and
Roland is an active participant in —
the workers’ movement.

Jake’s birthday is a great oc-
casion for us here in Winnipeg, a5,
it will be for many hundreds
throughout Canada. His birth-

day is a milestone in the history —

of the Labor-Progressive party,
in the history of the Canadian
working class. He has come to
the great * socialist.
forces within the working class.
movement, both in Manitoba and —
beyond.
_ In honoring Jacob Penner on
this’ occasion we draw new
strength from the rich pages of
his life. Lenin, whose {disciple
Jacob Penner has been and re-—
mains these long years, once said:
“Man’s dearest possession is his
life, and since it is given to him _
to live but once, he must so live —
as not to be seared with th®

shame of a cowardly or tri

past; so live as not to be tortu

for years without purpose; so live —
that dying he can say:
life and all my strength were giV-
en to the finest cause in the pie
~—the liberation of mankind.” .

_ Nurseries of the New China |

PEKING

8 fapioes ateats gs are growing in ©

China. The old nurseries are
being equipped with up-to-date
facilities and staffed with trained
nurses, and new nurseries dre be-
ing established.

In the industrial cities such as
Shanghai, Tientsin and Mukden,
.and, for that matter, most of the
industrial centres of the north-
‘east, nurseries attached to factor-
ies free the women workers from
constant worry and enable them
to concentrate on theiz work. The
gain in terms of the improved
health of the children can be
_ gauged from their weight charts
and the roses that bloom in their
cheeks.

Shanghai’s first nursery dates
back to 1930, but when the city
was liberated there were only 52
in all. It Wwasefound that the few

surged to new heights behind the, attached to factories were there

party’s position against conscrip-

mainly for window dressing. They

were badly managed, and lacked
trained nurses and equipment,

Shanghai now numbers its nur-

‘series by the scores, with more

being set up each month, Most of
them are in factories.

Every child is now > provided
with one pound. of fish liver oil
and three pounds of special milk
powder a month. Nutritious food
has been added to the diet and
great emphasis is placed on clean-
_liness, Hane

What this Ineans to China's
women is best expressed by one
woman worker at a Tientsin tex-
tile mill. Recalling with tears how
impossible it was under the old

regime to get permission to have -
_ babies brought to the factory at

feeding time without toadying to
Owners and foremen, and how her
Own first-born was among the

_™any babies that died of hunger

whan their mothers were working
night shift, she said:
“It's hard for me to keep from

crying when, I see how well mY —

baby is now and I remember hoW
my first baby died of hunger. ©? —
baby is gaining weight, I feel be
ter myself, and the nurses
teaching me about child welfat
and hygiene. I don’t have to W'
ry as I used to and I can put my
heart into my work and
more. If only this had pire
earlier, my baby need not ha
died. »

One of the biggest eee
nurseries in the country is belDs
established in Peking along Pp
lines laid down when it as this
started in Yenan in 1944. At
nursery over 400 children — pas
brought up on the principle |

* doing things for themselves. —
g gs i ov

got their milk from th

cows, did their own weet
planting and growing, ‘held Pa™ thei?
ties to which they en fe owt
own guests, and staged th re
exhibitions of insects or fl
they collected. . ‘

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 15, 1950—PAGE

An immigrant ~

all my —

¥