People in the news

BERT ANDREWS

Bert Andrews, chief Washing-
ton correspondent for the New
York Herald-Tribune, has been
given the 1947 Heywood Broun
Memorial Award, granted an-
nually by the American News-
paper Guild (CIO) “for the most
outstanding journalistic achiev-
ment in the spirit of Heywood
Broun.”

A series of articles exposing
the State Department’s undemo-
cratic methods of dismissing em-
Ployees won Andrews the honor.

E. T. MAYNARD

Grain commodity prices fell,
but for E. T. Maynard, Chicago
re. down meant up as he

le a $400,000 profit by buying
and selling at the right time.
A Senate committee is investi-
gating to find out if he had |
“inside” information,

FERDINAND C. SMITH

‘Secretary Ferdinand C. Smith
of the National Maritime Union
(CIO), a native of British West
Indies, was seized by govern-
ment agents and hustled off to
Ellis Island, without bail, for
deportation. A New York emer-
gency membership meeting of
1,200 seamen immediately voted
to set up picket lines around
the Immigration Building to de-
mand Smith’s release. Smith is
charged with being a Communist,
and is the latest victim of the
red hysteria now gripping gov-
ernmen circles,

_ FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1948

Alberta CCF leaders
in redbaiting blitz

By R. B. SWANKEY
Two leaders of the Alberta CCF have publicly comment-
ed on the decision of the LPP to support the CCF in the
forthcoming elections. Mr. John King, provincial secretary,
speaking to the CCF study group at the University of Alberta

on the subject, “CCF, the Best Line
of Defence Against Communism,”
said that the object of the LPP was
was to discredit thea CCF!

Mr. Elmer Roper, provincial lead-
er, writing in the “People’s Week-
ly,” said that the CCF nomination
in the provincial constituency of
Pincher Creek-Crow’s Nest “an-
swers more effectively than words
could do the Sociat Credit false-
hood about an alleged liason be-
tween the LPP and_ ourselves.
Pincher Creek-Crow’s Nest is the
constituency in which the Alberta
leader of the LPP was nominated
a few weeks ago. Somebody asked
me why I thought the LPP had ask-
ed its followers to support the CCF
in the next election. I replied that I
supposed it was for the same reason

‘they had supported the Liberals in

1945—they probably want to sup-
port the winning party!”

Mr. King’s remarks that our ob-
ject is to discredit the CCF is, of
course, quite incorrect. We are out
to build the greatest possible de-
gree of unity of the progréssive
forces, in which the CCF can (and
we hope it will) play an active and
leading part.

Mr Roper’s remark that our ob-
ject is to be on the winning side is
equally incorrect. The record of
Communists everywhere is one of
courageous struggle against the
greatest odds. Our tactics are de-
termined by the needs of the Ca
nadia people, not by narrow party
considerations.

It would appear that neither Mr.
King nor Mr. Roper appreciate the
dangers Canada faces today Nor
do they see the need for unity. On
the contrary, they appear to fear
unity with the Communists as the
devil fears holy water.

In my opinion, both these gen-
tlemen are out of touch with
events, as wellas with the senti-
ment of their own folowers. I
eam confident that the rank and
file of progressive people in Al-
berta, including CCF supporters,
desire unity. After all, unity is
the only way to defeat Social
Credit, The CCF will not lose
votes by adopting a policy of
unity. Life and history both
prove that unity attracts, it does
not repel; and that red-baiting

in the progressive movement

leads to defeat, not to victory.

Mr. Roper’s statement that the
LPP supported the Liberals in
1945 is also quite untrue. In Al-
berta we contested all but a few
seats as Mr. Roper must know.
We called for the election of a
strong farmer-labor bloc that
would form a coalition with the
reform wing of the Liberal Party
in opposition to a coalition of
right-wing Liberals and Tories.
We called upon the CCF to join
with us in this endeavor, but they
refused, The result was a victory
for the Liberals.

It would appear that the CCF
nomination in Pincher Creek -
Crow’s Nest was a denwnstration
to prove to the powers that be that

Pollitt to tour
Canada in spring

Harry Pollitt, leader of the Brit-
ish Communist Party, will arrive
in Canada. on April 8 or 9 and
his first speaking engagement is
in Cape Breton on April 11. The
approximate dates for other meet-
ings for the British Communist
leader are as follows:

Toronto, April 13. or 14; Winni-
peg, April 17-18; Regina, April 19;
Saskatoon, April 20; Edmonton,
April 22; Calgary, Drumheller, Ap-
ril 238-25; Vancouver, April 27-30;
Toronto, May 2; Hamilton, May 3;
St. Catherines, May 4; Windsor,
May 7; Sudbury, May 9; Timmins,
May 11; Ottawa, May 13, and
Montreal, May 14-15.

Further notice on the Pollitt
meetings will be featured in the
Pacific Tribune when definite

dates are available.

_ comet t : 4

* R. B. SWANKEY
Alberta leader, LPP

Mr. Roper and the CCF will have
nothing to do with the Commun-
ists? :

The subject of Mr. John King’s
speech must have surprised even
many of his followers. Why
should Mr, King direct his main
blows not against capitalism but
against communism? His object,
it seems, is to rally around the
CCF all those opposed to commun-
ism. This political line places him
in some very strange company.
Solon Low, Bracken, Mackenzie
King, Drew and Duplessis, all fol-
low that line today. It is a danger-
out path that the provincial sec-
retary of the CCF is following,
one that leads to unity with reac-
tion against the people, as the be-
trayals of Bevin and Blum show.

No wheat next fall ’
unless price raised

EDMONTON—There will be no
grain deliveries to elevators next
fall unless the federal government
sets up a@ national grain board
and does something about major
farm demands, Carl Stimpfle, pres-
ident of the Alberta Farmers
Union warns. He stated that in
the event of a non-delivery grain
strike, wheat and other cereal
crops would be the only farm pro-
duce withheld.

This statement follows on the
heels of an interprovincial far-
mers’ union council meeting in
Saskatoon, where the AFU and
the UFC discussed farm demands
and decided on a delegation to

Ottawa.

British goods banned
in gov't ‘sell-out’

OTTAWA, Feb. 16.—It is not often that a special com-
mittee can divert attention from the relatively more spec-
tacular goings-on in the green-carpeted House of Commons

chamber.

Still, the neat manoeuver remov-
ing the contentious price issue
from Commons to the . draughty
railway committee room, ould not
black out the fact that really
legislative things were happenig in
Commons.

If the government was not act-
ing on prices it was acting on the
Abbott Austerity Program. Bill
No. 3 was in committee stage of
the whole House, its terms and
priciple under heavy fire from
critical opposition members,

In fact, approval of the Abbott
Plan would (as his November 17
announcement did) grvaely influ-
ence not only the future price
course of the nation, but determine
on a permanent level a new and
drastic dependency on the US.

Members were alarmed at the
ambiguity about the: Hyde Park
agreements signed in 1941 during
wartime to further North Ameri_
can economic unity. They wanted
to know how far the agreements
went into the peace. Generous ex-
emption from export restrictions
which the US applies to other na-
tions, had been given Canada.

Were these being extended into
the neace, as a sort of silent “inte-
gration” without parliament hear-
ing its details or approving?

Minister of External Affairs
Laurent took a Jong time telling
the facts, but finally admitted
that way back in May of 1934
there had been an exchange of
notes between >the US = and
Canada. :

These could now be tabled, said
the minister, it being February 13,
1948. He promisea details of the
US_Canada economic deal would be
set forth and present extended
terms of the agreement made
public.

T. J. Bentley (CCF-Swift Cur-
rent) sharply attacked the influence
which the US had on the Canadian
economy. He wanted to know
whether Canada had become a
“forty-ninth state”. Use of the
non-discrimination principle in the
Geneva agreements by the US was
excluding free trade with the
United Kingdom, said the member.

“J have been suspicious,” said
Mr. Bentley, “of what has been
going on in the last few years,
and I believe we are actually be-
ing sold ‘to the United States.
Before we go any further I
should like to know the terms, of
the sale I can see no earthly
reason for banning British goods
from this country.”

The insistence of US interests on
non-discrimination in their trade
deals meant blocking out trade with
Britain and real discrimination
against the British people who
needed the Canadan market

22:20 See ey ner Raa ere
Tim Buck to speak at Gardens rally

Arrangements are under way for
a big) public rally in the Exhibi-
tion Gardens on Sunday, March
14 at 8 pm. with Tim Buck,
national leader of the LP as the
guest speaker. The LPP leader
will speak on “A CCF government
for Canada.”

Elgin Ruddell, Vancouver or-
ganizer of the LPP will act as
chairman at the Gardens meeting.
Nigel Morgan, provincial leader
will also address the rally.

The Exhibition Gardens has in-
stalled an improved public address
system and a committee under the
direction of John Goss is in charge
of stage arrangements. For seat-
ing reservations contact the Van-
couver city committee offices,
phone TA. 2030.

TIM BUCK
National Leader, Labor-Progres-
sive Party

Johnson gets
film protest

NEw YORK -— Continuing its
campaign to have 20th Century-
Fox’s film, The Iron Curtain, with-
drawn from distribution as “ini-
mical to the aims and welfare of
the United States and the United
Nations,” the National Council of
American-Soviet Friendship has
now taken its case to Eric John-
ston, president of the Motion Pic-
ture Association of America,

The film, based on “revelations”
of the Soviet traitor Igor Gouzenko
during the Canadian “spy scare,”
was filmed partly in Ottawa, with
Dana Andrews playing the lead-
ing role.

The coucil through its national
chairman, the Reverend William
Howard Melish, recently requested
Spyyros Skouras, head of 20th
Century’s board to halt distribu-
tion of the film. The council’s re-
quest for, this action, or for a
conference to discuss it, remains
unanswered Dr. Melish said.

Stressing the fact that it is the
“community responsibility” to halt
the spread of “dangerous. disease,”
Dr. Melish asked for a similar
type of action in the case of this
film which he described as con
taining “the explosive elements
which could do irreparable harm
to our nation’s international stand-
ing and future peace and secur-
ity.”

“The political and economic im-
plications of this picture for the
industry and for peace-loving Am-
ericans are too strong to be ignor-
ed. The ill-will, the hatred, the
suspicion, the revulsion engendered
by this film promises to be for
beyond the effect of a single-film
exhibition. It will have profound
and basic adverse effects on our
national -interests.” -

(In Moscow this week, David
Zaslaysky, commenting on The
Iron Curtain in Pravda, char
racterized it as “the most filthy
commercial undertaking of our
time.” He named External Af-
fairs Minister Louis St. Laurent
and Finance Minister J. Isley
as two Canadian cabinet minis-
ters who had aided production
of the film in an “ignominous
attempt to discredit the Soviet
Union.)

Jobless iboosted
by Abbott plan

WINNIPEG — Fifteen hundred
workers per week are losing their
jobs on the prairies. This is the
trend noted in unemployment
conditions as revealed in the
weekly reports of the chief em-
ployment officer for the prairie
regions, j

31,272 men and women’are now
looking for work in mid-western
Canada, according to the latest
available reports.

This total represents an _ in-
crease of 9,000 unemployed in the
last six weeks—a rate of 1,500
workers a week for this period
of ime. Meanwhile the 30 em-
ployment offices in the prairies re-
gions list only 4,198 jobs available
(most of them bush work and
domestic services), a six-week
drop. of 871 in employment va-
cancles,

And in Halifax National Em-
ployment Service officials have
admitted that in another six weeks
or so with present trends, un-
employment is expected to total
one tenth of the city’s population.
NES officials estimate that there
are 7,500 in the Halifax area with-
out work, and when the seasonal]
slack hits its peak at the end of
next month, another 2,000 persons
are expected to join the ranks of
unemployed.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 2