BREATHING SPELL FOR PEACE “democratic” Breakdown in talks averted by Stalin and Molotov to set back provocateurs Premier Joseph Stalin and Foreign Minister V. M. Molotov of the Soviet Union held ,a five- hour conference in Moscow Mon- day night with representatives of Britain, France and the United States to avert break- down of talks on the crucial German crisis. The Soviet move gave the world a fresh breath- ing spell for peace amd proved that the people can compel a peaceful solution of differences. This development temporarily frustrated worldwide provoca- tions designed by American war- mongers to disrupt the Mos- cow parleys. These provoca- tions have seen the big business press produce a new crop of heroes in the “anti-Communist” crusade—Ber- li: black marketeers, Nazi street hoodlums, white guard gansters and kidnappers, and the peeping toms of the un-American activ- ities committee which announces willing to smear Alger Hiss, Carnegie Peace Foundation head whose testimony the committee has not been able to shake. An Ottawa attempt to dis- rupt the peace parleys .with “Canada intelligence” reports of Soviet planes massed in Siberia to strike Canada fizzled when Major-General Churchill Mann, vice-chief of the general staff told reporters, “I am go- ing away happily on leave next week.” it is seeking chamber maids | Followin Morgan IWA were more than a stack of fig- ures in a book, They were a summation of the lives and deaths of more than a quarter of the coast’s industrial] workers and their families. These 125,- 000 men, women and children were not only in the courtroom figuratively—scores of workers came! off the job to crowd the courtroom chairs. They sat in rows and heard in figures what was written on the frames. They took -the. wit- ness stand to give flesh and blood to the black and white story of JOSEF STALIN : Reproduction of a new water {color portrait by Soviet artist V. Klimashin. B.C. youth juring pea The B.C. section\of the Beaver Brigade has done a good job for peace } B.C. youth won silver shock medals in the reconstruction work at Lidice, Czechoslovakia. Teli the people back home that when the world honors a reconstructed Lidice as a shrine of the anti-Nazi fight, they will be honoring a spot where we will have left our small mark for peace on behalf of the youth and all good people of B.C. The Brigade won a pennant and two eastern members w Carl Katola from Vancouver won a meda ‘together with three Victoria B.C. ELECTRIC “We're not interested in those things at all,” Carnothers inter- jected. : To Stanton’s plea that he-could not conscientiously represent a client with that amount of prepar- ‘ation Carrothers said, “It’s up to you to take care of yourself. Other representatives can do *the same.” Mrs. Effie Jones remained with advisors to carry on for the CRA. “We hope they do a good job,” ‘Carrothers sarcastically told Stan- ton, who replied in different vein, “J hope so too.” Grauer stated the company, would seek further increases if the new system “is unable to meet cost of service,” or “if charges should continue to increase,” or “if financ- ing requirements should necessit- ate a better showing respecting net earnings.” To company claims it had lost $238,235 in Burnaby in six months, Burnaby spokesmen replied that: (Nevite Transportation Company, bought by the BCE, had been a highly-profitable concern. Only municipality not represent- ed was Richmond. R. M. Grauer, brother to “Dal” Grauer, is reeve of Richmond. Hearings are continuing with Vancouver Trades and Labor Coun- cil, CRA, and several municipalities to be heard from. Vancouver LPP Committee is publicly demanding: restoration of origina] transit fares, cut in profits, and reduced electric rates. It says win awar By “DUSTY” GREENWELL on gold medals. , : 1, as did Elsie ouths and one from Nanaimo. at the International Conference of Working Youth in Warsaw. It was like entering a new world to enter Czechoslovakia from the Western Zone of Germany. The Czech people with fighting spirit are establishing a socialist nation. We went immediately to the re- Gonstruction camp at Lidice. The Czech government has turn- ed the job of reconstructing Lidice over to the youth. When the vill- age is finished it will be occupied by Kladno miners. Miners are miners in Nanaimo, B.C. or Kladno, Czechoslovakia, and the men here would have felt right at home in the United Mine Workers Hall just as I felt at home with them. The workers of Czechoslovakia are solid for socialism and the present government. Each week- end they work voluntarily on re- construction or harvesting. We joined in a work brigade at Kladno in a plant where ei IG : sed government ex- paren owe also visited Prague ‘and everywhere saw the same unity and conscious purpose. The people are stamping out the black- market. We visited the trade union head- quarters and Fronta, the only youth daily outside of the y ds at Lidice ce tour of Europe Brandon of North Vancouver, We wear our medals proudly SEAMEN We had received word only the day before that Scotland Yard had granted us permission to demon- strate and we-had worked most of the night to prepare the placards dotted about the crowd. High on lives’ spent in exploitation and speed-up, working for less than duce. The union told first a story un- derstood by every housewife: price boosts have slashed real wages a fifth since the last, agree- ment was signed. To this add- ed the fact that it takes $46.49 a week, after deductions, to sup- port a family at a minimum level of health and decency. Millwork- ers average $5.25 less than this before deductions—the basic rate is $8.49 less. Loggers average fifty dollars weekly but only part of the year and pay $14 camp board while still keeping a family at home. (Loggers eat twice as bed 7 —WARSAW much as the average adult, so far. Six]proving the enormous output of anergy in their work.) If the woodworker “is not kill- ed or crippled, he rapidly reaches the age where he can no longer maintain the pace to hold a job as a logger or millworker. He must in a comparatively few years provide for his mainten- ance in old age.” The union showed the cause of low. living standards. Page after page of government and company statistics documented a story of fabulous super-profits coined by the industry. Operators’ guilt was evi- dent from their failure to challenge by so much as a word the IWA’s proof of their ability to pay. Dollar value of lumber produc- the monument above us flew the Canadian flag and below it stretch- ed a huge banner bearing our de- mand: “Mr, High Commissioner — End the Reign of Terror on the Great Lakes.” We voted to organize the dem- onstration and so carry the story of the Great Lakes struggle to the British working people when we) heard reports that Canada Steam- ship Lines was arming its ships. »Harry Gulkin, an: East Coast seaman, opened the meeting with a review of events since the CSU broke the 84-hour week in 1946, showing how operators had striven to smash our union by open viol- ence and vicious red-baiting, One by one, other members told their own stories of the struggle. Among them was Frankie Free- man, whose picture has been flash- ed around, the world—held down by. tion rose from $88,221,000 in 1939 to $147,665,000 in 1945 to $225,000,- 000 in 1947, .The lumber and timber price in- dex rose from 100 in 1939 to 170.7 in 1945 and 281.3 in 1948. Profits? Bank of Canada fig- ures show that the seven large companies who have issued 1947 statements increased net income to shareholders in 1947 to 308 per- cent of 1946, 411 percent of 1939, and 617 percent of 1986. ’ — Piled on top of this is a huge growth in assets and reserves. ‘This searing. indictment of profiteering and exploitation left the operators branded with re- sponsibility not only for reduced living standards of the wood- worker, but also in large part for the housing shortage and increas- ed living costs facing the nation. Modesty and justice of the wood- half the value of what they pro-]> Soviet Union. While we were the long delay in holding the hear- ings “has played into the hands of the BCE and caused public suspicion of collusion.” From Prague half the brigade went to Sitno Castle in Slovakia and the rest of us directly to the conference at Warsaw. Several of us visited a plant which had been 60 percent destroyed in five weeks of bomb- ing prior to liberation by the Red Army. It is completely remodelled and 4500 men are producing 14 locomotives a month there. in France we were guests of the French youth until we joined with them in the July 14 Bastille Day Parade. Seven hundred thousand people marched through Paris under the slogan, “Keep France Independent.” four of Premier George Drew’s provincials and surrounded by 30 or 40 RCMP. : My own contribution to the meet- ing was to call for financial sup- port. The seven ships pledged a total of $3,960. One London worker, who donated a pound to our fund, told me he considered it fitting that the historic naval monument should provide the setting for a different but no less historic struggle. To us, as seamen, international working class solidarity has a real meaning, and to demonstrate it we sent a pledge of solidarity to strik- ing London dockworkers and. back- workers’ wage proposals was seen in the proof laid down that “if the union made demands equivalent to what the employers ask the pub- lic, our request would be 96 cents per hour or more, instead of 35 cents.” Extent of speedup from 1945 to 1947 was pointed up by an increase in log output of 36.4 percent, Bal- anced against a 37.6 percent boost in employment, this was shown. to mean that “in 1947 a logger work- ing a 40-hour week produced as much as he did in a 48-hour week in~ 1945.” Toll of the bloodstained drive for super-profits in woods and mills ed it with a financial contribution. was set forth in a. somber black- PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 27, 1948—PAGE }* —PORT ALBERNI, B.C. | A movement which, if taken up by other towns and com- mittees, can spread across the country and compel the King government to control prices and curb progteering, got under way in this Island city this week. g a prices protest parade staged by the Nigel lection Committee of the Labor-Progressive Party on August 14, Alberni Ratepayers’ Association, with the en- dorsation of Port Alberni City Council, called an all-in con- ference of organizations interested in fighting the government’s callous prices policy. | The preliminary meeting held in | the city hall last Tuesday, reflect- ing the enthusiasm generated by the parade, was attended by mem- bers of a wide cross-section of pop- ular organizations—trade unions, housewives’ fraternal and youth organizations, women’s auxiliaries, the CCF and LPP. . With Mayor Jordan in the chair, the meeting discussed and agreed upon holding of a public rally in. the RCEME hall, Glenwood, on September 14, to protest inflated prices and demand immediate gov- ernment action. All political parties will be) in- vited to send a speaker to address the rally, which will be presided over by Mayor Jordan. Recaliing that a similar citi- zens’ meeting in Port Alberni in- itiated the movement that forced the provincial government to es- tablish the B.C. Power Commis- sion (leading to reduced power rates), Mayor Jordan urged that the movement be taken up by other cities and municipalities. Ald Walter Yates stressed the need for an immediate roll-back of prices, reimposition of price con- trols and reintroduction of subsi- dies and the excess profits tax. “Those are the’ measures ‘the government introduced during the war to keep prices down. They worked effectively then. They can work equally effectively now. The main obstacle is the government’s own unwillingness to do anything.. We must prod the government so hard it will ha to act,” he declared. ; : bordered graph with a coffin--for every 10 of the 724 men‘killed since 1938. It was shown that the indust- ry has the worst accident record in the world, a record steadily worsen- ing as profits soar. “Every eleven minutes of every work-day in the lumber industry of British Colum-~ bia a worker is permanently oF — temporarily injured. Every three and a half working days a worker is killed. “Year after year mounting profits have been used to build enorMous reserves and to consol- idate and extend the control of half a dozen monopolists wh? have been busily building up tim- ber limits and merging formerly independent sawmills into gigan- tic combines. The IWA’s demands — will not stop this process but do present a practical program for utilizing some of the inflated rev- enues to better the conditions of the woodworkers—one-fourth of British Columbia’s industrial pop- ulation. This was a case for all B.C. to hear—workers, shopkeepers, farm ers, teachers, children—a case fecting the prosperity of a province more dependent on the woodwork- ers’ payroll than any other factor: What story could be more im portant to tell the people? Report ers for the dailies were there, but their editors gave them a handful of inches on an inside page—edit ors who give front page promin- ence to regular attacks on the dist rict union by Fadling and such of his supporters as those who sat i? the courtroom for all the world 45 | though they were not doing all i? their power to destroy the leaders of the woodworkers’ battle. The IWA case rests. The strike vote is in readiness to be used if need! be. Job stewards are pushing closer to a goal of 100 percent O% ganization in preparation for what ever action may be necessary to compel the lumber barons to yield to the people of this province ‘i portion of the super-profits that lead to depression.