*

TRAN TLT TAA

]t has often been a source of
wonderment to us ‘where the
economic editorial writers of the

local press get their data from. "

Certainly it never appeared to be
gathered from that body of econ-
omic writing that warrants the
name of “science’’, bs
_ For me the veil was rent asun-
der one day last
week on read-
ing an editorial
in Vancouver's
3elf - proclaim-
ed leading
newspaper
{since the
Province had
the scab label
pasted on it).
‘The writer in
this case puts
on the harness :
of Goliath and goes forth to do
battle with an economic David
of the “comic strip,” Li'l Abner.
Not being a “comic strip” fan,
I had no knowledge of Li’l Ab-
ner’s adventures into the world
of economics although I am quite
willing to admit that there is
more than a little truth in the
statement of a. friend of mine
to whom I mentioned the edit-
orial, that if they took Li’l Abner
-out of the paper there would be
nothing left in it. i
Li'l Abner and his Dogpatch

e

_ friends, it appears, have discov-

ered a fabulous creature, whe-
‘ ther fish, flesh, fowl or good red
herring is not stated, but it has
the marvellous faculty of pro-
viding the Dogpatchers with all

AN

the food they need in plenty,
without working for it. ~

This is, of course, to the edit-
orial mind, a threat to our glori-
ous, free-enterprise civilization,
“the whole fabric of capitalism is
about to fall apart,” if Lil Abner
is not stopped from intriguing the
workers of the capitalist world
with the idea of something that
provides plenty for all and not
just for a favored few, by the aid
of “shmoos” as these fabulous
creatures are called, or by any
other means.

Time magazine, also, is so wor-
ried about the business that it de-
votes a whole page to refuting L’il
Abner, even calling upon its arch-
enemy, Karl Marx, for quota-
tions on the economy of scarcity.
Of course Marx is distorted for
this is not a, question of scarcity
but of plenty.

Nor did [i'l Abner discover
this economic problem! There
have been in society ever since it
split up’ into classes, a class that
has known about “shmoos” al-
though they did not give them
that name, They found an animal
that provided them with plenty
of everything without them-
selves turning a hand or shedding;
a drop of sweat—the working
class.

Harvey R. Mac-a-Million knows
about them. He garnered from
them last year, fourteen million

dollars’ worth of plenty, which is

as good as any “shmoos” could
have done, but the “SIN” econo-
mists would not dare to see that
angle of it even if they had the

wen

oN page five of this paper there

is a short story entitled “No
more Blues On The Danube.” It
is a very short story—but a very
important one.
Actually the full text of the de-
liberations at
the recent his-
toric Danube
Conference
would fill many
pages of the Pa-
cific Tribune.
The full story
may be avail
able soon in
booklet form,
but itis a cinch
the imperialist
diplomats in
Washington, London and Paris

will not themselves publish it. . .

- nor hail its publication.
Let us recall the “coverage” of

_ this Danube Conference in the

‘daily press! About all they had
psc tell us was how uncouth, stub-
born, and undiplomatic the Rus-
“sians were—and how patient and
“eager “our’ Ango-American “rep-
Sxésentatives” were for an amic-

_ Able settlement. Well, as the story:

> relates, an amicable settlement
has been reached, by and for the
_peoples immediately concerned.

. Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei

'-Vishinsky of the Soviet Union

“and the peoples’ representatives
through whose lands the Danube

- Yolls, held to the idea that its

control was primarily their busi
ness. Particularly since 1856 on-
wards they have had more than
enough of the other kind of con-
trol, which looks to the imperial-
ist interests of foreign capitalists
and not to the interests of the
peoples of the Danubian coun-
tries

In fact it was something of a
shock to our fine “democratic”
sensibilities (if one takes the
hysterical daily press version) to
have our old-school-tie silk-hatted
diplomats unceremoniously told
by Andrei Vishinsky to “cooper-
ate, or get out’.
Ree nd
[LET ‘us look at the picture
~ from another angle. Sunmose
the Soviet Union demanded a
share in the control of the Suez
or Panama Canal, or let us say
our Own Welland canal? What an
uproar that would raise! What
an uproar has been raised against
recognizing that the) USSR, geo-
graphically, economically, and in
the interests of world peace, has a
legitimate claim to sharing the
control of the Dardanelles.

Millions’ of Marshall Plan dol-
lars have ben poured into Turkey —

and Greece for the’ very pur-
purpose of blocking just such a
legitimate claim. All on the Hit-
lerite excuse of “containing com-
munism”!

Messrs. Bevin, Marshall and
Schuman cited previous pacts

We iE
UNI
alli (JB), 4

Published Weekly at 650 Howe Street
By THE TRIBUNE PUBLISHING COMPANY LTD.
Telephones: Editorial, MA. 5857; Business, MA. 5288

Tom McEwen

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eo Printed by Union Printers Ltd.. 650 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC,

Short Jabs

URC ge

slightest glimmering of econo-
mics,

There is a grim warning in this
to the workers of B.C. If they
want to know anything about
economics, or polities either, they
should not seek such knowledge
from the hack editorial writers
of the capitalist press. The work
for which these monkeys-on-a-
stick are, paid, sometimes 30
pieces of silver, is not to make
economic problems clear to them
but to confuse them.

That is why we need our own
press: that is why papers like
the Pacific Tribune are absolute-
ly necessary.

é @

If any proof of that is needed
one has only to look over the
barrage of lies and slander loosed
by the capitalist newspapers
against the best leadership in the
trade unions in the past few
months; the gloating of the ‘“ob-
jective” writers who hail every
disruptive statement or move of
the strike-breakers and wreckers
who are their heroes today. Do
you remember the old jingle, “A
scab is a louse and a rat, I con- |
fess, but a scab is never a scab
in the capitalist press’?

So it is necessary that every
worker who values his union as
his shield and buckler in the
struggle, get behind the Pacific
Tribune drive for new readers
announced on another page.

If you can help this column to
do its share, write to me and I
will send you the rigging.

e Se

controlling the’ Danube —
not made with and for the Dan-
ubian countries, and why these
should not be changed. It is also a
matter of historical record that
they broke these pacts anytime it
suited their anti-Soviet, anti-so-
cial purposes. Now they croak
about the “sanctity” of pacts?

_ It is also a matter of historical
record (although well hidden
away in the dusty files of diplo-
matic “secret” agreements), that
the same imperialist powers when
it suited their purpose, could
promise the Tzar of all the Rus-
sians control of the Dardanelles
in return for his liberal squander-
ing of Russian lives in World
War I. These imperialist gentle-
men also let it be known (along
about the time of Stalingrad),
that after World War II, the So-
viet Union’s legitimate claim for.
a voice in the control of the Dar-
danelles would also be ‘honored.’-
Honored indeed!

It has always been an outstand-
ing characteristic’ of imperialism
to give away what doesn’t belong
to it. Also to forget “promises”
when the danger is over. After all
haven’t Bevin, Marshall, and com-

pany already forgotten the pacts

of Yalta and Potsdam ... and
other important commitments,
made when they found their own
necks in the grip of the Hitlerite
Frankenstein they had built up
to destroy the Soviet Union—the

one State which alone could re-

pay them, by saving their imperi-
alist hides from the fascist hor-

hor they had unleashed!

The Danube’ Conference |
achieved an outstanding victory
for socialism. That is what
‘makes it important news to
workers everywhere. That is
also what makes the Bevins,
Marshalls and their kind fume
and splutter, and their kept |
press “indignant” with a well-
subsidized anti-Soviet hysteria.

First lady of Vancouver

Ro some time past we have been intrigued by the
anxious speculations of non-partisan adherents as to
whether Effie Jones was going to run for mayor in the
1948 civic elections. Obviously it takes quite an effort to
get an idea through the heads of some of these City Hall
museum pieces. ‘That question was settled away back on
December 10, 1947, when 19,218 citizens of Vancouver—
a majority of the people—-voted Effie Jones for mayor.
Effie Jones is definitely running for mayor. More,
on that evening of 1947 Effie Jones said: “I shall be
in the forefront of the pecple’s fight from tomorrow
morning onward, and here and now I want to serve
notice that I shall be in the mayoralty fight again next
yea.” . -

That would seem to be clear enough. All the issues
Effie Jones. fought for in 1947 are still with us. Non-
partisan subservience in the City Hall to B.C. Electric civic
and community domination. Increased car fares, gas rates
upped, poll taxes, lack of educational and hospital facilities,
and a host of other vital issues affecting the people, buried
by the CNPA office holders.

In 1947 a majority of the people who went to the polls
voted Effie Jones for mayor. his in spite of an anti-
quated, undemocratic City Charter which disenfranchises
countless scores of citizens, the while permitting big busi-
ness the luxury of a multiplé vote. Thus, while a working
class representative won the mayoralty election, the CNPA
managed to finagle the seat —

In the Pender Auditorium on October 6 a mass rally
of Vancouver citizens will meet to hammer out a civic
program and plan the strategy which will guarantee that
the election of liffie Jones will not be stolen as is 1947.
Arrangements, have been made for an overflow meeting,
and Effie Jones’ civic election opening speech will be broad-
cast to the people of Vancouver. The spontaneous enthu-
siasm surrounding Effie Jones in the last civic elections—
which gave the people the only opportunity they had to
express their dissatisfaction with B.C. Electric domination
of civic affairs, assures that this rally will be the greatest
of its kind ever held in Vancouver.

‘Effie Jones in the mayor’s chair means the end of
CNPA and monopoly domination at the City Hill. It also
means, a new deal for the B.C. Electrocuted people of Van-
couyer. : ee
Effie Jones was elected in 1947. The people will
see to it she takes her seat in 1948.

eo

Looking backward —

(From tke files of The People’s Advocate, September 30, 1948)

Red hunters who yeli Communist at anyone trying to improve
the living ‘standards of the mass of the people, were lashed by U-S-
Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes. “The drawing of this oderous
red-herring across the trail is encouraged by those who, havins
ce iy eraeee, as parasites upon our social and economic
system, have grown obese from the special privileges upon which
they have been permitted to gorge Haitelece = ae i

To the red hunter every man‘ or woman who would bring about

improvements in our economic system so that it could mo longer b@ —
said that 60 percent of the citizens of America are living at or below
the margin of a decent existence, is 4 Red or a Communist who is —
dangerous to the welfare of America. ,

“The fact is that the man who is most dangerous to our institu-
tions is the mar: who would deprive any citizen of those civil right?
which are guaranteed to him by tke constitution, or who would deDy

those economic rights without
hollow mae out which civil rights themselves are ‘

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 24, 1918—PAGE