-

Ee RTPA Ro EAT

4

Special Anniversary Edition

In Socialist Society, unshackled

science will have before it a
great and glorious future.
—LENIN.

Sot

ORKERS

ix Pages

All together for a mighty work-
ing-class press
against poverty,

in the fight
reaction and
imperialist war!

VOL. i.

Published Weekly

VANCOUVER, B.C., FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 1936

Single Copies: 5 Cents

SS

No. 53

Regina Commission To

Send One Man To B.C.,
Evans lo Expose RCMP

Trek Leader Has Copies |

of Instructions Sent by
Head of Federal

Police

CONTINUES

PROBE

REGINA, Jan, i5.—Departure of
one member of the Regina commis-
“sion and one lawyer to Vancouver
has been set back until after im-
portant police evidence has been
taken. When this one man com-
mission does leaye Regine, Arthur
Evans, trek leader, will also come
te Vancouver in order to assist the
defence committee here.

Cunningham, trekkers’ council,
objected to the splitting of the com-
mission, one member proceedine to
Wancouyer to hear evidence while
the sittings continue in Regina. He
declared that under the order-in-
council, by which the committee
Was Set up, it cannot legally divide
itseli Lhe commission, however,
decided that this split should talce
place.

Considering that the giving of
evidence before Commissioner Doak,
who is definitely opposed to the
trekkers, would expose defence
“witnesses for the trials of those
arrested, and enable the police to
build up rebuttals to their evidence,
the Regina Citizens’ Defence Com-
mittee advises that when the one-

man commission arrives at the
coast it should be completely
ignored.

Hardships For Trekkers If
_ Commission Splits.

Further, while ii is comparative-
ly easy for the commission toe send
one member to Vancouver, accom-
panied by
the case and still haye sufficient
legal representation for their pur-
poses in Regina, the trekkers, rep-
resented only by Evans and one
lawyer, would have to split their
terces in order to have one present
here familiar with the whole his-
tory of the commission and with its
procedure. This would work a ser-
ious hardship on the trekkers, both
in Regina and Vancouver.

Wires Provide Sensational
Exposures.

When Evans arrives in Vancou-
ver he will bring with him a tran-
script of the meeting between the
delesates of the camp workers and
R. B. Bennett at Ottawa in June
last. Copies of police wires be-
tween Sir James McBrien, commis-
sioner of the R.C:M.P., and Assis-
tant Commissioner Woods, R.C.M,.
P., have also been procured and
provide sensational exposures.

For distributing a leaflet asking
citizens of Regina who witnessed
the riot.on Market Square, July i,
and the events following, to get in
touch with the Regina Citizens’ De-
fence Committee, two workers were
arrested. Defended by Evans, who
labelled the charge as a deliberate
frame-up, charges against the two
Were dismissed.

Am open letter to the commission
is to be distributed from house to
house throughout Regina, exposing
the nature of the commission.

OPPOSITION FOR
. Mi‘DONALD’S SON

LONDON, Jan. 14. — Opposition
mounted to the government’s efforts
te find seats for Ramsay MacDonald
and his son Malcolm. Conservatives
of Ross and Cromarty rejected the
injunction of Prime Minister Bald-
win to give support to Maicolm Mac-
Donald in the forthcoming by-
election. 4

Wouthful Randolph Churchill, son
of Winston Churchill, has been nom-
inated by the local Gonservatives
association to run in opposition, and
is supported by both Conservative
and Liberals.

BOSS - INSPIRED
RUMORS SPIKED

By CARL HICHIN

WANNIPEG, Jan. §—Four hun-
dred shirt and overall workers, as-
sembled in the Trades Hall, Tues-
day night, decisively spiked boss in-
Spired rumors that their union,
United Garment Workers, were in-
tent upon concluding a collective
agreement with the manufacturers
which would entail a reduction in
pay for some of the workers in the
trade. :

The boss rumors were evidently
aimed at stopping the rapid srowth
of the union.

Unanimously the large gathering
declared, ‘We pledge our full moral
organizational support to our ex-
ecutive committee for the securing
of a Collective’ agreement peace-
fully, but if necessary to mobilize
for a general strike.’’

There are about 900 workers in
the local trade.

Half the world doesn’t know how
the other half lives, but it has its
suspicions.

a lawyer familiar with”

x

- +

STALIN

MINE OPERATORS’
PROFLIGATE LIFE

NEW YORK —wWhile miners are
Sacrificing their lives for profit of
the operators of coal and metai
mines, O. ©. MeIntyre, American
columnist tells us of the wild man-
ner in which one of these operators
throws-away this easy monty on
Broadway. P

Duncan Martin, “who has a
whopping income from Canadian
mining properties,’”’ is one of the

heaviest spenders around the New
York nigh+ clubs and has restored
the old-fas .oned custom of  tip-
ping he2adwaiters one hundred dol-
lar bills.

Miners, who have to be satisfied
with the music of machinery, will
be pleased to know that by their
efforts they are helping headwait-
ers and stage actresses out of the
depression.

$15 A Month,
Family Of 10

Chinese Get Starvation
Relief Allowance

VICTORIA, Jan. 10—Song Loo,
a Chinese resident of Victoria, B.C.
(830 Pandora Ave.), is unemployed,

and supporting a wife and eight
children on fifteen (15) dollars
worth of script per month, this

being the only unemployment re-
lief issued him.

This sum amounts to $3.75 per
week for the aforementioned fam-
ily, or five cents per day for each,
which makes possible only two
meagre meals a day for each, and
one for Mr. Loo, composed as they
are in most instances, entirely of
Starch.

This inadequate sum is supposed
to provide for the needs of this
family of two adults and eight chil-
dren, not only for food, but also for
elothing, fuel, ete. The family is
forced to subsist almost entirely on
a diet of rice, with an acute short-
age of vegetables and protein sub-
stances, it being an established fact
that a plain starch diet, especially
for smaller children is absolutely
detrimental to health and growth.

Organizations in Victoria are be-
ing circularised with a call to send
a resolution of protest to the City
Relief Officer with a request that
this family of Chinese working
people get the same relief allow-
ance as a white family of the same
number of children.

AGED RELIEF
WORKER KILLED

MURRAYVILLE, Jan. 14. — John
Svennes, 52, relief worker, of Bigear
Road, was killed, and John Miller,
60, Aldergrove, seriously injured
when the piles and substructure of
the partly constructed Biggar Road
ravine bridge cracked and gave way.

A pile driver, standing on the com-
pleted end of the bridge toppled
sideways, crashing down the side of
the ravine, crushing the two men
standing alongside of it.

An inquest will be held in Lang-
ley Prairie and it is expected Lang-
ley municipal officials will hold a

Special inquiry into the cause of the
accident.

First An

We made no mistake one

niversary

year ago when we forged the

weapon (The B.C. Workers’ News) and began to use it in the
interests of the workers and farmers of B.C. In face of the
capitalist reaction experienced during the past year the
working population of B.C, have responded to the cause of

the Workers’ Press nobly and
the paper has continued to

can feel proud of the fact that
come out regularly, and now

celebrates one year’s publication as an achievement of no

mean merit.

Before the paper was a month old it took up the task
of championing the cause of the starving Chinese workers of
Vancouver and the striking shingle weavers. It carried the
campaign against Hitler’s propaganda warship “Karlsruhe,”
and led the struggle against Fascism. In the fight for un-
employment insurance at the expense of the rich, in the

Camp Boys’ strike and Trek

to Ottawa, in the Longshore

Strike and in the most urgent striving for unity of labor
and progressive forces and the election of as many C.C.F.
and militant candidates as possible to legislative bodies, the

B.C. Workers’ News played a
It might have done more.

n important and leading part.
What it did accomplish might

have been done better and more effectively. We would be
the last to deny this fact. Experience is a great teacher.
Another year faces us and the tasks are even greater than

those of the past. "With co:

ntinued support. constructive

criticism and discussion by the masses of working people

of B.C.; with the contribution

of news by worker correspon-

| dents, and with that valuable weapon that Lenin gave to the

working class—SHLF CRITICISM—we are confident that
the B.C. Workers’ News will prove to be an even more

formidable weapon that will assist

the common people of British

greatly in helping to unite
Columbia for a greater share

of the wealth produced, for the preservation of our demo-
cratic rights against the encroachments of fascism, for peace,

and for the struggle for

socialism.

PACIFIC COAST
STRIKE SOLID

Qver Fifty Vessels Tied
Up in West Coast
Ports

SAN PRANCISCO.—The Steam-
Ship Pennsylvania, Panama Pacific
Line, was still tied up here as a
result of a strike of her entire crew
of 300 men. The crey; struck for
the right to sign on at West Coast
Seamen’s union wages and condi-
tions for the round trip, ending
in San Francisco. They point out
that the Hast Goast contract has
expired and that the seamen-of the
West Coast get $62.50 a month pay
and 60 cents an hour overtime,
whereas the old contract on the At-
lantic and Gulf coasts which the
company seeks to enforce on the
erew is for $57.50 a month and no
overtime pay.

The number of coastwise ships,
mostly schooners, now tied up in
Western ports by the lockout of
their crews has now reached fifty-

-CAMPBOYS TAKE
DRASTIC ACTION

Rotten Food and Condi-
tions Force Alberta
Workers to Move

POLICE ARREST 18

CALGARY, Jan. 12—Two hundred
workers in a relief camp here last
Saturday- threw tables-and benches
out during breakfast, being unable
to tolerate the rotten food any long-
er. The workers took this action
after all other methods had failed to
get redress for their grievances.

Instead of the promised $25.00 a
month dividend of Aberhart, the
workers are finding that all they.
can expect from this demogog and
Potential fascist is a worsening of
the conditions and increased police
terror.

Police arrested 18 workers after
the incident and are combing the rest
of the workers’ ranks to arrest all
militant workers they can in an ef-
fort to suppress the discontent
among the workers.

They Murdered An Innocent

Babe Of The

Another
Ruthless Profit-Hungry
Shipping Federation

Another victim was added to the
list of lives that have been sacri-
ficed to the lust and greed of the
Shipping Federation and to the re-
venge of Mayor McGeer and the
police last week, when a baby was
born to the wife of Harold Maides.
The baby was born on Friday, Jan.
10th, and it was dead.

Harold Maides is in Oakalla, sen-

Victim of the}

Working Class

teneced to six months in prison for
participation in the  longshore
strike. When he was arrested the
police in the city jail broke his
arm at the elbow. The Canadian
Labor Defence League got him to
a doctor after they secured his bail
(he was refused medical attention
in jail) and before the doctor could
treat his arm he had to get him to
the hospital to have it X-rayed be-
cause the swelling and inflammation
made treatment impossible.

His wife was pregnant and had
(Continued on page 5)

Smith Report Discloses B. C.
Electric Rly. Co. Gouged Huge
Profits Out Of Van. Taxpayers

LENIN

[Only Utility Company on
ent Not Resulated;

North American Contin-
Expert Says Fares

Should Be Reduced

<

TOM EWEN TO
TOUR CANADA

Tom Ewen, general secretary of
the Workers’ Unity League, will
commence an all-Canada tour at
Sudbury on January 26 Visiting
all important centres, and travelling
to logging camps and mines on his
way through the country, it is ex
pected that the tour will continue
for four or five months,

While spending some time in
Vancouver and Victoria, Ewen will
also go into the mining and logging
camps of British Columbia and hold
meetings of the fishermen in Prince

Rupert, ete.

FULL SLATE UNITY

NOMINATE

Vigorous Campaign Be-
ing Conducted in Muni-
cipal Election

PROGRAM ADOPTED

Municipal elections are again
facing the people of the Munici-
pality of Coquitlam, where in the
past such yictories as the continu-
ous election of the late Tom Doug-
las and Tom Allard to the Council
can be recorded.

When the people register their
votes on January 24 this year they.
will do so with greater unity of
thought and action than at any
time before. There has been formed
a Citizens’ Civic League with of-
ficial delegates from the G.CcF.,
Communit Party, Liberal Party,
Unemployed Association and frat-
ernal delegates from the Farmers’
Institute.

Unity has been established on the
common ground of electing to the
administration people who will have
at heart the best interests of the
citizens rather than those of the
vested interests.

; PROGRAM

(a) That there be no increase in
taxation.

That the Provincial Govern-
ment be approached with a
view of abolishing all tax pen-
alties on tax arrears.

That all interest charged on
tax arrears not to exceed the
Tate of interest charged on
loans to the Municipality by
the banks or the Provincial
Government.

Immediate payment of the
dollar-per-child increase in re-

(Continued on page 2)

ALBERTA URIONS
OPPOSE OLYMPICS

CALGARY.—Marlkins a distinct
Swing to the left, the Alberta
Federation of Labor in annual
convention here, issued a call to
organized labor to rally to the
fight against Wear and Fascism.

The convention went on record
as protesting aguinst the partici-
pation by Canadian athletes in
the 1936 Olympic games in Hitler
Germany.

(b)

(e)

(d)

Influence Of Lenin On
B.C. Labor Movement

By W. BENNETT

Pre-war is a word that has become
accepted into our language and de-
notes a definite line between every-
thing that obtained before 1914 and
all that comes after 1918. This is no
less true in relation to the labor
movement than to other phases of
social activity and it applies to B.C.
and Canada as well as to any other
part of the globe.

Of the world shaking events of
that four years of carnage and
Slaughter none was equal in histori-
cal significance to the October Reyo-
lution that placed the working class
in control of the great Russian Em-
pire, one sixth of the land surface of
the world, and brought to the notice
of the world’s workers the outstand-
ing figure of this century, LENIN,
the leader, the guide of the prole-
tariat in the final conflict with class
rule, in the strugele with imperial-
ism—decayine, dying capitalism.

Qnly those who were connected
With the labor movement in B.C. or
in Canada before the war, can
thoroughly appreciate the mighty
and profound change that has taken

place in it through the influence of

@the teachings of Wladimir Ilych; a

change accomplished in such a short

time as to seem almost marvellous.
Unknown to Canadians Before

: October

Before 1917 the Canadian workers
never even knew the name of Lenin.
Some of them had heard of Genghis
Khan and Tamerlane, but of Lenin
never a whisper had reached them,
even among the leaders of the most
revolutionary section; of his place in
the revolutionary movement they
knew nothing; of his work of build-
ing an iron, disciplined, revolution-
ary vanguard, armed with the weap-
on of Marxism, capable of drawing
under its leadership the masses af
workers and peasants, they were
ignorant. The consistent and relent-
less struggle against reformism, so-
cial-chauvinism and social pacifism,
the polemics against all who deviated
from the revolutionary line, that
were carried on by Lenin in the
early years of the century were un-
known to the Canadian workers.

We Were the “Real” Marxists

The more advanced section of the
workers in Canada, particularly in
B.C. were organized in the Socialist
Party of Canada. We in the S.P.

looked upon ourselves as the real
revolutionary Marxists. We consist-
ently refused to affiliate to the Sec-
ond International; that body and all
its works we looked upon with scorn.
To us it was an utter sink of confu-
sion, corruption and reformism. ALL
its Jeaders we considered tere
bought body and soul by the capital-
ist class and their following we look-
ed upon as an ignorant rabble who
could not even explain the differ-
ence between abstract and concrete
labor.

All working class
with the exception of a couple of
small sects, one in the States and
one in England, we placed in the
Same category as the Second Inter-
national.

With the trades unionists, who
were to us mere hucksters bargain-
ing over the price of the commodity
labor power, we refused to have any
truck. They had to be “‘educated,”’
to be made into socialists, and this
we considered to be our whole politi-
cal task, the purpose for which we
got candidates into parliaments in
B.C. and Alberta. With us Marxism
Was a dogma, divorced from real life,

organizations

CANDIDATES

D IN COQUITLAM

WART MAYOR’S
WINGS CLIPPED

Less power for Vancouver's dic-
tatorial mayor will be sought at the
next session of the legislature under

cil on January 13.

A: ruling from the chair requires a
two-thirds majority to upset it at
the present time. Council considers
that a straight majority of members
present should be sufficient. Alder-
men seek to stop any action of the
mayor being put through in opposi-
tion to a majority of the council.

Jobless Boys
Eat Garbage

Six Dollars a Week Re-
lief for Family of Ten

ORILLIA, Ont.—Branding it “dis-
graceful” and announcing that he
Was going to take it up with pro-
vineial welfare officials, Ald. Her-
bert Plowman, Orillia, described
how he and another Orillian, Allan
Church, saw two relief recipients of
Orillia township eating sarbage from
the back of a local cafe.

“We just happened to be passing
When Tf noticed two youths taking
seraps from the garbage cans,” Ald.
Plowman stated. “I couldn’t believe
it at first, but they did it. I went
over and questioned them and they
told me they hadn’t anything to eat
and were very hungry. Afterward
I inquired into the case and learned
that the pair, two brothers, were
members of a family of ten on re-
lief in Orillia township and all they
receive is $6 a week allowance.

“I became interested in the case
after what I saw and visited the
home. The family of ten had only
three beds and only one with a
mattress and they used old bags
on the others. The father told
me he got only $6 relief money
and until last month got only $4.

“We try to give all what they

need,” Reeve Drinwater said. SI
don’t know about this particular
case.”

NICKEL CO. BANS
WORKERS’ PRESS

Bosses Demand Work-
ers Cancel Subs and
Produce Certificates

of Cancellation

Threatening all employees who
read working class papers with loss
of their jobs, the International
Nickel Company of Canada, Creigh-
ton ines, Ontario, have ordered all
who subscribe to such papers to
produce certificates of cancellation
of their subscriptions. Tf such proof
is not produced the workers will be
discharged.

This attack on the rights of the
workers, this arbitrary ruling as to

what they shall or shall not read,
is being strongly protested:
Resolutions are being sent

throughout Canada askine workers
to demand of the International
Nickel Company the withdrawal of
this edict, and demanding the On-
tario Provincial Government take
measures to stop this attack on the
freedom of the press and freedom
of the workers to read what they

2 resolution passed by the city coun- ‘

Working Class Districts
Suffer from Inadequate
Car Service

OBSOLETE CARS

Wot many months ago an inves-
tigation was made by Mr. Allen J.
Smith, M.E.E.EIMA.Sce, ELRS.A.,
@ most competent engineer On
the basis of his findings the Utili-
ties Committee of the city last Aug-
ust made a report to the mayor and
aldermen in which they ‘were in-
formed that the affairs of the B.C.
H.R. are so mixed up that it is
difficult for anyone to come to any
Gefinite conclusion. However, out
of the tangle, deliberately made by
the company to becloud the issue of
Shameless exploitation of the people
of Vancouver, the committee, with
the help of Mr. Smith, were able to
bring: out many startling facts and
conclusions, amongst which are:

The B.C. Electric Railway Com-
pany is the only utility company
on the North American continent
not regulated.

The profits of tue company are
excessive and not 1 34 per cent,
as alleged, but are 6 3-4 per cent
on the company’s valuation and
8.79 per cent on our engineer's
calculations. _ '

The financial position of the
company is streng and rates
should not be raised, but should
be reduced.

The roadbed is not Standard
and not according to agreement
with the city and not modern.
The city is partially responsible
for this state of affairs. ~

The eastern and southern sec-
fions of Vancouver (working
cléss sections.—Ed.) are not ade-
quately served with transportation
facilities.

The number of cars and track
miles are insufficient and ecross-
town lines are necessary. —

More busses are advisable for
adequate service,

The charges made by the com-
pany for depreciation and main-
tenance are excessive and wwoulg
not be allowed under 2 prope
system of resulation.

The equipment is obsolete.

THE SYSTEM OF ACCOUNT
ING IS CALLED INTO QUES
TION.

it would appear that the com:
pany have not lived up to theiz
agreement with the cify.

The penalty of $200 a day for
violation of the contract exten:
Sions have not been made as de
mandeéed by the public.

The city has lost $21,000 a yea
on the assumption that the com:
pany was losing money.

The record of the company can-
not be accepted simply because
the company is not rezulated and
are prepared for dividend pur-
poses in the interests of the share-
holders and not in the interests
of the taxpayers.

The company are not provid-
ing the service and protection
that the citizens are entitled to.

Must Demand Lower Fares.

Mr. Smith, the Utilities Gommittee
urged that the city re-engage this
engineer to make further inquiries
into other utilities owned by the
B.C. Electric octupus, such as Power
and Light, Gas, Ete. That Mr.
Smith is qualified for the job can
not be questioned. He has an in-
ternational reputation, and was
recommended by the Gouncil of
Professional Engineers of B.C.

After the findings of Mr. Smith
and the report of the Utilities GCom-_
mittee, the B.C.E.R. got busy with
Sadly needed repairs and replace-
ments for a short while, but seeing:
the complacency ‘with which the
city fathers and the mayor regard-
ed the way the people of Vancou-
ver were being used by them they.
Save it up and the same old run-
down, ramshackle cars and negelect-
ed roadbed is permitted to exist.

City contracts between the city
and the B.C. Electric come up for
renewal this year, contracts which
also include street lighting agree-
ments, involving an expenditure of
three-quarters of a million dollars.

The people of Vancouver must
insist on a reduction in car fare to
5 cents, modern street cars, better
equipment and improved all round
Service. They must also demand
and secure regulation of the B.C.
Electric by the city.

Polish Champion Cannot
Box in Germany

A Polish-German boxing match
Scheduled to take place in Berlin
was called off when Shepsel Ro-
thols, Polish amateur champion
and member of the Jewish Workers
Sports Club, was notified by the
Berlin Club that he would not-be

(Continued on Page 3)

choose.

permitted to box there.

rom the disclosures foade by.