2)

Page Six

B.C. WORKERS’ NEWS

B.C. WoRKERS News

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Vancouver, B.C., January 24, 1936

NO COMPANY UNIONS

efforts of the Canadian Collieries
Nea Ltd., to smash the miners
union in Cumberland is meeting with stern
resistance on the part of the ae ae
e company are endeavoring to set up_
ene eee on the Blaylock plan as -
Trail, but the miners are sternly opposed to
it. True, Col. Villiers is able to round up 2
few suckers and company rats to form a
nucleus of his company union in pupesno?
to the genuine union of the men, but t is
fake organization is being opposed and ex-
posed by the organized miners.,

Meanwhile, the 23 miners who were black
listed by the company for their union ac
tivity, are not working, despite the Oey
ment subsidy to the company. to keep
miners working and off relief.

The miners are ‘successfully struggling to
maintain their union, and at the same time
seeking to unite with all other unions 10 the
proyince. This is the line that will bring
success. At all costs the movement to again
pring company unionism into

Gumberland
must be defeated.

ONE MAN “INVESTIGATES”

ee Gommission appointed to eee
lice riot on Dominion Day egina
eee 4 barefaced attempt

i ing its role as :
ee police on that

to cover up the actions of the
day. sue
Although the Commission has no au-
thority to divide itself, the members of the
commission are manoeuvring to send one—
only one—of the commission out to Vancou-
ver to carry on the investigation.
This one man, who is supposed to investi-
gate, is notoriously unfriendly to the camp
trekkers, and will have with him a lawyer
to look after the interests of the police.
No worker can have confidence in such an
investigation, particularly when they are re-
fused counsel on it, and the only attitude for
the workers to take is to 1gnore this one-
man fake investigation and boycott it.
The workers have been deceived too often

with these boss-controlled commissions, and
should tell Mackenzie King that they want
no more of them.

The camp boys have their union, and what
they did before to expose the rottenness of
the camps can be done again, and more ef-
fectively.

The issue of forced labor in Canada is a
burning one. While the bourgeois press is
trumpetting a return of prosperity to the
owners of industry, the forced labor camps
remain.

Organization and strike struggle compelled
King to concede the transfer of the slave
camps from the control of the brass hats to
the department of labor. More organization
and struggle will compel him to abolish
them.

THE BANK HOLDUP

FTER more than a year’s administration
of city affairs by Mayor McGeer, who
was elected to office on a ticket of cleaning
up crime in Vancouver, we have just wit-
nessed one of the most gory weeks in the
city’s history. One bank teller and two ban-
dits lie dead, a bank manager wounded, and
three youngsters are charged with murder.

For any politician to boast of making a
city like Vancouver a crimeless city in three
months after election stamps him either as
a demagog or a lunatic. The wonder is that
crime in Vancouver is not more prevalent.
McGeer hired hundreds of special police in
1935 during the camp boys’ strike, a force
composed of all the riff-raff of the country,
and on top of that the Shipping Federation
with the assistance of McGeer, brought into
the city several hundred scabs to break the
longshore strike. Everyone knows that a
goodly percentage of such people is composed
of criminals and anti-social elements.

Extra police, enlarged police quarters (as
proposed by the Chief), extra modern equip-
ment, “G-men,” C.1.D. men, stool-pigeons,
and informers by the hundreds, and all the
other hysterical demands of McGeer, police
heads, and the bankers will not avail in eurb-
ing crime as long as Capitalism and poverty
exist. Work and wages would no doubt allevi-
ate the situation, but crime, like imperialist
war, has an economic foundation. Before
erime can be eliminated from our midst, this
economic foundation will have to be uprooted
and poverty abolished.

B.C. Workers’ News

Radio Broadcast

FRIDAY—8:45 to 9:00 P.M.
CKMO

9990000994
9999909000999

CAA a

S6T. LEOPOLD
IS DEMOTED

(Gontinued from page 1)

REJECTS

were

strikers

jaiton.” Trekkers’ counsel, Mr.

CGunningham, was instructed to ask

Fivans to return these copies.
Defense Issues Open Letter

An open letter to the Commission
by Evans, distributed throughout
Regina, also prought bitter com-
ment from members of the Com-
mission.

Seven reasons are given in the
open letter as to why objection is
¢aken to the sending of one Com-
missioner to Vancouver, these, in
brief, are: =

1. The commission has not legal
right to divide itself. Terms of
the Order-in-Council which cre-
ated it gives the Commissioners
only the power to sit together.

2. It is essential that all Com-
missioners see the demeanour of
all witnesses in the witness pox.

8 it is essential that trekkers’
eounsel cross-examine all wit-
messes who appear before the
Commission.

4. Witnesses on trekkers’ behalf
in Wancouver and Calgary will
not have confidence in other than
trekkers’ counsel and therefore
will not appear before Commis-
sioner Doak.

5. Evidence as to making of
clubs on duly 2 can only be ob-
¢fained in Vancouver. R.C.ILP-
counsel, through stool-pigeons,
tries to suggest these were made
prior to duly 1. :

&. There is no doubt that the
R.GIM.P. with unlimited resour-
ees at their disposal will provide
counsel at Vancouver and Cal-
gary to ‘Gmpartial’” witnesses and
prepare them for examination.

7. In theory Tourigny. (Commis-
sion counsel) may be able to fight
both sides of the case but in
EAGT this is impossible.

Bitterly attacking Gommissioners
Martin and Brown for raising the
question of the expense to the tax-
payers, while drawing a huge daily
stipend from the taxpayers for
their task, Evans declares that all
needed witnesses would proceed to
Regina for nothing other than their
bare expenses. He proposed in the
interests of economy that all three
commissioners, one counsel for
strikers, one for R.C.M.P., and one
for the commission proceed to Van-
eouver and Calgary, and do so
gratis, except bare expenses.

Evans Will Arrive in Vancouver
Sunday

Arthur Evans will arrive in
Vancouver Sunday morning, Jan.
26, to further assist in the work
of the defence. No decision has
yet been made as to when Com-
missioner Doak will arrive here
for the investigation, the original
date being postponed at the same |
time Evan’s letter was published. |

were found gui
ficers.

‘Byen if the

™@rotsky just as
as in reality
out .. - bY

injury
Party,

Edition, p- 416.)
“y am far from

rade Trotsky in t

October uprising;
he only carried
orities, which

social-patriots

fatherland”

“preat”

Basle.—_LENIN.

CAPITALIST COURT
APPEALS

OF COREIN MINERS IMI) AN RESERVES

s of six convicted Corbin
ees dismissed by the
Court of Appeal on Wednesday. |?Flu
Paul Jacob had his sentence re)
duced to six months and a $200 fine ;
from nine months and

ther appellants 3S; |
eae Robert Herd and Wil-
liam Corlett, “sentenced to three
nths and $100 fines,
Ginieont six months and $200.
The convictions arose out of a
clash between police and striking
miners and their sympathizers at

S in on April 17. :
OTe lty of assaulting of-

Se
‘new tasks and
i , by

ods” had been pointed out bs
me highly correctly
they have Bese
int out incorrectly through-
pomes such an approach
alone Trotsky would
both to piniself to the
to the union movement, to
the education of millions of mem=
bers of the labor
the Republic. {V

lected Works, Vol, XXVI, Russian

a
LENIN ON TROTSKY.
denying the ua-
doubtedly pnportant role of Com-
he uprising. But
{ must state that Comrade Trot-
sky did not and could not have
played any special role in the
: that, being the
etrograd Soviet,
into effect the
will of the respective Party auth-
guided every step
rar + ee : oi 1.
of Gomrade Trotsky ieee

LENIN ON “TROTSKY”

president of the P

“In my opinion,
getting entangled in

wavering ones, like .. - Trotsky
the work of OUR OWN party |
NATIONAL spirit.”— (V. I. Lenin,
Vol. 1, English Edition, p. 21).

WHAT IS SOCIAL-CHAUVINISM?

Social-chauvinism is adherence to the idea of “defending the
in the present war. From this idea follows repudiation
of the class struggle in war time, 2
etc. In practice the social-chauvinists conduct an anti-proletarian
bourgeois policy, :

of the fatherland” in the sense of fighting against the oppression of
a foreign nation, but upen the “right”
nations to rob the colonies and oppress other peoples.
social-chauvinists
saying that the war is conducted for the defence of the freedom and
the existence of the nations; thus they put themselves on the side of
the bourgeoisie against the proletariat.
belong those who justify and idealise :
bourgeoisie of ONE of the belligerant groups of nations, as well as
those who, like Hautsky,
of ALL belligerent pations to
chauvinism, being in practice a defence of the privileges, preroga-
tives, robberies and yiolence of ; 1er)

ist bourgeoisie, is a total betrayal of ali Socialist convictions and a
violation of the decisions of the International Socialist Congress 1m

DEATH STALKS ON

Epidemic Follows
Poverty; Whole Settle-

3500) ment Stricken

were Joe Press, |

By CARL HICHIN

and Carl

WINNIPEG, Man., Jan. 15——A de-
layed report from Hudson, Ontario,
states that a recent visit of Capt.
Hdwards, Indian agent and a doctor
+o Swan Lake, reveals that the whole
settlement of sixty-one Indians in
that area were stricken by influenza
and “barely able to make their own
meals.’ The visitors treated the sick
and made them their first proper
meal in many days.

The agent and the doctor report
that an epidemic of influenza has
stricken the Indian population
throughout northwestern Ontario re-
sulting in several deaths and afflict-
ing several hundreds seriously. Local
workers who haye mined in that dis-
trict state that abject poverty stalks
the whole of the settlement and re-
serves. ,

The accused

have caused

unions, and to
{. Lenin, Col-

“As a separate slogan, however,
the slogan, “United States of the
World” (slogan advanced by
Trotsky) would hardly be a correct
one, first because it merges with
Socialism; second, BECAUSE It
MAY WRONGLY BE INTER-
PRETED TO MEAN THAT THE
VICTORY OF SOCIALISM IN A
SINGLE COUNTRY IS IMPOS-
SIBLE (our emphasis); it may also
create misconception as to the
relations of such a country to
others.”—{Lenin).

our main task is to suard against
foolish attempts at “unity” with the
(or, what is still more dangerous, with the
and Co.) and to continue
in a consistently INTER-
The Revolution of 1917,

voting for military appropriations,

because in practice they insist not on the “defence

of one or the other of the
The

follow the bourgeoisie in deceiving the people by
To the social-chauvinists
the governments and the

recognize the equal rights of the Socialists

“defend the fatherland.” Social-

“one’s own’ (or any other) imperial-

A REPLY By GUY GLOVER

In an article, oniy recently
brought to my notice, entitled “Art
and Propaganda’ appearing in The
B.C. Workers’ News of December 20,
1935, Mr, Bill Bennett undertakes to
eorrect my views in regard te the at-
titude of Mars and Engels to-the re-
lation between art and propaganda.
He does well to do so because, in
truth, I knew very little about their
Opinions on this (to me) very import
ant subject.

The very fact that it was not
deemed important by either Marx
or Engels accounts for the fact that
they had very little to say on the
subject (being “‘“engaged in more use-
ful work’’). Mr. Gennett’s article is,
therefore, made up, not of Marx's
opinions of art, but of Mr. Benneti’s
own opinions (always, of course, subh-
jected to rigorous Marxist discipline);
all of which is perfectly all right ex-
cept that Mr. Bennett really says
very little that “corrects” statements
made in my article. Furthermore, 1
hope that I am mistaken when I
think I detect a certain sarcasm in
Mr. Bennett’s remark that he ‘‘does
not belong to the chosen of God.”
When he assures us that he is not an
artist. we feel that he thinks he is
something a trifle better. This mili-
tant philistinism, this cult of the
simple, direct man grappling with
harsh, non-artistic realities is be-
coming just as distasteful an affecta-

FIVE LEADERS

Left to right (front row): Browne
Sarosjka; Elsie Chopp.

Back row: Vera Boideniuk, Vera
Olshewsky, Olga Lapinski.

This group of members of the
“Junior Section’”’ of the Ukrainian
Labor and Farmer Temple Asso-
ciation raised $28.46 for the Work-
ers’ Press in the recent Drive.
These are some of the Young
Pioneers of Socialism.

tion, just as indiscriminiate a fetish,
just as, in effect, bourgeois, as the
idiotic, arty, “ivory-tower” attituae
which Mr. Bennett himself so cor-
rectly deplores. It is the besetting
sin of Canadian Communists. Rus-
Sian, Communists, it appears, have
got over it—that is why Russian in-
tellectual life is beginning to really
blossom forth.

Mr. Gennett concerns himself
somewhat over my allowing myself
to be influenced by ‘“‘the renegade
intriguer, Max Eastman, and,
through him, that other counter-
revolutionary, Trotsky.”’ Mr. Bennett
is concerned unduly. I allowed my-
self to be influenced by no one—on
either one side or other. As a mat-
ter of fact it was all a cruel joke. I
quoted Trotsky because there came
to my uninitiate ears, as an unin-
formed member of the political pub-
jic, a rumour that there existed peo-
ple who would turn purple and
make peculiar noises when one men-
tioned the word “‘Trotsky.’’ This
seemed to me to be an extraordinary
phenomenon and I decided, having
a suitable opportunity, to find out
about it. I proceeded to head my
article on “‘Art and Propaganda”
With a quotation from Trotsky and
mentioned him again in the body of
the article. I found out! Mr. Bennett
is only one among dozens. I have
never seen so high a percentage of
people of one persuasion become so
hysterically uneritical and illogically
irresponsible! All at the mention of a
name! Ail because of 4 quotation and
a quotation that was far from being
absolute nonsense! Of course Trot-
sky is probably very often wrong.
Does that make him always wrong?
And does that make his opponents
always right? The people of whom I
speak would like to thinks so. They
have fallen into a deplorable state:
They have an over-simplified point
of view—they are always right, the
others always wrong; what is not
black is white; what is not ‘‘bad’’ is
“sood;” and so on, through a whole
series of simple dichotomies. This is
not the thought process of a modern
brain. This is a form of mediaevalism
which,

while lending itself very
handily to political exploitation, is
hardly to be admired or cultivated.

Mr. Bennett throughout his article
implies that when I wrote “art un-
der bondage to the working class is
just as servile as an art under bond-
age to the bourgeoisie,’ I meant that
art under bondage to the bourgeoisie
was somehow better off than art
would be under bondage to the work-
ing class. Of course I said and
meant no such thing. They are both
equally bad states for art to be in.
Art under bondage to the bourgeoisie
is, admittedly, in a pitiful and loath-
some predicament—and it is in this
predicament because it is under
bondage. A caged eagle is a stink-
ing, unnatural object. There is
nothing to prove that art under
bondage to the working class would
be any better off; we of the working
class flatter ourselves if we think it
would.

I made the mistake in my article
(outside of serious mix-ups made by
the printers) of not saying straight
out that “All art is propaganda.”’ Of
course it is, inescapably. All propa-
ganda, however, is not art, and it
was about this propaganda that is
not art, but which is still valuable
propaganda, that I was thinking
when I wrote my article. Mr. Ben-
nett knows as well as I do that there

are several types of propaganda that,

S

Art And Propaganda

although hardly “art,” are, by virtue
of their destructive and almost
physical impact, valuable to the
political fight. In fact, art in time
enough in its results—one needs a
bullet-like, a bomb-like form of com-
munication: newspaper, leaflet, cir-
cular-writipg; cartoons—and things
of that sort. These are propaganda
of one sort.

Having admitted that all art is
propaganda I must go on to repeat
that art is not created and conceived
primarily for propagandistic pur-
poses. A work of art is propaganda
by implication and in effect—but
not by intention. Since, however, the
word propaganda is often applied to
material having the intentional, de-
liberate (Sometimes even untruthful)
dissemination of ideas, my use of the
word “propaganda” is necessarily a
restricted one. There are certain
qualities inherent in a work of art
that are outside of the purely socio-
logical limits of propaganda. It is
these qualities that, in a sense, are
subject to laws of their own. In
stating this, one surely does not deny
that “artistic development is ground-
ed on economic development.”

Mr. Bennett says that my article
“shows the unconscious desire of
many artists to escape the implica—
tion of the class struggle.” Whether
my article shows it or not, personal-
ly I have no such desire. Of course
it would not matter if I were to de-
sire to escape the said implications:
I still would, in one way or another,
have to face them—or commit
Suicide.

Very few people—either bourgeois
or Marxist—are even superficially
acquainted with art and the crea-
tive process. Mr. Bennett has proven
no exception, His article is full of
facile remarks calculated to appeal
too emotionally (rather than reason-
ably) to his readers. I believe his
politics to be admirable; his esthetics
suspect. So many people think that
to be politically orthodox (because,
after all, Marxism is the 1936 ortho-
doxy) gives them unction in matters
outside of politics. That this unction
is out of place is evident after read-
ing Mr. Bennett's “Art and Propa-
eanda.” He disclaims any knowledge
of art and proceeds to write an
article on it. IT could go on for pages
showing how wrong he is in many
of his most important statements
about art, but I spare you. I hope
in my rashness, that I, in claiming
political ignorance, have not written
a political diatribe.

Now having said all this may I
fo on to attempt to present my idea
of what is the place of the artist in
the scheme of things?

If a man is an artist he is an
artist and that is all there is to it
Nothing will make him not an
artist; nothing will make a man
who is not an artist become one.
And an artist is actually different
from you or me. I think it might
even be demonstrated by a neuro-
logist that the artists nervous
system is built differently from
that of other men. (The Marxist
eritic is often content with stating
that the artistic stomach is no dif-
ferent from any other. Even that
is open to question). Now this dif
ference may have been brought
about by economic conditions,
physical environment—any number
of extraneous causes—but it re-
mains nevertheless a difference.
But an artist is also human and,
as such, is affected by the same
social stimuli that affect you and
me (even if he is affected differ-
ently). Naturally he will become
exposed to different theories of
existence and will, to take a per-
tinent example, have. the Same
chance to become a socialist or a
Communist as you or I. When he
does, he will, of course, go on pro-
ducing works of art—that is, ex
pressing the world about - him
through his own consciousness.
Also now that he is, by sincere
eonviction, a socialist or Commun-

ist, the socialist or Communist
point of view will always be im-
plied in what he creates. Just as,
before, his art was bourgeois prop-
aganda, so, now, it becomes Com-
munist propaganda. The problem,
to my mind, is to convert the ar-
tist to, say, socialism and, ipso
facte—for the simple reason that
he is an artist—his art will support
socialism. Art cannot be made to
serve the socialist cause; art can-
mot be made to become class- con-
scious. If the artist becomes class-
conscious and, say, a Communist,
his art will perforce be Communist
propaganda in effect and that is
all there is to it. That is why it is
so unwise to criticize the work of a
bourgeois artist because it does not
show socialist ideology. It could
not, possibly. But it is a work of
art—and probably a good one. In
other words what makes a work of
art good is not its point of view
provided, of course, that it has a
point of view. That his point of
view is not Marxian, for instance,
is deplorable in an artist, and prob-
ably cuts him off from a great deal
of legitimate artistic material—but
what he produces will still be art
and of use (because it is art) to
the Marxist. All art is for every-
body. Bourgeois art is good for the
Communist—not because of its
bourgeois propaganda elements
(which the Communist will im-
mediately detect and discount) but
because of those extra-propaganda
elements common to all art and
which are the desirable elements in
an artistic experience.

To appreciate, in its fullest im-
plications, a work of art, requires
great sensitiveness and refinement
of both intellectual and emotional
approach. Each work of art, appre-
hended further contributes to this
sensitiveness, to this refinement.
We become “better” people because
of that: our experience has been
widened, our perception cleared
just that much more. In this way
too we become “better” people not
only to ourselves but to others. Our
social relationship improves. It be-
comes more flexible, taking more
easily to change and development.
Society improves.

That this sensitiveness of intel-
jectual and emotional approach is
lacking in large numbers of the
class-conscious proletariat: is a bad
and only-too-apparent thing. It is
not because, through lack of educa-
tion and opportunities caused by
the break-down of capitalism, they
are ignorant. This may or may not
be so. It is that, with their newly-
found class-consciousness has de-
veloped a new babbitry, a new
philistinism (of which Mr. Bennett
boasts) which makes them unwill-
ing or unable to submit themselves
to the refining influence of art.

I say with all seriousness that a
cultured workers’ movement is a
workers’ movement strengthened a
thousand fold. And the workers’
movement cannot become cultured
if it is taught to distrust and sneer
at any art that does not happen to
come out of its own class. The dis-
mal cultural plight of the workers
is such that it needs to feel the im-
pact of all the art energy that has
ever been generated. If a fascist
government were to padlock all art
in this country, the proletariat,
generally speaking, would not
now the difference! It would not
affect them in the least—and
fascism would be strengthened and
grow thereby.

This condition must not be al-
lowed to continue.

I have tried in this rambling
article to suggest certain attitudes
of mind, some of which are unde-
sirable and to be shunned, others
desirable and to be cultivated. I
will feel less ashamed for having
bored you througout most of it if
only one remark has interested you
enough to start you thinking for
yourself about the whole question!

The Marionette Theatre

By CARL HICHIN

The most arresting entertainment
T ever saw was staged in a small
workers’ hall. Little wood and rub-
ber dolis were the actors. Not one
word was spoken during the whole
play, yet after more than a decade
the plot is vividly fresh in my
mind.

Really it was a marionette show
within a marionette show. A young
Italian artist was «the concealed
“maestro.”

Several money-bags of different
nationalities were seen “pumping”
money into a colonial country,
which was portrayed by the stage
itself. As the investments of each
grew in varied proportions, so also
swelled in like proportion the im-
perialist powers. These, of course,
were portrayed by appropriately
dressed puppets, and how their rub-
ber arms and stomachs swelled!

How John Bull Got Fat

The doll with the Union Jack hat
srew fastest and biggest. It grew
so 5ig that it was cramped for room
—and suddenly it took a “hay-
maker’ at its rivals—and hey pres-
‘9, the Boer War.

Very, very briefly that was the
story. It was replete with historical
und economic details. It taught me
more in half an hour about the
causes of the Boer War than hours
of reading had done. It made me
want to read more, too.

I have often wendered why Ca-
nadian progressive artists and cul-
tural groups have not taken up the
“Goll theatre.’ There’s interesting
work for young and old in making
the dolls and instructive recreation
for all in their “‘antics.”’

Banks’ Annual Financial
Reports Tell a Story

But that is not what I set out to
say. Every January, I remember
the story of those rubber and wood
dolis, as I read the annual sum-
marized financial reports.

This January, I see the dolls play-

‘ing their little parts with Canada as
the stage. Just watch the appro-
priate puppets swell and shrink.

During the first six months of
1935 U.S. investors bought,.some
$15,000,000 more of Canadian se-
eurities than they did in 1934
Sales of Canadian securities to
“Great Britain during the same
period were less than one-sixth of
the 1934 six months period. They
recorded a net drop of more than
$61,000,000 as compared with the
previous year.

The U.S. purchased $118,991,511
during January-June, 1935, com-
pared with the relatively very
small purchase by Britain which
amounted to only $11,513,593.

In 1933 U.S. had twice the volume
of invested capital in Canada than
Britain. During 1935 American cap-
ital continued to pour into the
Maple Leaf country at the rate of
ten U.S. dollars to every British
dollar. This year also shows Cana-
dian investors placing four times
as much in U.S. securities as in
British.

Uncle Sam Gets Fat

Didn't you see the star-spangied
puppet swelling, the British puppet
being crowded to the edge of the
stage and the little Maple Leaf doll
beginning to so some strutting of
its own. And surely you noticed
how they all are beginning to scowl
at each other!

But look what the little fellow is
doing now. He’s shaken hands with
Sankey, one of the children of the
Union Jack puppet. He leaves him
and starts to dot the U-S.-Ganada
poundary with airports!

Are Union Jack and Maple Leaf
preparing against a “feared” if not
“expected” haymaker?

Another doll is needed on that
stage. It will wear the clothes of
you and me. It will carry a large
pin, labelled “Unity,” and puncture
the swollen tummies and rapacious

OL’ BILL

The capitalist press is much con-
cerned these days regarding the de=
velopment of gold-mining in the
Soviet Union. It is news that the
production of the yellow metal in
the Workers’ Republic is greater
this year than that of Ganada and
the Umited States put together and
now ranks second only to the Rand
Goldfields. The perspective of the
Soviet Planning Commission is that
Rand output will be exceeded in
1939, and the Soviet Union take
first place.

According to Serebrovski, head of
the gold industry, operations are of
all sizes. Small camps have from 75
to 100 men panning placer proposi-
tions and some camps are actually
towns with 40,000 people. There is
no mine without a school, a theatre
or a hospital. Electric light. tele—
phone, telegraph and water supply
systems are as prominent in the re—
motest camps as they are in the big-
cities. New towns with three-storey
stone buildings, technical colleges,
theatres with revolving stages, local
newspapers and movies help to raise
the cultural level of the 600,000 gold
miners who are now at work there.
Transportation facilities are up to
the minute with airplanes, motor
cars, trucks and 214 broadcasting
Stations.

How different this is from Canada,
where the men who work the hard-
rock mines and placer grounds haye
to live under the most stultifyinge
and demoralisinge conditions. Bridge
River, for instance, where miners
have to live in dirty and unventi-
lated bunkhouses. Lwo and three

it is almost impossible to rest,
through the noise of other workers
changing shift. We still have shacks
here with double-decker bunks, rel-
ics of the nineteenth century. Wash-
houses are in some cases ten min-
utes away from the job and multiply
the possibilities of contracting di-
seases. Plumbing and sanitary ar-
Tangements are of the outside yvari-
ety moStly, in many cases being
similar to those of a Connemara or
Bruce County farm 100 years ago-
Although the miners are soaked for
hospitals they are turned over to the
incompetent ministrations of bud-
ding croakers who cannot land a job
in civilization. Since miners are not
supposed to be anything but srub-
bers and moles whose job is to seng
up powder-boxes full of gold, no cul-
tural program is needed in the min-
ing areas. While the 600,000 gold
miners of the Soviet Union, who
spent on their own comforts one and
a half billion rubles last year, only
work a 6-hour day, miners in B.C,
are supposed to work § hours, collar
to collar, but some work aS much as
9 hours.

This difference in these conditions
is the reason why the owners of the
Pioneer (that pays 2 million dollars @
year profit), and other mine-owners
in this country don’t like the Soviet
Union, and should be an object-lesson
to the exploited and slaye-driven
quartz miners of Canada and a lead
to be followed to freedom from grind—
ing slavery.

= * = *

Never did a less justified squeat
ever originate in a newspaper office
than the indignant claim of the of-
ficial Nazi organs, “Der Angriff’”
and ‘‘Wolkischer Beobachter’ that
‘agony is being inflicted on Haupt-
mann, that he is being subjected to
Jong-drawn-out torture, merely be-
cause he is being kept in jail. T am
not worried about the merits of the
case; whether Hauptmann killed the
Lindberg baby or not, is notin ques-
tion. But that the Nazi Propaganda
Minister Goebbells’ “‘Der Angriff”
and the Nazi government organ
“Beobachter,” should scream about
the fate of a degenerate Nazi emi-
grant, and protest his imprisonment
of a few months while Thaelmann
(one among tens of thousands of
socialists, Communists and intellec-
tual anti-fascists), has lain in Nazi
torture dungeon for three years
without being brought to trial, this
does interest me.

The character of these two men is
beyond ‘compare. One, Thaelmann,
a fighter against everything that is
rotten and debasing in modern life,
has never committed any criminat
act against society in his life, is sub-
jected to the most vicious treatment
at the hands of the most villainous,
brutal and sadistic gang of cut-
throats and perverts that history
has any record of—three years tor-
ture, kept incommunicado, consist-
ently refused a trial because it would
expose his torturers. The other, ac-
cording to all the evidence, a dezgen-
erate, anti-social criminal, on a par

with his Nazi defenders, Goepells
and the ‘“‘Beobachter’ Birds of a
feather!

Tt is natural that the Nazi morons
should defend Hauptmann as he typi-
fies the mentality and demonstrates
the methods in practice of ali fascist
forces, from Mussolin and Hitler to
Tom MaciInnes.

* = = *

Sir William Mulock is in the pub-
lic eye again. He is chief justice of
the appeal division of the Suprenie
Court. Today he has just celebrated
92 years of life—of a papasite life,
during all of which pemod he en-
joyed the fruits of other men’s
labor. The last time we had occasion
to notice him, was when he over-
ruled the appeal of the eight Com-
munist leaders—all useful members
of society. The occasion previous to
hat was when he, as an unbiassed
judge, issued 2 most yenomous and
scurrilous diatribe against Commun-
jsm and the Communist Party in the
style of Tom Macinnes. Such are our

arms of puppets Maple Leaf, Union
Jack and Stars and Stripes.

unprejudiced judges!

men in a room 10 feet by 8, where _

=

Sixes