a 4 Page Two Breen B.C. WOREERS’ NEWS February i4, 1936 Slavery In A Cook Car Dear Sir,—Would you please a-@SOVIET JUSTICE jow me space in your paper as I thing it is about time someone ex- posed conditions of the underpaid eooks on the G.NR, I am a cook on the boarding car department of the C.N.R. Gooks are supposed to be working for wages—this is, not a decent wage, but a “‘Slave wage.” The average wages paid in the slack period of the year, from Noy- ember to May, average from $45 to $55 per month for a 13 to 14 hour day, week day and holidays, and 12 to 13 hours a day on Sundays— commencing work on week days at 5 am. till 7 p.m, and on Sundays work from 6 am. to 6 pm. The cooks in this department do not en- joy the privileges as ether em- ployees, although some of us have from 5 to 25 years’ steady service. We are not considered regular em- ployees. All the G.N.R. employees, includ- §nge office staff and inspectors, have received 5 per cent of the 15 per cent cut back, but the cooks on the ‘oarding cars did not receive it; instead, they got a still further wage eut of $5, which now leaves our wages as stated before. The deplorable part of it is that snarried cooks haye to stay on the job away from home and family for months and months at a time, be- eause the wages paid us only makes ¢ywo ends meet—only at the lowest standard of living. \ The cook has to sleep in a bunk, swhich is located in middle of dining ear—“‘supplies in same car’—and ¢#hese boxcars are in some cases 20 years old. At no time has the cook any com- fort after his 13 hours of labor. He ean never leave the job, because he §s held good for any shortage. The men complain of the lack of fresh vegetables. If the cook had 4he power he would have fresh ‘vegetables on the table daily, be- wause “cooks like them too.’ Cooks are charged $25 per month for board ‘and if the wife comes to stay she svyould have to pay for her board. There is nothing we cooks can do about it, as any appeal or protest =vould only fall on deaf ears, or they. ~would find some way to get rid of us. Dear Editor, if ever the wage laws were violated, it is on the board- ine car department of the C.N.R., and I think it is about time the Minister of Labor had this brought 409 his attention, as there is n0 doubt it would surely be appre- giated by the cooks, especially the married men. Yours for a fuller and better life, A COOK ON C.N-R. P.S—tT was talking to a campboy #he other day, and he told me that the cooks in the Slave Camps are paid more wages than we are on G@N.R. He! said this is because the eampboys are well organized. ANTI-FASCIST LEAGUE SET UP AT ROYAL CITY On the evening of February 5, at the Legion Hall, New Westminster, 4 mass meeting was held under the auspices of the Canadian League Against War and Fascism. The following speakers, Miss M. Portsmouth, educator and world traveller; Sam Shearer, delegate to ¢he Trades and Labor Council; and A.M. Stephen, Canadian author, addressed the meeting on the prob- lems facing the Canadian people in regard to the growing menace of fascism and support of the League of Nations in ‘preserving world peace. The audience decided to form a branch in New Westminster of the Leasue Against War and Wascism. After the meeting officers were elected as follows: President, D. Mc- Grath: secretary, Mrs. Kovyill, 318 Royal Ave., New Westminster, and literature agents: A preliminary committee of 28 citizens agreed to take charge of arrangements of fur- ther organization and it was further decided to hold the next meeting of the branch on Thursday, February “433, at the Legion Hall, at $3 pm. The chief work to be undertaken in the immediate future is co-opera- ¢ion with the National Council of the league in the taking of a nation- wide ballot on the subject of peace and GCanada’s stand in relation to war. i MOSCOW, Feb. 6—(By that reveals the results cree freeing the sentenced Sabotage” Professor tist, together with his colleagues and fellow conspirators, Larichev, Ochkin and Usenko, received a full pardon signed by President Michael Kalinin by order of the Central Executive Committee of the U.S. S.R. They were reinstated in full civil rights. Today it became lmnown that Professor Ramzin and his col- leagues, while prisoners, designed and built the most powerful elec- tric boiler ever built, placing the Soviet Union in this field on a level with, or surpassing, the high- est technique among the countries of the world. The four men wrote that the successes they achieved in design- ing and making direct current boil- ers was “‘by no means everything that we can give.’’ They assure the leaders of the Party and of the government that they will place all their knowledge and experience and their entire lives to the service of Secialist construction. Merger Of Youth Groups Young Socialists, Com- munists Prepare To Unite Forces men who in the famous trials. Ramzin, “Ramzin VANCOUVER, Feb. 12.—Two of the leading working class youth or- ganizations of B-C.. the Young So- eialist League and the Young Com- munist League, took steps towards strengthening the organization of the young people in the province, when on Tuesday, February 11, a committee from each organization met to discuss a proposed merger of the two bodies. At the initial meeting on this question the most pleasant rela- tions existed and the greatest de- sire for unity of the youth of B.C. was felt by all participants. No obstacles appeared to cloud the is- sue and several constructive pro- posals were put forward, discussed and agreed upon. It was agreed that the organiza- tion should be non-partisan. but should maintain fraternal relations with all working class parties, nor- fascist and anti-fascist. It was further decided that whilst the or- peaceful little Hol- land has a rearmament program expenditure of thirty-five million dollars; France plans to have the world’s largest submarine fleet and build a big nayal base Mm Indo-China to protect that colony from the Japanese; in the United States a strong agitation is notice— able for a great increase in nayal and air forces, and the people of Canada will be lucky if before the endine” of the first session of this Parliament Premier Mackenzie King does not introduce a bill ealling for large military expenditures. They will be lucky, because in the last analysis it is the people, mot the capitalists, who are compelled to pay through the nose for the war plans of the capitalist class. The London Naval Conference failed ut- terly to agree on armament limita- tion. The only thing the participat- ing nations agreed on was to notify each other when new ships were laid down. = * * * Nazi Germany is, as has so often been said, the chief war instigator in Europe. This position was not reached after three years of Nazi rule, celebrated January 30, in Ger- many. The policy of the Nazis was a war policy from its very first days, as the policy of fascism al ways is. But besides having a very definite war policy fascism is vio- lently anti-working class, and it was because Hitler was so anti-working received quick and strong support from the capitalist classes of other nations. They agreed to Hitler building up a war machine because he maintained that Nazi Germany was to save the world from Bolshevism. But the ob- jective of the Nazis is world domina- tion, and although there is im- minent possibility of them attack- ing the Soviet Union, their military undertakings in “Western Europe have lately begun to quicken. It is the fear of this latter that drove France to sign a mutual assistance pact with the Soviet Union, and it is fear of a sudden Nazi attack that is causing a section of British rul- ing class to tremble for the safety of their empire. Speaking to a Brownshirt gather- ing on January 30, Hitler deseribed the situation perfectly when he said: ‘Whoever opposes us now does it not because we are Wazis, but be- cause we restored military inde- pendence to Germany.” Whatever atrocities the Nazis contemplate, even if they include the blotting out of all life in Southern England and Worthern France in a gigantic, sur- prise air attack, the capitalists of the world will have been accessories before the fact. < Es * ak Commenting on the possibility of being attacked by Japan and Ger- many, the Soviet authorities express the highest confidence in being able to defeat their enemies, even if they both attack at once, and Tulkhachey— sky, assistant commissar for de- fence, has warned that most of the fighting will take place in the enemies’ territories. This confidence is not misplaced. The Red Army has reached a very high degree of efficiency, and besides that the war plans of capitalist nations will be disrupted by the class struggle. Not so in the Soviet Union; the unity of its socialist people is unconquer- able. Japanese provocation on the Soviet-Manchukuoan ‘trontier is reaching an acute stage. Several armed clashes are reported to have | closed coal mines drew attention to ANTI-FASCISTS WILLUSE RADIO (Continued from page 1) Open Up B.C. Coal Mines (Continued from Page 1) Sunday, Hai Delegates were present from i2 working class organizations includ- ing five C.C_F_ clubs. Several points in the Alberni-Nanaimo ridin= were represented and methods were adopt- ed for reaching other sympathetic organizations amd individuals. The resolution on opening up the in the Longshoremen’s the fact that im the districts of Ex- tansion, Morden, South and Hast Wellinston, Northfield, and DLanz- ville which are virtually ghost com- munities, large numbers of tmnem- ployed miners reside. These com- munities are owned and controiled by the Canadian Collieries (Duns- muir) Limited. The total coal re- sourees 2vailable in these areas are 28 millions of tons. Each area can be mined from- shafts or slopes already developed. It cannot be said that there is no need for this coal to be mined be- eause miners who are unemployed and on relief have to go out to the bush to cut wood for fuel for their families, or else pick over the coal dumps for a little coal. ~- The resolution called for the pro- vincial government to take over the closed coakE mines, and open them up to provide the people with coal and place the unemployed miners to work at trade union wages. The resolution was adopted un- animously. Mass united action was advocated on a wide scale at the conference. FRASER RIVER SOCKEYE TREATY In an article in the Vancouver “Province” for February 7, 1936, an attempt is made to belittle the pro- posed substitute treaty that ‘has been submitted by the fishermen of the ‘State of Washington, in place of the proposed Canadian Treaty which has already been passed by the Canadian government and is now before U-S: senate. Mr. Babcock, who is claimed to be the ereatest authority on the Fraser River sockeye fishery prob- lems is quoted in the *‘Proyince” as saying: “That the proposed Wash- ington Treaty is only another in- vestigation”; also “there has already been four commissions that have investigated the Eraser River fish- eries and unanimously agreed that there must be power to regulate fishing and to close the river at certain times in the interest of con- servation.”’ We asree with Mr. Babcock that there must “‘be power to regulate,’’ but we, like the Washington fisher- men, want to know who's power, the cannery interests or the inter- ests of the fishermen and the gen- eral public. The Wishermen and Gannery Workers” Industrial Union wholeheartedly endorse the resolu- tion of the’ Washington fishermen, condemning the Canadian Treaty in its present “form,” and we hereby quote the following clauses from the Washington Fishermen’s reso- jution (a copy of which is already in the hands of the Department of Fisheries) and which clearly shows the reasons for our support. t Resolution. Whereas, The treaty in its present form does in fact defeat the ends of conservation and is a Menace both to the fishermen and to the worthwhile ends of conservation; and Whereas, No clearer demonstra- tion of this fact is necessary than to point out that traps have been re- moved from the Washington waters, while traps still remain within the boundaries of the treaty “in Cana- dian waters’; moreover the Cana- dian government in 1934, sanc- tioned the opening of the Gulf of Seorgia (mouth of the Fraser River), such action being in direct viola- tion of the proposed conservation treaty is sponsored and ratified by the Canadian government; and has no place in our movement if we @re Serious in our purpose to reach masses of people. War and fasc- ism alone if properly exposed will unite practically all who want peace and democracy,’” said tbs speaker. As evidence of the insidious work of the Citizens’ League, Mr. Stephen reported that League speakers scheduled to speak at New West- minster were openly attacked and slandered by the Fascist MacInnes over the radio, and that a vicious Teaflet was circulated by the Citi- zens’ League in New Westminster prior to the meeting. The speaker said, “We must work and organize fast against the Fascist enemy who is plentifully supplied with funds by the monied forces of reaction.” From a Nazi Concentration Camp. Rey. T. Edwards of the African Church speke on the misery en- dured in Ethiopia by the negro and Italian soldiers whom, he said, were brothers under the skin. Mr. Swartz, a youre school teach- er who was released from a Nazi eoncentration camp, gaye a moving word picture of the strangling of alt human rights and culture in Fasc- ist-ridden Germany. ’ Over a period of two hours of discussion mamy delegates toek the floor, and a plan to circulate five million “‘peace ballots’’ throughout Canada, from the National Centre of the League, was enthusiastically endorsed and promised support. Closer contact with women’s organ- izations was urged. Motions were passed which pledged financial sup- port, exchange of speakers and use of halis from the delegates present. Forty-six delegates were present, representine= 28 organizations, - among which were seven CCF. clubs, four trade unions, three youth elubs, three women’s organi- zations and others, the total number at this council meeting being 105, inclusive of non-delegates. B.C. Loggers’ ‘High’ Wages Union to Broadcast and Tell of Real Situation Glaring headlines in both the Wancouver ‘“Sun’’ and “Province” during the past few weeks have been attempting to convey the im- pression to the general public of the high wages being paid in the lum- bering industry of the province, in particular the logging camps, Several of these articles haye been so misleading that workers in the camps haye urged the ULumber Workers’ Industrial Union to issue a statement on the real situation as it affects the loggers. So far the only statements on the recent wage increases haye come from the logging operators them- selves. What the members of the Lum- ber Workers’ Industrial Union, and the loggers generally, think of the much talked about higher wages, how it is affecting them in the in- dividual camps and in the different departments of the industry, will be the subject of a radio broadcast by the Lumber Workers’ Industrial Union over station CJOR on Tues- day February 18, from 8:15 to $:30 p.m. Everyone should tune in on this important broadeast and learn the facts from those most vitally con- cerned, the loggers themselves. Remember the 1ime—STATION CJOR, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 8:15 to 8:30 pm. += of the treaty because it infringes on the democratic rights of the people of the United States and Canada by denying those who depend on fish- ing for a livelihood adequate rep- resentation or consultation in the preparation of the treaty and its proposed method of administration. Executive Committee, Fishermen and Gannery Workers’ Indus- Whereas, We urge the rejection trial Union. The Ruling Clawss By REDFIELD taken place, and there is a report that a hundred Manchukuoan sol- diers killed their Japanese officers, crossed into Soviet territory and surrendered. This incident should cause the enemies of the Soviet Union to think twice, or three times, before starting something they can- not finish. = * = = What is called the Rhineland is an area in Western Germany. It is a belt approximately fifty miles wide on either side of the Rhine river as it flows from Switzerland in a north-westerly direction through Holland to the sea. The Western side borders on Holland, Belgium and France. Into this region Hitler has sent 40,000 militarized con- stables, fully equipped for war. This force together with the 250,900 trained civilians already in th® Rhineland, makes Germany just as much a menace to the nations of Western Europe as she was in A Rethia 2k Ble cZE =~ Phone Sey. 9501 New York Wave Shop = > Permanent CES Wave Pd Special! . 2 for i 5 to end of February. 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