Page Four B.C. WORKERS’ NEWS March 6, 19 8S B.C. Workers NEWS THE PROLETARIAN PUBLISHING ASS'N Room 10, 163 West acne Street - Wancouver, B.C. — Subscription Rates — One Year _____ $1.80 Half Year - 1.00 Three Months__$ .50 Single Copy ——_-08 Make All Checks Payable to the B.C. WORKERS’ NEWS Send All Copy and Manuscript to the Chairman of the Editorial Boerd —- Send Al Montes and Letters Per- feining to Advertising and Circulation to the Business Manager. Vancouver, B.C., March 6, 1936 _ HAND HIM HIS PASSPORTS GENTS of Hitler and Mussolini in Canada are becoming bolder and more iapudent m their spreading of propaganda and organizing on Canadian soil branches of their homeland Brown Shirt and Black Shirt fascist organiza- tions. The latest stunt of the official representative of the Mussolini murder regime, the Italian eonsul-general at Ottawa, was to deliver a speech at Montreal in which he upheld Mussolini’s rape of Ethiopia on the ground that the invasion of the ancient nation was for the purpose of res- euine it from slavery, when Italy itself under fascist rule is one vast slave plantation! He eondemned the League of Nations, of which body Canada is a member, for the application of sanctions. Such criticism constituted an affront to the eountry that accepted him as a representative. Tt was in exceedingly bad taste, and offensive to the people of Canada, and Woodsworth can not be too highly commended for his prompt protest on the floor of the House of Commons and his demand that Italy be asked to take the offender out of Canada. The reply of the Prime Minister was a char- acteristic one. The spreading of fascist propa- ganda and the fight against the application of sanctions is encouraged by the finance capitalists and war-mongers of Canada, and the Prime Minister, their representative and chief execu- tive at Ottawa, was acting in a characteristic fashion when he refused to make the request demanded by Woodsworth. Instead, he promised that if the insulting vi0- lation of the diplomatic amenities were re- peated he would ask that the offender be re- moved. How many times must Mussolini's agent repeat his insults? His offense at Montreal was not his first one. Only last year he made a speech at Ottawa which called for an objection in the House by Humphrey Mitchell. Prime Minister King acted in a wholly dif ferent manner when some ten years ago he re quested the Soviet trading delegation to leave the country on the false charge that they were seeretly spreading Communist propaganda. When challenged to submit proof of the charge he was unable to do so. It all depends on whether it is a socialist or a fascist country that is involved. POSTERS TO SAVE LIFE E SLAUGHTERING of workers in the lumber industry in British Columbia is as aotorious as it is appalling. Scores have been murdered and more have been maimed and srippled in the woods during the last year be- cause of the speed-up imposed by the profit- hunery timber pirates and their failure to pro- vide proper and adequate safety equipment and regulation. This callous sacrificing of the lives and limbs of workers has shocked the people of the prov- ince. Realizing this, the boss Loggers’ Associa- tion is busy throwimg dust in the eyes of the public. They clamorously come out as regard- ing the safety of their workers as their first concern and consideration. They are going to stop all this maiming and lalling. And how? By providing safety equipment and easing up ‘on the speed-up? Not on your life! Being big business men, they lie to the public about the cause of the loss of life and limb by attributing it to the “carelessness” and ‘“‘reck- Jessness” of the workers, which they have the gall to say is responsible for 90 percent of all accidents; and like big business men, they tell the people that accidents can be prevented in the same way that other big business men sell snake oil.or body odour banishers, namely, by advertising! So they are going to stick up posters in the woods, pleading with the loggers to place a hieher valuation on their lives. The posters will be there, but the safety equipment will not, and the speed-up will go on, — that is, until the workers organize, unite and struggle to elimi- nate the speed-up and compel the bosses to pro- vide for the safety of those they so inhumanly exploit. VALUE OF TRADE UNION UNITY 4 Nese BENEFICIAL results to the trade union movement, both in added offensive and defensive power of the members and im drawing the unorganized into the trade unions, are to be seen in the progress made by the trade unions of France since the uni- fication of the two great trade union organiza- tions, the reformist and the revolutionary, was effected. There has been a great increase in member- ship, the Union of Post Office, Telephone and Telegraph Operators alone having added {200 new members in the short period of a few weeks. In the Paris district the transport workers have recruited more than 5000 new members, Excavation workers 291, Cement workers 243, and the Flectrical workers 251 new members. There is a great lesson in these achieye- ments for the trade unions of Canada and the United States where the workers are split up into a large number of competing unions, ‘ often more hostile to: each other than to the employing. class. Unification of the trade unions and a change to industrial unionism would not only strenethen the unions, but would encourage unorganized workers to come in to such a umi- fied and powerful movement which would strengthen the whole working class front and be a powerful factor in checking the profit ereed and unrestraimed arrogance of the em- ployers and defending the trade union rights that have been won at great sacrifice on the part ot the workers. - DECADENT AND PROGRESSIVE ECADENT eapitalism and rising progress- ism were well illustrated this week in the provincial legislature in the speeches of two women members, Mrs. Paul Smith, apologist for and adherent of reactionary Liberalism, and Mrs. Dorothy Steeves, C.C.F. representative of the rising forees of progress. The speech of Mrs. Smith was a pitiful per- formance, with its futile attempt to defend the indefensible—the Pattullo regime. She under- took to tall about socialism, something she knows less about than a twelve-year-old child of class-conscious parents. For example, she said that socialism had been tried in China 2000 years ago and failed. And her authority ? None other than Will Durant, that concocter of “out- lines” which are monuments to their author’s amazing ignorance and designed to supply the mentally lazy bourgeoisie with historical and scientific knowledge with only a few hours read- ing. But Mrs. Smith did not seem to realize that socialism 7s succeeding in the only time and place in history where the pbuilding of it has been begun, right now in the Soviet Union. Mrs. Steeves had little trouble in demolishing the pasteboard edifice reared so blandly by ber opponent. To the gratuitous mis-statement that socialism would not work she asked if capitalism was working, when millions were hungry and the standard of living of the farmers was com- parable to that of medieval serfs. One may disagree with Mrs. Steeves’ concep- tion of what constitutes the building of social- ism and how it can be attained, but that she represents a progressive force, that her heart is with the exploited and the under-privileged and that she is willing and able to fight for a better living for them is undeniable. Her ex- posure of the slow starvation of little children in this province on a miserly relief allowance of $3.75 per month, when the Board of Health has estimated that $8 or $9 per month per child ds necessary to maintain healthy ehild life, was a valuable contribution, and should be a power ful factor in arousing the decent, even if hither- to complacent, people to a realization of the ne- cessity for uniting to wipe out this shame on the province. CRIME OR DEATH FOR YOUTH LACKLISTED from the Relief Camps be- cause they are suspected of being inclined towards union organization of the camp workers, and refused relief, between 400 and 500 young workers are in Vancouver, destitute. Meanwhile, the people are being misled by reports sent out by the King government that the Camps are to be abolished eradually—some- time, and by promises of a raise to $15 a month —also sometime. The plight of the destitute youth who are denied even the meagre subsistence of camp life is desperate. Unless the people rally to their support in a vigorous united mass move- ment they will be forced into erime or the re- lease provided by suicide, and it is not likely to be the latter alternative im many Cases. All labor bodies and organizations of a pro- eressive character, as well as all persons 10 “whom there is a spark of humanity should in= terest themselves in these youths. TORY PROPOSES UNITED FRONT peut and frankly R. W. Bruhn, former member of the Tolmie Tory gov- ernment and now “independent” member of the legislature for Salmon Arm, pleaded for a combination of Liberals, Tories, ““Independ- ents” and all other elements who desire to de fend the right of capitalism to exploit labor and degrade mankind in order to defeat the C.C.F. in the next provincial election. He told the Liberals that unless this union. was effected they, the Liberals, wouldn’t have a chance in the next election and would meet the same fate that overtook the Tolmie outfit. And Pattullo knows it too. He even is atraid of the by-elections in Burrard and Omineca. The old reactionary parties are well aware of the value of unity and will make a united front whenever such is necessary to defend their privileges and maintain their domina- tion. It may be that before the next provincial election the Tories and Liberals will get eether to defeat the C.C.F. and they may be able to accomplish it if unity of theC.C.F., the Communists, trade unions and all progressive forces is not achieved. to- Tt is not too late even now to begin thie building ot a mass progressive federated party to wrest control of the province trom the Pait- iulo—camoutlaged Tory crowd. oo4 B.C. Workers’ News Radio Broadcast FRIDAY—8:45 to 9:00 P.M. CcCKMO 19O9OO0000O% M odern Ed ucation—Soviet Style so they Pioneers in Kharkov. Seeing is believing—and learning—say Soviet education leaders, installed a miniature trolley line at the new Palace of Note the children’s rapt attention as their teacher explains the principles of electricity and locomotion. < By ARTHUR EVANS Saskatchewan authorities are de- termined to gain convictions against twenty-two youthful relief camp strikers in order that General Mac- Brien and S. T: Wood of the R.C. M.P., may be absolved of responsi- bility for the riots that took place July 1 last, at Regina, resulting 120 the murder of a city police de- tective, the death of a camp striker, twelve camp strikers being shot, three of whom are still in the hospi- tal, and property damage estimated at over $25,000. Section 98 Charges Withdrawn The Saskatchewan Attorney-Gen- eral, Z. GC. Davis, said in a lengthy statement to the press at Regina, Friday, February 28: “Practical certainty that convic- tions would be impossible prompted the government to authorize the withdrawal of the charges. . ~ -». In the cases under Section 98, I have personally made an exhaustive study of the evidence and TI ar- rived at the conclusion that there was not sufficient evidence upon which to put these men upon trial with any reasonable hope of secur- THE RELIGION ~ OF CLEM DAVIES Uses Christ’s Cloak to Cover Pro-Fascist Propaganda VICTORIA, B.C., Mar. 2.—Every Sunday night Dr. Clem Davies, noted preacher, speaks here at the Empire Theatre. He is a parson, but has no church and wears no man’s collar but the Lord’s. He has been a supporter of Liberals, Conserva- tives and run as an Independent.: It's strange but true that people fill the theatre to hear him and many of them think just as much of him as some workers of Britain did of Horatio Bottomley. Bottomley said, like Barnum, “‘the public want to be fooled, so I fool them.” This man Davies would be harm- less as far as his demogosy and his comedian antics are concerned, but he plays on the religious and love of homeland sentiments of the people and skilfully weaves it into fascist and war propaganda, coupled with hatred of communists and the Soviet Union. Here are a few gems he got off his chest last night: “Put together the brains of ali the members of the B.C. Legislature and you won’t get a spoonful.” “Mussolini is a ademogogue.” “There is a beast over Russia and Japan preparing for anti-Christ.” “Al) politicians are scoundrels.” “Nearly all educated Chinese are leaders of revolts.” “We are all bughouse.” “Stalin and Hitler are waiting to see how Mussolini does it.” “Tt is the will of God that Japan hold back Russia.”’ “Sir Samuel Hoare was made the goat; I would like to see Sir Samuel back at his post again.” “Japan and Britain are brothers; both belong to the chosen people of God.” “Riff-raff come to America from Central Europe.” “The beast that is preparing for anti-Ghrist is revolution.’’ “B.C. Government Health Insur- ance is no good and it cannot be shown that state health insurance Was any good anywhere; it has been tried.” The stage trappings for this “service” is a red carpet over the stage floor, painted drain pipes on the stage with huge boquets of flowers in them, a huge wooden cross painted white, young lady ushers in dark dresses with white collars and flash lights. Davies himself is dressed in a white flannel suit with a black armband on his sleeve for the death of the king, "black tie, black socks and white shoes. The studied dramatic poses to emphasize his demogogy make a great impression on the ladies, but smell strongly of “Elmer Cantry.” Are The 22 Trekkers To Be Sacrificed To Whitewash Guilt Of Gov’t And RCMP? H evidence does not warrant proceed- ing a conviction against them or any of them... .-. T asked the agent for the Attorney-General, Mr, WH. E. Sampson, K.C., for his opin- It was decided that no definite decision in this respect would be made until the taking of the evidence by the Riot Commius- Sion was completed, because it wes possible that evidence might be ad- duced before that Commission which would warrant the charges being proceeded with....-- The members of the Commission, Mr. Sampson and Mr. Yule, are unani- mous in their advice to me that the ing with these charges. I have therefore decided that no charges will be preferred on these cases and instructions are being issued accordinely.”’ ‘ ; Mr. Davis further stated that “Charges against twenty-two others arrested in connection with the rioting will be pressed in Court.” S. T. Wood Says: ‘Arrest of Leaders Cause of Riot”’ According to press statements of Assistant-Commissioner S. T. Wood, at Regina, on July 2, the cause of the riot was the attempt to arrest the leaders. Tance-Corporal McFarland at the preliminary hearing of those charged under Section 98 at Regina, July 15, exploded this statement in his evidence by stating in reply to defence counsel that he could have arrested the leaders prior to meeting on the Market Square, but was instructed to arrest them only at the signal of the blowing of a whistle on the Market Square. Now, after eight months, with evidence of stool pigeons and with the entire resources of the State at their disposal, the R.C.M.P. and the Saskatchewan authorities have no justification for proceeding wita the trial of those charged. Youth to Be Sacrificed to Absolve Police The withdrawal of the charges at this late date makes it more obyious that the clash at Regina was pre- meditated by the authorities, who desired to create a riot in order to give a basis for the lying state- ments of the Bennett Government the | VAN. YOUTH OUT FOR DOMINION DRIVE PRIZES With ten days to go, the national drive of the Young Worker for $2000 finds three districts, Timmins, Ont., Alberta and British Columbia bunched in the leadership, in the order named. All three have exceeded their quotas and are hot after the prize which is a silver shield for the winner. Whenever a drive was sponsored for any working class cause, British Golumbia was always certain to come through with flying colors. This has been repeatedly proven in the various drives for the “Work- er’? and “B.C. Workers’ News,” etc. The drive for $300 in B.G., as the quota towards the “Young Work- er’ progressive youth paper in Ganada, is also proving successful. With a little more financial as- sistance we can easily cop the Do- minion honors! In the few days that still remain we can still attain first place and keep up the tradi- tions of our District— if we get support. Im order to achieve this, all read- ers of this paper and others are re- quested to send their donations to J. Barry, Room 33, 142 West Hast- ings Street, Vancouver, B.C. RED AUTHOR IS FREED BY NAZIS PARIS, Feb. 24—(ALP) — Lud- wig Renn, courageous author and Gommunist, has been released by the Nazis from the concentration camp where he has been a prisoner for the past two years and is now in Switzerland. The International Writers’ Asso- ciation for the Defence of Culture is planning a huge welcome for him here. Renn, born an aristocrat, became a Communist after his service as an officer in the Great War. struggle, were motivated by some- thing other than their objective of a better life. Mr. Davis in his statement that the charges against the twenty-two will be pressed in Court, is a party to using these young people, vic- dims :of a pre-arranged police plot, to whitewash General MacBrien and his Assistant, S. IT. Wood, for their fascist attack upon the democratic rights and civil liberties of the Canadian people. These young men must be sacrificed to prove that the government and police can do n0 wrong! Withdrawal a Victory Hundreds of thousands of Can- adian people in the last election voted for the repeal of Section 98 by the election of the King Govern- ment. This partial victory, the withdrawal of these charges, shows the power of the united efforts of the Ganadian people, and Should be encouragement to press for the com- plete repeal of the imsidious ana undemocratic Section 98 of the Criminal Gode, for the release of the ‘remaining twenty-two camp strikers still charged, and through united efforts. to secure a better life for the Canadain people. Send personal letters of protest to Hon. T. GC. Davis, Parliament Bldgs., Regina, Sask., protesting the hold- ing of these twenty-two youths, and demanding the immediate with- drawal of all charges. that Canadian youth, in their heroic Enormous Funds Available To Educate Soviet Children New School Buildings To Be Erected MOSCOW, Feb. 29.-—{ALP)—27.9 million children will receive in- struction this year in the primary schools, the extension schools and the high schools. In 1935, 25.6 mil- lion children attended. New school buildings costing 910 Million rubles will be erected in 1936, as compared to 338 million rubles expended for this purpose in 1935. 1,520 schools in which 907,000 pupils can receive instruction (152 schools in Moscow, 100 in Lenin- erad, 33 in Kiev, 31 in Baku, 33 in Kharkoy, 23 in Sverloysk, 14 each in Odessa and Dniepropetrovsk, 12 each in Rostey and Novosibirsk, ete.) are to be built with this money. A total of 2,802 new schools will be built in the villages, making the total number of all new schools 45300. More Teachers, More Pupils The number of people being trained in the seminaries to be teachers will grow from 92,000 in 1935, to 111,000 in 1936. The num- ber of students in the institutions for the training of primary school teachers will increase by 12 per eent. The great shortage of teach- ers will be considerably alleviated by the graduation’ of students from these educational institutions during the current year. In the field for mass political- educational work, the plan for 1936 provides for the registration of 10.1 million adult students in various schools, aS against 9.5 million in 1935. In 1936 the chief role in rais- ing the general educational level of adults will be played by the schools which will be especially equipped MOOSE HALL, Burrard St. Chairman: REV. R. Twenty-two Camp Boys come up for Trial in Regina, March 1ith. They must not be sacrificed to prove that the Government and Police can do no wrong! MASS PROTEST MEETING MONDAY, MARCH 9th, 3 P.M. Se Spealkerssvs. DR. LYLE TELFORD, MRS. W. WILSON, A. M. STEPHEN DEFEND YOUTH AND DEMOCRACY! N. MATHESON Sen ‘for such adults who do not know how to read or write very well. In addition, those schools for adults will be very much extended which give a three-year high school course. The liquidation of illiteracy must take place chiefly among the elder people in the villages, where three million students will be in- cluded in this work in 1936. ‘BIG SHOT’ BOASTS GREASING PALMS The director of the Soley Arma- ments Company Limited testified recently before the royal commis- sion which is enquiring into the private armaments industry in Great Britain. During his testimony, Capt. Ball admitted that “‘palm greasing”’ was frequent in consummating sales of arms, saying, “People are not going to do anything for nothing.” Capt. Ball had boasted in a letter read at the Washington munitions enjuiry, that his firm could sell enough sur- plus rifles from the stecks of the British war office, “to alter the political balance of power of small- er states.’ THIS WEEK IN HISTORY 1985, March 1—Newfoundland job- less demonstrate for relief in- creases. 1921, March 2 — Socialist Revolu- tionaries engineer anti-soviet re- volt in Kronstadt; 1935 — THE WORKER (Toronto) appears as thricesweekly. 1918, March 3—Brest-Litovsk treaty between Soviet government and Germany signed. 1919, March 4—F'oundation congress of Communist International, un- der Lenin’s guidance. 1870, March 5—Sirth of Rosa Lux- emburg, German revolutionary leader. 1933, March 6—Nick Zynehuk shot in back and killed by policeman in Montreal eviction; 1935—Death penalty procaimed for Commu- nists in Japan. 1932, March 7—Five workers killed by machine gun fire in hunger march at Ford’s Detroit plan; 1935—RILU proposes world trade OL’ BILL Sunday is International Women’s Day throughout the world. The woman who worked hardest to establish an international day for women, Clara Zetkin, is no longer taking part in.the events physically, but her spirit hovers over every gathering of women that is held om International Women’s Day in nO matter what country. During the hectic revolutionary days of 1919- 20, Lenin well said of her that “the best man in Germany is an ol®& woman.’ : Times are chanzed in Deutsch- land, eyen since the day when that old fightine, proletarian woman leader occupied the chair of Pres— ident of the Reichstag, but country— women of Clara Zetkin will cele— brate International Women’s Day as surely as the sun rises on March 8th. If Hitler and his Gestapo thumb-serew sadist police torturers- do not know of it on the 8th, they will on the 9th. Sonya Branting, daughter of the one-time Swedish Social-Democrat prime minister, who visited Nazi Germany last summer to attend a eongress on penology, has this te say about the condition of women under Hitler rule: “To the Nazis woman is a domesticated animal, food only to breed and give soldiers to the state.” She quotes from am official Nazi paper, “Decadence be- gins when woman enters public life.’’ In Soviet countries a general holi- day is declared on March 8th to greet and celebrate the entrance of women into public life to take their place beside their menfolks in the guidance of the nation. Help our women comrades to make International Women’s Day a great success in British Columbia-_ = = = ¥ The poison-pen of the renegade Trotsky is stiil at work. The “Sun,’” thankful for the scraps of filth that overflow from the machines of the Hearst journalistic meatgrinders,. prints a story by Trotsky about someone he heard of who was tor- tured by the “Stalinites’! Why does not Trotsky tell us about how he was tortured himself when he was a prisoner of the Soviet gov- ernment? Because he was never subjected to any such treatments nor are any other political prison~ ers. Politically his story is a fabri- eation. Tf counter-revolutionary actiyi- ties have brought jail sentences an? even death to those who partici- pated in them, this needs no ex- euse. Revolution is not a parlia- mentary idyll of justice and free— dom; the dictatorship cannot be 2 contemplative ideal for the use of beautiful phrases on abstract uto— pian dreams by soft-hearted souls. The enemy is too reali and is also extremely practical. Weapons can- not be countered with words. The proletariat has to use its whole might, most ruthlessly on its en— emies. Capitalism will not be kissed to death, and if in the struggle Trotsky and his friends get in the way of the proletariat and are crushed like the lice they are, well— it is the logic of history. The press fulminations of reptile journalists of whom ‘Trotsky is in the lead today are not only the copy-desk manoeuvring of grog— inspired huckster-scribblers, but the fruit of hatred of the revolution- When one like Trotsky, who has been trusted by the workers, now exploits the position he gained through that trust in the interest of the capitalist ruling class, we begin to wonder if it would not have been better if the revolution had been a little less merciful to some of its opponents. = = = Mere is a good story from New Westminster. They needed a bunch of new cops there. I don’t know why. Anyhow there were plenty of applications. These were boiled down to 70. But the committee coulé so they decided ta put the 70 names all in a hat and draw the lucky seven. This was done and the seven drawn all turned out to be lacrosse players. A few days later another lacrosse player, a high school graduate, who had been un- successful, was asked by one of the citizens how he come to be left out. “Oh,” he replied, “I guess I got too much education.” * + 2 William Wayward was charged before Magistrate Tinker in Toronto with being drunk. The magistrate was going to give him the benerit accorded to first offenders, when the police inspector, Guthrie, hol- lered, ‘““He is also on relief.’ ‘Oh, that’s different,” said the magis—- trate, ‘“‘ten dollars or ten days.” This is the type of judical yvam—- pire that not only administers the law, but makes it. Most good demo- cratic people imasine fondiy that the men they elect to parliament make the laws. They enact them eertainly, but the judges interpret them. Many Canadians, who smile at the democracy that allows the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the laws passed by Congress, are not aware that they themselves are sub- jected to the same Kind of judge- made law which of course is always based on ‘‘the Jaw and the profits.” = > = The Little Lenin Library drawn for by the Workers’ Training School was won by Bill Woodhead. Some good reading ahead for Bill and nis union unity with IFTU. friends around False Creek. Dei he gin te not make up its mind who to select ©