Page Four B.C. WORKERS’ NEWS Saath March 27, 1936 BC WorkeErRS NEWS - Published Weekly by : THE PROLETARIAN PUBLISHING ASSN Room 10, 163 West sdastines Street - Vancouver, B.C. — Subscription Rates — ‘One Year —___$1.80 Half Year _______ 1.00 Three Months __$ .50 Single Copy ——_— -05 Hake All Checks Payable to the B.C. WORKERS’ NEWS Send All Copy and Manuscript to the Chairman of the Editorial Board —- Send AH Montes and Letters Per- taining to Advertising and Circulation to the Business Manager. Vancouver, B.C., March 27, 1936 TRYING TO BE “NICE” WE TERRIBLE conditions of the schools ot =~. the province is admitted by Mr. Weir, our so-called minister of education. This despite the elaims of the return of prosperity put forward by the provincial government, which upward prade they attribute to their empty slogan of “Work and Wages.” A half a million dollars is the amount Mr. Weir estimates is what is needed to put the ramshackle schools into decent repair. But the half million dollars are not forthcoming. All he announced was a measly $50,000, and even this is for what is euphemistically called “‘extra- mural’ decoration, whatever that is. That the degeneration of capitalism which has already manifested itself in mass unem- ployment and widespread misery of the masses, and not only the degeneration, but also the cor- ruption and devyitalizing effects of capitalist failure and decay, is shown in the admission in Mr. Weir’s statement that venereal disease is rampant and spreading in the publie schools of the province. . Our patriotic blatherskites never tire of ring- ing the changes on the old chauvinistie theme which proved so potent to make fools of another generation, but which now eyoke only jeers. There is one thing they cannot find an answer to, except to invent falsehoods to divert the atten- tion of the people from a realization of their decent into degradation, and that is, the in- ereased budget of the Soviet Union for new, not revamped, schools and the employment of thou- sands of new teachers. Why the Rey. Mr. Connell and his most staunch followers should heap praise upon Weir, the Pattullo tool of the boss class, is al- most beyond understanding. Perhaps the social amenities—_between representatives of the ex- ploiters and representatives of the exploited— must be observed. 3 The facts stick out like a sore thumb and as a constant source of working class irritation, of the sacrifice of children to the efforts of the rul- ing class to effect economies at the expense of the poor. Tt behooves organized labor to beware of the reactionary measures proposed by Weir, and above all, not to be deceived by his ““progressive’’ phrases and all-round bourgeois skill which ap- parently has broken down the class defences of Mrs. Steeves and even moved her to wholly un- merited eulogies of the fakir’s speech. The atmosphere of a parliamentary tall shop is devilatizinge. Everybody knows that. But the one reliable compass is the needs of the class struggle. The real fighter for working elass needs, the fighter who sees through the smooth but hypocritical and deceptive vaporings of a Pattullo or a Weir, will not bother to stop to compliment them on their performances, but will press the attack harder, and more relentlessly on them. ~ The workers not only of this province, but of Q@anada are sick unto nausea of the social-climb- ing efforts of working class representatives to “onalify” as “worthy” members of a boss class talk shop, and demand that they voice the de- mands of labor, not as those of a class accepting or doomed to indefinite exploitation, but as the proud representatives of the class that is rising to power, and determined to achieve it regardless of speaker’s rules or other impedimenta thrown in the way by desperate defenders of the decay- ing order to prevent the timid from voicing the full demands of the disinhberited and oppressed. UNITE ON MAY DAY HE MAY DAY Committee of the C.C.F. unemployment conference has sent out a eall to all working class organizers, their sym- pathizers and the working class generally, to unite for a erand May Day Parade and demon- stration of labor on that day- Many will remember the magnificent demon- stration of labor last May Day in Vancouver. This vear we can beat even last year’s affair— that is, if we put our collective shoulder to the wheel. May Day is associated with the struggles of the workers, and although there is an oficial Labor Day in September, this does not mean that all labor organizations, trade unions, co- operative and political, should not unite on May first for a monster demonstration. This is all the more necessary now that Van- couver bourgeoisie are using the 50th annivers- ary of the city as a means of the most jingoistic propaganda and racket for business men. All together for a successful May Day by Vancouver labor! THE FIGHT FOR RELIEF ORE THAN a million people in Canada are in receipt of relief, thus living on the border- line of starvation, according to figures compiled by Dominion authorities. Not only is this the ease at present, but municipal, provincial and federal governmients are in no way assisting in bringing about alleviation of this appalling situ- ation with its consequent suffering, but in many instances are agerayating it by slashing relief allowanees as can be seen from the brief news items printed on page two of this issue. Tt took organization, coupled with militant mass action and wide support ot a large section of the population to change the goyernment’s attitude towards the camp boys last year. If the present attitude of the Liberal government con- tinues and if municipalities are not assisted by Federal authorities, then they must be prepared to encounter an even greater movement of de- termined people who not only have themselves to provide for, but also their little ones. As ean be seen by a perusal of the news items in this issue of our paper on the struggles for relief, the working people in Canada who are on relict through no fault of their own, are not go- ing to sit down quietly and starve amidst plenty. They are preparing to organize; preparing to mobilize their forces; to gain mass support of the majority of the common people for their eause. B.C. people would do well to lay their plans now by assisting in every possible way the furthering of the efforts of those who are build- ing the unemployed moyement in the province. Portrait of a Bourgeois Artist She sketched and wrote pale verses penned Im broidery of frills and lace— Talked much of love and loved her dog, Smiled always, cooed with winsome grace— A pink-toed pigeon in the sun Who preened her feathers, one by one. Jelly that quivered in a glass So crystal-thim a breath might break, She shimmered with a juicy gleam Gf ju-jubes on a wedding-cake. Qne thought of sticky sweets that swim In jars of syrup, purply-dim. Her voice was tuned to twittering songs Of ducklings in a bed of straw. One feared to step—an egg might break! We heard the lady gently draw Wer breath and then exhale. The sound Was sorrow strangled underground. Wer little careful joys were conned As lessons in a picture-book. She gave no more than she could take. Her soul was honest like a brook. She harmed no-one nor did them good But left Life standing where it stood. —A.M_S. Radio Broadcast FRIDAY—8:45 to 9:00 P.M. B.C. Workers’ News Ps 2 CKMO 9099 CANADIAN DAILY LABOR PAPER IN MAY From Editorial in “The Worker’ “Daily Clarion to appear on streets May 1” was the headline ever the masthead in our last issue Instruction. as laundry and schools is proposed to the provin- cial government by the Catholic Gommittee of the Council of Public If passed, the law will boost some salaries 200 per cent. Many teach- ers now work for $100 a year, and a larger number for $150. Out of this princely sum, which compares not so well with St. James Street incomes, the teachers have Lto pay board and lodging, as well clothing and all other personal expenses. “LEFTY” BETTER THAN SERMON VICTORIA, March 21.—“‘No min- ister could haye preached a sermon half as good or as effective as the play I have just witnessed tenight”’ was the way one minister, whose Mame cannot be recalled, expressed himself in public at the conclusion of the presentation of “‘Waiting for Lefty’ in the City Temple in Vic- toia last Saturday night. of “The Worker.” Just a simple statement of fact but it carries with- in it a stirring story of heroic en- Geavor and of a great mile post reached in the ever forward march of labor history. The very Dame connects back Nickel Plot (Gontinued from page 1) The ‘‘Lefty’’ cast had the support of the Victoria Little Theatre As- sociation and the @C.CF., and sev- eral hundred people were tured away. On April 2, “Waiting for Lefty’’ will be presented in the High School Auditorium in Chilli- wack, and on April 4, residents of with the pre-war and immediately post-war labor movement in which at one time the ‘Western Clarion” customs men at Brockville, Ont., of a similar shipment is said to have Nanaimo will have an opportunity of seeing the play when it will be pre- sented at the Pigmy Hall. —with all its shortcomings—played @ not inconsiderable role. And the Daily Clarion of 1936 springs direct- ly out of the bowels of and con- ftinues alongs the road trod for four- teen year by The Worker. The ap- pearance of the Daily Clarion is the result of decades of work in build- ing up the labor movement and its press and marks a truly historic step forward. With a daily paper, the labor movement can be said to have discarded its swaddling clothes and come of age! The hearts of Canadian working men and women will swell with pride that our movement, our class, has been able to produce at Jone last 3 daily paper to carry on the fight 2 hundred times stronger than before. Quebec, where women have no vote, is having a change of heart in some things and is becoming ex eceedingly generous to school teach- ers, comparatively speaking. Enactment of a provincial law setting a minimum salary of $300 a year for teachers in Catholic “so tipped the hand of the federal government that immediate action against the alleged racketeers may be launched and the co-overation of the Royal, Canadian Mounted Police in that connection enlisted.” It is rumored that many ship- ments of scrap iron collected from junk-heaps have been sent out of dhe country billed as nickel catho- des, for which huge sums were paid by New York agents in contact with the Buropean countries for whom the shipments were intended. Other tricks are claimed, such as legal purchases of pure nickel from a private mining concern, iis legal shipment to the U.S.A. and back again and then by roundabout ways to Italy. Search for the elusive nick- el on its return to Canada is said to have been unsuccessful, but it is elaimed camouflaged scrap-iron was found instead. According to press’ reports, the round-up is proceeding, meantime the Halifax shipment has left for Sweden on a Swedish vessel. Send ‘‘Lefty’’ to Ottawa To-morrow, Saturday, taggers will be on the streets of Vancouver col- lecting funds from _ citizens who wish to see ‘Lefty’ compete in the finals of the Dominion Drama Festival to be held in Ottawa during the week of April 20. Turn out and give the “Waiting for Lefty’ cast all the help you can- Persons with cars are asked to give the use of their Cars. Mass meeting on behalf of Re= jected Campboys at the Moose Hall will be hela under the auspices of The Mothers’ Council, Wednesday, April 7, at $ pm. Rev Matheson and others will speak. If you haven't a radio of your own you can hear Tom Ewen. speak over the air tonight at 150 Hastings Street West. The World This Week By F. B. For the time being all is quiet on the Western Front. Two weeks of conferences of the Council of the League of Nations and of the signa- tories of the Locarmo Pact have not shaken Hitler's position on the re- militamzation of the Rhineland. A super-League of Nations has been proposed to include Japan, Germany and all other nations outside it: France is backing down from her initial firm stand and now agrees to drop the Franco-Soviet mutual as- sistance treaty if the Hague Court of International Justice declares against the treaty; Britain has asked Hitler to submit his proposals. but this he will not do until after the March 29 election to be held to gauge the support of the German people towards Nazi expansion. The German election will be favorable to Hitler. It couldn’t be otherwise in a country where Nazi terrorism will try to intimidate all Suspected of opposition at the polls. So this election in itself will not be of great significance; at most it will strengthen Hitler's hand when the nations. meet again in future conference, but it will not act as a true barometer of the feling of the German people toward Nazi rule. Of far greater international sig- nificance will be the result of the elections to the French Chamber of Deputies to be held on April 26 for this election will determine whether France is to go Fascist or not, and there is no doubt whatever that all of Britain’s: moves at present are being made with a view to strensth- en the Fascist elements in France, to prevent that country from g0- ing Socialist. The French capital- ists are tor between fear of the Nazi in the Rhineland and fear of Socialism at home, and they appear to be swinging around to the posi- tion that Socialism is the greater danger. But at the same time they cannot help but Know that a Fascist France will not solve any of the acute international problems of capi- talism. A Fascist Hrance would still have to contend with Nazi ex- pansion in middle Europe; it would not do away with Germanys’ press- ing demands for colonies, in short, the deadly rivalry for markets would still exist in all its forms. Britain’s solution seems to be to unite a Waseist France, Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany and herself into a great anti-Soviet bloc, with Fascist Japan an active ally, if not actually in the union. But since the last great war there have been so many treaties made and broken that there would be little hope of even such a menacing Big Four union sticking together very long. The very nature of capitalist pro- duction and distribution of commo- dities will smash all treaties between capitalist nations, and all agree- ments, treaties and pacts between them can be only temporary. The history of the past seventeen years prove this. . The great war ended in the Treaty of Versailles, June, 1919, be- tween Germany and the Allies. It has been knocked into a cocked hat. The League of Nations, a product of the Versailles Treaty, is about to be replaced by a “Super-League.” The Saar Valley and the Rhineland, territories not to ‘have been mili- tarized. are both filled with Nazi troops. Germany was not to have a navy, but in June, 1935, Britain made a treaty with her agreeing to a German navy 35 per cent of the fighting strength of the British navy. As Germany has no colonies this will make her navy almost equal the home defence strength ot the British navy. Germany was not to have an army of more than 100,000, all branches of a military force were to be curtailed, but since Hitler came to power he has been allowed to do just what he liked, because he said he was going to destroy the Soviet Union. In October, 1925, at Locarno, Switzerland, representatives of Ger- many, Britain, France, Italy, Bel- gium, Poland and Czecho-Slovakia Signed what are known as the Lo- camo agreements. It is now pro- posed to scrap these and draw up another Locarno. When Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 she broke the Kellogg Pact, the Nine-Power China Treaty, and the League of Nations Covenant. Fascist Italy broke the League of Nations Covenant when she in- vaded Abyssinia. a fellow-member of the League. France, Italy and Britain have all refused to pay their war debts to the United States. In contrast to this, the Soviet Union has always scrupulously abided by any and every agreement she ever made, and in all her busi- ness and financial dealing with other nations she has never yet failed to pay map and fulfil her obli- gations exactiy on time, Her tor- eign undertakings are no example of what the world relations would be like under Socialism, peace and harmony between all peoples. The international capitalist class stand condemned before the people of the world as being totaly unfit to man- age the world’s affairs, they have got to make way for a new leader- ship of the human race, the leader- ship of the working Glass, which alone can solve peacefuly all na- tional differences and bring in an era of plenty and world narmony- The French elections may be the turning point in capitalist Hurope that will decide whether capitalism will last a while longer or be re- placed by the rule of the common people. An armed attempt of the Fascists to seize power, bringing civil war to France, is a strons likelihood within two months. SHORT JABS Ooo By OL’ BILL = When Sir Edward Beatty speak” it is as the yoice of Cananian capi- | talism. Holt, McMaster and the other big guns play possum and let Sr “BUT HE INSISTS ON =; USING THAT NEW BAT? ; KELL HAVE TO USE er Beatty take the knocks. A few weeks ago he spoke to a gathering: of his fellow treasury-raiders in To- making a speech so well © THE OLD ONE IF ronto, | aie, re GE Ay larded with hoary platitudes that a it to pieces. ; Like all capitalist jeremiads, it } was a plea for lower wages, for i cuts even from the present starya= | tion levels. Imagine the case-hard- ° : 4 ; £9 = C1 pie ened gall of Beatty, pointing out that one of the mistakes of the | Canadian capitalists was in encour aging the workers to accept high wages. = qe ike every other apologist for his E corrupt and incompetent class, he | lied about the Soviet Union. “We have made no such grave error,” he said, “as that by which a socialist Q. I realize that you are not here to advocate the Russian systeni of government for Canada or the Wnited States, but believe you feel that the world at large has much to gain from the Rus- Sian experiment. Would you say that it is having a liberalizing effect on world thought? A. Perhaps not liberalizinge, but eertainly it is having a profound effect on world thought. Just as the changes which took place in America and France in the 18th Century shook the entire world with! their impact, presenting as they did the first serious challenge to the feudalism of that period, so the change in Russia presents the first serious challenge to the system of capitalism throughout the world to- day. Every nation, and in fact every Serious movement within any nation, must take cognizance of what is happening in the Soviet Union in thinking out and planning its own future. Q@. What actually is the state of affairs in Russia? Are the people happy? What is being accom- plished. A. If happiness consists of ener- getically forging ahead, of confident hope, of seeing that every year is better than the last, then the people of the Soviet Union may be said to be happy. If happiness con- sists in being contented with what exists, then certainly not. The chief quality of the Soviet is its dynamic energy. The country set out to double its standard of living in less than five years’ time, and is doing it. The amount of goods produced and consumed in January of this year was five times the monthly average produced and consumed in 1929. There is no unemployment. Everyone is busy producing some- thing and building up the country. No country in history has gone ahead so rapidly in such a short time. @. During your recent tour you have addressed many audiences in all parts of the continent, and no doubt discussed Russia with hundreds of people of all kinds. What questions do they most ask? A.