Page Six PEOPLE’S ADVOCATE September 24, 1837 The Peoples Advocate Published Weekly by the PROLETARIAN PUBLISHING ASSN. Room 10, 163 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC. Telephone: Trinity 2019 One Year ...------- $1.80 Half Year ....----- $1.00 Three Months ...--. 50 Single Copy .------- -05 Biake All Checks Payable to: The People’s Adyocate. Send Ail Copy and Manuscript to the Chairman of the fiditorial Board. Send all Monies and Letters Pertain- fing to Advertising and Circulation to Business Mer. Vancouver, B.C., Friday, September 24, 1937 International Piracy ESPITE all the raving and braggadocio of Mussolini, the Nyon conference has done something to restrain the Ttalian pirate and his gangster pal, Hitler. Before and during the conference the British tories, forecd by the public to make gestures of resistance to the sinking of British ships, worked behind the scenes to save Massolini’s face and bring the conference to a dead end. Tn the first place, the British rulers wanted Mussolini and Hitler represented at the con- ference. Imagine a conference in the U.S. during prohibition days, for the purpose of eurbing the smuggling of booze, having Al Capone and Dion ©? Banion present as dele- gates! The dramatic and powerful action of the Soviet Union in publicly naming Mussolini as the pirate in the Mediterranean prevented the conference from being a farce. The en- raged Tory press howled about the Soviet Dnion’s accusation beme ‘Gindiplomatic’” be- eause it gaye Mussolini and Hitler an exeuse for refusing to attend, and wanted the con- ference called off because of that. But the conference was held and, chiefly through the efforts of the Soviet delegates, the lines were more sharply drawn than ever before between the democratic states and the Fascist powers. Nor could the British deleeation shield Tialian Fascism as the pirate of the Mediter- ranean, and the efforts of Eden and his Tory colleagues to sneak in belligerent rights for Franco were also defeated. The pro: Fascist Chamberlain government is persistent, however, and now wants Mussolini to participate in the defence of shipping against his own pirate ships. But this, too, will come to naught, for the British people and the peace- promoting efforts of the Soviet Union will pre- vent if- The Nyon conference did not accomplish all that was desired, but it at least held up betore the world the guilt of Italian Fascism as the international pirate, aided and abetted by the skulking Nazi government; it also accom- plished something in the way of curbing Fas- cist piracy. The prestige of Mussolini has fallen while that of the Soviet Union as a pro- moter of peace and democracy has risen to even greater heights than before. Canada Ait Geneva ROM the day that Spanish generals, backed by Mussolini and Hitler, revolted agaimst the government of Spain, the Canadian govern- ment has supported them. The Foreign Enlistment Act was specifically aimed 2eainst the Spanish government and people and designed to aid Franco. Its em- bareo on exportation of war materials to the Loyalists, while exports of war materials to Portueal—destined for the insurgents—also aided Franco. The latest disgraceful act of the King goy- EDITORIAL FEATURES A Seer eer eel: ernment was perpetrated at Geneva last Dues- day when the Canadian delegates supported the Fascist dictatorship states against Spain and the democratic powers on the question of the re-election of the Spanish govermmient to a seat on the Council of the League of Nations. To their credit be it said that Australia, New Zealand and South Africa yoted for Spain while Canada lined up with such nndenoecratic states as Albania, puppet of Italy, Bulgaria, Greece. Hungary, Portugal, Rumania, Czecho- slovakia and some fascist South American states—fine company for a government headed by a grandson of William Lyon Mackenzie! As the pressure of Canada’s arch-reaction- aries increases, and their threat to modernize the Tory party becomes louder, the Kang gov- ernment retreats and goes more aud more to the side of reaction in the hope that by so doing it will prove to the multi-millionaires that the Liberal party can serve Conservatives. The peceple of Canada must let Kang and bis colleagues know that it regards the action of the Canadian delegates at Geneva as a disgrace io the Canadian peonle and a betrayal ot the trust that progressive, anti-Pascists placed in him when they voted for his candidates in the 1935 elections. Commercial Piracy TRACY appears in many forms There was the individual piracy ot Captaim Ikadd and Henry Morgan in the days of sailing ships; today there is jnternational piracy such as Mussolini is carrying on in the Mediterranean. But a form of piracy that is ever with us is the commercial piracy being earried on by utility corporations. The stranglehold of the B.C. Electric on our province is well known and sorely felt. And that of the B.C. Telephone Company is just as well established. The latter company, not satisfied with the enormous profits wrung from the users of tele phones in Vaneouver, is about to put over a huge steal by increasing the monthly rates on small telephone users. Although amalgamation of South Wancou- ver aud other municipalities with Vancouver took place some years ago, the telephone com- pany coutinued to regard them as apart from Vancouver and maintained the extra charge for ealls both ways between Vancouver and the former municipalities. And now it is willing to remove the nuisance —}yut only at a cost to householders of a steep raise in rates! Thus the company will make ereater profits than before. Bie business firms will benefit by the change, for th. extra charge to them will not amount to as large a sum as they paid out on the four- cent charges for “outside” calls. But what o£ telephone users in the former municipalities, eommunities such as Fraser, Carleton, Mar- pole, Kerrisdale, Pomt Grey, ete. 2 Tn snch districts almost all telephone ealls are between neighbors in the community and the local smal] business men, with very few outside calls. In fact the outside calls for a number of these districts average but one a month. The telephone rate to those people is now $1.50 per month. With one outside eall per month the cost to the user is $1.54. If the pro- posal o! the telephone company goes through them as well as the. these householders will have the rate jacked up to $2.60. It is no wonder, therefore, that there is wide resentment against this piece of attempted com- mercial piracy and that petitions are beime cir- culated protesting against it. Instead cf raising the rate the company should be forced not only to abolish the charge for “ouiside” calls within the city, but to lower the existing rate which is exorbitant. More For Oakalla WENTY-EIGHT unemployed workers were sentenced Wednesday to serve two months in Oakalla prison because they solie- ited funds on the streets to keep from starving er resoviune to erime to procure food and shelter. The convenient charge of “obstructing police” sas laid against them. althoueh in no way did they obstruct or resist the police. But such is the working of capitalist law and its officers and judges. The ccst to the taxpayers of Vaneouver of maintaining these men behind bars will be ap- proximately $1700. Added to this are the court eosts involved in their prosecution. The amount used to keep them two months in jail would keep them for a longer period out- side jail. Then why are they not given the re izef they demand? ‘“No money,’ whines the city council, accompanied by insults and slan- ders from Mayor Miller against the untortun- ate men who cannot find work, while in the next breath they dip their hands mto the eity treasury and hand a gift of $500 of taxpayers’ money to the Salvation Army. Not content with the inhuman persecution of the 25, the authorities yesterday jailed 12 more, and will, most likely, bury them i. Oakalla at the cost of $1 a day to the long suffering taxpayers. It is high time that decent citizens, trade jimions, the Mothers’ Council and other progres- sive organizations take a definite, active part in the strugele of the unemployed for bread. It is well. too, that Waneouver citizens re- member the doings of Miller, the reactionary protege of Riot Act McGeer and his supporters in the city eouncil and when election day comes turn these heartless reactionaries out by elect- ing genuine progressives. The Trades and Labor Congress Convention FYE xvecent convention of the Trades and Labor Coneress, held at Ottawa, marked a definite step toward fhe further unification of the organized forees of labor in Canada. On the whole the convention was a progres- sive one. The opening address of President Draper and the temper of the majority of the delevates ensured that the old game of the re= actionary diehards, the disruptive game of red- baiting would not be tolerated. And it wasn t. The ereat danger of the trade union move- ment beine sundered by a struggle between the unions of the AF of L and those of the CIO in Canada was averted. It was recognized that the CIO is not out to raid the AF of IL unions for members, but will accept those unions whieh desire abandonment of the eraft form of areanization where it has beeome obsolete, and will work in brotherly accord with the AF of L unions to better the wages and conditions ot the workers. The convention once again went on record against amalgamation of the CPR and CNR and condenimed the pooling of train services by these roads, a practice already adopted in astern Canada and which*is throwing hun- dreds of railway workers out of employment. It is 10 be regretted that the convention yoted to keep the Congress in the narrow role of a mere legislative mouthpiece of the trade union movement. The majority ot the delegates ap- parently haye not yet realized the need for the Coneress becoming a part of an independent famuer-labor political party which would be a much more effective instrument politically than the Congress as it is now, depending upon petition to governments of the old capitalist parties. Perusal of the hundreds of resolutions sent to the convention by trades councils and local unions, shows clearly that although the con- vention was, in many ways, a progressive one, many of the delegates lagged behind their rank and file and did not wholly express its great advanee. Trade unionists of B.C. will be pleased with the election of Charlie Stewart, of Vancouver, to the B.C. provineial executive of the Con- eyvess. With a progressive record of many years nm the trade union movement and a great cham- pion of unity, he wall add ereatly to the streneth et that body. The October Press Drive Preparations for the October press cam- paign are near completion and its success now. depends upon the energy and initiative of individuals, groups and organizations to con- tact the great mass of radical and progressive people in the province who can be readily shown the need for the PropLe’s ADVOCATE and Clarion Weekly. - The eravity of events all around us should be a spur to driye workers in their tasks of canvassing for subseriptions and collecting for the maintenance fund. We must think of the need for progressive papers in the tens of thousands in order that the course ef events may be influenced for the better. Bold conceptions and efficient work are needed to fulfill desired quotas and every press eonunittee throughout the province has a re- sponsibility that must be accepted if success is to be attained. There have been pnprovements in our papers and much more can be done with the aid of a lareer circulation and a maintenance fund that is sutheient. A reactionary publisher is a fellow who is so fairaninded he doesn’t want his reporters to joim a union because they might become sympa- thetie to labor. : : Tn which ease, he thinks, your daily paper wouldn’t have that glorious impartiality which it displayed last time you were on strike. Remember 2 : Things have come to a pretty pass when the Fascists can’t find a country to invade any longer that won’t fight back! A Fascist 1s a pirate with delusions of ¢ran- deur and a machine-gun instead of a cutlass. Bennett and the Communists The Old Man Died “The Ethiopian cannot change his skin nor the leopard his spots.” HE terrifying roar of the reactionary lion has been transmuted into the gentle bleat of the democratic lamb. Or is it the same old lion cov- ered over with patches of sheepskin ? At any rate, R. B. Bennett, one time prime minister of Canada, the man who in 1931 invoked the late unlamented Section 98 of the Crim- {nal Code against the Communist party and had eight of its mTa- tional leaders sentenced to King- ston penitentiary for five years, the blusteringe dictator who~ de- clared repeatedly that the out- jawed Communist party was in process of being stamped out of existence, the man who, more than anyone else in the high financial eircles in which he moves, e¢x- presses and symbolizes blackest reaction in Canada—this man, speakne n Calgary recently, ad- yocated the calling of a conference at which all political parties in Ganada, including the Communist party, would have representatives, for the purpose of discussing changes in and amendments to the British North America (BNA Act, ver since the route of the Con- servative party in the federal elections of 1985, and with the Conservatives in power only one province in the dominion, namely Quebec, the multimillionaire Tory leaders who control that party save been trying to make a come- back. They have been establishing some of their trusted men, masked as Liberals—Charles Dunning for instance—in( important positions in the Liberal cabinet. They have been placing their old reactionaries behind the scenes and shoving out younger men as decoys with pro- gressive phrases on their lips. In other words they have been giving the old reactionary Tory party a faise face in order to fool the peo- ple and divert them from the path of progress. Wot long ago there was serious ¢alk of removing Bennett from ths leadership because of his reaction- ary record and unpopularity ameng the people. A case of fail- ing health was made out, but it didn’t stick, In any case Bennett hung on and is going around the country cutting progressive papers. While in British Columbia a few weeks ago he expressed alarm at the danger to democracy in the world. He spoke lugubriously about “dictatorships,” lumping Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union to- gether in the best confusionist manner. But the only specific warning of danger to democracy in Canada that he sounded was not the numerous Fascist organ- izations which have sprung up all over the country, many of them financed and controlled by Ger- many; what he “viewed with alarm’? was the actions of the Aberhart government in attempt- ine to bring the banks under con- trol and cutting interest rates. And now the chief Candian exor- ciser of Communism recosnizes the Communist party as 4 legal or- ganization and would inelude its representatives in a conference to modernize the BNA Act. There is a great popular demand for a pro- eréssive revision of the constitu- tion and Bennett, recognizing that demand, demagogically is: voicing it as the great champion of democ- racy and progress. Certainly the BNA Act should be revised, if not abolished. The Communist party demands, among other things, that changes be made which will remove those sections which serve to prevent oF retard the enactment of progressive leg- islation, changes that will make the Senate an elective body respon- sible to the people; that will make more difficult the passing of the buck by the federal sovernment to the proyvineial governments, and yice versa, whenever advanced so- cial and labor legislation is. de— manded, and which the obsolete constitution is used to block. We are not at all overwhelmed by what to the uninitiate may ap- pear as a sudden seeing of the light by Bennett of his eleventh hour conversation to progressiv— ism, Nevertheless Communists will participate in a conference such as Bennett proposes—if they have the opportunity—no matter how many reactionaries are in it, and will put forward their suggestions and demands and fight for their adop- tion. But Communists are not fooled by the progressive-sounding state- ments from the forked tongue GL the reactionary political Saul in the guise of a2 regenerated demo- cratic Apostle Paul. Bennett is an able man, no doubt of that. When he was openly bellowing reaction- ary statements he could not be called an ass in lion’s skin. But to- day, when he unctuously oozes canting progressive-Soun ding phrases, it can be truthfully said that whilst the voice is the voice of a progressive Jacob, the hand is the hand of the reactionary Esau. Yo Estar Un Rojo! By A. C. LUQUE Morning at Pequermos, with the Hscoral beneath. Phe machine-qun splutters. Men climb the slope like trunks midst truntes : Spaniards and Moors, And there below, Saint-Rafael protects them. They climb, terrible, the ‘requlares of Laracle, that they have sert against us. all these criminals of generals who claam to be Catholtes. Busta ben Ali Mohammed, blackbearded and blackeyed, ==all black—. from ius ad- vance Post detaches himself cautiously. And drawing himself th rough the grass, he speaks, all at once erect, his fist in the air, and very calm, alone. bared, before the guns, ‘T am a red, comrades, Dowt shoot, yo estar um 100 Y the other By MICHAEL WHITTOCK In the Left Review T WAS early August when the war hit Pelayo. People hadn’t bothered much about politics in the little village, so when young ~ Ramon Vieja came tearing down the street shouting ‘The rebels are coming,’ they thought he was drunk. or haying a joke. So it took death to wake up the village. The same morning, old man Vieja’s sixtieth birthday. when crowds were going to the old sun-faded church of Santa Isabella at the top of the steep brown street, an aeroplane came over the hills and dropped a bomb among the crowd. The old man was putting on his hat to go out. The sudden explo- sion startled him. The window broke with the shock and a Sliver of glass fell on to his shoulder. 4 sudden horrible screaming, feet running outside. Silence. The old man went into the street. A huge hole had been torn in the roadbed in front of Santa Isa- bella; the bomb had ripped away a shoulder of the church. About a dozen bodies lay around the crater in the settling yellow dust, like broken flies around an open wound. All these things flashed through 6ld Wieja’s mind in a minute or dumb silence; a little girl with smashed arms began to scream, then the noise sank to a whimper; the old village’ suard was sobbing against the bloody church wall. The hum of the aeroplane faded; the sun caught the beautiful Silver shape. It disappeared behind the hills. The old man thought of his son Ramon shouting “The rebels are coming?’ e E WENT back into the house, took down the shotgun from hooks above the door, filled a pocket with eartridges. His hands were shaking. Out on the street a silent crowd had gathered. Some- thine about his quietness attracted them: they saw the shotgun. They crowded around him. Old Vieja was frightened, some impulse made him speak. Out of the corner of his eye he could see twelve planket-covered shapes in a TOW against the church wall. He spoke softly, hoarsely. ‘Brothers! You have seen the blood spilled. You have seen the little children. The rebels are com-— ing, they will do worse. I am an old man, Who will help me stop them?’ Silence. An old woman, with no shoes, sobbed. The shep- herd, Pedro Viscar, stepped out. ‘T will,’ he said. More. Miguel Poca, young Ramon, Jose Bieta, the prothers Joca. All those with guns- ‘Wait,’ said Miguel. ‘Guns.’ Seven men. They went to the edge of the village, their canvas shoes shuffling in the dust, shot- euns held tightly. They did not, dared not, speak. The morning’s horror still held them; the fact that such things should happen in old quiet Pelayo bewildered them. Seven men. They stood quiet behind the rocks along the road that wound for a day's mule jour- ney to Villahuna behind the hills. By a common impulse they fired together when the column of for- eien legionaries Swung into range. A dozen or SO men were scythed jown by the wild-flung shot. The officer in front clutched at the bloody wreck of his face and rolled pn to the road, screaming. The old man, unmindful of the others, reloaded, stepped out to the road. He thought of the smashed street, the old church. A white cloud had suddenly spollt the deep blue sky. His heart was pounding, but he was’ cold with hate and sorrow. ‘Swine? h shouted as his rage spilled over. “You shall not pass!’ A dirty-faced sergeant shot him down as he fired again. He laughed in agony in the dust, his blood wet the hot rocks. The old man died. His last shout hung in the sultry: air, it went ringing over the hills of Spain. Squaring The Circle “\What did you tell that man just now Be “TY told him to hurry.” ‘What right have you to tell him to hurry ?”’ “JT pay him ‘to hurry.” “Flow much do you pay him 2” “Four dollars a day.” ‘Where do you get ihe money” “J sell products.” ‘Who makes the products “We does.” ‘Wow many products does “Tey dollars’ worth.” Oo 2? he make in a day?” “Then, instead of you paying him, he pays you 36 a day 29 to stand around and tell bim to hurr but L own the machines.’ she machines & “Well, “How did you get “Sold products and bought them.” “VWWho made the products ¢ $? “Shut up! He might hear you.” __Inter-County Leader. OOD By OL’ BILL In his speech to his A Great Tory fellows in Vic- People? joria, “Iron Heel Ben- nett” gave voice to one of those sugary blurbs that are ealculateé to fool the victims of Big Business by making them feel proud of themselves and the country which they live. “We are a great people,” he said, “for providence has given US = land rich in raw.materials where men have gainea great rewards,” It is hard to understand how anyone who could make such & statement could rise to be the leader of one side of Canadian political life, for short as the sen- tence is, it contains three colossal mais-statements. The fast that Bennett was ac= cepted as the outstanding political figure in our country for five years proves we are not such 2 “creat people,” particularly with one million and sixty thousand living on relief. The reference to “providence” reminds us of the remark of the local preacher to an old man who had made a garden out of the bush. “You have made a peauty spot here,” he said, “but don’t for- get the part Providence had in it.” To which the old man retorted, “Aye, but ye should have seen it when Providence had it all to him~ self!” And in the reference to the fact that “men have gained great re- wards,’ he mis-States the case by not saying ‘a few men,’ himself among them. * . If he had put the = CRDUATS! question that way ivide-up . he would have been proven correct by the publi- cation of the annual financial statement of the Lake Shore Mines of Kirkland Lake which was is- sued on the same day in which Bennett made the speech referred to. This entrancing piece of bour= geois literature Shows that twelve million dollars of profit found its way into the pockets of the Lake Shore shareholders during the year ending June 30, 1937; that the miners whoeproaguced that profit received $2,848,408 in wages and that the company’s coifers still hold a fleabite of $6,905,080 in a reserve fund. For every dol- Jar the miners got, the sharehold- ers got four. “Men have gained great rewards!” Qn top of this the drillers, muckers and other workers in the mines produced another two and 4 half million dollars for operat- ing expenses other than wages; Over ninety-two thousands for “administration”; almost three hundred thousand for deprecia~ tion and $1,627,316 to meet the tax exactions of the Provincial and Dominion governments, When the capitalist press tells us that $6 dividend per share was paid by the Lake Shore for the year, the average worker is apt to be confused, as he is by Ben- nett’s hokum, and imagine that $6 means 6 per cent; but it is not; it is 600 per cent, for the par value of Lake Shore shares is $1 each, During the past ten years divi- dends with bonuses were paid as follows: 1926, 50 per cent; 1927, 70 per cent; 1928, 100 per cent; 1929, 110 per cent; 1930, 150 per cent; 1931, 240 per cent; 1932, 300 per cent; 1933, 300 per cent; 1934, 350 per cent; 1935, 400 per cent; 1936, 500 per cent; and now this year 600 per cent. Total dividends paid up to December 1936 amount to $53,020,000. Since the company was formed in 1914, each dollar share has paid $32.52 and is still a dollar investment. Poor Shy- lock! The company is capitalized at two million dollars, one million of which was paid out in shares for the property and only $332,208 of the other million has been sub- seribed. This latter figures repre- sents the actual investment of capital by means of which, with this year’s profit, over sixty mil- lions haye been wrung out of the sweat and blood and suffering of Canadian miners. “A few mier have gained great rewards.” For the shareholders, a gold mine without the dipping; for the miners, the real “providence” who provided all this wealth—silicosis, the breadline, the boneyard! ‘Many men did not gain greal rewards.” a The parlous condt sen es tion of the Britisk * iron industry Tre ferred to in this column a coupl of weeks back appears to be evel worse than was indicated at tha time. Latest advices, as the news papermen say, tell of staid ol church-wardens seriously discus sing the necessity of despoilin the graves of the iron railing which have been a prominen feature of many of them for century and a half Ghoulis work! The practice of erecting ire gEratings over graves in Eneglan and Scotland arose out of the bod) snatching that was as commit then as broken political promis! are today. But times change, a1 the Burke and Hare body-snate ers who made it necessary to pr tect the newly buried bodies wi iron grills are replaced by ie modern body-snatchers, Hitl and Mussolini, who make it I cessary to use these iron ere protections as the raw mater for the manufacture of cann and shrapnel.