Pafe Two

PEOPLE’S ADVOCATE

December 3, 1937

The Peoples Advocate

Published Weekly by the

PROLETARIAN PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
Room 10, 163 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, B.C. - Phone, Trin. 2019

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Vancouver, B.C., Friday, December 3, 1937

Vote the Progressive
Slate and Defeat the
Reactionary Non-
Partisan Association

OTERS of Vancouver, when they go to the polls

next Wednesday, will have an opportunity to
mark a turning point in the city’s history. They
will decide whether Vancouver will have a reac-
Lionary city council of puppets to dance when big
business pulls the strings or whether a solid pro-
gressive bloc will safeguard the interests of the
great majority of city wage-earners and small
business men and women.

Few will be deceived by the imposing false front
of the Non-Partisan Association erected by Van-
couver big business in an effort to make the city
secure for the bondholders and for those com-
panies which utilize the conveniences provided by
the smaller ratepayers without contributing to
their maintenance. All the Non-Partisan Associa-
tion’s demagogic references to freedom from po-
litical administration are refuted by the fact that
it was formed with the open intention of opposing
CCE and Labor candidates, in itself an anti-pro-
gressive political action.

Let voters examine for themselves the candi-
dates fronting for the Association and, what is
more, those backing it. In view of what we pub-
lish elsewhere in this issue we need say little about
the labor renegade, Pettipiece. He has betrayed
the working people for the last time. Corey is
another trade unionist following out the disastrous
policy of collaboration with those whose express
purpose is destruction of trade unionism. Kirk and
DeGraves are both known reactionaries. Their
willingness to become the tools of big business
merely confirms what is generally known.

S
qe backers of the Non-Partisan Association,

the public-spirited gentlemen who, under the
guise of keeping politics out of the city hall, are
making such a strenuous effort to fool the public,
are well-known, of course, for their consideration
of Vancouver’s people. Thatis why we have wors-
ening slum conditions in a city only fifty years re-
moved from the forest. That is why the city’s
youth must seek public aid on the streets. That is
why the unemployed must live under conditions
inimical to health. And that is why the burden of
taxation rests so heavily on the shoulders of the
small taxpayers and so lightly in contrast on the
shoulders of the wealthy.

We hope Vancouver voters will remember
ragged tincanners standing on street-corners,
children playing among the traffic on dingy East
End streets, people living four and five in one recom
on rations sufficient for one when they go to the
polls Wednesday. We hope they will remember
that a vote for the Non-Partisan Association is, in
reality, a vote for Col. Victor Spencer, General
Victor Odlum, Austin Taylor, Senator W. deB.
Farris, W. H. Malkin and G. G. McGeer, for the
new Industrial Association of BC, the Shipping
Federation and the BCElectric.

PoR there is an alternative to reaction in the can-

didates who are pledged to progress. We
have no hesitation in endorsing Alex Fordyce, the
Labor candidate put forward by the trade unions.
And, on the basis of their work on the city council
during the past year, we endorse Alfred Hurry and
Miss Helena Gutteridge. Wecanalse endorse Wil-
liam Offer, the third of four candidates represent-
ing the CCF. Because of his record. we cannot en-
dorse Ernest Robinson, the fourth CCF candidate.
Indeed, we regret that the CCF has not had the
political foresight to withdraw him as a candi-
date not calculated to enhance its prestige and
thus avert a possible split vote. Surely the lesson
of Pettipiece should be sufficient.

With reaction making an open bid for power,
such a gesture of willingness to co-operate with
organized labor, to accede to the frade unions the

right to put forward their own candidates, would
have strengthened rather than lessened the influ-
ence of the CCF among all those whose desire is
for progressive civic government.

On the school board Miss Mildred Osterhout
has done good work and merits the continued con-
fidence of the voters, while on the parks board
we believe that Mrs. Susan Lane Clark and J.
Corkill, also CCF nominees, will best represent
the taxpayers interests.

We believe that the slate we advance is the best
among the candidates offering themselves for

election. The rest is up to the voters themselves.
Elect progressive aldermen and defeat the aims
of big business.

How Will Youth Vote?

For Progress, This
Youth Leader Says

EXT Wednesday those of
Vaucouver’s youns people
who have not been disenfran-
thised by their inability to find
smployiment will eo to the polls.
Will they vote nnthinkingly
or will they consider the vari-
ous interests
represented &
by the eandi- 2
dates? Vill &
hey choose &
reaction ase
represented
by the bi o
business DOM Bes
inees of thek
socalled Non

Partisan As-;
Zociation or
will they vote for progress as
represented by Labor and CCF
eandidates 2

There is every reason to be
lieve that youth im this city is
awake to the fact that its hope

lies in the election of Labor and-

CCE candidates, particularly
when one considers the progres-

sive outlook of the laree num-
ber of young people affliated
through their organizations to
Vancouver Youth Couneil.
There is every reason to be-
lieve too, that the issues im this
sleétion are clear to youth.
What sort of civic admini-
stration will Vaneouver have
after December S?% Wiaill the
sity council be made up of men
who speak and act for the inan-
eial big sliois of Vancouver, the
men who have made their mil-
lions through exploitation of
the working people of British
Columbia and at the expense
of a generation of young peo-
ple for whom there is no bright
future the way things are ?
Will the new city admini-
stration continue the policy of

refusing aid to unemplored
youth, of driving them on to
the streets with tin cans, of

aerding them inte prison camps
yy the hundred% \Vil] the next
city council deny youth its
lemoeratie right of public pro-
test and assembly as the last
eouneil did when it arrested
ihe young men and women who
picketed the Italian consulate
here to protest Italian interven-
tion in Spain? Will the new
administration order the arrest
of young people peacefully
picketine ships bearing car-
goes of death as in the case re-
cently when the Empress of
Canada was picketed ¢

Most decidedly the city’s
young people don’t want such
an administration. The sort of

representatives youth wants on
the city council are those with
an understanding of the prob-
lems of today’s generation and
who are prepared to aid in
their solution. Amd the only
such representatives are the
Labor and CCF candidates.
These are the candidates who
are pledged to conduct a feht
m behalf of our youth, who

are prepared to do something
about the present overcrowd-
ing in our schools and are

anxious to establish play-
xrounds and recreation centres.
Theirs is the program which
Jemands slum clearance, the
building of new homes and the
consequent provision of work
for our young citizens.

Tt may be somewhat early to
talk about Christmas, but the
election of Alex Fordyee, Al
fred Hurry Miss Helena Gut-
teridee and William Offer to
the city couneil will be the best
Christmas sitt the young peo-
ple of Vancouver can give to
themselves on election day.

Stage
and
Screen

Ho” the New Film Alliance
sizes the new pictures up:
SUBMARINE Da—US navy
crashes through again, enabling
a Hollywood producer to save
some money. Featuring the gov-
submarine and
To be

ernment’s new

one of the oldest plots.
avoided.

THOROUGHBREDS DO N’T
CRY—A racing story showing
that races are often fixed. The
whole thing played as a comedy
with music. If you find it funny.

BLOSSOMS ON BROADWAY
— A musical cops- and -robbers
story with Edward Arnold. The
songs are very tuneful.

DAMSEL IN DISTRESS—Fred
Astaire and Burns and Allen re-
placing Ginger Rogers. Fast
moving, tuneful and amusing-
You will most likely enjoy it.

OLLYWOOD.— What becomes

of the boys we saw in Dead
End and The Devil is a Sissy
when they grow up, will be the
subject of Jimmy Cagney’s next
film for Grand National, Angels
with Dirty Eyes. Rowland
Brown, who was one of Holly-
wood’s real creative geniuses in
the early days of gangster films
(Doorway to Hell, Quick Millions,
and so on), has written the story
and will direct Cagney in it. It
will be Brown’s return to direct-
ing, his last notable contribution
to the screen having been the
script he wrote for The Devil
Is a Sissy.

Universal “will next year do a
film on the Russian ballet, with
Henry Koster directing it, using
the title and music of Stravin-
sky’s Fire Bird. Another great
piece of music coming to the
screen is Paul Dukas’ Sorcerer's
Apprentice. This will be made
by Walt Disney as a two-reel car-
toon, starring Mickey Mouse.
Mickey will be the only usual
Disney character in the picture,
to be based on Goethe’s legend.
It will be the first of a series
of picturizations of famous de-
scriptive classical compositions.
The main subject of interest in
this regard, perhaps, is that Leo-
pold Stokowski is adapting the
score, and will direct the orches-
tra. 100 Men and a Mouse? ...

Activities for Spain go on
apace in the film colony. Last
week, famed dance mime, Angna
Enters, appeared in Los Angeles,
profits from her recital going to
Spanish aid... . December 6, the
League of American Writers is
sponsoring a Hollywood appear-
ance of Novelist Ralph Bates,
fresh from the Madrid front. Ap-
pearing on the programme with
him will be Dashiell Hammett
(Maltese Falcon, et al) and Ced-
ric Belfrage (Away From It All).
Donald Ogden Stewart, national
president of the league, who was
to have been chairman, is eritic-
ally ill in the hospital following
an automobile accident. His sub-
stitute as chairman has not yet
been selected... -

Chinese actors of the Screen
Actors’ Guild are planning a huge
benefit for aid to the Chinese Red
Cross, to be held early in Janu-
ary. .. - Good news that we can
hardly believe is the report that
Marion Davies is quitting films
for good. The low receipts on
her last films are said to have
convinced her that the public no
longer craves her presence in the
movies. At present, she is read-
ing the seript of the stage play,
Susan and God, and may decide
fo appear in the Chicago company
of that play.

The great French anti-war
film, The Great Illusion, has been
banned in Italy. Yet it received
second prize at the Venice expo-
sition, and all but got top honors.
You explain it.

OPEN

By-Election

Analysis
Editor, People’s Advocate.

Dear Sir: No doubt the follow-
ing will be illuminating to the
thousands of progressive people
throughout the province who
were watching the recent Vic-
toria by-election and rooting for
Kang Gordon.

Examination of a list of the
polling stations, published in the
Wictoria Colonist on Tuesday,
shows- that, of the 139 polling
booths, the GCE led in 24, and
the Tories lowest in 22 of the 24.

On the other hand, of the 28
polling stations at which the
Conservative nominee had a ma-
jority, 25 were gained at the ex-
pense of the CCF, which polled
the lowest vote in each of these
booths.

Here, I believe, the main con-
tention of the Communist party
at the present time is proven. To-
day, it is the struggle of the pro-
gressive forces against reaction.
It also proves that only unity of
all progressives can lay the basis
for a vast movement in the prov-
ince—and the time to do it is
now. WwW. R.

Vancouver, BC.

Ewen Comments

On CF of L

Editor, People’s Advocate.

Dear Sir: I have received, and
I believe you also, a letter and a
statement from the CF ofl, Van-
couver Gouncil, purported to be
a reply to my article in the
People’s Advocate of November
12. The statement, over the sig-
nature of James EH. Thaw, secre-
tary of District Council of the
ABWG, and entitled “Stop Civil
War in the Ranks of Labor,” is
a fifteen-page tirade against the
Communist party of British Co-
lumbia, and myself. It is a more
thorough indictment of the CF of
L and “Canadian” unionism than
anything I could write, and it is
unfortunate that space could not
be spared in the PA for its pub-
lication. :

It is misleading in many re-
spects, but one requires a few
words of comment. My article did
not single out the ABWC for
“attack.” I wrote to the CF of L
as such, and its’ policies, and no
component part of a Federation
can wash its hands from the re-
sponsibilities of its affiliations.
The statement of Brother Thaw,
amply spiced with quotations
from Marx, Lenin, Stalin, etc., at-
tempts this very thing, to sep-
arate the ABWC from the anti-
unity, anti-AFofl, pro-fascist
policies of its parent body. It

FORUM

eannot be done, irrespective “of
the distortion of greater authori-
ties to achieve the desired result.
Tf the ABWC desires to be
cleared of the stigma of the CF
of L, it cannot disown the policies
of the GF of L and still remain an
affiliate, unless it believes “you
can have your eake and eat it
too,” and the statement of
Brother Thaw shows him dialec-
tic enough not to believe this.
In his covering letter to me,
Brother Thaw demands that we
publish immediately any other
documents we may have re the
GF ofl that are in the same
class as Starbuck’s. We must ex-
press our regret that we cannot
comply with this “demand.” The
provineial executive of the Com-
munist party of British Columbia
will publish them when and if it
is deemed advisable that they
will serve a good purpose—that
of awakening the workers to the
danger of a special brand of
“Cgnadianism” in trade union
circles not in keeping with their
interests. _T. EWEN,
Provincial Secretary,
Communist Party of B.C.

Padlock Law

In Vancouver

Editor, People’s Advocate.

Dear Sir: Through the medium
of your paper, we wish to bring
to the attention of the people of
Vancouver that the famous “Pad-
lock Law” of Quebee has already
reached the western shores of
Ganada, and although yet silent,
it is nevertheless now in effect in
the city of Vancouver.

On several occasions the Com-
munist party has attempted to
rent the Masonic Hall in Grand-
view without success. More re-
cently we endeavored to rent the
hall for a meeting to put before
the people our programme and
policy on the coming civic elec-
tion. We were informed by Mr.
Keith, who has charge of the
renting, that, at a meeting of the
board of directors, 2 resolution
was passed forbidding the rent-
ing of the hall to the Communist
party.

We note that the so-called Non-
Partisan Association, whose mem-
] rs are closely linked with those
of the board of directors, have
been able to rent this hall for the
same purpose. On December 8,
trade unionists and other work-
ing people who have not yet been
defranchised, will have the op-
portunity of giving their answer
to Pettipiece, DeGraves, Corey
and other opportunists who have
moved into the camp of reaction.
Get out and vote. Oo. 3S.
Grandview Section, CP ofC.,

Books and Authors

THE FLIVVER KING — By
Upton Sinclair. United Auto-
mobile Workers, Griswold
Building, Detreit, Mich. 295c.

HN the light of the dramatic
struggle now being waged to
organize the plants of the Ford
Motor Company, Upton Sinclair's
story, The Flivver King, recently
published in pamphlet form by
the United Automobile Workers,
has much in it of great interest
to UAW members and to the
labor movement in general.

The Flivver King shows what
a stone wall the union is facing,
but it also implies where the
eracks are that may enable the
UAW to break through and bring
the union into Ford’s plants in
spite of his ancient and die-hard
attitude. <

Using 2 mixture of straight
facts and fiction, with a liberal
sprinkling of his own ideas and
comments, Sinclair tells the life
story of Henry Ford beginning
pack in the days in ‘92 when he
used to tinker all day and some-
times all night, m 2 shed on Bag-
ley street, Detroit, trying to make
his little horseless carriage run.

Running parallel to the story of
the economic rise and moral fall
of Ford, is that of Abner Shutt,
who appears first as 4 small boy
watching Ford’s experiments in
the Bagley street shed in fascina-
tion, an episode that he reveres
all his life and uses to good pur-
pose in time of trouble.

Crowding as many as possible

of all the things he wants to
show have happened to Ford’s
workers, into the annals of the
Shutt family, Sinclair hurries Ab-
ner to maturity, marriage and
fatherhood, presenting him with
three sons and a daughter who
become types to illustrate what
he wants to bring out.

The oldest son, John Crock,
goes to Ford’s trade school and
in time becomes a specialist im
“resistance welding,’ earning big
money and becoming one of the
aristocrats among Ford’s work-
ers.

Hank, the second son, named
after Henry Ford, Sinclair with
obvious irony, makes into 4
gangster who, when the bootlee
racket goes on the rocks, be-
comes one of the strong-arm
stoolpigeon gang hired to spy on
Ford workers.

Tom, the youngest son, goes to
college, gets interested in labor,
becomes an organizer and ends
up in the story lying unconscious
in a muddy ditch after some of
his brother Hank’s kind have fin-
ished with him. Ford and his
wife symbolically roll past in
their luxurious car on their way
home from a party where they
have been dancing the old-
fashioned dances, one of Henry’s
much publicized hobbies, not
seeing Tom's wife who is stag-
gering down the road looking for
help and uselessly hails their
car.

The interest of Sinclair’s Fliy-
ver King lies mostly in its re-

Diary

By VICTORIA POST

EFORE setting out to do your
Christmas shopping, why not

make a list of all goods imported ~

from Japan so that when you get
into the crowded city stores you
won’t buy something, only to dis-
cover when you get home that it
earries the stamp: Made in Japan.

Dashing into Woodward’s on my
way to a meeting this week I very
nearly bought a- Japanese note-
book and only just in time saw the
country of origin stamp.

Most of the red and green
Ghristmas tree decorations come
from Japan and so do the little
strings of colored lights which so
delight the Kiddies. Only remem-
ber that in buying these lights
for the pleasure of your own chil-
dren, you are helping to bring
death to the women and children
of China.

Tf you hanker after pearls, don’t
buy the cheap imitations sold in
the five-and-ten. These, too, come
largely from Japan, but are not
usually marked because they are
strung or made into earrings in
this country or the United States.
Gelluloid combs, sun-glasses and
cheap magnifying glasses, tooth-
brushes with bamboo handles and
some with celluloid handles are
other Japanese articles generally
sold here. So watch for labels
and remember that these, too, can
easily be changed.

@

NE Wednesday is election day

in Vancouver and, whatever
the weather, every one who can
should get out and vote. Women
have a special interest in this elec-
tion, for three or our sex are
standing as CCF progressive can-
didates, Alderman Helena Gut-
teridge, Miss Mildred Osterhout
for school board, and the veteran
campaigner, Mrs. Susan Lane
Clark for parks board. Alderman
Helena Gutteridge has long been
a champion of women’s rights,
and Miss Mildred Osterhout, in
her quiet way, has accomplished
much useful work on the school
board. Most of us know Mrs.
Clark as a strong fighter for
progress, who doesn't mince
words when it comes to express-
ing an opinion. She should be a
valuable addition to the parks
board.

e@

1 LOOKS as if action may be

taken at long last on one of
the most neglected and yet mos*
pressing of problems—the supply-
ing of scientific birth control in-
formation to women who practice
it in its most health-runing form,
anyway.

A resolution drawn up by the
Women’s Labor League asking
that a birth control committee be
set up through the Progressive
Women’s Federation here and its
affiliate organizations to keep the
issue constantly before the public.
was unanimously endorsed by the
Federation this week.

The ultimate object, of couse,
is to make the information avail-
able and within the means of
everyone who wishes to have it.
At the present time it is left to
the discretion of the various
clinics already operating to sup-
ply such information only when
they think circumstances Wat
rant it.

The Women’s Labor League
also intends to give its active
support to the civic housing in-
vestigation now under way. Pro-
posals were considered at this
week’s meetinfii for taking snap-
shots of those houses which
should be condemned. A few
snapshots of some of the houses
in Vancouver's slum districts
should constitute strong evidence
of the committee’s contention
that housing conditions in the
city are deplorable.

view and interpretation of the
long and amazing career of this
“super-mechanic with the mind
of a stubborn peasant,” as Sin-
elair calis him, whe became a
king in the automobile industry
with the lives of many thousands
of workers at his mercy.

SHORT
JABS

Cc}

By
OL’ BILL

The Press Drive

Gcod Work
Me ork, breaks into this

John. column again this
week with a guest contribution.
John Lesire, out in the sticks in _
the Hast End, asks me to print
the following letter from him.
Off his own bat, he has collected
$52.70, undoubtedly the best indi-
vidual performance in the Drive.
There were about 1000 workers
on the various committees and if
every individual had got the same
results as John did, the total
would be $52,700.00. That would
take some worries off the head
of the business manager.

Here is John’s letter: “TI like to
thank all the people who helped
me in the drive for the Clarion
and People’s advocate, by dona-
tions from five cents up, by buy-
ing subscriptions and tickets for
raffles and concerts. I am very
glad for your help and would like
to say so personally, but I ask
Ol Bill to put in his column 50
everybody can read it—John Le-
sire.’ Let’s all try to beat him
in the next drive!

C3 * = =
Fascist When an air-liner
z crashed in B i
Link-up. in Belgium a

few days ago, almost
Wiping out one of those ex-royal
families of Germany, Hesse-
Darmstadt-Kassel, few people con-
sidered it more than another con-
tribution to the tragic cost of
mastering the air.

The following day, however, a
sequel, in the announcement of
the wedding of the new head of
the family to a daughter of one
of Britain’s war-profiteers opened
up a new angle and color scheme
to the wiping out of that ex-royed
tribe. At this ceremony the chief
of the Nazi spies in England,
von Ribbentrop, was present and
the new Grand Duke “gave the
Wazi salute.” -

The woman concerned in this
marriage of convenience is a
daughter of Sir Auckland Geddes,
present chairman of Rio Tinto
mines, the largest, most profitable
copper operations in Europe, sit-
uated in southwestern Spain.
Associated with him is Lord Bess-
borough, ex-Governor-General of
Ganada. Rio Tinto owns jointly
with Metallgeselschaft AG, Huro-
pean Pyrites, Ltd., the largest or-
‘ganization in the world for the
sale of pyrites and pyrite residues.

These mines have been in the
hands of Franco’s bandits since
the beginning of the rebellion
against the lawful government of
the Spanish people. Geddes’ cop-
per is being shipped to Franco's
Wazi friends in Germany, who
are also Geddes’ Nazi friends. Al-
though the small shareholders ©
will have their property rights ex- ©
propriated, Geddes knows he is |
protected.- 4

This is the same Sir Aucklund
Geddes who quit the honorable
profession of surgery to become a
money grabber in the profiteering ~
scramble of 1914-18. He embarked
on a political career that took
him where the money was: Direc-
tor of Recruiting, Minister of Na
tional Service and so on. 7
came a power in British politics.

That power is still being used. ©
The pressure of the money that
Geddes, and others like him, ~
gouged out of the people of Brie”
tain in the war years, determines
the policy of the so-called na-
tional government today in its ef-~
forts to crush the people’s legal ~
government in Spain. Geddes is
openly a supporter of Franco's”
bandits and pirates, who, he has”
said, “only shot down disorderly 4
workers to maintain order.” 3

Hee

The linking-up of the “Geddes” ™
money, which is behind the shoot ©
ing and murdering of Spanish E
women and children today and the ©
Hesse family, which provided the ™
mad Hanoverian king with “Eng-
lish” troops to shoot down Amer-~
ican colonists, is perfectly logical |
for both are utterly reactionary ©
and fear democracy.

3
:
y
There is ultimately. only one ©
division in society—not national
ity, race, color or religion, but— 7%
class. ‘

4

* ¥ * =

_.) Everybody who wants
EO089. old or out-of-date books
Books! appeals to me, maybe
because I am a bit of an antique
myself. I am always sorry 107
disappoint such inquirers, but i
have very few books, old or news)

Right now I have requests for=
two that I would like to be able
to accede to, as they are both
for educational purposes. One 15”
for a copy of Emma Langdons
“History of the Western Federa-.
tion of Miners.’ This is for 2
young girl who is writing a thesis”
for a university degree and I am
very anxious to get it for her on
loan. If any old rock-buster has
a copy of it and will let me bor
row it, I will make myself per
sonally responsible for its safe
return.

on

The other sought-after work
Bebel’s “Woman Under Social
ism,” published by the SIP
New York. The inquirer would
like to buy this one and there
must be many copies of it in B
I sold dozens of them myself
Vancouver before the war- :
you have one and are willing te
part with it let me know so at
can be put to some use.

.

He be= | >