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Vancouver, B.C., Friday, January 21, 1938

Unite the People
For Peace, Progress
And Democracy

ACROSS the ninth provincial convention of the

Communist party held in Vancouver last week-
end the imminent threat of reaction fell like a
shadow, imparting an urgency to the convention’s

dominating note —— the need for uniting all pro-
gressive forces in this province ina broad people’s
movement. |

The threat of big business to the democratic
rights and liberties of British Columbia’s working
and forward-moving middle classes is no vague,
undefined danger of the future, but a very real
menace of the immediate present. This was the
economic and political picture drawn by delegates
frem all parts of the province in their reports to
the convention. The reports of Leslie Morris and
Tom Ewen showing the place of this picture in the
national and international scene further empha-
sized the need for unity, for organization of the
unorganized, for the building of a strong Com-
munist party rooted in the working men and
women of this province.

The multi-millionaires who control Canada’s
wealth, the Tories and those within the Liberal
party who align themselves with them — these
are the forces of reaction seeking to thwart the
will of the people for progress. The Conservative
party, attempting to recover power after its sharp
defeat in the federal elections of 1935, is coming
forward with new demagogic arguments calcu-
lated to win the support of those honestly desir-
ing progress but hesitant and confused as to the
path to follow. And in this bid for power it is
seekings and finding allies in right-wing elements
within the Liberal party, while sincere Liberals
are forced more and more to look for support
among the progressive forces.

Skilfully utilizing every prejudice, every sec-
tional dispute, big business, through these reac-
tionary political groupings, has already launched
its campaign to prevent proposed amendments to
the BNA Act and thus sabotage unemployment
insurance and other progressive measures to
come before the federal house this session. This
constitutional issue has become one of paramount

_importance to the people whose desire for pro-
sressive legislation is blocked by an act of the
British parliament passed seventy years ago.

@
tps PEOPLE demand its amendment. Big busi-

ness is striving to block amendments because
it realizes such amendments must be progressive.

To attain its end it is exploiting the Hepburn-
Duplessis alliance to the full. It is adroitly en-
deavoring to turn economic and political differ-
ences between province and province, between
the provinces and the Dominion, between east
and west, to its own advantage.

The developing political alignments of this na-
tional picture are duplicated more or less in each
of the provinces. In Quebec, Duplessis, marching
toward fascism, launches his attack on the trade
unions. In Alberta, the People’s League attempts
to consolidate reactionary forces against the
Aberhart government which, whatever its short-
comings, still remains a threat to the vested in-
terests.

In BC, the Pattullo government swings to the
right under pressure from the Industrial Associ-
ation and other forces of big business striving to
thwart trade union organization. Through Van-
couver, where the reactionary Non-Partisan As-
sociation scored a victory in the civic elections,
death sails to China, the gift of Canada’s multi-
millionaires to a people fighting invasion of that
same imperialist military power against which
our coasts are being fortified.

The forces of progress are powerful numer-
ically in this province. But until these forces are
united and consolidated their efforts will be in-
effectual as those of the Spanish people in the first
days of the war against a highly organized and
well-prepared enemy. lt is to the uniting of these
forces for the safeguarding and extension of de-
mocracy that the convention set itself. And to
this task the strength of every honest progressive
must be given because its success or failure will
determine the fate of democracy in this province
and have great bearing on the future course of

aur country.

On the Other Side of the Rockies

By Leslie Morris

(Former Editor of the
Daily Clarion, Toronto)

LBERTA can be regard-
ed as the high point of
development of that agrarian
revolt against big capital
which has been the most
noteworthy social feature of
western Canadian develop-
ment. If the Social Credit
movement and government
are not regarded in this way,
very little progress can be made
in understanding what is going
on in the foothills province.
Whether Aberhart stands or falls
in the coming months, or whether
the Social Credit movement
thrives or disappears, the under-
lying cause for this movement
will remain.

For anyone, therefore, to take
a cynical or superior attitude to
the Social Credit movement and
government is simply the height
of folly. Rather than passively
await the “return to sanity”
about which some of our CCE
friends speak, the duty of every
true Socialist is to enter deeply
into the affairs of the Social
Credit movement and to try to
influence it in the direction of a
practical solution of Alberta’s af-
fairs.

The fundamental demand
raised by the Social Credit move-
ment (and in the beginning by
the former United Farmers of
Alberta government) is for a re-
moval of the crushing burden of
debt which has been the tragic
accompaniment of the develop-
ment of western Canadian agri-
culture.

The “just price’ of Major
Douglas, the “basic dividend,”
“state credit houses” and the rest
of his “social dynamics” are
middle-class reflections of the de-
mands of the masses of agrarian

producers and those in the towns
who stand or fall by the price of
wheat and the general situation
in agriculture.

ie IS no wonder, then, that a
series of concerted attacks
haye been made on the Aberhart
government. In the courts, in the
press, over the air, on a thousand
hustings, the government and its
supporters haye been the target
of a volley of blows, all directed
at destroying this socially (for
big capital) dangerous movement,
and restoring “good business goyv-
ernment” to the province.

The People’s League of Alberta
is the niein political expression
of this reactionary attack. It is
a “non-party’” conglomeration
which contains the most con-
servative elements from several
parties. Capitalizing to the fullest
extent on the many serious er-
rors of the Aberhart administra-
tion, its strategy is to direct the
masses disappointed in Aberhart
into channels of “non-partisan”
government, and to do this beforg
a firm alliance of all progressives
is cemented on the left.

The People’s League is the Al-
berta agent of big capital. Not
for nothing have Bennett and
Meighen suddenly found it neces-
sary to pay “informal” trips west
on frequent occasions.

But the League has received a
powerful setback recently in the
repudiation of its purposes by
the Liberal party, next to Social
Gredit the strongest political
party in the province. Within the
Liberal party, as in other prov-
inces, a deep-going split has re-
sulted in the progressives com-
pelling the leadership to declare
against alliance with the Tories.
This undoubtedly was the con-
sequence of a strong campaign in
which the Communist party and
the Social Credit League co-
operated to expose the true na-
ture of the People’s League.

F THE Liberal voters can be
included in the fight against
the reactionaries and for a pro-
gram of genuine and energetic
reforms in Alberta, then the fu-
ture will see not a return to the
old line parties but the formation
in a manner peculiar to the prov-
ince of a popular front govern-
ment.

It is unfortunate that up to
now the CCF leadership has re-
tained a sectarian position of re-
garding the Aberhart government
as the main enemy of progress.
True, the rank and file have not
subscribed to this view. In dozens
of localities unity movement on
immediate problems include So-
cial Crediters, CCE’ers and Com-
munists. But the leadership of
the CCE has contributed greatly
to the suspicion in the minds of
many Social Crediters that the
Socialist and labor movements
are just as much opposed to them
as are the Conservatives.

At the moment the recent laws
passed by the Aberhart govern-
ment are in the courts. The
chances are that they will be de-
clared outside the power of the
province to enact. The great con-
stitutional issue, which promises
to be the national issue on which
the reactionaries and democrats
in Ganada will most sharply
divide (as witness the Hepburn-
Duplessis alliance) has been
brought to a head largely by the
actions of the Aberhart govern-
ment.

Disallowance of the acts will
not lead te the downfall of the
Aberhart government and to the
victory of the reactionaries: who
hope to cash in on despair and
confusion resulting from  disal-
lowance, if the Aberhart govern-
ment takes the advice of the
Communist party, many of the
unions and G@H’ers and large
numbers of its own immediate
followers—that is, to abandon its
doctrinaire and impractical at-
tempts to enact Social Credit, and

to take the lead in legislating
those reforms which the province
(under the British North America
act) has the power to do.

e

UCH can be done by the Aber-

hart government, in the
direction of marketing, public
development of natural resources,
shifting the burden of taxation,
providing work and wages, re-
ducing debt, and a number of
other things. If the session of the
legislature which opens on
February 10 does this, then the
reactionaries can be foiled, then
unity can be built among the
Various progressive groups much
more easily, then Alberta cai
really take the lead in minister-
ing to the destitute people of the
West.

There is as yet no guarantee
that this will be done. It requires
a great deal of give and take, and
a lot of patient wark on the part
of the Communist party. But
signs point to an increasingly
active desire on the part of Al-
berta’s people for a legislative
program of this sort. On such a
program, and on the building of
a@ people’s front, the immediate
future -of Alberta, and to some
degree of the whole of the west,
depends.

Wowhere in Canada are politics
so much the property of the or-
dinary citizen as in the foothills
province. If the Aberhart govern-
ment has done nothing else, it
has awakened thousands of peo-
ple to the need for independent
political action. This great
achievement must not be allowed
to be piddled away. Unity can
and must be built. That is the
main thing, I feel sure that the
common people of British Co-
lumbia wish their Alberta neigh-
bors well. Should Alberta fall
back into the arms of the old-
line parties, there will be rejoic-
ing in the halls of the mighty in
all provinces. The people of Al-
berta are determined this will
never happen.

By Victoria Post

EGARDLESS of whether you

pay 10 cents or $1.25 for
your lipstick, there is very little
difference in the quality. The
price paid is usually for a well
known name or the type of con-
tainer.

Consumers’ Union reports that
one lipstick selling for $1.25
actually cost 8 cents for both
stick and case. Out of 45 brands
tested, only one (Helena Ruben-
stein) was found to be injurious
to the skin. So when you buy
your next lipstick, remember that
you are getting: better value for
10 cents than if you bought a
costlier outfit.

The report also states that cod-
liver oil from Newfoundland is of
better quality than WNorwegian
brands, as the latter are some-
times not made from purely cod
liver, other fish liver is mixed in
with it.

The taste of Newfoundland cod
liver oil will be found to be bet-
ter too, as it is extracted in near-
by plants while the fish liver is
still fresh and hasn’t run the
risk of spoilage during importa-
tion.

e

"VE had a number of enquiries

about what to wear in place
of silk stockings, and I am an-
swering them here for every-
body’s edification. The lisle stock-
ings now on the market in Can-
ada are medium weight and
though they wear like iron,
they’re inclined to wrinkle badly.
Mesh lisle stockings are better
in this respect, and give good
wear. These can be obtained now
in most of the big stores, and in-
creasing variety of stocks will be
available as the demand grows.

Very fine chiffon lisle are not
on sale here yet, but can be ob-
tained if you insist on having
them. These have a very good

appearance, and give about the
same wear as silk.
All rayon stockings wrinkle,

and the cheap ones wear poorly,
but the more expensive give good
wear, especially if they have re-
inforced cotton feet. Manufac-
turers are already feeling the
boycott against Japanese silk
and better varieties will soon be
on the market.

One storekeeper told me this
week that he didn’t keep Japa-
nese goods because he couldn’t
sell them. “I have a job to con-
vinee my customers that certain
goods don’t come from Japan,
and in the end they won't buy
them anyway just to make sure?”

So we women, who were told
“we wouldn’t sacrifice our ap-
pearance for the sake of China,”
are making ourselves feit.

All over the world women are
utilizing their economic influence
as consumers to cripple the Jap-
anese war machine. In India
particularly, according to Dr.
Anup Singh, women are a strong
force behind the boycott, just as
they are a driving force for social
reform in a country struggling
under the yoke of another im-
perialism. :

‘Teruel’s

By Vicente Arroyo

IN December 21, Teruel again
became part of Republican
Spain.

Teruel is of great importance,
not only as a fortress, but also
as a strategic position which
could have served as a base for
future actions. The German-
italian General -Staff which is
conducting this criminal war of
invasion against the Spanish
people regarded Teruel as a
starting point for the next offen-
sive, which was being prepared
against the Mediterranean prov-
inces and which should cut off
Catalonia from the rest of Re-
publican Spain.

From the military standpoint
the capture of Teruel is an event
of the greatest importance: it
proves that the People’s army is
not only capable of defence, but
also of attack; that it is able to
operate over difficult
amidst snow storms and under
the most unfavorable accompany-
ing circumstances. The taking of
Teruel is also’of very great stra-
tegic importance for the future
course of the war; it has render-
ed impossible the offensive which.
the fascist general staff wished
to undertake and opens to the
People’s army the way for further
operations.

In order to appreciate correct-
ly the triumph of the Republican
arms it is necessary to take into
account the concrete conditions
under which these operations
took place. As a result of the
capture of Gijon two months ago
by Italian and German troops,
the whole of North Spain passed
into the hands of the fascists.
This fact created a new situation,
the importance of which one
could not fail to recognize. One

country,

Meaning

of the first results of the collapse
of the northern front was to be
seen in the international sphere.

The British Conservatives, who
for more than a year had done
everything possible to convert
the “Non-Intervention” Commit-
tee into an Intervention Commit-
tee in favor of Franco, hastened
to appoint “trade representatives
for the territory in Spain under
fascist rule, and at the same time
admitted Franco’s trade repre-
sentatives into England. This
gesture could not be regarded as
anything else but a de facto rec-
ognition of the Franco govern-
ment, as an immediate result of
the fascist victory in North Spain.

What is now the political im-
portance of the capture of Teruel?

1. Im the hinterland and at
the front it will strengthen be-
lief in the final victory. it will
raise the morale in the hinter-
land and at the same time further
depress the already depressed
mood prevailing in the rebel ter-
ritory. The victory will serve to
strengthen the unity of the whole
of the Spanish people and cause
the people to rally still more
closely around its People’s Front
government, which has shown it-
self able to lead it to victory.
The victory will draw still more
closely the ties connecting the
Spanish people with the People’s
army,, with its soldiers who are
sons of the people.

2. In the foreign political field
the victory will further increase
the sympathy felt by the progres-
sive peoples in all countries for
the cause of the Spanish people.
To those who feared fascism and
whose fear was expressed in
granting ever fresh concessions
to the warmongers, this victory
will demonstrate that fascism is
not inyincible.

To Lenin

By Maxwell Bodenheim

You were the rising granite-planning Left
Apart from slipshod dreaming, dynamite,
Confusion, and the coughing, ever-deft ;
Sleep-walk of liberals balancing their plight.

In exiled years your mind, your heart-climb found
A patience difficult to analyze,

Complete, firm as the upward slope of ground,
Immeasurable in its growing size, _

And yet with tactics practical and wise,

Willing to yield an inch of shock, retreat,

Or spar with realistic compromise,

But rocklike in a semblance of defeat.

You killed an isolated arrogance

In followers and brought a closer fight.

A morn-til-midnight argument, advance

Within trade unions, testing strength and sight.
You battled with deserters from your ranks,

Men wheedling, bargainin

g. snoring—endless talks

Of easy, victory and smiling thanks

For slight concessicns dropped by ruling hawks.
Yes, often in the privacy of night

You must have groaned and wrung your tired hands,
And then, still sleepless in the morning light,
Picked up your pen for chilling reprimands.

The torture of the proletariat stormed

Your body—left no sentimental] bolt

Of vengeance, but instead, a deeply formed

And arduous logie building to revolt.

Your eyes foresaw inevitable hate,

The signals in a realistic 1rend—

A spreading earthquake pausing to create

The fascist coward knifing to his end.

You faced a chess-game, you were forced to move,
Adroit. against the bishop, knight and queen,
And then, hand swift, abandoning the groove,
Advance the pawns and wipe the sly board clean.

Stage
and
Screen.

By John R. Chaplin

OLLYWOOD. — Hollywood's
great were glad to bask in
reflected glory when Professor Al-
bert Binstein became the first to
put his name on the national per-—
manent sponsorship committee of
the Motion Picture Artists Com-
mittee. Wrote he: “With much in-
terest and sympathy I have fol-
lowed the efforts of the Motion
Picture Artists Commtitee on be-
half of the fighters for Spanish

' freedom, as well as your decisive

stand for the democratic ideal, and
I am gladly willing to take my
place among the sponsors of this
commiittee.’"... Social significance
of Samuel Goldwyn'’s Dead End
was recognized by France, when
Francis Carco, famous novelist and
member of the Goncourt Academy
(second in prestige only to the
French Academy itself), wired the
producer the corgratulations of
his fellow-academicians and the
French critics.

Effectiveness of the boycott
against Japan by America’s anti-
fascist women was underlined
when a news release from Max
Factor, beauty expert, stated that
“sheer lisle stockings, in shades
complementary to the wearer’s
lipstick, will be one of the more
colorful whimsies of the coming
spring fashion parade.” And, dear
reader, if you have no wife to en-
lighten you, we might point out
that lisle was considered anything
but chie until our anti-fascist sis-
ters, wives and sweethearts turned
thumbs down on Japanese silk.

General rise in admission prices
at film houses is forecast by in-
siders as a result of Cecil B. De
Mille’s statement this week that
theatres would have to pay larger
percentages to the studios for
rental of films. Producers claim
this is their manner of passing on
to the public increase in costs of
labor and other production items.
But those huge profits recently an-

nounced hardly bear out the idea.

. . Proof that Charlie McCarthy
dolls (although very expensive)
outsold Shirley Temple dolls by a
ratio of about 2 to 1. . . So, you
ean look forward to a million or so
ventriloguists when this genera-
tion grows up.

Rumor is current again that the
Screen Actors Guild will take over
the hiring hall for extras, known
as Central Casting. Report has it
the switch will follow the April
producer-labor confabs. Such con-
trol, if granted to the guild on con-
ditions that allow rank-and-file
participation, might help to solve
the problem of the extras.
Final] comment on the late 1937:
Metro's News of the Day (which
is only Hearst Metrotone in dis-
guise) issued a year-end reel sum-
marizing outstanding achieve-
ments of 1937. In aviation, it men-
tioned first commercial trans-At-
lantic flights and the passing of
Amelia Earhart. But it didn’t find
room for the trans-polar flights of
the Soviet airmen.

January 21, 1938

SHORT
JABS

By
OL’ BILL

An echo of the |
Long Arm Of Easter Rising of
Coincidence. 1916 in Dublin

was heard in
Montreal last week, when Mrs.
Hanna Sheehy Skeffington spoke |
to a group of Montreal women.

The reactionary blot on Ireland’s
centuries-old struggle for freedom
made by De Valera’s acquiescence |
in the fascist rape of Abyssinia is —
not endorsed by, nor does it
blacken the record of the real Irish
people who have been in the fore
front of that struggle. This was
made plain by Mrs. Skeffington
when she informed interviewers

that she was still a follower of

Jim Connolly.

Her husband, Francis Sheehy
Skeffington, was a Sinn Feiner
and a Socialist. He was one of the }
leading figures in that memorable

noble band of Irish workers under
the leadership of Jim Connolly
struck terror into the hearts of the
British imperialists.

After the fighting was over, —
Skeffington and two other civili-
ans were arrested by a detail of
British soldiers under the com-
mand of a Capt. J. Bowen-Gol-
thurst and shot out of hand — as-
Sassinated is the most appropriate
word. They did not have a trial
either by civil court or court
Martial; they were put to death
solely on the orders of Capt. J.
Bowen-Colthurst.

The revulsion of feeling among
the [irish and British workers was
so fierce and agitation so deep
that the jingoistic British govern-
ment was compelled to put Bowen-
Colthurst on trial for the crime.
He was found “guilty but insane”
but was released from detention
early in 1918.

Today the long arm of coinci-
dence, though not of justice,
reaches over Canada. More than 20
years after that glowing page was
written into the story of Ireland,
Hanna Sheehy Skeffington is on
Canadian soil telling the world
how proud she is of the Irish vol-
unteers in the International Bri-
gade (some of whom, like our own
Joe Kelly, were in the 1916 Rising),
and Capt. J. Bowen-Colthurst, also
on Canadian soil, as a Social Gredit
candidate, opposed Premier Pat-
tullo in Prince Rupert in the 1937
elections to the BE legislative as-
sembly. To the credit of BG he
got only 13 votes!

= > =

Sir Herbert’s Royal

Liars Can Bank has been inter
Figure! esting itself in de-
mocracy lately. It

has gathered statistics to show
that the use of newsprint is an in-
dicator of the prevalence, or lack,
of democracy.

Their figures, probably cooked,
show that in the year 1936, the
United Kingdom used sixty pounds
of newsprint per capita, the US
fifty-six pounds, Canada thirty-six
pounds, and so on down to Hrance
at the bottom of the list of “demo-
eratic” countries, with eighteen
pounds. In the ‘‘dietator-con-
trolled lands the figures are low,
the Soviet Union using only three
pounds per head.

These figures are cock-eyed and
misleading, like all the data used
by the Holts, the Morgans and the
Federation of British Industries
to fool their dupes. At least two-
thirds of all the newsprint used in
the newspapers, pulp magazines,
dodgers and throwaways, has no
connection with any political con-

|

Easter Week in Dublin, when a |

ceptions whatever, but is used for -

the advertising of junk that is
worthless for any purpose other
than profitamaking; phoney patent
medicines and proprietory articles,
shoddy goods, ‘‘goat-pasture”’ and
“wild-cat” mining swindles, etc.

In Tsarist Russia in 1913 there
were only 859 newspapers with a
top circulation of 244 millions. In
1935, there were over 11,000’ news-
papers with a circulation of 36
millions, 13 times as ereat. On top
of this there are 3,000 factory
papers and thousands of wall
papers, the circulation of some of
which exceed 20,000, and over 3,000
farm papers, with at least half-a-
million collective farm wall papers.

In 1932 the production of paper
in the Soviet Union totalled 471,200
tons; by 1937 it had risen to a mil-
lion tons, 58.5 per cent of which
was of grades used for books, an
increase of 112 per cent in five
years. That is over 13 pounds of
paper per head and according to
the above percentage, eight pounds
of newsprint per head.

Book production, which is more
Significant from the viewpoint of
political understanding and cul-
ture, also gives the lie to Sir Her-
bert Holt. In 1913 in Tsarist Rus—
sia, only 90 million books were
published. In the Soviet Union in
1928 this figure had risen to 270
million and in 19385, to 495 million
—not drivel like “Gone With The
Wind,” but serious contributions
to literature, art and science.

This increase took place while,
in Nazi Germany, book produc-
tion dropped in value from 526
million marks in 1933 to 366 million
marks in 1934 and the German
post office reported a decrease of
16.8 per cent in the number of
registered newspapers during the
first year of Nazi rule and a con-
tinual drop: since, until today in
Thuringia the school children must
use slates because they have no
paper for copybooks.

It is not “dictatorships” that cut
the use of paper; but fascist dic-
tatorships.