Page Two THE PEOPLE’S ADVOCATE The People’s Advocate Published Weekly by the PROLETARIAN PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION Room 10, 162 One Year Blep inks siete awerel eo ie us ics $1.80 -50 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, B.G. - Phone, Trin. 2019 Sehikd Seed S555 oo toes dR aoe $1.00 Single Copy Make All Cheques Payable to: The People’s Advocate Vancouver, B.C., Friday, February 4, 1938 Education For The Rich Only IN Geeous appeals, petitions and briefs by student bodies and the board of directors of the University of Briti the ish Columbia over a period of years have failed to move Pattullo government tc vote the necessary expenditures to extend the facilities of the UBC in keeping with the edu- cational needs of the province. Overcrowding is rampant in eyery department. buildings of the The UBC were designed for 1,500 students. At the beginning of the present session there were 2,484 reg- istered. Library accommodation built for 1,500 has now to accommodate 2,500. In the tabcratories 10 or 12 students are working at a table designed for six, while others must waste valuable time waiting for equipment to be available. Eighty Students are crowded into a class-room designed for fifty. Such a situation can only serve to seriously limit and hinder the work of both the faculty and the student body. The board of directors has brought this serious handicap to the attention of the government on several occasions. Excerpts from petitions of the president of the UBC to the government in 1935-36 and later show that the board, keenly aware of the dangers of this congestion in crippling the work of the university, has done everything possible to have it remedied. Tuition fees of the UBC in comparison with other Ca- hadian universities are relatively high. Other fees are not altogether comparable, since some universities possess greater facilities for which students readily pay. At the present time it is estimated that approximately 80 per cent of the student body of the UBC pay their own way. The are sons and daughters of Canadian people who are nct in a position to put their families through university. Consequently, these young men and women must find odd jobs, often at grilling labor, to put themselves through. Every reasonable person will readily admit that this splen- did desire of students to equip themselves for the battle of life should merit a vastly different recognition from the government of the province than that accorded in the present crisis. to boot. HE forced decision of the board of directors to limit reg- istration and increase the fees means an addition hard- ship on the students. An extra $25 may, not mean much to the sliver-spoonfed scions of British Columbia’s wealthy, but it means a good deal to the young men and women who must go out and secure it through their own labors. Everyone will agree that a student who spends his or her yacation at grillins labor deserves the right to attend university. Theoretically, this is the type of citizen that our rulers extol as the paragon cf yirtuous endeavor. In practice, how- ever, the Paitullo government penalizes young men and women by refusing the needed facilities, excluding them from the UBC by limited registration and boosting the fees By the flat refusal of the government to grant assistance to the UBC it has placed higher education in the province of BC in the category of a luxury—a facility that is open to the rich only. The boasted “prosperity” that has emerged with the Pattullo government quite apparently does not ex- tend to the field of education. Z Every assistance from pecple of all walks of life must be given the students of the UBC for greater facilities; for abolition of registration restrictions and for reduced fees. The government “deplores” student action and talk of is nettled when the students speak of “burning him in effigy.” But the fine sensibilities of Premier Pattulle and his cabinet are small potatoes compared with the needs and the extention of educational facilities in our province. The UBC is not a matter for the students alone. It is a matter for the people of BC to see to it that the UBC, as the highest institution cf learning in the province, is not impaired in its value and efficiency through the pecksniffian “economy” of decadent politicians. “Strike.” Premier Pattullo The Unseen Hand Of Mr. Nemichi OR a long time past, through the medium of the daily press, we have been following the public activi- ties of H. Nemichi, Japanese consul in Vancouver and, we are sure, a very plausible gentleman who waxes indig- nant only when he is forced to relate the ruthless inva- sion of Japan by the armies of China. At least, that is the impression we receive when we read his speeches to service clubs and other or- ganizations Which are not yet ashamed to be associated with the representative of the most vicious imperial- istic war machine in modern history. But there are other activi- vies of the Japanese consul here which find no place in the daily press, although the public would be very inter- ested to learn of them. Did the Japanese consul,’ for instance, go to Deputy Chief of Police Grundy and deplore the fact that an automobile used by the Ca- nadian League for Peace and Democracy carrying a boy- eott banner was allowed to drive through the streets of Vancouver? “Did Mr. Ne- michi express the “fear” that, if the car remained on the streets, he would not be able to “restrain” some of the more hot-headed of his countrymen — he did not, of course, say provocative, pro- fascist elements—who might wreck the car? Did Mr. Ne- michi haye anything to do with the blue-pencillmg of certain radio speeches advo- cating an embargo and urg- ing intensification of the boycott ? These are some of the questions we think the pub- lic has a right to have answered. Among the Canadian- Japanese people, who have no sympathy with the ruling fascist - militarist clique in Japan, there are a few spies and provocateurs who would welcome an excuse to pro- yoke disorder if thereby those forces leading the boy- cott campaign could be ham- pered. Was Mr. Nemichi pre- paring his case in advance? Tt is high time that atten- tion was paid to these extra- consular activities of the Japanese consul. Are Cana- dians to exercise their rights as citizens of a democratic country to express their in- dignation at the horrors vis- ited by Japan on China? Or is the unseen hand of the representative of a foreign imperialist power to clamp down and aid the reaction- aries of Canada in curtailing and destroying those rights? War Generates Hatred By Tom Ewen URING recent weeks the Sino-Japanese war has had a marked influence upon the Japanese and Chi- nese populations of British Columbia, The Chinese peo- ple as a whole, naturally, and with every justification, feel bit- ter about the brutal killing of their countrymen and ruthless devastation of their homeland by the Japanese militarists. Indeed, there are few people of any na- tionality who do not feel incensed over the wanton acts of Japanese aggression in China. Since the beginning of this un- declared war of aggression upon China, these Chinese peo-£& ple of SBritish: Columbia hay They raised tens thousands of dollars for their; people in China. & They have made Great sacrifices TOM EWEN to raise medical and other assist- ance for the Nanking govern- ment. They have boycotted the sale of Japanese goods with a sol- idarity and unanimity that is 2 lesson in itself to their white fellow-Canadians. In all this they have won the respect and esteem of all peace-loving people in the province. The Japanese people, under the nationalistic and fascist urging of their consular agents and the leadership of the Japanese As- sociation have been misled into believing that the war upon China is a “just war,” that Japan must be supreme in Asia, and that all who oppose this dine of thought are enemeis of Japan. A strict censorship on every- thing critical of the Japanese warlords keeps the truth from the great body of the Japanese people in BC. Thus through the direct agency of their fascist mis- leaders, the Japanese people of BC are permitting themselves to become the innocent targets of every anti-Oriental chauvinist. The wildest rumours are afloat: “Japanese in the Fraser Valley are buying tons of pun-powder, and young Japanese are drilling with rifles daily;” “The Japanese are accumulating great stores of ammunition, bombs, guns, etc;” “Young Japanese are staging pro- vocative actions against Chinese and Whites.” These wild rumors indicate the serious development of racial and national hatreds. oe NOTHER angle in this sorry development is the vocifer- ous demands of the pro-fascist politicians of the McIntosh, Reid, Planta stripe. “We demand a cen- - sus of Japanese penetration into BC industries;” “We demand that no fishing licenses be issued to Japanese fishermen,” etc. etc., all presented to impress the “con- cern” of these elements for the well-being of the “white man” at the expense of the Oriental. Pre- mier Pattullo is going to “investi- gate’ Japanese immigration, while other politicians want the “sentleman’s agreement” between Ottawa and Tokyo governing Japanese immigration nullified. Wone of these fine gentlemen has a word to say about Canada’s and particularly British Colum- bia’s high export of war materials to the Japanese militarists. This is business with a capital “B” which pays good dividends and brooks of no interference. Other seribblers send yvolumini- ous letters to the editors” of Vancouver’s daily press, and there manifest an ignorant chau- vinism against the Japanese and Chinese that is appalling in this age and date. No Canadian— Japanese, Chinese, English or other decent—can afford to ig- more the dangers of these devel- opments at the present moment. There is nothing these politi- cians and war-mongers would welcome more at the moment than the development of a small- sized civil war between the Japa- nese and Chinese people of BC. By their statements and actions they work daily to foster such an event. They could then in- dignantly, and with well-feigned horror, demand the deportation of all those Orientals who refuse te accept “our orderly forms of government.” There is nothing these people would welcome more than some overt act of a group of Ghinese or Japanese people— the one motivated by indignation at Japanese-fascist brutalities in China—the other by some pro- fascist Japanese provocateur bent upon involving Japanese-Cana- dians in support of the war pol- icies of Japan in China. It would provide them with a moral argu- ment for the wholesale deporta- tion of Orientals from BC. e HERE are some simple lessons that must be learned in building a united people’s front for peace. Qne—that the Chinese and Japanese people of BC must be won for this people’s front. Winning the Japanese-Canadians to this movement is winning them fcr peaoe—and against the war policies of the Japanese government, which at the present time, by the trickery and intimi- dation of Japanese fascism, they support. Lwo—the strengthening and extension of the boycott, and for an effective embargo on the export of war materials to Japan. The boycott must be against Japanese goods—not against the Japanese people, either here or elsewhere on the North American continent. The white retailer or wholesaler is no better and no worse than the Japanese wholesaler or re- tailer who handles Japanese goods. Both are directly assist- ing Imperial Japan in the pur- chase of war material. Boycott- ing the Japanese people for the eriminal actions of the Japanese government will not win those people either here or in their homeland for peace. It will only antagonize and let loose forces of hatred and strife, which can only serve the cause of reaction. Ganadian pro-fascist elements join with Japanese fascism in promoting this racial hatred and strife in order that the common people of different nationalities may be kept apart—and fighting among themselves. Tt is obvious therefore, that the answer to the problem is unity of all sections of the people for peace. And “all sections” must include the Japanese people. Ca- nadians in all walks of life can render a preat service to peace by making it their business to en- lighten their Japanese-Canadian neighbors on the issues of the Sino-Japanese war and thus win- ning neighbors for the cause of all humanity—peace. by Kay Heathcote How many of you women in the province are really suffi- ciently interested in the boycott to write to me and ask what you Can use as a substitute for silk? Let’s see! Ive heard a lot of talk and trustfully gone on believing that you were boycotting Japanese silk, but now I want some action. if everyone of you, yes, I mean EVERYONE, will write to me and tell me what you want, I can then go to the stores and show them that BC women do want something better than they’re getting now, and ask that stocks be kept to meet the demand. And don’t, for goodness sake, hang on to your last pair of silk stockings as though it were pre- eious gold! Is that the spirit which is going to put this boycott over in a big way? It indicates that you expect to tide over the period of boycott with the supply of stockings you have on hand. Make no mistake, China is go- ing to fight Japan for a long time, and the more effective we make the boycott, the sooner Japan will be defeated. So silk stockings are going to be taboo for a long while, possibly always, if something is found to be as good, and while we continue to hesitate to ask for a substitute we have ‘to put up with wearing such unsatisfactory things as thick lisle and rayon. Lisle can be made as sheer and beautiful as silk. What are you doing to ensure that it is? And another thing: If you’re Sick of hearing me rave about stockings—as I’ve no doubt some of you are—then tell me about it, because its your own fault. I’m not going to quit until I hear that each one of you is doing something about the boycott. So now go to it, and let’s have the Advocate office literally flooded with letters, whether they be complaints, appeals or just plain kicks eS good advertising, these street car alkali ads with their apple-cheeked gals and liverish-looking drunks who Ts darn all “seltzer” their effects, not causes, away. Harvard Professor L. F. Hen- derson taking a whack at this monsense, says the natural de- fenses of the body against acids are exceptionally well known. Which makes these drugsist ad- vertisers the worst kind of pre- varicators to say the least. Continuing, the professor fives the real low-down which most practitioners agree to nowadays, even if they do make their living prescribing nostrums. Says Henderson: “Tike a dog’s defenses against heat and cold, they are so strong and efficient and so prompt in action that in a fairly healthy person and in a vast majority of sick people, the defenses need no reinforcement. “The belief that colds are cured by the use of alkali should, on the whole, be classed with the belief that caryinge a horse chest- nut in the pocket wards off dis- ease.” Credulous, fearful people in my opinion will kid themselves that “alkalizing”’ fixes them up. Prob- ably the worst that has happened is losing a steady stream of dol- lars to shrewd advertisers—which is bad enough these hard times. OPEN FORUM Letters to the PA Open Forum should be brief as possible: We are not responsible for, and often do not agree with ideas expressed in this column. Space limitations demand that portions of long letters be deleted. Every effort is made to preserve the sense and continuity of letters published. More On The Boycott Editor, People’s Advocate. Dear Sir: Much has been writ- ten lately of the Japanese boy- cott. Recently in The Federation- ist some letter writer like myself bemoaned the plight of the Jap- anese business man in BC and the hardships caused him by the boycott. Labor, through its spokesman, has advocated a boycott of all stores handling Japanese goods. Why. draw the line on those who flagrantly display Japanese oranges, etc., in their store win- dows? Ss. H. Vancouver, BC. (Eiditor’s note): S. H. is re- ferred to the article by Tom EHiwen on this page, which deals fully with the points raised. Thank Artists For Concert Eiditor, People’s Advocate. Dear Sir: In view of the many difficulties encountered at the last minute, such as transporta- tion accident and failure to get a* piano counted upon by the committee, we wish to thank Cap- tain Davidson of the Canadian Labor Defense League and the group of talented artists who pro- vided us with such an enjoyable evening on Thursday, January 27. In this we are expressing the sentiment of many visitors who came to the concert and who are looking forward to more perform- ances and visits from artists in the near future, We especially wish to thank Mrs. Bell for so willingly coming to our assistance by lending her piano. Hoping that the boys at Capi- Jano will enjoy themselves as much next Thursday evening as we did. SOCTIAT, COMMITTEE, Green Timbers Camp. J. Young, Secretary. Fleetwood, BC. He Listens To Us, Too Editor, People’s Advocate: Dear Siri want to congratu- late the PA for its Sunday broad- east of labor news. In the short 15 minutes plenty of round is covered and while a little of the style of (only a little, mind you) some of the high pressure Yankee radioraters might be emulated yet already I wouldn’t miss it. Admitted I’m in bed at that ungodly hour, I don’t think it too much trouble to hop out fora moment and then, of course, back in. The classy selected rec- ords which follow immediately after the PA are all right, too. Yours for snappy labor news. Vancouver, BC. ib tees Books and Authors WHATS BEHIND THE PAD- LOCK LAW ?. By Evariste Dube. 20 Pages. Pamphlet of the Month Club, Room 49, 163 W. Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC. 3 Cents. ie THE pamphlet “What's Be- hind the Padlock Law?” Eva- riste Dube, chairman of the Que- bee section of the Communist Party of Canada, shows what this reactionary law means for Que- bec. Already, under the infamous padlock law, tens of private homes have been raided, thou- sands of books confiscated, print- shops padlocked, Clarte and the Clarion banned. In order to understand the rea- sons why Duplessis passed this law it is necessary to understand the political and economic situa- tion in the province. While such a small pamphlet cannot go into great detail, sufficient informa- tion is crowded into the few pages to give a glimpse of the forces and conditions working behind the scenes. For a long time, the financiers of St. James street exploited the masses of Quebec frightfully. Low wages, long hours, inhuman speed- up, slum housing, poor schooling was the lot of the majority of the people. Today they are in revolt, led by the trade union movement. The padlock law is the answer of reaction, which wishes to smash the trade union movement and install corporatism—that is, fas- cism. But, “the shame of Quebec” is not only a problem for the work- ers and progressives of Quebec. Unity of all Canadians is needed to drive reaction, headed by Du- plessis from Quebec. Especially, the whole Canadian trade union movement must become a part of this unity and break the grip of the barons of Quebec. We already see the fruits of this for Canada, when Duplessis refuses to allow the amendment of the BNA Act to provide for unemployment insur- ance. Civil liberties, the right of free speech, free press, trade union or- ganization, are at stake in the struggle in Quebec. The forces that will crush reaction in the province of Quebec are beginning to organize. But the rest of Canada must come to their as- sistance. A reading of this valu- able pamphlet will show you the reason why. Other pamphlets obtainable at Room 40, 163 West Hastings Street, are: The People vs. Monopoly, by Tim Buck, 10 cents; State and Revolution, by ¥V. L Lenin, 10 cents; We Pro- pose—Resolutions of the Highth Dominion Convention of the Communist Party of Canada, 10 cents; From Opposition to Assassination, by Sam Carr, 10 cents; Foundation of the Com- munist International, by V. L Lenin, 10 cents; Hello Canada —Record of the Mackenzie Papineau Battalion, 5 cents; The United Front Against Fasc- ism and War, by G. Dimitroff, 5 cents; The Road Ahead, by Tim Buck, 5 cents; Lenin on the Woman Question, by Clara Zetkin, 5 cents; Communists at Work, by Sam Carr, 5 cents; What the Communist Party Stands For, 5 and 10 cent edi- tions; Life and Labor in the Soviet Union, by Robert Dunn and George Wallace, 5 cents; A Letter to American Workers, by V. IT Lenin, $8 cents; North America and the Soviet Union, By Earl Browder, 2 cents. Stage and Screen By John R. Chaplin OLLYWOOD.— Three of last year’s best films will be re- called to mind when their stars join hands in a forthcoming pro- duction. The film will be “Re- form School,” being further ad- ventures of the tough “Dead Hind” boys. Adult stars- will be Hum- phrey of “Black Legion” and Gloria Dickson of “They Won’t Forget.” “Reform School”? will be a remake of one of Jimmy Cagney's best films, “The Mayor of Hell.” ... C@agney’s lead in his comeback picture at Warners will be Marie Wilson, as Joan Blon- dell is in temporary retirement, expecting another child. The film will be “Boy Meets Girl? And Warners haye purchased the Scenario of Rowland Brown’s “Angels With Dirty Fames,” in which Cagney was to star before he left Grand National. He'll do it for Warners now. “The Life of Emile Zola” is playing an ex- elusive run in Shanghai, despite the bombings. And it’s so popular that the theatre has booked it indefinitely. e Fee GARLAND gives out with a list of the ten best child permormers of 1937: Freddie Bartholomew in “Captain Cour— ageous”; Shirley Temple in “Haidi’; Deanna Durbin in “100 Men ard a Girl’; Mauch Twins in “The Prince and the Pauper”; Jackie Cooper in “Boy of the Streets”; Mickey Rooney in “Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry”; Jane Withers in “45 Fathers”; Bonita Granville in “Call It a Day”; Gabried Dell in “Dead End,” and Fanny Brice as “Snooks in Everybody Sing” (but that’s just a gag; the film isn’t out yet). Judy didn’t mention her own work, which sometimes rates first-place honors. ... An Archie Mayo quip on the set of Marco Polo, some time back, was an un- conscious comment on capitalist society which is worth recording. When the new star, Sigrid Gurie, spoiled take after take by her nervousness, Director Mayo reassured her thus, “Don’t worry about those lines, Sigrid, and don’t worry about me. Directing’s only a sideline with Mayo; I like to see film -wasted—TI’ve got 10,000 shares of duPont.” Des SELZNICE has bought screen right to Maxwell An- derson’s New York hit, “The Star Wagon.” Janet Gaynor gets the Lillian Gish part; no one has yet been selected for the screen counterpart of Burgess Meredith. He may be borrowed from RKO for the role. ... Loretta Young gets herself five male partners in “Four Men and a Prayer.’ . 5 Mitzi Green’s long-awaited return to the screen (she’s been off it for about seven years, since her child-star days) will take place in the Astaire-Rogers musical, “Care- free.” . . . Simone Simon, it ap- pears, after her singing debut in “Tove and Hisses,” received the biggest radio offer ever; she was promised as much as $3000 for Singing just one song on the air. RANCGIS Edwards Faragoh won the $2000 first prize in the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union contest for his play, “Sunup to Sundown.” Sec- ond prize of $1000 went to Nellise Child for “After the Gleaners.” By OL’ BILL asdf BNE SEEK inp The threatenece Here And sirike at the uni} There. versity arises out off the parsimonious and cheese-paring “economics” of the BC government. Though the divi- denas of logging, mining and fish- ing companies have increased by millions of dollars during the past year, the Pattullo government: “cannot find the money” and, demonstrates how shallow is its interest in the education of our: youth by limiting the number of) students and raising the fees. Ac. most of the students have to earr their way through college this means placing insurmountable barriers in the way of education for the rising generation. They do these things differently in the Soviet Union. There, the widest facilities are provided for, acquiring an education. The Soviet. government spends one hundred” times more on public education’ teday than the Tsarist govern- ment did in 1913. At that time there were only 91 higher educa- tional institutions with 233 pro-— fessional schools. In 1936 there were 700 universities and 2572 professional schools. The number of students attending: schools has risen from 48,000 in 1913, to 711,000 in 1936 and the university rosters show an in- crease of 202 per cent over pre- War days. In Western Hurope in the same period, decreases are registered; France, 5 per cent; Great Britain, 7 per cent, and Germany, 14 per cent. : The same progress is being made in elementary and inter- mediate education. This is the | best answer to the slanders of hireling seribblers who describe the shooting of self-confessed traitors and agents of counter- revolution as “bloody massacres.” these { A correspondent in the Rats! area centering around Knight Road and Bast 37th avenue asks me to give a little publicity to the efforts of his neighbors to pin the blame for typhoid and other epidemics where they rightfully belong by publish- ing the following letter which was sent to the City Health Of ficer. The folks in that district are gifted with a large measure of that public spirit which would have the city cleaned up of all the real blots undermining the health of our citizens, False Creek Flats, widespread garbage dumps in the working-class areas, slum dwel- lings and so forth. The letter | ibe, Saree ci speaks for itself: To the City Health Officer: Sir,—I have received with my water bill a circular issued by your department; re “Rat Ex- termination By-Law. With the advice contained in the circular I am heartily in accord and am willing to support your department in every way. I am sure that these disease-carrying pests can only be exterminated, as you say, ‘by the active co-opera- tion of ALI citizens.” I agree with your advice “to keep all food- stuffs away from the rats.” (This will not be hard for me). £ en- dorse your plan to keep premises free from all rubbish, litter, etc., that would afford harborage or cover for rats. But I put it up to you, what is the use of appealing to me to take measures to destroy rats by trapping, gassing, poisoning or by setting dogs, cats or ferrets on to them, that is, killing them by retail, while the city refuses to take part in this necessary Cco- operation of ALJ, citizens? Two blocks from where f live, at Knight Road and 35th East, is a garbage dump where all the recommendations of your circular are flouted and provision made for breeding rats by the thou- sand. This dump is not only a hotbed for disease-breeding ver- min but an offence to the nostrils of everyone within half-a-mile of it. I will undertake to do my part and ask you to use your influence to have this ulcer excised from this long-suffering neighborhood. The old adage applies here, “Phy- sician, heal thyself.” Vernon Bartlett is the outstand- ing foreign cor- respondent of the British capitalist press. He has the best “news nose” of anybody in that game. It is said he can smell a story half-way round the world. On his way back from Hong Kong to London, he smelled one in Rome and stopped off to get the details. There he found the fascist tribunes all wearing long faces because of the convic- tion that has been forced on them that Franco is defeated. In their own parlous condition they do not know if they will be able to help him to avoid the certain vengeance of the Spanish people. The story Bartlett picked up amongst them deals with the bankrupt condition of the fascist treasury, and is current among the diplomatic representatives of other countries in Mussolini’s capital. The Swiss ambassador, it appears, applied to the MTtalian foreign office for permission to have a naval attache included on his staff. He was interviewed by Gount Giano, the fascist foreign minister, on the subject. Ciano asked, “A naval attache! what do you want with a naval attache? Switzerland has no navy.’ To which the Swiss official retorted, “Well, what of that? Italy has a finance minister.” No Navy:! Noe Finance!