Page Two THE PEOPLE’S ADVOCATE THE PEOPLE’s ADVOCATE Published Weekly by the PROLETARIAN PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION Room 10, 163 w. Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C., Phone, Trin. 2019 Se oS AS ee een fs a ISLS Near ss en a three eNionths ss -50 SINSIOICOpy asa -05 Make All Cheques Payable to: The People’s Advocate FRIDAY FEBRUARY 13, 1938 I O ONE will deny that the Oriental question is one that concerns British Colum- bia intimately. Here on the ceast we are faced with a situation which, by skilful demagoguery and agitation, can easily lead to riot and bloodshed. That there are ele- ments at work to provoke such a situation is obvious from the hue and cry for “a white British Columbia” which has arisen in certain quarters hard on the heels of Japan’s invasion of China. It is not a new cry, by any means. But it is significant that it is always raised when public opinion on some issue has become so strong that re- actionary forces find it neces- Sary to create a diversion. Adopting fascist tactics, they have found in the past that appeal to prejudice and false patriotism on the oriental question has served them in good stead. This time, the diversion is away from the embargo and the Japanese boycott. The at- tention of the public, whose attitude on these vital issues is beyond doubt. is to be di- rected away from the unpatri- otic activities of the mining multi-naillionaires to the ques- tion of oriental immigration. Canadian Big Business has a definite imterest in Japanese purchases of war materials here. Prominent businessmen in this province, among whom is Nelson Spencer, are defin- itely linked with Japanese capitalist interests which re- eently purchased BC mineral and timber rights in order to ensure a full supply of war materials for Japan’s bloody maw. Not these, but the average oriental, Japanese or Chinese, who goes about his business quietly and peace- fully, is to be made the goat. He may be a Canadian citi- zen of many years standing. He may be Canadian-born, dependent on the sale of his labor for a livelihood, the vic- tim of the same monopolists who exploit white and ori- ental alike: for here, at least, is one place where there is discrimination only in which ean be forced to work for the lowest wage. But no, say the proponents of a “white British Golumbia,” the oriental must go. His living standards are too low. They will not con- cede that Big Business, which brought the oriental to this province in the first instance precisely because his living standards were lower, which, by means of discrimination, helps to maintain those low standards, is responsible. They will not concede that it is not a question of the ori- ental lowering white living standards but of raising ori- ental standards, which can be achieved only by winning the priental workers ovetto the struggle for a better life. These things are omitted by the “patriots” who harp dangerously on illegal immi- gration. Pro-fascist Japanese elements, spies and saboteurs, have good reason to enter this country illegally, but the great majority of Japanese have entered Canada through the proper channels. To make them responsible for the ac- tions of Japan’s militarists is to play into the hands of the reactionaries by driving a wedge between them and white workers whose econo- mic problems are identical with their own. They will be alienated from the cause of peace and progHess and driven =~ 4. the wroatoccist CalD. Prison, Politics And A By-Election By Leslie Morris LTHOUGH the Financial Post's front-page special articles purport to prove the imminent break-up of the Social Credit government of Alberta, there is more than enough reason to suppose that the Post is indulging in a little wishful thinking, as it usually does when it passes judgment on anything more intricate than a bank statement. Poli- ties is definitely not the Post’s specialty. It had the Com- munist party dead and buried a few years ago. At the time of writing, three things are occupying the at- tention of those in Alberta (and they are the majority of its citizens) who take an in- terest in provincial politics. These are: the Powell-Un- win cases; the sixth session of the legislature which opened February 10 and the Edmon- ton East federal by-election. To dwell a little on these three things is to be able to estimate just where Alberta stands at the present time. - IS quite clear that the Powell- Unwin prosecution, trial and ultimate imprisonment were the results of a calculated attempt on the part of Alberta’s reactionary opponents of the Social Credit government to politically discredit it. It was a political case par ex- cellence, and as such should have been fought by the two defen- dants. Instead of this, the error was made (fatal in cases of this kind) of organizing the defense on purely legal and circumstantial gSrounds. The result was a con- viction, unaccompanied by any kind of mass movement, and di- vorced entirely from any effort By Victoria Post ERE’S an idea. Credit for it gees to the youth section of the Washington Commonwealth Hederation which staged an elab- orate food and style show of sub- stitutes for Japanese-made goods in Seattle last week. Purpose of the show, one of the first of its kind, was to rally sup- port for the Japanese boycott, and it seems to have gone over in a big way. Models displayed the Jlatest anti-fascist styles in non- silk apparel and the guests were entertained by hostesses. OME, they say, is where the heart is. How many of our boys in Spain, I wonder, were thinking of home this week with the sending of another big ship- ment of comforts through the Friends of the MacKenzie-Papi- neau Battalion. All up and down this vast coun- try of ours there are quiet women, in cities and villages, in isolated camps, working to make these shipments a success. In Kelowna, a farmer’s wife collected $4.50 from her neighbors. In cold print it may not seem very much, but the spirit behind is beyond all price, for it typifies the sacrifice and courage of Canadian women- folk. Their names will never make the headlines. Some of them, per-— haps, couldn’t tell you in so many words just how they feel when they read of fascist air raids on defenceless villages in which scores of women and children have been killed. But instinctively they fee] the menace of fascism here to their own homes and hap- piness. Behind the homes of Spain are their own homes, and behind the boys in Spain Canadian wom- enfolk, through their collective efforts, are aiding in the defeat of fascism. Se ONSUMERS Union has been testing canned fruits and the results are interesting, to say the least. Of 27 brands tested, only ten proved to be proper weight. Tests for quality and flavor also revealed interesting facts. Seven cans of Del Monte pears, outward- ly identical; varied in price from 15 to 29 cents. The highest quality was found in the cheapest can. The cheapest can of Libby’s pears was also found to be well ahead in quality of the most expensive can. Gonsumers Union reports that in the past it has found that price is no indication of quality. Until some sort of grade system ac- cording to standards established by government experts is estab- lished, the consumer will have nothing to go by, it says. And for the majority of us, I guess, the only consolation is that in buying the cheapest can because it is the only one we can afford, we're get- ting the best quality. to strengthen the political strug- gle against the People’s League. Wot until the jailing of Powell and Unwin became a matter of hours did the government forces at last realize they were face to face with the imminent imprison- ment of two men who are among the foremost spokesmen for the government and its policies, one being the Social Credit whip and the other an expert advisor who is a political employee of the government. This tardy realization, coupled with a growing demand for action from the rank and file of the So- cial Credit League (about 40,000 enrolled members who showed more political sagacity in this than did many of their leaders) led to the vigorous fight for the freedom of Powell and Unwin which the government has put up in the past few days. This fight culminated in tightly- drawn party lines when the legis- lature’s unprecedented motion asking for freedom for the two men compelled the Liberals, Tories and Independents to walk from the floor of the House, leay- ing the “Unity” party man, Dr. Campbell,” to cast his single vote against the motion. By breaking established prece- dents and correctly regarding the Powell-Unwin case as a political and not a criminal matter, the Social Credit government has consolidated itself considerably among the common people. Let the Financial Post consider that. e HEIN we examine the speech from the throne given at the current session of the legislature, a different picture presents itself. While there is no sign of a split among Social Credit members, the speech from the throne con- tains very little of that living ce- ment, positive policy, which an amorphous party like Social Credit especially needs to bind its deputies together. Apart from taking the credit (in purely orthodox, “old-party” fashion) for better farm prices and greater oil production in 137, and using this as an argu- ment against those who yell for “sound business government,” the speech from the throne has little in it of comfort for those who are still awaiting statesmanlike ac- tion to relieve their severe econ- omie and social hardships. As this paper stated some time ago, it seems the Social Credit leadership is prepared to tempt fate by trusting to the record it has piled up by passing the rather ambiguous legislation which is now in the hands of the Supreme Court and consequent- ly is affording little immediate comfort to the people of Alberta. The following paragraphs from the speech from the throne prove this: “The year we have now entered -may prove a notable one, both as of the new economic order now being made in this province, and throughout the world, to accel- erate economic readjustment and the establishment of a new social order ... With Alberta’s vast acreage of timber, her enormous production of wheat and dairy products, the development of her natural resources, and the plac- ing of increased purchasing power into the hands of her people, we should look forward this year to greater prosperity and content- ment.” With all due respect to our So- cial Credit friends, this is so much monsense. The truth of the mat- ter is that the purchasing power of the—people, apart from that accruing because of the better- ment of primary products’ prices (which cannot be attributed to the government) is just as low, if not lower, than it was in 1935 when the Social Credit govern- ment was elected. And if the US recession crosses the line, which it may well do, even this solace will be no more. e Ec instance, at the very mo- ment Premier Aberhart was penning the words quoted above, @ storm was brewing with regard te unemployment relief scales. Both in Calgary and Hdmonton the unemployed are due for the axe if the two city governments have their way. Unemployed leaders report that they receive little sympathy from provincial relief administrators when they visit them. HEiven the government recognizes the severity of the unemployment situation, for in the speech from the throne is to be found the fol- lowing sharp contrast to the bubbling phrases quoted above: “Unemployment relief continues to be the major perplexing prob- lem of my government under the present financial system.” The last three words of that paragraph reveal governmental strategy in respect to the demand for immediate improvement in conditions. As the government continues to evade such basic questions as taxation, and as the people constantly demand “in- creased purchasing power and 2 lower cost to live,’ to quote the government’s own political for- mulation, they are told that a “new economic order” is required before anything can be done, and that the “present financial sys- tem” prohibits action! To illustrate this, Mr. Hartley, the Social Credit member who replied for the government to the speech from the throne, cynically referred to unemployment incur- ance as a “quack” remedy when commenting on the request of the present federal government for consent by the provinces to put through such a measure. True, Mr. Aberhart talks of crop insurance as being a more prac- tical thing for Alberta, which may clude the dire need of a federal unemployment insurance system. The truth of the matter is that the government is entering the present session with lots of phrases but with no practical program to deal with things as they are. Because of that, it is still courting disaster, inviting inner dissension, tempting fate, by hay- ing recourse to abstract theories instead of concrete legislation, providing more ammunition for the reactionaries, and neglecting to keep watch on the floodgates of reaction. Wo amount of phrases will hide this simple fact. And here is the explanation for the Financial Post’s wishful thinking. Unless Major Douglas gives place to practical legislation, what the Post is prematurely chuckling over may turn out to be grim reality. Splits have occurred in Social Credit ranks before and they may occur again. The big advantage that has been gained in the open admission by John I. McFarland that the old- line parties cannot get together in a unity council, and the (ve hope permanent) decline of the People’s League should not make Aberhart dizzy from success. The Edmonton and Lethbridge by- elections should prove that. e Tee coming federal by-election in Bast Hidmonton will be a fight of national importance. It is already reported that the big guns of the Liberal and Conserva- tive parties will be on hand, plen- tifully supplied with oratory and funds. James Gardiner, federal minister of agriculture and front man of the western Liberals, will be on hand. The Liberals, the strongest cap- italist party in East Edmonton, will spare no means of winning the seat away from the Social Credit movement. If Hast Hd- monton is won by the federal gov- ernment, there will be no end to the crowing at Ottawa. As influential papers have al- ready made clear, East Edmon- ton will be the most important federal by-election since 1935. it is accepted even by leading Social Crediters that the Social Credit movement alone cannot win Hast Edmonton. The deceased member was elected by a minority vote right after the provincial landslide of 1932. Since that time too much has happened of a na- ture adverse to the government (as shown in the Lethbridge gov- ernment loss and the drop in the Social Credit votes in the Edmon- ton civic contest and provincial by-election) to permit of any blithe optimism as to the danger of a Liberal win. It is essential that Communist and CCF votes be combined with those of Social Credit in order indicating the probable success be so, but does not at all pre- to save the seat from the Liberal 2 erated through a credit order Advance Drive O en medium, by which articles are con- Successful verted into other articles required on a basis of what they are worth Editor, People’s Advocate: i to each party. Dear Sir: I am writing this let- orum Information regarding the ob- ter of thanks on behalf of the New ce and peer ie rae eae < : ciation wi eg y furnishe Betee eso caer our Exchange upon request. The regular Wed- rive for rom will con- 5 : 4 : EY Co-Operative nesday night meetings, held in clude officially at a wind-up af- fair and we are well pleased with things as they stand at present. Editor, People’s Advocate: Sir,—The Co-Workers Exchange Go-operative (incorporated under the Co-operative Associations Act of BC), located at 509 Richards Street, is an enterprise which -be- longs to the people who use its services, the control of which rests equally with all its members, and the gains of which are distrib- uted to the members in propor- tion to the use they make of its services. To date, the committee has on hand $165, with other groups promising to send in funds im- mediately, and we have a good chance of fulfilling our quota. BC is the leading district in the present drive, according to a let- ter recently reecived from New Advance in Toronto. Through your columns, the drive comimttee thanks those ac- tive supporters who made this success possible. We wish also to thank the PA for the consistent and excellent publicity for our youth magazine. This, more than anything else, made our drive known to the progressive and labor movement of BC. The policy of the association is open membership and ownership irrespective of race, nationality, politics or religion. Democratic control—one member one vote. Limited returns on capital, and re- turn of savings to members through patronage refunds. Co- operators supply themselves at cost with the goods and services they need through cash trading at market prices, increased purchas- ing power, exchange of goods and services. The exchange department is op- A complete financial statement duly audited will be submitted to the public as soon as possible. Jack Phillips, Vancouver, B.C. Drive Mer. O’Brien Hall, 404 Homer Street, have been very interesting and educational. Our Good Wishes, Too Editor, People’s Advocate. Dear Sir: Please allow me space in your paper to thank my many neighbors for the lovely house- warming and the handsome pres- ents given me on Thursday. I shall think of the occasion as an incentive to be worthy of their esteem. What made the event doubly wonderful to me was the fact that the comrades brought with them a lot of material that, through the course of the evening, was made into surgical dressings for the Chinese victims of Japa- nese imperialism. ALMA J. EB. NASH. Woteh Hill, BC. Mill Town We live our lives in Mill Town; And all day long we watch Each chimney top, Each shack and plot Of homes that arent our own. ML The young and old of Mill Town Have eyes that stare and catch Your heart with hunger grown From bellies bare, From blank despair And brooding much alone. For work has stopped in Mill Town; And, huddling round, we talk Of how they say the market’s down And we should pray, And quietly say: “Thank you for all you've done.” But, far away from Mill Town; The value stole from us Is gilded froth of champagne blown By ruby lips, By vulgar quips Of those few men who own. —Max Bedford. See ete The long slow smoke that swirls around Wa 0) a | | a a 0 {62 | || onslaught. The possibility of this has been brought immeasurably nearer by the changed attitude of the CCF towards the Social Cred- it movement. At the time of writing it is elear that CGE and Labor party forces are ready and willing to co-operate with the Social Credit movement and the Communist party in making sure that a single progressive candidate is in the field to lick the Liberals. There is no doubt that the Liberals can be trounced if this is done. A program for such a fight is not difficult to find. There are sufficient issues of a non-contro- versial nature on which all three groups can agree. There is also a sufficient guarantee of working class unity in the election to put three or four thousand votes at the service of a united candidate. The stumbling block at the mo- ment is the Social Credit movyve- ment. Again long on phrases and short on practical policies, the danger at this moment is that it will put narrow party considera- tions before what is obviously the main one: the defeat of the Lib- erals. If the Social Credit leader- ship insists on saving its party's prestige by running a Social Credit candidate on a purely So- cial Credit platform, thereby in- viting competition from the labor movement, it will be doing both itself and the labor movement a grave disservice. Doctrinairism, finding expres- sion in phrases which haye no re- lation to immediate necessity and to popular unity, is the curse of present day Social Credit politics. If, after a better understanding has been achieved by the CCH, the Social Gredit League refuses to meet the labor movement part way in the Hast Edmonton by- election, then the defeat that will in all probability ensue on elec- tion day may well spell disinteg- ration for the League. And that would mean not progress, but re- treat in Alberta. There is still time to make the Financial Post eat crow. Stage and Screen By John R. Chaplin OLLYWOOD. — Things are picking up, for production has to go on, despite the sitdown Strike of big business: So the studios are still firing as many employes as they can, to try to spread the alarm, but their heavy schedules for the immediate fut- ure point to big rehiring soon. The unions are meanwhile trying to devise means of making the level of employment steadier in the industry ... Max Fleischer, of Popeye fame, is now threaten- ing to move his studios to Florida, California, or anywhere else, to get away from the Cartoonists’ union. But the organization will _ be on his tail, wherever he moves. Audience response to new films is proving that the recession in the industry is a figment of the pro- ducers’ imagination: Snow White, Happy Landing and The Bucca- neer are all breaking records. Hurricane will be one of the top money-makers of all time, and In Old Chicago is also headed in that direction. @ ASTING NOTES: Jimmy Cag- ney has three films lined up for his Warner return, Boy Meets Girl, with Marie Wilson, then An- gels with Dirty Faces, with Pat O’Brien and Jane Bryan, and On Your Toes, with Ginger Rogers. Jimmy is so popular at the studio he once sued that he was given cheers the first day he appeared in the Warner studio restaurant. . . Marlene Dietrich will probably make Hotel Imperial, the film be- gan but never finished at Para- mount. This time it will be pro- duced by Walter Wanger, for United Artists, with John Crom- well directing. . . Leo Carrillo gets main supporting role in The River Is Blue, the Spanish war film, written by Clifford Odets and John Howard Lawson, which Wil- liam Dieterle is directing with Henry Fonda and Madeleine Car- roll. NE of the outstanding num- bers in recent films is the War Dance of the Wooden Indians by the Raymond Scott Quintette, in Happy Landing. And if you're a swingster, you won’t miss Benny Goodman in Hollywood Girl. Ben- ny and his orchestra and Scat Davis make the picture worth- while despite Louella Parsons . . INo one has commented on the fact that in the very “authentic” March of Time reel on Nazi Germany the newwstand scenes obviously shot in the studio, show German papers held down against the wind by those metal bars reading: Satur- day Evening Post, such as the ones on newsstands in New York! . Preview audiences will becide on the final ending for The Baron- ess and the Butler. Two endings were made: in one, William Pow- ell, who has been butler to Anna- bella but marries her at the end, lies in bed while she serves break- fast to him; in the other, they Simply kiss and forget class dif- ferences. . . Scandinavia’s kings, we hear, appreciate the films even more than the proletariat (which often can’t afford them). Chris- tian of Denmark sees eight films a wek, Haakon of Norway six, and Gustay of Sweden four. By OL’ BILL “The = Picture that hef iS 3) een shown for eigt Thirteen. weeks at a4 ieee theatre makes its appeal throug the “realism” of a simulate storm that wipes out an island i} the South Seas. In spite of th seeming realism of the pictur | the fact that the hurricane is “ storm in a teacup” is the mos obvious part of the show. : Wot so with the Soviet pictur ‘The Thirteen,” which will £E shown at the Royal Theatre eal first four days of the comin week. A sand storm on the Kar isum Desert, near the borders c Afghanistan, which is an ou standing part of the picture, is n E make-believe, but the real good: hin Originally, shots were made i }hi a sandstorm worked up by blow} al ers and cyclone machinery, bu, when, during the making of th < picture, a real storm struck th jb< ectors on location, they decide hy to shoot the scenes over agair Dy The result has compelled Amer: re can theatrical critics to acclair g “The Thirteen” as “magnificent. pri Soviet artists, writers, actors #2 photographers have found thei Ja/ greatest inspiration in the pros Et duction of works that deal vwitl rh the actual struggle of the Sovie &bl workers to establish themselve; bia in power — Potemkin, Chapeyev We Kronstadt —the historical docu ment, and “The Thirteen” belong: to this category. I remember the reaction of < friend of mine some years agi when the story of teen” was published in beok form To him it was the most thrilling | adventure story he had ever read But it was not an adventurc story; it was an incident, one o: the thousands of heroic incidents that, taken together, enabled the “The Thir Fe t a in avi Vx Soviet workers, last November 3 to celebrate Twenty Years of So : viet Power. % In spite of the tradition of bat luck attached to its title, unlucky’ ¥ 13, the picture has been receivec with unbounded admiration where it has been ‘Shown, the deseri photography particularly. Anc since Russian actors are what they are there is no need for us te “gild the lily.” Don’t miss visiting the Royai Theatre at least once before the end of the run. = * * *= * = One Kind “Sink the Orien? in the Pacific fo: I Of Culture! a couple of months and start it over again with « couple of monkeys.” Such is the scattered wisdom of a correspon: dent of Collier’s who landed ir Vancouver last week from China the victim of fascist Japanese bombs. He is one of that type of im. perialists, weening racial pride, possessed of an over: who tell | foreign-born workers in Americs who ask for higher wages and shorter hours, “If you don’t like this country, go back where the hell you came from”; but when’ exploiting a colonial or semi- colonial people rope off a select part of the country as a public park for themselves and place a notice at the gate reading, “Ne Chinese or dogs allowed in here,” as they did in Shanghai. His fitness as a correspondent for a reactionary Magazine like Collier’s is proven by his esti- mate of both the Chinese and Japanese peoples, “two half- barbaric peoples who have merely absorbed a little of western cul- ture.” “The Chinese,” he says, “are as guilty as the Japanese— they are cold-blooded, cruel and as reprehensible as the invad- ers.” He sees no distinction be- tween the Chinese and Japanese people and the war-mongers and exploiters from whose bombs he suffered. Of the “western culture” he ad- mits it would be interesting to learn if that includes the filibus- ter against the anti-lynching Jaws recently staged in the Congress and Senate of the US. Does it embrace the murder of workers by minions of the law at Girdler’s steel plant at South Chicago last Memorial Day? Does it cover the burning to death of miners’ wives and children after being drench- ed with coal-oil by John D. Rockefellers Colorado Coal and Tron troopers as happened at Ludlow, or thousands of incidents of like character? . Does this measure of “culture” provide for the frame-up of men like Tom Mooney and Marl King? And if it does prevail in China or Japan, is it not solely the posses- sion of the same type of “cold- blooded, cruel and reprehensible” land-owning, industrial and finan- cial overlords as in America? Wone of these abjectives apply to the common people of China, Japan, the United States or Can- ada in spite of the ignorant pre- judices of a Collier’s Magazine correspondent. = * * * cal * “Liars,” says the Does It proverb, “should Mean War? have good mem- ories”; so should politicians and spokesmen for International Wickel. McCrae, ex-minister of mines for Ontario says, “Io step selling nickel, or any other Cana- dian product, to any country with fhich Canada is at peace would be to flout that nation, perhaps bring on war.” Yet that is just what the Cana- dian government has done in the case of the Spanish government and precisely also what they did a few years ago in severing trade relations with the: Soviet Wnion.