GUARANTEE OF DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS

OUTH ASKS

REPRESENTED

Western Canada’s Leading

Progressive

The People's Advocate

Newspaper

VANCOUVER, B.C., FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 1938

-FOTESSIVES
Build Front >

‘a In Saskatoon

. By J. A. CAMPBELL
inpASKATOON, Sask., April
ay — Reiterating the pledge

"} everything in its power to
‘Sieve co-operation between
igressive groups in support
two candidates in the forth-
infaing elections,’ Saskatoon
“3 —F constituency organization
F unanimously approved setting
of a provisional committee rep-
sntative of the CCE and the
amunist party to carry on initia-
7 work.
jhe provisional committee has
ed a conference for today at
ch the CCF, the Communist
ty, trade unions, Social Credit
Pups, unemployed organizations
others will be represented.
4 7hile the progressive bloc with-
§:h Social Credit organization is
cooperation, M. J.
yer, provincial secretary-organ-
cy has thus far refused to allow
s§2ussion on the question.
situmors that the CCF and the
®iservative party had entered in-
an agreement were dispelled
en the CCH here issued a state-
sot, declaring:
[The CGF executive wishes to as-
>@e the electors of Saskatoon that
has not, and will not enter
9 any agreement or understand-
with the Conservative party.
GGF has nothing in common
h the Conservative party, whose
roughly reactionary character
®s betrayed by the recent na-
nal conference which it held at
prawa.
1 At present we are making every
@ort to organize in Saskatoon a
juinely progressive movement in
ich there will be a place for all
o sincerely desire reform.”
Sction of the CCE follows recent
“mation in Regina of the Labor-
Ogressive Association in which
GGF, Social Credit, trade
ions, the Communist party and
gressive Liberals and Conserva-
es are represented.
First candidate to be nominated
the provincial elections is Mrs.
arner Strum of Windthrost, CCF
minee to oppose Premier W. J.
itterson in Cannington, his home

tas]

S

>

Total 570

' Combined Circulation

Of 8 Millions In US

NEW YORK, April 21. (F#P)—
Shere are 570 labor papers in the

S with a combined circulation of
} 778,000, according to a copyright
7i tabulation prepared by Eric
eliso after a nationwide survey.

The total includes organs owned
y trade unions, those with union
ndorsements and independent peri-
dicals with a pro-labor slant.
Imeluded are 276 weeklies, 179
jonthlies and small numbers pub-
ished at other frequencies. Listed
"y type, the labor press consists of
64 general labor papers, 16 Farm-
r-lLabor, 6 farmer, 30 political, 149
weans of locals and internationals,
$ workers’ education, 7 youth and
thild labor, 15 cooperative, 12 fra-
ernal, 28 progressive, 1 sport, 5
-overnment, 8 religious and 21
sress service. Of the foregoing, 49
ire published in foreign languages.
Ninety-two were founded before
1900, 154 in 1933 and after.

mposed
For Overtime

CUMBERLAND, BC, April 14—
Despite the fact that the United
Mine Workers’ Union posted a no-
Hice at the mines here six weeks
ago reminding members that work-
ing over 8 hours underground was
@ breach of the Coal Mines Act, a
miner worked overtime last week.

The inspector was notified and
the man was fined $5 and costs,
the mine manager $10 and costs.
A penalty of $1,000 can be imposed
on the mines management for the
mext similar offense. Overtime
work was common until the union
took action.

Fines I

BEARDMORE, Ont, April 21.—
@Qne miner was killed and six other
injured when a cage in the North-

ern Empire mine near here plung-
mt ae ee SEE

| pleas that came from a girl fight-

South Africa Goes
To Polls In May

Election Expected
Of Developing

To Be Indication
Political Trends

APETOWN, South Africa, April 21—On May 18 the Union

of South Africa gots to the p

olls. While it is confidently pre-

dicted that the government will be returned with its present
impregnable position still unchallenged, there will be interesting
signs of important future trends in South African politics.

The Union is the most politically conscious of all British
dominions. For some years past the old antagonism between
Briton and Boer has lost its former intensity, owing to the coali-
tion between General Hertzog’s Nationalist party and General

Smuts’ South African party.

The resulting combination has

come to be known popularly as the Fusion party.

An extreme wing which broke off at the time of the coalition
from General Smuts now composes the Dominion party under
Colonel Stallard. These are ultra-British and ultra-loyalist.

Opposing them on another wing
stands the more powerful group of
the present day Nationalist party
under Dr. Maaln, who seceded from
General Hertzogz likewise at’ the
time of the coalition. The Malan-
ite Wationalists represent the ex-
treme Boer point of view, demand-
ing a republic completely separated
from Britain, and showing strong
anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi leanings.

The only other political force is
the Labor party, which has latter-
ly shown ‘signs of more vigorous
life than ever before, as industrial
workers awaken to the threat of
lecal fascism to their interests.
South African Labor has always
hitherto been weakened by a Jim
Crow policy towards the natives,
refusing to organize with any black

or colored labor. This attitude has
shown signs of breaking down
lately, and there can be no doubt
that the Labor party would receive
a tremendous access of strength if
it were to champion the cause of
the blacks in South Africa.
Present partliamentary
is:

position

Seats
United South African Party__ 121

National Party ........-—...... 19
Doniinion Party — my AT
Labor Party ..._. eee 5

Tt will be seen that the govern-
ment is strongly entrenched, and it
is aided by the particularly fayor-
able financial position of the Union,
where budget surpluses have been
the rule of late years.

‘They Were Starving

Girl Fights To

Retain

Aged Parents In City

By WM. PURVIS
To give the city council its due, the social services committee
spent half an hour on the case this week before the decision
was reached that the old Doukhobor couple must return to dried-
out Kamsack in Saskatchewan.

Bent with years of labor on the ~
prairies, the 69-year-old Russian
with shaved head and mackinaw
coat sat with his wife in the
eouncil chamber listening to his
daughter plead their case in an
effort to keep them in Vancouver.

She had risen to her feet just at
the moment Chairman Ald. Corey
called for the question on the
mayor's motion that the old couple
be sent back to their own munici-
pality. A girl born'and bred on the
Canadian prairies was not to be
awed by civic procedure, and alder-
men who thought they were getting
away easily with unpleasant busi-
ness felt impelled to listen.

She admitted it was highly ir-
regular to send a letter to the old
folks signed with someone else’s
name, telling them to come to Brit-
ish Columbia, and to do this while
she, herself was on relief. Ald.
John Bennett declared, “You
brought them here under false pre-
tences.”

“They were starving,’ was all she
said.

“Tell me: how did you maintain
your parents when you yourself
were on relief?" Ald. Kirk queried.

“J did house-work to get an extra
$10 a month,” the girl answered.

The old Doukhobor’s weather-
beaten face was impassive as he
watched the cross-examination, his

wife whispering translations to
him.

Any doubts that people were ac-
tually starving on the barren

prairies were dispelled when one
official stated that authorities had
a ‘rough and ready way with
Doukhobors and that is probably
why thought BC was a little bet-
ter’ Everyone seemed to know
what “rough and ready” meant,
and the daughter took heart at the
prospect of a softened attitude
among the aldermen,

“Wy mother wouldn’t allow me
to starve, so I only did my duty.
My father’s brother was overseas.
If you could help me for a little
while, I can look after them my-
self pretty soon.” These were the

ing to retain her parents.

But it seemed that Vancouver
just couldn’t keep two old people
for a short time—not even if it
broke a girl’s heart or drove to
starvation two old people who had
produced more than their share of
wealth, if bent bodies and calloused
hands mean anything at all.

Wot one had the wit or will to
suggest using the cost of shipping
the aged couple to tide the girl
over a stated period.

Mumbled John Bennett: “Sup-
posed to be a Christian country
and we are tied with the red tape
of municipal responsibility.”

The mayor, puffing at his cigar,
waited patiently for the inevitable
endorsation of his motion. The
girl had forgotten the original mo-
tion, and the sergeant-at-arms led
than hres out to explain.

>

City Seeks
Bread Probe

Asks Investigation
By Trade Commission

That charges made by Dr. Lyle
Telford were not unfounded was
borne out in a decision made by
the civic social services committee
Monday to apply to the Dominion
Trade and Industry Commission
for establishment of a statutory in-
vestigation tribunal into bakery
and milling industries under the
Combines Act.

In adopting a special committee
report calling for further inyestiga-
tion, particularly of the moisture
content of loaves, which, Dr. Tel-
ford said, “appears excessive,” al-
dermen agreed that because no
oath was required on statements
made by master bakers, proper in-
vestigation had been hampered.

Chairman Ald. J. Bennett stated
that “contradictory statements left
us in a fog, and a number of state-
ments were not satisfactorily ex-
plained.” He pointed out that the
doctor showed advertisements of
machinery which permitted of
making 300 loaves of bread from a
barrel of flour, but that the master
bakers declared that only produc-
tion of 264 loaves was possible.

Ald. Bennett thought that the
government should state the
amount of flour to be put into a
loaf and that the moisture ques-
tion would then be solved.

Assured of city council support
Dr. Telford stated he would renew
his activities for a bread probe, ex-
pressing confidence that adequate
proof would be found by a proper
investigating commission.

Association Issues
‘Private’ Bulletins

Purporting to contain private
information of value to city busi-
ness concerns and others, a series
of bulletins is being issued by the
notorious Industrial Association of
British Columbia, main purpose of
which is to smash existing trade
unions and prevent formation of
others.

Extensive excerpts from the Peo-
ple’s Advocate form the principal
“private’’ information of these bul-
Jetins, and the association’s com-
ment runs mainly to allegations
of “Gommunist influence.”

CRESTON, BG, April 2i—J. S.
Graham has been named principal
of Creston Gonsolidated School Dis-
trict’'s high school, succeeding E.
Marriott, recently promoted.

Journalist

Gives Story
Of Austria

‘Workers In Building
Cut Tin Swastikas
In Order to Get Home
Safely’

EDITOR OUSTED

(Following are a refugee’s eye-
witness impressions, necessarily
unsigned, of the last days of Aus-
trian independence and of the
free plebiscite that was never
held.)

(Federated Press.)

“No, we certainly do not like
Schussnigg at all,” said one of
our compositors in the printing
office of the Vienna newspaper
of which I was assistant editor.
“But he is, anyhow, better than
Hitler, and therefore we shall
vote for him if he grants us
what we have asked for.”

We stood at the window of our
office and watched the streets,
crowded with people. We saw pro-
cessions of boys and young men
from 15 to 25 years old, pupils and
paid individuals from the suburbs
and provinces, shouting and hail-
ing Hitler, and then other proces-
sions, formed by workers and em-
ployees, shouting just as much and
hailing Schuschnigge and an inde-
pendent Austria. And in the mid-
die of these processions were bic
trucks with posters, ‘Vote Yes for
our independence!”

Everybody was gay and optimis-
tic. It was estimated—no one defi-
nitely knew—that the plebiscite
would bring 75 to 80 per cent of
the vote for Schuschnige.

Nobody could really work this
Friday. Eyery minute came a new
rumor. The Czechoslovakian papers
were confiscated, because they al-
ready had published a list of the
new cabinet to be formed after the
plebiscite. Three representatives of

th workers were in this list. Our
workers, who had heard this,
worked with brilliant eyes. ‘This

means freedom again!’ they said.
“Freedom after four years of sup-
pression! Now at least we shall
be able to decorate the tombs of
the heroes of 1934, without being
arrested!”

Wo Plebiscite.

Then again came a procession of
Nazis, a big one this time. And
they did not hail Hitler, as usual,
but shouted, “There will be no
plebiscite! Hitler will come to
Vienna!”

We just laughed. Qur editor-in-
chief left the room at 6 pm. Five
minutes later he entered again, his
face very pale, and said very
slowly:

“Gentlemen, you may stop talk-
ing of the new cabinet. There will
be none, because there will be no
plebiscite. It is postponed to an
uncertain date.”

For a moment we could not
breathe. We could not believe the
news, though we knew it was true.
The noise in the streets had stop-
ped. It slowly became dark. After
a glorious springtime day, a cold
wind began to blow.

I hurried to our stenographers’
room. We heard a sharp voice:
“Attention! An announcement!”
And then we heard Schuschnige

talk. Usually he was announced
very solemnly. But this was no
longer necessary. When Schusch-

nige finished the words, ‘“God save
Austria,’ it was remarkable to see
the reaction of one of our stenog-
raphers. The man was a Nazi him-
self, but he really had lost his head.
Like most other Austrian Nazis, he
had dreamed of a National Social-

ist, but independent Austria. He
knew what Hitler's ultimatum
meant. We all knew.

The next morning I was awak-
ened by the noise of German planes
as they roared incessantly over
Vienna. On the streets the police-
men wore swastika armbands and
were under the command of storm
troopers. These had occupied the
buildings of some newspapers.

When I came to my office, there
came a call from the Nazi district
commander that he did not think
it necessary to have our building
oceupied, but that at 11 am. he
would send a gentleman to arrange
everything. The gentleman came,
and five minutes afterwards our
editor-in-chief was dismissed. All
Aryan collaborators had to wear a
swastika, whether they wanted to
or not. But the swastikas were
sold out. I thought I had been long
enough on the staff and left.

The last thing I saw in our build-
ing was three workers, who, with
sad faces, cut swastikas from tin
plates and polished them. They
needed them to get home safely.

Prospects of employment for sev-
eral hundred men on a $1,000,000
dredging project on a sandbar in
the Fraser River were outlined this
week by Ald. H. Wilson to the civic
airport and utilities committees, of
which he is chairman.

Invisible Armies

Harass Japanese

No Japanese Can Tell Who Is A
Guerilla Fighter And Who Is Not

ANKOW, China, April 21.—More than 27,000 men are en-
rolled in the “hidden” armies of China which, in North
Shantung and South Hastern Hopei provinces, are seriously
holding up the advance of the Japanese troops.
They are invisible armies. They live on the ground. Peasants,
farmers, cooliés. No Japanese knows who is a partisan and who

is not.
In China, organized in deta

hundred members, the partisans play a similar role.
moment there are about 100 partisan detachments operating in
areas around Shantung and Hopei. Five thousand shock fight-
ing troops form the background of this invisible army which has

sprung up Since the Japanese
summer.

A 22-year-old student is the driy--
inng force in organizing the detach-
ments in this area. In the middle
of last October, this youngster, Si-
Tsing-oo, reorganized partisans left
in Loling after the Chinese army
had withdrawn beyong the Hwan-
how River.

After occupation of this district |
by the Japanese, the partisan move-
ment spread to fifteen districts.
Then Tsin-I-tsai came. Appointed
by the Central government as com-
mander-in-chief, his role has been
to co-ordinate the activities of all
the various groups in the area.

Partisan groups are now one of
the most important assets of the
Central government. Supported by
local population, great sacrifices
are made by peasants and farmers
to feed, house and hide members.
Between skirmishes and attacks
members of the detachment them-
selves turn to the soil and help
the peasants.

Japanese morale is suffering un-
der the strain of looking for the
partisans and waiting for attacks.
Their garrisons, composed for the
most part of 200 to 300 soldiers, do
not venture to leave their barracks
except in the daytime. At night-
fall they hurry back to their head-
quarters in the walled towns they
have captured.

But even with barred and bolted
gates they cannot keep the parti-
sans out. There is a story now
spreading through China by word
of mouth, which will continue to
be told until it has became a le-
gend, of how the partisans took
Putai in November last year. The
strategy resorted to is reminiscent
of the Middle Ages and the local
wars that were then continually
waged.

A Japanese garrison of 300 men
the River Hwanhow. They had
Was occupying this small town on
heard that an attack was planned
and every gate to the town was
strongly guarded and blocked with
handbags. Only the Fourth gate
was left open with strong guards
and close scrutiny of every entry.

A wedding procession came into
the town, composed of about forty
people dancing, singing and gen-
erally celebrating a happy event.

The guard approached the palan-
quin to look at the bride. He lifted
the curtain and had his look. It
was a glimpse in the face of death,
for the bride was a machine-gun;
the merrymakers, partisans who,
spraying the main street with ma-
chine-gun bullets, took the garri-
son by surprise and captured the
city.

Wext day with-

the partisans

chments of not more than two
At the

first started their invasion last

Heng Chih Tao

Chinese scholar and lecturer who
addressed a meeting in the Audi-
torium here on Tuesday under

A.M. Stephen

Provincial chairman of the Ca-
nadian League for Peace and De-
mocracy and chairman at the
Auditorium meeting.

drew from the town. They had lost
six men, including’ their comman-
der. The Japanese lost fifty. There
is still no Japanese garrison in
Putai.

Cantor Heads Radio Artists

Union Directorate Reads
Like Who’s Who In Radio

By BOB
Ninety per cent organized ani

STUART
d going strong—that’s the record

of the American Federation of Radio Artists in the radio en-

tertainment field.

It has 5,000 members today.

Six months ago it was just

getting into the running with 400. It has quality too, this affiliate
of the Associated Actors and Artists of America, the AFI en-

tertainment union.

President of the APRA is Eddie,
Cantor, comedian who makes mil-
lions laugh. Executive secretary is
Emily Holt, a smart woman lawyer.
Vice-Presidents and the board of
directors inelude such luminaries
as lawrence Tibbett, Jascha
Heifetz, Edgar Bergen, Jack Benny,
John Boles, Bing Crosby, Helen
Hayes, Grace Moore, Dick Powell,
Lanny Ross, Rudy Vallee, Phil
Baker and Richard Bonnelli.

The, radio union is negotiating
with NBG, CBS and the American
Association of Advertising Agen-

cies. Major factor in rapid expan-

_sion since the union was chartered
| last August has been

the inter-
changeability of memberships with
unions in the screen, stage and
concert platform field and the
agreement of each union to sus-
pend any member who refuses to
join the other while working under
its jurisdiction.
AFRA’s network in-

of locals

S

eludes Wew York, Philadelphia,
Los Angeles, “Chicago, Detroit, St.
Louis, Shreveport, Denver, San

Francisco, Montreal, Cincinnati and
Pittsburgh. Actors, singers, solo in-
strumentalists, announcers, pro-
ducers, sound effect men and
others are included.

When the charming radio per-
sonality of Bob Burns, Graham Mc-
Wamee, Fanny Brice, Dolores del
Rio, Robert Montgomery, Adolph

Menjou, Gladys Swarthout, Don
Wilson, Walter Huston or Efrem
Zimbalist floats over the ether

waves into your sitting room, it’s
a union personality you hear.

Says Eddie Cantor: “Radio has
grown up very rapidly, and in the
process of its expansion, the inter-
ests of the majority of the artists
who are the very life and substance
of radio have somehow been sacri-
ficed to the interests—many times
the selfish interests—of others.”

ESS

Delegates
Condemn

Padlock

Back Single Jobless’
Demands For Public
Works Program In
Province

BRAND JAPAN

Nearly thirty thousand young
British Columbians stand bez
hind the many important reso-
lutions passed by the second
Greater Vancouver and New
Westminster Youth Congress
which met in four-day conven-
tion here last week-end.

Puesenn 189 delegates, many:
™m provincial points, the con-
gress voted overwhelmingly for dis-
allowance of the Quebec padlock
law, for freedom of press, Speech,
assembly, religion and the right
to organize, for rights of national
minorities, for collective Security
and for nationalization of the
arms industry.

_ On a recommendation brought in
by the commission on Internal
Peace and Civil Liberties, headed
by Nathan Nemetz, the motion de-
manding repeal of the padlock law
was enthusiastically endorsed, the
congress adjourning while dele-
gates and even visitors in the gal-
leries penned the following letter
to Justice Minister E. Lapointe:

“I view with alarm the pad-
lock law as a menace to the
democratic institutions and per-
sonal liberties contemplated by
the fathers of confederation and
assured us by the BNA Act. I
beg you to disallow the Act.”
Weed for unemployment insur-

ance was stressed by the Civil Lib-
erties commission, the resolution
adopted reading:

“There has to be a definite im-
provement in social and economic
conditions of the Canadian people
before there can be any possibility
of achieving social justice or in-
ternal peace.

‘Tt is urged that dominion and
provincial governments pass social
legislation on unemployment in-
surance to guarantee improved liy-
ing conditions, and that the Brit-
ish Worth America Act be amended
to make such legislation possible.”

Japan Branded

Headed by Ruth MacWilliams,

the commission for World Peace,

Wations’ decision branding Japan
as an ageressor nation be upheld.
Miss MacWilliams stated that the
recommendation was reached fol-
lowing consultation with Chinese
and Japanese delegates. ;

Other recommendations brought
in by this commission and en-
dorsed by the conference were:

That Canada’s foreign policy
be changed so that the nations of
the British Commonwealth could,
with Canada in the lead, effect a
collective embargo. That arma-
ment manufacture be ~ national-
ized, so that it would be under full
government control and owner-
ship.

That any loans by Canada to
aggressor nations be opposed;
that a personal boycott against
aggressors be endorsed, but mot
in such a way as to injure racial
elements within the dominion;
and that the federal government
be asked to clarify the dominion’s
position as regards Britain in the
event of war.

All delesates voted in favor of a
national plebiscite before declara-
tion of war.

Guarantee of Rights
Parliament was called upon by
the congress to pass a Bill of
Rights guaranteeing every Cana-
dian citizen the right of free
speech, assembly and press and
freedom of religion. :
Wo one should be discriminated
against for reasons of birth or
race, the ‘congress resolved, urging
“Every citizen should have equal
rights to the pursuit of happiness.
Delegates declared strongly for
the right to organize in trade
unions and passing of Bill 62 was
asked. :
The senate was scored as being
undemocratic and delegates were
demanded that it should be made
more responsible to parliament.
Extension of technical education
in schools, implementing of the
1981 Vocational Act, increasing of
the union wage scale for appren-
tices up to 25 percent and com-
mencement of a slum clearance
program were among recommenda-
tions of the commission on Youth
Rehabilitation, of which Jerry
Hundal was chairman, endorsed
by the congress. ce
Delegates were of the opinion
that single unemployed men, turn-
ed adrift by closing of forestry,
project camps, should be given di-
rect relief pending reopening: of the
camps. A system of works projects
to improve natural resources was
advocated.
The provincial government was
urged to puild community centres
and libraries and to set up a per

manent bureau for diesen
of information regarding industria.

(Continued on page 6)
See CONGRESS.

recommended that the League of 3