Page Two

THE PECOPLE’S

ALD NEO CoA Tor

July 22, 1938

THE
PEOPLE’S ADVOCATE

Published Weekly by the Proletarian Publishing

Association, Room 10, 163 West Hastings Street,
Vancouver, B.C. Phone Trinity 2019,

One Year. Three Months_____ =p 00

Balt Year Single Copy-—..-$ @5

Make All Cheques Payable to: The People’s Advocate

Vancouver, B.C., Friday, July 22, 1938

Maintaining Unity in the Unions

HE 54th annual convention of the Trades
and labor Congress of Canada takes
place in Niagara Falls, Ont., on September 12.
This meeting will be of tremendous im-
portance for the Canadian trades unions.

We have reason to be proud that up to now
the Canadian international unions have
avoided a split such as has weakened the
United States unions. Division has been off-
set by the willingness of large numbers of the
trade unions in Canada and of the main lead-
ership of the Trades and Labor Congress, to
maintain the status quo, that is, to keep within
the Congress all international unions, craft
and industrial. F

Such a decision was based on the very good
reason that there is room for both AFL and
GIO unions in the Trades and Labor Con-
gress; that questions of jurisdiction in industry
as between the craft and industrial unions
must be the concern of the unions themselves.

There is no doubt that the reactionary em-
ployers banked on a split inside the Trades
and Labor Congress. Unfortunately, certain
representatives of the William Green sroup
in the AFI. have been at work in Canada en-
deavoring to split the Congress by provoking
the expulsion of CIO unions. Such efforts
have been made in Hamilton and Toronto.

In Vancouver a split has so far been avoided.
This is in the interests of the working people
of BC and right in line with the wishes of the
rank and file of the unions, who see no ad-
vantage to labor in a divided union movement.
The election of the executive of the Trades
and Labor Council here, which resulted in the
defeat of Birt Showler, one of the chief op-
ponents of the status quo in the Trades and
Labor Congress, is an indication of the deep
desire for trade union unity inside the union
locals. Here the ClO unions whose Trades
Congress status is still in doubt, acted in the
best interests of unity by taking no part in the
election.

It is up to every local union in BC to make
sure that it sends delegates to Niagara Falls
on September 12, and to see that its per capita
tax is fully paid up. The September 12 meet-
ing must be representative of the local unions
so that their will can prevail over the splitting
elements:

An Ounce of Prevention. . .

1HAT enemy of mankind, uncontrolled fire,
3 is burning up great amounts of BC’s most
valuable product—timber.

Heroic efforts are being made to fight the
fire and to check its disastrous depredations.
Hundreds of men, blinded by smoke and
seared with heat, have been mobilized by the
provincial authorities to stop the ravages of
man’s sreatest natural enemy and (if con-
trolled) most mighty friend.

We hope the results of the provincial gov-
ernment’s efforts will be successful. All peo-
ple in the province are anxious to see an end
to the tragedy being enacted on Vancouver
Island.

Without wishing for a moment to be Job’s
comforters, is it not timely to point out:

—That hundreds of young men who were

recently the butt of Mayor Miller and Hon.

G. S. Pearson, answered the call for fire-

fishters last Saturday, thereby once and for

all repudiating the charge of “unwilling-
ness to work.”

—That every single unemployed man active

in the fight for work would have answered

the call to save BC’s timber and the settle-

ments which are threatened.

—That the young men now on the road

looking for work could be given work clear-

ing and burning slash and taking other use-
ful steps to prevent another holocaust.

—That government forestry camps could be

re-opened at once to work on fire-preyen-

tion projects, as in the United States.
Or, do the thousands of young men who hang
around jobless have to wait until the fire
spreads before they get work trying to save
that which cam be preserved if works pro-
jects are now commenced ?

An ounce of prevention is worth a ton of
cure. That is good government policy and we
recommend it to Premier Pattullo and his
cabinet.

Tihose New Subscriptions!

HANKS to the efforts of single unem-

ployed street salesmen and to the wide
publicity given their cause in its pages, there
are hundreds of new readers becoming ac-
guainted with the Advocate for the first
time.

Wow is the time for steady subscribers to
help consolidate the increased circulation of
a labor paper which proves its value in the
province with every issue. For each reader
to cooperate and get one new reader, or to
check up on friends in the matter of expired
subscriptions.

This is the hard way to build circulation,
but it is the surest. Labor papers cannot de-
pend on occasional street sales. It is the six-
month and yearly subs. that count.

Run over in your mind those whom you
can contact during the next ten days, and you
will be suiting action to wishes.

Preamble of Brief To Rowell Commission

Continued

Communists On National Unity

= opening of the way for the sovernment measures in the interests of economic improve-
ment and security for the Canadian people becomes a matter of the most pressings im-
portance in the light of the signs of the approach of a new economic crisis.

These signs are clear enough for all who wish to be guided by fact rather than wishful

thinkines.

4. new crisis is approaching without the attainment of any prosperity phase in the past
economic cycle. The eight years of the past crisis were divided up as follows:

Four years of crisis: from the
autumn of 1929 to the middle of
1933.

Two years of depression: from
the middle of 1933 to the middle
of 1935.

Two years of revival: from the
middie of 1935 to the autumn of
1937:

Apart from other factors, the
terrible inroads into the incomes
of the great masses of the Ca-
nadian people made by the crisis
years have distorted the economic
cycle. There is no culminating
point; no boom phase in which
production attains unprecedented
levels, leading to a new crisis.
Profits have been and are experi-
encing 2 “boom” phase, having
risen to unprecedented levels; but
this has been “achieved” without
production rising to the level of
1929.

One million people are still de—
pendent upon relief, and living
Standards remain largely on a
erisis level. We face a new eco-
nomic crisis while the ravages of
the past crisis are still unhealed.

it is in this light that the prob-
lem of completing national unifi-
cation to open the way for decisive
measures of economic security for
the people must be viewed.

Wee urge this phase of the prob-
lem upon your consideration as of
decisive importance.

Consider the problem of do-
minion-previncial relations from
the viewpoint of the effects of a
new approaching crisis. It is no
overstatement to say that Ca-
nadian democracy- will be im-
periled unless decisive measures
are taken quickly to establish eco-
nomic security for the people and
strengthen the democratic power
of the people.

The danger to Canadian democ-
racy comes from the camp of re-
action and fascism. Already these
forces are pursuing a well-defined
program calculated to block prog-
ress and place social and economic
reform outside the reach of the
Canadian people.

Already in the central prov-
inces, and especially in Quebec,
the democratie rights of the peo-
ple are being crushed and de-
stroyed because these rights assist
the people in their struggle for
economic security and social re-
form.

With the approach of a new
economic crisis, the Canadian peo-
ple face a decisive contest with
the forces of reaction and fascism,
which will seek to wipe out the
democratic and progressive herit-
age of our country and establish
the unbridled rule of monopoly
finance. :

The guarantee of democracy
against this growing danger can
be found only in the strengthened
democratic power of the people.

Wational unification, itself un-
realizable except through the
democratic progressive movement
of the Canadian people, must es-
tabilsh a Canadian Bill of Rights,
providing equal rights for the
French-Canadian minority, free-
dom of trade-union organization,
freedom of speech, press, assembly
and religion, unrestricted freedom
of the franchise in all elections on
the basis of proportional represen-
tation and the abolition of the
anti-democratic veto power of the
senate.

i—The Position of the
Communist Party.

T MAY be well to add a further
word of explanation of the po-
Sition of the Communist Party.

We Communists know quite well
where our place is in relation to
these great issues in the political
life of Canada. We belong on the
side of democracy and progress,
on the side of national unifica-
tion to open the doors to economic
improvement and security for the
people.

There are those who would have
people believe that the threat to
Canadian democracy comes from
the Communist Party.

Reaction employs this cry to try
to stampede people onto the path
of fascism. But there are also
genuine democrats who see a
threat to Canadian democracy not
only in reaction and fascism but
also in the Communist Party.

Such fears in relation to the
Communist Party are entirely
unfounded.

The Communist Party stands
for socialism. But the Communist
Party repudiates now as in the
past all theories or proposals look—
ing to the forcible imposition of
socialism upon the majority of
the people. :

Such concepts are utterly and
completely foreign to the CGom-
munist Party. We never did and
never will hold to a program of
forcible establishment of socialism
against the will of the people.
Anyone who proposes the attain-
ment of socialism other than
through the democratic will of the
people is alien to the Communist
Party.

The Communist program and
policy rests exclusively upon the
democratie will of the people. No
Senuine democrat need harbor
any fears of the Communist Party.

Seratch beneath the surface of
those who inspire such fears and
one finds an enemy of economic

improvements for the people. It is

the cold-blooded resolve of the
dominant financial interests to
withhold economic security from
the people that is the very source
of the threat to democracy.

In organizing and leading the
movements for higher wages, for
social legislation, for economic se-
eurity, the Communist Party is
making a fundamental contribu-
tion to Canadian democracy be-
cause economic betterment for the
people is the only basis upon which
it can survive.

Tf our understanding of history
is correct, that is the surest road
to socialism.

We speak, then, as a part of the
ever-growing alignment of the
democratie people of Canada.

We are for complete national
unification because it coincides
with the path of democracy and
economic improvement for the
people. The democratic natienal
unification~ work commenced by
William Lyon Mackenzie and
Louis Papineau one hundred years
ago must be completed by the Ca-
nadian people of today.

Eivery Canadian who truly loves
his country and is devoted to the
welfare of its people stands reso-
lutely against the blocking of na-—
tional progress by the provincial
dismemberment of the nation at
the hands of reaction.

We must avert the imminent
disaster of progress blocked and
democracy destroyed by complete
democratic national unification to
open the way for economic and

“social security for the people.

Readers View the News

Could Find
No Work

Editor, People’s Advocate:

Dear Sir: The undersigned left
the city to look for work. Went
to Ladner and rustled for three
days, with no work to be found.
Hiked along the River Road to
Port Mann, finding men being
laid off. Caught the freight to
Hope, still no work. As a matter
of fact, I was told there by the
district engineer of public works
that transients were not wanted.
At Princeton I was roughly told
to go back to the place of my
original registration. Along the
Kettle Valley line to Penticton at
the end of Okanagan Lake but

saw plenty of men like myself— -

forever searching. Hitch-hiked
along Okanagan Lake to Kelow-
na, was forced to keep going 40
miles to the 10-cent ferry, to go
north to Kamloops. Things seemed
worse if possible in that area.
Hiked nine miles to Tranquille.
Tt was no use. Arriving back in
Vancouver, I had rustled only
$3.25 in three weeks. This is a
true statement from one who has
been in BC for the last 14 years.
Vancouver, BC. Ben Hartley.

Sayor Mayor
WNeglects Duty.

Editor, People’s Advocate.

Dear Sir: Our Mayor has an
appalling record of criminal ne-
elect of duty as guardian of the

“people’s welfare and he should be

working overtime to make amends
instead of condemning others.

Typical of this neglect is the
ease of the Dye family, who now
have a third set of twins. The
man is distracted with the task of
providing for his little charges,
his anxiety being accentuated by
the fact that his home, built on
his hard-earned savings, is taken
away from him.

All he is being allowed for shel-
ter allowance is $8 per month.
Which is the greater crime—for
Single unemployed to ask for a
normal life, or those charged with
the protection of public welfare
to neglect their duty?

Wothinge can hide the fact of
the gross neglect of our Mayor.
Through deficient relief allow-
ances, many little children are
victims of various forms of phys-
ical and mental disorders in Van-
eouver. He should at once stop
wasting his time red-baiting and
should shoulder his responsibili-
ties in the present situation of
mass misery.

Vancouver, BC. B. Marsh.

Who Destroyed
Sign Board?

Editor, People’s Advocate.

Dear Sir: Enclosed is a copy of
a letter which I sent to Crime-
Detector Vance.

“The enclosed, a torn up work-
ers’ paper and sign board were
found in the garage of Murray
Tanong, t3rd and Fraser street,
around 6:30 am. With other of
my goods fi left them there intact
around 9 pm the day before, and
if you remember, last night was
fairly dark. They could not have
been seen without a light. So it
seems that someone had a flash-
licht to investigate. And who
would have a flashlight around
gas stations and garages at night
ubt a policeman. I don’t know,
but I have good reason to think
this is the case.

“Perhaps if you will take finger-
prints you will soon know. Please
do so at once. To you this may

seem a littie matter, but to us
workers it is very different, es-
pecially after Fathers’ Day,

Bloody Sunday. Don’t misunder-
stand me; there are some good
PS’s on the force, and then there
are others.”
Vancouver,

BC. Wilbee Sr.

Summer Camp
Great Success
Eiditor, People’s: Advocate.

Dear Sir: Perhaps your readers
would be interested in the routin
of the Children’s Summer Camp
at Orhloma Beach, which opened
July 11 with 35 children for the
first week.

The children rise at 7 am and
exercise for 15 minutes. After
washing, they answer the break-
fast gone. Dormitory cleanup and
bed-making next, the latter being
an art for which prizes are given
on points of neatness, ete. Swim-
ming, games and sunbathing fill
in the time until lunch at 12 noon,
after which there is a rest period.
Hiking and boating help to give
pleasant afternoon hours until
supper at 4:30 pm.

In the evenings the children
gather around a bonfire to sing,
listen to and tell stories, the
younger ones going to bed at 8:30,
older ones at 9 pm, all lights out
at 9:30 pm. They sleep like lambs.

Mention must be made of those
donating time and effort to en-
able poor children to enjoy them-

selves. They are: Mrs. Phillips,
the camp mother; Mrs. Dalziel
and Mrs. Fordham, the camp

cooks; Doreen Sullivan and Eddy
Turgeon (Boston Kid), are boy
and girl leaders; Tom Burlington,
caretaker; Harry Kersey, in
charge of first-aid; Rose Phillips
and Mary Houghton wait on table.

For $3.50 which includes trans-
portation, a child can spend a
week at the camp. E. E. Winch,
MLA, sent in a donation of $5
this week, and the Civic Em-
ployees’ Union has promised a do-
mation of $15 toward the camp
maintenance fund.

Mrs. Phillips,

Room 138, 163 W. Hasting St.,
Vancouver, BC.

Lullaby for 1938

IFE for my kid
lis a hammock swinging

(Swing high, swing low)

The sorrow on the other side
Tomorrow will know

The hunger in the ditches
Twenty years will show.

UMPING im a box car
Through prairie silence

(Sweet wind, sweet night)

Plunging from a tunnel
Into orange light—

Lined up on the pavements
Trapped frem flight:

IFE for my kid

, Will be a baton swingmeg
(Swing high, swing low)
A welt across the shoulders
From the brutal blow
And mark on the conscious-

mess
Where fiery fruit will grow!
—D. L..

SHORT JABS

A
Weekly

Commentary

By Oi’ Bill

Someone has sent me a month-old supplement to
one of the local papers, twenty pages of guff and
blather about the new Ford plant in Burnaby and
a question as to why i, too, did not go into ecstasies

“in welcoming “Henry” to our

industrial family circle. Well,
Welcome To I really did mean to add my
Henry. contribution to the communal
glad hand, but between Charlie
McCarthy Miller, Heily Hitler, Herr Chamberlain
and Maxie Schmeller, it got squeezed out somehow
—hbut better late than never.

The theme song of the supplement is a blurb
written in the publicity bureau of the Ford Motor
Company of Canada. We learn from it that the Ford
Company provides work for 22,000 people, although,
according to Dominion government statisties, there
are only 19,773 workers engaged in the manufacture
of autos and parts in all Canada. Perhaps the dif-—
ference is made up of stools and thugs like the gang
that murdered the striking Ford workers at Detroit
on Bloody Monday, 1932.

We learn also how good the Ford Company of

Canada is to us. Last year it spent 3534 million dol-

lars in Canada which all came

to us and it still has 36 mil-

Is There A lion dollars left as capital in-

Santa Claus? vestment. Where did it get

all these millions from?

From only one source: out of the hides, the sweat

and blood and suffering of the Ford Canadian
workers.

Hufteen years ago a Hederal Agricultural Com-
mittee was appointed to investigate economic con-
ditions of the Canadian farmers. On April 26, 1923,
at Ottawa, W. R. Campbell, Ford Motor Company
vice-president (mow president), chief executive of-
ficer in Canada, giving evidence under oath before
the committee, made the following statement: “In
1903, my predecessor, Gordon MacGregor, conceived
the idea of establishing a Ford Company in Canada.
He approached the Ford people, who were smali
at that time, and an arrangement was made whereby
a company was to be established in Canada, as was
done, with a nominal capital of $125,000. Fifty-one
per cent of the stock was assigned to stockholders
of the Ford Motor Company, Detroit. At that time
the Detroit company had some seven shareholders.
This stock was given to them without monetary cost
and for which the Detroit company assigned to the
Canadian company rights to supply the Canadian
territory and the British° Empire with the exception
of the British Isles, which territory we still serve
exclusively.”’

Campbell was questioned by a representative of
the farmers and supplHed the committee with the

followings interesting data.
There Is A Question: “What amount of

your money was furnished by
Santa Claiss “cauadian menses 2 ae
“Forty-nine per cent of $125,
(Q@.) “What is your company
capitalized at now?’ (A.) “Seven million dollars.’
(Q.) “How much dividend have you paid on that
in the whole period?” (A.) “Ten million dollars in
cash and about six million dollars in stock.’ (Q.)
“How was the capital increased to the present

000—some $63,000."

amount?” (A) “By earnings. There was never any
fresh money taken in.’ (@) ‘‘What is your present
worth?” (CA) “Qur present worth, July 31, 1922:
surplus, twelve-and-a-half millions, capital seven
millions — about twenty millions.” (Q@.) “And you
paid ten millions in that time?” (A.) “Since 1905,
yes.”

That was sixteen years ago. The capital today has
risen from $63,000 to $36,000,000 and the dividends
paid proportionately. Every nickel over the smaller
digure was donated by the Ford Canadian workers
and it was them that brought the halfmillion-dol-
lar plant to Burnaby, not Henry Ford, W. R. Gamp-
bell, or the profit-mongerinse stockholders.

A
Woman's Diary- af

By Victoria Post

A’ A TIME when wage cutting is a daily occur-
rence, the organized strength of the United
Garment Workers has enabled the union to com-
plete negotiations for higher wages with seven To-
ronto firms in leather garment and sportswear
branches of the garment industry.

The new agreements call for improved working
conditions, increased wages from $i to $3.50 for
cutters and time workers, and proportionate in-
ereases in piece-work rates.

By demanding that each sports garment you buy
bears a union label, you can help strengthen these
unions and make sure that workers do not labor in
sweatshop conditions.

Showing that it is not only concerned with the
welfare of its own members, the union, at its last
executive meeting, decided to adopt a Spanish
orphan in one of the Canadian homes in Spain.

= * =

A TEST CASE, -heard in London this week, prom-
ises to have great effect on the old Abortion Law
of England, which permits abortion only if the life
of the mother is at stake.

Dr. Alick William Bourne, who defied this old
law, was acquitted at Old Bailey of “any illegal
action” because he operated’ on a fourteen-year-old
girl who had been assaulted and raped by three
Horse Guards. She said, “They dragged me into
a stable and did awful things to me. .-.. One
punched me in the face.”

To comply strictly with the law, this young girl
would have been forced to haye her baby, a constant
reminder of the horror of this incident. But Dr.
Bourne, supported by Lord Horder, physician-in-
ordinary to the King, and other prominent obste-
tricians who doubtless saw the stupidity of the law,
prevented this unwelcome child from appearing in
a world already over-crowded with hungry, un-
wanted children.

Many of the tragedies of life could be averted if
this law were altered. Women who do not want
children will go to great lengths when they find
themselves pregnant to force an abortion with risk
to health and life, whereas an abortion carried out
under proper hygienic conditions is less dangerous
than having one’s appendix removed. Doctors and
great masses of people realize this, but still the law
stands,—but with its roots badly shaken by this last
test case. It is time it was amended.