Page Iwo

THE PEOPLE'S

ADVOCATE

i

August 26, 1938)

THE
PEOPLE’S ADVOCATE

Bublished Weekly by the Proietarian Publishing
Association, Room i10, 163 West Hastings Street,
Vancouver, B.C. Phone Trinity 2019.

Three Months... $ .50
Single Copy -—-----—--: 3 .05

Biake All Cheques Payable to: The People’s Advocate

Vancouver, B.C., Friday, August 26, 1938

Break the Fruit Combine!

(Continued from page 1)

From our experience, and from the fact
that the rich Western Grocers, Ltd., is the
mainspring of the conspiracy, there is ample
reason to believe that the biggest financial
interests in Canada have their fingers in this
rich fruit pie.

The investigation therefore should go to
the limit.

The Dominion and provincial governments
must at once act on the demands of the
growers.

The fact that the srowers receive 44 cents
a crate for strawberries which retail at $2.98
is sufficient to arouse the people of BC to
action —and to foree similar investigations
into milk and other staples.

The growers of the Okanagan Valley are
to be congratulated on the great public serv-
ice they have rendered. We hope their or-
ganizations become strong, for without solid
organization of the producers and ability on
their part to fight for a guaranteed minimum
price for their products, all the marketing
legislation in the world is useless. They should
heed the advice of Dr. MacDonald, BC min-
ister of agriculture, who told farmers recently:
“Tf the agriculturist had cohesion like union
labor, he would have little difficulty in
marketing his produce.”

Public Works Program
——_The Answer

HE problem of the single unemployed men

is once more acutely before the city coun-
cil and the provincial government, and the
problem of staving off hunger and starvation
is once again the immediate concerm of the
jobless sinsle unemployed themselves.

The tricky provincial government evaded
the issue following the mass demenstration
at Victoria. Pearson declared there was work
in the interior of the province, and gave the
men temporary relief while they were seeking
work from place to place. Only a very few of
the men found work; and no wonder, for al-
most every town and city in the province
already had its own unemployed. And on the
farms there is no work to be had.

It was a scurvy trick on the part of the pro-
vincial government to send the men out on
such a “wild goose chase,” and was done solely
for the purpose of scattering and disorganizing
the men, regardless of the additional suffering
it brought to them. There are signs, in the
protest of interior cities against the govern-
ment’s policy, that the trick has backfired,
however.

Now the unemployed are back in Vancou-
ver, empty-handed, penniless and on the verge
of starvation. As on previous occasions, they
have approached the responsible authorities
in an orderly manner and applied for relief
or work, preferably the latter.

Little encouragement was given to them.
But they were subjected to insolent criticism,
not to say abuse. Comfortable, well-fed poli-
ticians enjoying sinecures undertook to tell
the men about what they considered to be
mistakes they had made in their past strug-
gles. But when the men asked them what they
should do now they are told that nothing can
be done—they are invited to make more mis-
takes so that the authorities can have some-
thing to “chew the rag” over instead of dis-
cussing with the unemployed what can and
must be done.

Pearson is still harping on the men who
‘belong to some other province,” the “transi-
ents,” as he terms them, to whom he offers
transportation to the “land of their birth.”
Those who could establish domicile in some
other province have long since accepted trans-
portation and have gone there.

The group of men that Pearson terms transi—
ents are “men without a country,’ that is,
without a-provinee. They have been away
from the province of their birth so Jong that
they no longer are regarded there as resi-
dents. They can not properly be called transi-
ents; they are homeless men. And Pearson,
Pattullo and Mayor Miller,of Vancouver, the
city in which the unemployed men are resid-
ing now, are, like Pilate, washing their hands.

Tt is all very well for the authorities to blus-
¢er and threaten and warn against sit-downs.
Do they think that the men engage in sit-
downs because they like the concrete floors
or the hardship and privations that such pro-
tests entail? Hard though these protests may
be to endure, they fade into insignificance in
the face of snawing pangs of hunger and the
hollow spectre of starvation; and just as insig-
nificant become the threats of the authorities
in a situation where even prison is an immedi-
ate solution.

The authorities have had ample warning,
as they have had before. They may as well
face the problem right now. Hither relief for
all the single unemployed, or the provision of
gainful employment is the legitimate, reason-
able and unescapable demand of the single
unemployed men and their hosts of support-
ers which must be granted. There is no other
way out. And the quicker the authorities face
this stern fact the better it will be not only
for the unemployed, but for the authorities
as well.

The Greatest
Gamble...

NDER the pseudo-

nym. Lama Peach,
this pungent article ap-
peared in the June issue
of Country Life. Because
of its timeliness and the
information a contains,
the People’s Advocate is
glad to reprint it. In his
concluding para grapl,
Iama Peach drives his
point straight home...» -
“There is a gold-mine in
the agricultural sky,” he
writes, “but its the others
who are getting the agri-
cultural gold, after the
farmer has produced it.”

= SS

Another result of the long,
warm, dry spell is that the lower
flats and the higher benches are
practically at the peal of the
Season at the same time. Usually
there is from 12 to 15 days in
between peaks of the lower
plantations and the higher ones
and the berries come in sradual-
ly and can be fed to the market
the same way. But this time we
have received in six days over
ninety carlots of strawberries, all
Ad quality, which number of cars
is the equal of the total shippins
of last year’s main crop of straw
berries.

This again creates a very dif-
ficult marketing condition. But
the Lord is so far with us, by
Sivine the western prairies ood
erop prospects, and now fine
warm weather, and everybody
back there is eating strawberries
like they have never eaten them
before. This is as it should be,
because it is the finest thing for
the health of the prairie people.
But right here is where the sad
part of my story begins.

ECAUSE we have an immense

country and only a few peo-
ple in it, especially out here in
the west, and because we have
@ monopolistic out-of-date trans—
portation system, and because
the laws of the country are not
made for the protection of the
masses but for the protection of
about 5 to 8 percent of the Gana-
dian people of che upper strata
that are in control, we, the berry
farmers, not only here in BG, but
all over Canada, are working be-
low cost of production and there-
fore cannot constitute a goins
eoncern.

The Berry Shippers’ FPederatiou
early in the year, through a com-
mittee headed by J. B. Dickey,
the distributor of the federation,
made application to the Express
Trafic Board at Montreal, con-
stituted of representatives of
both transportation companies,
which men are entirely eastern
Canada minded, and therefore
could not possibly make a fair
decision for the west, since their
biased and crampled minds do
not allow them to understand
the situation, for assistance to
move the huge expected crop as
economically as possible east to
the prairies.

We asked for a reduction of
the express carlot rates from
$2.40 per 100 pounds to $2 per 100
pounds. We at the same time
agreed to use a higher minimum
weight in the cars loaded, by
raising this minimum from 17,-
000 pounds to 20,000 pounds in all
three prairie provinces. This
would have made a difference of
$8 per car, less to the transport—
ers. But since the rate to Alberta
is only $2 per 100 pounds and we
offered to load a 20,000 pound
minimum, we actually offered
them $60 per car more than they
are getting now. And since Al-
berta takes about 40 percent of
all berries shipped,
companies would have actually
received more money per car
than they do now.

The reason why the Shippers’
Federation asked this concession
was not to give the growers more
money, but to be able to get the
berries to the consumers as
cheaply as possible, so they in
turn can help by buying more to
distribute the record breaking
erop.

After repeatedly stirring the
memory of the transportation
companies’ officials in charge, we
finally got an answer, and lo and

behold, those considerate and
kind-hearted and all wise Solons
of the well protected railway

companies granted us 30 cents
per 100 pounds reduction to sey-—
eral out of the way towns In
Manitoba and Saskatchewan,
where we never have shipped a
carlot of berries, and stuck out
their chest, so as to say, behold
the three wise men of the east—
the benefactors of the people of
the west. Wise men—my eye!
Dumb clucks I would call them.
@

\ UT here comes the best part.

The berry growers of Ontario
and Quebec, the two pet proyv-
inces of our great Dominion, can
and do ship their berries an equal
distance to ours, say from here
to Calgary or Edmonton, and
they use the same equipment, the
same railways and live in the
same country of Canada—but
they pay only 95 cents per i100
pounds compared with our rate

the railway .

FA | . 2

"

MING

» NCE again the hustle and bustle of the berry season is upon

us, and such as it never has been before in the history of the
Fraser Valley ... The continued dry spell on the one hand is
producing the finest strawberries in the world. But it is doing
more than that. It has cut the largest crop in the history of the
Valley in half, which perhaps is a blessing in disguise. We have
had no rain, excepting a few drops this week, since May 6.

of $2 per 100 pounds.

This discriminative difference
is explained to us in this way:
There is much more competition
in the east—there is much more
business in the east, and what
they do not mention—there are
many more votes in the east.
Therefore, based on these three
facts, the rate is adjusted to bear
down on the western fruit grow-
er, to the benefit of the eastern
one.

Zt was our intention
freight cars this season exten-
Sively, but the dry spell, that
brought on the berries all in a
lump, crossed us up and we were
compelled to use express, and
pay the express barons their ex-
cessive and unfair discriminative
rates once and for all.

Let us look a little deeper in-
to the picture. Im spite of the
unfair rates, and the rush of
berries te the prairies, the
grower se far is getting about
$1.10 per crate of strawberries.
Of this figure he pays 26 cents-
for his empty crate, 25 cents
for picking one crate, and about
i2 cents for packing it. Then
he has to haul it or get it
hauled to the assembly plant,
which is another 4 cents per
erate on the average. This
makes a total of 66 cents per
crate, leaving the grower 44
cents for 13 pounds of delicious
strawberries which it took him
perhaps three to four years to
produce from the bush stage oi
his land to ripening stage of the
strawberry.

What a magnificent return for
his labor! Just think of it. it’s a
wonder growers don’t get drunk
with the effects of their success.

This is the farmer’s side of the

to use

picture. Let’s look at the dis-
tributor’s side, to get enlight-
ment.

Hirst comes the shipper; he

gets from 15 cents per case with
well organized co-operative non-
profit making associations, to 25
cents per crate that is taken by
private concerns more interested
in making revenue.

Then comes the unfairest of the
lot, the railway companies, who
take an average of 58 cents per
case, for the privilege of hauling
the crate of berries from here to
the prairies. This is what I wish
to bring into the limelight.

HE grower works about four

years to get 44 cents for a
erate of berries net for his work,
out of that he has to defray the
expense of fertilizer, hoeing, cul-
tivating, trimming, hand weed-
ing, pest control, taxes, interest,
providing he can borrow any
money, upkeep of his farm and
last but not least, upkeep of his
family.

These are all direct
against that 44 cents.

charges

On the other hand, the railway
company comes along, and in
order to support a top-heavy,
over-financed, in many cases in-
lated stock proposition, also to
support out-of-date equipment
and a medieval system, and for
the service of taking the crate
of berries for which the grower
gets 44 cents to the prairies,
charges an average of 58 cents
per crate.

What a grand application of
equity in a so-called democratic
country.

Then comes the broker. He gets
10 cents per crate. Then the job-
ber; he gets all the way from 25
cents to 75 cents per crate. It all
depends on the number of berries
available and on the healthy con-
dition of the market.

Then comes the retailer. He
strives to get at least an average
of 60 cents per crate for selling
these berries.

And what originally was a
erate of berries bringing the
grower 44 cents, has swollen to
a erate of berries, costing the

consumer $2.98 per crate.

So much for the fresh berries.

S

: Ow let us look at the manu-

facturing side of the berry
business. Once upon a time, long,
long ago, there lived out in the
west, on the wide and woolly
prairie, a young and ambitious
man, who tried and did make an
honest living by turning over the
virgin sod, day after day and
year after year, to plant a crop
and obtain a harvest sufficient to
keep him going. At the same time
a little farther out west, there
lived another young man who did

the same thing at the same time.

As time moved on these two
ambitious men, who started out
with the same idea, drifted more
and more apart in their accom-
plishments and actions. One took
up politics, at first operating in
His province and rising to the
highest position in politics, to be
premier of Saskatchewan. The
other used up his energy and ap-
phed his ability towards the
emancipation of the downtrodden
farmer.

As time went on, much was
accomplished by both men. One
rose in politics, as his party was
favored by the fickle public. The
other worked hard to establish
the United Farmers of Alberta,
the Wheat Pool, and a sugar fac-
tory, finally breaking down his
health and being compelled to go
to British Columbia, where he
found more misery and barefaced
exploitation of the fruit growers,
than he ever thought possible.

As time went on, both men pro-
gressed, one finally going to Ot
tawa and rising to the position of
finance minister of the Dominion,
the other, busy organizing fruit
growers of the Fraser Valley into
a strong body, able to withstand
the onslaughts of those that grew
fat in the past on the labors of
the producers. Both men are still
at their task, doing their best in
their own way.

aS fae what a difference! The one

who moved east and is solidly
Settled in Ottawa, as long as his
party is in power, has very much
forgotten his beginnin= on the
plains of Saskatchewan. He has
very much to do, with the best
and highest capable financial ex
perts procurable, to try to balance
the budget.

if, in trying to accomplish that
task, a few millions of farmers
are discriminated against, that is
only a minor matter. The main
thing is te balance the budget
and protect the upper strata of
something like 5 percent of the
Canadian people. Therefore the
man who chose polstics, although
he has been made thoroughly ac-
quainted with the fact that the
unjust burden of the sugar tax
is helping to destroy the small
fruit industry, cannot see his way
clear to adjust this maltreatment
of the fruit grower.

The man who chose polities and
Suides the financial welfare of
our country does not see his way
clear to remove the sales tax on
jam and jelly, which is a semi-
manufactured product of the
Browers just the same as honey,
maple syrup, maple sugar, cheese,
butter, canned milk, canned meat,
and many other agricultural
semi-manufactured products, but
all of which are not subjected to
the 8 percent sales tax.

He fully knows that this 8 per-
cent sales tax is gradually elimin-
ating the grower of smail fruits,
but in his rise to political power
he has completely forgotten how
he felt back there on the plains
of Saskatchewan, when he was
pushing the plow around.

Then his mind was clear and
unbiased and unhampered by the
powers that be and he felt for the
farmer. Now he understands
only one thing and that is to
keep the almighty dollar staple,
regardless of how this procedure
presses upon Some sections of the
Canadian people in favor of the
other, and that other being far in
the minority.

At the same time, the man who
went west, is plugging at the man
that went east, showing him the
unjust and unfair and discrimin-
ative nature of the setup, going
into details so the man in the
east might fully understand. This
has been going on for years, but
all that comes back from the
east is the usual and casual letter,
stating that this matter will re
ceive fullest consideration when
the time comes.

But the time never comes.
And meanyhile things on the
berry iarms are going from bad
to worse, all because Ottawa dis—
criminates against them. Trans-—
portation companies mulict
them and the distribution sys-
tem is altogether too costly and
top-heavy.

Which one of the two men who
started out together has chosen
the better hot? That’s for you to
answer.

But no relief will come to the
farmers until they work, think,
vote together.

aet and above all

UA AWAN Anan long ne

SHORT JABS

A
Weekly

Commentary

By Cl’ Bill

sisi

A ‘Steal’ Wouldn’t you like a YVolksauto now? ha
It won't be a very good auto because? |)
In Autos there will be no iron, steel, brass or |

copper in it since these metals are needed for war
against peaceful peoples. It is being made of ersatz |
Steel, near-rubber and far-away leather upholstery
Every German worker is to have one, except, of |
course, the Jewish workers. And believe me, the
Jewish workers who can’t have a car will be the
lucky ones, for the Nazi plunderbund has developed ©
the fine art of giving nothing for something to @
much greater degree than it has ever been done
before. :

-For instance, the price of the Volksauto is to be +
$396. Each worker must immediately start paying |
$2 per week out of his scanty wages (4s low as $6
per week). The ersatz cars will be ready for use |
and a few of them will be delivered three years from 47
now. The worker-buyer will have paid in that period: 4)
$312. And by the time he gets delivery of his jallopy, 4%
if he ever does, he may have paid the entire score)
But in the meantime Hitler will have used the 539§) |
in furthering his bleod and conquest policies.

W. S A local “colyumist’” some ase
@Y SOMES -2sco, commenting on the death of 1
the writer of “Tipperary,” takes time out to sing |}
the praises of that alleged war song and “the other ©
greatest sons of the war ‘Over There’.’ together
with a cheap sneer at the bagpipes, which, no mat |
ter how low they may stand are still higher than
the warblings of the hack writers of the capitalist — (
) im
press. Ee
Any soldier who went through the slaughterfest ©
and used the brains he carried in his skull Knows:
that these are pre-war songs written by pluggers’
to drum up patriotism, writers who had no know -
ledge of war, songs to popularize the war and fed ;
to the boys who were to do the fighting. Neither of
them was the greatest war song, nor the second |
greatest either. i

The greatest war song was not written by any”
individual, but was the joint effort of the men who) ;
lived and died in the mud and filth of the trenches,
who Knew the horrors as well as the false glories of,
the war. Part of it went like this, if I remember ~
right: et:

i

I-want to go home, I want to go home. ;

i The bullets they whistle, the cannons |

they roar, 4

i don’t want to go to the front any more. :

Take me across the sea, where the Alle
mand can’t get Me.

Oh my, I don’t want to die, I want to go

home.

That was the greatest war song, and the second ~
greatest was “Mademoiselle From Armentierres” |

How To Handle Hitlers number one fang
- member in Czechoslovakia’:
Fascists {

is quote in the press as say
ing, “We do not want our borderiand turned inte.
battlefields.” Such bullying fascist scoundrels never —
do want their homes to be laid waste, knowing from,
their Own experience as bandits and pirates on sea,
land and air, just what that horror means. What’ 4,

people does want its homes turned into batile
fields?

Henlein and his boss, Hitler, were both prepared |
to spread desolation and death on Czechoslovakia
before May 26, but they changed their tune on that
date—and one of the reasons why, besides the firm ~
attitude of France and the Soviet Union, was the |
secret note (since made public), sent to Hitler by
President Hodza of Czechoslovakia, informing him |
that the moment Nazi troops marched into Czecho
Slovakia, the Czechs would wipe out all the towns
and factories in the Sudeten borderland inhabited by
the German minority.

So they are biding their time, depending on the:
aid of the Chamberlain government, that usurpation) ©
that Maintains itself and commits passive treason”
against the British people by equivocation. They
are banking on the personal representative of
Chamberlain, Runciman, who is disowned by the
people of Britain, being able to hog-tie the Bohemi-”
ans and Slovaks and make them an easy prey for)
Hitler’s bombers, so that their homes, and not those”
of the Sudeten Germans, will be left like the ruins”
that once were the homes of the Spanish people. ;

Once upon a time high treason was a crime, but
fascism makes it a virtue!

Any objection that may remain in
Japanese the minds of the doubting Thom-
Spying ases about the extent and influence

of Japanese spying, May be dispelled by the follow-
ing incident. When the Japanese steamer, Arizona
Maru, arrived at Durban, South Africa, from China,
about a month ago, an English woman, Miss Kath-
leen Weston, was one of the passengers.

She had been arrested in China as a Japanese spy
and as she stepped ashore, a Japanese officer ap-
proached her and slipped a sealed envelope into her
hand. When she read the contents she turned pale”
as if she had had a shock.

To the newspapermen and friends who were ex-
pecting a story from her she said, “I can tell you
nothing after all I have had instructions in that
letter.” She added that it would be unwise for her
to reveal the contents of the letter, but that her
sympathies were with the Chinese people who treated
her well.

Even in South Africa as
hand of Japanese fascist imperialist conspiracy
reaches out. It is a further proof that the Chinese
must be given every assistance in their righteous
war of defense against imperialist aggression. So,
if you have not already contributed to our $50 fund
for the 8th Route Army’s school at Yenan, do so at
once. We have still another week to gc. Let us
keep our promise.

Contributions this week: G. Krussell, $2.50; Matty
Matheson, $2. Total received to date, $33.75.

in Vancouver, the

5 Last Saturday, after doing a little
Service chore at a YC school, If had oc
casion to travel from Deep Cove, sixteen miles out

of the city, to Joyce and Kingsway. The bus took
34 minutes from Deep Cove to Hastings and Ren-
frew. From there to Joyce Road car terminus took
42 minutes. The distance cannot be more than three
Imiles. This is what the B.G Collectric calls service!
By-the-way, I had only five minutes to wait for the
Collectric bus at Renfrew. Telling a friend about
this experience later, he said, “it serves you right;
you should have waiked.”