sip oan ewe Seo tet et FCR PEACE, PROGRESS AND DEMOCRACY “FULL No. 209. VANCOUVER. B.C., FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 1939 JAPAN INVA TUGBOAT SEAMEN WORRIED Japanese economic penetra- tien of British Columbia ap- peared to be striking out in a new direction this week as coastwise tugboat men viewed with alarm the possibility of Oriental craft becoming com- petitors in towbeat operations. Aiready entrenched in a number et strategically-iocated logging claims on the Coast and linked up centrally through the newly organ- ized American Importers Associa-= tion, backed by the Tokio govern- ment Japanese interests were be- lieved to be planning even tizhter ecentrol of their growines monopoly by towing loss from the various booming gerounds to the assembly Point where Japanese deepsea ships will pick them up for transport to Japanese mills. Wipponese business men were pro- wided with an excellent opening re- cently when a revision in govern- ment shipping resulations permitted fish packers to carry freizht for the companies for whom they ere work— ing. & fish packer can now come in with a load cf fish and return te the cannery with the com- pany scow in tow. Several tow- beat companies are already feel- ing the eifect of this move, while several instances of Japan- ese towing small booms of logs has been reported. Under the setup enforced by the American Importers Association, Japanese buyers of logs stipulate that ail logs purchased in BC out side of their own camps must be sold though an agent of the Asso- ciation, who in turn loads them eut on Japanese ships. ’ Entry of Japanese concerns into the towing business will just about sew up the raw log industry as far as they are concerned, effectively freezin=e Gut other BC companies from any connection. Top this with the fact that BC Sawmills and pulp mills are done eut of around 100,000,000 feet of annual production, with the accom- panyine unemployment for lumber srorkers, tugboat men, longshore- men and others, and the picture of the real danger of Japanese eco- momic penetration becomes clear- er, observers state- SEINERS CALL CONVENTION Seine boat fishermen who made history last fall in a spectacular and successful strike will meet Mon- day, January 16, for the annual con- vention of Local 141, Salmon Purse Seiners Union. Over 30 delegates are expected to attend the opening session, Busi- ness Agent George Miller told the Advocate. z In addition, fraternal delegates will attend from United States unions, while invitations have been extended to the Trades and Labor Gouncil and other BC fishermen’s unions. : Fresh from a successful season of organization which saw the local gain its first signed agree- ment with the Salmon Canners’ Op- erating Committee, Monday's con- vention is expected to mark greater ofress in 1939. e OTE ree main questions will be dealt with, George Miller states- Most important will be an at- tempt to seek ways and means of amalgamating existing fisher- men’s organizations into one central union. : Suceess in this effort will deter- “mine to a considerable extent the future success in extending union— ism into unorganized areas and par- ticularly into canneries, Miller ints out. TO thee important matters : eome under the heading of trade umion and fisheries legislation. Pians for further developing the campaign to amend the Election Act will also find a place on the agenda at the opening session, will which gets under way at 10 a.m. IES S Railroaders Turn Down Beatty Plan \7 ANCOUVER railroad unionists expressed keen satisfaction this weekend with results of the meeting of general chair- men of the Standard Railway Brotherhoods in Ottawa which reiterated opposition to any proposal for amalgamation of Can- ada’s two great railway systems. <« Meeting in Chateau Laurier on Tuesday at the suggestion of Sir edward Beatty, president of the Canadian Pacific, railway union chiefs went into a brief conference on Beatty's proposal for a further Study of the question of unification, which he termed “inevitable,” then emerged to inform the press of their unalterable stand against “co-ordinating, consolidating, uni- fying or amalgamating ihe rail- way systems of Caneda.’’ One of the best means of solving the railway problem, the commit- tee said, was for the federal fZov- ernment to assume control over regulation of all forms of trans- portation of freight and passen- ers. “To segregate the railways for investigation without due resard to the conditions existing in all other competitive means of trans- port can not be productive of a sound or Satisfactory national transportation policy that would reduce the burdens of debt or be in the best interests of the people of this country,” declared the re— solution unanimously adopted by union representatives. “Amalgamation would only Cause further untold sacrifice by those employed in the railway in- dustry, and the gains resuliing from such a policy would be dis— breportionately -distributed among the few individual inter- ests involved. “We are not prepared to accept ey proposals in the spirit that they, because of conditions, will in- €vitably be forced upon us.” Local railroaders viewed the statement as effectively spikins Sir Edward Beatty's latest plan to re- open discussion on amalgamation. Some time ago the CPR chief circularized all seneral chairmen with a letter declaring unification to be “inevitable” and stating that even if railroaders did not agree wWeth unification they should at least study the subject with the ob- jec. of “protecting the workers in- terests” when it occurs. Railroaders saw in the move an Sattempt to involve them in a pro- tracted discussion of the details of amalgamation in the hope that such discussion would formaliy comimit them to its principle. Prior to Tuesday's meeting al- most every lodge of the railway brotherhoods across the country had passed strong resolutions against amalgamation and had no- tified union leaders of the action. General spirit of the resolutions passed recognized that amalgsama- tion would do nothing to eliminate the dead weight of the railroad debt, interest payments on which tale tens of millions of dollars an- mually from the pockets of Cana- dians. DOFFED | PRISON GARB | TOM MOONEY free at last, received the con- includ- Lyle gratulations of millions CITY MAY LAUNCH HOUSING More modern homes may be | built in Vancouver for low paid workers if city council decides next Tuesday to take advantage of a clause in National Housing Act allowing municipalities to loan money at two per cent in- terest for construction of such homes. Ald. Helena Gutteridge believes it is much cheaper to spend $1,328,- 000 for such a building program and keep people in clean homes than it is to combat disease and crime that breed and ‘thrive in dirty slums. . Civie services and taxation for fire and police protection, sanita- tion, and juvenile delinquency are out of all proportion in the slum areas, States the council’s only woman alderman, who as head of the civic housing committee is strongly in fayor of the building program. Opinion in the council on the sub- ject of taking advantage of a por- tion of $30,000,000 in the federal treasury set aside last year by the Soevernment under the WNational Housing Act is net Known. As yet noe cities in Canada have made any move to borrow from this reserve at interest rates of two percent. Vancouver may be the first to Start a run on the reserye since three public people have already committed themselves to the need for a program. This fact may have an effect of swingine some alder- men around before next Tuesday's Special council meeting. Under the scheme Vancouver could build some 700 new homes and put a large number of idle men to work. This would bring in a new revenue to the city indirectly while (Continued on page 6) ing Vancouver’s Mayor Telford. See HOUSING King Government Plans Broad Public Program of Works a little disappointed. trans-Canada highways. Unionists Break Line Bakery Drivers Pass Pickets Despite action of Trades Goun- cil executive last week in placing the Woman's Bakery on their “we do not patronize’ list, members of the Bakery Salesmen'’s Union are still going through the picket lines of striking union bakers, J. Humphreys told the Advocate Thursday. Strong mass picket lines were thrown -around the Woman's Bakery plant at 1420 Bast 15th Avenue Monday and again Thurs- day in an effort to impress. Bakery Salesmen that passage. throush their lines constituted an act of strikebreaking. Onus of this strikebreaking ac- tion rests entirely with the Bak- ery Salesmen, stated Humphreys, business agent for TLocal 468, Bakery and Confectionery Work ers’ Union. The whole matter will be taken onto the floor of the Trades Coun- cil Tuesday night by the bakers’ delegates for a thorough airing and final decision. WwW. MeGuern, district rep- resentative of the Bakery and Confectionery Workers’ Union who has been in Vancouver this week returned to Seattle to urge the international headquarters to the union to get behind the strike. a a By MALCOLM BRUCE FTER the election of Culbert Olson to the office of governor of Galifornia, the liberation of Tom Mooney from San Quentin Peniten- tiary after 22 years’ imprisonment was eagerly awaited by every work-— er and liberal-minded person who was at all familiar with the case. And when the news flashed around the world that the newly- elected liberal democrat governor had unconditionally pardoned him, there was a surge of elation in many a heart, rejoicing that the long fizht not only for his liberation but his vindication as well was crowned by success. How the years unrojl! It seems but yesterday that Mooney and/ Billings were arrested and charged with a revolting crime, that of plac- ing a time bomb which exploded in the midst of a “Preparedness Day” parade killing ten persons and seri- ously wounding forty. A hysteria was deliberately worked up by the press and other agencies of Big Business. Billings was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for life, and Mooney to death by hang- then came the exposure =a the whole terrible business as a frame— up organized by the United Rail- roads (street soulwavel e ue uthern Pacific whic or many eee in cahoots with the banking interests, had held the people of California by the throat, and the notorious “PG&H” (Pacifie Gas Electric.’ es the officers of law andor der, corrupt trade union officials and the scum of the underworld, Martin Swanson, private detective for the PG&E, courthouse rats and other professionali framers and per-— jurers, the above unholy alliance attempted to fabricate a case against the two labor leaders, suc- @& W orld Acclaims Freedom ceeded, in their haste, in exposing Oxman, one of the chief witnesses in the frame-up, as a perjurer. Memories remain clear of the many great mass meetings for the defence — the monster meeting at which Eremont Older, the great San Hrancisco editor, spoke; meet- ings addressed by the noble-hearted Debs, by the dynamic and militant “Big Bill” Haywood; the monster meeting in San Francisco at which the grand old woman of labor. Mother Jones, and the equally great Mrs. Skeehy Skeffington of Ireland were the chief speakers; the great meeting in the same city at which the eloquent Elizabeth Gurley Flynn — she of the voice of gold tipped with a diamond — roused the assembled throng on behalf of Mooney and Billings and for the defence of Sacco and Vanzetti who four years after the Mooney-Bill- ings arrest were framed by the manufacturers of Massachusetts and their corrupt judiciary and burned in the electric chair, a meet ing at which Tom’s mother, Mary Mooney, and his wife Rena, were present; these and many more meetings, parades and demonstra- tions against the monstrous perver- Sion of justice by the capitalist eourts of California. eS HE workers of America were somewhat slow to realize just what had occurred. They were doped by the war hysteria expressed by demonstrations for “prepared- ness” for participation in the World War. The workers were also misled by corrupt and cowardly labor lead- ers. Searcely had Mooney and Bill- ings been arrested when the state secretary of the Socialist Party sent out a letter to the party member- ship telling them that Mooney and Billings were undoubtedly guilty and warning them against associat te = 5 ing themselves in any way with the: defence movement. ® Most of the leaders of the San Francisco trade unions supported Pickert, the prosecutor and organiz- er of the frame-up, by declaring that the Mooney-Billings case would not be made a labor case, and later, when the same Fickert was up for reelection these labor leaders who were in political alliance with the worst open-shoppers of the city, formed a WUWnion Labor Party to nominate and support Fickert. Pp. E MeCarthy, president of the State Building Trades Council and “cezar’’ ef the trade union movement of California, worked against Moon- ey. This corrupt traitor was later driven out of the labor movement when it was revealed that he had accepted a bribe of $15,000 from the public utilities corporations (PG &E) to swing labor to defeat an amendment which if passed would permit development under public Ownership of the vast hydro-electric power of the State . @ RE are the names of only a few of the trade union officials who fought behind the scenes to keep Mooney in prison those 22 long years: besides McCarthy there was the pre=-=at of the San Fran- cisco Labor Council, Brouillet, who also had studied law. Naturally, he Was asked to assist in the defence. He accepted, and remained with it leng enough to get all the facts in possession of the defence: then he withdrew, gave all his defence in- formation to FPickert, thereby pre venting the impeachment of a drug addict witness, Reans, who had corroborated the evidence of one of the framers’ chief witnesses, anoth- er drug addict, McDonald. There was O’Connell, secretary of the Central Labor Council; Michael Casey of the Teamsters Frank Mec- F or Mooney His Indomitable Spirit and Fighting Heart Brought Him Back to ‘‘Life’’ After Twenty-two Stans > Donald, president of the California State Building Trades Council; and, the worst of the lot, Paul Schar- renburg, leading member of the Socialist Party, secretary of the California State Federation of ILa- bor, later expelled from the Sea- men's Union as a strikebreaker and all ’round traitor to the workers. it was Scharrenberg who more than anyone else at State Federation of Labor conventions blocked every effort to get organized labor offici- ally to support the Mooney defence. =) A Ieee role of many misleaders in the Mooney case has besmirch-— ed the pages of labor history. Per- haps the blackest page of all was Written when in 1928 Mooney, be- hind stone walls and on $100 bor- rowed from his mother, reorganized the Defence Commiittee with the lagher in charge as his personal representative; and for eishteen months she did excellent work un- der Mooney’s personal direction. Then suddenly she began to follow a policy in defiance of Mooney s instructions. Mooney, who had complete faith in her, was mystified, and months passed before he found out what was wrong. O’€onnell, secretary of the S.F. Labor Council, noticing the effect- iveness of Miss Gallasher’s work for the defence and the growing interest in the case she was creat ing, got in touch with two other labor misleaders, Casey and Schar- renburgs, and worked out a plan, vile as it was revolting, to scuttle the defence movement. The got a prominent labor offi- cial, an acquaintance of Mary Gal- Jager, and who “had a way with the women,” to “cultivate” her. By (Continued on page 5) See WORLD energetic and efficient Mary Gal- | Canada reacted to the King Government's program as an- nounced at Thursdays opening of Parliament with mixed senti- ments this weekend—general approval combined with more than The approval was for the government’s promise of a wide public works program, its declaration in favor of unemployment insurance, plans for forest conservation work and extension of The public works scheme as e@utlined in the speech from the Throne was the big news of the week. For years the central demand of a vast majority of Canadians, the initiating of broad public works Schemes across the country and their extension into the municipali- ties by federal aid was seen as the key question to Canadian recovery and the providing of jobs. AS outlined, the vsovernment Pian will also provide assistance to cilieS and towns which “desire to expand their normal prosram of civic improvements.” British Columbia particualrly §reeted the Throne speech, since the public undertakingss under consideration will include a sub-— Stantial program of read con- struction in the coast province, in particular the highway run- ning from WVancourer toe the Crow's Nest. Phe forest conservation plan will also apply mainly to BG, the ;} Chief lumberine province. i considerable Significance was the governments iacit ad- mission that the Diunich pact was a failure. “The government is hopeful that Of | efforts now being made (for peace) Gs wall meet wtih success. . . It recognizes nevertheless that time 2S required for these forces to work and that the possibility of further tension in the meantime be faced,”” the speech declared. But while these factors indicated the government’s growing aware mess of both domestic and interna- tional problems, failure of the Throne speech to mention and of- fer proposals for a number of other (Continued on page 6) See PUBLIC WORES LAUNCH FIGHT ON BLACKLIST A Major decision of the recent International Woodworkers eoan- vention went into effect this week With establishment of a special de- partment charged with developing the campaisn against the blacklist system. John Stanton, union attorney, has been retained by the BG Coast District Council to head the new Gepartment which will begin its work immediately. ‘ Fight against the blaciclist was recognized by the convention as ene of the important tasks before the TWA, delegates going on record as demanding a government inves- tigation. Chief weapon in enforcing the blacklist is the present hirins acency system, which the union claims is controlled by the B.C. Loggers’ Association. With all loggers forced to hire Gut through these agencies, em- plovers have been able to partially offset organization for years by refusing employment to known union men. At one period following a coast-— wide strike in 1934, several hundred men were blacklisted from camps operated by members of the Los- gers’ Association, many of them driven out of the industry. In recent years. particularly dur-— ing 1937-38, the Association has utilized the hiring asencies to bring in hundreds of inexperienced men In an effort fo wealken organiza— tion, at the same time forcing ex— perienced logeers into unemploy— ment. In establishins the new depart— ment, the TWA issued an appeal to ail woodworkers to cooperate by Sending in particulars of all known cases of discrimination, and ex pects to be able to present 4 strong case to the sovernment within a short time. E