THE PEHEOPLE’S

ADVOCATE

June i6, 1939

THE
7S ADVOCATE

eekly by the Proletarian Publishing
, Room 20, 163 West Mastings Street,
ancouver, BC. Phone TRinity 2019.

ents oe = 62,00 Three Months
~Vear = $4.00 Single Copy ——.—-.$ -05

4ake Ali Cheques Payable to: The People’s Advocate

'Waneouver, B.C. - Friday, June 16, 1939

Put Canada on the Comeback Trail!

ISPATCHES from Ottawa, apparently

based on facts, indicate a federal election
for the fall and both the Liberals and Con-
servatives are grooming for the contest hop-
ing that their tarnished records can be suf
ficiently shined up to pass temporary scrutiny
during an election struggle.

What are the issues facing the Canadian
people who have an eye to the future and a
memory of the recent parliamentary session?

We believe Communist leader Tim Buck
answered that question clearly and concisely
in Hamilton last week when he declared there
were two ways of meeting the present eritical
situation—one, advocated by George McCul-
lagh, Beatty and Big Business, for the lower-
ing of living standards and the halting of social
progress; the other, to make the elections a
“+urning point” in the fight for a new deal.

“We find,’ Mr. Buck declared, “that the
basic issues largely dividing people into two
main camps are on the one hand proposals for
national recovery to bring back prosperity,
and against this, a program of ‘national gov-
ernment to maintain scarcity in Canada.”

There is plenty of evidence for this estimate
of the political situation in Canada, and the
recent parliamentary session furnishes the
best proof of such an estimate.

The facts are that the Liberal government,
turning an attentive ear to the howlings of
McCullagh and Sir Edward Beatty, gave way
on almost every front tc reactionary interests.

On the wheat issue alone, the King gov-
ernment stands condemned in the eyes of the
common people. Forgotten were the half-
promises concerning a public works program
to relieve unemployment. Nothing was done
for the youth. No steps were taken to promote
social security at home and collective security
abroad.

Instead, with the exception of the Lapointe
labor bill, the concessions were all on the side
of Bis Business.

But even these comcessions are not Satis-
factory to the Bay and St. James Street crowd.
Oh, they’ve accepted them, but they re howl-
ing for more. They won't be content until
their whole pro-fascist program is realized.
And what do they want? A “national” gov-
ernment of their own brand, absorption of the
CNR by the Beatty gang, less local govern-
ment, a restriction on government expendi-
tures (read fewer hospitals, less education,
widespread relief slashes). And all the time
they keep crying about scarcity of money and
the need for retrenchment.

They re right on one count, at least. The
national income has declined from six billion
to around four and a half billion since 1929,
but the loss has been shouldered by the peo-
ple. The Wrights and McCullaghs, the
Beattys and Holts have prospered as never
before, so that today the Canadian banks can
boast of several billions of dollars put away
on the shelf. A comparison of wages, farm
prices and profits proves this fact to the hilt.

On the other hand, what of the contention
of progressive people—that this retrogression
so ardently desired and fostered by reaction
can be halted and turned into a broad move-
ment for national recovery?

The money is there—the bankers admit
that. Canada is one of the richest countries
in the world in both natural resources and
the people to exploit them. All it needs is
that these tremendous forces be put to work.

It’s clear, therefore, that the coming elec-
tions can mark the turning point. And the
lever that will force the turn can be the elec-
tion of truly democratic people’s representa-
tives to parliament.

That's the sure way to put
comeback trail.

Canada on the

' Harry Oakes and the Miners

TRELAND LAKE, where men burrow

deep underneath the earth to bring up

the gold from which Harry Oakes piles up his

$3,000,000 and more clear profit every year, is

aroused over the baronetcy recently bestowed
upon the same Mir. Oakes.

What has particularly roused the gold
miners is that the honor was given Oakes
presumably for his generous gifts to hospitals
—jn London, England!

“We wonder,” says the Timmins Daily Press
editorially, “if His Majesty who, in theory,
honors Mr. Oakes for his benefactions to hos-
pitals in London, England, to the tune of thou-
sands of pounds, would deem the honor so
richly earned if he had the time to personally
investigate Mr. Oakes’ indifference to hos-
pital conditions in Kirkland Lake—conditions
that closely affected the families of the men
who moil and toil to produce the riches with
which hospitals thousands of miles away are
so lavishly endowed.”

Harry Oakes could not have chosen a more
perfect example of his contempt for Canada
and the Canadians whose labor gives him his
millions than the “philanthropy” for which he
was given a title.

One Toronto paper raves about Oakes be-
ing “Sir” to some people but still “Harry”
to the miners. ... That “Harry” is prefaced
and postseripted with choice miners’ adjec-
tives—and they are not “Sir” either.

The Real Milk Monopoly

iii

Pea bea Bee Sag ee esis a Ss ES

Rc Es RE ges Es es 9 Ei bed lbxaibeaibsa bad bedibed Beet bse

From a radio speech delivered by Fergus McKean,

BC secretary of the Communist Party, over Sta-

tion CKMO on Friday, June 9. - . - A clear outline
on the present milk controversy.

bse bas ibs Guba ba 8 bas iba 4 bd b= bx bd Bg bab =8 b= =a

ip=aibeaibeaihe abe e b=eib=aib=aib=4lbaeb=4)b=4'b-G bd b=G/b=gibxd baa Hpraipeaipeaipzdipsaibrelbeaibeaibadibetes ed)

Good Evening, Friends:

Ty osises I wish to speak on a question which has been per-
plexing many Vancouver householders for the last month.
I refer to the government-sponsored Single Agency established
for the purpose of regulating the production and distribution

of milk in the Lower Mainland.

During these last few weeks many statements have been
issued regarding the merits and demerits of the proposals of
the Single Agency and much confusion and misrepresentation

has entered into the question.

The independent dairies have
succeeded finally in having an
injunction issued which has pre-
vented the Single Agency bepgin-
ning operations. Since the in-
junction was issued, the cam-
paign of the independent dairies
has become even more virulent,
culminating in the issuance of
thousands of leaflets entitled:
“Are we to feed Fascism on
Milk?” The leaflet asks: “Do you
want to click your heels to these
would-be -‘fuehrers’ of the milk
trade?” and concludes with a2
request that householders sign
an attached protest to Premier
Pattullo. The leaflet so misrepre-
sents the issue that many house-
holders signed it believing they
were in this way voicing a pro-
test against monopoly control.

e

Foe downright distortion and

misrepresentation of facts
this leaflet is hard to beat. It is
an attempt on the part of those
jnterests opposed to the principle
ef government supervision of
marketing in order to guarantee
decent prices to primary produc-
ers, to capitalize on the anti-
fascist sentiments of the people
of Vancouver and to present su-
pervision of marketing as mono-
poly control; as a “fascist” meas-
ure.

Wothing could be further from
the truth. Not only is some meas-
ure of portection required for the
dairy farmer but in these days
of trustified control of practically
all basic commodities, some form
of intervention and supervision
is necessary in other fields as
well

The so-called independent
dairies cry to high heaven that
they are being robbed of the
right of free competition. So do
certain big financial interests. As
a matter of fact, free competition
in the economic life of our coun-
try was replaced by monopoly
control long ago. Qver 80 percent
of our national economy is now
controlled by corporations and
¢rusts which in turn control
prices.

Tt is not the principle of free
competition which is at stake in
this instance.

The issue is whether or not the
so-called independent dairies are
to be permitted to monopolize the
fluid milk market of Vancouver,
ruin over 2000 dairy farmers of the
Fraser Valley in the process and
force them on the already over-
burdened relief rolls. This is the
issue. And yet these people who
wish to monopolize the fluid milk
market of Vancouver in their
search for profits have the auda-
city to villify a Milk Marketing:
Board democratically elected by
2300 Fraser Walley farmers and
denounce it as a monopoly, as
“fascism.”

Ss
ET us consider for a moment
the basic issues involved which
Jed to the establishment of a Mar-

keting Board to supervise the pro-
duction and distribution of milk,
and the Milk Producers Clearing
House Gooperative Association
known as the Single Agency, de-
signed to regulate distribution on
the fluid milk market.

There are approxixmately 2300
registered milk producers in the
Fraser Valley. Of the total milk
produced only 40 percent can be
absorbed in the fluid market. The
other 60 percent must be disposed
of at a much lower price to be
manufactured into butter, cheese,
ice cream, canned milk and other
products.

The price paid for milk for man-
ufacturing purposes is so low it
is almost impossible for a dairy
farmer to earn a livelihood unless
@ certain proportion of his milk
is sold on the fluid market at the
higher rates. Obviously, if one
small group of producers obtained
a monopoly of the fluid market
the other dairy farmers would not
be able to earn a liveilhood sell-
ing their milk at the much lower
rates paid for manufacturing pur—
poses.

This is precisely what is hap-

pening. It is to protect the
dairy farmers from such a de-

velopment that the Single
Agency was established.
Se
HE so - called independent

dairies and producer-vendors
pose before the public as the
small men trying to eke out an
existence and infer the Fraser
Valley Milk Producers Associa-
tion is a monopoly trying to dom-
inate the fluid market Actually
the exact opposite is the case.
The Fraser Valley Milk Produc-
ers Association was formed as a4
cooperative to obtain an equit-
able division of milk sales to the
fluid market for all dairy far-
mers.

When it was formed in 1917
nearly 100 percent of the dairy
farmers belonged to it The Fra-
ser Valley cooperative distri-
buted part of its milk to the con-
sumers with its own wagons and
sold a certain amount to the in-
dependent dairies.

As time passed, however, cer-
tain independent dairies per-
suaded several of the bigger far-
mers to break away from the co-
operative and sell to them with
the lure of higher prices possible
through selling their entire out-
put on the fluid market.

This strikebreakinge action
served to defeat the very purpose
for which the cooperative was
formed. In 1930 an attempt was
again made to have the bulk of
the dairy farmers share in the
fluid market and reduce distri-
bution costs by merging the ex-
isting dairies and forming one
distributing company called the
Associated Dairies with the Fra-
ser Valley Cooperative owning
53 percent of the stock. A ten-
year agreement was entered into
with the 12 dairies which merged,

but later-four of them violated
the agreement by esevering their
connections with it. Again the
eutthroat competition for Van-
eouver’s fluid milk market was
resumed.

A constantly increasing share
of the fluid market was captured
by the independent dairies and
independent producer-vendors to
the detriment of the 2300 dairy
farmers who shipped through the
Cooperative, the majority of
them small farmers.

In 1935 another attempt was
made to obtain an equitable
share of the fluid milk market
for the farmers possessing Grade
A barns by the establishment of
a Government Milk Marketing
Board. The Board was then sus-
pended by an injunction from
operating. When the board again
attempted to function, the inde-
pendents refused to cooperate
and were taken to court. The
court gave a decision favorable
to the board; an appeal was made
before the Privy Council in July,
1938, and a decision was handed
down favorable to the principle
of marketing control.

e

N NOVEMBER 1938 the BC

Marketing Board held a pleb-
iscite among milk producers of
the Fraser Valley on the question
of establishing the Lower Main-
land Dairy Products Board.
Eighty-five percent of the dairy
farmers voted in favor. A second
plebiscite was then held on the
question of establishing a Single
Agency to control distribution of
milk on the fluid market. On
this occasion 83 percent of all
registered milk producers, or
1892, voted in favor and only 325
voted against.

The members of both the Board
and the Single Agency, with the
exception of the Board chairman,
Mr. Williams, who was appointed
by the government, were demo-
eratically elected by the dairy
farmers themselves, the indepen-
dent producers, including pro-
ducer-vendors, received a much
larger representation in propor-
tion to their members than the
farmers who ship through the
cooperative.

@

S Digeoe independent dairies have

now succeeded, by means of
a court injunction, in preventing
the single agency from even com-
mencing operations. A high
pressure propaganda campaign
which misrepresents the facts in
connection with the Single
Agency is being conducted to
make the consuming public be-
lieve that control of marketing
is fascism. Statements are made
to the effect that all milk will
be placed in a common pool. This
is entirely untrue. There is no
intention of pooling milk. The
independent dairies and producer

vendors would still handle all
their own milk.

The Single Agency is not in-
tended to handle any milk, but

merely to serve as a center for
control and tabulating purchases
and returns in its bookkeeping
system. It is true it would set
prices to both producer and con-
sumer and oblige all dairies to
file statements on purchases and
sales but this is not placing all
milk in a common pool.
e@
ONSIDER for a moment the
situation that exists in milk
marketing in Vancouver at pre-
sent. There are 48 licensed pro-
ducer-vendors distributing milk
in the city and 18 pasteurizing
plants. Tt is estimated 120,000

(Gontinued on Page 5)
See MONOPOLY

Canadian Youth’s Fourth Crusade

By MAURICE RUSH

Heigh ho! Heigh ho!

To the Congress we must £0,

To let the world know flaming
youth

Has pep, and push and go.

Heigh ho! Heigh hot!

Crusading youth strides forth.

EMEMBER the merry tune
of the dwarfs in Walt Dis-
ney’s famous “Snow White and
the Seven Dwarfs?” The above
parody was conceived by one of
the BC church youth delegates
as the train sped eastward last
May, taking its cargo to the Third
Youth Congress at Toronto. AS
the train rolled on through the
prairies the youth coach was
swelled by young people from
every important center of popu-

lation. By the time it reached
Toronto, more than 125 young
men and women were lustily

singing the song.
@
ES that was exactly one year
ago. The spirit captured by
that song gave expression to the
desire of young people to swing
into the crusade for youth rights
with a heigh ho.

Today youth from every Cor
ner of our vast Dominion are
again singing: “To the Congress
we must go.’ The Fourth Can-
adian Youth Congress, opening
in Winnipeg on June 30, is part
of this great crusade of young
Canadians for the right to live
more useful and better lives, free
from the twin pestilence of fas-
cism and war.

This year the Congress is being
purposely held in the West. More
western youth are wanted to take
an active part in the movement.
In addition, it is hoped that all

Ganadian young people will get
a better idea of the problem of
western youth and will rally sup-
port for their needs. Z
S
Ur the Congress is not only
going to concern itself with
this question. It must and will
also consider on its agenda
among many other things the
matter of jobs and vocational
training for youth. The duties
of youth citizenship and organi-
gation of leisure time will un-
doubtedly also be featured.

On the occasion of its Fourth
Congress, the movement will
have 2 great achievement to re-
cord—that is, the vote by our
Federal Government setting aside
$4,500,000 for youth rehabilita-
tion to cover a three-year per-
iod. This money is to be added to
by the provinces on the basis of
dollar for dollar.

British, Columbia’s portion will
help many young persons. The
youth of this westernmost proyv—
ince have shown that they make
the most of their opportunities.
Through their organization and
activities they have thus far been
successful in having the Provin-
cial Government make the great-
est use of the Federal Govern-
ment offer. Proof of this is seen
in the fact that the $155,000 re-
eeived in July-August, 1938, was
all used up by March 31—about
seven months. This shows that
the quotas are not large enough.
But then, that’s why young folk
are crusading.

NOTHER thing: the exten-
sion of the Provincial HRecre-
ational Movement in BC was
made possible because of this
victory of youth. And those who

want to see the movement srow
even further and be rounded out
to include many other leisure-
time activities should know that
fhe surest way is to take an ac-
tive part in such movements as
the Youth Congress. This is the
best answer to those in high
circles who would see the youth
rehabilitation grant reduced or
completely eliminated.

While the youth grant is a
big step forward, it by no means
solves the big problems young
people are facing. The Federal
Government must now be com-
pelled to extend its service by
supplying opportunity for jobs.
Youth meeds work more than
anything else.

t=)

RE is yet another ques—
tion that will be given consid-—
erable attention at the Congress.
The clouds of war hang threat-
eningly. The appeasement pol-
icy of Chamberlain has brought
the world to the precipice. Grow-
ing world public opinion is de-
manding the immediate conclu-
sion of an effective “Stop Hitler”
bloc. Youth is becoming disgust
ed with Chamberlain’s hedging
on an agreement with the Soviet
Union, which is so important to
stopping Hitler. The Congress
will undoubtedly consider Can-
ada’s role in this present situa-

tion.

Yes, BCG youth are preparing
to take part in this important
Congress. Again they shall have
the opportunity of discussing the
problems of all Ganada’s youth
im common with those from every
part of the Dominion. The youth
of this country are striding forth
to let the world know they have
pep, push and go. Watch their
smoke! u

SHORT JABS
_A
W eekly
Commentary

on,

By Ol’ Bill

Sir Basil Thomson was for a time head of Eng-
land’s praetorian body of man-catchers, the Scotland
Yard Criminal Investigation Department He was

A Great written of by the smart journal
D £ ‘é ists as ‘the Sphin= of Room 408.”
erective That room was the sweatbox

where their victims were third-
degreed by the great defectives whose fame at
running down criminals is surpassed only by that

of the Canadian yellow-legs who “always get their
man.”

Thomson was the son of an English clergyman,
the Archbishop of York. He started out in life as
one of the minor pro-consuls of Empire, operating
the skin-game on the Fiji Islanders as a ciyal serv—
ant, a category which was well described by a clever

Frenchman as “a system of out-relief for the younger oa

sons of the English aristocracy.”

Being gifted with a plentiful méasure of low
cunning he drifted into the job of governor of Dart
moor, the worst and most soul-destroying penal in-
stitution in England and from that to head of the
CID at New Scotland Yard. ;

He wrote a book, an autobiography, but died a
few weeks before it was published, about a month
ago. Naturally Sir Basil is the hero. The people
who passed through his fingers in Room 40B are
painted in such line and color as to leave no doubt
about the immorality and degeneracy in which they_
were conceived and nurtured and the base and
scoundrelly characters which they were possessed
of. Particularly so with those of them who were
accused of spying or treason during the World War

And a Great
Slander highly moral man-catcher, is Sir

Roger Casement. Casement was
an Irishman, activly playing a heroic part in the
struggle for Irish freedom. Like Jim Connolly and
many other brave Irishmen, he was a traitor in the
eyes of man-catcher Thomson. He was hanged in
London for treason, not treason to Ireland, but to
the Basil Thomsons and the British government
Even the half-measure of settlement of Ireland’s
claims, made by the British government since the
hanging of Gasement, should exonerate him of the
guilt of treason. But not in the eyes of the great
moralist detective, Thomson.

Qne of the victims of this
hiehly moral indictment by the

This autobiozsraphy of Thomson blackens the
character of Sir Roger Casement, even more than
if he had been guilty of treason. Thomson alleges
that half way through the trial, Casements diary
fell into the hands of Scotland-Yard. He says it
contained sidelights on Sir Roger’s private life too
unsavory for a decent reader’s consumption.

“TJ realized,’”’ writes Thomson, “that it could never
be printed in any language ... On his moral side,
Casement was definitely abnormal’ We further
tells us that the diary was burned.

Thomson is probably a liar in this case as we
know him to have been a liar in the statements he
made about the Bolsheviks and about English and
Scottish members of the Communist Party. There
probably never was any diary, certainly no diary
which would sustain the slanders inferred above.
That is likely the reason for the alibi that the
diary was burned. Scotland Yard does not destroy
such evidence, nor does the British Home Office.
It is noticeable, too, that the publication of these
slanders coincides with renewed energy on the part
of the Irish Republican forces.

What we do know to be true, however, about
which no diary has to be burned, and no lies have
to be invented by ruthless opponents, is that the
highly-moral man-catcher son of the Archbishop of
York, Sir Basil Thomson, writer of this autobi-
ography and slanderer of patriotic Irishmen, was
driven out of public life for sexual immorality. He
was arrested in Hyde Park, London, under such
public circumstances that it was impossible for his
anti-Bolshevik friends to cover up his misdeeds,

“On his moral side, Thomson was definitely ab-
normal.” He tried to fasten the characteristics of
his own filthy mind on to Casement and like every
other coward he waited until his victim could not
speak back.

Casement’s exposure of the atrocities practiced en
the exploited African natives by the rubber barons
is sufficient answer to these trumped-up charges.
Mamlock est box-office attractions today.

Wot only do they draw the sym-
pathetic crowds to view them but they draw the
fire of the reactionary groups who make fascist

demands a common rallying ground for attacking
democracy.

One of these films, “Professor Mamlock,” will
open for a week's showing at the Beacon, next Fri-
day, June 23. This picture has already made history
in Ganada. While it has been praised by liberal-
minded people of all shades of opinion, preachers,
professionals, literary people, workers—strenuous
efforts have been made by the German Wazi agents
in Canada to have it banned by the censors. Their
argument is that it is not a true picture of life in
Wazi Germany.

Anti-fascist films are the great-

When we read daily about the miserable fate of
the 900 Jewish people on that shuitle of death, the
German Nazi liner, St. Louis, many of them com-
mitting suicide in an effort to escape from the Nazi
terror; when we read that Jews who apply for gas
installations in Berlin, are charged the very high
premium of 30 reichsmarks before their gas stoves
are connected up to ensure that if they commit
suicide by the gas route, the premium will cover
the cost of the gas they use, we know that the treat-
ment handed out to the Jews as depicted in “Pro-
fessor Mamlock,” is true.

Professor Mamlock is different from the general
run of Soviet films. It is more lke the films as we
know them. The atmosphere is different, due, un=
doubtedly, to the influence of the author of the
seript, Friederich Wolff, author of “Sailors of Cat
tarro,” himself a victim of the Nazi savages.

Hollywood is beginning to turn out good films |
now—“Blockade,” “Confessions of a Nazi Spy” and
“Juarez,” for instance—but they still fall short of
Professor Mamlock.

This Is Jf all trade unions took T&Le
ee decisions to heart with the same
The Spirit spirit as the Relief Project |

Workers’ Union, strikes would
be easier won and seldom lost. This union decided
that the unfair list of the T&LC IS an unfair list
The boys in the camps are putting into practice /
the decisions made to refuse to purchase or handle =
the products of P. Burns and Leckie’s shoes. A Tre-q
port from Elk Falls informs us that 24 pairs of
Leckie’s shoes were returned from there because
¢he union members refused to buy them. This is 2
real sacrifice because the shoes they did buy cost
more than Leckie’s. That is the test of union spirit.

Don’t miss it! Y