Page Six

THE ADVOCATE

THE ADVOCATE

Published Weekly by the Advocate Publishing Association, Room 20
163 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, B.C. Phone TRinity 2019

EDITOR - HAL GRIFFIN

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Vancouver, B.C., Friday, February 2, 1940

Election Issues

ye CAPITALIST newspapers tell us that we are to have a
‘fiercely fought election,’ one of the fiercest on record, that
“great issues will be fought out on the hustings” and hard words
will be uttered on both sides, that the people have to decide
whether Premier King ‘flouted parliament’ in suddenly moving
to dissolve it, that the greatest decision to be made by the
election is whether King or Manion is the most suited to form
a government that will “efficiently prosecute the war.”

But in order that this sham battle and these false issues
should have some similitude to reality, great care is to be taken
that the hustings are cleared before the real war opens on the
European battlefields.

The traditional historie differences between the Liberal and
Conservative policies in this country have been growing less
at every election. Since the end of the last imperialist war we
have been witnessing a complex process of both the desertion
of these parties by large masses and of realignment and dif-
ferentiation among those still adhering to them. If King and
Manion were to engage in their verbal jousts at the moment
when thousands of young Canadians were sacrificing their
lives on foreign soil for aims that dare not be defined since the
Canadian people would repudiate them, then even the most
naive citizen would realize that between King and Manion
at the present time there is about as much difference as between
Hitler and Goering.

Both King and Manion stand for a policy of guns, not butter,
and all that is implied by such a policy. There is some dis-
agreement about who should award the contracts for the guns
and accessories, whose mentors and followers shall receive
these contracts and distribute the profits, ‘legitimate’ and
otherwise, connected with them. There is complete agreement
that the Canadian people are to pay for them by heavy taxes
on all the primary essentials for life and livelihood. There is
equally complete agreement between them that the govern-
ment Should have the power to destroy all democratic and civil
rights which might be used by the people to publicly express
a preference for butter, not guns; for jobs, not jobbery.

The shells that will be fired on the hustings by these really
amicable adversaries are, therefore, however loud the detona-
tions, really only full of gas whose main purpose is to blind
the spectators and prevent them from observing what has taken
place and is happening behind the smoke-screen.

lees fact is no party in Canada ever had a mandate from
the people to make Canada a belligerent in another im-
perialist war. The fact is that, realizing the deep sentiment of
the Canadian people on this subject as recently as 1938, Prime
Minister King declared in parliament:

“The idea that every twenty years this country, which has
done all it can to run itself, should feel called upon to save
a continent that cannot run itself seems a nightmare and sheer
madness.”

The fact is that Premier King and his government placed
Canada in a state of war, clamped censorship and military reg-
ulations on free discussion and debate before calling parlia-
ment into session in order to present it with a fait accompli
to change which would have required a declaration of peace
and neutrality and withdrawal of Canada from a war into
which the government had already placed her.

The fact is the King government at this first war session
of parliament again deceived the people by a statement in-
tended to lead them to believe that Canadian participation
would be limited to the defense of Canadian territory, that
there would be no expeditionary force overseas and that any
proposals for further participation would be submitted to the
people before the government took action. Yet the Canadian
expeditionary force has been sent to Europe and constant aug-
mentations of the numbers sent are being announced not only
without any submission to the people of Canada but even
without submission of any kind to parliament.

The fact is that the statements made by King and tacitly
accepted by Manion that there will be no conscription in
Canada are as counterfeit as these other declarations designed
to deceive the people ,as worthless as the equally emphatic
pledges made and cynically broken by Chamberlain in Britain.

The fact is that the newspapers most indicative of the
views of big business and high finance are already speaking of
the inevitability of a ‘union’ or ‘national’ government after
the present election whatever the outcome, but whereas the
Montreal Gazette suggests a ‘union’ government headed by
Premier King, the Toronto Globe and Mail favors such a gov-
ernment under other leadership.

The fact is therefore that the issue between King and
Manion in this election is a matter of complete indifference
to the Canadian people, the only real and significant issue,
the issue on which they have been prevented from voting
hitherto and the issue which the barrage of spurious King-
Manion-Hepburn-Drew fireworks is designed to hide and ob-
secure is the question whether the Canadian people favor or
oppose the continuation of a war in which they have nothing
to gain and life and liberty to lose.

iG IS a shameful fact that the official stand of the leading
committees and spokesmen of. the Social Credit, New
Democracy and CCF movements should be one of support to
the war, that they failed to demand an immediate election at the
first war session of parliament and merely complain about the
abrupt method of closure of the more recent session. For
thereby in most constituencies there is a danger that the peo-
ple will be confronted with only a choice of pro-war candi-
dates.

It is particularly shameful that the CCF national council,
which always quoted the Regina platform of the party as the
great ideal program which prevented and prohibited any united
front with other political groupings, completely abandoned
plank 10 in that platform, which reads: “We stand resolutely
against all participation in imperialist wars,” in order to enter
the same voting lobby as King and Manion in support of the
war.

This betrayal—ftor enough time has elapsed to make clear
that it is no momentary confusion and isolated mistake on the
part of the CCF leadership that was responsible—makes it
more than ever essential that anti-war candidates enter the
field in every possible constituency and raise the banner of the
people’s struggle against imperialist war for all to see and
follow. We are confident that many members and followers
of the CCF will weleome and aid such candidates.

EABOR ISX TRE LAST WAR

ee trade union movement has a historic role to play in the solution of the great national problems which now face the coun- ~
try. Upon its course and development much will depend. Will it learn the lessons of the last war? Will it assume its role’

By J. B. SALSBERG

4

as the most decisive, representative force to lead the rest of the population? Is its leadership equal to the great task? Has it the”
potential strength to overcome all difficulties and emerge as the great champion and defender of the rights and needs of the

working people, the majority of our population? These questions deserve a careful examination. For such an examination will 3}
best teach how the weaknesses may be eliminated and how the trade union movement may, as I am confident it will, emerge in |
the forefront of the struggle for peace and for a new conception of economic and political democracy. P

The imperialist war of 1914-18
was a period of tremendous
growth and expansion of Cana-
dian capitalism. War profiteer-
ing reached scandalous propor-
tions. Price control boards were
not created till 1917. War orders
enabled the industrial and finan-
cial groups to rapidly expand
their factories, to build new ones
and to move forward from an ob-
scure industrial position in world
economy to the forefront of high-
ly modernized competitive indus-
trial powers,

The government saved the
bankrupt railroads, which were
over-Capitalized and financially
plundered, by taking them over
and guaranteeing the bondhold-
ers every dollar on their original
investment, Finance capital form-
ed powerful combines, trusts and
monopolies. The stage was rap-
idly set for the creation of 100
powerful corporations which now
dominate Canada’s industrial life
and for the emergence of ‘50 big
shots’ who, through the inter-
change of directorship, control
these 100 corporations and the
whole economy of the country.

That was truly the golden age
of Canadian capitalism. Excess
profit taxes were not introduced
until public indignation forced it
on the government in 1916. Even
then it was in a very mild form.
Wo less than 60 new millionaires
were created during that war
period. Our ‘native’ capitalists
gained controlling power of Can-
adian economy and with their
excess profits became large ex-
porters of capital. Canadian im-
perialism made its bid for a place
in the international arena of im-
Perialist exploitation. Its millions
went to Cuba, Mexico, Brazil,
Spain and other centres of ex
pleitation. e@

UT there was another side to

the picture of Canada in the
years 1914-18 The side which
portrayed the lives of millions of
toilers, in contrast to the few
hundred, or ,at best of the few
thousand who reaped fortune
during those years .

This side of the picture is dark
and gloomy. Thousands of win-

dows darkened by extinction of
the flame of-life on the altar of
Mars. The bony hand of priva-
tion and want is its central
theme. A shocking contrast, in-
deed. The two pictures portray
two different worlds.

The outbreak of the last war
found Ganadian workers engaged
in a desperate battle to defend
their rapidly declining standard
of living. The deep economic
erisis which preceded the war
was utilized by the employers
to enforce drastic wage cuts and
to destroy the trade unions, Un-
employment was rampant. Sir
Wilfrid Laurier claimed that
there were at least 100,000 unem-
ployed men in the country. The
government refused to assume
responsibility for the unemployed
and their families. Private char-
ity was the lot of these one hun-
dred thousand and their depend-
ents — close to half a million
souls. Most of the strikes in 1913
and 1914 were against wage cuts
and most of them were lost. The
workers were starved into sub-
mission,

The early period following the
declaration of war aggravated the
bad situation. Plants shut down
completely. Industry and com-
merce were dislocated. Wages
fell further, while food prices be-
gan to advance immediately. The
life savings of thousands, invest-
ed in homes, were wiped out over
night.

‘Public spirited men’ called con-
ferences to decide what to do
with the unemployed. The stan-
dard of living of the Canadian
workers had sunk to a low level.
But if you should think that the
economic pick-up, which the war
ushered in, recompensed the
working men and their families,
you are in for a severe shock.
Here are some illuminating facts
and figures.

With 1913 as the index, the La-
bor Gazette, of the federal de-
partment of labor, in its issue for
Jan, 1924, gives the following
figures of wages, the cost of liy-
ing and real wages (the pur-
chasing yalue of wages) for the
period from 1913 to 1920 (Sec. 1):

Cost of Living, Wage Rate, Real
Wages in Canada, 1913-1920

Cost of living

December,
December,
December,
December,
December,
December,
December,

Wage Rate Real Wages
100.0 100.0
101.4 100.
101.4 98.0
105.7 89.0
117.5 92.
138.9 87.
160.4 90.
192.1 100-

* “Lest someone should think the Department of Labor figures not suf

ficiently representative since they are based on comparisons of one
given month each year, the month of December, it may be interesting
to state that the Canada Year Book (another government publication)
for 1938, which bases its figures on the average for a whole year, gives
an even higher figure for the cost of living during the war years. The
Canada Year Book figures are 103, 107, 124, 143 and 162 for the years
1914-5-6-7 and 1918 respectively. While the Labor Department figures,
based on the one month, is actually lower in each year but one, We may,
therefore, conclude that if we were to base our calculation on the yearly
average the “real wage’ column would undoubtedly show a greater
decline.”

1HESE figures show: Firstly,
that the cost of living rose be-
fore wage increases were secured.

ing the war years were given to
them voluntarily by the finan-
ciers, the following facts will de

Secondly, that as a result of un-
bridled war-profiteering, real
wages (the amount of goods a
worker could buy with his pay)
continued to drop throughout the
war, despite wage increases.
Thirdly, that at the end of the
war, in 1918, Canadian wage earn-
ers were actually worse off than
at any time since 1914. The real
wages were 13 percent lower in
1918 than in 1914. This was the
period when scores of new mil-
lionaires were made and when
work was aplenty.

Should you think that those
measly wage increases which the
Canadian workers did gain dur-

Trade Union Membership in Canada

stroy that innocent illusion.

They show that nothing was
given voluntarily. That the
profiteering industrialists did
not offer wage increases to the
workers despite the deteriorat-
ing standard of living, but that
the workers had to fight for
every additional cent they got.
They had to organize and to
strike for it.

e

ANADIAN trade union mem-

bership and the record of
strikes for those years reflects
this development quite clearly.
Sec. 2 and 3).

Year Membership Year Membership
1918 eS RS 175,799 TLE) G5 SSG assis ss 204,630
Be eee geet 166,163 1 O18 ee eae eae ae 248,887
gS aaa, 0 7 143,343 gE Le) stig eae ee 378,047
AOIG 5. fot es 160,407

Strikes and Loekouts in Canada.
1913-1919

Workers Time Loss Workers ‘Time Loss

Strikes Involved (Work days) Strikes Involved (Work days)

LOTS cia e 89586) 1,287,678 ER a a 43,329... 1,134,970

1904 ea 8,6738..... 430,054. AQIS ee 68,489....., 763,341

LOTS eee 9140 Be 106,149 I919= 138,988. ..... 3,942,189
S91G ses: Voi ket BSS fs ery 208,277

What do these last two tables
indicate?

First, that though trade union
membership declined in 1914-45,
after the 1913 strike wave against
wage-cuts, it began to grow again
with improved employment and,
above everything else, under the

living, did not soften the hearts
of the masters.

While union membership grew
in 1916, real wages dropped that
yea rand it was necessary to have
the powerful strikes of 1917 (at
the height of the war) to improve
conditions somewhat. Union
membership again grew in 1918

presure of declining purchasing but real wages again slumped
power. back It reached, in fact, the
Second, tat increased union lowest level of the whole period.

Only the unprecedented wave
of strikes of 1919, highest in Gan-
adian labor history to date, pes-

membership and ‘collective bar-
Gaining’, to gain wage increases
and to offset the rising cost of

ged wages to the cost of living.
This was achieved in 1920 and
then only on the low basis of 1914
standards.

On July 11, 1918, a ‘Declaration
of a War Labor Policy by the Do-
minion Government’ was official-
ly published. it contained this
admission: “This unrest (refer-
Ting to the mounting number of
Strikes) has many causes among
which are the shortage of labor,
rapid advance in the cost of
many of the necessaries of life,
employers denying their work-
men the right to organize or to
meet them in joint conferences
to discuss requests for improved
conditions or to negotiate adjust
ment of differences.” This eley-
enth hour ‘war labor’ policy ad-
mits and bears out fully the point
I am trying to make. Its inef-
fectiveness is borne out by the
unimproved conditions that year
and the enormous strikes of 1919,

Tacs we see that in the last war
‘for democracy,’ the Canadian
ruling class became fabulously
wealthy. That despite the short-
age of labor, real wages were
eonstantly lowered. That {this
caused a worsening of the living
conditions of the masses. That
whatever was gained by the
working people can be measured
most accurately only by the yard-
Stick of trade union organization
and the degree of struggle of
those years. That while we added
Scores of new millionaires the
millions of workers and their
families finished the war by be-
ing at least 13% worse off than
they were when it started.

MUNCHAUSEN PRESS |

*

Which further proves that both”
in organization and in policy
(leadership) the Canadian labor.
movement fell far short of the
historic needs of that period.

Else labor’s share in that tragic |
era of blood and gold would have |
been much less of the first and ~

much more ff the second.

On one-sixth of the globe the

workers and farmers joined

hands to end the war and fo free
themselves forever from exploit-|
ation and misery. They set up |
and farmers! ©

the first workers’
governments and proceeded tg
build a free, socialist society.

In our own country the end of ;

the war meant mass lay-offs, a
demobilized army without pros-
pect of work and a more power-
ful ruling class out to destroy the
labor movement.

Canadian labor lacked its own ©
Militant political party to guide 4 [
and lead it in that critical period. *\)
The trade union leadership was, "
in the

in the main,
whole labyrinth of government
‘war agencies.’
militant upsurge of the workers

enmeshed

and the reactionary Meighen goy- —

ernment succeeded in smashing
the historic post-war strikes and

in clearing the decks for a new f

era of ‘rationalization,’ speed-up)
and unprecedented exploitation,
The rich were richer and the poor
less secure.

We shall be much wiser and
certainly much happier if we will
understand all that the last
war has taught us.

(A second article will appear in
the next issue).

(Continued )

army, Kolchak himself being
bayonetted by his Czechoslovak
legions.

“The small British force in Si-
beria” referred to in Churchill's
first speech was the Canadian ex-
pedition at Vladivostok. And of
the British troops in the Cauca-
Sus who “were simply remaining
there until the conference de
cided what would be the future
of that country,’ we should note
that these were the troops under
Teague-Jones, chief of the Brit
ish military mission at Askha-
bad, whose ‘simply remaining’
meant the murder of 36 Baku
commissars.

e

T THE same time as they were
thrashing Kolchak, the Soviet
workers were defending Red Pet-
rograd from a mongrel army led
by Yudenich, a drunken White
Guard general, and Baron Man-
nerheim, whom the people had
named the butcher.
Qn May 3, Vancouver Province
headlines read:

PETROGRAD TAKEN BY
FINN TROOPS
Bolsheviks Reported Withdraw-
ing To Moscow

Like today’s war news from
Helsinki, it was false, for on May

16 another headline said:
FINNS EXPECT TO CAPTURE
PETROGRAD

Two weeks later the headline
read:

REPORTED FALL OF
PETROGRAD

LONDON, June 3—An Ex-
change Telegraph dispatch
from Copenhagen quoted the
Tidende Tegn as stating that
Petrograd had been captured
by Esthonian and Finnish
‘forces The British war of-
fice, however, thinks the news
‘premature.’

Of course it did. It knew of
the forces released from the Ural
front with the defeat of Kolchak
that could be brought to the aid
of Petrograd. That was 1919. It

was premature then. This is
1940. It is still premature, 21
years premature.

Hoover and his spies and stool-
pigeons were there too, like the
vultures round the Towers of Si-
lence in India, waiting to pick
the bones of the dead.

On May 28, a headline read:

ALLIES ARE TO AID
PETROGRAD!

HOOVER HOPES TO TAKE
IN SUPPLIES 36 HOURS
AFTER THE CITY
FALLS!

Hoover was to help Petrograd
people as he helped the Hungar-
ian people and is now ‘helping’

the Finnish people.
e

OT ONLY is capitalist news
in the press cooked against
every interest of the ‘workers,
but official documents also are
distorted. Of the White, Blue,
Orange, Yellow, CGhocolate-coated
and Black-and-Tan publications
of the various governments, an
editorial in an American Liberal
magazine recently said:
‘ “It ean be stated with histor-

land;

ical accuracy that not one of °
those published by the govern-

ments during the last war sur-
vived the criticism of scholars.”
All of them turned out to be fal=

ified in one way or other ,by eli- -

sions, interpolations
right forgery.

When we remember the forged
letters used against the great i
ish leader, Parnell, by the British
Tory government and the London
Times; the gross and crude for-
gery known as the Zinoviey let-
ter, used by the same Tories and
the pro-fascist Daily Mail to

or down-

first Labor government in Eng-
the distorted Ems tele-
gram
launch the Franco-Prussian war
in 1870; ard best of all, Scotland
Yard helping forgers to produce
fake copies of Pravda to be used
against the Soviet Union, we can
believe anything about these mul-
ti-colored books so dear to the
hearts of the bureaucrats.

W 1919 Kolchak did not succeed:

Petrograd did not fall; Church

ill’s allies did not see their pol-
icies Work out as they desired
But the war against the Soviet
Union did not come to an end.

Marx, writing of the 1848 per |

iod, said, “The people of the re
action are not talkers.” ‘The Rus-
Sian policy’ which was ‘an Allied
policy,’ is still an allied policy.
They have not relinquished their
dreams. The twenty years be
tween 1919 and 1939 were not idle
years for them. That intervening
time was not a time of peace, but
of rest and preparation. It was
like the interval in a play. Al-
ready the sounds we hear are like
tthe discordant scrapings we hear
when the musicians in the or-
echestra pit are tuning up their
instruments for the overture to
the next act, 3

The Soviet Union attempted tc
make the League of Nations in-
to an instrument of collective se-
curity.

In 1926 it proposed a program
of total disarmament for all na
tions. Lord Cushenden, the Bri-
tish representative said it was
‘an insult.’

In 1982 the League was killec
to legalize the rape of China by
Japan. The Japanese represent
ative thanked Sir John Simon fo:
doing more for Japan in thirty
minutes than he had been abli
to do in three days.

In 1939 it was needed again—
to declare war on the Soviet Ux
ion—so it was resurrected anx

has declared undeclared war 02),

the only peace-lovine nation iz,
Europe. =

With the failure of the Sovie
Union to shape the League int:

an instrument of peace, it agail>

becomes what Lenin called it i+
its early years, ‘a thieves’ kil
chen.’

ned. ;
It is up to the working class oc
the world to see that these plan)

do not succeed any better thalft

they did in 1919 and that the
meet with the just and due faif

they so richly deserve. i

te

They feared the |

bring about the defeat of the

used by Bismarck to’ :

And the ‘next job’ is being plar’

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