Page Four

THE ADVOCATE

Meroh 8, 1940

Enquiry Reveals L

Increase
In Wages
Sought

‘Evident Man Can’t
Live Decenitly On
Pay,’ States Judge

SYDNEY, NS. — “I do not
want the impression to get out
that the board is not completely
in sympathy with the men,” ob-
served Justice McTague this
week as conciliation board ses-
sions into the claims of 10,000
United Mine Workers for in-
creased wages from Dominion
Coal company were concluded.
The board’s report is not ex-
pected for at least two weeks.

Justice McTague recalled that
he had said at an earlier hearing
that he thought it was “pretty
evident to me that the men earn-
ing a $3.71 daily rate and having
a family and working 212 shifts
($786) does not get a wage which
enables him to live fairly reason-
able and decently.”

Professor F. R. Scott, representa-
tive of the UMWA on the board,
jater noted that nearly 2,000 miners,
about half of whom were married,
had earned no more than $786 in
1939.

“mMhere is no question in my mind
that there is not only a moral but
a legal obligation to pay labor a
wage whereby 4 man can buy food,
clothes, and pay rent and educate
his children in a reasonable, com-
fortable way,” Justice McTague
said. There was also the question
of “the ability of the industry to
pay that wage and keep operating
so that the wage-earner can get a
return,” he said.

Arthur Cross, president of Do-
minion Goal company, admitted
when questioned by Prof. Scott
that some inerease in the cost of
living should be expected *Gnsofar
as wartime expenditures have to be
met.”

‘Moes it not follow that a re-
newal of the contract at the original
rates will lower the standard of
living?” Scott asked.

SUGGESTION HIT.

“T suppose that would be the case,
but what a standard of living is I
couldn’t establish myself,” Cross re-
plied. “I think that we have all got
to tighten our belts a little to pay
for this war. If anyone wants to
spend at the same rate as before
the war, they have got to get more
money from somewhere or not
spend,” Cross added.

This demand fer ‘more sacri-
fices’ by the workers was rapped
by P. G. Muise, union vice-presi-
dent, who asserted that even be-
fore the war the lowest-paid min-
er was not able to live in reason-
able comfort working six days
weekly all year round. “It is un-
reasonable to suggest tightening
a belt which is already too short,”
Muise said.

Hi. J. Kelly, general manager, told
the board that UMWA Internation-
al President John L. Lewis had ex-
pressed ‘amazement’ when he told
him that Nova Scotian miners
worked five days weekly in the
summer and four in the winter.
Silby Barrett, UMWA board mem-~-
ber and chairman of the Canadian
GIO, retorted that conditions in the
US were absolutely different
“Hyen if a miner gets only one
day’s work a week there he is as-
sured other work on public works
projects,” Barrett said.

MINERS TELL STORY.

Henry Williamson of New Wa-
terford, one of the miners who gave
evidence, told the board why he
was unable to earn enough to keep
his family in reasonable comfort
He earned $3.85 when he worked.
He had to give up fire and life in-
surance and owed taxes on the
$700 home which he built 12 years
ago and for which he was still pay-
ing. Douglas MacDonald, district
board member, asked Ralph Bell,
company board representative, if
he could keep a family on William-
son’s wage even if he were working
steadily.

“Not as I’d want to provide for
my family if I were in his place,
that’s perfectly true,” Bell said.

D. W. Morrison, president of Dis-
trict 26, said if Williamson worked
every day in the year he would be
a long way from “what we con-
sidered a reasonable amount to
keep his family in half-decent cir-
cumstances.”

A. E. Fraser, official of New
Waterford Co-operative Society,
said living costs in the town had
increased 18 percent, and prices
would likely continue on the up-
grade, he said.

Nova Scotian mining communi-
ties do not maintain the municipal
services enjoyed by other centers
of the province, Springhill local of
the UMWA informed the board.
Workers in the town were unable
to provide themselves with those
services necessary to a decent stan-
Gard of life because of poor living
conditions.

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SESS

ow Living Standards 0

i < Sk RN Nae
HERE MOHANDAS K.
Acharya Kripiani (left)

paign against British rule.

India Fights For Independence

GAND

Indian Congress working commit

HI is seen dictating a resolution to General Secretary
and President Rajendra Prasad during a recent session of the
tee, which last weekend ordered a civil disobedience cam-

Throughout Canada

Hundred Publications
Banned In Canada

TORONTO, Ont.—The Canadian Labor Defense League has
received from Ottawa a list of publications banned in Canada

since the war began. Included
publications, partial list of which follows:

Deputies
Face Trial

By PHILIe BOLSOVER

LONDON, Eng, — Europe's most
important political trial since
George Dimitrov defied the Nazis
at Leipsig some six years 260 was
expected to open jn Paris some
time this week with charges
against 44 Communist members of
the Chamber of Deputies. The ac-
cusation against the deputies is
‘propagating ideas emanating from
or concerning the Communist In-
ternatonal.” But the real issue at
the trial is the same 45 that of
the Leipsig trial—it is a fight be-
tween the champions and the op-
pressors of the people.

The trial is being conducted &
few days after 2 slight relaxation
in the censorship and a boast by
Premier Edouard Daladier that po-
litical opinion is NOW free. Nine
deputies are to be tried in their
absence and are liable to death
sentences. The others are liable
to five years’ imprisonment. Three
have now been bailed out, but the
others are held like criminals in
Sante prison. For the first time
in generations, political prisoners
are held in this way and not allow-
ea to read books, write letters,
study or to see visitors.

The deputies are
public trial and it is likely that
this will be granted, but it is feared
that the court will be small, allow-
ing only police and government
supporters to find reom,

Undismayed by recent events,
the Communist party of France
has just sent a message to its gen-
eral secretary, Maurice Thorez,
who is still leading the Commun-
ists of France.

“We remain at our posts,” the
message said. “As true sons of
France we continue the strug-
gle. More determined than ever
to carry on to the end, we send
warm greetings to our secre-
tary and express confidence in
the final victory of the French
people. Under the guidance of
the party, we stand side by side
with the workers of France.”

The message shows that the
struggle for the victory of the peo-
ple of France is still actively in
progress.

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insisting on;

are many labor and religious

Clarion, Toronto; Clarte, Mont-
real; Labor Monthly, London, Eng.;
Soviet Russia Today, New York;
Wew Masses, New York; War, New
York; Communist, New York; Pa-
cifist Program in Time of War,
Philadelphia, Pa.; La Libertaire,
Paris, France; Not America’s War,
Boston, Mass.; Behind the War
Headlines, New York; Meaning of
the Soviet-German Non-Aggression
Pact, Moscow, USSR; Christian
Pacifist Faith, New York; Pacifist
Handbook, New York; Technocracy
Indicts, New York; Socialist Ap-
peal, New York.

Metis Protest
War Blackout

EDMONTON, Alta. — At one of
the largest gtaherings of its kind
ever held representatives of some
7000 Metis in Alberta convened at
Edmonton recently.

Declared one spokesman: “We
have resisted and will resist all at-
tempts to create divisions among
us. We regard solidarity the strong-
est weapon we have to hold the
democratic rights for which our
forefathers fought. And when we
think of solidarity it is in terms of
a bond of common interest with the
people of Canada as a whole.”

Taking a firm stand against the
blackout of freedom under Cana-
da’s wartime laws, the conference
endorsed a resolution declaring of
the War Measures Act that “a law
must be regarded as subversive of
democracy and therefore futile that
does not commend the sanction of
public opinion.”

A telegram sent to Prime Minis-
ter W. L. Mackenzie King urged
the advisability of a declaration of
the government's intention to mod-
ify the regulations “to subordinate
them to the unmistakable will of
the Canadian people.”

The meeting was held to form
a Metis association in the province.
Twelve councillors were elected.

Trail Miners
Aid Defense

TORONTO, Ont—Campaign for
the defense of Canadian CLO Sec-
retary C. H. Millard, charged un-
der the Defense of Canada regula-
tions, received support this week
from the Trail, BC, local of Mine,
Mill and Smelter Workers union,
which sent a cheque for $15 to the
Union Defense committee’s fund
here.

Cabaret Closing Bylaw
Affects Catering Workers

Displacement of between 50 and 60 catering employees by
the Saturday midnight closing bylaw for cabarets is a question
which a delegation from Vancouver Trades and Labor council
will seek to have rectified when they propose that the 2 a.m.
closing hour be recognized as against the midnight deadline.

Delegate William Gateman, Ho-
tel and Restaurant Employees’
union, in raising the question
which he said affected not only
members of his union but the musi-
cians too, and if the present law
continued, the cabarets would
close altogther.

“After all, we can’t make a liv-
ing by praying on Sundays,” re-
marked Gateman amid a ripple of
laughter,

Other delegates stated they were

x

in favor of any move that would
give employment to its members
and agreed that since this is a
seaport town, “people could not
be made good by forcing them to
attend church on Sundays.”

Delegate Alex Fordyce, Brick-
layers and Masons, while absoly-
ing himself of any association with
the ‘Holy Rollers,’ said the cabaret
owners had brought the early
closing on themselves by not obey-
ing 2 am. closing time,

f NS Miners

the issue is not only the penny

“We are better off outside the
A F of L than we would be if we
submitted to the dictates of the
executive council,” said Brown.

“It is not altogether a question
of the assessment. It is also a
question of autonomous rights.”

Brown’s local of 10,000 and a to-
tal of about 20,000 in locals of the
International Typographical union
in New York state, were ordered
expelled in a letter by William
Green to all central and state bod-

Autonomous Rights Is
Issue, Says Typos Head

NEW YORK, NY.—Commenting upon the recent expulsion
of his union from the State Federation of Labor and New York
Central Trades and Labor Council, Elmer Brown, president of
the Typographical union’s “Big Six’ local declared here that

anti-CIO war tax but also one

of ‘autonomous rights’ for AFI affiliates.

ies of the A F of L. The order
came as a result of recent A F of
i convention action at Cincinnati
when the ITU persisted in its re-
fusal to contribute to the anti-CLlO
war chest.

SEATTLE, Wash.—tLocal 202 of
International Typographical union
Was suspended last week from the
Seattle Central Labor council by
the council’s executive board.

Advocate

ance of their support. Make it
advertisers wherever possible!

ADVERTISING RATES

These merchants and professional men offer you their services
at competitive prices. By advertismg in these columns they.
support your paper. By patronizing them you ensure continu-

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PERSONAL

Says Too Much
Freedom Bad
For Colonies

OXFORD, Eng.—Indicat-
ing the kind of ‘democracy’
for which Britain is fighting,
Colonial Secretary Malcolm
MacDonald told university
graduates here last week
that there is such a thing as
too much freedom where
Britain’s colonial subjects
are concerned,

In the course of his talk,
the colonial secretary re-
galed his audience with a
chauvinist tale of some can-
nibal tribes in Africa as il-
lustrating the ‘advantages’ of
Britain’s denial of demo-
cratic rights to the peoples
of the colonies. He was silent
on the generally known fact
that only a few tribes have
ever practiced cannibalism.

Vigilantes
Exposed

ABERDEEN, YW ash. “There
should be an interstate vigilante
group formed with a closely knit-
ted body that could act as a man
from the Ganadian border to the
Mexican line .- . The time has
come for action ... What are we
waiting for?”

Exactly 17 days after the above
eall-to-arms sounded in the Pacific
Coast Lumber Digest, official house
organ of the lumber barons, vigi-
lantes stormed the Finnish Work-
ers hall here.

A few weeks later Laura Law,
wife of a CIO official, was assassi-
nated a few blocks nearby while
her husband was absent attending
a union meeting and her small son
slept in an adjoining room.

This was the trail blazed by anti-
labor forces in the lumber region,
it was disclosed by the Grays Har-
bor Givil Rights committee here in
releasing a sensational hitherto un-
published documentary evidence of
the savage drive on civil rights.

Compiled in digest form, the data
was sent last week to Harold L.
Ickes, secretary of the interior and
a member of the American Civil
Liberties union. The information
was condensed from the exhaustive
report turned over to Attorney
General Robert H. Jackson by a
delegation who carried their fight
for civil rights to the national cap-
ital.

Organizations named as fomen-
tors of the savage strife include
. the Ku Klux Blan, Silver Shirts,

Harbor Industrial Council, Com-

mittee for Industrial Stabiliza-

tion, Grays Harbor Citizens Com-
mittee, Order of Better Ameri-
cans and Better Business Build-

ers.

Exhibits include photostat copies
of “warnings” thrust upon the
doorstep of trade unions; records
of telephoned messages warning
Laura Law “tell your husband to
stay out of town and take his fam-
ily with him”; threats of violence
against small merchants who ca-
tered to trade from unionists.

Would End Truce

LONDON. — A resolution from
the executive committee of Brad-
ford Labor party calling for an end
to the political truce so that the
electorate might have the oppor-

tunity to express its opinion on the |j

goyernment's policy on wages, pen-
sions and allowances, Was carried
by a big majority when the party
held its annual general meeting 1n

Bradford recently.
ere Se

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CAFES

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CHIROPRACTORS

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WM. BRAIDWOOD, D.C., NERVE
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SEymour 2677. Evenings, High-
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CHINESE HERBS RELIEVE ALT
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Plate Specialist. Lowest Prices.
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RICE BLOCK, 800 Hast Hastings.
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SAWDUST BURNERS

GENUINE “LEADER” BURNERS,
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STATIONERY

IF YOU NEED STATIONERY
for school, home or office use,
get it at the New Age Bookshop.
Anything in the line of stationery
at moderate prices. Call at Room
14, 163 West Hastings: Street.

TYPEWRITERS AND SUPPLIES

GEO. DONOVAN — Typewriters,
Adding Machines Cash Registers.
SEymour 9393, 508 W. Pender St.

TAILORS

M. DONG, TATUORS, formerly
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304 Dunlevy Avenue
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