Page Six

THE ADVOCATE

March 20, 194

THE ADVOCATE

Published Weekly by the Advocate Publishing Association, Room 20

163 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, B.C. Phone TRinity 2019
EDITOR - HAL GRIFFIN

One Year $2.00 Three Months __________$ .60

Half Year $1.00 Single Gopy) = = $05

Make All Cheques Payable to: The People’s Advocate

Vancouver, B.C., Wednesday, March 20, 1940

No Conscription

| ae people of Canada do not trust the promises they have
been given by candidates of Liberal, Conservative and

CCF parties alike that they will oppose the application of con-

scription for enlistment for service on foreign battlefields.

There is indeed every justification for the popular wide-
spread suspicion that one of the main motives for the hurried
manner in which this election was called was to get a govern-
ment with a long mandate installed quickly so that steps to-
wards possible conscription could be taken without fear that
the necessity of an election might delay the speed with which
plans already prepared for conscription could be applied when
desired. Then the present unanimity of opposition to conscrip-
tion would quickly change to an almost complete unanimity
of acceptance by politicians with an election safely behind

them.

The plea would be that unexpected necessities had arisen.
Perhaps another name would be devised—registration, the
dratt or universal service. But for the people whichever way
you sliced it, it would still be the same.

We now imow that the regulations under the War Meas-
ures Act which the King cabinet proclaimed by order-in-
council as soon as war broke out, instituting processes of de-
tention without trial and muzzling of free speech and press,
were drawn up by a committee secretly appointed by the gov-
ernment eighteen months before war began. Who, then, can
doubt that plans for conscription are already completed to the
last detail ready for application whenever the government
presses a button? Particularly when the King government has
retained on the statute book (and refused to repeal) the law
wnuder which conscription was enforced in the last war.

Can the CCF members of parliament be relied upon to
lead the people’s fight against conscription? The sorry man-
mer in which they have abandoned any serious opposition to
an expeditionary force in EFurope proves otherwise. And only
last week, T. Johnston, €CE member in the Saskatchewan
legislature, proposed in the House that the government con-
duct an immediate registration of all men under 40 years
of age.

The most effective blow against conscription that the people
can strike in this election is to vote for Fergus McKean as
the only anti-war candidate in East Vancouver—and to give
no support to any pro-war candidate in any riding.

Conscription against the will of the people can be prevented
in the final analysis by the action of the people.

Why Pioneer Was Lost

gy tree a prolonged five months struggle the strike of, the
Pioneer miners has been defeated by British Columbia’s
powerful mining magnates with the full support of the pro-
vincial government. ;

The anti-labor forces will now chant, “Strikes don’t pay;
defeat was inevitable,” in the hope that BC labor will be dis-
couraged from further attempts to organize and bargain col-
lectively for an equitable share of the wealth it produces.

But defeat was not inevitable. Why then was the strike
defeated? Defeat of the strike may be attributed to the legs-
alistic illusion fostered among the miners, right from the
outset, by the intervention of CCF politicians. The hope was
advanced that the Labor Arbitration and Conciliation Act

_ could be used to advantage in the courts, that CCF influence
with the department of labor would eventually force a settle-
ment. In short, that policy of class collaboration rather than
a policy of class struggle would achieve results. It was these
illusions which finally caused the miners, after they had en-
trenched themselves in a really powerful position through a
sitdown, to surrender voluntarily their advantage in return
for the promise of a provincial police inspector that he would
guarantee to negotiate for a settlement if they would leave
the mine.

The settlement was effected by means of 60 provincial
policemen and 50 strikebreakers.

Illusions fostered that legalistic procedure, such as ne-
gotiations by CCF politicians, could achieve the miners’ aims,
undoubtedly discouraged an aggressive organizing campaign
among miners of Bralorne, Island Mountain and Cariboo Gold
Quartz, where support and sympathy for the strikers was
strong.

But this initial defeat in the struggle of the hardrock miners
to attain higher living standards can yet be transformed into
ultimate victory if the lessons of the strike are remembered,
if dependence is placed in the strength and solidarity of labor
itself and not in the intervention, however well intended it
may be, of ‘influential people’; and finally, by carrying out
the slogan of the ClO—‘Organize the unorganized.’

Don't Waste Your Vote!

Do? "T waste your vote in this election. A vote for parties

that have betrayed the confidence of the people, that
combine to plunge Canada into war without consulting the
people and that now seek to deprive the people of any means
to express their opposition to the continuation and extension
of the war, is a vote wasted.

A vote for candidates that cannot be trusted to fight, inside
and outside parliament, for the needs of the people, is a vote
wasted.

If you stay at home on election day and fail to go to the
polling booth you waste your vote.

Don’t waste your vote. Use it.

In Vancouver East vote for Fergus McKean, the only anti-
war candidate in the riding. ;

In all other constituencies you have the choice between
voting for a pro-war candidate or casting your ballot for peace
in the interests of the people, and as a warning signal to any
government against conscription.

Don’t waste your ballot. Use it in your own interests. Vote.

, Stands secure.

CANADA AND THE USSR CANDID—

By FERGUS McKEAN

I AM A CANADIAN. Born on the Atlantic Coast, where I passed my childhood and youth,

my first job was heating rivets in the shipyard at New Glasgow, Nova Scotia.
"age I came west, married, and made my home on the Pacific Coast. In my three years at sea,
I obtained a fair knowledge of the world’s ports,

At an early

widening my outlook and aiding my under-

standing, not only of the problems of the Canadian people, but of working people everywhere.

In passing from one coast of our vast country to the
with the inland provinces of both East and West one cann
of natural resources our country possesses,
could be made out of Canada for all its inhab

other and getting acquainted, too,
ot but appreciate the great wealth
one cannot but realize what a paradise on earth
itants, one cannot but wonder why there should

be so much poverty and distress among a people so industrious as our own.

My own country and people are
dearer to me than any other
simply because I know them best,
because my own fate and the fut-
ure of my family are inextricably
bound up with what happens to
Canada. I do not think that we
Canadians are superior to all
other peoples: neither do I con-
sider that we are inferior to any.

i vefuse to hate any other peo-
ple simply because they speak an-
other language and share differ-
ent historical traditions and cus-
toms. I hate falsehood, oppres-
sion and exploitation in any land
and in any language, but partic-
ularly in my own country, where
they affect me most closely and
where, if I did not denounce and
oppose them, I would have no
moral: right to criticize their ex.
istence in other countries.

C)

A® & Canadian I favor a policy

of friendship with the Soviet
Union beeause such friendship is
in the best interests of the Ca-
nadian people. Yet all the Signs
go to prove that there are pow-
erful forces at work in St. James
street and on Parliament hill to
involve our people in yet another
war—a war against the Soviet
Union. Some of these people say
that war against the Soviet Union
must be started immediately.
Others declare that first agree-
ment must be concluded with Ger-
many in order to wage war
against the Soviet Union in alli-
ance with Germany.

There are many indications to
Show that one of the reasons why
Prime Minister King was in such
an unprecedented hurry to dis-
solve parliament was because of
plans for-such an extension of
the war which were expected to
mature in April. Europe was full
of rumors and stories about
preparations to send Canadian
brigades to Finland.

Qne does not hear any party
asking the Canadian people for a
mandate in this election to con-
duct war against the Soviet Union.
They know they would not get it.
Yet the plans to wage such a war
have come so far out into the
open that they can hardly be de-
nied any longer.

@

OQ SOONER had the election

started than Bri. Sutherland
Brown, Conservative candidate
for Victoria, in a public speech
advocated that Canada should
wage war across two oceans and
ship Canadian troops across the
Pacific to make war on the Soviet
Union.

Does Brigadier Brown consider
then that it is in the interests of
the Canadian people to see such
scenes repeated on the streets of
our City as occurred in 1919, when
reluctant troops had to be com-
pelled to go on board ships bound
for WViadivestok te join with 2
Japanese army of occupation in
an undeclared war of interven-
tion against the newly estabiish-
ed Soviet government?

“Through no fault of their own

the dark, reactionary forces try-
ing to involve our people in war
with the Soviet Union have had
their time-tables upset by conclu-
sion of what was to them a very
unwelcome peace in Finland. But
they have not abandoned their
purpose. They still plan not to
end the war but to extend it. And
only a vigilant public opinion, vig-
orously expressed and refusing to
be shackled by suppressive regu-
lations designed to destroy free
speech, can stay their hand.
)
E CANADIAN Communists
favor Canadian friendship
with the Soviet Union because
only such a policy serves the in-
terests of the Canadian people.

We do not propose that Canada
should simply copy any other
country—whether that-country be
Soviet Russia, New Zealand,
Sweden, Britain or any other. But
we should not be so foolish as to
refuse to learn from any country
anything that will be of service to
us in solving our own economic
and political problems.

There is much that Ganadians
can learn from the Soviet Union.
We can ask ourselves why is it
a generation ago Russia was a
country of hunger and despair,
backward and slow-moving and
Ganada was a beehive of bustling
industry and rapidly growing ag-
riculture. Canada was a country
of hope and opportunity. Rus-
sia was called by all editorial
writers, ‘dark Russia.’

Today the picture is reversed.
They are building thousands of
miles of new Yailroads. Our fin-
ancial moguls talk of pulling up
miles of railway track. They are
putting electricity into every farm
house. We are pulling telephones
out. They haye abolished unem-
ployment. Our rulers are striving
to legalize a new caste of unfort-
unates whom they falsely cal] un-
employables.

Why the change of roles? Is it
not obvious that the Soviet Union
as the only country in the world
with a socialist economic system
has lessons for us, has things to

Continued from Page One

teach us if we are not too foolish
or too proud to Jearn.

I do not think Canada can or
should simply copy Russia. In
fact I would like to see Canada
competing with the Soviet Union
in the arts of peace and cooper-
ating to establish and maintain
world peace. I would like to see
Canada opening up the wealth of
our northland more rapidly than
the Soviet Union is doing today in
her arctic territories. I would like
to see us abolishing more slums
and building more homes.

I would like to see Canada do-
ing more than the Soviet Union
in regard to child welfare, more
to provide our youth with useful
knowledge and certainly more to
afford the opportunities for the
utilization of the knowledge im-
parted by education.

And I believe that even now the
avetage Canadian worker and
farmer has more technical knowl-
edge, could build and produce
many things quicker and better
than the average Russian worker
and farmer. But it is obvious that
before we can, under existing con-
ditions, enter into this kind of
peaceful competition, the Cana-
dian people must have a socialist
economic system.

@

OQCIALISM means that all our
industries and all our natural
resources will be owned and con-
trolled, operated and developed by
the people and for the people
through institutions answerable
to the people. Socialism means
therefore that private monopoly
ownership of industries and nat-
ural resources will be abolished
and no man shall exploit the labor

of another.

That is why neither New Zea-
land nor Sweden are examples of
a socialist society.

More than ever the present
tragic situation proves that the
only alternative to recurring cap-
italist wars is socialism.

Because the people of the Soviet
Union have shown the way in the
social pioneering necessary to es-
tablish a socialist society, I ad-
mire them.

I believe the day is not far dis-
tant when the Canadian people
will set about putting their own
house in order, establishing in
their own country a socialist so-
ciety that will end poverty in our
midst. T am confident enough to
believe that when we set out to
do a job we can do it even better
than the Russians. s

Our country and our people are
as good as any other.

SOCIALIST SIXTH OF THE WORLD

These points he lists as:

1. Socialist planned production
“liftss the emphasis of life from
personal acquisition to socialist
accumulation.” Gone for ever in
the Soviet Union is “the all ab-
sorbing master principle of ac-
quisition which inspires—and de-
bases—capitalism.”

2. Profitable employment for
all is provided by socialist planned
production. “None is deprived of
the opportunity to work. Booms
and slumps are gone and unem-
ployment with them. Wnemploy-
ment ceased in 1931, never to re-
turn. In the nature of things,
and given a scientific plan, none
need be unemployed so long as
any human wants are still un-
Satisfied. When that is done,
leisure comes, and leisure, when
it comes, comes to all. So long as
work is needed, work is free to
all. Workers are in demand in
the Soviet Union; and wages
rise.” :

3. Personal security for all is
provided, “The Soviet citizen de-
pends upon the whole community.
It guarantees his safety. He
If he is sick, he
receives sick pay, ungrudging in
amount, and subject to no time-
limit. When old, he draws an
ample and honorable pension,
with no more shame attached to
it than is attached to the pensions
of retired cabinet ministers.”

4. Fear and worry are removed.
“The vast moral achievements
of the Soviet Union are in no
small measure due to the removal
of fear. Fear haunts workers in
a capitalist land. Fear of dis-

missal, fear that a thousand
workless men stand outside the
gate eager to get a job, breaks
the spirit of a man and breeds
Servility. Fear of unemployment,
fear of slump, fear of trade de-
pression, fear of sickness, fear of
an impoverished old age, lie with
erushing weight on the mind of
the worker.”

5. Lies, deceit and sabotage are
discouraged. “The Soviet plan
discourages lies. There is no need
in Soviet Russia to seil paper
boots as leather. Nor is ‘one man’s
speed at work another man’s un-
doing. Speed, skill and invention
increase the pool of goods in
which all share. By paving the
way to higher technical achieve—
ment, skill opens the door of
higher wages to all who will learn
it, Trade unions in the USSR en-
courage all means of labor-saving
that augment production.”

6. Socialist planned production
resolves the struggle between ego-
tisti¢ and altruistic motives.
‘tTere, the motives are frequently
at variance and man is internally
torn asunder. In the Soviet Union
they combine, and the interior
tension is relaxed.”

7. A new sense of Ownership
and responsibility is created.
“The knowledge that every man,
woman and child has a place in
the plan and a share in its prod-
uct creates a sense of owner-
ship.”

8 A new attitude to work is
created, for the Soviet Union is a
Jand where all must work. “No
idle classes are tolerated. ...A
leisured class is a Social impossi-

bility in the Soviet Union, though
leisure for all is a right, and an
increase in leisure an aim.”

9. Crime is reduced. ‘Crimes
are largely, though by no means
wholly, committed by the very
poor and committed through the
fear of poverty. Such crimes les-
sen as poverty departs.”

10. Zest is added to life by
providing creative tasks for all.
“‘*Building Socialism’ is the
fashionable phrase. It is a task
to which all are called. Hach has
his or her niche in the whole.
Hach feels he or she is wanted.
And the tasks at which they work
are of social value. No tasks are
futile, or unsocial, or performed
simply aS a means for gaining
access to the money-stream.”

di. Socialist planned production
brings its benefits and its chal-
lenge to Every race or color of
people in the Soviet Union. “The
Plan is comprehensive. It has
regard of the whole industrial
and agricultural field and if every
native race. Neither for military
reasons alone, nor for economic
reasons alone were industry and
agriculture redistributed afresh.
Humanity demanded it. Men are
brothers. There is work for all
and benefit for all, and though
the highly developed sections
under the union move at a
quicker pace than formerly, the
backward elements move quicker
still, and the day of their equality
draws near. That for the scat-
tered races and backward peo-
ples is the message and the good
news of the plan.”

Election
COMMENT

Guess Who
Department

“The people of Canada :
Posed to eee

try before consulting the
by means of 2 plebiscite.” NY
—Pnme Minister Maclk
King, as reported by
Canada (Montreal) on Sepi
9, 1935, during the last eleg
Hen campaign. 4

r
|

7 7 .
“Instead of foing tocwar ial

foreign country we will x, x

here and defend the Canada 4
we love.” oa
—Rt. Hon &, Lapointe in
Speech at Limoulon, Quebes
reported in Le Soleil, Dag

13, 1938. i

Business
Demands—
Big War

“BUSINESS REASONS demani.
that Canada’s war ee shouli:
be wholehearted.” i

—Conservative Leader R. 3
Manion as reported in 4
speech made to his ho
Constituents at Fort
liam on Feb. 13, 1940.

cael

rw A o£
R. J. Manion is more frank
most. A big war (‘wholeh:
is good for big business. The stoa
exchange fears most a declarati
of peace. :

No Conseription
But—

“I am absolutely opposed if
any couscription. ... BUT i
EVER SHOULD. BECOME NE
CESSARY AND WE HAVE To
FORCE OUR MEN TO OFFER
THEIR LIVES IN A WAR
ABROAD, I believe that industry,
labor and wealth at home shonli
be conscripted to serve the com:
try’s war effort in the best way
possible.”
—k. J. Manion as reported in

a speech made at Regina on

Feb. 18, 1940. ;

Why N ot Reform?

“During these past few years it
fas_extremely difficult to speak
to the nafion without disclosing
information which would have
spread alarm and raised doubj
éven among my own followers.” |

—Prime Minister King at
Winnipeg, Feb, 27, 1940. —

rf o£ + A
Prime Minister Hing now con-
fesses that he did not tell the peo-
ple the things he knew. That ik
obvious. But if he now repenis|
why does he not reform? i
cf

Unsolved
Mysteries 4

What did Hing tell Hitler and
what did Adolph say to Macken:
zie when they shook hands in the
Fuehrer’s study in ——__?

if cf cf a J

If the official CGF policy is
really eppesed to the sending of
an expeditionary force outside Ga
madian territory why does the
CCE not propose to bring bs Ik
Some of the boys already sent? —

Unfinished

Sentences
Angus MacInnis, CCF candi
date for Wancouver Fast, has

been telling his audiences that
the CCF intends to do “what the
New Zealand government is ak
ready doing.” But he omits t
State that the dominant leader
Ship of the New Zealand Labor
party is now sabotaging the pro
gtam on which it was elected
and threatening expulsion of

those within the party who d

mend ifs fulfilment. His paranal,
would more accurately have been!
that the CCF leadership is aban:
doning its Regina Manifesto in
the same way the leadership ©
the New Zealand Labor party is

:

abandoning its program. |

Confucious Say |

Canadian say what he like if
ing like what he say. .

=f wt x
War Measures Act mean de
mocracy measures for coffin.
of t of
Government think man wrong
in defending right if he try t
right wrong. i

Inserted by Vancouver East Communist Blection Committee

ATTEND THESE MEEETINGS--

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20, 8 p.m., at NORQUAY HALL, Kingsway at Slocan
THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 8 p.m. at RENFREW COMMUNITY HALL, Renfrew at 22nd

Hear FERGUS McKEAN, Communist Candidate
for Vancouver East