Page Six

THE ADVOCATE

April 5, 194¢:

THE ADVOCATE

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VANCOUVER, B.C., FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 1940

Organize-Deteat Conscription

[Pye Ose the dust of false issues has settled to reveal the

real outline of the federal election and while their glib
pledges not to introduce conscription are still hot on the lips
of government leaders, the first tentative note in the campaign
to mold public opinion for conscription has already been
sounded.

In a speech to Ottawa Women’s club on March 29 Lieut.-
Col. A. G. Wells, bishop of Cariboo and chaplain-general of the
Canadian Active Service Force, stated that “when the smoke
of election has faded away, the leaders will be in a position
to say that we must have a national registration of every man
and woman for the position they can best serve.”

He continued: “It would be fatal to take away all the loyal

men and allow the trash, who have accumulated from coast

to coast, te remain at home and reap the benefits.”

Bishop Wells’ statement is both shameful and deceitful,
but unfortunately, not without precedent in Canadian history.

Twenty-three years ago, in 1917, when the campaign for
national registration, despite the Borden government’s lying
denials, proved the ominous prelude to military conscription,
another Anglican Church leader made a very similar state-
ment. He was Archbishop Worrell and on May 29, 1917, he
told the Nova Scotia synod of the Church of England:

“Why men of infinite value to a community should be called

upon to sacrifice themselves in order that a number of worth-

less and non-producing creatures may go on in their annual

enjoyment, is beyond comprehension.”

Who does Bishop Wells, like his prototype, Archbishop
Worrell, mean by ‘trash’? The obvious conclusion is that he
means the thousands of Canadian workers denied employment
and subsisting on meagre relief allowances, the thousands of
poverty-stricken farmers, the thousands of jobless and home-
less youth whose economic plight is inseparable from that
system maintenance of which Bishop Wells holds is essential
to the preservation of ‘civilization.’

And does Bishop Wells include among the ‘benefits’ to be
reaped by the ‘trash’ higher living costs, heavier taxation,
longer working hours and reduced relief?

Only last December Bishop Wells was voicing his hatred
of the Soviet Union and openly predicting a joint British,
French and German ‘crusade’ against the USSR. His statement
went unchallenged by the government, but recent revelations
showing how close Canada came to being embroiled in inter-
vention against the Soviet Union indicate that he spoke with
prior knowledge.

In advocating registration—the first step to conscription—

does Bishop Wells also speak with prior knowledge? Again

his statement has gone unrepudiated by the government.

The obverse of Bishop Wells’ hatred of the Soviet Union
is his contempt for the Canadian working class as evidenced
by his reference to ‘trash.’ That he does not speak for church
youth, various Youth Congress meetings, by their strong op-
position to conscription, have clearly shown. That he does
advance policies while the government is still discreetly silent
is also evident.

The people should take warning and organize against con-

scription immediately. Registration, regardless of the officially

stated purpose, is, as the last war proved, the preliminary

Step to conscription.

Padlocking The Unions

Net long ago Percy Bengough, secretary of Vancouver

Trades and Labor council untruthfully asserted that the
Communists had ‘changed their line’ to one of attacking indi-
vidual trade union leaders. Perhaps he was preparing the
record for certain developments in which his was to be a
guiding hand. Perhaps even, his conscience troubled him, for
he has reason to know that none has fought harder for the
interests of workers, organized and unorganized, than the Com-
munists he now maligns.

Perhaps President Jamieson, playing his small-time Jou-
haux to Premier Pattullo’s backstage Daladier and, like the
French trade union leader, aware that he is betraying the
workers’ interests, expects to be ‘attacked.’ Before long,
when organized workers look to him for a Jead in the struggle
for higher wages to offset higher living costs—and fail to get
it because he is playing the employers’ game—he will be.
Nothing condemns Jamieson more forcefully thah his own
statements and actions.

For Jamieson knows he is weakening labor at this time
of all times when labor needs to be strong by attempting to
Silence its uncompromising fighters. He knows what storm
will be created within the trade union movement. He knows
that expulsion of the Communists will not gain one cent more
wages for organized workers or shorten their working day
one minute. He knows that not one unorganized worker will
be organized as a result and that the threat to the trade union
movement contained in the War Measures Act will not be
lifted, but rather that the struggle centering around these
issues will be weakened.

Ex-Premier Duplessis’ padlock law failed to define ‘com-
munism’ and was used against all militant opponents of his
reactionary regime. Likewise, those in control of Vancouver
Trades and Labor council can utilize the new ruling, which
fails to define a ‘communist sympathizer,’ against all opponents
of compromise and collaboration.

The issue has now gone to the local unions whose members
must, if they value their own hard-won interests, repudiate

and defeat it.

The War Measures Act And

FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

But in the background, always
there stands the struggle against
the capitalist monopoly of the
means of influencing public opin-
ion, particularly as it is expressed
in the commercial press of our
day.

During the past several years
there has been a terrific barrage
of editorial propaganda to the
effect that if the employees of
the press, the reporters, organ-
ized into a trade union and gota
living wage instead of $14, $16 or
$18 a week, then that would “in-
terfere with the freedom of the
press.”

What kind of ‘free press’ are
they thinking of?

During the last generation or
so the press has become a big
business in Canada, a business
for the gaining of profits out of
the sale of newspapers, conduct-
ed as any factory or any other
enterprise would be. A modern
daily newspaper demands the in-
vestment of big capital. It is an
enterprise which rests on adver-
tising revenues and subsidies for
its existence and for its profit.

It is only natural, therefore,
that being a big business itself,
the modern commercial daily rep-
Tesents the interests of big busi-
ness in general. And as the inter-
ests of big business more and
more COMe in conflict with the
interests of the masses of the
People, of the nation, so does the
rift grow between the editorial
and news policies of the commer-
cial press and the aspirations of
the masses of its readers,

4 Boe most eloquent manifesta-
tion of this momentous devel-
opment on our continent was the
experience of the United States in
the last five years,

With 90 percent of the newspa-
pers campaignine against Roose-
velt and the New Deal, neverthe—
less the general election showed
an unprecedented majority for
the New Deal policies of F. D.
Roosevelt—which hasn’t stopped
Roosevelt from scuttling those
very same policies during the
Past six months,

An example of more recent vin-
tage is seen in the attitude of the
American public to wars in Eur-
ope. While practically the entire
press in the USA has been
whooping it up for the Chamber-
jain government’s policies both in
the Allied-German and Finno-
Soviet-wars, each successive Gal-
jup Poll has shown greater and
greater majorities in opposition
to those policies.

We HAVE had plenty of evi-
dence of the self-same devel-
opment taking place in Canada.
While the commercial press is
unanimously old-party, each suc-
cessive election has shown new
hundreds of thousands of Cana-
dians voting against the old par-
ties and electing candidates op-
posed to the Liberal and Consery-
ative machines. The recent Al-
berta election gives further proof
of this.

No longer, in Canada, do news-
Papers ‘run’ the elections, carry
their ‘slates’ and control civic
bodies as—even until recently—
they were wont to do. Labor and
independent candidates—opposed
by the dailies—are being elected
in practically every nook of the
country, ists

Not so long ago, it was a com-
mon saying, “It must be so—it’s
in the paper.” Now, more often
than not, you hear the rejoinder,
“You can’t believe what you read
in the newspapers nowadays.”

The relation of the reading
public to the commercial press
may not have reached the divorce
Stage as yet, but it is already one
of great suspicion.

Are Side by side with that there

is taking place — slowly as
yet — another developemnt; the
vise of a new press, an independ-
ent press, not a business enter-
Prise, not a profit-making busi-
ness, a press which does not de
pend on the advertisers but sim-
Ply on its readers and the organ-
ized people’s movement for its
existence.

This press has already begun to
Win rapid support and to express
the opinions of large sections of
Canadian citizens growing con-
tinuously in influence, circula-
tion and in power.

This press—non-profit making
and originating in the labor and
farm groups—has tough sledding
of it. It has not got a big invest-
ment of capital; usually it is run
on a ‘shoestring’. It has no big
printing presses, no large staffs,

By JOHN WEIR

{pee struggle for the freedom of the press is many-sided. It is bound up with the whole
struggle for maintenance of civil liberties today; it is bound up with the struggle for the
greater democracy of socialism tomorrow.
At this particular moment, the spear-point of the fight for the freedom of the press is, of
course, the battle against attacks by the state—by censorship, the banning of newspapers and
arrest of editors and other workers—on independent publications.

far-flung news services, no com-
ics, no 34 pages, no erormous
sales apparatus, no big advertis-
ing.

The only means by which it can
‘compete’ with the big business
press is through the loyalty and
devotion of its readers and sup-
porters. Its weapon against the
big money of the commercial
press—with all that it entails—is
its espousal of the cause of the
people against the interests of
big business.

Despite all its handicaps, this
press is continually growing
while the influence and circula-
tion of the capitalist dailies is de-
elining,

And so the big business inter-
ests and the government, no long-
er sitting pretty and relying on
their commercial dailies to see
them through, fearful of the
growing influence and power of
the little labor-farmer papers, are
taking the path of outright sup-
pression of the independent
press.

That is the meaning of the at-
tacks on the freedom of the press
now being made under the regu-
lations of the War Measures Act.

qe War Measures Act is not a
law. The War Measures Act
is an abrogation of the constitu-
tion and the democratic liberties
in Canada and the substitution
for them of illegal ‘regulations’
responsible neither to the consti-
tution or to the people of our
country.

The War Measures Act, prepar-
ed 18 months before war began, is
actually the substitution of mili-
tary law for civil law in our coun-
try, It is not on the statute books.
tt is just ‘regulations.’ it has
never been endorsed by parlia-
ment, although if it were to be
endorsed by parliament still that
would not change its character
as being contrary to and wiping
aside the constitution of Ganada.

The War Measures Act is the
closest we have yet seen in any
English-speaking country to a
fascist constitution.

The sharpest and most clear ex-
pression of fascism in this law is
in Section 21, which gives to the
Minister of justice (in a Canada
that is already ruled not by par-
liament but by cabinet orders-in-
council) the right to ‘detain’ any
individual in Canada so long as
he himself is satisfied that this
individual is a danger to “the se-
curity of the state,” without
charge and without trial, and
hold him there as long as he sees
fit. That is the Hitler ‘protective
custody,’ word for word.

Under the War Measures Act
every individual in Canada may
be breaking the Act. There js
no definition of what the ciause
“efficient prosecution of the war”
is. In the trial in Toronto rec-
ently, where Douglas Stewart,
manager of The Clarion, was be-
ing tried under the War Measures
Act, it was pointed out by the
defense that the article under
which this man was being sent to
prison was printed not only in
the New York Times, but in Can-
adian daily papers as well. The
answer was that “these other pa-
pers are not being prosecuted;
you are being prosecuted.”

Actually, the phrasing and pur-
port of the War Measures Act is
such that from political expedi-
ency the government may ban
any newspaper or literature or
arrest any individual in this
country of ours. Of course it is
true that so far it has ‘only’ been
applied against Communists, pac-
ifists, Some trade union organiz-
ers. But fascism has ‘always
started with the suppression of
the labor movement. And what is
under attack are the civil lib-
erties of the entire Canadian peo-
ple,

It is under this War Measures
Act, which gives the government
arbitrary powers over every per-
son and every organ of opinion
in our country, that the freedom
of the press is being attacked to-
day.

ANNING of The Clarion In To-
ronto, the Clarte in Mont-
real, barring of numerous period-
icals from entry into Canada, ar-
rests of distributors of election
literature and the recent raids on
the Mid-West Clarion in Winni-
pee and arrests of four of its
staff, are first steps towards the
development of full-fledged Yasc-
ist dictatorship in Canada.

These steps are accompanied
by the stranglehold of war cen-
sorship which ‘co-ordinates’ the
commercial press to the will of
the Chamberlain and King goy-
ernments in much the same way

as the press of Germany or Italy
is ‘co-ordinated.’

Freedom of the press—already
a myth to a very great extent be-
cause of the capitalist ownership
of the large newspapers, news
Services, printing plants, ete. —
becomes a vicious mockery under
the War Measures Act.

The result, as seen in fascist
countries, is a complete blackout
of freedom of opinion in the land.
But the people—no people under
the sun—will long countenance
Such a state of affairs.

The break between the public
and the commercial press grows
deeper with the ‘co-ordination’ of
that press under fascism and the
Suppression of the independent
press. There arises the illegal
press . . . The struggle goes on!

Canadians already have exper-
lence of the results of suppression
in our own history. -And all our
experience teaches us that free
dom of the press can yet be won
back, the attacks upon it beaten
back, and that victory over the
Suppressor’s is inevitable in the
long run.

Oe one hundred years ago,
William Lyon Mackenzie had
his Colonial Advocate printshop
raided by Tory hooligans who
threw the type into the Humber.

At that time the resentment of
the people was so great that he
Was reimbursed and was able to
set up a better printing press.
These same Tories, qa few years
later, when the government de-
cided to compensate the rebels
who had had their property burn-
ed during the 1837 rebellion, set
fire to the parliament building in
the city of Montreal and signed
@ petition that Canada should be
annexed by the United States.

But they were eventually de-
feated and Canada emerged as 4
Self-governing nation. William
Lyon Mackenzie's strugele
brought victory.

The labor movement has gone
through nearly a century of very
Severe struggles against restric-
tions. Labor papers were banned
and had to change their names
repeatedly towards the end of
the last war. J. S. Woodsworth
was arrested in the city of Win-

j

OHN WEIR, writer o
this article, is editor o;
the Mid-West Clarion. Wii}
three members of his staf he
is now facing trial on charge:
laid under the War Measure,
Act. Born in northern Mani
toba, he spent his youth th
British Columbia, where hiv
father was a logger. Long ac
tive in the labor movement, he
was editor of the Worker, To.
ronto, in 1935, later associate
editor of the Daily Clarion,
In 1939 he was appointed
editor of the Mid- Wes
Clarion, For two years, 1937
38, he served on Toronto
board of education.

nhipegz when he was editor of the
Western Labor News in 1919.

We have lived throughout the |
period of Section 98—and saw it.
Swept away by the wrath of the
people,

Wone of these attacks in th
past is comparable to the exte
of the menace which the presen j
War Measures Act holds for the
liberties of the Canadian people}

Boe the power of resistance ig,

growing in the Canadian peo:
ple. it has already forced the
government to withdraw its tak
ons on several occasions. Ang
there is every indication that
those who are bringing fasci
te our land are going to find

—and may even be halted today
and forced to retreat. :
Banning of The Glarion and
Clarte in Montreal evoked a wide
protest from the trade unions and
democratic Canadians across the
country. The attack on the Mid —
West Clarion may well become —
“the straw that broke the camel's |
back”—and start the ball rolling =
the other way once again. i
it is up to the trade unions,
farm organizations and all deme f
cratic groups and individuals ts
join the fight today to ensure!
victory over fascism in the quick |
est possible space of time and in
the most painless manner. 3
At this hour, the whole question!
of the freedom of the press res
on the fight for the freedom of
the Mid-West Clarion. 3
And the people of Canada ce |
not afford to lose this battle.

JAPANESE WOMEN

IN REVOLT

CHUNGKING.

IMP2UESs EIKO, the Japanese author, now in Chuns-

king, has just published an article describing the diffi.”
cult living conditions of working women in Japan. The
Japanese women, she declares, are Opposed to the war and
have the deepest sympathy with the Chinese people. In fact,
she points out, the women of Japan are learning from the.

Chinese people how to struggle for their own emancipation. »

“The Japanese village,” she
writes, “is like another ‘world.
There is no trace of culture. The
Japanese peasant woman toils
from morning to late night on the
fields and at home.

“The war launched by the Japa-
nese imperialists has ‘worsened
women’s conditions to the ex-
treme. The peasant woman must
now work both for herself and
her husband who has been sent
to the front.

“Rice has become q rarity in the
Village.

“Sale of children to factories
and cities has increased.

“The situation in the cities is no
better. The number of women
employed in the factories has
§rown 35 percent. As a rule they
ate paid less than a man doing
the same work.

“The Nakadzima Aircraft plant
Pays women workers 60 cents a
day, the Atahatsi works pays 70

cents a day . Women at the Tokyo”
Electrical Equipment plants re
ceive 80 cents while the men are”
paid up to $1.60. ;

“The few nurseries and kinder- |
gartens that functioned before the
war have been closed. 1

e ;

“rIXHE Japanese woman worker |
is the most unfortunate in

the world. Her silence is coming
to an end. She is taking a stand
against war,” says Miss Fiko.
“The anti-war movement under
the slogan of the return of hus!

the women have taken place in’
Osaka, Kavasaki, and other coties,

“The women of Japan regard
the Chinese people with sympathy
and learn from them how to
struggle for their own emancipa-_
tion.”

ido,

WHITE RUSS HOPES SHATTERED

GENEVA.

CONCLUSION of the Soviet-Finnish peace struck deep |
gloom into the hearts of White Guard representatives —
here from non-existent ‘governments’ of Georgia, Azerbaijan ©
and Armenia, Soviet territories in the Trans-Caucusus region.
Kana Chacichvily, a Georgian plenipotentiary in Geneva
since 1921, disclosed recently that the Georgian ‘Nationalist
government’ had held a secret ‘rebirth’ meeting in Paris,
spurred by the Finnish-Soviet war and the hopes of Allied in-

tervention.

Elected premier of the ghost government was EKuythyme ‘
Takaichvili, a former vice-president of the former Georgian |

Constituent Assembly.

He said: “We have reason to believe that we will soon get |}

Allied support.”
The ‘nationalists’
Georgia’s manganese

pointed out that the Allies can grab
mines, Armenia’s industrial areas and

Azerbaijan’s oil fields between the Black and Caspian seas.
Several thousand of these White Guard ‘nationalists’ are
supposed to have enlisted with General Weygand’s French

army in the Near Hast.