May 10, 1940

THE ADVOCATE

Page Five

| CHINA BUILDS HER ECONOMY

i]

ig > : CHUNGEKING.

ee Ss aoe task of defeating the Japanese invasion can be achieved only through the most rapid and intensive
im evelopment 0! er Own gigantic potential economic and material resources, according to military and economic experts
oo Although China’s foreign trade even during the war has been maintained through utilizing the contradictions between
/ imperialist states and through the growth of trade relations with the friendly USSR, it is held that the sooner China succeeds
‘in becoming independent of imperialist states in the supply of arms and war goods, the sooner will decisive victory be won.

t

» dustrial development.

A review of the country’s lim-
-itless resources shows that all the
‘requisite materials for Mass home
; Production of arms and goods China coal deposits are estimated
‘exist, and that the problem is at more than thirteen billion
One of intensive economic and in- tons distributed as follows:
Szechwan, 9,900,000,000 tons; Yun-
nan, 1,600,000,000; Kweichow, i,
500,000,000.

Shansi contains deposits esti-
mated at 72 billion tons; six bil-

China abounds in rich deposits
of con Data published in ‘China
at War’ shows that in southwest

It is pointed out that this would
have been a difficult task even
«ior Chima’s pre-war industry, but
'that the difficulties have been
|, enormously magnified since the

' economic tasks:

finvasion because all of Ghina’s
| industrial centers and two-thirds
'of her

railroads are today in
areas occupied by the Japanese.
e

WO major factors are contrib-
i uting to the solution of these
First, the tre-
mendous national awakening
with its accompanying rise in the
creative energy and initiative of
the masses of the people; second,
the timely evacuation of indus-
trial enterprises from eastern
China to the heart of the country,
which was carried out by the
Chinese government during the
years 1937-1938.

During that period nearly 300
private enterprises with 30,000
tons of equipment were trans-
ferred from Szechwan province
alone. These included several
large plants.

lion tons in Sinkiang, and 15 mil-
lion tons in Kansu. These de-
posits include large amounts of
coking coal.

A successful war effort depends
upon the intensive . exploitation
of these deposits, and in 1939 it
Was expected that 2,000,000 tons
would ~be miréd in Szechwan
alone, double the amount mined
in the preceding year.

Huge oil] deposits have recently
been discovered in Szechwan, Si-
kiang and Sinkiang and steps
have already been taken for their
exploitation.

Tt is also estimated that Szech-
Wan contains 200,000,000 tons of
iron ore deposits.

e
QUTHWEST China is likewise
exceedingly rich in non-fer-
rous metals and accounted for
nearly half the world’s produc-
tion of wolfram (9,900,000 tons),

AMERICA’S FARMERS --
AND A THIRD PARTY

By ADAM LAPIN

WASHINGTON.

ABOR is moving to an independent political alliance with

in 1937. The region also produced
One-third of the world’s output of
antimony (15,200,000 tons).

This part of China is also the
world center for the production
of wood (tung) oil, important
for the output of dyes used in war
industry. Export of this oil to
the United States, Britain and
other countries is helping China
te meet payments for necessary
imports.

)

OAD construction is one of the

most vital needs of the eco-
nomic-military war efforts and
important advances have been
made in this field, with 24,000
miles of highways constructed
through mountainous regions
linking the southwestern proy-
inces since the beginning of the
war up to 1938.

At the moment China is mak-
ing unprecedented progress in
rail construction, with 12 roads
totalling 3,600 miles partially com-
pleted at the present time.

Although China’s' financial
strain is not nearly so great as
Japan's, its war expenses are
colossal and efforts to meet them
have brought about a reorganiz-
ation of the customs systems in
accord with its changed frontiers,
and the taxation system has been
reorganized with the main bur-
den placed upon the wealthy sec-
tions of the population.

Additional revenue has been
achieved from both these sources,
but the need for internal loans
has not been entirely eliminated.
Since the war two loans amount-

ing to $50,000,000 each and a third
one of $100,000,000 have been is-
sued in the country.

e
APAWN’S occupation of the
country’s most important

ports and its blockade of the en-
tire Pacific coast has not pre-
vented China from developing its
foreign trade, with primary im-
portance shifted to new trade
routes through French Indo-
China, British Burma, the French
port of Kwangchowan on the
south coast, and through Portu-
guese Macao.

Trade between China and the
USSR continues to grow and de-
velop.

Through these sources China is
succeeding in acquiring essential
machinery, arms and raw ma-
terials, and it is recognized that
trade relations with foreign
states is of the highest import-
ance. |

But at the same time it is
clearly understood that foreign
capitalists are concerned above
all with cashing in on the war
of national liberation of the
Chinese people and are simul-
taneously hoping for China to
become exhausted te the point
where their demands can be
forced upon her.

That is why military and eco-
nomic experts today are empha-
sizing that China’s major task is
to develop her own resources to
the utmost and thereby achieve
economic independence.

other progressive forces of the American people. Already
John LL. Lewis has succeeded in achieving a working agreement
between Labor's Non-Partisan League and the American
Youth Congress. With his great speech to the National Negro
Congress, the CIO leader helped pave the way for similar col-

THE WAR THREAT
IN THE BALKANS

laboration between labor and the Negro people.

OHN P. DAVIS, secretary of the National Negro Con-
gress, declared last week that the Negro people will
accept the invitation of John L. Lewis to form a common front
pith labor to fight for democratic rights and to keep the

United Siaies out of war.

Davis served notice on both Democratic and Republican
parties that “‘no party will get the four million Negro votes
in the North which does not guarantee the ballot to the vote-

less Negroes in the South.”

“This means repeal of the poll tax laws in this session of

Congress,’ Davis emphasized.

As the alignment toward a
great progressive third party
which will stand for peace, jobs
and civil liberties continues, Lew-
is and his co-workers will find an
increasinely friendly reception
among the farmers of America.

Particularly among agricultur-
al workers, tenants and small
farmers the need for immediate
action to ease their problems has
become desperate.

The Roosevelt administration
has no more solved the problems
of the farm population than it
has of the unemployed or of the
industrial workers.

At first the war in Europe was
supposed to provide the farmers
with a panacea. Agricultural ex
ports to the Allies were expected
to zoom upward. Actually the re-
verse has happened.

Exports of war materials have
skyrocketed. Exports of alumin-
um, for example, increased by 325
percent during the first five
months of the war. But farm ex
ports of all sorts have declined
drastically.

Hardest hit have been tobacco,
fruit and grains. Stocks of flue-
eured tobacco piled up in the
warehouses are more than 50 per-
cent higher than & year ago. Ex
ports of pork and lard have
dropped, and even cotton, which
went up at first, has fallen off
recently.

Farm debts and mortgages,
held b y insurance companies and
banks, remain a pressing prob-
Jem. Great corporation farms
are ‘tractoring’ hundreds of
thousands of small farmers and
share-croppers off the land. The
number of Joads, wandering over
the country and looking for work
on the farms, is increasing.

e

NSTEAD of devoting its farm
program to solving the prob-

lems of the poorer farmers and
agricultural workers, the admin-
istration has donated millions of
dollars to the great farms owned
by the insurance companies. By
far the largest AAA payments
were made to such ‘farmers’ a3
the Metropolitan Life Insurance
company, which got $257,095.64
and the Prudential Insurance
which got $231,158.

And inadequate as the admin-
istration farm program has been,
the president’s budget message to
Gongress decreed cuts of close to
$500,000,000 which were directed
primarily at the poorer farmers
and tenants.

The Senate has restored a num-
ber of these cuts and it is likely

that at least some of the in-
creases over the president's bud-
get will be sustained in the
House. But certainly the admin-
istration can take no credit for
a congressional revolt inspired by
pressure from back home.

An extremely significant
statement was made recently
by Secretary of Agriculture
Wallacs when he opposed the
feature of the cotton income
eertificate plan for various
crops worked out by the Farm-
ers union to give farmers a
more equitable share of the na-
tional income. But he objected
to one of the most important
features insisted upon by the
Farmers union—to protect the
small farmers.

We declared that the effect
of this provision “would be to
foster the adoption of less ef-
ficient production units.”
From now until the elections

in November, both political par-
ties will direct their attentions in-
creasingly to winning the farm
vote.

HE administration has already

undertaken a number of new
maneuvers. For example, it is
well -aware of the bitterness of
the farmers over the refusal of
the Allies to buy their crops. So
the administration has begun to
hint that perhaps the Neutrality
Act should be amended to per-
mit loans on farm products.

Behind this demagogic move
is a plan to use the dissatis-
faction of the farmers as a bat-
tering ram to break down all
restrictions on loans to the bel-
ligerents.

Another clever move by the
administration has been to give
formal support to the Wheeler-
Bankhead-LaFollette debt adjust-
ment bill intended to scale down
farm mortgages. Many farm ob-
servers beiieve that the admin-
istration does not expect this bill
to pass—and has supported it
simply to have a handy campaign
issue.

From the Republicans have al-
so come liberal doses of dema-
gogy intended to win the farm
vote. As usual they are willing
to promise anything before an
election.

Repeatedly tricked and disap-
pointed, the farmers will be wary
of both maior political parties.
If the emerging third party
forces come forward with a def-
inite farm program, the farmers
of America will listen eagerly
and attentively.

pe since the outbrealx of the present war, the press of the

world has devoted much attention to the concentration
of armed forces by Britain and France in the Near East. Some
newspapers, the Italian press in particular, have estimated this
armed force at upwards of 1,400,000 men. This is undoubtedly
an exaggeration. In the Near East there are actually between
150,000 and 250,000 French soldiers and about 100,000 British

soldiers.

The French troops concentrat-
ed in Syria are commanded by
General Maxime Weygand, an old
soldier well acquainted with that

region, for he once held the post
of French high commissioner and
commander-in-chief in Syria. Al-
though officered by Frenchmen,
the troops are colonial for the
most part and are stationed
chiefly in Egypt and Palestine.
The British troops have also been
drawn from the British colonies
and dominions.

Although the British are en-
deavoring to enlist the local Arabs
in Egypt and Palestine, they do
not appear to have been notably
successful in this respect so far-

It is unlikely that the Allied
forces have been concentrated in
the Near East for any one partic-
ular purpose. The favorable
strategic position of the Near East
makes it possible for such an
armed force to be employed in a
number of directions.

They might, for instance, be
thrown at any moment into the
Balkans for the purpose of shift-
ing the theatre of war against
Germany. Nor can there be any
doubt that these forces serve as
a ‘momento mori’ (reminder of
death) for Italy.

Wo little importance is at-
tached by the Anglo-French bloc

te the establishing of a new

front in the Balkans.
e@

HROUGHOUT almost the en-

tire duration of the Huropean
war the whole capitalist press has
been daily printing with a zeal
worthy of a better cause reports
that the Soviet Union is threat-
ening Turkey and Iran. Other
fantastic schemes such as seizure
of the Suez canal, conquest of
India, invasion of Afghanistan,
and the like, have also been
shamelessly ascribed to the Soviet
Union. The flight of journalistic
fancy in this respect has been
limited only by the number of
lines allotted by the editors.

It goes without saying that
these wild ravings are intended
as a smokescreen to conceal anti-
Soviet schemes, The lies are fab-
ricated much too clumsily and
are much too obvious, however-
to be credited:

Apart from such a mighty fac-
tor as the Soviet Union dooming
the Near Bastern schemes of the
imperialists to failure, account
should also be taken of another
factor hindering extension of the
Buropean war — the national
movement for independence
among the Arab people in the
small dependent and semi-inde-
pendent states of Irak, Syria, Pal-
estine and Transjordania.

‘/EWVEWIETNESS? FINDS HIS GLASSES

A NOTHER American correspondent who several months-

ago was reporting ‘Soviet atrocities’ as an ‘eye-witness’

in Finland, has grudgingly confessed. Wade Werner told an
Associated Press luncheon, in New York recently, that:

“Censored dispatches from Finland naturally were top-

heavy with damage to schools and hospitals, with casualties

among civilians rather than among soldiers. Yet, I honestly

believe the Bolsheviks were not deliberately trying to bomb

Civilians.”

‘ANSWER’ TO GRAPES OF WRATH

Jie which are part of the general campaign to smear
progressive or peace ideas includes You're Not So Tough,

a Universal film now being made which is to be an ‘answer’
to Grapes of Wrath. The Dead End Kids are to appear in this
picture as the dupes of a ‘foreign agitator,’ while all the good
people work in California’s fields for whatever they can get.
This picture comes right out of Associated Farmers propaganda
elipsheet.

CAPITALIST MERRY-GO-ROUND

AR orders have been running around $1%% millions daily.

These are providing that preliminary push for the whole
of business. They are going out day after day, week after
week ,to every part of Canada and to a hundred different in-
dustries. The people working on government orders have more
money to spend and that makes other people more prosperous
and they make others more prosperous, and so it goes, on and
on, round and round.—Ronald A. McHachern in the Financial

Post. i
ce

SHORT
JABS

by OF Bill

Their Story and Qur Story

W Priemier Molotov spoke before the Supreme Soviet of the
USSR, at the end of March, he announced that the casualties of
the Finnish Whites were, 60,000 killed and 250,000 wounded. His state-
ment was greeted with loud guffaws by the all-knowing and incor-
ruptible capitalist press throughout the world.

The Glasgow Herald, one of the half-dozen leading capitalist news-
papers in Britain and the outstanding organ of Tory reaction in Scot-
land, carried an editorial on the subject, entitled, ‘The Big Lie.’ Part
of that owlish editorial wisdom read—‘Since the whole of the available
strength of the Finnish army can scarcely have amounted to very
much more than 300,000, M. Molotov’s claim of Finnish casualties makes
Thermopylae look like a Sunday school picnic.”

The answer to the Herald editorial came a few days later, on April
4, in a telegram to a concert held in Queen’s Hall, London, in aid of the
Finnish Whites. The telegram was from Finnish Minister Gripenberg,
at that time in Helsinki.

It read—"Finnish government and people grateful to you and your
helpers for Sibelius concert. Help still urgently needed for population
of over 400,000 homeless and over 300,000 wounded soldiers who need
care.”

When our press published Molotoy’s figures they were not accom-
panied by sneers or gibes, because we knew they were approximately
correct They were even underestimated, since Gripenberg’s figures
are those of the Mannerheim government.

So it is with all the news you read in the Advocate. To err is human,
and since we are only human, mistakes will creep in occasionally, but
there is no distortion of, belittling or concealing the truth.

This is why the workers of BC, who are victimized, cheated and
beguiled, by the capitalist press, should read and support the Advocate,
financially as well as morally. This is why every class conscious
worker should help to raise the $3500 sustaining fund the paper is
appealing for today,

Do you catch on?

About Three Speeches
EH CANADIANS should be very grateful to Montagu Norman for
lending us the invaluable services of Graham F. Towers. Undoubt-
edly, we could not run ‘our’ Bank of Canada without Montagu Norman’s
agent as governor.

We need his advice too—and we are getting it. Addressing the
Montreal Canadian Club on April 22 he told us that we Canadians
would have to cut our luxuries and non-essentials to the minimum.
However, we are glad to learn that it is only in material things that
we will have to make sacrifices, “not in liberty of thought and action.”
Graham Towers, apparently, is going to abolish the War Measures Act.

if the advice to cut out luxuries is addressed to Sir Edward Beatty,
Sir Herbert Holt and other Canadian Club guzzlers and high-rollers
like them, it is OK by me, These birds will wolf as much (stated in
money terms) at one dinner, as would maintain a single unemployed
worker at the starvation levels of the relief Bumbles for three months.
Their wine bill alone, on occasion, will buy more hamburgers than
would satisfy even Wimpy.

But Towers cannot be referring to these ‘great leaders,” for three
days later Sir Edward Beatty, speaking at the annual meeting of the
Consolidated Mining and Smelting company, let out a squawk about
the hard lot of the shareholders of the unfortunate company and their
fellow entrepreneurs,

The annual report of the Consolidated showed that they made
$9,338,585 net profit on a $16,000,000 investment for the year 1939. They
also increased their net working capital by $4,472,229 during the year,
which must also be considered as profit as it could only come out of
their slaves, past or present, as did also the $4,472,229 increase in the
assets over the previous year.

Notwithstanding this enormous volume of something for nothing, Sir
Edward protested on behalf of himself and his poverty-stricken fellow
reliefers “the extra production made necessary by the war require-
ee should not be subjected to proportionately higher rate of -
ation.” ER ooe

Towers’ luxury talk must be meant for somebody else, for later in his
address Beatty cheered his audience with the infommation that it is
expected that in the next session of parliament, careful attention will
be given to the Exess Profits Tax act, and it may be amended “to
overcome its objectionable features.”

Towers’ remarks were probably meant for the 90 percent of Canada’s
population referred to in another speech delivered in Vancouver by
Hon. George Hoadley, before the Local Council.of Women, members of
the Metropolitan Health board and some welfare workers, a few days
before the governor of the Bank of Canada made his historic pro-
nouncement.

According to Hon. Hoadley, only 10 percent of the Canadian people
have family incomes large enough to enable them to have adequate
medical attention. That is one of the reasons why Ganada has the
largest infant mortality rate among the white races of the Mmpire;
why only four other countries are worse than Canada in the percentage
of mothers who die in giving birth to children; why 6500 Canadians
die every year of tuberculosis. These are Hoadley’s figures.

These conditions are necessary so that the Consolidated may wallow
in profit. But the people who suffer them cannot make any further
sacrifices, even to please Towers. They have cut out all luxuries but
one—the luxury of living; and Hoadley’s figures show that they are
cutting that luxury out, too!

Some System, This

2) |] (eee eee engineer wants job, factory or sawmill, improving
labor-saving machinery.” Box —, Sun. This advertisement from

the ‘Situations Wanted’ column of a Vancouver paper, could only

appear in the capitalist press. It certainly could not find a place in a

Soviet newspaper.

This unemployed advertiser recognizes that the only way he can get
a chance to eat, is to get the boss to allow him to squeeze two or more
others who have jobs, into the place in the unemployed ranks he is
trying to escape from.

That is capitalism at its best; the same intelligent system which is
responsible for the state of affairs indicated by another advertisement
in the other Vancouver paper about the same time which read: “Col-
lege graduate wants work any kind. Experienced dishwasher.” Is
capitalism really a SYSTEM?

What is the Fijth Column?

4 ee FIFTH column in Britain is to be rounded up, according to the
press, and the main fire is being directed against the Communists
by the ultra-reactionaries in this Fifth column talk.

What is the Fifth column in the war of democracy against fascism?
It is the mass of hidden fascists behind the democratic front.

Who gave Hitler the money to buld his army, his navy, and his air-
fleet? Who surrendered to Hitler at Munich the 40 divisions of the
Czechoslovak army with their entire equipment, including the largest
gun works in Europe at Skoda? Who allowed the fascist forces to
emerge victorious over Spanish democracy through the non-intervention
plan? Who refused to discuss the possibilities of a collective security
plan with the Soviet Union except through foreign office clerks without
power to act?

These are the forces of the Wifth column in Britain in conjunction
with papers like the Daily Mail and the Observer. Certainly none of
them are or were Communist even in tendency.

SPECIAL!
WHILE YOU WAIT
Men’s Half Soles re]

and Rubber Heels 2b O09
Ladies’ Half Soles - - G5¢é

Empire Shoe Repairs

66 East Hastings Street