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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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Make All Cheques Payable to: The Advocate

VANCOUVER, B.C., FRIDAY, MAY 17, 1940

Detend The People’s Press

Coherent upon the attacks now being made upon the
Canadian labor movement, the printers of the Advocate
this week insisted upon telephoning Attorney-General Gordon
Wismer at Victoria before proceeding with this issue. Attorney-
General Wismer was noncommittal. “I have no information
and therefore I can give you no opinion,” he said.

In face of the campaign of fear and intimidation now being
directed against the labor movement and its press we call upon
the people to translate our slogan “Defend the People’s Press’
into a living force by bold action. We call upon all trade unions
and progressive organizations to lose no time in directing reso-
lutions to provincial and federal governments defending their
right to a free press. Reaction must not be allowed to gag the

labor movement by silencing its voice. The threat to the Advo-—

cate must be countered immediately by the united protest of
the progressive labor movement for which it speaks.

Vancouver Wants No
Vigilantes

HE fact that the Sixth Column is making its anti-alien

agitation the basis of its demand for compulsory registra-
tion of British subjects makes it a particularly dangerous pro-
ponent of conscription—for that, in plain words, is what the
euphemistic term compulsory registration implies. And there
are many indications that, despite all promises to the con-
trary, conscription is contemplated.

Formation of the Sixth Column follows the lavish publicity
given by the daily press to its ‘discovery’ of a Nazi ‘Fifth Col-
umn’ in South Vancouver where there is a large German
population, predominantly anti-Nazi and anti-fascist. This
press campaign, designed to whip up chauvinism and hatred,
has already had its sequel in acts of vandalism committed
against two German churches in South Vancouver. Wild
rumors were circulated that Nazi victories in Norway had been
celebrated at a third church. Investigation proved this ‘victory
celebration’ to have been a regular prayer meeting.

But where was the daily press in the years leading up to
the war when this paper, alone of all papers in this province,
exposed Nazi propaganda and organizations in Canada? Where
was the daily press when this paper exposed Italian fascist
activities in Canada? And where was the daily press when this
paper presented factual data to prove Japanese fascist activities
in British Columbia? It was too occupied in offering slavish
praise to the policy of surrendering the small powers to Nazism
to concern itself with fascist activities in Canada. It could only
call those who fought for a policy of collective security against
fascist aggression ‘warmongers.’

This paper has taken a consistently anti-fascist stand, which
is far more than can be said of some of those who a few weeks
ago were vowing to end Hitlerism and are now urging ven-
geance on the whole German people. It believes that the
German people themselves must overthrow Hitler and destroy
fascism. And it believes that in the guise of a war against fas-
cism the democratic liberties of the Canadian people are
threatened by the War Measures Act and the formation of
groups which advocate fascist methods.

This paper owes its allegiance to the Canadian workers and
farmers who make its publication possible. For their interests
it has consistently fought and will continue to fight.

It does not believe that the workers’ interests will be served
by setting Finnish and Scandinavian workers against British-
born workers, as some misguided individuals advocate. It is
true that, as one speaker at the Canadian Legion’s meeting
the other night despairingly cried, “Our sons and daughters
can’t get jobs.” But he should have blamed, not foreign-born
workers, but those monopolies now reaping super-profits from
war orders which exploit British-born and foreign-born work-
ers alike and know no race prejudice in investment of their
capital.

It is only a few months since a press campaign similar in
many respects to that now being waged in Vancouver led to
destruction of the Finnish Workers’ hall in Aberdeen, Wash.,
by a vigilante mob. This campaign, incited by the big timber
barons, culminated in the brutal murder, still ‘unsolved,’ of a
CIO official’s foreign-born wife. This shadow of vigilante terror
must not be extended to British Columbia. The labor move-
ment must act promptly.

Aiding Conscription

wit many of the sentiments expressed by Mayor Lyle
Telford from time to time the Advocate has been in
general agreement. We agree with him when he says that
profiteers should be banned. We agree with him when he states
that the profiteers should be taxed to pay for this war. But
we cannot agree with his latest proposal to register all male
citizens of Vancouver.

All Germans and Austrians are not Nazis. Many of them
are anti-fascists who were threatened by the Nazis because of
their convictions in that period not long past when no curb
was placed by the authorities on Nazi activities. We say,
intern not only Nazis but all fascists and their sympathizers,
many of whom today occupy key positions in Canada. What
about prominent Vancouver businessmen like Leo Sweeney
who, some two years ago, expressed admiration for Hitlerism
and defended his views before Vancouver Trades and Labor
council? If the Nazis have a ‘Fifth Column’ here it is among
certain Canadian fascist sympathizers that it will be found.
We suggest that Mayor Telford investigate this aspect of ‘Fifth
Column’ activities. It would be fruitful work.

By lending himself to registration proposals the mayor
is permitting himself to become the tool of those interests cam-
paigning for conscription. Registration in any form is the
prelude to conscription, and pledges that registration will not
be used for conscription will prove in 1940 as worthless as they
were in 1917. Moreover, did Mayor Telford stop to think that
compulsory registration will constitute an ideal blacklist for
use by the employers? We do not think he is prepared to
place a potent weapon in the hands of his enemies. Because
his proposal is counter to the interests of the labor-progressive
forces that elected him we urge the mayor to reconsider be-

fore it is too late.

5 de

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE

By H. MURPHY

President of Ontario Federation On Unemployment

éqN MANY minds jobless insurance is an essential war mea

days ahead.”

ble sure as it offers a form of compulsory saving to meet depression
This is what John Magor, British United Press correspondent at Ottawa, reported on May 5 anent state-

ments that at the present session of parliament the legislation promised by Prime Minister Mackenzie King since 1919 is to be

introduced. :

In this report Magor cited one
of the arguments now being ad-
vanced in favor of unemployment
insurance by big business spokes
men who in the past have con-
sistently opposed such legislation.
These arguments run along the
§eneral lines that: 1. Because un-
employment is reportedly less
now and is expected by them to
become non-existent, a large re-
serve should be accumulated dur-
ing the war, so that after the war
when unemployment will be gen-
eral a big fund to meet it will be
available, and 2, as advanced at
the Manufacturers’ Association in
an attempt to justify huge war
profits, a situation of ‘ecatastro-
phic dimensions’ can be expect-
ed after the war and therefore
manufacturers must pile up huge
reserves and profits for that
‘Tainy day’ when peace comes.
For the same reason, unemploy-
ment insurance must be intro-
duced to build a fund for that
Same ‘rainy day,’

But how will the government’s
proposed unemployment insur-
ance scheme work? In the first
place, it will be a contributory
plan, applying only to those work-
ers in a position to make their
regular contributions; this means
steadily employed workers. In
the second place, it will not cover
those industries where employ-
ment is Seasonal; this means that
loggers, sailors, longshoremen,
domestic workers and farm labor-
ers will not be included. In the
third place, in order to accumu-
late a fund, payments from both
employers and employes would be
started immediately, the employ-
ers’ contributions being charged
to wages.

Thus the employed workers will
start to build up this fund with
the probable stipulation that con-
tributions must be made over a
certain period before a contribu-
tor becomes eligible for benefits,
or alternately, that no payments
will be made to unemployed
workers ‘for the duration.’

Those now unemployed and
those rendered jobless during the
war will be compelled to exist on
increasingly inadequate relief al-
lowances where they can be ob-
tained or to take charity.

T THE same time as Graham
E. Towers, president of the
Bank of Canada, was advising the
people to restrict their expendi-
tures on commodities and seryv-
ices not essential to the war, the
King government, which lifted
the five percent restriction on
profits from war orders, was un-
dertaking economy measures at
the expense of the poorest sec-
tion of the Canadian people—the
unemployed on relief—and order-
ing drastic cuts which have vir-
tually reduced relief allowances
by 50 percent. Thousands of
people have been cut off relief
with no hope of obtaining employ-
ment,

Big business spokesmen with
an assumed optimism belied by
official figures claim that unem-
ployment is disappearing in the
Inmagic solvent of war contracts.
Perhaps they can delude them-
selves into believing that because
profits are ascending in sharp
curves the people likewise must
have more money. Perhaps they
think that the mere fact of the
government's wholesale reduction
of relief appropriations in itself
is leading to greater employment,
Or perhaps they are trying to
create an impression which is
easily dispelled by figures pub-
lished in the Labor Gazette.

In the April issue of the Labor
Gazette the following figures on
unemployment are given: In
Sept., 1939, there were 539,013
persons on relief, 488,984 in ur-
ban areas, 50,029 in rural areas,
But in Feb., 1940, there were 745,-
000 persons on relief, of whom
636,000 were in urban areas and
109,000 in rural areas. These fig-
ures in both instances fail to take
into account the thousands of
unemployed persons not receiy-
ing relief, the men and women
disqualified on various grounds,
the transient unemployed and the
jobless dependent on their fam-
ilies.

it can, of course, bes argued
that during September there is
more seasonal employment and
that the apparent increase dur-
ing the first six months of war
does not represent the actual sit-
uation. But comparing the fig-
ures for Feb., 1939, and ¥Feb.,
1940, it is clear that while there
has been a drop in farm relief
there has been little decrease in
city relief. In Feb., 1939, there
was a total of 1,018,667 persons on
relief, but more than 389,400 of
these were in rural areas.

(hae are no grounds for be-
i lieving that work for the ma-
jority of Canada’s unemployed
will become available during the
war. While war industries, it is
true, are expanding, there is an
increased speedup with greater
machine production per indivi-
dual. At the same time there is
increasing unemployment in
other industries. Public works are
at a standstill. There is little
read construction. The building
trades are slack. Many overseas
markets are closed, while ship-
Ping restrictions are further cur-
tailing those markets still open.
Heavy taxation and rising prices
are reducing the living standards
of the people. The dictum that
living standards must be sacri-
ficed to war needs is leading the
majority of the people into great-
er poverty. Only the financial
Statements of the big monopolies
with their swollen profits justify
the optimism of big business. For
the people there remains the
prospect of reduced social serv-
ices, lower grants for education,
atrophied relief allowances and

HOW PARIS WORKERS
MARKED COMMUNE

now a new wage levy to restrict
still further their consumption
power.

It is vitally important that em-
ployed and unemployed workers
continue to press. for real unem-
ployment insurance that will
cover the needs of those now un-
employed and that they expose
the scheme to impose a compul-
sory wage tax on those now em-
ployed in the guise of unemploy-
ment insurance. Real unemploy-
ment insurance can only be of a
non-contributory character, de
Signed to cover all unemployed
persons regardless of industry.

it should be sufficient to provide
@ decent standard of living and
it should not be based on low re-
lief rates that have led to deter-
ioration of employability.

The fight for social services —
Must be continued. Why should

War costs be met at the expense

of the poorest of our people? The
alternative to reduced relief with
no available employment for Gan- ©
ada's unemployed youth, to the ~
slum conditions of our Cities, is

the imposition of-heayy taxes
on the big: monopolies whose fig=
ures reveal beyond question the
profits now being made.

THE FORUM
OF THE PEOPLE

[Peete are invited to send in letters for publication i
under this heading. Letters may be written on any sub-
ject, but they must be concise because of space limitations.

Views expressed are not necessarily those of the Advocate.

Cost Of Intervention

To the Editor,—In reviewing the pamphlet Finland and the
Soviet Union, I find very important figures were omitted on

page 26.

According to excerpts taken
from Winston Churchill’s papers,
Britain spent nearly $300,000,000
in efforts to defeat the Soviet
Union in 1918.. France spent half
that sum, but no estimate was
given on what it cost Canada, US
and other countries which had
armies in Russia.

At that time the Soviet Union
was struggling in its infancy,
when famine stalked the land,
mines were flooded and many in-
dustries wrecked by whiteguards
to prevent the workers from
using them.

In brief, these were some of the
great obstacles the new-born re-
public had to contend with and
yet it survived and flourished un-
til today the USSR now occupies
a very formidable position to talk
peace and conduct trade pacts

With any country in Europe, or
defended itself against aggression.

It was the Soviet Union that
stopped Hitler's march through
Poland, and many people now
commend, when they formerly
condemned, the prompt action of
the Soviet Union in saying mil-
lions of lives and prevented de
struction of valuable property,

The people of Poland vwel-
comed the intervention of the So-
viet Union after their government
and nobility fled, and it is very
encouraging to note Britain and
France do not intend to ques-
tion or contest the annexed ter
ritory now incorporated in the
Union of Soviet Socialist Repub-
lies. -

—A. GM. .

Vancouver, BC.

Polities In The Trade Unions

To the Editor,—I am ‘surprised’ at Jamieson, Showler and |

Bengough, the so-called labor leaders, introducing politics in
the trades council, because Jamieson at one time supported the
Non-Partisan League candidate, whose main plank was ‘No

politics at the city hall”

Now it appears that he and Bill Green of the American
Federation of Labor, are introducing politics into Canadian

unions and Vancouver Trades and Labor council. Jamieson .

must have had a change of heart.

Northlands, BC.

OLD UNION MAN.

May Day Statement

To the Editor,—The 1940 May Day committee has asked
me to request publication of the following financial state-

ment:

INCOME

Cash Balance, 1939 __.._.._.......
Donations, 1940 -.......-...-2..---...--
Collections on May Day -..........
Advertising Proceeds -..............

qe months ago, on March 18, Paris workers celebrated the

anniversary of the Paris Commune, not by great open
parades as in former years when 100,000 workers marched
past the Pere La Chaise cemetery to exchange salutes with
Maurice Thorez, Marcel Cachin and other leaders of the now
outlawed Communist party, but in little groups.

The demonstrators arrived in groups of two or three, per-
haps as occasion presented itself, of a dozen or more. By a
strange coincidence, every mourner carried a bunch of red
flowers. If he or she carried the national tricolor, the white
and blue were casually folded away in order not to hide the
red.

If some were humming the Merseillaise, how could the
watchful gendarmes and Gardes Mobiles take exception to the
French revolutionary hymn that is now accepted even by the
Daladiers, the Blums and the Flandins in the seats of power?

And if some by chance murmured the words of the Inter-
nationale, what answer could the police give to the simple
explanation that this time, born in the Paris Commune itself,
was surely appropriate for its anniversary?

Moreover, if some of these Paris workers, pausing by the
graves of the murdered Communards and saying softly,
“T iberte, Fraternite, Egalite ou la mort,” by chance added, “Les
Soviets partout,” what could the gendarmes do?

The perpetual wreaths on the graves of the Commune
leaders glow richly red as if they were drenched with fresh
blood; the simple tombstones in this magnificent cemetery
bear testimony to the terror the leaders of the Commune faced.
All France remembers it, because this is a national tradition
that even bourgeois historians dare not completely obscure.
And the working class men and women who for years have
led the fight against fascism are not afraid of batons.

i oe i *s Paris, with its

As Marx wrote in May, 1871: “Workingmen's , wit
Commune, will forever be celebrated as the glorious harbinger
of a new society. Its martyrs are enshrined in the great heart

of the working class.” .

Advertising Program (receivable)

Total Income 3.2

EXPENDITURE
Printing: ..c600.). cee i ee $ 91.20
Sound Erucks 22 oe 50.00
CCE Band ee ee ee 20.00
Guest Speaker's Travelling Expenses —..---.--------- 20.00
RadiovAdvertising 6.5 14.00
Secretary, Ss: Mxpenses=..< 2 <  eee 9.90
Banners (Material and Painting) _...W.- 2. 7.16
Carfare (Committee Members and Band) —............. 6.25
Publiett ys Gar: 55 ee ee 6.00
Stationery and Stamps 2=<.--.. = 5.40
Platform (Decorations and Cartage) .... 4.50
RPWU: Hloatierize:) eee eee 5.00
Miscellaneous =. toe ee ee 10.33

Accounts Payable:

Broadway Printers (Printing) —_....... ee
The Advocate (Advertising) —......

The Federationist (Advertising)
Housewives’ League Prize... ee

Total’ Mxpenditurces: 2.5. ns eee

A Dprge sxe BRE Bas) Seas ess ee
i Eal clo} eal 4 se pe ee ere ee 265.39
MSCS SU ee ee $ 15.31

The May Day committee takes this opportunity to extend
its appreciation to all organizations and individuals assisting
financially in this year’s celebration.

Donations from organizations which have not yet con-| $

tributed will be appreciated, in view of the deficit. All funds |
should be sent to James Thompson, May Day Committee chair-)
man, 138 Hast Cordova street. ~

Vancouver, BC.

a