i = f FOR PEACE, PROGRESS AND DEMOCRACY ¢ VANCOUVER, B.C., FRIDAY, MAY 17, 1940 LSE ® 5 Cents DEFEND THE PEOPLE'S PRESS ‘THE FREEDOM of the peopie to have their own press is their fundamental democratic right. For this right William Lyen Mackenzie a century ago fought against the Family Compact in Upper Canada and Amor De Cosmos against the auto- } cratic rule of Sir James Douglas in colonial British Columbia. For defending this right men are being }persecuted and imprisoned. What is the free press? Is it the venal daily press which long ago became an integral part of imonopoly capitalism? No, it is the people’s press, ‘supported by them and responsible to them. This | right of the people to have their own press has already been partially destroyed in Canada, and the few remaining militant labor papers, of which the Advocate is one, are threatened. (Continued on Page Stx) Ttaly’s Role Analysed By Soviet Newspaper MOSCOW, USSR.—Trud, Soviet trade union paper, last week declared that Italy's threats are designed to prevent any Allied action in the Balkans while Mussolini waits for a favor- able moment to push his own plans. : Single Jobless Get $13.20 —And That Is All, Provincial Gov’t Rules In New Policy Single unemployed men in Vancouver were this week con- fronted with the provincial government’s new policy, which offers those between the “ages of 18 and 25 years a BY a j 7 f ‘ i ; i month’s relief—$13.20 in cash. This sum is supposed to keep the men until they can find work, after which no further assistance will be given. Each group will be struck off relief in weekly relays starting with the first mentioned age group and continuing with those in five- year groupings until the age of 59 is reached. Ex-servicemen will be considered last. The new policy enunciated by Labor Minister G. S. Pearson in re- ply to Relief Project Workers’ union letter seeking information on five cases stricken from relief rolls is said to be a regular reduction during summer months. The min- ister denied that the government has made any declaration on re- ducing relief expenditures by 50 percent. : ‘We do not propose to give help to people who should be able to help themselves, if we can satisfy ourselves that this is the posiiton,” stated Pearson. TWO TAKE LIVES. : But this new policy failed to give any reason why Vernon Harte, a 53-year-old semi-invalid was cut 'off relief and finally took his own life, nor does it explain why further assistance was refused to 54year- ‘old world war veteran William King r |the company’s Morrison, whose body was taken from Fraser River last Saturday. (Continued on Page 2) See JOBLESS Tobaceo Profits Soar; Consumer Reeeives Less TORONTO, Ont. — While the consumer gets nine ciga- rettes instead of ten or a smaller package of tobacco, the annual report issued by Tuckett Tobacco Company, id. for the year ending March 31, 1940, shows that prouit in- creased by nearly 40 percent. Wet profits are shown as $602,480 as compared to $440,153 for the previous year. Dividends paid totalled $415,000. “The British government has de- cided to undertake a number of precautionary measures in the Med- iterranean which give the impres- Sion of the start of a blockade,’ Trud wrote. “Reports from Rome permit one to think that the United States government is ready to help carry through this blockade by barring American merchant shipping from the Mediterranean. “These measures announced in London are explained by the hos- tile tone of the Italian press. For several years the Italian press has repeatedly waged an anti-British campaign. Nevertheless this line of the Italian press never led to such counter-measures by Britain. “Tt is possible that the concen- tration of the Anglo-French fleet in the eastern Mediterranean is preliminary to an attempt to Switch the center of military oper- ations to the Near East, particu- larly to the Balkan peninsula. ‘Tt is possible, however, that this concentration is merely designed to divert the enemy's attention from another sector where a new exten- sion of the theatre of military op- perations is really being prepared. ITALY’S MOTIVES. “The war in the Mediterranean can be a war of big dimensions and would cost both sides very dearly. What motives, then may urge Italy to immediate action? : “There can be no doubt that Italy's program is for the partition- ing of world bases and the striving to become master of the Mediter- Tanean. It is also known that Italy, as early as the end of 1938, put forth demands for Tunis, Corsica, Nice and Savoy. “The point is not the program however, but how and when to ful- fil it Italy’s careful position gives all grounds for presuming that Mussolini is awaiting the most suitable moment to put througa his program, the moment when the war risk for Italy will be reduced to the minimum. “This risk will be at a minimum only when all the war cards of the belligerent parties have been thrown on the table and to a con- siderable degree played through. And when Italy then would come forward with fresh forces, it would be able to give supremacy to one or the other camp. “Tt is hardly likely that Italian action in the Mediterranean would make possible a rapid ending of the war. Italy cannot undertake an ex- tended war because of its economic weakness, the absence of raw ma- terials and particularly war indus- try raw materials. “Ttaly’s threats are designed to prevent any Allied actions in the Balkans. Any violation of the neu- trality of the Balkan countries would immediately result in action by Italy. The threat of such action may exert influence of the plans for establishment of a new war base in the Balkans. “Tf, nevertheless, the Allies do not give up these plans, then, and only then, will Italy enter the war. BAN PROFITEERS URGES TELFORD Seamen’s Conciliation Hits Snag Union Declines To Proceed In Face Of Companies’ Attitude TORONTO, Ont. (CUN) — Charging that shipowners were “deliberately trying to scuttle our organization and failed to live up to the terms of the pro- visional agreement which brought about the strike armistice,” President J. A. Pat’ Sullivan, president of the Ca- madian Seamen’s union told a conciliation board hearing this week that the union would not present its case until the ship- Ping companies showed a greater disposition to cooper- ate. “Whatever was the agreement as to the status quo pending the com- pletion of these proceedings should be adhered to in good faith,” Jus- tice AMicTague, _ boara Said. “It is certainly to be regret- ted if things of the type you men- tion are going on,’ McTague told Sullivan. Sullivan charged that the com- panies were continuing to discrim- inate aginst union members and that “one third of the hands on the forward deck of the freighter Ar- lington which sunk recently were green men.” “Unless we get the owners’ co-operation we can make No progress here,” Sullivan said. “Our membership is becoming restless and doubt that we are be- ing met half way.” Sullivan further asserted that the companies were encouraging the idea that “so long as this board is in sesion they can do anything they like.” The hearing adjourned for one week. Charge Labor Dep’t Biased TIMMINS, Ont.—Charging that the federal labor department adopt- ed a biased attitude during the re- cent seamen’s strike, Porcupine District Trades and Labor council has sent a sharply worded protest to Labor Minister Norman Mc- Larty. The resolution contends that the demands of the seamen ‘were reas- onable’and that negotiations were proceeding favorably with a num- ber of companies when the depart- ment of labor announced that any strike action would be ‘illegal.’ This action, the resolution states, ‘resulted in negotiations being broken off’ and placed the depart- ment of labor in the position of favoring ‘open-shop relations’ be- tween employers and employees. TORONTO, Ont.—In a letter to Prime Minister King, district 5, council of United Electrical, Radia and Machine Workers, has severely criticized the federal labor depart- ment for its attitude in the recent dispute between the Seamen’s union and Great Lakes shipping companies. ©. S. Jackson, international vice- president, accused labor depart- ment officials of “a flagrant mis- use of powers” and with failure to carry out its duty of “facilitating collective bargaining.” chairman was learned here recently. Street Carmen To Vote Union Will Ballot On Proposals Made By Commissioner Street Railwaymen will bal- lot May 23 on whether they will accept or reject BCHlecitric Railway company’s proposals for renewal of the agreement as transmitted to them through James Thomson, appointed con- -eliation’- commissioner after negotiations with the company broke down on the wage in- crease issue. Chief proposals offered by the company are: a full two weeks (90 hours) holiday with pay, in place of the present 8-day holiday for em- ployes of over one year’s service, and 5% days (45 hours) holiday with pay for employes of less than one year’s service. Despite the increase in prices of all commodities, particularly food and other essentials, the company has made no proposal for higher wages. WAGE INCREASE ASKED. The three divisions at Victoria, Wew Westminster and Vancouver Placed a 10 percent wage increase for all platform men (motormen and conductors) and a 15 percent increase for trackmen and some barnmen as one of the major points toe be included in the new agree- ment, but the company stated it would consider other questions if the wage demands were dropped. A large number of employes fee] that any new agreement must contain wage increases to counter- balance rising living costs and point out that if collieries and the paper mills at Ocean Falls and Powell River can grant their employes wage boosts, the BCElectric can. Sees Monopolies Controlling Gov’t MELBOURNE, Australia — By Mail)—Charge that the Menzies federal government “is being more and more controlled, directly and indirectly, by leading monopolies,” was made by Senator Don Cameron in a recent speech to Melbourne Trades Hall council. “If the basic wage went up to £5 a week its purchasing power would not be equal to the standard of £2:2s fixed by Justice Higgins in 1917,” Cameron declared, stating that although there was a universal price increase, in his opinion the cost of production had not increas- ed, either in Australia or overseas. “There is no justification for the increase in téa and other com- modities,” he said. Anti-Conscription Rally Formation of an anti-conscription league is the anticipated outcome of a public rally to be held at 732 Seymour street next Thursday, May 23. An anti-conscription play will be a feature of the rally. Nigel Morgan, secretary of International Woodworkers of America, Margaret Ferguson and other youth speakers vitally interested in the conscription issue are billed as speakers. German Workers Beat Hitler’s Labor Decrees AMSTERDAM, Holland.— (By Mail) —German workers, led by the Communist party, have compelled the German govern- ment to withdraw, one after another, the decrees that worsened working conditions and wages at the beginning of the war, it Six months after outbreak of war not one of the decrees remained in effect, information arriving here revealed, and so strong was the impression in Germany that the workers had coerced the Nazi regime that a radio denial had to be made, The strength of the German workers is growing, and the Ger- man Communists are the guides, organizers and leaders of the awakening forces of the people according to this information. In the spring and summer of 1939 it proved possible for the first time to carry out broad, or ganized mass actions successful- ly. Five hundred thousand work- ers on the Siegfried Line follow- ed the slogan of ‘go slow.’ The day in June, 1939, when Ley an- uonced that the demands of the workers on the Siegfried Line had been granted marked a great internal political defeat for the fascist dictatorship. Then came the breaxing through by the dock workers of the decree prohibiting--wage inereases the tearing up by the miners of Goering’s decrees on working hours. These mass movements organized by the Communists were not the least of the reasons which induced Hitler to abandon the idea of a war against the Soviet Union, the information reports. Watler Ulbricht, member of the central committee of the German Communist party, declared in a re- cent article made available here: “The revelutionary workers and progressive forces in Germany, who at the cost of great sacrifices are fighting against terror and reaction, do not wish to exchange the present regime for a regime of national and social oppression by British imperialism and German big capitalists who are subservient to Britain. They are fighting against all enslavement of the working people, for a Germany in which the working people really rule.” Strike Won CALCUTTA, India—The 15,000 street cleaners striking for a wage increase here have won their fight. A war bonus to meet the rising cost of living is to be added to the men’s wages. A number of the strikers were fired on by the police and two were seriously wounded. and” Communist Ban Draws Comment Liberal MP Calls Conant’s Oshawa Speech Subversive “Why not ban the profi- teers?” was Mayor Lyle Tel- ford’s laconic comment Thurs- day when the Advocate tele- phoned him for an opinion on the action of Justice E. R. E. Chevrier of Ontario Supreme Court in granting a court order declaring the Communist party an illegal organization. Provincial CCF officials were not prepared te make any state- ment pending receipt of informa- tion from the CCE parliamentary group at Ottawa which, it was stated, has the question under con- sideration. A spokesman said, however, it was expected that the group would make ‘some protest’ The Federationist, CCF provin- cial organ, in its issue this week declared: ‘Despite the fact that Com- munists have lone been opponents of the CCE; members of the lat ter expressed disapproval of the ban on the grounds that it ‘viol- ated democratic principles and was hypocritical.’ “Progressives held that a minor political party was being banned by those who opposed its views. it was being banned because its activities were said to impair the Dominion’s war effort Yet noth- ing was being done to declare il- legal the ‘impairment of the war effort’ bound up in the profit mak- ing of the large industrial and financial corporations, who are still allowed to make a killing out of supplying war necessities.” COMMUNIST COMMENT. A spokesman for the Communist party, pointing out that the ques- tion still lacked clarification, de- clared the ban to be “the intensifi- cation of a drive against the whole labor movement. Tt is not only an attempt to suppress the Communist party because of its militant stand in the people’s interests, but it is the omnious prelude to a general drive against the trade unions where opportunist leadership has not rendered them subservient to the government’s policies. “The Canadian people have seen the historical pattern of events in Germany and lately in’ France, (Continued on Page 2) See BAN VANCOUVER WANTS NO VIGILANTES ie VANCOUVER threatened by a vigilante terror whipped up by a press campaign of chauvinism, hatred and covert incitement to violence? fronting the British Col ment against which th turned. In this city a This is the alarming question con- umbia labor and progressive move- € current campaign may soon be ‘Sixth Column’ organization with “names of those involved being kept secret for the present” has been formed among ex-servicemen. moment is directed against the While its agitation for the Nazi ‘Fifth Column’ it claims still exists in Vancouver despite ; i : pite internment of Nazis b the government in the first days of the war, the fact that it ts Campaigning for compulsory registration and extension of the War Measures Act must lead the entire labor and progressive movement to question its purpose . Subversive ele- hich can be ex- n to any and all government policies. Such an organization could be effec- conscription meetings or to smash strikes, of the last war has shown. to break up anti- as the experience (Continued on page 6) i — SP EL Pa xP Le to Som a me —ro my RTEARS woe er é are att