Pound the
Slipways
By Charles Saunders

+i report handed down by the CCL-appointed commission
‘to investigate the situation arising from recent elections
1e Boilermakers and Iron Shipbuilders is causing great con-

y job is, “We elected this executive and we intend to stand
“word hem. » ‘The intention expressed in the report to issue indus-
re 4| charters to groups within the shipyards is to anyone
hs #iliar with the problems of the last two years a move which
j only lead to disruption and break up the unity which the
: th yns have managed to maintain so far.

sa@lbe strength of the shipyard unions until now has been in
wear ability to sink the differences arising from various affili-
subj ns and to meet in the shipyard conference to discuss mutual
utePslems. AFI. and CCL unions have established a working
y by this method which can only be continued and ex-
led on the basis of mutual trust and confidence.

Any issuance of all-inclusive industrial charters must in-
fably lead to clashes and jurisdictional disputes between the
major trade union centres. Anyone who has observed the
strous consequences of jurisdictional disputes both to or-
ized labor and to preduction below the line will protest any
impt to introduce such disputes into the Vancouver ship-
} ding industry.

e

LTHOUGH other CCL unions have not been mentioned
7 in the report, and the Dock and Shipyard Workers, who
te charged with the [WA and the Vancouver Labor Council,
'e apparently been absolved, yet the issuance of industrial
trters to other groups cannot be regarded as anything else
9 an attack upon those unions also holding agreements with
yyard operators.
=ilhe Vancouver Labor Council has asked the CCL Execiu-
to reconsider its decisions. To those of us who have
tked consistently over a long period to bring harmony,
siency and sound working conditions to the shipyard indus-
it is essential that the report not only be reconsidered but
+ a report more in line with the realities of the existing situ-
nm be brought down to make provisions for the reestablish-
it of trade union democracy and lay the basis for a genuine
*kable unity between all workers in all shipyard unions.

EV ELDING has played a prominent part in the mass produc-
tion system of shipbuilding which revolutionized the in-
dry on this continent. There has been much speculation on
merits of welding as compared with riveting in the building
“ ?ships, and it has long been the contention of old shipyard
aig 2kers that welded ships will not stand up and are not to be
nd) opared with the seaworthiness of riveted ships. :

1 The recent sinking of the tanker Schenectady whose plates
¢ked mid-ships causing the vessel to sink at the outfitting
*k has caused renewed speculation on the value of the two
Pethoeds of construction.

ts There is no doubt that welding has played a great part in
?eding up ship construction and especially lends itself to pre-
jrication and mass production. However, it is evident that
ich has yet to be learned in the welding field before it can
place riveting for construction of seaworthy vessels.
J, Lewis Laickenbach, president of the American Bureau
Shipbuilding, commenting that welded steel has frequently
ove: Way, stated that this does not occur in riveted ships
¢cause of greater flexibility. It is interesting to note that

4

‘ablished many records in the building of cargo vessels,
#mmented, on the sinking of the tanker Schenectady, “We
ive many problems every day, and it is our job to solve them.

Speed i in the Building of ships is of primary importance in
néier to offset the effect of the Axis U-boat campaign.

) 1 understand that much more welding is contemplated in
struction of cargo vessels in Vancouver shipyards. No
a4Ubt enquiries into the cause of welded vessels sinking will
ve some bearing on this. The investigation and further study
i welding processes may eliminate faults and reveal new ways
assembling and | prefabricating to do away with pulls and

Wesses that cause breaks in steel plates.

IN REVIEW

HOSTAGES—by Stefan Heym
—G. P. Putman’s Sons —
$3.00.

HE 29-year-old German-born
author of this book knows from
personal experience the whole story
of Nazi terror in Europe. A con-

tributoer to leading democratic
journals in Germany before Hitler,
he was marked out for attention
by. Hitler’s storm troopers, and
in 1933 his father was seized as a
hostage in his place. Released after
six weeks, he later committed sui-
cide. Stefan in the meantime had
escaped across the border -into
Czecholslovakia, where he contin-
ued his writing. Coming to Amer-
ica in 1935, he was for some years
editor of the German-language
anti-Nazi wekly, “Deutsches Vol-
ksecho,” in New York.

One would expect realism in a
novel about German occupation of
Czechoslovakia by a man who him-
self has suffered from the Nazi
steamroller. This novel tells the
story of five men rounded up and
held for the murder of a German
officer, all of whom are innocent
of any knowledge of the affair.

The officer, in fact, was not
murdered, but committed suicide.
But in an endeavor to maintain
the prestige of the German army
of occupation, officialdom tries to
keep up the pretense of a murder
that was never committed.

Even the wealthy industrialist,
who aided the conquerers is doom-
ed, though he never gives up his
belief that for his help he will be
freed. But now that the Nazis
haye his properties they no longer
need him, and he dies with the
rest, protesting to the last and at-

tempting to buy his freedom, fail-7

ing to comprehend that now the
Wazis have everything, he is as poor
and as powerless as the rest.

In fact, these poor ones, these
powerless ones, have something he
could never possess.

“Tt is unfortunate,” says Pro-
kosch, “that you will be executed
with us. To the world this will
give the impression that you be-
long to us. Your blood will soil
the cleanliness of our death. The
fact that your greasy name will

appear beside urs on future
death lists fills me with disgust.”

Janoshik, the lowly caretaker of
a beer saloon, emerges as a per-
son of character and purpose, able
to comprehend the scheme of
things and to regard his coming ex-
ecution as a part of that scheme.
He is able to endure the torture so
expertly meted out by the Nazis
by keeping always in his mind mat-
ters “so important, so great that
they can overwhelm the pain:

“Important was whether- the
Watslik address had been picked
up by the longshoremen. Import-
ant was whether the munitions
barges would blow up in time. Im-
portant was whether he was able
to bargain his stubborn silence for
the lives of thousands of Russian
soldiers on the Eastern front,
against whom the load of the barges
was to be used. Important was that
those Russian soldiers fought on,
and with their fight,
free his little country, his Prague,
and the miners of Kladno and the
farmhands of Moravia. Important
was that he held his post. Others
before him had done it, and he
would do it too.”

When members of the under-
ground organization succeed in
broadcasting the facts of the Ger-
man officer’s suicide, the auto-
cratic German officer Reinhardt
sees his own doom approach. The
girl Milada, brought in for ques-
tioning, can tell him what is to
come.

“It's easy for you to get the

jump on us because we prefer the

helped to

tranquillity of home and lIove,
of working and singing and fish-
ing. But just this tranquillity,
this minding our own business—
this it is which people will rise
to defend.”

The book gives some excellent
characterizations of the peaceful
working people of Prague, caught
in a net of villainry and suppressed
by the most vicious organized gang-
sters the world has yet known. it
tells of their turning from bewilder-
ment to a growing understanding,
from a stunned passivity to active
resistance and hatred.

“Pravda vitezil” “Truth will
conquer.” Thus died Janoshik, a
plain man, a son of his people.

But the shots of the firing squad
are echoed by tremendous explo-
sions as the munitions barges are
blown up. “Janoshik’s head was
cocked as though, dead, he still
was listening for the thunder which
had come too late for his life.”

“Out there, your hostages are
dead,’ cries Milada to the Commis-
soner cringing on the floor in an
effort to protect himself from
bombs. “But the men who killed
them huddle behind doors in fear
of the millions of Janoshiks you
ean’t reach. And this is only the
first slight. tremor of the earth.
There will be a time when it opens
up under your feet, and you perish
in darkness and oblivion.”

And the crowning humiliation is
still to come for this proud Nazi
organizer of torture and death.

Hie must now sign a letter of resig-
nation for having failed miserably
in his task of protecting the inter-
ests of the Reich and the Feuhrer.

And transfer to the Russian front
in his punishment. Someone must
be the goat, in explaining the gi-
gantie fiasco of the hostages and
the blowing up of the munitions
barges, and terror spreads through
the organizations of the conquer-
ors.

“You don’t expect me to jeopard-
ize my position to protect a blund-
ering idiot?’ the Protector asks.

There was nothing Reinhardt could’

say. —ELSIE ANDERSON.

Letters

to the

Editor

Seores Closing
OF Department

Editor, The People,

Sir: I would like space in your
valuable paper to draw public at-
tention to what I consider a very
bad letdown in Canada’s war ef-
fort on the production front.
Some two weeks ago the Boeing
Aireraft on Sea Island cut out a
whole shift in the sheet metal
shop. This action means that
thousands of dollars worth of ma-
chines are lying idle one-third of
the time when planes are so ur-
gently needed by our fighting air-
men.

It is even worse, as these ma-
ehines are bought from public
funds and carry metal tabs show-
ing the ownership of the depart-
ment of munitions and supply.
Wot only do these machines rest
idle, but the workers (many of
them trained at government ex-
pense) who formerly manned
them have been transferred to
other work where their training
and skill is largely lost. In fact,
quite a number were so demoral-
ized that they turned in their
notice.

I cannot see, after all the public
pledges of all-out production by
that government and this company,
why they can so complacently shut
down a full shift in this basic
air craft shop.

—A BOEING WORKER.

Wishes The

People Success

To the Editor.

Sir: May I congratulate you on
the continued excellence of your
paper. My copy is continually in
demand and several of my friends
have taken out subscriptions after
reading an issue.

Wishing you continued success.

A SHIPYARD WORKER.

V321 12/29

“Saves tires, and I get eight days to the gallon...~

Carry

Sma Buxpres

ware /

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DRoay

FOR oi