6 Prince Rupert O.K.’s Halibut Season Plan PRINCE RUPERT.—Halibut fishermen and vessel owners here have endorsed the proposals previously adopted by the Vancouver fleet on halibut prices for the 1943 season, it was learned this week. The plan drawn up by the fishermen is de- signed to affect stability of halibut prices and assure efficient distribution and allocation of the catch, : This will be done by making the price ceiling -for Canadian pro- ducers the same as that applied by OPA at Washington, plus one cent per pound to allow for ex- change on U.S. funds and duty charges; by allocating landings to buyers proportionally on the basis of the total coastwise purchases of these buyers over the last five-year period; establishing the Halibut Marketing Board of B.C. to act in an advisory capacity to govern- ment representatives in Vancouver and Rupert; and by maintaining the ceiling price as a floor price, thus creating a single flat price for all halibut landings. o Flat prices for Butedale and Rupert were also proposed to ab- sorb “shipping charges from these points. Exndorsation by the Rupert fleet followed a visit. of W. LT. Burgess, secretary-treasurer of the Fisher- men’s Union, and Robert Ekrem, to Prince Rupert to outline the plan. The proposals have now been wired to the Wartime Prices and Trade Board for government de- cision. While Prince Ruperts great halibut fleet is being overhauled and got into trim for the halibut fishing season, which begins April 16, the Deep-Sea Fishermen's Union of Prince Rupert, an unaffiliated, independent body, is confronted with the problem of establishing unity with other coast fishermen. The UEFFU is offering amalgama- tion to the Prince Rupert union, and members feel that this move would be a big step forward in the solving of all problems in the in- dustry, including those of prices. UE Officers to Visit Britain, Soviets NEW YORK.—(ALN)—In order that the union “may see what con- tribution it can make toward bring- ing about closer relations among the labor movements of the United Nations,” the general executive board of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers (CIO) this week voted to send its presi- dent, Albert Fitzgerald, and secre- tary-treasurer Julius EXmspak, on a mission to Britain and the Soviet Union. The UE, with nearly 500,000 miembers, is the third largest union in the CIO. } Similar action was taken last| month by the executive board of the United Automobile and Aircraft Workers, biggest IO affiliate. Emspak, like R. J. Thomas, DAW president, is a member of Presic| dent Roosevelt's Joint Labor Vic-/ tory Board. Fitzgerald is one of the} CIO's ten vice-presidents. Rupert. A, Communist Talks Sense The following cditorial entitled “A Communist Talks Sense” is reprinted from the columns of the “Daily News? of Prince E HAVE been to a Communist meeting and heard from Fergus McKean, released anti-Fascist, as patri- jis necessary otic and as sensible a war speech as anybody could wish for. We think we are justified in saying this for Mr, Mc- Kean, who not so many months ago was languishing in an internment camp where he was associated with German Nazis and Italian Fascists whose doctrines he came, as a result of the direct contact, to detest even further than he had before. He seemed to be quite sincere about what he was saying. If what Mr. McKean said about Russia and the Soviet system is true we might well do with some of it. Soviet Russia, he declared, was not a dictatorship but the epitome of democracy. -In Russia, he said, every one had to work and there was reward for individual service. There was no toleration for drones anywhere. Mr. McKean also said that there was little to be gained by talking about changing the system while the war was to be won. Such discussions could only tend to disunite us at a time when there was need of the greatest measure of unity—capitalists, socialists, employees, work- ers all—in the great effort to win the war. First the war must be won. Then could come the setting up of the new system, the reconstruction in the planning of which there should be participation in proportion to the measure of effectiveness in winning the war. ; It was sound wartime procedure that Mr. McKean propounded, a good deal sounder and more helpful than has been heard from certain other socialist groups which profess Jess radicalism than the Communists, groups which spend a lot-of time and energy in political discus- sions which, to say the least of it, are not tending to unite us in our prime task of getting down to winning the war. One of the many halibut boats that will set out for northern waters at the opening of if : season on April 16. B.C. fishermen have pledged to maintain and increase produce’ | this year in support of Canada’s war effort. ss Burgess Praises Co-op Role PRINCE RUPERT. — Al- though-unions are doing a re- markable job of unifying work- ers to obtain better working conditions, they often overlook the amazing role that can be played by co-ops, Bill Burgess, Fishermen’s Union president, told a meeting of a cooperative in- _stitute held here March 31 to April 2. This was not deliberate, he felt, but was due to a lack of education on cooperatives and their role in the working class movement. “Co-ops are genuine people's or- ganizations,” he added, “and unity between all people’s organizations. Joint union . and | co-op councils, coupled with an in- tensive educational program, could establish this unity.” Other speakers also stressed the need for closer relations between labor organizations and cooper- atives. L. H. G&G Phillips, representing the Cooperative Wholesale Society of BC, pointed out that while unions filled a necessary role, wage increases meant little when prices rise accordingly. A. J. Wirick, of Department of University Extension, who opened the institute, explained that the Dominion Department of Fisheries makes a prant to the University Extension Department for the pur- pose of carrying on educational work on cooperatives among the fishermen. “The extension department,” stated Wirick, “bases its work on the people’s wishes, as a step to- ward the formation of a university of the people. People have asked for an extensive educational cam- paign on cooperatives, and the de- ‘partment is willing to service other groups who make similar re- quests.” If proper representations were made to the university, unions could secure moving pictures, lec- tures, reading material and field workers, he added. C€F Convention Forthéoming provincial conven- tion of the CCF will discuss amend- ments to the constitution to per- mit affiliation of trade unions to the party, it was announced here this week. A ‘committee under chairman- ship of Mrs. Dorothy Steeves, MLA, is preparing a statement on poli- cies to be followed by a CCE pro- vincial government, for considera- tion of delegates to the convention. Growers Ra Seed Policy | Fred Choate, president of the Potato Growers Associ Surrey, this week scored the “short-sighted policy of the ernment” in allowing carloads of certified seed potatoes ing in Vancouver to be diverted to the consumer mart table stock. “These potatoes should have been controlled by the government and sold to the farmers at a rea- sonable price,’ Choate said in an interview with The People. “If such a policy had been followed, a good many farmers who are not going to be able to-grow potatoes this year for lack of seed would haye been|cial and federal authoriti able to produce for the countrys} work together with farme needs, and those who are now going|study problems of productio to use old seed would have been|stressed by Choate, who citi able to change their seed. seed crisis as “one more pr the need for farmers coordi production councils compos delezates from organized bodies to work in cooperatic municipal, provincial and i ion government committees. . “Until these councils are Ss he warned, “the farming in will remain in the chaotic tion confronting us today.” # Jobbers Hold Back Go Stocks For Better Price Potatoes sadly lacking from Vancouver tables are he in local warehouses, it was admitted here this week, d conditional sales forced upon retailers by wholesalers whe this means of defying price ceiling regulations. Assertions of local dealers that; Mrs. Doris Hartley of the | in order to buy table potatoes they | wives’ Leasue at a meeting are forced to purchase inferior | Women’s Regional Advisory goods which they cannot sell were|cil to the Wartime Price confirmed by E. A. McKie of the} Trade Board. It was felt 1 BC Coast Vegetable Marketing |delegates that unless these Board, who said that although not|toes were marked “certified many potatoes were available, the|they might be culls. _ few remaining in local warehouses A spokesman for the W were only available in tie-up sales, | Prices and Trade Board s2@ usually ‘“half-rotten” goods which} while the Board has been in could not otherwise be disposed of. | of this practice, definite in Probability that ‘seed’? potatoes | tion as to similar violations offered most greengrocers as a sub-| welcomed. Investigation is p stitute for table potatoes werejing, it is stated, where t merely culls was mentioned by |formation has been given. the year to predict a real ¢ age, it is safe to say ther certainly be no _ surplus. short-sighted government © will show results next winte spring, when seed potatoe’ again be at a premium.” Necessity for municipal, t “This would increase production without increasing the acreage over last year .Old seed which the farmers now are going to plant could have been used on the con- sumer market at a price consider- ably less than that being asked today. F “Although it is a little early in {cr AIRCRAFT EMPLOYEES’ DANCE & Floor-Sho MONDAY, APRIL 19 § PMe to 2 Embassy Ballroom, 1024 Davie | WILE WYLIES ORCHESTRA . Auspices THE PEOPLE Press Drive Fund (Aircraft Commi \ TICKETS 50 CENTS Tickets at The People O