orld Events

'Hgippened to arrive
day fared war on the
me Defense Council,
Riis: that “industrial
will follow immedi-
‘2 Antenor Ichazo,
s ff explained fur-
« measure was de-
pase the production
4 w materials, which,
1 remain MSBolivia’s
mt contribution to
ations. To this end,
sntinued, troops will
ij be tin and tungsten
ber Plantations and
s. The Army will
trol of the railways.
stion is complicated
actors: no advance
made to prepare
jion; the Defense
“or of the decree, in-
wrho were responsible
ember massacre of
latavi, and who are
nstitutionally averse
“$7; labor’s memories
3: of the Chaco War
yrhich set back de-
2 generation in both
‘arasuay.
3 of Bolivian labor,
Sfso0se WNazi--fascism,
, 3 executive commit-
§ ill meet as soon as
its members reach
% their places of con-
expected to approve
+ the same time, ac-
ssent indications, the
demand that anti-
is cabinet members
that a government
nity be formed, and
* of war not be em-
excuse for introduc-
bor in Bolivia.
three months’ ex-
Satavi is a sample,
will seriously affect
tion, which can be
labor’s view, only by
le recommendations
Slivian Labor Com-

, chairman of the
at Philip Murray
ain provisions of
‘thether this absolute
. the morale and ef-
the workers and
ents the achieving of
teduction.”
Titicizes the “crazy
ach of the directive,
se one hand permits
areas where stabliza-
tents exist to- trans-
®r paid jobs “if the
5 in the prosecution
7?’ but on the other
mts such transfers
© place, even though
id in the prosecution
in all areas where 2
ipower shortage has
sloped.
m of the WMC direc-
forbids workers to
jobs because their
is “substantially less
revailing in the local-
fame or substantially
tk” is particularly
the CIO president.
it be urged that such
Can possibly aid in
tion of the war?” he
impact on the morale

‘

and efficiency of the employees
who are thus compéiled to re-
main at work at>-sweated or sub-
standard wages will necessarily
be devasting.”

The WMC directive, Murray
contends, must be replaced “by a
policy whereby employment
stabilization will be governed
solely through the operation of
joint labor-management stabiliza-
tion agreements to be put into
effect wherever they may be
needed.” These agreements ac-
cording to the CIO, must fulfill
the following conditions:

i. Investigation of plants to
certify that they comply with

health and safety requirements,
provide wages, hours and work-
ing conditions prevailing in the
area or industry as determined
through collective bargaining, in-
clude adequate training facilities
and maximum use of available
manpower.

2. A worker to be permitted to
change his job if by doing so “he
can be utilized at a higher skill
for a greater number of weekly
hours than he is enjoying at his
present job.”

3. Employees to be guaranteed
a minimum weekly wage equal
to the average earnings in 40
hours.

Price Control

Ottawa’s Ambiguous Answer

A recent Ottawa reply to criticism of the cost of living index
offers the somewhat ambiguous explanation that fresh vege-
table prices cannot be included in the cost of living index

due to “erratic behavior of prices
for so many of these items and
Impossibility of getting continu-
ous prices on definite quanti-
ties.” Perhaps this very “explan-
ation” gives a clue to just what is
phoney about the index. In try-
ing to compute an “average,” the

, Bureau of Statistics apparently

must blind itseli to many items
showing price changes just be-
cause the prices have increased.

The Dominion statistician’s re-
sort to root vegetables as an indi-
cation of more stable prices does
not hold water when 1939 prices
for the humble carrot, onion, po-
tato and turnip are compared
with prevailing costs. Turnips
were a cent a pound; this year
rose to five cents a pound. Car-
rots formerly sold for a cent a
pound, now are six cents and
eight cents a pound. Onions rose
from four to five and one-half
cents a2 pound, and potatoes now
Tare at four and five cents a
pound used to be plentiful at two
cents a pound.

This is surely a fundamental
criticism; housewives have a
much more reliable method of
computing the rise in living costs
than any statistician, and when
housewives of a nation say that
they are unable to buy as much
with their grocery allotment,
that surely is a most emphatic
declaration that the price Ceiling
is not being kept on a level with
wage scales.

This week it was reported that
tenders received by the city for
bushwood would necessitate a
price of $20 a cord next season,

if accepted. The exorbitant in-
erease in fuel costs has failed to
register in the cost of living in-
dex. Ottawa’s pooh-poohing of
the idea of rising living costs will
not change the wage earner’s
fear or make any easier the
housewife’s problem in stretching
the household dollar. No “statis-
tics” can argue away the fact
that the cost of living has ad-
vanced, has increased alarming-
ly, and that wages have not kept
pace with this increase.

Ottawa's advice to the workers
to refuse to buy cigarettes if in-
creased taxes makes them more
expensive, to refuse to buy vege-
tables when their cost is out of
line, to leave out of our con-
sideration the higher price of res-
taurant meals (and their obvious-
ly lower quality and quantity), to
ignore the necessary expense in-
volved in converting sawdust fur-
maces to burn coal, misses. the
mark by a mile.

This is another point over-
looked in the index: Ottawa’s
contention that furnace conver-
sions and blackout curtains and
cigarettes and restaurant meals
“do not form a significant pro-
portion of the living costs of the
average Canadian wage-earner
family’ seemed to indicate that
an “accurate” price index can
only be arrived at by ignoring
those items on which prices have
increased, because the average
consumer can, “if he so desires,
without hardship, though per-
haps with some inconvenience,
prevent his cost of living from
rising’ — by doing without!

Lumber

Industry

The ‘Navy’ Sails Again

Loggers in the far-off Queen Charlotte Islands and along
BC’s coastline have another victory to their credit with the
information that the two IWA organizing boats comprising the
“loggers navy,’ Laur-Wayne and the Annart, will sail again.

Qwned by the TWA and main-
tained by union dues payments,
the boats play a unique role in
their seryice to loggers in iso-
lated sections out of touch with
the main stream of events. Re-
cent refusal of the oil controller
for Canada to grant a commer-
cial gas and fuel oil permit tied
up for some time the 45-foot die-
sel cruiser Laur-Wayne and
threatened to halt the work of
the Annart, but protests from
IWA locals to government au-
thorities were successful in pro-
curing the permit.

The two boats make regular
trips up the coastline, bringing
union organizers in touch with
their members to discuss union

problems and job conditions.
Wewspapers and magazines so
avidly read by the men are car-
ried by the sister ships, and on
occasion they have served as
emergency transportation to car-
ry injured men to centers where
treatment is available. Wherever
the boats dock, loggers rush to
fet their papers, hear the latest
union news.

IWA protests on curtailing of
the activities of these two boats
pointed out the essential charac-
ter of work done by them, in con-
trast to many commercial boats
not carrying on essential work
but to whom a permit for the
purchase of fuel oil was never
denied.

Cao
D

— EoR QUE
“Yd like an old-fashioned farm where they have plenty of
shade and hammocks.”

Agriculture

What About Land Armies?

Through the Okanagan Valley, down along the Fraser,
where fields of blossoms give promise of a bumper crop to
feed Canadians this fall and provide jams for export, farmers

are sitting, waiting, with their
eyes turned towards Ottawa.
They are waiting for the federal
government, and specifically the
Wartime Prices and Trade Board,
to cut through the mass of red
tape and lobbyings of cannery
operators which are holding up
the pegging of a price on berries.

The government must decide
what aid will be given for the
harvest, berry growers maintain,
so that plans for the formation
of the much-publicized British
Golumbia Land Army can get
under way. If prices remain at

the present level, few pickers
will be available. Either the
whole industry must be subsi-

dized, say farmers, or the gov-
ernment must augment wages
growers can afford to pay. Other-
wise, most of the crop will rot
in the fields, at a time when Can-
ada’s food experts are advocating
the use of vitamin-rich foods for
the lunchboxes of a country at
war.

In the meantime, crops that
will be ready for picking early
in June are ripening. HWarmers’
organizations are meeting and
negotiating with canneries for
price agreements- The govern-
ment expects to hand down a
price ceiling some time in May.
And the Vancouver office of the
Land Army, reported in the press
Since its opening as “not doing a
land office business,” is still op-
timistically awaiting the expected
influx of girls and women on
whom farmers are depending for
the harvesting of this year’s ber-
ries.

The reason girls are not an-
Swering the call of the land army
is the simple one of wages. Land
Army officials for the past few
weeks have been compiling fig-
ures on what help will be needed
on the farms. When these fig-
ures are complete, presumably,
girls and women will be recruited
for the work. By that time the
berry crop will be ripe, and un-
less arrangements can be made
overnight, it may go to waste for
want of pickers.

The most activity on the farm
front is taking place in districts

- pounds per

where the farmers themselves,
through their organizations and
with the help of youth groups in
their communities, have gone
ahead and formed their own land
armies, recruiting - neighboring
women and children and creating
their own machinery pools.

In other districts, where the
provincial government has passed
the buck to local Boards of Trade
who to say the least have not an
intensive knowledge of farm
problems, the picture is not so
good. In some centres the Board
of Trade is inactive, waiting for
more information and direction
from Victoria. In other areas,
the Boards have handed the prob-
lem on to farmers’ organizations.
These farm groups, holding small
meeting to decide on some courses
of action to bring labor to the
berry: patches before it is too late
(and most farmers calculate that
help must be on the spot by early
in June), find every move blocked
by the unsound government pol-
icy on the problem.

Wages, naturally, cannot be
fixed until the price is fixed. If
prices remain at last year’s levels,
and there is little indication that
they will rise, growers will only
be able to pay two or three cents
a pound for harvesting. A fast
picker, on a good day, can pick
from two to three hundred
pounds of berries. The average
city girl would be able to pick
an average of about 100 to 150
day, which would
amount to slightly over $3.00 for
a day's work — providing ideal
picking conditions prevailed. Af-
ter paying a week’s board, the
land army girl will have a pretty
small pay envelope.

Wow, with little more than a
month before the harvest season,
not only farmers but every CGa-
nadian citizen will be affected by
the government’s decision. No
haphazard policy will provide the
solution. Either the berry grow-
ing industry must receive goyv-
ernment assistance AS an indus-
try, or the government must be
prepared to contribute directly
to the wages of Land Army
workers.

i