-# =

tt Jabs by Ol Bill

Ur
YG.

ns ;
9S earned for themselves the |:
qr towns.” Everything was eee
ir, but nothing ever came off. They
Uliacteristic allesed
i standine: national
flexicans who are
jeverything “ma-
prow. -Much of
#to business is
Not (3 the West. The
Wg] S 2 good sample

07 - - -
allie things credited
fne corporation,
mg features of-
ag xt to the amas-
aia, are promises
Biments “in the
ic@acse we recall a
i some big and -
g but all promises which

never

the Bridge River power develop-
* 28 to supply power for the great
er which was to flourish in our
#orld.. It started off with a great
@cts and fizzled out like the squeal
thistle about four years after: it
Without providing enough power
mophone jong enough to play a
exme TecOrd to the end. That is, as
# = concerned because it was jacked

be enough power to supply the
me.

‘e was the Campbell River plan.
‘be another source of power and
t the dark places and lighten the
labor of the Vancouver Island
ae wes abandoned about the time
ou

J. Smith report to the Utilities
j the Vancouver City Council in
‘ost the city about $20.000 and
er acted upon by the Council, con
ie BCCollectric system, the only
ts kind on the North American
regulated, was:obsolete; that the
company were so mixed up that
y. difficult, but almost impossible,
her to arrive at any definite con-
=s finances, that the roadbeds were
or modern nor according to its
wh the “city; that its method of
isfuised the rates of profit and
ost $22,000 annually thereby.

he effect of this criticism in the
ancouver citizens the BCCollectric
purchase half-a-million. dollars
street cars in the following year.
- promise fell down also.

y had car tracks laid on Georgia
its construction, with the promise
. line from Main to Granville to
affie jams on Hastings; another
never came off, for not one street
un on these tracks laid 32 years

1 fell out of all these beautiful

7

re ga days in the West many jerk. -

The BCCollectric is an Excellent
‘ Example of ‘Manana’ Philosophy

Promises for the simple reason that the BCGol-
leetric is not organized to serve the needs of the
people of this town or country, except insofar as
these needs enable the company to pay dividends.
Not public seryice, but public disservice is its
rule; instead of a public utility it should be
called a “public futility.” Proof of this lies in
the fact that Vancouver is the only spot in the
British Empire, thousands of miles from the
battlefront, that suffers a nightly blackout (for
the second time in its history, by the way) due
to the inefficiency or greed; or both, of the
BCCollectric.

Today we have another promise. The BC-
Collectric is going to! spend fifty million dollars
on improvements, “manana.” On their record
we are justified in refusing to believe that the
florid phrases of their desire to meet the needs
of industrial expansion of our province, appear-
ing in paid advertisements in the press, mean
anything more than the’ promises mentioned
above. Ae

Rather we are justified in assuming that the
50 million “manana” proposal is for the same

purpose as the promise to put ‘half-a-million ~

dollars worth of new street ears in operation in
1935—to offset the expressed will of the people
of B.C. made known through Premier Harts
proposal to take over the power and transpor-
tation monopoly. and operate it as a people’s
undertaking. : : :

With the change over from war to peace--

time industry the most vital factor in such a
change will be cheap power. Efficient transpor-
tation will also be a factor. This cannot, and
will not, be supplied by a company whose first,
and only reason for carrying on, is dividends

for its shareholders and imterest for the bond- _

holders.

And since we know they will not meet the
situation, we would suggest they inquire from
some worker the meaning of the old adage about
doing something with a pot.

This is not a question that affects any one
class in the community. It concerns every indi-
vidual in B.G., workers, storekeepers, business-
men and farmers alike. If jobs are to be made

‘available to all the men now in the armed sery- .

ices when demobilized and to the workers let
out of war industry, a new set-up in the power
industry must be established. Premier Hart
must be supported in his proposals and: the city
eouncils must be compelled to fall in line- :
One Vancouver newspaper editorial writer
asserts that the City Council could not run the
street car system efficiently. It is done in other.
places and if the Vancouver City CGouneil can-
not do likewise, get a new one that can. Throw
out the BCGollectrie stooges and put men in the

council whose interests are the interests of the —

1 ho put them there. : :
ae ne "he price—the BCCollectric has told

their property is valued at 175 million
ee The public oe Commie oe
its purposes, placed the value o e }

se cde assets at $31,187,977.00. We sont
want to buy junk, which is another name for t i
BCCollectrie properties, and should not, but a
we pay the price asked by the company it will
he money’ well spent to get rid of this yampire

corporation.

of presenting.the argument is

istic predictions without heavy
emphasis on the need for a

73 to me to be a
bh of a tendency
sf us who believe
“world is possible
s even under the

Some of us, I
begin to bristle
ention of such a
begin to detail
economic and

idations upon
hope to avoid a
rophe.

ally, TI think that
s attitude to take
Ky. Club technique

not much help in convincing
someone we are right. After
all, things are not going to be
better automatically. life has
neyer yet handed the people
their bread and butter, leave
alone cake, on a silver platter.

Yes, there can be a decent
living for all of us after the
war, if the United Nations stay
that way, and we are kept
united. But that means nothing
more or less than a continuous
struggle of the people.

And the workers, in particu-
lar, understand this. Tt has
been built into them by long
years of their history until it
js almost an instinct. No won-
der, many of them greet op-
timistic predictions with ree
serve, often downright sus-
picion.

There can be no such optim-

continuing struggle against re-
action, a struggle which de-
mands real strength and or-
ganization. 5
With such emphasis, it can
be explained that the added
favorable feature today is that
the range of our allies has
broadened immensely. But even
here it must be added that
these allies, while ready to
move in the same direction
with us, need continual prod-
ding. They also are faced with
a new world, in some cases
somewhat frighteningly new
because of the company they.
find themselves in, as well as
the fact that they find that,
in this topsy-turvy world, old
friends and associates who used
to be on the same side of the

fence are now enemies. =
eee UNITAS.

Saturday, November 4, 1944 — Page 5
CIVIC AFFAIRS 1 sinnmnmnnnnnnnnrmnmnnnnn

Mayoralty Candidates

Enter the Civic Arena

A BY ELGIN RUDDELL

REETINGS to P. A. It’s a good name! Social reform and industrial
development like charity begins at home. “Advocating” the satisfy-
ing needs of the “Pacific”? area of our country is a useful and worthy.
purpose. Canada as a country can only progress as its various parts
progress.s And so best wishes in your labors to bring the democratic
forces into step on the needs and issues of the hour.-

The fires begin to warm a little under the civic election kettle.
This: week has seen a second contender enter the mayoral field. One of
the aldermanic candidates takes a stand for civie participation in the
B.C. Electrie take-over, and the partisan leaguers enter a slightly short
scrub team for political propaganda. The new contender for the mayor’s
chair, Dr. Worthington, has quite some experience in civic affairs.

While this by itself does not recommend anyone for the office, the

“lack of it is a serious handicap in the eyes of most citizens. During his

term as alderman he hag associated himself with and supported the few
‘positive achievements of the city council. One of these was the loaning
of 100 city lots.to Wartime Housing for the erection of a similar number

- of homes for service men. John McPéake, if you remember, lead the
,-bublic demand for this project and Mayor Cornett and Alderman Bus=
_ -combe stubbornly opposed it. It was touch and go for a bit and Alder-

man Worthington tipped the scales in the council te put it over. His
announced program is good as far as it goes. The trouble is of course
that it doesn’t go far enough, a good stout stand for civic participation
in the responsibilities and benefits of public owned electric utilities and
transportation would certainly have helped to round it out: However,
his candidacy does offer the opportunity to move ahead to oust Cornett
provided there is no third candidate. : :

The Winch-MaclInnis Clique

HE only direction a third candidate is likely to come from is the CCF.
# So far this is still a question. The answer will come when the CCE’
reconvenes its nominating convention on November 10. Here is an opt
portunity for the CCK to rise above reckless partisan politics by de-
ciding not to run a candidate and throw what weight they have into
defeating: reaction in the person of “Tory” Cornett. Lhe labor movement
and progressive forces will watch closely how the Winech-MacInnis
clique handle this question. Lo date the reported statements of the GCF
do not indicate that they have any thought of considering their res- -
ponsibility in this matter. It appears rather that their only worry is to
find a candidate sufficiently strong to poll a vote that will not adversely
affect their federal and -provincial election chances.

This same attitude was evident in their nominating convention of
October 27 where they named a nearly full slate for the other civic
offices. The only reason stated for not filling out the slate was the
lack of candidates. ‘Ehis decision to run a political slate appears as the
extension of their provincial and federal policy into the civie field. In
other words, to attempt to force coalescing of all other old line political
elements into one reactionary bloc and make the GGF the second party
of capitalism in the hope that some day in the sweet by and by they will
achieve power. - ‘ a

As far as the civic field is) concerned it is only an opportunist pipe-
dream. It has been going on for eight years now and the net result so
far is to keep the tory elements in the saddle and to keep out progressive
minded candidates. ;

The decision to.make a repeat performance again this year was
greeted by reaction with shouts of glee. One could almost see the tory
interests rubbing their hands and saying to themselves “It is in’ the
bag,” all we have to do is run around shouting about the danger of
“Socialism” in the city hall and all will be well.

As for the €CF candidates their chief claim to fame seems to be
that they are acceptable to the Winch-McInnis clique. With very few
exceptions these candidates have made no contribution to civic affairs
or community work. For a time, while he was associated with the
“5000 Homes Now” committee, E. S. Scanlon was heading towards
making a worthwhile contribution. But then, when the provincial exe=
cutive of the CCF saw that this committee was likely to get results and
decided to scuttle it by withdrawing their support, Scanlon obeyed the
party dictate and pulled out too.

Revenue for the City

(pees program adopted by the convention contains six points that look
very good on paper. The list is headed by a demand for low rent
housing which certainly corresponds to a very serious community need.
However, the plank comes unseemingly- from a group who have not only
done nothing to implement such-a program during the past year but
yanked their support from those who were trying’ to get such a pro-
gram underway. :

The most serious weakness of the program is the complete omis-
sion of any stand on the question of public ownership of utilities either
electric power or municipal transportation. This is all the more notice-
able as the CCF is alleged to favor public ownership generally. Then,
too, civic rumor has it that this question may be submitted to the elec-
tors on December 13 in the form of a referendum. The issue will be for
or against civic participation in public ownership. Let the GCF stand
up and be counted.

In sharp contrast was the clear cut stand taken by John McPeake. .
McPeake as an independent aldermanic candidate has come out fully in
strong support of public ownership of the hydro-electric resources of
this province and for civic support and participation in this project.
This is all the more important because Mayor Cornett is placing the
whole proposal of the provincial premier in jeopardy by erecting civic
straw-men to confuse the people and block action. There are real bene-
fits available to the city if public power is achieved. McPeake states
the benefits as follows:

Planned development of hydro resources to ensure abundant supply
to replace the present shortage.

Cheap and abundant power would aid materially in developing in-
dustry and agriculture and so increase jobs and payxoll possibilities.

Revenue for the city. (A number of municipalities even under pri-
vate monopoly rates are retailing electrie energy in their area, a notable
erp is the city of New Westminster which grossed $400,000 last
year). : ;