x

E 5
Lenin...
Founder of the world’s
first socialist state .. .
died January 21, 1924,
from the effects of an
assassin’s bullet . . . the
concrete fruition of his
work is displayed in the
the
great USSR .. . his the-

ories live as a practical

achievements of

guide to action in the
the

world’s Marxist move-

modern era. for

ments.

4AT DO YOU THINK?

December 18 in the
Sun, M. M. Towne
hhevron: ‘to -‘taskein
“Or does he really
Stalin would have
ye, that the Lithu-

in the vast major-
abers of the Catho-
would willingly in-
“hemselves~into the
'n under communist

,estter. Ti

|
|

¢ my countrymen
me: to answer at
above part of his
try to
yall percentage of
‘facts

/ rstanding.

us changes took
ae people’s outlook
tthe years after the
i War, that to .our

| d from 1914 to 1923.

Seeding government
i every three years
Heimas (i.e.) Parlia-
dess and Jess dom-
“Catholics proving
; although Catholic,
Satisfied with their
ibility to cope with
yS economic prob-

dl of 1926, an elec-
eld-- Self-styled So-_
‘der the leadership
Grinius, campaigned
& Their’ -speeches_
‘more revolutionary
san our CCF in Wan-
‘ies, hayme control
the newspapers,
/fzrom the pulpit put
Sekt, branding their
as bolsheviks fin-
‘Moscow. Catholic
acluding; my mother,
+ to the people the

danger of atheists, confisca-
ii0on- of farms, and so on. Yet
villagers would only say, “Oh
the devil is not as’ black as it

as painted” or. “It just can’t be
\

worse” and so on. The Social-
ist won. No reforms appeared,
perhaps for lack of time or
intertion. Yet on December 17

of the same year, the pro-fas-.

cist officers seized power and
appointed A. Smetona as pres-
ident.
Dr. K. Grinius was put on an
annual pension of 3000 lits, the
more talkative parliamentari-
ans were put to jail or deten-
tien camps. Three outstanding
¢rade union. leaders, not mem-

bers of government, namely, J-

Greifenbergas, K. Pozela and
Kk. Giedrys were accused of be-
ing members of the Communist

party conspiring to seize power,

ana were shot.

Conditicns deteriorated rap-
idiy politically and economical-

Jy. With the increase of the

secret police force, new gov-
ernment agencies and corrup-
tion, taxes jumped by leaps
and bounds. Officially pro-
paganda of hate was still di-
rected as by all previous gov-
‘ernments against Catholic Po-
jand fcr its occupation of Mi-
thuanian capital city of Wilna
and district after the First
World War. In government-
subsidized secret organizations,
particularly “‘Gelezinis Cilkas”
(Iron Wolf) hatred was turned
against the Jews, Communists
and the USSR and often against
Gatholics also. They also ad-
mired the fascist youth move-
ments of Germany and Italy.
Its organ “Tautos Kelias”

(Road of the Nation) quoted

* speeches of B. Mussolini in full.

=: People who could afford were
migvatme to all parts of the

world. Some of us landed in

The Socialist president,

Ganada.. Since 1929 I could
only read between the lines
—in our letters from home—of
confusion and depression.

_ Threats of Poland from one side

and Germany from the. other.
Germany takes Memel back,
later on war. Poland collapsed,
USSR takes back Ukraine and
White Russia, also returns Wilno
and district back to Lithuania.
Prestige of the USSR in the
eyes of Lithuanians was higher
than ever. A treaty was signed
permitting garrisons of Soviet
troops on our soil particularly
along the German border. Dic-
tator A. Smetona, unable to get
Hitler’s help, fled to Germany
and on to the USA. A= new elec-
tion was held with the greatest
number participating, with no
fear of secret police.

Well, what would you have
voted for. M. M. Towne, had
you been a Lithuanian residing
there if not for the people who
visked their lives during dicta-
torship rule, advocating eco-
nomic reform at home and
friendship with all peace-loving
nations abroad ?

Yes, a well-known progressive
writer, J. Paleckis, and like-
minded people were elected on
an understanding that they will
seek the closest possible friend-
ship with the USSR. His gov-
ernment requested the Supreme
Soviet to-admit Lithuania as .a
16th Soviet republic: and this
was granted with consequently
greater economic and political
security for the masses.

Yes, great numbers of Lithu-
anians. are members of the Ca-
tholie Church and many will

remain as faithful as ever, but
this will not stop them from
building a better life for all
within the family of nations in
the USSR.

—ALGIRDAS GRINKUS.

Saturday, January 20, 1945 — Page 5

aucstse
SSRSSUSSESSURTIERUSRUCCUCESCCERELECTRTATACSRSIUUTERALTAANAESCRSCCTAGRCENSAERTUUECKESUSESSSEAES TERE EUECHLE

Short Jabs by ol” Bill

SUURGSRECECCICHSRECEESEORERSORETCRCRETCEECEERGEREURE ceERATT OCT ZETESS Us satateD UPee ee RUB ERE LORE OF reeedawnerinnet a z

A Miscarriage of Justice

(eS stcEs of justice are commoner than we may think but do

not always get to be known as such. Men, thousands of them, have
gone to jail on the flimsiest of circumstantial evidence and on-no evi-
dence at all. They have rotted and died and the world went on without
ever hearing their story, because no organized effort or pressure by
friends who knew the truth, was made on their behalf. The growth
and bourgeoning of the flower of democratic thought and institutions
is tinted with somber grey patches of many such miscarriages.

Here is one of them. In June, 1936, the Hon. Justice Manson, sent
a Doukhobor named Paul Vatkin to jail for the rest of his natural
life. He was charged with the heinous crime of setting fire to a
bridge somewhere in the interior.
ing and circumstantial at that. It was not actually .proved that the
man had anything to do with the burning: of the bridge, in the minds
of many who read the evidence. But he has been in the penitentiary
at New Westminster for the past eight years.

About a year ago, if 1 remember rightly, a-CPR depot was burned
at or near Brilliant. A great outeray was faised against the Doukho-
bor arsonists. HEvery public spirited real estate shark who had longing
eyes on the Doukhobor lands hollered their heads off and demanded
that these Doukhobors who burned down public buildings should be
driven out of the country and their land confiscated.

But accidently it was discovered that it was no Doukhobor who
burned dgsyn the depot; that the arsonist was the local station agent,
who was also president of the local branch of the Canadian Legion. And
by the way he did not get sent to jail for life or even for eight years;
I believe he escaped any punishment whatever:

Such an accident in 1936 might have proved that Paul Vatkin was
a victim of zealous discriminatery intolerance and covetous desires as
some poor Doukhobor might have been in the case of the CPR depot.
Even if he did attempt to burn that bridge (the damage I understand,
only amounted to about $150), the sentence was outrageously harsh,
even! vicious, and the eight years of his life which society has stolen
from him should be more than enough forfeit for the “crime.” Some
of our judges have the “Jeffries touch” of being very free with other
peoples’ lives. ‘

Some of Paul Vatkin’s Doukhobor friends are circulating a petition
to the Minister of Justice for remission of the balance of his sentence.
If you agree with me in this comment, you will sign that. petition—
not because Paul Vatkin is a Doukhobor but because he is a human
being. If he was a Shintoist, a Moslem, a Reman Catholic or:a ‘ten-
gallon Baptist, it would be just as much the right thing to do, to sign
that petition. 3

You can sign it at the People’s Book Store.

Streetcarmen s Strike

AS WRITING a column like this in a weekly paper, the time lag be—

tween writing the column and the appearance of it in print, makes
it hard to say much about topical events in which events change from
one day to the next. Last week it was written before the streetcarmen’s
strike started. This week the strike may be over before it appears in
print. ;

While some of the responsibility must be borne by the union for
the stoppage and consequent holding up of war production, the greater
blame is due to the tactics of the owners of the BC Electric.

The greed of the company, the dilatory and evasive way in which
the negotiations have been dealt with by the representatives of that
grasping octopus, compels évery one to recognize that the demands
of the men are moderate in the extreme in spite of the windy pro-
nouncements of the War Labor Relations Board. :

_ That is why the public has been so patient and good natured in
accepting the dislocation of their everyday life which the lack of trans-=
portation has imposed on them. The men have the sympathy and
good wishes for success of almost the whole people.

But not everybody! A friend of mine found this out during the
first few) days of the strike. He got mixed up in an argument with a
working plug who spoke and used the same arguments as the com=-
pany and the War labor Relations Board. :

After listening to all the other man had to say, my friend ‘re-
marked, “You talk like a shareholder of the B.C. Electric?” “Tama
shareholder” replied his opponent. This bears out the statement that
has been made in this column many times, even as lately as last week,
that the sale of $60 shares of stock in the B.C. Electric was purposely
made to provide the company with mass support among the people
to put their cheese-paring policies over, for this man was one of the
small fry owners. : pes

Although it is easier on the nerves to walk the streets without any
of the jarring, screeching noises the “Toonervilles” make, to set the
nerves on edge let us hope that by the time this is in print, the street-
cars are rolling again and the men back to work with their justifiable
demands won and war production going full blast to make up for lost
time. :

CCF Defections :

EFECTIONS from the ranks of the CCF, by parliamentary candidates

withdrawing, would be some cause for consternation in the ranks

of that party, if their leaders were realist enough to be concerned. Nat

only would the withdrawals themselves be cause for deep thought but
also the well-reasoned statements of those who have quit the fold.

That of Dr. D. A. Mackenzie in Calgary is unanswerable politically
by the GCF leaders. The CCF is placed in its proper perspective as
“expressing the ideological Socialistic beliefs of the Social Democratic
movements of the European countries of the last century.” All honest
CCF’ers must see it that way before ijong. =

The evidence was most unconvinc- —