Page 10 — P.A. Features, January 27

Mr. Hangers and the BCER

Mr.

Hangers climbed ashore from his speedboat,

“Tillicum,’ prized by him just a

little less than his four limbs and eyesight, with all the agility of Herbert Hoover leaping

aboard a Democratic bandwagon.

Straightened his back.

“Glad this strike’s near an
end,” he said as he found his
Sacroiliac still functioning, “If
it keeps on much longer Ill be
for the morgue or a resthome,
an’ I won’t care which.”

“What's it got to do with
you?’ T asked him.

“Just a half-dozen trips each
way from West Point Grey car-
ryin’ a bunch o’ scissorbills what
used to ride Murrin’s tumbrils.
You know what?”

“J don’t know anything.”

“Well, I’m scared theyll want
tuh keep comin’ this way after
She’s over. They say it’s so nice
an’ quiet, an’ smooth enough to
read, even when there’s a tide-
rip. D’ye ever ride the street-
cars? They must be damn-
awiul if they’re rougher than
comin’ through the Narrows on
a riptide in the “Tillicum’.”

“You need sea-legs on them,
except when they’re packed too
closely for staggering,” I told
him, “But why wouldn’t you
want to keep your water-taxi
service going? Isnt there
money in it?”

“Sure, but this aint my time

of year for makin’ money. Win-

ter’s the season I cogitate,
smoke, eat plenty, an’ improve
my mind. I work hard in the
summer to be able to do this,
an’ then along comes a strike
to throw me all out o ’gear.”’

“You and the B.C. Hlectric,
eh?”

“Yeah, me an’ the B.C. Hlec-
tric, though I make $20 a day
an’ they lose $20,000. ‘That

Should teach some of the mug-
wumps in this town what a
Strike is for.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, some people, an’ not
all o’ them are politicians, seem
to think the strike is agin’? the
noble public o’ Vancouver. They
oughta walk, if they can’t ride
the junk-piles they useta, these
fellows say, an’ they talk about
scabs an’ strike-breakin’. That’s
what comes o’ lettin’ a lot 0’
political an labor adventurers

Continued from Page 9

lution. The organization of our.
provinces bears the stamp of
the needs and the opportunities
ereated by the latter phases of
the industrial revolution. Our
agriculture, our industry, the
very character of our legisla-
tion, all refleet the fact that
they developed in the period
when the economy of every
modern country was becoming
an integral part of the eco-
nomy of the world as a whole.
Canada, of all countries, is the
most characteristic of the con-
ditions and world relationships
that were brought into being by

the industrial revolution and
its climactic product — the
world market.

Canada is now a highly in-

dustrialized state,
an extrordinary degree upon
trade with other countries. A
member of the British Com-
monwealth, she is also next-
door neighbor to both the Uni-
ted States and the USSR. With
the development of transpolar

dependent to

start.a strike without knowing
what a strike is for.’

“You iknow, of course,” I
baited, “That’s what you cogi-
tate about in the wintertime.”

“That's what I’ve cogitated
about on 11 picket-lines, over
the last 40 years,” he shot back,
“My first was at Cripple Creek,
an’ I was a lad o’ 17. We hadn’t
any doubt about who we were
fightin’. It was the U.S. Re-
fimin’ an’ Reduction, an’ the
scabs they brought in. They
took Nick Mantel an’ hanged
him by the thumbs while they
flogged the hide from his back,
an’ then toted him into the des-
ert to die without water. Nick
an’ I were buddies, but I didn’t
see any politicians on that pic-
Kket-line. They were too busy
stirrin’ up the Citizen’s Alli-
ance.”

“Well there’s nothin’ like that
here” I placated.

“There mighta been, if the
public had got it in -the neck
hard enough, an’ that’s what
this “make ’em walk” phoney-
baloney woulda worked up. In
a strike you want to hurt the
boss, right where it pains most,
in the pocket-book. An’ you
don’t wanna hurt the public, for
ye can’t win a damn thing with-
out their support.”

“Well, the public seems to
enjoy it, and the company ob-
viously doesn’t” I told him.

“That’s why the men] win,
but they wouldn’t stand a chance
if this slowdown idea got goin,’
an’ I hope they know enough
notta build up a sneak general
strike just tuh provide political
platforms for a lotta spell-bind-
ers who never saw a bloody pic-
ketline or a clean one. Some-
times I’m mighty feared o’ peo-
ple like that, who’d try to start
somethin’ they can’t -finish,
while were fightin’ a war agin
Fascism. D’ye spose they're just
ignorant?”

“What else?”

“They could be Fascists them-
selves, like that little girl at
the CCL Labor Council told ’em.
Myself, I can’t think o’ any-
thin’ better caleulated to help

air trayel and transport, Can-
ada will become one of the
main crossroads of the world.
Such are the factors which are
shaping our destiny as a nation.
Qur country is a vast land.
Canadians, eyer since confeder-
ation, have conceived and car-
ried out big undertakings in
a big way. No other nation on
earth has ever carried through
an undertaking of the magni-
tude that the task of spanning
of this continent with a rail-
road was in relation to Canada’s
population in the 1880's.

Nowhere else in the world
was there a development to
compare with the building up
of Canada’s west. Not even the

wildest days of the settlement ~

of the American west compared
with the years from 1893 to
1913 when Canada’s vast west
was settled, developed, and
transformed into a modern
highly-organized community, in
a space of 20 years.

Even in war our people are

-of the

His greaseless limbs fairly creaked as he very carefully

along postwar fascism in this
country than to have the boys
overseas learn of a general
strike at home. Wouldn’t mat-
ter’ whether it was a honest-
to-god official strike or just a
slowdown, if the boys needed
tanks for an advance or shells
for a barrage.- So why d’they
take that line? Im worried”
he confessed.

“So are lots of people, but I
guess we'll muddle through.”

“Yeah, like they muddled

through in Germany, an’ France,

Spain, Austria. i don’t like
muddlin’, an’ another thing ..- -
this strike is too damned peace-
able.”

“What do you mean?”

“The company ain’t fightin’
hard enough. I wonder if they
want a phoney general strike
too, justa help reaction along?
Then the troops an’ seabs coold
be ealled in.”

“Maybe they do.” ‘
that

“Tt’s a thooght, an’
gives me another. If that’s
their idea, I’m goin’ to keep

herdin’ these pen-pushers in
from Point Grey.”

“Why, if you want to cogi-
tate?”

“Tf I can chisel twenty bucks
a day from the B.C. Electric
itll make my cogitatin’ much
pleasanter, an’ if enough cars
keep on pickin’ up Street car
fares after the strike’s over,
maybe the company 1] learn pro-
vocation don’t pay. Come on in
an’ have a coffee.”

“Tt doesn’t solve your other
doubts” I reminded him as we
entered the boathouse.

“D’ye know somethin’? I
think they’re in the way o’ bein’
solved by Canadian boys in the
west, an’ Russians on the east
front, an’ the guerrillas 0’
Europe everywhere between.
Every time they shoot a Nazi
there’s a splinter of a bullet
in the hearts of our home-grown
sneak-an’-run fascists. Vm not
goin’ tuh worry about it as
long’s those lads are fightin’.”

“Well, theyre still fighting.”

“An’ how!”

able to do-things in a great
Way. Canadians are a peace-
loving people, but, man for man
or million fer million, no other
nation has made a bigger con-
tribution to victory in this peo-

ple’s war than the people of
Canada are making.

In proportion to Canada’s
population, our army, navy and

air force are second to none.
Canada’s ability to reorganize
ler economy and to produce to
meet the needs of war, equally
has been proven second to none.
Canada has met the test of war
in a great way and our nation
has become greater as a result
of the test. Mackenzie King
spoke truly when he said, “‘Can-
ada emerged from the first
world war as a nation, but she
will emerge from the second
world war as a power.” It is asa
power, whose stature-is a result
measure in which she
has met the test of this war,
that Canada will have to meet
the challenge of the peace.

The suceess with which we
meet the challenge of peace
will depend upon the extent
te which democratic Cana-
dians are able to agree upon
immediate national objec-
tives, and elect a Dominion
government which will lead
Canada forward in democra-
tic progress through the post-
war years.

Canadians are deserting the

old parties. While they are
turning away from the old
parties because they do not

have confidence that those par-
ties can lead Canada forward
to victory in the peace, they
are not yet united as to which
parties they will support and
what policies they will fight

for. Therein lies the task and
responsibility for the labor
movement.

will be six natici =

There
parties when we have a 1?

minion election, perhaps |
more. -

No ONE party is going 1),
win an over-all majority ¢
seats in the House of Con |
mons in that election. i
What are the aims of tj
parties at this time? The gt)
ernment party, the ;
are divided. There are s0ij
Liberals, those who are b,
erals only |with a large “I,
who think their own nary.
interests can best be protej..
ed in cooperation with 14)
Tories. :

That section would be qui)
prepared to join with th
Tories in a Liberal-Tory Clif.
alition—a coalition of
right.

—Continued on Page’

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