Page 12 —— April 14, 1945

The Miners Support Murphy >

By: MINERVA COOPER

aL

orasp its rich resources,

O VIEW the peerless scenery of British Columbia, to
is to understand why the eyes

of so many people are turned with longing to this province.
One can imagine how boys in the services cherish the
thought of their return to the hills of home.

An. antiquated bus groans
and squeaks through the long
pull up to Copper Mountain
from Princeton, through the
grove of young bull-pines,
along grassy slopes peppered
with stones to the higher
teaches where the snow lies
deep. Then suddenly you are

dipping into Allenby, past rows
of green and white company
houses. Here is the mill where
copper, gold and silver ores
from Granby mines are con-
verted into concentrates, ship-
ped to Princeton and thence
across the border.

The hard pull begins after
Allenby over roads now wet,
now icy, past frozen pools and
deep snow drifts. The old bus
races in the level stretches for
the hills ahead and now in inter-
mediate, now in low, hugs the
rocky wall as it edges up the
valley’s rim to the summit. I
am reminded of the ancient
models we used to drive on or-
ganizine tours in Saskatche-
wan, and consider what it
would have been to coax them
up these hills!

Here the road passes through
the territory richest in min-
erals. Just below Granby mine
lies a mountain of rich copper
eres, owned mainly by Blay-
lock’s Consolidated Mining and
Smelting Company, and as yet
untouched. Here is an area
capable of immense develop-
ment requiring the labor of
thousands of metal miners im
the postwar if United Nations’
plans are’ carried’ through and
Canada’s metals go into the
making of machines of peace
for Hurope and the Far East.
Here, as in Kimberley and other
parts of B.C., government ac-
tion may be necessary where
private enterprise fails to re-
lease untapped resources for
development.

HE air is pure on Copper
Mountain and crystal clear.
The little houses, half-hidden
among fir and jack-pine high
above the Similkameen River,
are in a lovely setting. But Cop-
per Mountain has the unmis-
takeable, transient air of a
miners’ town. The company
houses, the public buildings, the
fine community hall built with
miners’ money, are fresh and
. clean with paint; but the min-
ers’ homes, almost without ex-

ception, are unpainted and
earry the unwritten label,
“Temporary Quarters Only.”

The miners move around so
frequently, if they can buy the
home, they can only lease the
ground on which it is built.
Most of the incentives for
planning and home-building are
absent. This, and the fact that
eash is neyer to plentiful in a

mining town, are the reason for

the somber, unpainted appear-
ance of their homes. It is most
difficult of all for the women
who have to give to these tran-
sient camps the quality of
home,

Down in the mine, 1000 feet
the surface, that after-—
noon, I wondered what it was
that kent 10, 20, 30
years underground. The visitor

under

miners,

js not permitted to enter the.

drifts where drilling machines
are actually in operation—but
the cavernous depths, the smell
of blasting powder and the fre-
quent. warning signs, are con-
stant reminders of a life of
danger even under the most
favorable cireumstances. A few
will say frankly that they don’t
like it. They followed their
fathers into the mine, or came
when there was no other jobs
available. More frequently
they say they prefer it to an
outside job “because you don’t
have a boss standing over you,
and there’s a better feeling
among the men down in a mine
than anywhere else.” Qualities
born of the conditions of their
work and common danger daily
shared have won for miners the
tradition of greater militancy
and solidarity than any other
section of the labor movement.

HE history of the labor move-

movement in these hills goes
back a long time. There was
a Mine, Mill and Smelterwork-
ers’ local im Allenby in 1917.
it disintegrated after the war
and there followed a long
black-out of labor activity. 1942
saw the beginning of a trium-
phant organizational drive led

by Harvey Murphy. Bight
thousand metal miners were
organized in less than. two

years. Copper Mountain has the

distinction of being the first.

metal mining camp in Canada
to have a signed agreement
with the International Union of
Mine, Mill and Smelterworkers.

Back in the union office,
“Scotty” Anderson, secretary of
the local and LPP campaign
manager for Yale constituency,
spoke with pride of the pro-
gress the union has made.
“There are still plenty of hang-
overs,” he said, “from the days
when jobs were scarce and the
boss reigned supreme, but
we're making progress in build-
ing the concept of lJabor’s fu-
ture role in the sharing of pow-
er in government. We had fresh
evidence that labor’s growing
role is being recognized when
one of the bosses at a recent
meeting with a committee of
the local had this to say, ‘We all
realize that the union is here
to stay. We all have to live and
work together. The better the
relationship that exists be-
tween us the better it will be
for all of us.’ ”

George Anderson also had
warm praise for the work of
Angus Campbell, LPP candi-
date. There is no more public-
spirited man in the whole area.
Long associated with commu-
nity projects he has recently
devoted a great deal of energy
to plans for a community swim-
ming pool. The labor-manage-
ment committee of the union

MINERVA COOPER

LPP Provincial Organizer.

under the chairmanship of An-
gus Campbell and with the sup-
port of the local community
club recently secured from the
company an undertaking, that
they would supply all the ma-

terials required, estimated at a_

value of $6,000, if the men
would contribute their work.

Now the campaign for volun-
tary labor is underway, and
Labor-Progressives are giving
the lead in pledging their time
and mobilizing’ the efforts of
others. The local. LPP Club
hopes also to set in motion a
community campaign for the
building of side-walks:and the
improvement of lighting facili-
ties.

Evidence of the regard in
which the lWLaber-Progressive
Party is held was the attend-
ance at the public meeting. Just
a few over 40 in number, but
it was 2 good turn-out for a
small town and more than twice
as large as groups of MLA’s
from other parties have been
able to attract in recent weeks,

It is no accident that that
section of the labor movement
most renowned for its militancy
and solidarity looks in increas-
ing numbers to the Labor-Pro-
gressive Party for leadership.
There was an immediate re-
sponse to the current party
eampaign for the amendment
of P.C.’s 1003 and 9384. Miners
in the Copper Mountain-Prince-
ton-Hedley area pledged the
collection of 1000 signatures.

@
CAME away from East
Kootenay convinced that

eonditions favorable to the elec-
tion of a lJabor-Progressive
candidate are developing very
rapidly.| With the organization
of new trade unions, the labor
movement, longs an important
influence in Hast Kootenay
polities, wil play a decisive role
in the coming battle.

Every town which has a la-
bor history has its story about
Harvey Murphy. In Kimberley,
for example, I heard from more
than one the story of those
triumphant days when the long
hold of Blaylock’s CM&S was
broken. Men were coming: into
the union fast, and after meet-
ings they signed them up in
the streets, in doorways, setting
up temporary headquarters
right on the spot. On such an
occasion, with enthusiasm at its

height, Murphy was steering a
bunch of the boys into the shel-
ter of a store entrance to sign
them up with the union. Sud=
denly he looked up and read
the sign, “Fink’s Department
Store.” Immediately a group
of shouting, laughing men, with
Murphy at them head began a
auiek exodus to the other side
of the street in one of those
rare moments. when a simple
gesture became the symbol of a
ereat victory.

Se

RANBROOK, these days, is;

the shining example of what
it means to have a union or-
ganized. Recently, with Labor-
Progressives playing an ener-
getic part, the main logging
camps in the area were or-
ganized, and with organization
has come the lifting of the
deadness that used to make
Cranbrook one of the most de-
presing points labor speakers
ever visited.

A group of women eager to
back up the newly-organized
union have formed themselves
into an IWA auxiliary. I was
invited to meet with them im
the afternoon and they turned
out in good numbers for. the
evening meeting. The fact that
the union and its auxiliary are
organized, together with the
existence of a new LPP Club
of nearly 40 members helped to
produce the largest progressive
political meeting that Cran-
brook has seen in many years
and a collection for the LPP
organizing fund which hit an
all-time record for political
gatherings in the history of the
town. .

After Harvey. Murphy, Sam
English, LPP organizer for
Bast Kootenay, probably knows
more about labor history in the
Crow’s Nest than any other
man in the area. In Fernie, he
pointed out the “Old 41” an
open space not far from the
center of the town which was
the scene of many a stormy
meeting in the days when re-
lief struggles were sharpest and
organized labor was fighting
for its existence. The place
takes its name from numerals
in an advertising sign painted
on the wall of the building
which served as a background
for speakers.

There are

many men and

Fernie for the LPP

women in Fernie who know the

part that Murphy played in

those days. The hundreds: of
dollars they have raised im

election ~
fund is part of their testimony,

True to the tradition of mining
tewns they turned out in good
numbers to the meeting EG.
again gave generously. Among
them was “John,” an oldtimer_
in the movement and advanced -
in years, but ‘still an active
worker. English ~ intro-
duced him to me in these words, :

Sam

“Jehn’s. motto is, “Let me see
Murphy elected and then Im

ready to go,’” and Comrade
John, smiling and nodding en-

phatically, agreed.

There is no greater evidence
of the need of a fighting repre
sentative for East Kootenay in
the House of Commons than the
homes of Natal and Michel. The
saddest, drabbest, smoke-he-
grimed homes I ever saw. ...
They are worst of all in Middle?
town which stretches between —
Natal and Michel opposite the
coke ovens. Their red glare ig
to be seen night and day and —
they smoke incessantly. Add
to this the great hill of powdery
black waste which every wind
drives into the homes and you
have a picture of a housing
problem still further ageyra-
vated by overcrowding.

Many of the people of Middle-
town are Italians. They dont
attend political meetings. Very
few of them belong to the big
Natal-Michel LPP club of near-
ly 100 members. They don’t
claim to know much about poli.
tics but there’s nothing blind
about their devotion. ~ They’
judge a man by his deeds ane |
its enough for them to knox |
that Murphy led the maret :
to make the union live, that he ©
was their advocate in the hare |
relief days. Im common with -
growing numbers of people ir —
East Kootenay they are deter ~
mined to send Murphy to the
House of Commons. They knoy —
he was at the center of ever
decisive strugsle of the early
days and there is no part 0
Ganada where labor history —
has been marked by greate: «
courage, militancy and signi
fieance than in the Grow
Nest Pass. si

__ Minerva Cooper poses for a picture with Sam Eng-
lish and two LPP supporters during her recent tour of
the Kootenays. ;