PEOPLE’S VOICE

Le

FOR PROGRESS

5 Cents

, I; No. 35

VANCOUVER, B.C., SATURDAY, JUNE 30, 1945

'LC Acts
in Many
‘esolutions

The Vancouver Labor
uncil’s position as one of
outstanding organs of la-
e@pinion and influence in

stern Canada was clearly
denced at this week's regu-
council session. In one of
best attended and most suc-
sful meetings in recent
aths, delegates representing
300. SCL trade--unionists> on
:. Lower Mainland discussed
i dealt with a full. docket of
olutions on subjects ranging
m ‘housing to protection of un-
rights, while sounding a
ning to organized labor that
problems of the postwar
ald need“ the most complete
ty of purpose possible to
sieve. : :
izst part of Tuesday’s meet-
was taken up ‘with brief
eches by Grant MacNeil, CCF-
A, and Fergus McKean, pro-
cial leader of “the LPP, both
whom had been invited to out-
their party’s position on
déunionism by an earlier de-
mn of the council. Though
ir addresses were delivered in
absence of the press, it.is un-
stood they dealt with the prob-
\ of political conflict: which -has
=m plaguing meetings for many
uths.
FUSING
Housing took first place in the
sular. discussion of business,
sed by a resolution from the
ek -and=Ship Workers’ Union,
eal 2, which was unanimously
jlorsed. The resolution was
memely sharp in condemning
: “buck-passing”’ of both civic,
rVineial and federal authorities |
] quotéd Emergency Housing
ministrator Stevenson’s opin-
to back the demand for an
nediate beginning on a large-
ile home-building project as
> main solution to the housing
sis.
Taking the floor to report on
ls activity of the special: hous-
‘— committee of the Dock and
ipyard Union, Delegate W. J.
7bson, union president, laid the
sneipal blame on the Vancou
ie City Council. ;
“Mayor Cornett and most of

(Continued on Page 8)‘

| See LABOR COUNCIL
| «

Housing Muddle Arouses
lre-- Aldermen Continue
Stalling In Face Of Crisis

Vancouver’s housing situation was highlighted this week by a demand
from the City Committee, Labor-Progressive Party, that the City Council
assume the responsibility for a large scale lowsrental housing scheme, back-

ed by the Federal Government.

The: committee charged that luxury hous-

ing was still proceeding in the midst of the most serious housing emergency
in the history of Vancouver, and announced their plans for

pS
TES

f

“Vancouver's Rip Van Winkle”

Charter For World Peace
Concluded At ’Frisco Meet

The nations were given a charter for world peace this
week. In impressive ceremonies at San Francisco on Tues-
day, the delegates of 50 nations affixed their signatures to a
10,000-word document which will govern the working of

the new world security organiza-
tion. Just nine weeks after the
historie meeting opened in the
now-famed Opera House on
April 25, President.Harry S. Tru-
man brought the long discussions
to an official close by a speech
which reassured the world on at
least one point which had caused
concern—that the United States
Congress would definitely ap-
prove the security setup formu-
lated by the conference. What
remains now, as the delegations
left for home, was the immeasur
ably greater task of making the
charter function in the interests

of long-term peace and security.
The United Nations conference

International Organization
did create an effective instrument

on

for peace. There can be no deny-
ing that in studying the kind of
charter that came out of San
Francisco. It was not the kind of
charter that the more progres-
sive sections of world opinion
would have liked. Both the Dum-
barton Oaks proposals and the
Yalta conference decisions, which
formed the basis of the San
Francisco discussions, were wat-
ered down, altered, and in svme
cases distorted.

But it is far from correct to
state, as did CCF leader M. J.
Coldwell, that the peace charter’s
shortcomings “are glaringly ob-
vious ... its virtues almost hid-

mere |
(Continued on Page 7) |
See WORLD PEACE CHARTER |

a city-wide petition campaign and a series of neighborhood
meetings to impress upon authorities the necessity for

immediate action.

The demand for an immediate low-cost housing scheme
was also brought forward by A. W. Cowley, Executive Di-
rector of the Citizen’s Rehabilitation Council, who returned
this week from a session with Federal authorities on ways
and means of obtaining immediate federal assistance in the

crisis.

Leigh Stevenson, Emergency Shelter Administrator for
Vancouver, made public the information that there was a

housing shortage of 25,000 for present needs.

This repre-

sents a substantial increase.on the statement made by the

city council that a shortage of
14,771 existed, and the report of
the Curtis Committee on Hous-
ing, which indicated a need for
17,731. Stevenson’s estimates
are based on latest. figures avail-

‘\}able on the Vancouver situation.

The increase is clear evidence of
the growing seriousness of this
dangerous situation.

The Dock and Shipyard Work-
ers Union Housing Committee,
which has been calling for action
on the housings situation, circu-
jiated a petition to its members
in the shipbuilding industry and
instituted plans to obtain a clear
picture of the requirements of
union members in the face of the
present emergency. Its find-
ings are to be prepared in the
form of a brief for presentation
to the housing ‘authorities. At
the same time the union prepared
a resolution, to be presented to
the Vancouver Labor Council for
endorsation, which called for
positive steps to relieve the situ-
ation and demanded that the Fed-
eral Government take steps im-
mediately to assist local admin-

ELGIN RUDDELL

istrations to institute plans to
meet the crisis.

The call for action from va2.-ri-
ous bodies of citizens concerned
with the housing crisis, threw
into sharp: contrast the rosy pic-
tute’ of the~city~ housing situa-_
tion painted by the daily press.
The press gleefully reported a
mass production scheme for pre-
fabricating houses, the wholesale
release of materials to contrac-
tors, the making of land avail-
able by municipal governments,
as the solution to the present di=
lemma. Instead of solution, the
city was confronted with the ag-
gravation of the crisis by the
news that an expected 40,000
servicemen will be added to the
city’s already overcrowded facili-
ties within a few short months.

DO NOTHING POLICY

Elgin Ruddell, Secretary of the
Citizen’s Emergency Housing
Committee, stated this week that
prefabricated houses’ were: no
solution. ‘The problem is more
than one of housing units,’ Rud-
dell said. “The solution of the
housing problem rests in the im-
mediate ‘acquisition of land to
build houses on, and with the re-
lease of sufficient materials to
enable the work to be commenced
immediately.”

Ruddell blamed the city gov-
ernment . for the. continued
emergency. He pointed out that
the city officials have done ab-
solutely nothing to cope with the
situation. “The Council has kept
mum about the recommendation
accepted by the housing commit-
tee in February of this year,
which outlined the formation of
a local housing administration
working in cooperation with the
federal government, and financed
in the same manner as_ social
service, by splitting the cost be-
tween civic, provincial and fed-
eral governments, with the city
bearing 20. percent of the cost.”

Ruddell stated that A. W.
Cowley’s visit to Ottawa was an

(Continued on “Page 8)
See HOUSING MUDDLE