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AT DO YOU THINK?

zens of our Municipality are
naturally incensed at this high-
handed action in having them
disfranchised in the forthcom-
ing municipal election and they
ask, is it possible that Mr.
Hatherly has used his peroga-
tive to have them disfranchis-
ed, believing that in so doing
he was cutting down his own
opposition.

This disgraceful example of
race discrimination is not what
would be expected from one
who professes to be a social-
ist and a CCF representative.
It will be a long time before
the Slavic residents forget or
forgive this example of chau-
vVinism. :

Yours truly
C. M. Stewart

INDIA
Sir:

In reply to recent letters on
India by C. A. Butler ‘and
others it occurs to me that a
closer and deeper intimacy with
the history of that countr
would certainly be in order.
While it is quite true that some
little advance has been made
during the later years of the
war, it is also true that Mr. J.
E. Boyd put his finger on some
Sore spots that badly need at-
tention.

Bengal’s 5 year plan, an ac-

“count of which appeared in the

Province recently, is very
much belated and does not
touch even the fringe*~O0f the
things to be done in India.

The standard of living for the
average common man would
be better termed “the standard
of- starving”, -so low are the
Wages paid to the industrial
and agricultural workers.

The employment of very
young children is common.

The Factory Act of 1934 fix-

_ed the working day at 10

hours and also. prohibited the
employment of children under
12 years, but as it only applies
to registered factories which
employ around 2 million it does

+ not amount to very much.

CATE — PAGE 8

The condition of the com-
monest people is one of un-
speakable squalor, ignorance,
disease and starvation the illit-
eracy being around 90 percent.
The death rate is about double
that of England.

The average expectation of
life of the newly born infant
Was in 1881—30 years and in
1931 was 27 years!

Maternity and infant mor-
tality is about the highest in
the” world.

Convicts are fed better than
the average worker.

There are no social services
such as old age pensions, poor
and unemployment relief ete.
‘These are but a few of the
things that need to be known
and remedied .before we can
truthfully say we are “the
greatest power for good the
world has ever seen.’

In conelusion I would sug-
gest that C. A. Butler’ delve
more deeply into the early his-
tory of the building of the rail-
way in India in which case he
may find not quite so much to
boast about.

A. Cheverteon

White Rock

GOLDEN CHANCE

Editor, Pacific Advocate:

The coming civic elections
provide labor with a _ golden
opportunity. to sweep the
long-haired, moss-backed fuddy
duddies out of the city hall and
clear the way for en pledged
to a program of action inthe
face of the most critical situa-
tion that the city has yet seen.

It is but a few short months
since the City Fathers declared
a day of public celebration at
the final extirpation of the
armed forces of fascism as a

threat to world peace. 1t is but
a few short months since the
celegation of labor and veter-
ans pleaded with the city fath-
ers to do something to meet
the imminent unemployment
crisis that would face the city
were no plans made. It is but
a few short months since the
city fathers promised action on
all of the pressing civic issues
confronting the people of Van-
couver. ; ;
The City Council, in all of its
decrepit glory however, have
again allowed history’ to pass
them by. We greet the passage
of Alderman Georgie Porgie
Buscombe from  civie affairs
with the same elation that we
greeted the passage of Mon-
sieur Blaylock from the indus-
trial scene. Under different
circumstances Buscombe’s_ re-
tirement as a stumbling block
in civie affairs would be con-
sidered a total victory. The
rest of the council is still
esconced in the council cham-
bers, prepared to start right
in mismanaging civic affairs
where they left off if the people
of Vancouver permit them to.

Labor, however, has different
plans. With four candidates
in the field, there is a strong
possibility that the people will
have their way in the city hall.
The Non-Partisans are oiling
up the old machine (not recog-
nizing that new models are
the order of the day.) The Civic
Action Association is hoping
that they might sneak in on a
fluke. But Labor is determined
that it’s time for a change, and
there will be some changes
made, that’s for sure.

Franklin Martinson.

Short Jabs or a

Last Refuge Of A Scoundrel

PpoOcTok JOHNSON, the most cross-grained and chauvinistic crab in
the whole range of English literature, who today would be practi-
eally forgotten if a sycophantic Scotsman had not written his biography,

is reputed to have said, ‘“‘Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”

Dr. Johnson was wrong in this .statement, as in much more that
he said and wrote. There is one refuge still lower—“anonymity.” Not
patriotism, but anonymity is the last refuge of the scoundrel. The:
coward who writes slander letters and yet lacks the guts to put his
name to them is a more contemptible scoundrel than his fellow whe
wraps himself in a flag. Newspapermen do well to write of his letters
as the products of a poison pen.

If the author of such vile, nameless effusions has had little or no
practice in writing he may go undetected forever. If, however, he has
been accustomed to making even occasional contributions to the world’s
literary stock, the anonymous letter, to those who know the author’s
literary style, might just as well have had a flaming signature ap-
pended to. it. : :

A man, for instance, might have had his face lifted; to people who
knew only his features he would be indistinguishable as one they had
previously known. Like our Irish friends in the story, they might be
two other fellows. But others, whose knowlede of him was wider than
his countenance, who knew him in a more personal way, the stoop of
his shoulders, his posture in standing or carriage in walking, charac-
teristic traits in the movements of his hands, something of his ideas
and opinions and methods of thinking, the new face would be no dis-
guise.

; It is the same with a man’s literary style, if it is at all distinctive
and personal, particularly if he dips his pen in vitriol.

A few days ago I receved a letter from a friend of mine, a friend
of long standing. He wrote as follows: y* -

“Dear Friend Bill: The enclosed received a few days ago. As you
are one of the bad boys mentioned, you had better give it the once
over. One person and one only, would have sent me this letter. You
know whom I mean. Can you imagine the once proud follower of
the -great Lenin, now sitting at the feet. of Harold Winch and Angus
MacInnis in the last refuge of the Trotskyites and taking his Marxism
from George Weaver! Yours, Jack Sutherland.”

The anonymous letter which was enclosed was a slanderous effort
against the LPP and several of its members, Tim Buck and lesser fig-
ures, including myself. The main thesis inferred in it was that the
CCF was a revoluntionary party, a contention which was bolstered by
a few distorted quotations from Marx and Lenin.

Jack Sutherland’s guess as to who sent it to him was arrived at
from one angle, induction from known facts. My knowledge of who
wrote it, is from its literary style and content. But we both arrived
‘at the same conclusion. This childish sereed was written by Malcolm
Bruce.

In the welter of siander are two quotations from Marx, both, of
which disprove the Marxist character of Bruce and his new associates
(I almost said friends). In one of these Marx was dealing with just
such another individual as Bruce himself, Willich. ,{In time of crisis,’’
writes Marx, “to lose one’s head is a crime against the Party which .
demands public expiation.”

No one should be a better judge of what to do in-a crisis than
Malcolm Bruce. He has failed so many times in crises that the
scurrilous imputations he makes against others is undoubtedly only
an anxious but futile attempt to justify himself.

In 1923 or ’24, he was in Nova Scotia. The miners in Cape Breton
were on strike. Bruce took part in the strike. Some charge or another
was laid against him by the company thugs and the police got a
warrant for his arrest. Did he face up to the musie and retain the
confidence of the striking miners? No. He went into hiding in a suburb
of Toronto, and Jack MacDonald who afterwards became a Trotskyite
went to Cape.Breton to battle the police on their own ground, as was
his duty and Bruce’s also. That was one crisis where Bruce lost
his head. ;

When the eight Communist Party leaders were in Kingston Peni-
tentiary, in the beginning of the ’thirties, the convicts went on strike,
at least 80 pereent of them. There had been a wave of strikes in United
States prisons but this was the first in a Canadian prison. What did
our Party leaders do? All but one of them identified themselves with °
the striking convicts. Tim Buck was shot at in his cell, deliberately.
One took no part in the protest of the convicts and was locked up
in another part of the prison. That one was Malcolm Bruce. That was

another crisis. .

In 1929, during the greatest.crisis in our party’s history, when it
was almost split on principle and Trotskyism was showing its ugly
head, Bruce was detailed to speak on one section of our resolution.
The situation was desperate. Everyone had to do his share. Bruce did
not show up. He had a “pain.” Tim Buck had to do Bruce’s share as
well as his own. That was a crisis, too.

But the Communists are trusting and forgiving. They forgave
Bruce for his failures. And they were the last to trust him. Why
was he not elected to any office at the Amalgamated convention he
attended recently? Why was he not nominated in the recent elections
on the CCF ticket when the CCF had difficulty in getting candidates?

Because he is no longer trusted anywhere. He may use his poison
pen for them but they will not reward him with their confidence.

PRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1945