So) ID I ever tell ye about
m experiences in Ger-

many in “33?” asked
Mr. Hangers the other after-
noon. It was climatically the
first. day of spring, and I

Was sitting sprawled in a

deck chair enjoying the sun
beating down on the float,
while Mr. Hangers adopted
the attitude against a post
which has become charac-
teristic ever since Vag car-
tooned him that way.

“T had no idea you were ever
nearer Germany than Cooke
County jail,” I told him. “Were
you?”

“J was, fer six days. It took
us that long to load, an’ after
we got started we couldn’t quit,
‘or else thuh skipper’d ’ave left
the second day.”

‘Why? WDidn’t he like the
beer?”

“Naw. He spent most o’ his
time bailin’ thuh! crew outa
clink Yuh see, it was jest
after thuh burnin’ o’ thuh
Reichstag, an’ most sailors can
smell a rat through seven
bulkheads, an’ they said
“Phooey!” too often an’ too loud
when the apes in thuh’ pubs
told *em the Communists had
lit the match.”

“So they clinked them for
that?”

“Clinked ’em? They damn near
liquidated ‘em fer less! So after
a few trips to thuh Nazi Lok-
als huntin’ fer his sailor boys,
the skipper cut out shore leave.
But thuh stevedores told us
plenty.” :

T did labor think of
it?”

“Just about the same as
they’d think in this here port.
U£ course, some social-demo-
crats among ’em saw in it only
a chance tuh bash thuh com-
munists. They were ready tuh
believe because it suited their
brand o’ polities. But honest
workin’ stiffs uf every party
knew it was the go-ahead tuh
smash th’ unions, but what
could they do then?”

“They could still fight,
ecouldn’t they?” I asked. My in_
terest, however, was waning,
and I wanted to snooze.

“Theoretically, uf course, they
could still fight, but iHthey’d
lost thuh habit by this time uf
fighting anybody but them-
selves. Besides, as often as not
when they opened their yaps
tuh protest, a social-democrat
brother, an’ there was evem th’
odd nazi amongst ’em, would
put thuh finger on ’em fer a
communist. So thuh most 0’
them just kept quiet and hoped
fer thuh people tuh kick out
thuh Nazis. Yuh see, they for-

“got they were the people.”

AX? so they got it in the
neck?”
“Yuh bet, only not always in
thuh neck either . . . thuh Nazis
had physiological knowledge.

Mr. Hangers

"lt Ha

An’ they never knew when it
Was comin.’ Just a kickin’ at
thuh door aroun’ about six uf a
winter mornin’, three or four

Gestapo bullies pushin’ their
way in, women an’ children
howlin’ an’ gettin’ knocked

outo thuh way, thuh house ran-
sacked, an’ never a chance tuh
phone a lawyer or nuthin’. If
they got thuh wrong man, an’
bein’? dumb Nazis they often
did, well, they just growled
their way out widout even an
apology or cleanin’ up thuh
mess. Then a secret investiga-
tion an’ nobody knowin’ what
happened. That’s thuh way they
bust thuh unions.”

T beats me,” I
thoughtfully, “is how it was
slipped over on them so easily.
They had so much warning.
Little things .. .”

“Not little things. Big
things! Only, like you, they
thought they were little things.
Some uf their leaders told ’em
so, an’ they believed ’em.
Things like yuh can see hap-
penin’ in Canada today, mebbe.
Rats financed by bosses tuh
attack th’ unions on the radio,
an’ yowlin’ fer “proper unions,”
the Nazi ‘proper,’ uf course.
Then thuh  social-democratie
‘representatives of the people’
attackin’ thuh Soviet Union an’
thuh ‘Communist - dominated’
trade unions, in an’ out o’ sea-
son. Senators makin’ attacks
on thuh livin’ standards o°
workers, an’ warnin’ againcé
attack from jRussia, thuh coun-
try ‘that saved their yellow
hides from Hitler . . . only, uf
course, they'd rather a’had Hit-
ler than be saved that way.
Don’t they wish they had him
now, some o’ those senators an’
CMA fascists! They’d intern
him in Ottawa to get the ad-
vice of an expert!”

“You don’t think there’ll be
@ burning of the parliament
buildings here, do you?” [I
asked with a grin.

Wet may ye laugh at th’

idea! Ye know right well
the Canadian nazis are too
cheap fer that! One thing about
the German rats, they - did
everything; on a grand scale.
They weren’t ‘ikers. But if
yere asking if i think they
are goin’ tuh try somethin’ uf
the same kind tuh shock Gana-
dian scissorbills into acceptin’
thuh most vicious kinda reac-
tion, well I do think so. I can
project this here nose o’? mine
into the very near future, right
now, an’ smell what might be
called a figurative Reichstag
burnin’.”

Said:

Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State,

(Frederick Engels)

Leninism, Selected Writings (Joseph Stalin)
The British Labour Movement (Frederick Engels) _..
Value, Price and Profit, (Karl Marx)

Imperialism (jV. I. Lenin)
ORDER

People’s Co-operative Book Store
337 W. Pender St.

MA. 5836

Cloth, $1.75; Paper .50
FROM

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 2

Says —

pened Before ”’

“Do you remember in Jack
London’s ‘Iron Heel” that a
plant tossed a bomb into a

state legislature to start it all
going ?”

“Ay, an’ some guys think
London was a bit uf a prophet
on accounta that passage, but
he wasn’t. He was just a work-
er who’d watched a rulin’ class
scheming, an’ knew how unor-
iginal they were. The same pat-
tern, but mebbe a different
cloth. Then they get all the
right people to conduct an in-
vestigation, with due deference
tuh the reactionary wings uf
thuh church an’ labor, an’ they
go to town. Before ye can say
‘Go to hell!’ thuh heat is on,
an’ ye find yerself howlin’ in-
stead.”

~ matters

weet de you think cam be
done about it?” I asked
him, a little apprehensively.
His seriousness, without his
usual sardonic resentment, was
unwonted.

“Just thuh same thing we
shoulda done long ago .. . get
together! What thuh hell do
parties, creeds, an’ job divi-
sions matter? Only one thing
when liberty is at
stake . .. unity! The working
class must be made to see the
picture now as it was in Ger-
the bosses sabo-

many

tagin’ all unity of the workers
at home, an’ tossin’ atomic
bombs into every attempt at
world cooperation abroad.
Stalin says there can be no
peace under capitalism, but

|

Uncle Joe didn’t need to :
what is obvious, that if the {
viet Union, an’ Hurope an’ A
generally are left alone with:
interference for just about ©
years of rebuilding, capitali
of the West will dare not atta
an’ must wither away like
tree rotten fer thuh pushoy
Thuh workers must see that
attack on their standards :!
an attack on the socialist st
are thuk same attack.”

“But for that we need un
and to get unity the work
must understand. who crea
disunity, and why, that it
not accidental but planned:
all sides, and that they the
selves are their sole savio.
and defence?” I suggested.

He didn’t answer, but ga:
reflectively over the water
the snow on the North Sh
mountains. I think it was -
first time he ever let me he
the last word.

Art Exhibition
At Grand Fork

HE Second Annual Art i.
hibition of Grand Forks ¥
successfully opened on W
nesday, February 20, and 1
remain on display until Frid
March 1. ;
Behind this event, and
first exhibition in 1945 lies
story of the vision and in’
tive of Alan GC. Clapp, a-lead |
citizen of Grand Forks I
standard bearer in the last 4-
eral elections, and nephew
the eminent British artist <7
Royal Academician, Cha,
Bird. 2
Recognizing |\ the

grow 4

‘need in his town for organi ‘i

activity in the field of
Alan Clapp decided to do so:
thing about it himself. As
initial experiment he appro:
ed only B.C. artists .of the
terior from Trail, Pentic —
Kelowna, Grand Forks and of |
surrounding points. The re |
was the first show of paint;
ever exhibited in Grand Fo
and the success of his en:
prise made history in
area,
This year Alan Clapp ror
a committes with members |
the School Board, the FP i
Master, a barrister and o
prominent citizens. He sect
Widely increased support f
Okanagan artists. And he ¢«
ed upon the Labor Arts G
of Vancouver ffor assista—
through whom arrangem |
were completed with the T |
Extension Department to |
elude Grand Forks on the |
inerary of the travelling si
comprising 24 entries f |
the 1945 “British Columbiz |
Work” Exhibition, selected ;
the Federation of Canadian —
tists for a three month toui
the Proyince, under auspice;
the University. ;
There will be special shi
ings for school children
high school students. Comn
ity enthusiasm has been
tense and the event this 1
promises to become kn |
throughout Canada. 6
Of such is the achieven}
of one individual, removed f |
the so-called centres of cul
al opportunities, who has «
cerned himself with the art Bt
pursuits of his own comn
ity. We salute Alan C. C.
for his stimulatme exam
and for his inspiration to ;
ilar endeavor elsewhere.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, E