reducing the board of
ie Tribune to the read-
in McEwen asks for
“and criticisms of the

l= been reading this
“der its various names,
(time amd might just
be wasting my time
She capitalist press if
' for the contributions
Sarkin, Cynthia Carter,
‘donal short by Tom,
jpurse, Old Bill.
ii turmed on the radio
rd was that these ter-
sians tried to steal our
mb secret. This is all
i: gigantic plot of the
its to destroy the
organizations, turn
le against the Soviet
|d start the march of
rhastly dance of death.
i) another big lie from
actory and should be
1S Such.
oes the ruling class
lions of dollars an-
propaganda and ad-
Ents to save the work-
Communism when, on
hand they don’t give
they starve to death?
*, L would like to know
fe the atoms stop ex-
f hen they reached the
of Nagasaki and Hi-
. What stopped the
ylodinge in the modern
>» What other honor-
ise could have been
fe Japanese to fold up
B-able war| when the
went through Man-
24 hours instead of

Whe

3 Your

Saas

eight years as expected by. our
military experts? When test-
ing the atomic bomb in the des-
ert, what means were used to
eool the sands in the crater
made by the bomb, so that the
scientists could go to the bot-
tom and examine the results 12
minutes after the heat from
the explosion melted the steel
tower upon which the bomb
had rested? :
Perhaps these are secrets too
which the Soviet Union might
want to steal.
Yours very truly,
WM. J. LAW

Social Allowances

To the Editor:

I would like to take a few
lines in your paper to bring to
the public a very important is-
Sue which affects mainly those
who through certain disabilities
are unable to obtain employ-
ment and are forced to apply
for Social Allowances.

There are large numbers of
disabled persons obtaining So-
cial Allowances which grants
them the meagre pittance! of
$25.83 per month for food and
shelter for a single person,
with which they have to obtain
a room if they are fortunate
enough to get one around $6.00
to $8.00 per month, which
leaves them from $17.85 to
$19.85 per month for food. Of
course every one is not fortu-
Nate enough to obtain a room
at such a-low rent and are
therefore compelled to pay the
same as others for a room,
$2.50 to $3.00 per week amount-

“A of Chatdment

jou Please.

even $15.00 per month, thereby

they have from $13.85 to $15.00
and some only around $10.85
left to give them food for the
month. :
We all know that the old age
pension grants | $30.00 per
month per person which cer-
tainly is a very low amount for

‘a2 person to live on for one
-month, but a disabled person

gets even $4.15 less than this

' meagre pittance of $30.00.

As one who is forced to ob-
tain the Social Allowances, . I
would like to ask the Social
Service Department: Why.
aren’t we, as disabled persons,
allowed at least the same ag an
Old Age Pensioner obtains. Tf
am one that will do everything
Within my power to boost the
old age pension from $30.00 to
$50.00 per month and say at

/the same time that I feel it is

about time that we as disabled
persons trying to get by on this
meagre allowamce should get
together and have something
done about this disgraceful
state of affairs and force the
authorities to raise our allow-
ance to at least the same as
the old age pension allowamce.
We must form an organization
that can rally the general pub-
lic behind us in order to reach
our objective. Will all disabled
persons on Social Allowances
interested in forming such an
organization please contact me
(Bob Daniels) by phoning Ma-
rine 5288? If I am not there
at the time of phoning just
leave your address and I will
gladly contact you.

ine from $10.00 to $12.00 and

R. DANIELS

\tom iC C al u m ny From “Canadian Tribune”

editorials and radio

, of anti-Soviet “news” stories, inter-

“commentaries”

/ unabated. Not since the days of the
Hinish war has the press and radio so
ts capacity for mobilizing its scribes
- a maximum of copy with a minimum
Any scribbler with more zeal than
‘can get a byline; factual consistency

a moral scruple to be

irn every minute.”

eynically disre-

All the traffic ean bear.” ‘‘There’s a
“Give the public

jants.” These seem to be the slogans of

z press. All in the name of freedom—

iet journal “New Times” recently car-
ies of articles on the world press. One

i 1S especially interesting to Canadians:

Gore adroit of the hawkers of false

ys endeavor to link up

their calumnies

I§ a lively interest. Characteristic in this

the appearance lately

of a Series of

@alumny which might be called atomic
mE'or example, in the beginning of Sep-
Ge Washington Post published a fabri-
Bement to the effect that three years
icder of the Soviet government, shares
Wizht in the uranium mines of Canada,
squence of which the Canadian govern-

Wonalized these mines.”

ibe remembered that an attempt was

#5 canard.

f

itery-minded politician

l :
dw days ago by the press in Canada to

and political

ahavine a field day. Mr. Drew of On-
up a lie to the effect that the Com-

HiC TRIBUNE — PAGE 5

munists of Canada were organized in 1920 with
‘Moscow gold!’ Professor Kirkconnell manufac-
tures “quotations” from Lenin out of the whole
cloth. Mr. Coldwell of the CCF goes right along
with Mr. King and hasn’t the conscience or de-
eceney even to touch on the political motives of
this “bombe diplomatique.”

The only note of reason and ‘sanity in the
dangerous mess comes from the labor move-
ment within Canada, and from the USSR, with-
out, via its public comments.

What should have been the subject of a nor-
mal diplomatic exchange between two friendly
countries, Canada and the USSR, has been de-
liberately timed and exaggerated to place the
USSR in a bad light in world affairs. That in it-
self is tantamount to saying that the motivation
at bottom is to revive anti-Soviet blocs and
diplomatic squeezes. Espionage is not the issue
here involved; the sabotage of world peace by
a revival of anti-Sovietism is the real issue. The

Ganadian people must be brought to under-
stand that.

Part of the understanding must include
measures to curb and control an irresponsible

press and radio. The systematic fomentation of
war and political slanders by the press are
erimes a thousand times worse than any that
ean be connected with espionage. They are
erimes which should be so regarded and so
_punished bg the United Nations. The press
monopoly, which gives a man accidentally in
possession of a fortune the power to foment
war, is an enemy of peace and of the people, and
part of the fight for a genuine peace policy for
Ganada is the fight against such indecencies as
the Gaandian public have been subject to in the
past ten days, in the name of the freedom of
the press!

Short Jabs  o sin

Shakespeare

(peo correspondents, BH. Krale and Fred Stables, in letters to the
editor appear to have missed the point in a Short Jabs column

which was printed here a few weeks ago regarding an American pro-

fessor’s list of “The World’s Ten Greatest Books.”

ie First, they both imagine that because I wrote that these ten books

“with the exception of Shakespeare ,were out of this world,’ I must

be an adorer of Shakespeare and that the others suffered in conesquence.

But their imaginations, cheated by their emotions, played them false
in both eases.

I like “to read about people” too, which is one of the standards set
by Friend Krale, but what people? Perhaps Fred Stables will allow
me my little modicum of sentiment also, while 1 answer that question
In my own way?
: IT have read all of Shakespeare’s plays. Not in one line did I find a
single expression of sympathy or commiseration for the workers or
peasants who provided the food that kept him, as well as his heroes,
heroines and villians alive. A great parade of kings, queens, princes and
princesses, nobles, generals, senators and priests pass in review before
before us. They are possessed of all the human virtues and vices, van-
ities and frailties; they run the whole gamut of emotions. All of these,
even the most scoundrelly, are pictured as real men and women.

But the few workers whom Shakespeare allows to come to his
Stage appear like the slaves of the Greek democratic republics who
were not permitted to have a soul. They are clowns, clod-hoppers, addle-
pates, bumpkins. Even the names he gives them show the scorn and
contempt in which he held them: Bottom, the weaver; Flute, the bel-
lows mender; Snout, the tinker; Starveling, the tailor: Mouldy, Peter
Thump, Wart, Feeble Potpan Christopher Sly and so on. And when: they
are not held up to open ridicule they are mean, lickspittle menials who
carry themselyes as though they are apologizing for being alive.
Wien Shes verte has anything foolish to say, he puts it into the mouth

of a worker. ;

_ When King Lear, thrown out of his home by his ‘‘noble” daughters,
or should we say, “evicted,” in the midst of a storm on Blackheath, ex-
presses his feelings in these words, ‘‘Poor miserable wretches, whereso’er
ye be, that bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,” he is not speaking of
the miseries of the workers, but feeling sorry for himself. He is speak-
ing of King Lear.

Since Shakespeare only wrote about one-half of life as it really is
maybe we can stretch a point and say his book is one of the “Ten Half
Greatest Books.”

Had the Baconites used this argument to prove that Lord Verular
and not Will Shakespeare wrote the plays, instead of searching foi
cryptograms, they might have been more convincing. 2

Tolstoi 1 cannot agree with Friend Krale that the defenders of Lenin-

grad found inspiration in the fight against fascism from the
works of Tolstoi, for the end product of Tolstoi’s philosophy is the —
Doukhobor.

That the people of the Soviet Union are reading Tolstoi is in line
with the advice given them by Stalin at the 16th Party Congress, when
he said: “There is an efflorence of national cultures (and languages)
in the period of proletarian dictatorship in one country, but the very
purpose of this is te prepare the conditions for the extinction of these
separate cultures’ and the welding of them inte one common socialist
eulture (and one common language) when socialism will be victorious
over the whole world.” That may be contratictory but it is Marxian
dialectic. That explains why the Soviet people are reading Tolstoi
and other Russian writers. They are building a national culture which
they did not have under the Tsars, and for the purpose which Stalin has
outlined.

I don’t happen to have a copy of the P.A. with the particular column,
but I remember Friend Krale accuses me of being “a plain idealist” in
my historical conception because I refer to a “‘spurious culture.”

This is one part of the article that is materialist enough to be drawn
from the facts of life in England of the not so Jonge distant past. A’
elassical education such as was acquired at Oxford and Cambridge was
largely a matter of being pumped full of Greek and Latin so that those
who passed through these halls of learning could spout Greek poetry and
Latin oratory in the original. This, with the ability to sit on a horse
and “ride to hounds” were all that were required to ear one the title
of ‘‘an English gentleman.”

Friend Krale is annoyed to find me comparing
Eggs and Shoes poetry with science in terms of books, and is re-
minded of attempts to compare eggs with shoes. And why not? Doesn’t
Marx do it in explaining their value. Don’t we do it every day? So
many dozen eggs, five dollars; one pair of shoes, five dollars. That’s
Marxism. ,

How many “tens of thousands” are reading some of these books, is
not the question, although Friend Krale might find himself in a tight
eorner in an argument on the subject with some of our publishing houses
about the numbers he quotes.

What counts, what makes a book great TODAY, is its influence on
our social life. That some of them are “‘stages in development” is true.
It is also true that the Phoenicians gave us our alphabet which is also
a stage in development but we don’t expect our children to learn the
Phoenician language because of that. AS : E

Regarding Fred Stables’ St. Valentine’s Day emotional jag, I will
only say that when next he quotes the beautiful lines of Gray and the
out-of-date statement of Huxley, on “death,” that he first check his
facts with the inhalator squad or the man who dropped dead on the
streets of Vancouver on three, or was it four, differenti occasions lately.
and had his “pump” started going after each occasion by the inhalator
oe a when estimating the greatness of books, let us always consider
them in relation to those whom Lenin calls “the millions and tens of
millions of workers who are the flower of the country, its strength, its

future.
FRIDAY, MARCH 8, 1946