B.C. LUMBER WORKER Pi Page Five Convention Hangover D=®AR BILL: You woodheads in the old boar’s nest will ‘ave to wait a day or two, while organize my story about the do- igs at the IWA_ International convention and build a high line for the camp pow-wow. Ym all out of soap. If you're not satisfied, you can go to Helen B, Happy. Anyway, the greatest labor-saving stunt today is to- morrow. I, suppose you thought you would keep me out of skidroad mischief while I’m “boarding with Aunt Polly” by asking me to sit in on the doings, like a stump de- tective. You'll be sorry. I’m away ahead of you now. In one week, I’ve really learned to roll the guff about the IWA. Right now, I’ve got a hang- over, and it’s neither alcoholic nor anonymous. I just fool so feclish — completely scramble ~ brained from a week’s talkathon. Also I’ve got calluses where they hadn’t out to be. * Talkee Talkee - PpAck about four hundred tim- ber-wolves in one convention hall with all their beefs, and you get something in the way of chin- music. And brother, this bunch could sure ball the jack with the mouth wordage, and make it come out like sense, Old Edison had the right idea. When someone made a Speech, praising the old man before he died about his inyen- tion of the talking machine, he got to his feet and said, “I thank the gentleman: for his kind remarks, but I must in- sist on a correction. God in- vented the talking machine. I only invented the first one that could be shut off.” We heard swelloquence over the mikes, woof and gabber in the corridors and committee - rooms, not to mention them chew- ing the dirty rag in the bed- rooms. Some of the buckos when they found the right lubrication talked all night as well as all day. The only ones that kept quiet were the women and they didn’t dare interrupt. * Repartit-for Tat I shouldn’t squawk, for I got that way too, just like any ex- cited bobby-soxer. Some Joe would put up an argument I did not like and away I’d go, It’s like one of the gang said, “The other night I dreamed that I was ad- dressing the International Con- vention. Then I woke up and by gosh I was.” Some of the boys brought their wives along, A web-foot om down Oregon way got jack to the hotel bedroom about daylight. As he told me, “I was just undressing, when Be ree roe sab and said, ‘Aren’t you getting up prett; early, dear?” Rather than start ao Ae I inst put on clothes again and eame ba the convention hall.” — You got to be a philosopher at a convention. A philosopher is one who knows just what to do, until it happens to him. And as I've often told you about this IW- A, it’s the dim lights that have the highest scandal power, {So like a Hollywood marriage,’ it’s one good way to spend a week. a No Wampus Cats F ANY of the top brass in the Union hear about my cracks, Til probably catch hell. A little ribbing will do them no harm. You ean tell em that P’ve sp: leak in my think tank, rn by no means dippy in the Laskin’ Around . “HI? ATTENDS CONVENTION; ‘High Rigger” HEARS PIONEER SCANDAL On the level, and no kidding, this convention opened my eyes to what the IWA has got. It was all business all the way through, and business that puts dollars in our jeans. As one of my colored friends told me, CIO means Cash in Overalls. I got chummy with some of the lads who work in the control room where they handle the loud- speaker system for a big hall like the ball-room of the Hotel Van- couver, for they hear every whis- er. # They told me that the IWA convention had it over the others like a tent for business- like procedure and down-to- earth tackling of problems. No platitudinous ponderosities or sesquipedalianism, sez they. (You can chew on those for a while.) Whatever that is, the IWA convention was not. It was an honest-to-goodness wrastle to put steam into our fight with the big bulls. One Big Union ONCE they had a roll-call vote, delegate by delegate, with a full count of the members each one could speak for. I got wise that before I didn’t know from nothing about the size of our Union. Guys spoke up from Ala- bama, Georgia, Texas, Montreal, Minnesota, California, Alaska, as well as our own B.C. way-points. You could knock me for a loop when I realized that this IWA has sewed up the workers in the whole goldanged North American lumber industry. We can, surely go places, if we get wise to our strength. Sure proves that it’s wise to organize internationally to make our punches land in the right spot. The Deep South WE HAD quite a contingent of our colored brothers from Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Texas. When I got knocking around with them I found them to be smart Joes, and do they know the score about trade union organization. When I began to realize what they had been through in the early days of the CIO drive, south of the Mason and Dixon line, I figured us for a bunch of softies. It drove home to me the difference between no trade unions and what we get now in the way of protection here from our trade union organization. The political bosses really made it tough for them. Quite often, when they arranged a meeting to set up a trade union their organizers would be picked up by the police and held in the hoosegow for forty- eight hours as suspicious char- acters, It was a regular, thing to get beaten up by the white-sheeted Ku Klux Klan, who thought the colored folk were getting uppitty if they organized them- selves into trade unions. Convict Labor yp SOME States the bosses had a working arrangement with the parole boards of the jails. Men who were in for minor of- fences would be paroled to the bosses who would work them for wages often as low as 35 cents an hour. They were only paid once a month, and with cheques that could not be cashed anywhere but in the company stores, where they paid two prices for everything. The general idea was to keep them in debt to the company store. They were kept in company huts under armed guard. Pioneer Timber Fracas OME of these show-off bazoos that the Wooies send roaming around the camps ought to have a yellow streak painted down their backsides so that everyone would know them for what they are, Big burly John McCuish started to beat up Reg Harrison from Pioneer Timber in Alert Bay re- cently, so I was told by one of the boys from the camp. You'll remember Reg. He's known in a lot of the camps for being one of the smallest but smartest whistle punks on the job, He’s always taking a ribbing for being under-sized, but he can take it. He’s a plucky ‘un, all five feet of him, and he had been KNOWLTON'S DRUGS BODY BELTS TRUSSES FIRST AID SUPPLIES DRUGGIST Can Supply All your Medical Requirements BY MAIL Write to 6371 wept dream box. WOODWARD'S 7 Caulking ...... $1.00 Extra Hand-Made LOGGING BOOTS © No. 1 Chrome Leather Uppers © Highest Grade Leather Soles © Non-Rust Eyelets. 8-inch Tops. Price Delivered _$21.95 making a monkey out of John at the Wooie camp meetings. When McCuish met him alone in Alert Bay, he started abusing him, calling him an “Iron River Scab”, and “company stooge”. Reg came right back, said he’d never been at Iron River, and had never stooged for anyone in his life, The Wooie bully, who is twice Reg’s size, then knocked Reg down and was starting to put the boots to him, if some of the other boys from the camp hadn’t happened along and stopped what looked like mur- der. Ernie Dalskog was on the scene and tried to smooth mat- ters over. No reason for any fuss, sez he, McCuish was do- ing his duty as a Wooie sees it. Braye man, McCuish, when he can bully a fellow half his weight. JAMIESON & SON Phone 14 Ladysmith, B.C. FLOUR SEED FEED FERTILIZER EUROPE HOTEL Phone 25 LADYSMITH, B.C. Everything in Tadic Wear ANN’S STYLE SHOP Phone 362 LADYSMITH, B.C. Lunches LADYSMITH BUSINESS GUIDE SOD Wore MT Now Phone 124 Ladysmith, B.C. LADYSMITH DRUG STORE (Tom Bertram, Pharmacist) Phone 26 LADYSMITH, B.C. 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