Geo. Mitchell Reports Protest BCER Boost Protest of the Greater Vancouver and Lower Mainland Labor Council against the proposed hike in consumer electric power rates will meet with the warm approval of all industrial workers. ‘A well entrenched monopoly is taking another wallop at our living standards in order to maintain a mysteriously calculated 5.3 percent rate of return on investment. If the BCER pressures the Public Utilities Commission, as it has in the past, 8 workers’ house- holds will start to pay another 26 percent for electricity as from March 10. Already the daily newspapers ap~ pear to have fal- Jen in line and are presenting all 2 the time-worn arguments in sup- port of the increase. The power monopoly proposes to extract another $2.1 million a year from the pockets of the con- Sumers, reducing the spending ower of families for necessities by just that much. This action is being engineeered by a monopoly which has already in recent years boosted transporta~ tion rates twice, and the gas rates once. “Brown-out” Organized labor must shoulder the responsibility of voicing pro- test on behalf of a long-suffering public. Our dependence on one source of electricity should not bar effective campaigning against this latest imposition. Ig workers can’t “brown-out” the application before the Com- mission, they will be compelled to “brown-out” their uses of elec- tricity in their homes. This inevitable result of a rate increase for power points up the folly of making the uses of elec- tricity costly. Low-cost electricity is a necessity for modern living. It is likewise the key to industrial development. One convincing fact emerges from the experience of power utilities on this continent. As the cost of electricity has been lower- ed, the uses of electricity have increased, with the net result that the power companies, with the communities served, have pros- pered. Increase Power Uses When the TYA rates were slashed in the Southern States, business interests profited to the extent of nearly one million dol- lars in one year through the in- creased sale of appliances, the use of which were made possible by low-cost electricity. Low-cost electricity would ac- celerate the modernization of our homes. High - priced electricity slows down this development, subtracts from the comfort and leisure of living, and throttles in- dustrial growth. Other provinces in the Do- minion, as well as large areas in the United States, have acted to place power under public owner- ship and control with resulting and important benefits to the con- sumers. The BCER is not only striking a blow at the prosperity of the main centres of population in British Columbia, but is certainly convincing the public as to the desirability of outright expro- priation of power production and distribution by the provincial government, SUPPORT OUR ADVERTISERS HAND-CRAFTED WITH OHNSON’S LOGGERS COMFORT and QUALITY A. W. Johnson Ltd. 63 West Cordova St. Vancouver, B.C. FINEST SWISS LEATHER Publication date of the next Issue of the B.C. LUMBER WORKER is March 15. Deadline for ad copy is March 9, and for news copy March 10. President .....-.......- 1st Vice-President... 2nd Vice-President Srd Vice-President +... Secretary-Treasurer EC LensentiWornen , Repretenting the Orgexized Loggers ond Mill Werkers of B.C. PUBLISHED TWICE MONTHLY BY INTERNATIONAL WOODWORKERS OF AMERICA (C10-CCL) B.C. DISTRICT COUNCIL No. 1, E> DISTRICT OFFICERS: International Board Member Address all communi GEORGE H, MITCHELL, Secretary-Treasurer 45 Kingsway - Phone FAirmont 8807-8 ‘Vancouver, B.C. Subscription Rates............$1.00 per annum Advertising Representative............G, A. Spencer Authorized as Second Class Mall, Post Office Dept., Ottawa 26,000 COPIES PRINTED IN THIS ISSUE J, Stewart Alsbury oneneTom Bradley