10

B.C. LUMBER WORKER

Ast Issue, July

CATERING FOR PICKETS is conducted in the modern style in this kit

PICKET LINE KITCHEN |

hen maintained by the Seafarers

International Union on strike against the Union Steamships. It is manned by Chinese and white cooks re-

cruited from the ships’ galleys.

ELECTION POST MORTEM

By HENRY WEISBACH,
CCL-PAC Director

One million three hundred
thousand enfranchised citizens
of Ontario were so well satis-
fied with the do-nothing atti-
tude of the Conservative Gov-
ernment of Premier Leslie
Frost regarding unemployment,
health insurance, the highways
scandal and other important
problems they did not even
bother to walk a few steps to
the polling booth to cast their
ballots in the election on June
9th,

Eight hundred thousand of
those who did go to the polls
showed their approval of the
Government’s action over the
past four years by voting for
Conservative candidates across
the Province.

Gerrymander

Eight hundred and fifty thou-
sand, a majority of those who
voted, expressed their disapprov-
al of the Frost policies by voting
either for the Liberals or the
CCF,

Nevertheless, because of the
distribution of the population
within the constituencies, the
Tories captured 84% of the seats
in the new legislature in spite of
having received only 47% of the
Popular vote.

Eighty-three Tories will be op-
posed by 10 Liberals and three
CCFers, Both opposition parties
made slight advances in the num-
ber of seats held, but they are
faced with this steamroller ma-

-{ jority in the new legislature.

Approximately three hundred
thousand voters, mostly trade
unionists in the industrial centres
supported the CCF’s policies for
Ontario, which indicates, at least,
they wanted action on unemploy-
ment, health insurance, proper
labor legislation and action on
other problems of vital import-
ance to organized labor.

How Come We Lost?

Apathy on the part of hun-
dreds of thousands of wage earn-
ers and the determination of
well-to-do people to maintain the
status quo have again won over
labor’s hope for better govern-
ment and for the implementation
of its legislative program. The
indifference of the majority of
the people was discernible
throughout the campaign, and
again at the polls, with only a
little more than half the voters
of Ontario showing they believed
it important enough to vote for
a political party. Among these
must have been thousands of
trade unionists notwithstanding
the fact many other union mem-
bers did ‘vote.

Use, Abuse and Age

Inadequate glasses can cause headaches. Your
eyes change with use, abuse and age. A thorough
examination by your optometrist will detect any
need for a change in your present lens prescrip-
tion. Your precious eyes merit the professional
care, technical skills and the finest scientific in-
struments offered by optometrists.

Abramson & Aellenterg

OPTOMETRISTS
734 GRANVILLE STREET

MA, 0928

MA, 2948

Ground Floor — Vancouver Block

CCF Representation

Since it was possible to elect
only three CCF candidates, labor
could not have been more for-
tunate in their choice. Donald C.
MacDonald, the forceful and
hardworking leader of the party
in Ontario has always been a
good friend of labor and will
fight hard in the legislature to
win labor’s legislative demands.
Assisting him will be veteran
parliamentarian Tommy Thomas,
member of Local 222, UAW-CIO
from Oshawa, who has represent-
ed the CCF in the old Ontario
seat since 1948, Also with a labor
background, Reg Gisborn, Presi-
dent of the Hamilton Labor
Council and Executive Member
of Local 1005, USA-CIO, is the
elected representative for the
new seat of Wentworth East.

Labor cannot afford to be
pushed back on the legislative
front. This must be prevented. It
can only be prevented if labor as
a whole realizes that political
and legislative action remain of
the utmost importance regardless
of the outcome of any one parti-
cular election.

Power Demand: Up 38%
By 1958

Total demand for electric pow-
er in Canada is expected to reach
14,647,000 kilowatts by 1958, an
increase of almost 30% over the
1954 demand and 72.5% more
than in 1950. Local gains are ex-
pected to range from over 11%
in the Yukon and Northwest Ter-
ritories to more than 65% in
Alberta.

SAN FRANCISCO
— TAILORS —
LOAN MONEY ON
Suits, Overcoats, etc.
Loggers’ Boots, Sleeping

Bags, Suitscases, Radios,
Watches and Rings

Commons

Praises

Credit Unions

By TOM BARNETT, M.P.

Members of credit unions from all across Canada
would have been thrilled had they been in the House of.
Commons gallery the other evening to hear the chorus of
voices that seemed to come from all corners of the House
in support of the proposition that credit unions should be
included with banks under a measure which will provide
government insurance loans to fishermen. ‘

To me, as a credit union mem-
ber, it seemed almost like a
“coming of age” party for the
credit union movement. All the
more so because the , debate
seemed to develop as a spontan-
cous expression of good-will to
the credit unions and a tribute
to the service they have rendered
to hundreds of thousands of Can-
adians. Under consideration was
a resolution in the name of the
Minister of Finance providing for
the introduction of a bill to in-
sure loans made to bona fide
commercial fishermen.

This Act is to provide in the
field of commercial fishing the
same sort of provision that is
made for farmers under the Farm
Improvement Loan Act. The pur-
poses for which loans are to be
made are for every kind of per-
manent improvement associated
with a primary fishing enterprise,
including such things as the pur-
chase or construction of a fishing
vessel, the purchase of engines,
and the purchase, construction,
yepair or alteration used in a
primary enterprise such as a net
loft.

Fishermen’s Loans
Supported

There was immediate support

in the House from all sides for] #7:

the proposal to introduce this
legislation. Naturally, most of
the members who spoke were,
like myself, from districts where
commercial fishing is a major ac-
tivity. But almost without ex-
ception everyone of these fishing
members who took part raised
the question of having credit
unions included as lending insti-
tutions which could make insured
loans to fishermen.

The principal speech in sup-
port of including credit unions
during the preliminary stage of
discussion was by Clarie Gillis,
CCF member for Cape Breton
Sound. The basis of his interest
is clearly indicated when he said:

Those Early Days

“I was associated with that
movement for a long time, and
I am still a participating mem-
ber. I can remember the situa-
tion back in the 1930’s. We
were at that time living in
what I considered to be a ra-
ther hopeless world. Everyone
was seeking a way out, and no-
body seemed to know the way.
At that time, when St. Francis
Xavier University decided that
at least they were going to try
to do something, they proposed
the setting up of study groups
throughout the province.

“When that credit union
movement first started, with
nobody seeking any remunera-
tion but merely trying to give
people something to fasten on
to, we were laughed at fairly
generally. We were called the
new bankers,

“We were ridiculed. There
were not many of us then. But
today that organization has
proved itself. In this particular
field — the fieldof fishermen,

Expert Watch Repairing

UNREDEEMED

Suits and Caulk Boots
For Sale

MAIL ORDER

52 West Hastings Street
VANCOUVER, B.C.

“OLD DOC”

Dr. R. Llewellyn Dougles has
moyed his Dental Office from
9 East Hastings St. to 712
Robson St., Vancouver, B.C.

NEW ADDRESS

right from the Gaspe coast
clean through to Newfoundland
—that was the moyement that
came to their rescue.”

Supporting the proposition on
behalf of west coast fishermen
were Colin Cameron and myself,
and I remarked at one point:

“I know I need not remind
the Minister of Fisheries of the
large part the credit union
movement has played in the
life of the fisherman on the
British Columbia coast, and
how important it is to them.”

CREDIT UNION
ADVOCATE

TOM BARNETT, M.P.

The B.C. Credit Union League
was represented by R. J. Me-
Master of Vancouver, and another
major presentation was made by
the Nova Scotia Credit Union
League supplemented by a state-
ment from New Brunswick, while
a member of the Senate appeared
as a spokesman for the Caisses
Populaires of the Province of
Quebee. :

The delegation was introduced
to the committee by Mr. Breen
Melvin, Secretary of the Co-
Operative Union of Canada, who
will be well remembered by many
credit unionists in British Colum-
bia through his field work in co-
operative education to fishermen
under the Extension Department
of the University of B.C.

The brief from British Colum-
bia indicated that there are ap-
proximately eight credit unions
on the coast which are predomi-
nately fishermen’s credit unions,
of which the largest is the Prince
Rupert Fishermen’s Credit Union
with total assets approaching $2
million. Since 1940 this organiza-
tion has lent a total of $8% mil-
lion to fishermen and their fam-
ilies, out of which the sum of
$7,337.59 has been written off.

The main contrast between ere-
dit unions on the east and west
coast in the fishing areas is that
while those in Briitsh Columbia
are fewer in number, they are
larger in size; but the briefs from
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick
indicated the same fine record of
achievement of loans in the fish-
ing area,