yuu

eee ‘SCOOP’ ae
Paul Martin finds

_ prices are up

By MARK FRANK

OTTAWA

HE parliamentary committee on prices de-

. livered a report to a dying parliament the

other day which showed that the publicity tor-

nado which accompanied its sitting had dwindled

to a gentle zephyr when the time came to ask
for action.

It took the committee five months, 3,800
pages of evidence and a 20.000-word review, to
come to the conclusion that prices were going up,
a fact every Canadian housewife knows only too
well. The committee, which labored like an
elephant to bring forth its mouse-like report,
was also agreed that there is “some” profiteer-
ing taking place; but the committee chairman,
Hon. Paul Martin, considered the government’s
official “leftist,” did not embarrass either the
cabinet or big business by suggesting any drastic
measures be taken to prevent corporations from
picking the people’s pockets.

True, one of the five main points to come
out of the committee investigation contains a
vague recommendation asking for more stringent
actions against profiteers, but it carefully avoids
recommending
cause any degree of disturbance to either the
government or its friends. The report also fails
to mention that to date no
tioning has ever been taken against the profit-
eers who are fattening at public expense. In-
stead, the committee heard J. S. McLeam presi-
- dent of Canada: Packers, tell it that his firm in-
tended charging all the traffic would bear despite
all-time record profits and public suffermg-

"Neither did the committee mention the fact
that the policies of the King government are
directly responsible for high prices. “TRS eae
points suggested to the government for its co :
sideration were: (1) Removal of the 25 cage
“ise 1 (2) Imposition of an excess pro its
tax; (3) i on to the ve"
imposition of some measure of price control aye
the application of temporary subsidies on som
commodities. ;

’ Weak as
possibility cf it
upon how much public e can i
to -bear on the government. For it 1s obvious
that chairman Paul Martin prought in recommen-
‘dations which already had cabinet approval as
a pre-election measure.

An attempt by William Irvine Cour; Cari-
boo) to have the report sent back to committee
with an amendment empowering the committee
to recommend the immediate imposition of a
substantial tax on excess profits, restoration ot
a comprehensive system of price controls and
the introduction of subsidies. wherever necessary
was defeated by being ruled out of order.

\ ‘The speed with which the government moved
to kill Irvine’s -motion is seen aS an indication

the recommendations are, the
their implementation will depend.

of what will happen to the prices report unless ©

the entire nation moves to comipel some kind of
action. é
Despite its weakness, the report was op-
posed, both in committee and on the floor of the
House, by the Tories and members of the Social
Credit group. :
Prime Minister King himself did not ¢vén
try to defend his government's prices policies
when the report was being debated in the
House. Goverment benches were significantly
silent. ~~

any course of action which could >>

action worth. meno.

pressure can be brought |

2

Rockwell Kent in The Railroad Trainman

Rail deadline July 15

POSSIBILITY of a coast-to-coast strike of 160,000
railway workers came closer this week as the
CPR and subsidiary railways, carrying as usual the
government-controlled CNR in tow, stood pat on a
q-cent an hour offer which has been rejected by

nationwide votes. Unions are asking 35 cents.
Since 1939, the unions have only received wage
gains of 16 cents (plus a cost of living bonus amount-
ing to less than 10 cents) although living costs have
doubled and company profits soared. The CPR
admits to a 1947 net profit of $31,893, 942 after taxes,
‘Which is a 21 percent increase over the 1946 figure
of $25,184,731. ;

Direct negotiations: have been resumed following
shelving of government mediation. Strike dead- .
line nas been set for 6 a.m., July 15.

SASKATCHEWAN VOTE

Win for people
‘warning to CCF

By NELSON CLARKE |

HE people of Saskatchewan have defeated

the coalition gang-up of the old-line parties
and struck a blow for progress by returning the
CCF government, This, coupled with CCF gains -
in Ontatio and in federal byelections, further
indicates the trend against the old-line parties .
and the desire for new, labor-farmer policies
and reforms.

But there are also warnings in the results. —
The CCE lost too many seats and the Liberals
made serious gains. The
it failed to arouse and rally all those progressive

voters who wanted to see the old-line parties
_ routed forever from Saskatchewan.

Instead,
with the old-line parties in red
blurring the real issues.
Premier T. C. Douglas’s post-election state-
ment that “the CCF victory is not so much a
gain for the government as a victory for the
people of Saskatchewan” is a complete vindica-
tion of the unity policy advocated by the LPP.
throughout the election.
In the one constituency in which an LPP
candidate was nominated, Pelly, the Liberal was

the CCF joined
baiting, thereby

CCF lost seats because .

elected as a result of the refusal of the CCF to |

heed repeated LPP appeals for united progress-—
ive action.

The correctness of the LPP decision ‘to.
contest Pelly is fully proven by the fact that
in face of red-baiting by the CCF, Liberal and
Socia! Credit opposition, Bill Berezowski, the
LPP candidate, more than doubled the vote he
received in 1944.

The lesson of the election is that the fight
for progressive unity and genuine far-reaching
reforms in.Sasktchewan- must go On with even
greater strength and purpose.

ere

- slashed wages,

charges of financial mismanagement would

ling trying to do?

LABOR FOCUS

What is Fadling

trying to do?

By BRUCE MICKLEBURGH

ae labor movement grows or perishes in
large measure according to its ability when
necessary to pick out the single main issue and
toss everything into a Sunday punch to set
back the whole big business class. It’s. no
academic question when we realize that labor’s
millionaire enemies also use strategy and tactics
of a very high order. Right now—with their
governments—they’ve chosen the Great Lakes
to try to break through and destroy the most

fundamental! rights of all Canadian labor.

_ To get close to home, let’s realize that B.C.
unions immediately might make gains in wages
and conditions, but could still end up weakened
if the seamen went down in the meantime. The
point here is that the fight on the Lakes is for
more than seamen’s wages and conditions; it’s

for the right of'a union to elect its own officers

and for the whole system of collective bargain-
ing won in a century of struggle.

It would be disastrous shortsightedness (call

_ it “narrow practicalism” if you like) to think

of the Lakes issue as in competition to burning
local problems. Actually the two fuse directly.
And powerful is the position of the union
that ‘can rally its members and the public against
labor's enemies on the Coast and the Lakes in
a single fight. for wages and conditions, for the
uaion and the rights of all Canadian labor. That
is the kind of labor statesmanship that can win
out against the tooth and claw offensive of
the CMA.
ee 3
OR some time the “captains of industry”
have had under way a coordinated campaign
to destroy. the militant leadership of the IWA.
In the great 1946 strike the IWA bypassed PC
9384 to establish the 15-cent national wage pat-
tern. In 1947 the IWA successfully defied Bill
39 to win 124 cents and the 40 hour week.

‘Big businessmen want to dynamite this road
block on the path to their heart's desire of
greater speedup, and chained
Jabor. They’ve conducted a province-wide cam-
paign of vilification against Dalskog, Pritchett,
Bergren, Forbes and the other district leaders.
The big business Vancouver Sun campaigned
jor defeat of the leadership in the district’
elections. Operators openly spread propaganda
of the anti-district slate. There’s been prolonged
attempts to build a network of paid labor spies
and wreckers, with cooperation of government
departments and RCMP. Bill 87 has been piled
on top of Bill 39 by a Coalition: government that
openly attacks the district leadership.

Now the 1948 negotiations are reaching a
critical stage, with the operators still hoping
that all this dirty work will have the desired
eect. A whistle-punk attending his first union
meeting can clearly see the need to follow Dis-—
trict President Ernie Dalskog’s call to close
ranks— Guard your union.”

“That's why a lot of labor eyebrows jumped
ten feet when IWA International President Jas.
FE. Fadling rushed onto the front page of the
Vancouver Sun with his announcement that he is
ordering a probe of district books by three of ©
his officials, from south of the line, plus one
from the, CCL, following five-months’ old_
charges by the anti-District officers of the New —
Westminster local that there’s a $9,000 shortage
in district accounts. : oa

Fact is that only two weeks ago district
trustees presented a full audit report, compiled

by a firm of chartered accountants, proving, to

quote the trustees, that “the alleged shortage 0
$9,372.85 existed only in the imagination of

those initiating the charges.” In other words, to

say the feast, they're a pure pipe dream. oe
No doubt about it—if the bosses had been

planning a fresh slander in effort to disrupt the

union in the middle of the wage struggle

Pre
been a -typical stunt. “Fact that such charges —
were a pure slanderous pipe dream mer 4
have bothered them a bit. No doubt either, at
the Vancouver Sun would have been delighted to —
print them. os. , eee
“Which raises the question, just what is Fad-

learning the lesson — gua

-» Unionists are Liem
attack

your union—from whichever source the
comes.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JULY 9, 1948—PAGE 9

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