“An Insult”

fig reasons given by Hazen Argue for bolting from the New
_ Democratic Party are an insult to the trade union movement.
Every trade union delegate to national and_ provincial founding
conventions of the New Democratic Party knows that the charge of
trade union domination in the Party is a complete myth.

No conflict over political principles was involved in Argue’s de-
sertion of those who had loyally supported him. The indecent haste
with which he embraced Liberal Party principles smacks of rank
opportunism. Quite obviously, he is bargaining for his own political
advancement, scornfully casting aside all thought of loyalty to his
former associates and the principles which he had publicly espoused
for seventeen years. He is the victim of his own thwarted ambition,
for he has forfeited the confidence of the Canadian workers.

He has been welcomed to the Liberal fold. The significance of
this lies in the fact that Liberal Party spokesmen have openly stated
their opposition to trade union political action. Argue’s anti-union
bias is now in the open, and evidently the Liberal Party is prepared
to provide him with an opportunity to smear trade union objectives.

Trade union plans for political action have been developed in the
open. The purposes have been self-evident.

Liberals, Conservatives and Secreds have served the employers’
interests to defeat organized labour’s aims. When political action
was seen as a necessary supplement to economic action, the trade
union movement adopted a program of political education, rather
than political domination.

The facts as known to trade unionists furnish the best answers to
Argue’s charge of “clique” domination.

National and provincial founding conventions gave no evidence
of any attempt by the trade unions to run the New Democratic Party.

The chief officials of the Canadian Labour Congress declined
office on the Party’s federal executive and council.

The program and constitution of the New Democratic Party have
met with the approval of the great majority of the Party’s members
—CCF’ers and trade unionists alike. Support given the Party in the
ranks of the trade unions has been the result of the appeal of its
aims, rather than the influence of trade union leaders.

Argue has missed the bus. He has completely misjudged the char-
acter of trade union democracy. He is out of step with a trend in
Canadian politics which will produce a party comparable with the
British Labour Party, the only alternative to Conservatism in the
United Kingdom.

The Fearful Doctors

HAT is it about government-sponsored medical insurance that

turns most doctors cold with fear? It isn’t the insurance angle.

All across this continent doctor-sponsored private plans are already

offering medical insurance to individuals. In Canada such plans look
after nearly half the population.

What the doctors do fear, it seems to us, are two possibilities:

@ That under a government-sponsored scheme they would have
to yield to bureaucratic control, which could reduce the standard
of the service they were able to offer to their patients.

@ That under a government-sponsored scheme they would he-
come as other civil servants, paid by salary and not by fee, and that
their incomes might suffer.

There is a legitimate basis for these fears, and they are under-
standable. But the doctors, we feel, have exaggerated them, and have
neglected to take the steps that could set such fears at rest.

It is reasonable that a doctor should object to a layman dictating
the treatment for his patient. No layman can possibly know what
drugs a particular patient needs, the number of x-ray plates it will
take to determine his condition, or how many treatments he is going
to require. These are medical decisions, and they can only be made
by qualified medical personnel.

Yet this, surely, is precisely why the Saskatchewan government
has tried to find medical men to sit upon the commission which will
supervise the province’s new medical insurance plan. Saskatchewan
wants to avoid such mistakes.

The best way in which the doctors can make certain that medical
standards are preserved under the government-sponsored scheme
which is bound to develop in Canada is to co-operate with it, to get
in there on the ground floor and help draw up the rules. They will
serve their own cause best by working with, not against, govern-
ment. And they should recognize that where public funds are being
spent, public supervision is essential.

It is also easy to understand the doctors’ fears of a falling income.
It takes a lot of time—six years’ study and one year’s internship—
to become a doctor. A specialist may have to study for as long as
12 years before he can go into practice. It costs a lot, too—thous-

Publication date of the next issue of the WESTERN CANADIAN
LUMBER WORKER is March 1. Deadline for ad copy is February 22,

and for news copy February 23.

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IWTERNATIONAL
AWD SPACE

The U.S. and Canadian budgets were presented to Congress and to Parliament
about the same time. The above chart shows a comparison of U.S. and Canadian
federal revenues and expenditures. On a percentage basis, U.S. defense expenditures
are substantially higher than Canadian, but Canadian welfare expenditures are much
higher than U.S. However, more exact and valid comparison of revenues and ex-
penditures by each nation could only be made if revenues and expenditures by the
states and provinces were also available. This would not affect defense expendi-
tures, but might substantially alter welfare figures.

ands of dollars—to get that training and set up a practice. A reason-

ably high income is no more than a just return for such investment
of time and money.

But the doctors who fear a salaried or a falling income are not
looking at the facts. One-third of the doctors in Canada are already
working for a salary; they choose to do so. And a look at Britain
might assuage the fears of Canadian medical men. A state-spon-
sored medical plan has been in effect there for years; and doctors
still lead the list of income earners.

There is, moreover, no certainty that the fee system would be
abandoned. If it could be fitted info a medical insurance scheme
that properly served the nation, it might well be retained.

What Canadians want is a system that will provide all of them,
rich and poor, with the medical care they require. They do not want
to bilk the doctors; they merely want to make sure that every citizen
gets medical attention wherf he needs it, not as a matter of charity
but as a matter of right.

This, we think, is a principle with which most doctors would

agree.
Reprinted Star Weekly

Strachan Proposes Meet
For Critical Situation

Present government-management policies leave organized labour
no alternative but to fight its way out of its present dilemma, sug-
gested Opposition Leader Robert Strachan in the budget debate in
the Legislature. He proposed a labour-management-government con-

ference to promote a better understanding of a critical situation.

As the Budget debate opened, the
Dominion Bureau of Statistics re-
leased the latest statistics on unem-
ployment in the province. The num-
ber of jobless persons in B.C. now
stands at 58,000, or 10.1% of the
labour force as compared to 46,000
in mid-December.

Mr. Strachan had pointed out
earlier that the number of persons
on social assistance had risen in re-
cent years from 12,000 to 87,000,
indicating the effect of unemploy-
ment on families.

His remarks were based largely
on the survey made by four econo-
mists before the Wage Policy Con-
ference of the B.C. Federation of
Labour,

He said that organized labour de-
served public commendation for a
forward step in recognition of its
responsibility toward the welfare of
the economy. Before reaching con-
clusions regarding wage demands,
the unions had carefully examined
all the economic indicators reveal-
ing the facts of industrial life in the
province.

Security Comes First

The Opposition Leader informed
the House that the workers are not
merely concerned with hourly wage
rates, which are now little more than
status symbols, but with employment
security. “They have the right to ex-
pect fiscal policies that will have the
conscious aim of providing the great-
est measures possible of full employ-
ment. At present workers are con-
vinced that they are not receiving a
fair share of the increased wealth
produced,

Labour’s Demands

The Legislature was warned that
organized labour has served notice
that, as a general policy, demands
will be made for reduced hours of
work as well as higher wages. The
unions desire shorter working hours
in order to spread available employ-
ment. They seek increased wages as
a means to step up wage spending,
improve their living standards under
rising costs, and adjust wages to in-
creased productivity.

Because organized labour has
shown a willingness to study the

position of the economy, he urged
the fact-finding conference.

Strachan stressed the importance
of wage and salary distribution as a
stimulus to consumer buying power.
He said that we need increased con-
sumer buying power to help bridge
the gap between productive capacity
and effective consumer demand. “We
also need increased consumer buying
power to enable our full participa-
tion in trade expansion. Trade is a
two-way street. Consumers in the
province must be enabled to buy the
goods offered in exchange for the
goods we export.

The pressures of mass unemploy-
ment are responsible for the demand
for shorter working hours, he said.
With reference to the latest statistics,
he stated that unemployment has
been steadily increasing for the past
six years. British Columbia has
suffered more severely than other
provinces. Many skilled workers
have been idled for periods exceed-
ing One year.

Public Penalized

The public is penalized, not only
because of the tragic waste of pro-
ductive resources, but also because
of the increased social assistance
directly attributable to lowered la-
bour income. Unemployment is no
longer a seasonal phenomenon.

Factors contributing to mass un-
employment that must now be
reckoned with are:

Total output has failed to match
the growth in population, with the
result that the average real output
per capita has declined. The rate of
economic growth has been slowing
down with the result that the labour
force is growing faster than job
opportunities.

We are passing through a period
when accelerating technological pro-
gress. rapid innovations, new labour-
saving devices and shifts in con-
sumer demand are acutely aggra-
vating unemployment.

The change in technology has sub-
stantially altered the character of
job opportunities. A decision to
automate may lead very quickly to a
sharp decline in the labour require-
ments of some plant or industry.

sang se .

away,” i
pect for the dignity of
losing respect for freedom from
conformity.” mer:
Best Seller oe

Mr. Packard, who wrote the best —
seller The Hidden Persuaders, said
the average U.S. citizen is subjected
to 1,518 advertising messages a day.

Already Madison Avenue is talk-
ing with glee about the potential
of the “skyjector’ which lights
Messages On mountains and clouds,

A chain of satellites spelling out
messages in the evening sky has
been suggested, Mr. Packard said.

Particularly dangerous is the sue-
cess advertisers have had molding the
minds of children.

There are thousands of 9 and 10
year old girls in the States wearing
brassieres—“a remarkable achieve-
ment for the advertisers,” said Mr.
Packard,

Virtues of Greed

Billions of dollars are spent pro-
moting the virtues of materialism
and greed.

The church, he said, has been re-
placed by the shopping center as the
center of the community.

He predicted $25 billion would be
spent on advertising in the next ten
years in a massive, systematic search
for ways to persuade the public to
borrow, spend, buy, waste and want,

Owners, Not
Bettors,
Now Crying

“Baby needs a new pair of shoes”
is the mournful cry at Santa Anita
Park these days — and from the
owners, not the bettors.

The reason: the’ cost of shoes for
thoroughbreds has gone up.

It used to cost $17 to shoe a race
horse. On Jan. 1 the Journeyman
Horseshoers Union, Local 12, raised
the price to $18.

Nothing was said at the time. But
now, amid the wear and tear of the
Santa Anita season, the owners are
beginning to grumble.

Ernie Mason, Los Angeles Herald-
Examiner racing writer, declared:

“Around the backstretch there are
definite indications that a_ battle
royal may erupt between horse
owners and the horseshoers.”

The union said that the raise was
made in a legal manner. They said it
was occasioned by economic neces-
sity.

The owners were willing to talk
about the issue but reticent to have
their names used. Some said they
didn’t like the fact that the prices
were raised without any negotiations
with the owners. Another claimed
the shoers had a monopoly.

But rene was anxious to get the
farriers mad at them. When baby
needs a new pair of shoes — and
baby has to run tomorrow—baby
gets ’em.

Tory Minister
Backs CBC

Programming

Revenue Minister Nowlan is tak-
ing a strong stand — even against
members of his own Tory party —
who want him to impose censorship
on Canadian Broadcasting Corpora-
tion programming.

Latest eruption was over the TV
program “Quest's” production of
“The Crawling Arnold”, a satire by
American cartoonist Jules Feiffer.

A Tory backbencher demanded
that the minister use his influence to
get the program removed, and insti-
tute “controls” over CBC program-
mers.

Mr. Nowlan—to his great credit—
said absolutely not; that such inter-
ference was tantamount to overt cen-
sorship, and that interference with
CBC programming would “be laying
the foundation for either a fascist or
a communist state.” ,

Mr. Nowlan did say that com-
plaints about CBC programs shot
be forwarded from Toronto

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