Review

.

iheainst the declared will of the
_ people of Vancouver, Pre-
mier W. A. C. Bennett refuses
0 allow Sunday sports.

One year ago, by a substan-
al majority, Vancouver citi-
ens indicated their desire for a
Moderate program of Sunday
sports. This despite an inten-
ive and well-financed campaign

orces, in-which the Social Credit
“sacred cow’’ gave out with
any approving moos.

i During the recent meeting be’
tween Mayor Fred Hume (who
Hbelieves the people should get
peat they voted for) and Pre-

Pacific Tribune

Published weekly at
Room 6 — 426 Main Street
Vancouver 4, B.C.
Phone: MArine 5288
Editor — TOM McEWEN
Associate Editor — HAL GRIFFIN
Business Manager — RITA WHYTE
Subscription Rates:
One Year: $4.00
Six months: $2.25
Canadian and Commonwealth
countries (except Australia): $4.00
pne year. Australia, United States
and all other countries: $5.00 one
year.

EDITORIAL PAGE

Official emblem of British Columbia, which marked its 85th birthday as a province of Canada
Canada on July 20. is now the dogwood flower, from the species of dogwood found only in
lower Vancouver Island and along the opposite mainland coast. Ironically—in a sense symbolical

mier- Bennett, the Socred chief
is quoted as saying: “‘I told the
mayor I was leader of the peopie
in a democracy and believed in
carrying out the will of the
people ... But... asa leader I
had to give some leadership, and

of the sellout of the province’s natural resources to the U.S. — the place where the emblem is most
prominently displayed is the center of Vancouver, at Granville and Georgia — in a Coca-Cola neon
sign.

Bennett defies people's will

in that regard, I oppose all forms

of commercial Sunday sports.”
In other words, the people

may vote how they like, but

Bennett doesn’t recognize any

democratic majority expression

of the people on any issue if he
is opposed to it.

Comment

The ‘open door’

N elected board of control
should be directly respon-
sible to the voters. The appoint-

ed “‘board’’, which is now trying
to function at Vancouver City
Hall is responsible only to the
city council which sired it. This
is what is wrong with the new
setup in

government.

The only thing this Non-
Partisan--appointed board is
certain to do is to add to the
tax burdens of already over-
burdened taxpayers.

While much ado is being made
about the necessity of this
board keeping the “‘door open’”’
for the hearing and adjustment
of public requirements ih vari
ous civic departments, to citi-
zens this “‘door’’ will closely re-
semble that of the immortal
Omar Khayyam, where sup-
plicants could have “. . . great

Vancouver's civic

‘argument about it and about, but

evermore come out by the same
door’ as in they went.

Vancouver needs a_ truly
representative: city council and
an elective board of control,
both responsible to and repre-
sentative of the people. The new
board only tightens the con-
trol the big business-dominated
NPA already exercises over civic
affairs.

by the blue-law-holier-than-thou

Tom
McEwen

HAT august journal which
gives weekly expression to
the hopes and fears of big busi-
ness in this country, the Finan-
cial Post, is allergic to feather
beds. For that matter so am I,
despite their soft downy comfort
and the odd _ quill, breaking
‘through to irritate a tender spot.
The Post’s feather beds how-
ever, relate to the realm _ of
maximum profits and have little
to do with the pleasure of com-
fortable sleeping — unless of
course one happens to be in the
coupon-clipping fraternity.

With the steady automation of
our railways through conversion
from steam to diesel, the Post
just cannot see the need of two
workers on the head-end, an en-

gineer and a “fireman.” Echoing
the big railway magnates; it de-
clares that such “are no longer
necessary on most diesel loco-
motives, which, so far as fuel
handling is concerned, are vir-
tually automatic.”

To the organ of big business,
a fireman on a diesel locomotive

~ is the equivalent of a “feather

bed” for the unions, much too
soft, much too easy, and most
important to the coupon clippers,
much to expensive.

“We never could afford
feather-bedding in this country,”
complains the Post as it recoils
horror-stricken at its own cal-
culations of thé firemen’s “feath-
er-bedding costing the CPR alone
more® than $12 million a year.”

As a means of discouraging
feather beds, the Post would
have the railways “reclassify the
job of firemen at a third less
wages,” or dispense with the
feather-bed entirely, thereby ef-
fecting an enormous “saving.”

Entirely aside from the addi-

- tional strain and hazard of one

lone worker pulling trains across
a continent with a push-button
locomotive, the Post is scarcely
an impartial advocate for the abo-

lition of feather beds, real or
imagined.

Its weekly features of the vast

profits and dividends of great
corporations shows the greatest
accumulation of “feather beds”
in the history of our times. Con-
veniently skipping that fact
however, the Post reaches out to
deprive the railroader of his sag-
ging matress by the simple ruse
of describing it as a “feather
bed.” And, as usual when the
Post’s editors get warmed up to
their job, they shed crocodile
tears for the CPR and the poor
“family” taxpayer, in having to
keep railroad firemen supplied
with “feather beds ”

* * *

If you are thinking of getting
the wife a new fur coat for
Christmas this year (cash or in-
stallments), get your first fur
quotations from Jack Johnson, a
trapper friend of mine up Tele-
graph Creek way. The margin
between what he receives for
the finest B.C. mink, beaver or
fox and the price you'll pay for
that coat, would buy a boxcar
load of Post “feather beds.”

No wonder the Post doesn’t
like “feather. beds” — for work-
ers.

July 27, 1956 —PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 7%

ive Cee ne eee ee SCOR CHT MNT TUTIT VMI TOIT VANHHANT Muy WHT oa

|

mm