‘Truth will out’

ost working people have long contended that the

“promises” of aspiring politicians made on the hust-
ings prior to an election, hold little or no value after the
votes are in. This is especially true of the Liberal and
Tory political spouter. In capitalist politics the candi-
dates bearing these labels, whether elected or not, invari-
ably forget their specious “promises” the day after elec-
tion. :

Up until last week however, these cld-line politicians
have vigorously denied such “forgetfulness”, contending
that all “promises’’ made are invariably honoured “in due
course’.

Now however, we have it “straight from the horse’s
mouth” that such “promises” made during an election
campaign, have no binding “obligation” on the “promis-
ing” politico, in or out of office.

This frank but somewhat belated admission comes
from Postmaster-General Jack Nicholson (Vancouver
Centre) in defense of his Liberal colleague, Northern Af-
fairs Minister Arthur Laing (Vancouver South).

During the 1963 federal election Mr. Laing made
many strong and vigorous pledges on what he “would
do” (if elected) in defense of the war veteran tenants of
the Fraserview housing project, who were facing a royal
rooking at the hands of Central Mortgage and Housing
Corporation.

Together with Mr. Laing’s wide dispensation of tea
bags and biscuits, the electorate were quite impressed
with the noisy indignation and vigor with which he
“championed” the veterans’ housing beef. His party also
issued quite a deal of election literature on CMHC in-
-tended raids on veteran tenant's rental budgets.

Now with nothing done in the interim and parlia-
ment bogged down with political windbags and bunting,
the “promises” to veterans and non-veterans alike are
conveniently forgotten, with Mr. Nicholson telling us
that pre-election “promises” made by a Tory or Liberal
candidate “trying to get elected” don’t mean anything.
That Mr. Laing as a candidate might make all the “pro-
mises” he cared to make in an effort to bewitch the elec-
torate, but Mr. Laing as Minister of Northern Affairs
had “promised nothing.” So presto, any “promises” made

by Mr. Laing as a candidate were worthless, null and
void, kaput.

It is to be hoped that the electorate, in Vancouver-
South and elsewhere, duly grateful to Mr. Nicholson for
his frank definition of Liberal “morality” and double-
crossing, will keep the lesson well in mind when the next
general election rolls around.

'o.
—

—Leader & Press, Springfield (Mo.)

_ Disaster closing in

AS each day passes the U.S. war of aggression upon the
people of South Vietnam sinks deeper into the hope-
less mire of inevitable disaster. Its “‘strong-man” puppet
“governments” of native gangsters go down like ninepins,
and its recently upped $1¥-million daily go down a bot-
tomless drain.

Nor did its recent Tonkin Gulf bombing attack upon
the territory of North Vietnam and the lying assertions
used to “justify” this dastardly act of aggression serve in
any way to advance a peaceful solution to the Vietnam
crisis. Instead it backfired and helped to further lay bare
to a whole world the criminal policies of U.S. imperialism
against the peoples of South East Asia.

Today even the perennial “apologists” of the “Free
West” are finding it difficult to explain away U.S. atroci-
ties in South Vietnam, while papers like the French “La
Tribune des Nations” cynically asks, “Have the Ameri-
cans received a heavenly order to liberate Vietnam by
murderous bombing. Is Vietnam U.S. territory ..?”

| Worth t
| Quoting

The Tree of Liberty must be refresh-
ed from time fo time with the blood of
patriots and tyrants. It is its natural
manure.

A billion dollars a year on ne
houses would go a long way 10!
duce the shortage of adequate how
ing and few can argue that it wow!
not be a good substitute in every
for a corresponding cutback in
fence spending.

Home construction gives work
carpenters, plumbers, electricia”
bricklayers, architects, earthmove™
cement men and money-lend
Home - building dollars percold
through every level of the economy:

If the major deterrent to a cuth®'
on defence spending is fear of a busi
ness and industrial slowdown, the
is no need for it. A multi-million-d0
Jar new housing program could 500"
take up the slack.

If we spend hundreds of millions i
tax money anyway, let’s try to spe’
it on something more permanent ane”
useful than obsolete submarines,
stroyers and tanks... i

PROVINCE editorial, Aug. 31, 1964

*

It is obvious that vital sections °
American centers of power do N°
share the awareness that seems!
have developed among Russian @
American leaders. The Pentagon o
the C.I.A. go on insisting upon the!
crease of the arms race and the exfel
sion of conflict wherever possible. —

It is difficult for understanding “4
grow between East and West if i,
side carries on provocative actions '
sensitive areas of the world. The He,
blind spots in American policy whi
threaten our hopes for peace are
attitude to Cuba and to China. ~ Ll

—BERTRAND RUSSEL

*

The wit was not wrong who de
fined education in this way: ‘Educ?
tion is that which remains if one hos
forgotten everything he learned if”
school.”’

—Albert Einstei" 4

Tom

McEWEN

few months ago our Eastern

Canadian stock exchange,
which daily reflects the financial
delirium tremens of the money
changers of Bay and St, James
Streets, took on a gala atmos-
phere, much likea lunatic asylum
en fete,

A great new “discovery” of
copper deposits up Timmins way
had come to light, The press
hawks who have the job of filling
up the financial pages of the Daily

Blah spilled over from one’

- column to another rhapsodizing
on this great “new era of pros-
perity” opening up for Ontario,

Even Ontario’s Tory govern-
ment got in on this copper-plated
“prosperity” with windy bursts
of oratorical “confidence” in On-
tario’s “future,” On the Toronto
Stock Exchange “copper” stocks
zoomed to a dozen times their
normal price — even when the
drilling showed lots of “confi-
dence,” but no copper,

Maclean’s Magazine of Sep-
tember 5 gives a charming“ blow-
by-blow” account of this “mining”
venture, which took untold hun-
dreds of suckers for a real old-
fashioned speculator’s buggy
ride, but did indeed pan out with
a fabulous “prosperity” for the
select few “in the know” who pro-
moted Windfall Oils and Mines,
Ltd,

Now who doesn’t want a“wind-
fall” in these times of booming
“prosperity” and affluence? After
all when “shares” could be bought
one day for 56 cents and sold the
next for $5.70, even with the
periodic “dip” or fluctuation to
$4.50, $3.60, or even down to
$1.30, it does add up to quite a
“Windfall”—if one happens to hold
a quarter of a million more or
less of these profit - bearing
“shares” — and has the good
“foresight’’ not to hold them too
long,

Seemingly the “windfall” cop-
per-plated boys played it close

to the chest, They kept on “drill-
ing holes” and being “optimis-

.tic,” always a good stratagem,

even when the drill cores re-
vealed nothing more substantial
than samples of good clean clay,
The unique feature about *Wind-
fall” seems to be that while its

“drilling” procuced nothing but

“optimism,” its “shares” were
holding “steady” on the Toronto
Stock Exchange, at around $5,00
instead of 35 cents,

The Ontario Securities Com-
mission (OSC), a government
body entrusted with the job of
safeguarding the public from be-
ing rooked by wildcat mining
manipulators, is now ordered by
Premier Robarts to conduct an

investigation into “Windrall” op-

erations, So far so good, but be-
fore OSC can get on with the job,
Ontario’s attorney-general has
found it necessary to “suspend”
one of OSC’s top directors who
_was also “quite thoroughly” in-
volved in Windfall “share pros-
perity,”

Now the Bay Street players
will have to sit and cool their
heels while Premier Robart's
“one-man” commission and the
OSC inquire into all the ramifi-
cations of Windfall, and what its
key promoters did with their own
outsize blocks of “shares”! And

until this commission tables its
report, several hundred suckers
will have lots of time to rumin-
ate on the fine art of stock
manipulation and its diverse ef-
fects upon the “prosperity” of
Homo Sapiens,

Some few came out very “pros-
perous” from Windfall’s copper-

_ plated “prosperity” boom, Others

came out—cleaned out,

The Maclean’s Magazine story,
supplemented since by subse-
quent press reports of Windfall
shenanigans, at least shows that
Canada is still a land of “oppor-
tunity,”

All that is needed is a run-of-
the-mill Tor,, Liberal orSocred
government, obsessed with its

‘

own special brand of “prospel”
ity’; an obliging press to sé
this dubious commodity, plent
of suckers to bite, a handful 0”
slick manipulators busily @
gaged “drilling” up “optimisiM
and scattering plenty of shares
around, and presto, somebody
“got it made,”

Meantime we hope, on pena
of those who got “took,” th®
Premier Robarts’ one-man co”
missioner will manage to “drill :
up something more substanti®
than “optimism” from the wind
fall wreckage, otherwise Mae
lean’s “black day for Canadl
mining” bids fair to become th
rule rather than the excepll
in the evolution of modern “pre?
perity,”

Editor —T

Associate Editor — MAURICE RUSH
Circulation Manager — JERRY SHACK
Published weekly at Room 6 — 426 Main Street

Vancouver 4, B.C.

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—_—

September 4, 1964—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page

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