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Li tonite acy

BOOKS

Story of Alberta cattle country

told in form of reminiscences

he who hia¥e lived in or seen
the great* southern Alberta
Plains and especially the foothills
country, and not a few who havé-
n’t, will enjoy. reading When the
Grass was Free, by E. F. Hagell.
It-is a warm and authentic de-
eription of ‘this cattle country
‘and some. of its people in_ the
early days of over half a- century
ago when the jiand was still filled
with wild game, when huge
ranches ech occupying hundreds
of square miles were quite com-
mon, when the country was still
‘without barbwire fences . and:
“when the grass was’ free.”
'- The author describes the cow-
men of that day, hardy individ-
uals with the hardy and colorful
‘<vernacular of outdoor men, who.
| fought fierce battles with nature,
braving the bitter cold of winter
often more than 50 below, and
the parching heat and drought of
‘summer. But while the author
describes the harshness of the
euvironment, he has equal words
of love for its beauties.

This book will help to dispel
the false romanticism and false
brutality of the west as depicted
‘in Hollywood films and US. west-

ern ‘stories (and also by an an-.

nual Calgary Stampede that is be
ing more and more commercial-
ized and Americanized). Included
in the boek (and alone worth the
‘price of the book) are a whole
series of beautiful drawings and
paintings by the author himself,
_ drawings of men, horses and cat-
_ tie, strikingly imbued with life
_ znd action. ae
_ During the course of his remiu-
iscences (the book is a collection
of memories of the old days way
back when) the author introduces
uo old timer and pioneer who ex-
plains that the discovery by white
men of the fortunes to be made
-in ranching on these grass-rich-
plains was one of the reasons why
_ the government forced the In-

United Labor
PICNIC

SUNDAY, AUGUST 8

CONFEDERATION PARK
4600 EAST HASTINGS
NORTH BURNABY

t

~

The tomb of Louis Riel at St.
Boniface Cathedral near Winni-
peg. z

dians .on to reservations “starv-
in’ on gophers and field mice, un-
til ol’ Louie Riel helped ’em out
a little by remindin’ the guv-ment
of their responsibilities, and, for
which they promptly: stretchecg

his neck.”

The same old-timer describes

why and how the US. govern-

ment exterminated the last of the

How the U.S. government exterminated the last of the bia buffaloherds in the west is descri

&

big buffalo herds, ahistorical
fact deliberately and falsely con-
cealed by almost all history
books. He says:

“When Uncle Sam tried to
Starve the Injuns out, he went
‘n’ threw a corjun o’ buffalo
murderers clean across the
whole line of migration an’
arter the ol’ hide hunter had
-been gettin’ in his own line of
massacre for a few years, that
finished the buffler.”

A shortcoming of the, book, in
my opinion ,is that it treats the
cow hands and ranch owners
alike; it fails to differentiate be-

tween their living conditions and
cutlook. The big ranches, worth
many hundreds of thousands of
dollars, were built up only as a
result of a fierce exploitation of
the ranch hands by hard-fisted
and hard-driving ranch owners.
Yet these antagonistic interests
are not referred to and the own-
¢rs. and workers are treated as a
homogeneous group.

One gets the impression that
the author knows a good deal
more about the real history of, the
West and also about the evils of
out so-calied “free enterprise” so-
ciety (as shown by his caustic
comments about the depression

slave camps of the Hungry Thir-

ties and about wars) than he has

yet written about.

This book is a most worthwhile
addition to anyone’s library of

_ history books of the Great Cana-
dian West-and it is to be hoped

that more stories and drawings
will be forthcoming from him.

—BEN SWANKEY

How ‘people of jungle’
fought for liberation —

fee eat is known for certain

about the mysterious genius
who calls himself B. Traven. But
something can be concluded from

his books. ;

For the past 20 years a series
of brilliant books have come from
Mexico under his signature, one
of the recent and among the best
known being his Rebellion of the
Hanged.

Now, in General from the Jungle
he puts flesh and blood on the
bare bones of the headlines about
China and Viet Nam—it. tells of
the building of a people’s army

to liberate the peasants and give

them the land. of
The workers in a mahogany

jungle, after a strike and upris-

ing, decide to form an army, with
a handful of old rifles and shot-*
guns. ‘

Their morale is high and the
People support them, so they man-
age to beat the regular troops
sent against them,

The novel shows exactly how,
in human terms, such miracles
are accomplished. It breathes
confidence in the power of the
people.

‘

ANH aaa AS NR

bed by Canadian author

as

E. F. Hagell.

New novel by
Ehrenburg

A new. short novel, The Thaw,
by the famous Soviet writer ilya
Ehrenburg will be published
scrially in Peace Review, the
monthly magazine of the Ce
dian Peace Congress, beginnine
with the current issue (No. 38):

Peace Review has the exclusivé
publication rights in Canada 4 3
will run the new work through
several issues. -

The novel deals with a suibjer,
that has just begun to be eae
by Soviet novelists — life 1n | t
Soviet Union in ~the pa
period of a great effort to De a
conditions for that country’s Si
zens, following the trials of P®

war reconstruction.

e ~~
el Knock on Wood, Danny Kaye
lampoons tke conventional
atomic spy drama.

Danny is one of the greatest
comic artists in the business, and
whenever the story stops to al-
low Danny to be a comic motor
salesman, or to be psycho-analys-
ed the result is uproarious.

Fortunately this happens a
good deal of thé time. :

* Kye te ‘

A girl who craves fame is the

heroine of It Should Happen to
You.
_ Having saved up $1,000 just be-
fore she is fired for being the
wrong size (she models girdles),
she buys a huge billboard and
puts her name up in enormous
letters.

A soap firm wants the site and
tries to buy her out. Her price’
IS six other
becomes the company’s advertis-
ing model. Then she gets on tele-
Vision. And finally she has to
take part in a lying advertise-
ment, which convinces her that
it is best to be one of the crowd.

There are moments when the
film verges on satire; moments
when it looks as though the great
American Way of Life is going to
seta slap in the eye . But it
never gets that far.

Judy Holliday puts across the
dumb blonde who seeks fame with
considerable skill, and Peter Law-
ford looks pleasant as the ordin-
ary Suy who loves her. Amusing
at timés., . 5 {

* * x
Still on the children’s level is
© new Burt Lancaster. It is a
Saga of the Pacific islands, en-
titled His Majesty O'Keefe.

Captain David O'Keefe, an ad-
venturous sea captain, will be a
very rich man. if only he can ex-
ploit the copra resources of the
little island of. Yap. :

The only trouble is that the
natives will not work for him.
They fail to respond to bribes,
and he is apparently too shrewd
an adventurer to offer ‘anything
like genuine reward for their ser-
vices. ke

He tries a trick by helping the
natives to quarry a special stone,
which they value highly, and then
refusing to hand it over to them
until they have filled his ship
with -copra. ;

This works for a while, but
the white man’s supremacy is
only finally guaranteed when he
rescues the natives almost single-
handed from a marauding slave-
trader. It is then that he is
crowned King.

Butt Lancaster’ is good as Burt

th

Kaye lampoons atomic

billboards. Then she.

_tail of his private life.

at

new film

DANNY KAYE
Lancaster. Abraham Sofaer lool
worried and unhappy as the ! :
land’s medicine man. Anoth®
English member of the cast, J0#
Rice, is made up to play the Pet
of the beautiful half-cast wife ©”
the captain. ite ‘

But ,as in other fields, the Bry —

ish role in this latest America?

incursion into the Pacific is
tirely subordinate.
Sie ao Sok Aa

The chief interest of The Bi9*
mist is the way all the charact :
in it take personal spying 45
ordinary part of their lives.

A couple want to adopt a oe
Su an investigator from the ate
tion society wanders oe
among the husband’s busi ly
acquaintances probing not 0?
into his credit but into every d
Nobody

eure

seems surprised.
The investigator eagerly ee
up tittle-tattle about the mais
off-duty habits gleaned from af
parttime secretary and casi"
acquaintances. It’s accepted 2% in
natural part of the way of we
Los Angeles and nobody so ™' wh
as raises an eyebrow at what ple
should regard as_ intolera .
snooping. Ee
Ida Lupino, the British aclt,
who has her own independe”
producticn company, directed
film and has a part in it.
previous productions have
neat, taut essays in suspense
everyday settings. ay.
The present effort.— 4 ie
in how a basically decent ™
can come to commit bigamy ine:
is plodding rather than conv itso
ing, though its approach tO —)
subject is honest and unsePe"
tional. : :

een
with

; 8
PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JULY 23, 1954 — PAGE