|| free Hall padi soe enatias wintbile sell jill 4 AD am Li Ane AM. LID ii i || iil i it Al Mt Hy EY I" CA ay an iH pets co ilineeseniue aliens Athy i q i 1“ Uae tlt ‘What's happening to Canada’s dollar? [ the federal government preparing to reverse itself §nd encourage large-scale Orrowing from the United States, thus increasing eco- Nomic domination of the Can- adian economy by the finan- Clal giants south of the border? ~The Financial Post, usually a Source of inside-track infor- Mation for its moneyed read- ets, says it is. And a recent Teport by Bank of Canada Overnor Rasminsky hints at his Possibility. Other finan- Cial pundits claim the gov- ‘tment simply intends to Temain neutral on the matter. Otes the Financial Post: Vhen the government de- na to encourage a lower Ange rate for the Cana- a dollar, it spoke out = Ongly against the large- ale provincial and munici- _ Pal borrowing in New York,” Ss dropped interest rates mis “ea to those in the U.S. to Wee the attractiveness of es Owing outside Canada. one asserts F.P.: “The big to P in Canada’s holdings of Teign exchange are the tip- in a the need for a change ot itude, Street sources say cial hints already have Sea dropped that borrowers d go to New York where DOssible.» Such a trend, the paper a is not likely to be Weeks, € for six to eight CHAT WITH RASMINSKY onto Ga Robertson, the Tor- See lobe and Mail’s finan- on the mentator, maintains bap ie other hand that his €r’s investigations show Switen about a government Tey a in borrowing policy © No valid foundation.” Says ors the Obertson, writing in san &n “10 days ago, Louis P= the ee the governor of | ing tk of Canada, drifted Tesent °ronto and asked rep- Ouser AYES of eight bond Chat . to have a drink and a With him, if they were egg Boe end of the busi- : —* Tumor-spreaders, states | Robertson, claim it was at this meeting that Rasminsky indicated the change in gov- ernment borrowing policy in the U.S. Those on the “out” of the meeting were right- eously incensed that those on the “in” thus gained an un- fair advantage which they could turn to profitable use. Robertson admits that at the “informal” meeting called by Rasminsky, “thoughts con- cerning borrowing in the U.S., and operation in foreign exchange were discussed.” But, he says, “no policy changes were announced or disclosed, as far as we can learn.” Nevertheless, Robertson does express some uneasiness. He points out that borrowing and exchange rate policies are the responsibility of the federal government and not the Bank of Canada. In this connection he refers to a denial by Finance Minister Fleming in the House of Com- mons that government policy was to encourage borrowing in the U.S. Fleming had re- ferred a questioner to budget speeches of last June and December as proof of this. GENERALITIES Noting this Robertson writes that while Fleming’s references to past speeches are no doubt “politically ex- pedient . . . these speeches contain generalities for the most part and, in any case, were in the context of circum- stances which have changed.” All of which leads Robert- son to ask for a clear-cut pol- icy from the government in relation to borrowing policy’ and the exchange rate. So far Robertson seems not to have got his wish. But in a report tabled in the House of Commons last week, Bank of Canada Governor Rasmin- sky warned that pressures to- ward inflation and higher living costs are building up in the Canadian economy. The warning came as the bank tried to defend its mani- pulation of the Canadian dol- lar as a boost for businesses faced with stiffer world com- petition. Rasminsky said there were pressures for a fresh up- thrust in prices and costs, already strained by an_in- crease of Canda’s money sup- ply in 1961 by nine percent ($1,250,000,000) to a level of $15.163 million. The latest cost-of-living in- dex, at February 1, stood ata post-war record of 129.8 based on 1949 prices equal- ling 100. Rasminskly called for a disciplined, obedient working population — he termed it a well-trained, energetic ‘and adaptable working population — to set aside its demands and avoid a new round of price and costs increases. But he also admitted that expansion of the money sup- ply last. year was designed specifically to help business, basically by keeping interest rates down. Emphasizing this point, the report notes that during 1961 total personal income rose 51% percent, personal spend- ing jumped five percent and corporation profits skyrocket- ed more than 30 percent. Meanwhile, consumers went further into debt, owing near- ly $4 billion to finance com- panies and banks at the end of 1961. 30 PERCENT JUMP The Globe and Mail’s Rob- ertson comments on the 30 percent jump in corporate profits, but his examination of the figures leads him to the conclusion that “the in- crease is just a little less than 53 percent, which makes the governor’s figure, based on seasonal adjustments, an un- derstatement.” , But both Rasminsky’s and Robertson’s estimates of cor- porate profits show that while chronic unemployment is steadily on the increase, with hundreds of thousands suffering as a result, the pro- fits of big business are mak- ing bigger and bigger gains. The question remained: is the government planning to encourage borrowing from the U.S.? Rasminsky didn’t say as much, but if his state- ments are true that the in- crease in money supply has added to pressures for higher prices and costs, it would fol- low that the government could not easily introduce more money for lending pur- poses. Therefore, the Financial Post’s reports that the gov- ernment does plan to encour- age borrowing from the U.S. may well be true. The other significant thing about Rasminsky’s report is that nowhere does he mention the fundamental problems ex- posed by his _ predecessor, James Coyne, a year ago. Coyne had argued for policies to achieve full production and employment and urged measures to prevent foreign investment in and control of Canadian industries. Y LUMBER WORKERS Co COMMITTEE, h MMUNIST PARTY T . IWA negotiations in pete first stage have n down and a concilia- ed enter has been appoint- to. the next stage is soon begin. car employers have’ pre- Union da “package” to the - tick mck even if it doesn’t tim, » JUSt as’ deadly as a ne bomb, - Pose Course they haven’t pro- tio, ,* Seneral wage reduc- Such Rouse they know that Vate €mand would aggra- Ff the € entire membership have See and they would Much ight on their hands. tions better to pick off sec- °f the membership and |IWA ENTERS NE have the majority of the crew feeling relatively secure as far as wages go, thus make it more difficult for the union to unite all its members for a struggle. : However, any serious ana- lysis of their demands shows that the employers have in ‘mind something which would be even more drastic than a straight wage cut to the wood- workers should they be suc- cessful. 3 Their demands are aimed at undermining the already weakened master agreement still further so as to further restrict the ability of the woodworkers to fight ba ck against the speedup, mechani- zation, automation and lay- ae “ we » > ’ ae Nigh car inka. eharcg rk cn ces b ackhiee & a. ee EE See ee ee AWARD ‘ sg Aa 4 : off policy now prevalent in * to see. iu + esas the industry and causing much concern, and hardship to all affected. At the same time some important wage cutting features are also con- tained in them. Among those proposals aimed at weaken- ing the contract are the fol- lowing. Classifying all employees working less than three days a week as “casual employ- ees”. Even if a worker had ten years seniority if he worked less than three days a week he would be “casual” and as such could not qualify for statutory holidays. What would happen to laid-off em- ployees who had _ seniority and right to recall is clear TAGE IN Suspension of seniority for two days on layoff or recall. Coupled with the above, sen- iority retention would mean nothing at all. The aim here is to open the door still fur- ther to allow the companies to take advantage of the un- employment situation and keep a “reserve army” of people sitting by the tele- phone waiting for a day’s work now and again. Other demands such as loosening up on job postings, Saturday work at straight time, weakening of the quali- fying clause in health and welfare and retentio. of sen- iority rights by people pro- moted to foremen are all equally ridiculous. The other -types of de- yea eseavesess sApnil tS, -1962-PA CIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5’ FIGHT mands, those aimed at reduc- ing wages are equally ser- ious: board raised by $1.25 per day, overtime for Satur- day eliminated, cuts in fare allowance, night shift differ- entiation, graveyard shift, elimination of “red circle” provision in plywood mills, etc. What cynical, greedy pro- posals the employers are making. They who are piling up the millions act as though the woodworkers are rolling in wealth which it is neces- sary for them to take away. These proposals are an insult to the intelligence as well as a threat to the pocket book of every wodworker. See WOODWORKERS, pg. 12 iinet Soames