PRE 6 2-25 gs

a

E" Reach for the ceiling everybody
Be | want Peace, | want Peace,
lwant Peace !

Beg Goreea

T\vO key issues are before the people vee
T year's civic elections. In both, our : ~
lecttified Non-Partisan civic administra ion
plans to hoodwink the electorate.

First, there is the plebiscite oe ae Sua
tion of Sunday “blue laws’. Very ee gh
zens outside the “holier than thou jun :
fringe will deny the need of et aawaeee
of our city’s Sunday “blue laws . and 0! 2 ng-
ing these into line with the pesos we is
lightened living. Also there are very tew ”
zens, outside of the most diehard acca
ist” fraternity, who desire to see the Sa
observances abolished.
growing section of

re ji owever, a
eho ie ust be counted

our population, among whom m eee
the wage workers. who desire 7 a eS
ation of some of these antiquate: ‘ ‘ a
so that their “day of rest will also, ea day
of moderate recreation.

ver’s Non-Partisan city fathers,
Sietenek the art of BCElectric politics, ee
adopted a typical position on Bis grow ne
demand for modified Sunday relaxation. io
longer able to sidestep the issue, the ie i
favor of a modified Sunday relaxation wi ae
be compelled to vote “yes” for the Bite i ag un
all Sunday observances, if the wo ciclo
plebiscite as cooked up by the Auli a Eset
remains at it is. By such a ruse the Non caer
isan shell-game. artists, hope to Se a
overwhelming “no” vote, thus thw e news
Will of the majority of our peony 10 has
a modified relaxation of Sunday blue i. :
but not the total abolition of Sunday cbser-
vances, -
There is still time to do two Ea Nee
and most important of course 15 4 ae ae
tion of the electorate on election Gaia Se
plete a long overdue job — to sweep Me

Skulduggery unlimited

“citizen votes.
* that either way.

i UN A ah IT PS Ain fs iE RAI LER

Toe

machine out of the city hall, to demand an hon
est wording of the plebiscite, so that when a
F s.“‘yes” or “no” he means just

The second issue is the draft of a new
city charter. This voluminous document has
been prepared by former corporation counsel
D. E. McTaggart, KC. We don’t know what
his fee was for drafting this bulky tome, but
what took this legal luminary two years to

-prepare, the citizens are now given three weeks

by the Non-Partisan monopoly highballers, to
study and submit their recommendation for
changes. At the end of that period the Non-
Partisans will “adopt” the draft charter and
submit it to the, provincial government for
proposed bills legalizing its provisions. . : :

_ Giving the citizens three weeks to “study
the draft before “adoption” by the Non-Part-
isan shell-game artists is on a par with the
Sunday plebiscite trickery. What is omitted
from this new charter is almost as important
as what is in it. But its political smell may be
gauged by one proposal, All prospective civic
candidates will be obliged to pay a deposit of
$100. which will be forfeited unless the candi-
date receives one-third of the lowest winning
vote. By this ruse all small business or labor
candidates not endowed with the blessing -of
the Non-Partisans, and regarded by these
BCElectrified gentlemen as “nuisance” candi-

dates, will be eliminated! ©

That is only a sample of what is included
in this bulky document. We haven’t had time
to plow through it all to see what essentials
of democracy have been left out. Reg

A re-wording of the Sunday plebiscite in
line with the wishes’ of the majority of Van-
couver’s citizens, and a time hoist to the new
draft charter are two “musts” for the preser-
vation of elementary democracy in Vancouver
civic administration.

Another step to war —

i ww ate

RESS reports emanating from Ottaw ae -

that a new Canadian | Lye eee ie Rae
formed to reinforce our “special Un

tions force.” ‘Thus an additional ten or

twelve thousand army recruits will be sought

for war service in Korea—or 1 race iate
“other Koreas” promised by * x
fairs\Minister Lester B. Pearson.

Despite wordy effort . inter-
and over the radio to depict US. “i Beee ED
vention in Korea as a “UN po Ped forces
in which units of the Canadian ar
are now particip it Gs. be-
etersticamo MacArthur’s SP anion
coming more and more ae as ‘all Canada
formal declaration of wat, ane clita poe
is at. war against peoples) wart! ve itimate
haven't the faintest vestige of ‘epriie’’.
complaint or quarrel.

If a young Sala
army. well and good.
But he shold ees with his oie ae ee
With 4 firm conviction to ee rane ee
of Canada, which is not enhanc We os

re ing of
tion” bombing, the massacre and looting |

n wishes to join the

in some of the —

ating as an integral part of

 Arthur’s “saturation” killing.

That is his choice. —

peoples who seek only to live their “way of

life” without the intervention or exploitation

of predatory imperialism.

There is a growing conviction among the
common people of Canada that no more troops
should be sent to Korea; that those already
there be returned home immediately; that
Canada, instead of becoming a cannon-fodder

- compound for Yankee imperialism, eel
s in the daily press — beco

instead a mighty force and voice in the UN
for peace, tolerance’ and equality among
peoples. This course calls for fewer armed

- brigades—and more commonsense in high

places. Perhaps this latter is expecting too

much, but it is worth a superhuman effort. —

The other course can only lead to mass grave-

yards under alien skies amid a people whose

friendship we have spurned, and whose hatred
we are trying hard to merit, under Mac-

1

A carload of letters and wires from Can-
adian fathers and mothers to Canada’s rep-
resentatives on the UN might help drive

home this idea—and serve Canada’s interests

much better than another brigade for Wall
Street’s imperialist adventures,

RAED RA LG CREE SE cee Es 3!

a

TOM McEWEN

As We See lt

geliteee Minister Douglas Abbott is reported to be keeping. a “very

close ear” on American public reaction to Washington’s “more
guns and less buter’ taxation gouge. Tax collector Abbott figures
that if the American people will stand for it there is no reason why

Canadians should squawk when he gives the screw another turn
or two. f :

This “close ear” to Washington’s doings is of course nothing new
in Canada’s capital. The ordinary Canadian would be hard put to
it to name one politician in Ottawa who is not all ears at the sound

of “his master’s voice,” and ready to say “yes”
to every demand made by the dollar salesmen
for Yankee imperialism, |

Abbott’s ear is out because Abbott is planning
his 1951 tax pudget—a budget aimed to extort

an additional sum of at least $500 million from
Canadian wage and Salary earners. Thus if
ethe American people can be propagandized into
accepting the late Herman Goering’s “guns before
butter” formula, there is no reason why the same
Squeeze cannot be applied to Canadians.

After all, it ‘is just a matter of filling the peo-
ple with an appreciation of our urgent need for
adequate “defense” (read top wartime army with

: all the latest gadgets for mass killing). That
done, the proletariat should eagerly accept the idea of “reducing
spendable income” through excessive taxation for “peacetime” war.

Abbott’s interim “baby budget” of 1950 was only the opener for
the real gouge that is in the making. Along with the tax measures
designed to “reduce spendable income” went the Chamber of Com-
merce’s orders to its tycoons of industry to “hold the line On Wages.”
No more wage increases. Every wage increase is regarded as a
stumbling block to “our defense program.” How can we success-
fully subjugate, pardon us, ‘liberate’ Korea—or all the “other
Koreas” anticipated—if we succumb to a spate of wage boosts? The
Canadian people must face the fact that from now on (as specified
in Abbott’s “perspective”’) their contribution to “our free enterprise
way of life” will be rising living costs, heavier taxation, clipped pay
envelopes, and the glory of dying somewhere to make the world safe
for Wall Street. ;

“Informed circles close to the government,” in this case the
Financial Post, organ of big business, indicate that the pattern of this
drastic reduction of the people’s “spendable income” is becoming
quite clear. Abbott’s 1951 budget will be the complete blueprint.
Bank of Canada boss Graham Towers in an address to Toronto’s
industrial and financial tycons, put forward the need of a “long
perspective.” External Affairs Minister Pearson having promised
“other Koreas,’ Towers insisted upon the cultivation of “a. very
strong conviction that, Since the present situation may last for five,
eight or ten years, or more, we’ve got to get a tax policy that will
Stand firmly and produce at least $3 billion annually for that long
a period.”

Now, there is “leadership” for you with a capital L. There’s
nothing small about Graham as he does his preparatory work for.

Unlike a horse-race which places a finishing post somewhere
along the track, the armament (or ‘defense”’) race with its “other
Koreas” outlook has no such finishing post. The profiteering war-
mongers and their fiscal and parliamentary tax gougers seé war as
a much better paying proposition than peace, and have set their

courses accordingly. ~ Having fixed the race to their own satisfaction __

at least they are now out to fleece the public.
ON. : ; :

That new fridge, electric stove, washing machine or other gad-
get to make home life a little easier for the missus and kids must
now be sacrificed to the Abbott-Towers “defense” budget perspec-
tives. The restrictions on credit buying—almost the only way the _
average working class family can acquire any or all of these labor- |

_ Saving devices—coupled with a national taxation policy which says

in effect that the people must forego bread in order to provide
bombs, is not only ruinous to the peoples of those “other Koreas” —
against whom the bombs are to be used, but equally ruinous to the
people whose “spending income” is now earmarked to go up in
smoke. The’ only people who stand to profit in such a deal (tem- |
porarily, of course) are the merchants of death, those carrion whose
profits soar with the explosion of every bomb, with the roar of _
every gun. ; ue

Which reminds us of an Ode To A NineInch Gun (hailed as <

great weapon in its day) which appeared in the Western Clarion,
April 19, 1913.

The author gave his name as F. J. McGarthy, and

his address as “Fourth Bench, City Hall Park.”

“Whether your shell hits the target or not,

Your cost is five hundred bucks a shot;

You thing of noise and flame and power,

We feed you a hundred barrels of flour;

Each time you roar, your flame is fed

With twenty thousand loaves of bread.

Then silence; A million hungry men

. Seek bread to fill their mouths again.” é
We can well imagine what friend McCarthy would have written |
from his park bench “home” on the profits of mass killing today.
What might he have writen on Abbott’s proposals for gouging an
additional $500 million worth of food, clothing. and shelter from
Canada’s wage earners in 1951 to provide guns which now consume |
one hundred times or more the amount of bread he estimated was —
consumed by nine-inch guns. And all by the simple expedient of
“reducing spendable income” by extracting it from labor’s pay
envelope. ON ? ; Ses
The growing wage drive to beat the high cost of living may yet

induct tax collector Abbott to withdraw his “ear’ from Washington
and begin to listen in on the Canada he is planning to rook. f

le :
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PACIFIC TRIBUNE — NOVEMBER 24, 1950 — PAGE 5

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