A U.S. move to impose heavy excise taxes TRAIL, B.C. on Canadian lead and zinc has come under | 4 heavy fire in this Interior city, whose economic life is dominated by the Tadanac smelter of Conso}j | OF logs} ! Canaq | & i ©) kets Whenever the going | a bit tough.” ‘f hosts is involved is the im- 4 Si Ft of heavy excise taxes a Wh €nadian lead, and zinc sf 75 eRever U.S, prices fall be- §) ° given levels. © US. price for lead is F ew. cents. The pro- 0 the legislation would bump eae of Canadian lead to of ket cq, 08 the American mar- and imilarly, zine, zine ore €ad ore from Canada Ww 9) oa ttd be taxed when Ameri- 4 n Drices Sag. N ae is estimated ‘that . more ai in nr of the 16,000 miners provi ‘cll in leaa hee are engaged and zine operations. ‘ flegt® Trail Times which re- di dateg he Views of Consoli- : F has oh ining and Smelting, 7, Stocknileee that with large if han, €s of lead and zine on id is yi, the U.S. mining lobby MH man ttning to put its sub- a! busine Producers back into ofl hangs and to make a more “econo ’ Profit for its more Ty erg Omically sound” produc- ) Ree Wneege ME Out that the U.S. lash anada’s nickel, iron, wee lumber and water ithe the paper calls upon UW : Wealiste by government to duty on by imposing export “Portes. ‘hese commodities ex- i to the U.S. jo Dhore . = fine mixing of meta- hy the Paper says: win th ‘show the Americans, *; tue British tradition, lion b ‘S time they have got a Veome ¢, he tail. Let's devise Bet, “cise taxes of our own. Ki the ant bow any more before f ‘ell ty, tfe in the back. Let’s PB sort & ‘S. that Canada isn't °F muskmelon for’ every = dated Mining and Smelting Company. : According to the Trail Times, some 30,000 residents of the West Kootenays are in danger hg their livelihood if the U.S. mining lobby follows “its traditional line of scuttling jackass in the world to take a bit out of. Let’s inform them that this is a nation, that these resources are not just to be at the hazard of every U.S. domestic producer who finds himself unable to com- pete in world markets.” The issue first broke in Trail when Mine-Mill local 480 made it an election issue, quizzing every candidate in the West Kootenays on this and other questions. Ken Smith, Mine-Mill board member, quoted in the current issue of the Commentator, the local’s monthly paper, states: “The imposition of this ad- ditional import tax on Cana- dian base metal producers, if carried through, would result in a considerable unemploy- ment in Canadian base metal mining fields as approximate- ly two-thirds of Canadian base metal is marketed south of the border. “The Canadian government must not allow American fi- nancial interests to get away with this, and if they do im- pose this taxation we urge the Canadian government to immediately ‘institute similar taxes on all Canadian raw materials produced in Canada for U.S. manufacture. “We also urge the govern- ment, as we have in the past, to institute legislation design- ed to promote in Canada the. type of industry in the final processing of our raw mater- ials that down through the years, and in the present, has meant the exporting of thou- sands and thousands of jobs to American workers, to the detriment of our own people.” \ Lahti to attend Youth Festival A fund-raising “bon voyage” concert and dance in honor of Osmo “Ozzie” Lahti, who will attend the Sixth World Youth Festival in Moscow later this month, will be held in Clinton Hall here Saturday, July 13. Lahti, a former woodworker well known in the progressive movement here and on the Island, has been elected to rep- resent Vancouver branch of the Finnish Organization of Canada at the festival. He sis also an accomplished musician and was for several years a member of the Na- naimo Symphony Orchestra. He hopes to take part in the Canadian cultural concert at the festival. Gas hill four times higher than Colorado An irate rooming - house keeper phoned the Pacific Tribune this week to complain about the high’ rates charged by the B.C. Electric for natural gas. “A friend gave me a gas bill from Colorado Springs, where domestic and commer- cial rates are lumped together,” he said. “Charge for 288 units (100 cubic feet per unit) was $11.75. My bill for the same amount of gas here would be $46.82, at commercial rates. The B.C. Electric must surely be making super-profits!” - Bert White a ~ SPORTLIGHT (Guest column by Bruce Yorke) esa week marks the _ half- way point in the tight Pa- cific Coast League pennant race. The top six teams are only six games apart-with the Vancouver Mounties in second, two games behind the leading San Francisco Seals. Last year at this time the Mounties were so deep in the cellar Vancouver fans ques- tioned whether they really did have a team in the PCL after so many years of waiting. This year it’s a different story, and in my opinion théy could go all the way. The Mounties are in second for two good reasons. First, they have the best pitching staff in the league. Second they are defensively strong. Their main weakness is at the plate where they have lacked a consistent long ball hitter. The pitching staff of Martin, Beamon, Palica, Erautt, Fer- resse, Bamberger, Held, Conse- quera and Houtteman give the Mounties a big edge on the rest of the league in a department considered to account for 70 percent of the game. Four of the starters have earned run averages below three per game. The other starters are not too far over this mark. The relief pitching has ‘been excellent. In fact the Mounties pitching has been so good that they recently sold reliefer Dick Marlowe to Portland, despite the fact that he had one of the best earned-run averages in the loop. Morrie Martin, who has won several games, leads the league in earned runs with the remarkably low figure -of 1.5 per game, The Mounties have a solid defensive line through the middle of the diamond. Charlie White behind the plate has earned himself a starting spot on the North South all-star game.,,The second base com- bination of Buddy Peterson and Owen Friend have saved many a game for Vancouver. Mainly through their work the Mounties lead the league in double plays. In center field the Mounties have the rookie of they year in speedy Lennie Greene, whose only fault it would seem is that he some- times tries to play right and left field as well as center. tt bes xt The one weak spot has been the long ball hitting. Most of the year the Mounties have carried two outfielders hitting around the .250 mark. Tito Francona was a solid .300 hit- ter but he went back to Balti- _ more. Neither Joe Frazier, Jake Crawford or Carl Powis have hit the ball the way. out- fielders should. Two recent acquisitions, Harry Elliot and Bob Nelson have not played enough yet to say how they will stand up. Kal Segrist who last year led the Mounties with a .333 average is hitting 80 points below this figure to date. If he could regain his old form the Viqunties would be very hard to beat. Jim Marshall has also been a bit of a disappointment. For the first month of the sea- son he led the league in runs batted in, homers and was hit- ting .375. Since that time how- ever, he has failed to deliver in the pinches at the plate and his average has sagged to! .260. The hitting has been looked after mainly by Buddy Peter- son, Lennie Greene and to a lesser extent Owen Friend. Peterson and Greene are hit- tine around the .325 mark and Friend around .275. None of them are long ball hitters however. Nevertheless it has been the work of these three at the plate that have carried the Mounties. Greene is definite major league calibre. The young Negro is exceptionally fast and alert. He is thinking all the time. Often he has crossed up the infield with drag bunts. On one occasion recently when everyone in the park expectéd him to bunt, Lennie merely popped one over the secOdnd baseman’s head as he came charging in. He easily beat it out for a single. He’s a great favorite with the fans. It’s worthwhile to recall that only 10 years ago players of his calibre were barred from big time ball. Peterson has been the spark- plug of the Mounties. He is always hustling, never giving up, even in the most. hopeless situations. Timeand time again he has started a Mountie rally with a line drive single, a walk, a stolen base or what have you. In the field he has been steady and has covered a lot of ground. So the Mounties could go all the way if the pitching holds up and if one of the following three (Segrist, Marshall and an outfielder) starts hitting around .300. > Order Your Subscription Now for ~ MARXIST REVIEW 24 CECIL ST., TORONTO @ the Party Since The Convention @ the Federal Election @ the L.P.P. National Program @ Lenin on Revisionism Pocket Size Format — Subscription $1.50 Every Second Month Starting July July 5, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE. 7