.

Higher tax bill

forecast-for you-
not big business

By JOHN

STEWART
TORONTO

Canadian consumers are being trapped in a high-price,

high
strategists of
their corporals in the three
provincial and municipal.

Basis of the plan is to create
a war hysteria, bolster the dimin-
ishing foreign and domestic mark-
et‘ with armaments, amass huge
profits—and put the entire cost

on the back of the people through
higher prices and taxes.

Every form of taxation is in.
volved, federal income taxes, taxes
on homes at the civic level, added
charges for public utility services
provincially and municipally, and
numerous “nuisance” taxes still to
come.

Prices of almost all
commodities continue upwards.
The cost-of-living index for No-
vember will be at least a full point
higher than the 170.7 figure now.
Next year, rents will “hit the roof”
when full controls come off on
March 31. Clothing will be up 25
percent in the next few weeks.

essential

A look at recent profit figures
of corporations, especially those
engaged directly in war produc.
tion, shows the plan is working
well. =

International Nickel, producers
of a prime requisite in any war
economy, shows a profit increase
of 166 percent since the outbreak
of the Korea war. In the , three
months since July. 1 (the Korea
war began June 25) this monopoly
turned in a profit of $13,534,752.
In that same period last year pro-
fits were a shade over $5 million.

INCO, on whose board sits
John Foster Dulles, the Korea
trigger-man, has piled up $33.9
million profit in the first nine
months of this year, $7 million
more than last.

Nearby Falconbridge mines

closely connected with INCO, show |

a profit increase on nickel, so far
this year 24.7 percent ahead of
last. ;

Aluminum Ltd., another US..
owned monopoly .also geared to
the war drive, has knocked. off

$26 million in profits in the first |

nine months of 1950, $4 million
over last year.

Those instances could be ex-
tended to all the big corporations
in Canada. -

Shareholders are happy, too.
Dividend payments in the first
11 months this year hit an all-
time high of $364,667,487—almost
$20 million above the same per-
iod last year.

The govern
command of y and St. James
street generals, is appropriating a
pillion dollars for arms spending

. to prime the economic pump. That

money it gets from the taxpayers.

Next year income taxes. will
take a 20 percent jump, with low-
ered exemptions likely. That is
freely talked about in Ottawa.
Graham Towers, Bank of Canada
governor, and Trade Minister
Howe have both made speeches in
recent weeks stating that taxes
must go higher because the war-
time spending creates inflation and
therefore the government © must
take excess (!) purchasing, power
away from the people and the
government must quit spending
on social services. 3

On the provincial and municipal
. front, charges for telephones and
hydro have already gone up.

In Toronto, a higher rate for
gas is announced despite a pro-
fit of over $1.8 million this year;

- transportation fares are up

ad

nt, obedient to the),

“war tax” pincers» movement planned by big business
Bay and St. James streets and executed by

levels of government, federal,

everywhere and are due to go
up to 10 cents in Toronto soon,
according to Mayor McCallum.

| Water rates are also due for a
20 percent jumpin Toronto and
despite all denials, a rent tax is
still being, planned, but has been
held in abeyance until after the
Toronto civic election this week-
end owing to public protest that
followed exposure ‘of the scheme
by Ald. Freed and Chas, Sims.

A huge chunk of the profits ~be-
ing made’ in. Canada these days -is
going over the border. Yankee
bankers now have more than $6
billion invested in Canada and the
figure is going up at an unprece.
dented rate in recent weeks since
the government “freed” the Cana-
dian dollar, thus’ increasing the
value of dividends and profits by
allowing the Canadian dollar to
go up from 90 cents to over 96
cents.

Ottawa reports that the gov-
ernment has no plan to tax ex-
cess profits. It is forecast that
taxes on profits, which are now
38 percent, at their highest on a
graduated system, will not go
higher than 45 percent next year.
Any additional tax can simply be
added to prices and the public
will be asked to pay it.

The need for a powerful wage
movement, in Canada to win a big-
ger share of these mountainous
profits and beat back the pincers
movement, is clearly indicated by
the example of Massey-Harris.

Here, the union settled recently
for a cost-of-living increase of six
cents an hour, pending formal
wage talks when the contract
jends. For the 8,000 workers cov-
|ered in Toronto, Brantford and
| Woodstock, on the basis of a 40-
| hour week, this means an added
| wage bill to the company of only
| $19,200 a week. But Massey-Harris
| profit, which last year worked out
| to about $270,000 a week, is this
‘year in excess of $310,000 per
| week—leaving E. P. Taylor and
|J. S. Dunean and the _ smaller
shareholders with more than half
the extra profit.

“This corporation could easily af-
ford a 25-cent-an-hour wage ‘boost
and still pay full dividends to the
shareholders. Now they’re get-
ting special bonus dividends. ~

In all Canada, hourly-rated
workers are getting (September
1) $1.04 an hour, just six cents
more than @ year ago. Average
weekly wage at $43.74 is only
$2.02 more than at September,
1949.

The draft resolution of the LPP,
prepared for discussion prior to
the Fourth Convention next Janu-
ary, has this to say about this
price-tax pincers movement:

“In place of the government's
cynical sckeme to make the
workers and farmers pay the cost

the LPP demands that the gov-
ernment tax the rich. To stop the
brazen profiteering of the big
monopolists, the LPP fights for
the imposing of a 100 percent ex-
cess profits tax, To keep the
prices of essential foods within
the reach of the purchasing power
of wage and small-_salary earners,
the LPP advocates the re-institu-
tion of consumer subsidies wher-
ever necessary to meet this need.”

In company with this, the LPP
resolution calls for an extension
of social. service measures such as
health insurance, higher old-age
pensions starting at 65, more ade-
quate unemployment insurance
benefits and “homes instead of
bombs.” ;

of the U.S.-dictated war program, |

a.

- DR. NORMAN BETHUNE
“True internationalism”

Chinese honor

memory of
Dr. N. Bethune ©

PEKING

Commemorating the 11th anni-
versary of the death of Dr. Nor-
man Bethune, the great Canadian
surgeon who gave his own life
while serving soldiers of what is
now the People’s Liberation Army,
the Peking People’s Daily on No-
vember 12 published a_ pictorial
supplement illustrating Dr. Beth-
une’s medical work in China.

The supplement reviewed Dr.
Bethune’s work as a field surgeon
in the First World War, as head
of a Canadian medical unit with
the Spanish ~ Republican armies
during the civil war, and in China
where he. died of blood poisoning
on November 12, 1939, serving with
a Canadian.medical unit attached
to what was then the Eighth Route
Army.

Concert raises
$85 foward fund
for youth paper

An enthusiastic audience of more
than 200 attended the youth variety
concert at Ukrainian Labor Temple
last Sunday and donated $85 to help
finance a national youth paper
which will begin publication in Jan_
uary, 1951. The concert was spon-
sored by the B.C. Committee for a
National Youth Paper.

Participating in the program were
young people from the National
Federation of Labor Youth, the
Swedish Workers Youth Club and
the Russian, Ukrainian and Fin-
nish organizations.

Featured items included. imper-
sonations of Jimmy Durante and
Spike Jones by a member of the
Finnish Youth Club, and a Ukrain-
jan dance by small but talente
Diane Turnowski. ;

A highlight of the evening was a
skit on’ the youth press, written,
produced and directed by NELY
members. It depicted some of the
problems of young people in Cana-
da and showed how a youth paper
will help in finding a. solution to
these problems, — =e

Guest speaker was Tom McEwen,.

editor of the Pacific Tribune. He
spoke of the frenzied war and hate
propaganda hurled daily at the
youth through the columns of the
capitalist press. “A youth paper
will be a weapon to counteract this
hate campaign and win the youth
for peace and socialism,” he said.

’
4

Raiding wins no
wage increases,
unionists warn

Evans took a sharp slap at
union raider Carl Berg's “rump
group” which held a meeting at.
tended by a handful of workers
in Labor Temple last Sunday to
set up a dual union. “A good half
of the men who attended “apolo-
gized for going in and said they
were just curious,” said Evans.

“Local 28, Vancouver Civic Em-
ployees’ Union, will hold a big
wage conference on December 9.
There will be representation from
every department and every job—
because we have the membership,
hold the bargaining rights and
will do the negotiating. sak i

“The main purpose of a union
is to better wages and working
conditions and to work for leg.
islation in favor of labor. I say
Local 28 has done an outstanding
job in this cofnection.

“We have made great progress
in the last few years because we
have been aggressive, militant
and united: We have asked no
“man his religion, his politics or.
his. fraternal ties. That’s the
way it should be. That’s the
way it was long before Donald
Guise and Jack Phillips were on
the scene. That’s what it says
in our constitution, and that’s
- the way I want to keep it.

“T want to make my , position
perfectly clear. I do not. belteve

the union should be under the
control of any party, clique or
faction. I do believe that the

last say on all
tions must rest
and_file.

“I say, without fear of contra-
diction, that the men who stand
suspended today have done more
to make Local 28 a progressive,
democratic union, than any other
group in its history.

important ques-
with the rank-

“T say the cry of ‘communism’.

is a false cry. I know some of
the men who have been suspended,
and they are a long way from
being ‘reds,’ but they were sps-
pended. I charge they were sus.
pended because they stood in the
way of the rump group taking
control of this union,

“In closing, let me remind you
of this: the program of the
rump group does not include a
single penny in wage increases.
It does not include better work-
ing conditions. All they want to
do is to ‘save us from commun-
ism’ I say we are quite cap-
able of saving ourselves from
any dangers, ‘real or alleged.”
Throughout December, the union

will broadeast over station CKMO
every Monday, Wednesday and
Friday at 640 p.m.

|

|

Wife gives lie
fo claims made
by renegade

TORONTO

The Canadian ‘Tribune, in its is-
sue of November 20, publishes the
text of an unsolicited letter it re-
ceived from Mrs. Annette Mc-.
Manus, wife of T. G. McManus,
renegade communist, whose ar-
ticles in McLean’s Magazine were
recently denounced by Tim Buck,
LPP national leader, as a “dream-
world of lies.”

Text of Mrs,
follows:

“Tt had hoped that my husband,
T. G. McManus would have had.
the decency not to bring me and
the children into the stories which
he is now writing. However, since
he has chosen to bring us into it,
I feel I must speak out against my
husband’s incredible hypocrisy.

“qn his article in MacLean’s
Magazine, he has the -nerve to
pose as a good family man. Noth.
ing could be further from the
truth)";

“Wwe have been’ deeply hurt by
his actions for a long time. With-
out regard for us he neglected his

McManus’ letter

family for drink and personal ex-.

cesses. He had become untrust.
worthy and given to making up
stories to explain his behavior to
the point where we could no long-
er believe anything he said.

“T am not a Communist, and I
know. very well that he is not
acting from any of the motives
which he boasts. His actions stem
from no other motive than his.
greed for money to carry on the
shameful kind of life he has been
living’ for a long time now, to the
neglect of his family.

“In the last few months I was

worried that he was becoming
mentally unbalanced. He stopped
living at home, and refused to ac-
cept responsibility for his family.
On several occasions last year, I
spoke to the officers of his union
and asked them to be careful of
how they let him handle funds. a3
was afraid the might involve us
all in trouble.

“Whatever he does now is his
own business, but let him leave
his family out of it. I am send-
ing this to you sir, in the hope
that we may be spared further
unpleasant publicity.”

Mass Rally

>

“

Avoid War---
Seat China in UN

se Speaker: Nigel Morgan

PENDER AUDITORIUM
- Sunday, December 3, 8 p.m.

Auspices: Vancouver Committee LPP
PACIFIC TRIBUNE — DECEMBER 1; 1950

— PAGE 2

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