‘Ontario people criticize Quebec for refusing religious
freedom to the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
capital of Ontario, freedom of speech and freedom of
assembly are denied on the say-so of the police... .
The police mind, as manfested in the espionage pro-
ceedings at Ottawa, created’ the demand for a Canadian
Bill of Rights’——Toronto Daily Star.

They couldn’t
~ gag Robeson

HE attempt to gag

H Paul Robeson in Tor-
onto last month failed
dismally when the world-
famous bass-baritone sang
before close to 6,000 pevpic
in the Coliseum and told
them in words of music and
song that the fight for freedom

. must go on. But the full story

behind that attempt has never
been told by the daily news-
papers which made so much of
the alleged reasons for the gag.

Prevented from speaking by a

tory-inspired decision of the po-

lice commission, Robeson never-

theless conveyed to a_ tense.

audience his love for freedom,
his determination to go to the
end in the fight for its preserv-
ation.

The thunderous burst of

' cheering which greeted his first

appearance and the standing
ovation which rounded out the
three-hour concert, was taken as
clear demonstration that the
people of Toronto stocd firm be-
hind his right to speak.

During the war Robeson sang
for Canadian troops on many
cecasions, several times in the
Coliseum,

‘When Robeson, greeted on his
arrival at Malton airport with
the commission’s decree, an-
Swered that the gag over his
mouth “was a fascist act”; he
indicated to Canadians that the
potential danger was greater
than the incident itself.

“If the Canadian and Ameri-
can people aren’t careful,” he
warned, “there will be no demo-
cratic privileges of any kind
left.”

Spokesmen fcr Toronto’s civil
liberties groups, art circles, par-
ties, unions, and churches con-
tinue in an uproar over the de-
liberate tory plot to muzzle the
right of free speech in their
city.

Here are the links in the
scheme: ‘

Annie Buller, manager of tha
Daily Tribune under whose aus-
pices the concert was held,
charged at the special session of
the police commission that the
question of Robeson making a
political spéech at the concert
was “an entirely false issue” in-
jected by malicious people. The
evidence corroborates her charge,
_ Three days before the concert
the Evening Telegram, voice of

Toronto's tory hierarchy, played

the first card. An article carried
by that paper contained a report
in which Robeson was claimed
to “have a penchant for inter-

FRIDAY, JUNE 6, 1947

rupting his concerts to orate
Communist ideology.” The sing-
er, the writer solemnly warned,
will “mix his singing and his
ideology.”

The night before the concert,
the Globe and Mail, in a big:
page one six-column-wide story,
ran the headline: ‘Will Robeson
be Allowed to Spout Commun-
ism?’ The story charged that
everyone connected with the
Robeson affair was ‘Communist,’
Tt cited the alleged ‘criminal’ re-
cords of some of them as ‘evi-
dence’ that the event would ba
“subversive to the British Em-
pire.”

The role of stalking horse was
assigned by the Globe to Con-
troller John Innes, Innes, a
known tory spokesman, in the
Globe and Mail report issued a
call to violence,

“Robeson is anti-British,” In-
nés was reported to have said,
“and as far as I’m concerned ha
won't appear here, Some of the
veterans’ organizations might go
in there and break a few of the
heads of these Communists . . .
If he tries to knock the British
Empire a riot could easily ensue
- . + It would be well for him to
keep his mouth shut. . .”

In the same story Elwood
Hughes, CNE general Manager
who had rented the Coliseum for
the concert, was reported to be
stoutly opposed to ‘subversive
speeches,’ ,

Innes went on to declare he
would appear before the police

commission and demand cancell-
ation of the Robeson concert on

the grounds a “breach of peace”
might occur.
Thus the stage wag set.

A SPECIAL session of the po-
“lice commission met early
Saturday morning. Controller
Innes failed to appear, Elwood
Hughes read out the contract
stipulating that the Coliseum
had been rented solely for the
Purpose of a ‘music festival.’ The
commission questioned Annie
Buller, heard her declare that
On previous occasions Robeson
speeches had served to inspire

But here, in the

By HARRY FISTELL 7

and encourage audiences, But -
the commission was insistent.

Paul Robeson had been en-
gaged only to sing. He could
appear at the concert but he
must not speak.

In the corridors, barred from
the commission meeting, were
crowded the representatives of
the Civil Liberties Association,
the Civil Rights Union, church
minsters and numerous private
citizens who expressed strong!
indignation over the attempted.
gag.

Included were Mrs. Margaret
Spalding, Andrew Brewin, Prof.
C, B. MacPherson, Rev. J. La-
vall Smith, Prof, George Tath-
am, Frank W. Park, Rev. J. M.
Finlay.

“We are here to protest that!
Paul Robeson, a very distin-
guished artist, be free to speak
in any lawful way he sees fit,”
said Brewin. “This sort of in-
tolerant attempt to restrict free
speech is an attack on our way
of life.” ae

E, B. Jolliffe, CCF provincial
leader, issued a statement decry-
ing the attempt to forbid free-
dom of speech in the city. “This
is the sort of nonsense which >
makes Toronto’s little politicians
the laughing stock of the demo-
cratic world,” he said.

A. A, Macleod, MPP, Ontario -
leader of the LPP, Ald, Norman
Freed, C. S. Jackson, UE leader,
strongly .decried action as sub-
versive to Canadian liberty. The
municipal committee of Toronto
Trades and Labor Council (AFL)
wired the mayor an angry pro-
test, ' :

The concert was held. Thous-
ands heard Paul Robeson sing
his compeliing songs of freedom,
speak a few words for true
democracy, Six thousand people
listened, responded, cheered. :

On the seat of every man, wo-
man and child who sat in the
great Coliseum Saturday night
was found a small, orange-
colored card addressed to the
city council and demanding the
rescinding of the gag decree.

“The rescinding of their order
is essential to the good name of
Toronto.”

@ In the world of science

_New weapon against TB

by DYSON CARTER

by HAT — sickness kills more
people in the prime of life,
men and women from 20 to 30
years, than any other disease?
The answer is shocking, This
killer is a disease which science
_ long ago knew how to stamp
‘out. It is tuberculosis,
True, in the last 50 years the
death rate from TB has been
_ very greatly reduced. And there
is nowadays much less chance
of anyone contracting the dig
ease than in 1900. But the oppo-
site side of this picture, rarely
given publicity, is that our doc-
tors and public health authori-
ties still cannot get sufficient
money to take steps necessary to
drive TB down into the class of
rare diseases,
Tuberculosis remains the
‘Number One destroyer of young
life because we are not using

the most important proven meth-
od for combatting the disease, ~

The positive way to fight TB ig
to examine everyone at regular
intervals with X-rays, so that
early cases of infection can be
isolated and treated.

For many years the X-ray
equipment combine conspired to
keep the cost of these chest
pictures extortionately high,
During the war, however, it be-
came urgently necessary for
army examiners to use low-cost
X-ray methods, which reduce
the expense of chest photog-
raphy to a few cents per person,
And so modern equipment was
produced on a mass scale. These
outfits are ideal for examining
whole communities quickly and
cheaply, but they are not being:

put into use nearly as Tapidly —

as the situation demands,
t

Few of us appreciate the mag-

nificent triumph our doctors
and public health workers have
scored in the fight against TB.
This disease is one of the few

mass killers we have been able.

te beat back without the help of
a positive cure. TB is very
different to diseases like diph-
theria, pneumonia or malaria,
They can be cured by specific
drugs or other treatments. But
a TB victim can be helped only
by a long hospital battle to raise
the body’s natural resistance.
Often with the aid of difficuit
surgical treatments that may
take years to complete,

_ Furthermore, the only way to
prevent a
spreading the disease is to iso-
late him or her completely, in

TB patient from

a sanitorium, To make the prob-
lem still more difficult, a perso?
can have tuberculosis in @ a
ly dangerous form for some oa
without showing obvious sy™P
toms,

In brief: TB ig difficult to ve
tect, to cure and prevent.

all
cal science has surmounted

these obstacles. Only one ee
remains, and that is the ee
indifference of reactionary 8°
ernments.
. 3 e.
HE prevention of TB is apt
ancther new turn on
continent. For 20 years. et
authorities have fought agait é
using the preventive ie
called BCG, developed. at ae
Pasteur -Institute in. Paris. ae
opposition had no_ political a
plications. It was ca ot
medical scepticism founders
isolated cases of BCG fal a
However, the vaccine has ee,
widely and successfully used if
Murope and the Soviet Ba
What American and Canad “
doctors recently saw over ther :
has led to a new campaign ie
this continent, of

BCG is short for Rese
Calmette and Guerin,” ad
French doctors who eee
this powerful anti-TB vaccine. es
is given to healthy people aay
are exposed to TB, espech SR
nurses and babies. In the US a
this lifesaving vaccine is ee!
istered solely by doctors,
union and collective farm me
resentatives in charge Of —
eradication. ; ait

But the ugly question in °
countries is whether BCG W:
be given to those people wh?
need it most or. to those wh?
have the most influence.

TB is a social disease, thre@t
ening workers and farmers iD
finitely more than. the gat
Therefore TB eradication is ‘
political problem. The 8
against TB is the fight f0*

‘higher wages, for. full employ

ment, for lower food prices, £07
school lunches, for better aoe
ing, for greatly increased publi
health grants.

It is the fight against monoP-
oly capitalism which ruthlessly
opposes all these demands %
the people, And the war
this killer of the young can pe
be declared won until medica!
science is liberated by the work
ing class, until socialism is ViC
torious, until freedom for all t?
live replaces freedom for th®
tew to exploit and impoverish
the majority, ‘

@ TB is a disease of Poverty. Its ravages are widespread amous

the hungry peoples of Europe,

particularly the children as show?

here. But high food prices and bad housing threaten the spread
in Canada of the conditions in which TB thrives. ae

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 10

aS