: Who goofed on
Banks scandal?

The following editorial entitled, “Newshawks Goofed On

Banks Scandal,” appeared in the July 18th, issue of North-
ern Daily News,” published in Kirkland Lake, Ont.:

Mr. Justice Norris’ stern indict-

- ‘ment of the Seafarers’ Inter-

national Union regime on. the
Great Lakes marks a long-over.
due judgment.

In fact it has been overdue
since the day SIU boss Hal Banks
first stepped across the border
with his thugs to take over control
of jobs on Canadian ships.

At this point one can be permit-
ted a little sardonic laughter at
the virtuous tone being adopted
by Canadian authorities and news-
papers as they hasten to step in

~ line behind the Norris report of

skull duggery on the lakes.
Because authorities, police and
particularly the country’s news-
papers, stood solidly behind the
importation of Banks to this

_ country and hurrahed almost to a

man while his goon squads beat
up legitimate Canadian seamen

and forced them off the naticn’s

ships.

Well, let’s look at the record.

When Banks stepped into the
picture Canada still had 100 or
so deep sea ships, maybe 6,000 ex.
perienced seamen, many of them
men who survived submarine
sinkings during the war.

Union dues and fees for sea-
men were nominal and working
conditions had improved to the
point where a seaman had sheets
on his bunk and food in his sto-
mach.

- So what’s the story now?

Excluding Great Lakes vessels,
instead of 100 ships there were at
last count, two deep sea freighters
under Canadian registry. The
trained seamen are long since
dispersed and forgotten, including
the ones who risked death to
transport supplies and fuel across
the wartime Atlantic.

Can’t blame Banks for all this,
but it’s a coincidence.

Union’ dues and fees have been |

increased at least tenfold.

The man was a hero, the savior
of this country’s shipping from
the Red manace of the old Can.
adian Seaman’s Union, which had
committed the cardinal sin of

calling strikes in an effort to im...

prove the lot of seamen who had
been existing under 19th century
conditions of. poor wages, poor
food and brutal accommodations.
So great a hysteria was engen-
dered, under the label of anti-
Communism, by the CSU fight for
seamen’s rights, the whole count-
ry united to oust it.
. You don’t have to take our word
for it. Read some accounts of the
late 1940’s when the SIU thugs
were invading the country. While
police stood by, the government
smiled benignly, and the newspa-
pers lauded Mr. Banks’ version
of ‘democracy’ at work. The re-

ports were dutifully spread across

the country by equally obtuse
wire services.

At this stage of the game you
can speculate we would have im.
ported McCarthy instead of Banks
if the witch-hunting senator had
been in action at the time.

_Off hand we can recall only one
newspaper — the Colonist in Vic-
toria, B.C., — that took a stand
against the importation of Banks.

Our information is good on this
one because we personally wrote
those stories and drew ourselves
to the attention of the SIU bosses.
Result was, two over-size SIU
representatives showed up at the
Colonist office to ask why its
stories were running contrary. to
the SIU plaudits featured in other
papers across the country.

Maybe the Norris report will fi-
nally answer that question, a de.
cade too late.

And shipping companies and
authorities are hand-cuffed by
imported labor boss Banks, a man
described by Mr. Justice Norris

as. ‘cruel, greedy, dishonest,
power-hungry, contemptuous of
the law.”

Makes the old CSU look pretty
geod in retrospect and we’d like
to see just one newspaper step
up and admit error in the one-
sided news coverage that helped
put Banks at the wheel of the
ship and scuttled the CSU.

We won’t get our wish because .

already the old cliches are being
trotted out by the papers and wire
service to explain the presence of
the bloated Banks in this country.

He came, the accounts of the
last couple of days report smugly,
to oust the Communist-tinged
CSU. Now isn’t that pat? ~

As an ex-Sailor who shipped out
under a CSU card, we’ve just got
this to add to the record. In all our
time on Canadian ships we never
got one directive from Moscow,
never heard any Communist pro-
paganda, never were asked to juin
the Communist party or to vote
for or jein the Labor Progressive
Party.

_If the CSU was Communist-
tinged it must have been apparent ”
only to land lubbers safe ashore.

“If they can’t do any more to
right the wrong they committed in
foisting Banks cn this country we
suggest the newspapers—and the —
wire service—might at least drop
that old alibi for bringing him
here :

Now that the move is finally
on to break Banks, we wonder
who we ought to import next to
run our shipping.

How about Juan Perron, one-
time Argentina dictator? He’s out

Urge Ottawa

The Saskatchewan Star-Phoenix
has commented editorially that
the draft Columbia River treaty
should not be ratified before
Parliament has had an oppor-
tunity to review its provisions.

The paper refers to the recent
argument between the Pearson
‘federal government and Social
Credit Premier Bennett of British

‘Columbia on the terms to be

“negotiated with the United States, ©

“and to the “optimism” displayed

by both. these parties.

The paper continues:

“As against these views, how-
ever, a former head of the Cana-

dian section of the International

Be”

+ 44% itvrinoa a

——

ef a job at the mcment.

review treaty

‘Joint Commission, Gen. A. G. L.
MeNaughton, says the treaty as
it stands is a ‘sell-out of Canadian
resources and sovereignty.’ He
gives his opinion that the U.S.
will call the tune in the use of
Canadian water in the future.
“Tt can be assumed that Gen.
McNaughton is, at this stage and

- age, one Canadian whose views

on this matter are not tempered
by political attachment of any
_kind. This should strengthen the.
argument that Parliament is en-
titled to complete enlightenment
on the government’s intentions in
negotiating the cempletion of the
Washington treaty.”’

, SEL ne an ae x
> ‘ big
\ Z

RISES FROM THE DEAD TO DEMAND MORE

B.C. ELECTRIC HAS BEEN MORE

By E. B.

Like the legendary were-
wolf of old Europe, the B.C.
Electric has risen from its
coffin to suck the blood of
the living.

In days gone by, at public
utility hearings B.C.E.’s cha-
pel-voiced vice presidents
would prattle unctuously
about the need for more
money in order to provide
service to the community.
Meantime they would curtail
transit operations, dilute
their gas, and even contrive
to adulterate electricity itself
by delivering it at variable
voltage.

- Nevertheless, when they
sauntered up to the public
teat, it was never for the pur-
pose of filling their own bel-
lies. The motive was better
service to the customer.

Today, the unction and the
platitudes about service are
gone. All they want is money.
Great Gobs of it. They are
not satisfied with what Pre-
mier Bennett paid them when
he expropriated their proper-
ties. Likewise they are not
satisfied with the additional
twenty million dollars Chief
Justice Lett says they should
have.

of all satisfied with the valua-
tion they themselves placed
on the property when they
were reporting to the invest-

ple on how much money they
were accountable for. They.

Furthermore they are least

ors and the Income Tax peo-_

want more.

Let’s apply some tests of
the value of what was taken
from the owners of the B.C.
Electric.

1. Their Own Valuation:

On December 31st, 1960,
seven months*before exprop-
riation, the B.C. Power Corp-
oration Annual Report in-
cluded a balance sheet of the
B.C. Electric. That balance
sheet was duly approved and
signed by W. G. Murrin and
J. L. Trumbull on behalf of
the board of directors, and
certified as being “‘true and

correct” by the _ auditors,
Price Waterhouse ang Comp-
any.

In that balance sheet, the
net worth of the common
stock equity in the company
was represented as_ being
$140,613,735. Since the Soc-
red government paid $171,-

833,052, Bennett claims, and |

properly so, that he actually
paid $31,000,000 more than
the good Christian gentlemen
of the B.C. Electric and their
incorruptible auditors had
duly certified their equity to
be worth.

_.2. Market Value:

B.C. Electric shares, being

all held by the B.C. Power
Commission, were not traded
in the open market. However,
the common shares of the
parent company were traded
and, according to the Annual
report, represented an equity
$10,000,000 higher than that
of the subsidiary company.

¥

—

1

LESSON IN

LS Fear y

fabulous profits

The giant MacMillan, Blodel,
- Powell River Ltd., reported a
net income for the first six
months of 1963 of $17,538,802.

This compares to $12.1 million

in 1961 and $12.9 million net in.

come for the first six month per-
iods of these years.
The announcement of this huge
profit by the B.C. forest monop-
oly was followed a few days later
by publication of the current Fin-
ancial Post Survey of Industrials
which showed: that combined
earnings of 255 Canadian comp.
_anies were up 14 per cent in 1962
over 1961.

_ Following this high profit trend
for Canadian companies, Canada

Packers announced this week a
G& # ¢ 1 Ps
ee @ 2 eee:

net profit for 1962 of $5,763,000.

The B.C. Telephone Co., also
released its financial report this
week showing a net income of
$4,910,000 for the first six months
of 1963. This is a gain of 14 per
cent over the same period last
year.

The same trend toward huge
profits is shown in reports re-
leased recently by U.S. corpor-
ations. y

General Motors Corp., shatter.
ed all profit records in 59-years
by rolling up $464 million in the
secend three-month period of
this year. These profits were even
greater than Ford and Chrysler
which last year announced record
profits for their companies.

tess <4 August 9, 1963—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page

1. $20 Sh

(LEARNED MY \.

Vets de hs

THAN ADEQUATELY COMPENSATED

The B.C. Power Corpora-
tion common shares were ori-
ginally acquired by the maj-
ority of the shareholders in
1953 at a price of $16.1214,
but in the succeeding years, ~
as the company’s profits got
progressively fatter, the mar- -
ket bid up the price to higher
levels. If we use the pre-take-~
over price of $38 (that is the
price in cffect before rum-
ours of a takeover caused it
to drop), the 4,721,000 shares ©
of B.C. Power were worth
$179,398,000.

Since this includes the $10,-
000,000 of B.C. Power assats
that did not belong to the.
B.C. Electric, the equity of —
the B.C. Electric stockholders
would be $169,400,000 rough-
ly. Thus Bennett’s takeover -
price was about $2,500,000
more than the market valua- —
tion of the shares.

3. The Supreme Court Val-

uation: ; :
His Lordship, Chief Justice

Lett, having heard lengthy
testimony from experts of —
sundry qualifications and loy-_
alties, found that a fair price
for the B.C. Electric would
have been $192,828,125. This —

is $52,000,000 more than the

balance sheet valuation, and
$23,000,000 more than the
stock market value, but it has
the unique virtue of bearing
the seal of approval of the
Supreme Court. It is about
$21,000,000 more than the
government paid for the B.C. —
Electric. :

The Premier has agreed to
pay the $21,000,000. It may
be argued that he should
have appealed the judge
ment, and tried to hold the
B.C. Power Company to their
own figures with which they —
have industriously hoodwink-
ed the public for more years
than one can recall. It may
be argued that this is public
money—our money—that he
is tossing to the werewolves.
However, the fact is that he
has agreed to pay.
BCE WANT MORE

Do the B.C. Power Corpor-
ation directors say ‘Thank
you?” Not a chance. Within —
the hour, B.C. Power Chair-
man Robertson was on the
air and in the press demand-
Beane to justify his
insatiable greed, Robertson
says, “It is important to beat —
in mind that the figure fixed
by the judgment was of two —
years ago and does not take
into account the earnings of —
B.C.E. of which B.C.E. has
been deprived during the in —
tervening period. :

Even for the B.C. Electric —

this is surely a new high in
financial casuistry. He has
had his money out of the
company (all but this latest
$21,000,000) for two years;
now he also wants the profits —
the company would have
made on that money if it had
not been paid back to them.
It just won’t wash.

The most disgraceful as-
pect of the whole episode is
the obsequious behaviour of
Premier Bennett. Bennett
has been most servile in pay-
ing blood money each time
it was demanded: first in ag-
reeing to pay $31,000,000
more than the shareholders’
equity; and now in agreeing —
to a further $21,000,000. _

He eis FASS he

re

‘