b\ hae

q Wasteland of violence.”

Willie Gallacher

ANDY BROGAN, VANCOUVER,
ie €s: On Saturday morning in
ns City of Paisley, Scotland,
: Would find it difficult, if a
aie to get any information
the Tding that historical city on
Outskirts of Glasgow.

aaturday, the 22nd of August,
4 [i exception, From day-
i On there was a steady
hea of people heading for
Bs... a Buses were crammed to
oc ty, cars newandold, motor
Bo S, bikes and pedestrians
_ ~°88ed all roads to the city.

Ny Treason: one of Paisley’s
t famous citizens and Scot-
Galtae Personalities, William
thig Cher, had passed away, and
cn the day of his funeral,
ol illie had reached the ripe
~ *8e of 83 years,

c. Cooperative Funeral Par-
I bis prcon St., Paisley, where
j Wie lay in state draped in
E the Ae. beloved Red Flag, was

: toi €stination of the tens of
Sands who filed their way

. coffin, to pay their
a ge to ?
" Breate one of Scotland’s

 troas Sv 2 champion of the down-
€N of all lands, a fighter

ie the cruel oppression of
Nialism, a builder of peace
Socialism,

Most of Paisley’s people, young
Old, along with thousands of
Fe ssi from all over Scotland
ty, Sed the sidewalks along the

-

Mile route to the cemetery.

Tribute to. Willie

An old man passing along the way

Came at the evening, cold and grey,

To a chasm, vast and deep and wide.

. The old man crossed in the twilight dim,
y The sullen stream had no fears for him,
Ry But he turned when safe on the other side
And builta bridge to span the tide.

‘Old Man, said a fellow prilgrim near.

‘You are wasting your time in building here.
You will never again pass this way,

Your journey will end with the closing day.
You have crossed the chasm deep and wide,
Why build this bridge at eventide?

The Builder lifted his old grey head,
“Good friend in the way I’ve come” he said,

- “There follows after me today
A youth whose feet must pass this way.
This stream that has been as naughtto me
To the fair-haired youth might a pitfall be.
He too must cross in the twilight dim, oe
Good Friend, I am building a bridge for him.’

Beest OF U.S. TV PROGRAMS ON CBC. This was one of the points
mere by the Fowler report. Recently the chairman of the U.S. TV licensing
mmission said a goodly portion of U.S. programs consisted of “blood and

T, mayhem, sadism and murder.” he referred to U.S. TV as a ‘vast

Along this route a mile-long cor-
tege walked slowly, headed by
party and state dignitaries from
all parts of the world; repre-
sentatives from all parties inthe
British House of Commons and
the House of Lords, there to pay
their respects to one whom they
all had to admire for his cour-
age and tenacity in his many
years as a Communist Member
of Parliament, where he repre-
sented the miners of West Fife.

Being in Scotland on vacation
at the time, gave me the oppor-
tunity to attend Willie Gallacher’s
funeral, an honor, if indeed asad
one, which I shall never forget.

Knowing Willie personally back
in the “Twenties” when the Clyde-
side shop stewards movement
drew me into its whirl is some-
thing I am rather proud of, and
the history of those stirring days
with John McLean, Willie Gal-
lacher and the Cydeside rebels,
makes interesting reading today,
To all PT readers I would refer
them to Willie Gallacher’s “Re-
volt on the Clyde,” an historical
book and an asset to any working
man’s library.

Like the Immortal Robbie
Burns, Willie Gallacher’s name
will not be forgotten, but will
come up time after time when
Clydeside workers and Scottish
miners meet in union or social
activities, A staunch fighter all
his life for freedom and dem-
ocracy, his name and example
stands out as a beacon light, and

—E. H. Tudor,
Morningside, Alberta

THE FOWLER REPORT

Hits hard at broadcasting

By PHYLLIS CLARKE

R overt Fowler recently
brought forth the second
“Fowler Report” on broadcasting
in less than 10 years, His report
the Royal Commission on
Broadcasting in 1957 was largely
disregarded by the Diefenbaker
administration which took office

only a few months later,

The return to office of the
Liberals in 1963 saw no imple-
mentation but the establishment
of a new Committee on Broad-
casting again headed by Fowler.
It is to be hoped the government
elected Nov, 8 will act on this
report with boldness and dis-
patch,

an inspiration to all of us to
carry on the fight to final victory.

Echo of the past

BEN LLOYD, SASKATOON,
writes: After the wreck, the
“Dodge” was twisted so badly that
without backing up I couldn’tturn
around on Second Avenue, Saska-
toon, one of the widest streets
in Canada, All the instruments
you used were an old-style an-
vil, a sledge hammer, a good
fire, and two straight eyes. The
“Dodge” then ran for years with-

‘out a stop, except when we ran

out of gas, Naturally I got a big
opinion of the hefty Scot black-
smith,

You remember the ten million
dollar elevator battle? In every
livery stable, in every garage,
everywhere in Saskatchewan for
a whole winter the question was
debated: should we load our in-
fant Wheat Pool, less than two
years old with a debt of $10
million, All the cards seemed
stacked against us, Our enemies
seemed to hold all the trumps,
Against us were the Winnipeg
Grain Exchange, the premier and
his cabinet, the banks andalmost
all the newspapers in the West,

There had been erected against
us what our enemies thought was
an impossible barrier against
our winning, By statutory law we
had to get a majority of 85 per-
cent of the farmers, Whoever
had heard of such a farmer
majority?

A canny Scots blacksmith said,
“We can always trust working
people, let’s put the proposition
up to the working farmers,” The
blacksmith dug up and supplied
us with a lot of irrefutable evi-
dence, evidence so convincing
that not a single farmer who read
it dared to contradict it.

A thousand times over I have
promised to thank you for acting
as our guide at that time when
all our hopes seemed to have
been frustrated. Due to our action
then, the “Pool” has “ made" over
five million dollars in one vear,
(Later I will send you a detailed
statement.)

But, strange as it may seem
we have not now that strength
which in the old days “moved
heaven and earth, .. .”

(The Scots blacksmith referred
to above is PT editor Tom Mc-
Ewen,)

It is a hard-hitting document
which attacks not only current
practise, but the underlying phil-
osophy of broadcasting, It opens
by stating, *The only thing that
matters in broadcasting is pro-
gram content: all the rest is
housekeeping.” |

The report stresses that pro-
grams that are basically Cana-
dian in content and character
should be given priority in the
improvement of broadcasting
service, It describes private
television programming as sys-
tematic mediocrity, with the
worst of the U.S, programs dom-
inating the screen,

Attacking the low budgetting
for Canadian talent both by the
private television stations and
the CBC, the report recommends
that only where Canadian talent
is being used should the licenses
be continued for a private sta-
tion,

The need for exchange of pro-
grams between one region and
another and particularly in the
interest of national unity of

Treat for
film goers

The 8th Vancouver Inter-
national Film Festival, open-
ing in Vancouver Thursday,
September 23 and running to
Saturday, October 2. will
bring film viewers in the city
some of the top films from
around the world,

Among the countries repre-
sented will be Great Britain,
Germany, France, Czecho-
slovakia, Roumania, . India,
Soviet Union, Poland, Nether-
lands and Canada, *The Seven
Hundred Million® will be Ca-
nada’s contribution,

Of special interest to many
film-goers will be the Soviet
Union's production of Shake-
speare’s “Hamlet,”* which will
be shown on Sunday, Septem-
ber 26 at 8 p.m,

All films will be shown at
the Lyric Theatre, 763 Gran=
ville St,

cross- programming between
French and English regions is
emphasized, “Here,” says the
report, “even the CBC is far
from having fulfilled its respon-
sibility.”

The report describes as “a dis-
grace” the fact that 229 private
radio stations spent an average
of only $22,29 daily on Canadian
talent in 1962 and says, “Today
radio has become a daily grind
of news, weather, comedy and
music, music, music—nearly all
recorded,”

In a statement hailing the
report, Henry  Comor, national
president of ACTRA (the union
of radio and TV artists), called
it a landmark in developing a true
Canadian identity,

“Canadian writers and perfor-
ers are desperately anxious to
be allowed to contribute more
fully to the society in which they
live,” he said, ‘‘and the report,
if implemented in a new broad-
casting act, will create the con-
dition in which that contribution
can be made,” :

The report calls for the crea-
tion of a Canadian Broadcasting
Authority, consisting of a full-
time chairman and 14 part-time
members, which would have the
power to coordinate broadcast-
ing policy and force compliance
with certain standards, It would
replace the present Board of
Broadcast Governors and the
CBC Board,

In the storm that has already
greeted this proposal the complex
problem of whether the profit
motive should underline. broad-
casting practise or something
else is the question really at
issue, The Fowler Committee
speaks of the public responsibili-
ty of broadcasting, “There is no
point in asking where a national
broadcasting system is going,
It will go only where it is pushed
by conscious and articulate public
policy, or where it drifts ifthere
is no policy,”

Whether there will be such a
policy depends on whether this
report will have any more suc-
cess than its predecessor.

Wi

“We call their planet Mars, after the God of War!”

September 24, 1965—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 9