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ARTISTS’ RIGHTS JEOPARDIZED BY ATTACK

McCarthy pattern seen in smear

against Toronto Arts Council

LAST MONTH the Toronto
Arts Council announced that it
was disbanding. In its state-
ment, the council charged the
Toronto Telegram with deliber-
ately attempting to destroy the
council and questioned the “ap-
parent functioning of the RCMP
in the typical fashion of Myv-
Carthyism.” It said that “in
view of the atmosphere thus
created, in yiew of the constant
refusal out of fear of many org-

GUIDE TO GOOD READING

anizations to allow us premises
for meetings, and in view of our
lack of resources, we are unable
to continue in face of the at-
tack.”

Where and why did the TAC
arise?

In a “call to a Toronto Con-
ference on the Arts” published
by the courcil last December,
it was stated:

“Thousands of young people
in Toronto are deeply concern-

Unscientific science fiction

THE VAST majority of science
fiction magazines make no pre-
tense to be more than variations
on “Westerns,” transplanted to
some convenient planet where
the six-shooter is replaced by a

% 2 ays . .
_ But in addition to this straight- |
forward variety of science fiction:

there is also. a variety which
claims to be “the literature of
the future.’ Adventures in To-
morrow is a collection of stories
by the better-known writers in
this field.

Though they deal with various
periods of life in the future the
writers all have one thing in
common—lack of faith in the
future.

According te this book the
prospect before us is of atomic

war and destruction of the hu-

man race, or alternatively, evolu-
tion into two distinct kinds of
men, the masters and the slaves.

For example, in the “Stellar
Age” (A.D. 3000-10000) we have
war between Mercury and the

h.

“The whole attack was too
clever for a Mercurian...
Only an Earthman could have
planned it in such detail. We
ean, at least, be thankful that
he failed to reach the arsenal.
If the Mercurians had been
able to steal our weapons, I
don’t even dare to think of
what they might have done to
the Solar System.”

Substitute “gooks” for Mer-
curians and Western Democracy
for Solar System and you can
see where this sort of story

comes from.

The most respectable of the

depicts futureless future

American science fiction maga-
zines is perhaps Galaxy. Here
again we have a future of wars
and destruction.

An example in the current is-
sue, called ‘““The Mousetrap,” out-
lines in detail how the Earthmen
colonize space—by sending out
small planets to capture the in-
habitants of distant space:

“Well, you see . .. these
specimens you brought back
seem to be harmless, and in-
side of a month or two we'll
probably have a task force out
there to put them completely

under our thumb.” 3

“Gooks” again, in a slightly
different form.

There have been many ex-
amples of true science fiction
in the past. Dean Swift in his
satire Gulliver’s Travels, Jules
Verne in Twenty-thousand Leag-
ues Under the Sea and Around
the World in Eighty Days.

But neither of these writers,
or many others of their calibre,
saw the bleak and cheerless fu-
ture outlined in Galaxy and
others of its kind.

Science today is on _ the
threshold of opening up possi-
bilities of travel to the planets.
Such adventures will be perilous,
but they are daily becoming
more practicable.

The real prospects opened up
by man’s ability to conquer

-space are of increasing his know-
ledge and understanding of the

universe.

American science fiction does
little to present these. What it
does present is the future of
American capitalism — a future
of no hope.—PETER THOMAS.

ed about the future of arts in
Canada. i %
that these young people should
have an opportunity to come
, together to discuss the situa-

tion. . . . To this end a con-

ference will be held in Toron-
te on January 24 and 25.”

The call quoted from a sub-
mission by the Canadian Arts
Council to the Massey Commis-
sion on Arts, Sciences and Let-
ters, to this effect:

‘No novelist, poet, short
story writer, historian, bio-
grapher, or other writer of
non-technical books can make
a modestly comforting living
by selling his work in Canada.
No composer of music can live
‘at all on what Canada pays
him for his ‘compositions.
Apart. from radio drama, no
playwright and only a few
actors and producers, can live
by working in the theatre in
‘Canada. -Few painters and
sculptors, outside the fields of

commercial art and teaching
can live »y the sale of their
work in Canada.”

There is not an artist in Can-
ada who would deny the above

_ statements. And yet, the Toron-

to Globe and Mail declared edi-
torially, in an effort to justify
its attack on the TAC, that the
quotation from the Canadian
Arts Council was not true; as-
serting:

“There: are more _ painters
working now in Toronto than
there are in Paris. .. .”

Perhaps the paper meant
house painters. :

It became apparent, from this
editorial and other newspaper
comments, that the vicious press
attack was not primarily against
the TAC, but against the fight
for a truly democratic national
Canadian culture.

Rabbi Feinberg of Toronto’s
Holy Blossom Synagogue was
one sponsor who took a liberal
stand at the outset, joining with
other prominent figures in de-
nouncing the Toronto Telegram’s
smear campaign and warning
against the dangers of McCar-
thyism.

But as the pressure increased
he abandoned his stand. In a
letter to the council, he began by
declaring that “charges made
against the chairman ... and
the council show symptoms of a
sickness known in the U.S. as
McCarthyism.” :

Four paragraphs. and another
world later, however, the Rabbi
could declare: :

“T took the trouble to check
the names (list of council
members) submitted, with
competent authorities.”

But while men. like Rabbi
Feinberg knuckled under to hys-

'teria and fear, men like CBC

producer. Andrew Allen stood

firm. His statement to the press

declared:

“T feel that to resign under
the pressure of what I can on-
ly describe as persecution
would be an act of disservice
to a community which never
needed more to be reminded
that trial by newspaper and
trial by hysteria is illiberal
and undemocratic. Freedom
is not only for those with
whom we agree; it is for every-
body or it does not exist.”
Although the council has been

‘disbanded, the ideas it embodied’

are finding expression in many
ways. Artists are continuing the
fight for their rights as artists.
Behind this fight every progres-
sive-minded person must rally if
the danger of Yankee-patterned
McCarthyism in this country is
to be smashed.

—VIC SCHUMANN

It is important |

PACIFIC TRIBUNE’S

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PUZZLE No. 3

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ACROSS DOWN
1. Hitler’s dreams were shat- Aver:
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10. PT readers should know 3. Parent body of U.S. craft
“’.» Dewhurst. unions.

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19. If you belonged to this

you were a Wobbly.
20. Small cut.
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2D SPIN wIKGo geen
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28. Sun god.

30. Pierce.

31. Top French Communist is
MAUTICes tector i

34. The party of Canada’s
working class (init.)
35. You will find Jimcrow in
thers oe 5
36. American _ pseudo - fascist
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37. Exclamation.

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. Numeral.
. The bosses would like to

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. The news in the daily

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. Bereaved wife (bib.)
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ROROLANG Ss Biter lea ats

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long to this (init.)
do this to the PT.
newspapers is this way.

the welfare of the Negro
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in 1864 (init.)

Abolitionist.

Democracy.

(init.)
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38. Celt. 32. 19th century writer and
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are NOs 2 vine a 85. Fabian socialist. and play- |
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PACIFIC TRIBUNE — APRIL 10, 1953 — PAGE 8