| CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE

“While council action can be

_ Considered a partial victory won

BY Evie Reform Association, the
air Rates Committee, the ‘trade

Unions and other organizations

Who lodged vigorous opposition
to city council’s previous supine
Stand, it would be deceiving the
People to pretend that council
really intends to stand up and
fight the BCER,” said Mrs. Jones.
“Council, representatives at the
PUC hearing will do a little
Shadow boxing, but the fight
Recust higher fares will have to
be carried forward by the citizens
themselves and ‘their progressive
organizations.”

More than 200 persons jammed
Committee Room No. 1 at 10 a.m.
Monday when the CRA’s ‘huge
Ser uon was carried in on a rol-
ier (petitions had ‘been. pasted
end-to-end and stretched four
City blocks) and plunked down

fore ‘the aldermen.

First delegation on the order

_ Paper was ‘the ‘Vancouver Fair

: Se Ccmmittee, represented by
¢ aurice Buck and Emil Bjarna-’
ae But before they were al-
Sieg to speak, Ald. J. W. Cor-
Nett ‘and Ald. Archie Proctor en-

_ ‘8aged in a little chit-chat for the

mene of the press.
__ ‘T don’t think these delegations
ould come to us at ail,” grumb-
<a) Ald. Cornett.

The responsibility of fare in-

_ eases is the business of the

. Rr chimed in Ald. Proctor.
its high time people realized

. tha

‘s Uthis council is not the guinea
& of ‘the Public Utilities Com-

Mission,”

“Mr. Chairman, may I have a

| Word on that?” asked Bigin Rud:
_ S€li of Civic Reform Association.

| Hours 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Spectators laughed and Ald. J.
- Cornett flushed and stutter-

ogg “a E e,
* ve ‘Now, now, just @ minute . ..
‘YOu can’t speak now.”

ben Maurice Buck was given
in floor, he immediately demand-
that council should prepare a

&f opposing the fare increase

“8nd began ‘fighting for the people.

es a pensioner, and I can’t
‘fas ged to pay higher transit
res,” he said. “There are
‘AUndreds of pensioners in the
fried position. With prices go-
hae up, living for many people
become a nightmare.”
__ This would be, if implement-
the third bus fare increase in
€ last five years,” said Emil
“ayy in presenting the Fair
ne Committee brief. “The pro-
eens rate, two tickets for 25
100 S, represents an increase of
epee in five years, far in
Ss of the increase in the

TED HARRIS
|. Painters’ and Paperhangers’
Supplies

: Sunworthy Wallpaper
reg. 45¢ — Now 19c a roll

HA. 6570

Stylized Permanents
and Hairshaping

a by :
Paul's Beauty Salon
: 2511 E. Hastings St.
Opp, Forst’s (Upstairs)

eo.

E. J. FRIDLEIFSON
ND. SD, .
_ (Naturopathic Physician)

Phones, Office PA. 9713;
Res.: FAir. -1679-R
Room 204, Ford Bldg.

a Hastings Vancouver

49,000 names on
CRA fare petition

37 EE. HASTINGS HA. 2038 |]

average person’s income, and,
we contend, far in excess of any
financial needs of the BCElec-
tric.

The audience applauded when
Effie Jones came forward with
Elgin Ruddell to present the
CRA’s case.

“We must have order here or
we'll have to clear the room,”
peevishly declared the chairman,
Aid, J. W. Cornett.

Boos and jeers greeted his re-
marks. “Get a micropohne, we
can't hear you,” said one spectator
from the back of the room..

“J have here a petition signed
by 49,000 people,” said Mrs.
Jones. “They want you alder-
men to begin listening to them
and to begin fighting for their
interests. It is futile for you to
say that city council has no
power to act. You have great
power and if you used it on
behalf of the people the decis-
ion of the PUC would be far
different from the decisions it
has always made in the past in
favor of the BCElectric.

“This petition also calls for the
removal of D. K. Penfold and
Russell Potter ‘from the PUC, be-
cause they have lost ‘the confi-
dence of citizens by their continu-
ous support of the BCE in prev-
ious hhearings.”

Ald. George Miller: “Oh yes,
we could make a lot of noise, do
a lot of yapping and get in the
headlines. But our experts are
most capable individuals, we rely
on them...” -

Mrs. Jones: “A poor bargain.
You should get some experts who
are on the .people’s side, a stat-
istician like Mr. Bjarnason, for
instances’) =

Elgin Ruddell told how PUC
had rejected a Civic Reform re-
quest to ‘have commission experts
put on the stand at the hearing.
“The PUC is supposed to inquire
if BCE money is prudently and
necessarily spent,” he observed,
and pointed out that a weekly
BCE propaganda organ, The Buz-

zer, is charged against the pas-.

“This is only one ex-

sengers. :
said

ample of wasted funds,”
Ruddell. “There are many.”

Jim Bury, representing Van-
eouver Labor Council (CCL) said
chat body represented 65 local
unions and 25,000 people.’ “We
ask city council to make a formal
protest against any BCE fare in-
crease,” he said.

Stressing that the increase
would amount to about $70 ‘a
year for the average bus rider,
Bury remarked that this amount
represented as much as the aver-
age worker ‘pays in taxes. “In
addition,” he continued, “the pro-
‘posed increase is distributed un-
equally, and hits most sharply
these workers living in Burnaby
and New Westminster.”

Other strong protests were
‘heard from spokesmen for
Kingcrest Business and Profes-
sionel Women’s Club, Kitsilano
Ratepayers Association, Paint-
ers Union, Labor-Progressive
party, Associated Council of
South Vancouver, White Pine
IWA committee and several in-
dividuais.

When all delegations had been
heard, the aldermen ‘were in a

hurry to pass on to less contro-,

versial subjects. _ :
“What about this big roll of

petitions on our desk?” asked

several aldermen.

“Qh, yes,” said Ald. J. W. Cor-
nett. “Mr. Ruddell, will you take
these petitions somewhere? Take
them to the PUC.”,

“A good recommendation,” re-
plied Ruddell. “We'll certainly
do just that.”

’ Coast.

.

The new czars of British Columbia’s industry—the representatives of American monopolies—
stood on the platform at the fifth B.C. Natural Resources conference here and let it be known that
as only a cog in America’s empire. To protect their multi-million dollar

the wealth of this province they intend ‘to take an active interest in

they regard this province
investment for exploiting
maintaining a
Kitimat and other projects as
“the greatest thing that ever hap~
pened to BC.” and foresee 1m-
mense benefits for the people. |
The ‘spokesmen for American
monopoly see the new projects
only as they serve American war
needs, and the new industrial era
envisioned ‘by the politicians —
for vote-getting purposes — 1S
actually something for the dis-
tant future.

“Beonomic integration of North
America is regarded as desirable
by all ‘facets of industry,” said
G. G. Vincent of the Aluminum
Company of Canada. “The manu-
facturers, workers and political
units of the United States desire
to sell their products in Canada.

‘By so doing they help to stabil-

ize their industrial wellbeing and
support their scale of living.”

“Tf Canada is to retain its posi-
tion as the largest customer of
the United States, Canada must
sell to the USA and others, and
if further expansion of aluminum
production is required to fill
world needs, including those of
the USA, we thing the Kitimat
is the place for it, because of the
abundance of water power and
the lack of competing demand
for that power.’ The U.S., he
explained, is running out of low
cost electrical ‘sites.

He admitted that the use of

Kitimat was dictated by “ab-
normal demand,” in other
words, rearmament. We re-
quire, he continued, “an area
that is comparatively invulner-
able to the attack of any poten-

tial enemy, and as important
as anything, a friendly, stable,
and cooperative people and
government.” :

But available world supplies of
aluminum are very short, he
warned, and any B.C. aluminum
fabricating industry must await
some distant era in which Vin-
cent sees a “pacified” Asia.

“The oil economy of the conti-
nent is indivisable,” said John
Fairlie of Standard Oil of New
Jersey's Canadian subsidiary,
Imperial Oil Limited. “There is
sufficient oil in this hemisphere
to meet continental requirements,
and the: problem is to make the
best use of these three internal
supply sources (Texas, Califor-
nia and Alberta).”

“The public interest is best
served and the security of oil’
supplies is furthered,” said Mr.
Fairlie by what he chose to call
“this dynamic concept.” _

But the pipeline from Alberta
to Vancouver will not mean one
cent in immediate reduction in
the price of petroleum products
-to the consumer in Vancouver,
he admitted, nor will it mean
early development of a chemi-
cal industry on the Pacific _

However, it may eventually en-
able Alberta crude oil to com-
pete in the American market,
thus providing the shareholders
with a good return on their in-
vestment, and that’s enough for
Fairlie!

_‘What’s true of oil is also true
of natural gas, according to R.
Davidson, Industrial Analyst for
the BCElectric. “To get natural
gas in our province it must be

“stable” government.

U.S. monopolies spoil
rosy gov't picture of ©
industrial prosperity

Old-line party politicians in

, NICTORIA, to.

this election year may represent

Ralepayers in
Burnaby oppose
fare increase

BURNABY, B.C.

‘An audience of more than 100
people crowded into Capito] Hill
Community Hall Tuesday night
this week to hear Elgin Ruddell,
for Vancouver Civic Reform As-
sociation, ‘and James Bury, vice-
president of Vancouver Labor
Council, demolish the arguments
of three experts sent by the BC
Electric to present its case for a
fare increase.

The meeting, sponsored by the
influential Capitol Hill Ratepay-
ers Association, was attended by
three Burnaby councillors, CCF
Councillors Patricia. Wilks and
J. D. Drummand and Non-
artisan Councillor C. W. Mc-
Sorley.

At the close of a three-hour
discussion, the audience unani-
mously endorsed a brief protest-
ing iare increases read to the
meeting by Mrs. Betty Griffin.
Ratepayers’ executive member
for publicity.

‘states (Washington and Oregon).
Further it must be delivered in
the U.S. market-at a price which
makes it competitive with. other
fuels, otherwise the pipeline will
not be built. Competitive fuels
in that market area are gener-
ally lower in price than in B.C.
Therefore, large price differen-
tials in favor of the Canadian
market cannot be expected.”

What does that mean? B.C.
consumers will pay high prices
so the gas company can clean
up across the line.

The Johnson government is
fond of claiming that the Forest
Management iicense system un-
der which the American timber
monopolies are grabbing huge
tracts of land, is “scientific” for-
estry — that it will provide a
“sustained yield.” This claim
was revealed as a fraud at the
conference. No one knows how
fast the forests replace '‘them-
selves, admitted H. J. Hodgins,
consulting forester, to the fores-
‘try panel. Estimates, which are
no ‘better than informed guesses,
vary as much as 400 percent.

Why don’t we know how fast
our forests grow, since that
knowledge is basic in planning
any sustained yield program?

Lack of money for research.
said Mr. Hodgins, and he might
have added that the provincial

government doesn’t receive
enough revenue from the for-
ests to sponsor any large pro-
gram and that the companies
are more interested in huge
profits than in costly research.
More of the “cut and get out’
attitude that characterizes the
big timber companies was
brought out in a paper on trends
in wood utilization. ;
Despite boasts about “integra-
tion” to cut the enormous waste —
of our forest resources, less than
50 percent of the wood in a mer-
chantable tree is manufactured,
according to data given by K. G.
Fensom, superintendent of the
Dominion Forest Products Lab-
oratory. And few of the wood-
using secondary industries such
as manufacture of alcohol, lam-
inated flooring, and plastic mold- —
ing powder have beén developed.
“A steel industry has been
economically possible in B.C.
at any time since the beginning
of the Second World War,” said
_ Dr. J. F. Walker, deputy min-
ister of mines. Its development
in post-war years has _ beer
prevented by the fact that three
of the best deposits are in the
hands of American companies
which prefer to ship the raw
ore to American-occupied Jap-
an. Export of ore is going on
at a rate which will deplete the
known ore reserves in a few
years, he concluded.
‘Monopoly spokesmen entrench-
ed in 'the provincial government
made it clear that they will brook
no interference in their plans to
sell B.C. resources on the Wall
Street auction ‘block. Two at-
tempts to introduce recommenda-
tions, which would have given
the public some say, however
limited, in the disposition of
natural resources, were defeated.
Lone patriotic note in the con-
ference was sounded by F. W.
Gray, mining engineer, speak-
ing on coal in Canada. Stand-
ing, as he said, in “a sea of
oil” (palm and crude) he sound-
ed a warning. “Dependence on
another country for a material —
basic to national survival, leads
inevitably, even if slowly, to
pglitical subservience.” noe
The solution offered by this
kindly old gentleman was that
the CMA, the bankers, the trade ©
associations and the railways
should get together to develop —
a national coal policy for Can-
ada—surely too much to expect
tfrom the very same people who —
aré digging our country up, cut-
ting it down and transporting it
south of the border for the ~
greater glory of American im-
ferialism. | =

sold in Jarge quantities in these

Ree eS

BERT WHYTE.

"How Socialism Works”

Sunday, March 9th, 8 p.m.
CAPITOL HILL HALL —
Howard & Hastings
Auspices: Burnaby Section, Labor-Progressive party