7e a

This us
Wufe

Your

Cpanjment

What you Pleate.

Minority government

Editor Pacific Tribune:

Sir: Why continue to delude
ourselves with the pretense that
we enjoy a democratic system
that enables us to govern our-
selves? Real democracy means
that supreme power is retained
by the people, but this power is
surrendered immediately we ap-
point representatives to decide
upon the legislation that shaH be
enacted, and while many are
violently opposed to but one dic-
tator, they inconsistently essist
in, the election of a group of
them. This results in dissatis-
faction with the manner in which
the system termed “free enter-
prise” is conducted, and the re-
medy that most readily suggests
itself in some form of socialism,
the adoption of which usually ef-
fects some improvements, but re-
quires an even larger group of
dictators who continue to retain
the power that enables even them
to plunge the country into war
regardless of the inclinations of
those retaining their sanity, and
of the ones who must risk and
sacrifice their lives to fight it.

Had the people not abandoned
their power to politicians, the
leaders of whom all too often are
closely associated or controlled
by big money interests, and arm-
ament manufacturers, it is ex-
tremely unlikely that .either of
the last two world wars would
bave occurred, as there is most
convincing evidence that political
machinations were responsible,
and unless necessary restraint is
promptly imposed, conditions are
again being created that will
make a third world conflict en-
evitable. a

Too often we elect representa-
tives whose chief qualifications
are their ability to talk fluently,
and make promises but, why
should we exchange the right to
conduct our own affairs for mere
promises made by those who
legislate in this manner that in
their opinion is most likely to
enable them to retain office re-
gardless of that which they be-
lieve would be best for the coun-
try, and which frequently results
in them satisfying the wishes of
a united, or fanatical minority,
instead of the majority.

It is only when the dictators
are unable to decide which would
be the most profitable stand to
take on some particular measure
that they generously permit the
electors to make the decision for
them by a plebiscite, or referen-
dum. It would be a grave mistake

EAST END

TAXI

UNION DRIVERS

HA. 0334

24-Hour
Service

MEN’S WEAR
64 W. Cordova’ Phone TA. 2657
¥Y, Block East of Woodwards
Made to measure Suits and
Topcoats Our Specialty
“BELIEVE IT OR NOT”
‘OUR PRICES ARE RIGHT

assume that the
the legisla-
inferior, or

however, ta
moral standard of
tors is in any way

superior to that of the electors. ;

They are true representatives of
the people, but human nature be-
ing what it is, it is most unwise
to invest any small group with
too much power.

All legislation should be for-
mulated by the people instead of
by a group of dictators, and the
people can secure control of their
own affairs by appointing a
board to receive and publish sug-
gestions of desired legislation
sent in by the electors. Such pub-
lications could be left at post-
offices to be picked up and stud-
ied by interested parties. These
suggestions would be submitted
to the candidates, who also could
offer suggestions, and previous
to an election make known their
stand on each of them. All sug-
gestions, as well as the candi-
dates’ names, and their stand on
the respective suggestions to ap-
pear on the ballot paper, all of
which could be approved or re-
jected by the electors and, only
the measures, and foreign policy
securing a majority vote to be
put into effect regardless of
which group of candidates were
elected.

If not unduly influenced by
misleading propaganda there is
no country in the world in which
a majority of the people want
war, so if the system outiined
herein. was adopted there would
be no war, and in all probability
ere long it would lead to the
formation of a world parliarhent.

HARMAN HOUSE
8586 East 20th Avenue.

Log fertilizer

Editor, Pacific Tribune:

This week Carl Andersen and
I bucked-a fir tree with a power
saw which was 225-years old
(that is, the tree).

“By yiminy, said Carl, “the
amount of fertilizer the basses are
selling the government these days
would grow a tree so big in 75
years.” What do you think?

SVEN OLSEN.

UBC has higher aim

Editor, Pacific Tribune:

I am enclosing a letter which I
sent recently to the Vancouver
Sun which they could not, or would
not use. I note, though, that they
devoted an unusual amount of
space in tonight’s paper to the
opposite side of the question. It
makes one wonder.

I always read the Tribune, al-
though sometimes not as fully as
I should. The page devoted to the
interests of women I enjoy very
much. I have a pet theory that if
more women would take a real
active interest in what goes on,
we might have a better world,
but of course it is much easier
to sit at home and ignore it.

MRS. LUCILE SMITH,

Walnut Grove, B.C.

Editor’s note—We are pub
lishing ‘Mrs. Smith’s letter to
the Vancouver Sun because
we believe it raises some per
tinent questions relating to
UBC administration, and the
fitness of faculty personnel
‘who condone hooliganism.

RO ecu narm
SALLY BOWES

Let Me Solve

Your INCOME TAX PROBLEMS

Room 20 — 9 East Hastings
MAr. 9965

Mrs. Smith errs when she re-
fers to the “hooliganism” of the
student body. The main stu-
cent body of the UBC, to-
gether with all Canadians
who believe in freedom of
specch and assemblage, were
equally the victims of a smail
group of hooligans.

Editor, Vancouver Sun:

Sir: “I note with interest and
appreciation the letters published
the Sun for March 18, re-
garding the recent inexcusabje
actions of the student body when
Tim Buck was. scheduled to
speak.

This was not an exemple of
uncergraduate immaturity; at
least, how can anyone expect
uncergraduates to react’ dif-
ferently than they did when the
president of UBC made the state-
ment that was credited to him on
the CBC news this morning at
eight—namely that he does not
blame the students. What else
can you expect when a man who
would even intimate such a
thing is the head of the univer-
sity?

I cannot see any good excuse
for higher education if it does
not teach those who are _ privi-
leged to attend to think for them-
selves. And certainly one cannot
claim to think if he reads only
the daily papers, or listens to the
radio, and draws conclusons only
from them.

The actual facts gleaned from
books and courses will be for-
gotten soon unless these facts
are needed in earning a living,
but the ability to weigh problems
objectively should serve one the
rest of one’s life. What is mcre,
a person need not go to any uni-
versity to gain this ability.

I think we are wasting our tax
money in spending it on improve-
ments in education. Let’s spend
it on roads; at least in that way

we can see what our money does |

and if the road is smoother we
will know our tax money has not
been all wasted. But spending
it on schools and higher educa-
tion is a definite waste if the re-
cent “hoolganism” of both stu-

dent body and president of UBC

is any indication of the use be-
ing made of the tax money.”

On Masaryk’s death

Editor, Pacific Tribune:

Much printer's ink has been
spilled to tell the world that Jan
Masaryk’s regrettable suicide
was caused either’ through the
actions of the Soviet Union or
the Communists in Czechoslova-
kia or both, but no attempt has
been made, at least as far as
this writer knows, to give us
his family’s unbalanced mental
history in this connection.

His brother Herbert, a painter,
commtted suicide in 1915. His
sister, Dr. Alice Masaryk, made
several suicide attempts and
spent years in a mental institu-
tion. Jan's mother, the former
Alice Garrigue of New York,
spent the last years of her life
in and out of sanatoria. Jan him-
self immediately following Mu-
nich, was for ‘some time forced
to go into a sanatorium. This
latter was probably accelerated
by the rape and double-cross of
Czechoslovakia by Messrs Cham-
berlain and Daladier.

There are just some things the
Reds cannot be blamed for. Per-
haps Masaryk’s suicide can be
described to heredity mental ill-
ness, plus pressure from the new
Munich men.

TOM BARNARD
Nanaimo, B.C.

GUIDE TO GOOD READING

Soviet textbooks discussed

A RECENT ARTICLE

IN the New York Times on

children’s books published in the Soviet Union has pro-

voked quite a debate in that

ably.

Whatever claim she has
subject, the author, Malbone
Graham of Santa Monica, Cali-
fornia, asserted that Russian
children’s books were designed
primarily “to imprint, to press

down and stamp patterns on the
minds of Russia’s children to

prepare them for. a carefully
planned future.” She __ refers
mainly to textbooks used in Rus-
sian schools, which, she says,
are used mainly “to sustain na-
tionalist. Russia’s claims to a
background, to reassert the
pride of history, for strength.”

Replying to Mrs. Graham, two
other women have taken issue
with these statements, pointing
out the numerous places in the
United States where  transla-
tions of Russian school child-
ren’s books can be bought. and
listing many “stories, poems, an-
thologies and magazines which
have no political subject mat-
ter,” not to mention children’s

SEEN ON THE SCREEN

paper’s columns, quite justifi-

to be an authority on the

editions of Pushkin, Lermon-
tov, Chekhov or Tolstoy and
numerdus modern books already
very popular on this continent.
These latter include several
books by M. Tlin, author of
Turning Night into Day and
Stories About the Elements by
Nechayev.

Soviet Russia’s school text
books should be compared by
Mrs. Graham with those of
our own country or of the Un-
ited States if she is concerned
about their nationalist content.
All our textbooks are concerned
with playing up military might,
and the glory of conquest and

empire. A completely different
approach is used by . Russian
textbooks, which apply the

principles of Marxism to Rus-
sian and world history and deal
with the social and economic
condition which determine the
course of human progress.

—KAY GREGORY.

Anti-labor films, 1919-1948

WITH THE Iron Curtain scheduled to open at the
Roxy in New York on May 5 and other red-baiting films,
Portrait of an American Communist, The Red Menace, I
Married a Communist, Up Until Now, Vespers in Vienna in

various stages in preparation,
see the biggest eruption of anti-
labor’ films since 1919.

Old-timers in the labor move-
ment may recall Red Viper, about
a group of East Side “Bolsheviks”
who threw bombs at high govern-
ment officials; and The Volcano,
story of a pretty social worker
who joined up with Alexis Min-
ski and his East Side “Bolshevik”
club. f

Among the worst of the 1919
anti-labor crop was Frank Keen-
an’s World Aflame, about Carson
Burr, self-made multi-millionaire
business-man who broke the
Seattle general strikes Like The

it begins to look like 1948 will

Iron Curtain, Keenan’s film was
based on Hearst newspaper head-
lines and the false testimony of
stool-pigeons and scabs.

Once again organized labor is
the target of red-baiting. The
1948 cycle of “anti-red” films like
the 1919 films is aimed to under-
mine, split and wreck the trade
union movement. What are the
unions doing about it? So far—
nothing!

If you have not already sent
your protest to 20th Century Fox
in Toronto against showing of
The Iron Curtain, there’s not
much time left,

S-T-A-T-E
STARTS 18 APRIL

- Sunday Midnite
One Week

=<

@ |) PRIZE COLOR FIL
ge ae

“A Thrill Packed Drama of
| Gesta p

says:"-ONE OF THE BEST. ..IN EXCELLENT COLORD

Agents in R

ARTKIN
presents

Soviet secret service

Mo =

=, Seis

Special Double Features
Russian Dialogue
Full English Titles

Nigel Morge

ot ae
a

ne

PROVINCIAL LEADER \

LABOR PROGRESSIVE
PARTY

Monday, April

{9th 10315 p.m:

CBC’ NETWORK

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 16, 1948—PAGE 10