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Review

At THE North Atlantic Treaty

Organization (NATO) Council
Nxt Weekein Paris some grave ques-
lons will be raised. Not the least
of these disturbing questions will
F “who pulls the trigger” on the
"ng of intermediate-range missile
kunching bases, each with its sup-
blement of (U.S. supplied) nuclear
“atheads, which a trigger-happy
ankee imperialism will insist up-
building in Britain and other
Mtopean countries (and ‘in Can-

ida?) ,

When the news broke some time
80 that U.S. bombers were rang-
Ng over Britain loaded with H-

Smbs, the Tory Macmillan gov-
‘tment hastened to soothe the
ger of the British people by as-
iting them that these nuclear
Smbs -weren’t “triggered” and
fnce couldn’t explode, even in an
“idental plane crash.
wootly a few weeks ago when that
is Senius of U.S. “brinkmanship”
in Foster Dulles announced the
as Stockpiling of nuclear war-
igs in. Canada, Tory Prime Min-
ip John Diefenbaker offered
hilar misleading excuses, knowing
& well that his government, as
the Liberal government before
Nee have placed Canada ynder the
8Ser finger of U.S. atomaniacs.
te irad of debating who “con-
My 8 the trigger on U.S. foreign
“sile launching bases and their
i, ©mb ammunition dumps, NATO
ld be directing its attention to
Policy of co-existence; to a sum-
ie Meeting with the USSR and
( Ocialist sector of the world
Kh, already proposed by Nikita
hy wShchev); to the banning of all
ie far’ weapons of mass innihila-
ee and destruction, (to seeking
to ®ugh drastic disarmament a road
; ny peace, instead of a shortcut to
Mlear war.
tala’ nations of NATO should
th: the very grave problem of
“It own individual peace and se-
‘ty — whether to. entrust it to
the, Custody. of their own’ people,
ite ee it over to the Dulles trig-
“lappy maniacs, who stand ready

—.

Pacific Tribune

Phone: MArine 5288

a

isn Editor — TOM McEWEN

Clate Editor — HAL GRIFFIN
Subscription Rates:
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Six months: $2.25
Published weekly at
Room 6 — 426 Main Street
Vancouver 4, B.C.
), Madian and Commonwealth
Ing ties (except Australia): $4.00
ta Year. Australia, United. States
all other countries: $5.00 one
year.

Who pie the trigger?

in their- own narrow class interests
to reduce the world and all in it
to a smoking shambles.

For our own country, chosen by
the madmen of Washington as their
nuclear’ war zone, the problem is
most pressing. Whatever may
emerge’ from a _ U.S.-dominated
NATO Council, the voice of the
Canadian people must thunder in
the halls of parliament and legis-
lature—for peace; for the outlaw-
ing of nuclear weapons of destruc-
tion; for a drastic cutback in arm-
aments; for a decisive “NO” to the
construction of U.S. missile launch-
ing bases or H-bomb stockpiling in
Canada, and an immediate end to
U.S. bombers ranging over Cana-
dian. territory with nuclear war-
heads aboard.

The prime life-or-death issue be-
fore the common people of this and
other countries is not “who pulls
the trigger,” but making doubly
sure that there will be no foreign-

controlled trigger to pull on Cana-
dian. soil.

-* EDITORIAL PAGE

Dividends..cutet layoffs

NEMPLOYMENT in Canada is

steadily climbing. Mass layoffs
in industry are becoming as numer-
ous as Tory promises. By New
Year, despite the best our Ottawa
statistical jugglers may do to make
the worst appear the best, the fig-
ure may reach the half-million

mark or more. For tens of thous-
ands of workingclass families de-
prived of a pay envelope through
no fault of their own, the outlook
is far from bright.

Nor is that outlook improved. any
when Finance Minister Donald
Fleming, in a CBC-TV nation-wide
hookup, repeats the moth-eaten ex-
cuse that present unemployment is
purely “seasonal,” and shouldn't
be talked about too much lest such
talk endanger our national “con-
fidence.”

Confidence? From -whom or
what does Fleming’s “confidence”
stem? That depends. from which
side of the tracks such “confidence”
is viewed. In this instance Flem-
ing’s is well founded.

While half-a-million jobless work-
ers may worry about where next

month’s rent, grocery bills or other
household needs are coming from,
dividend payments by Canadian
companies reached an all-time high
in 1957, a grand total of $722,959,-
865, some eight percent above the
take of 1956, and 135 percent over
the pre-war dividends of 1938.

Largest dividend handout was
International Nickel (INCO) which
ladelled out $55 million to its cou-
pon clippers, top dog among whom
is. that most mis-guided misssile,
John Foster Dulles. This, while
hardrock-miners in B.C. and else-
where face threatened wage cuts,
mass layoffs, and “ghost” towns like
Britannia.

With close to one billion dollars
in annual dividends (derived from
maximum profits extracted from
the sweat and toil of workers, em-
ployed and unemployed) half a
million unempldyed could enjoy a
“seasonal” layoff. Such an arrange-
ment might not be conducive to
Tory “confidence,” but it would be
very good for workingclass families
stripped of their pay envelopes to
swell the profits of the coupon
clippers.

Tom
McEwen

A READER sent us a copy of

The New Seedling, a _ bi-
monthly sheet published for the
edification of the citizens of Moss
Camp, Englewood, B.C., This
being the “fifth edition” we can-
not say what the previous four
were like, but from the content
of No. 5 we can hazard a fair
guess, -

The editor begins by bemoan-
ing the “poorly-timed’’ strike-of
“forest” workers (we assume this
means the current pulp strike)
thereby making “more grave
the unemployment ‘situation”,
and from there goes on to give
Nikita Khrushchev a verbal wal-
loping for his “smiles and jokes”
and for being “rude” to John
Foster Dulles,

Just: where the connection is
between striking forest workers
in B.C.. and Khrushchev’s bon-
homie, the Englewood editorial
doesn’t say. What she does ‘say
(the editor is a lady), is that the
Dulles atomaniacs whom she des-
cribes_as “statesmen” make their
public announcements “with
great dignity.” That editorial gem
could well elicit a loud horse-
laugh from the “brinkmanship”
fans themselves,

We doubt very much if The
New Seedling, fertilized with
such coldwar manure, will ever
grow to be a stately fir. Such re-
forestation rarely does. Mean-
time good luck to B.C.'s striking
workers who are fighting the
battles of the employed and un-
employed alike, and good smiling
to Khrushchev.

As for The New Seedling “hero”
Dulles, there is a growing Cana-
dian and world opinion that he
would make a fine trial passen-
ger in a USS. sputnik test flight
into outer space. Since how-
ever, the U.S. know-howniks
seem to be having some trouble
getting a sputnik the size of one
of Ike’s golf balls off the ground,
it may be some time before one
capable of bearing the Dulles
supercargo will be ready to take
off. In such circumstances we'll
just have to practice patience—
and wait for No. 6 of The New
Seedling! ,

* a *

Last week was “Safe Driving
Week.” The box score across the
country in automobile accidents,
death and injury, maintained its
usual high peak despite all extra
precautions marking the obsery-
ance of this special week.

With extra police “road blocks”
and all the usual ballyhoo about
traffic “crackdowns” an _ addi-
tional total of drivers catalogued
as “impaired” were haled in,
and it is probable although I
haven’t the statistics at hand, that
parking meter and minor traffic
infractions for the “safe” week
upped municipal coffers con-

siderably. The stark fact remains
however that death and injury
took its usual heavy toll regard-
less.

In the current issue of Soviet
News Bulletin there is a short
article by Alexander Volga en-
titled “The Steering-Wheel Is In
Reliable Hands.” It contains a
lot of good advice—which our
parking meter - minded authori-
ties are not likely to take, but
whivh nevertheless holds the
only feasible solution.

An important point in Volga’s
article emphasizes that a car
driver must not only know how
to “drive” a car, but must know
the mechanism of what he is
driving. In this way he learns
from the start that an automobile,
like a gun, regardless of horse-
power, fish-tails or calibre, is a
lethal weapon, capable of great
service when used properly, and
equally deadly when not.

Under Socialism the privilige
of driving:a car is based prim-
arily on a first concern for “Traf-
fic Safety First.” At one time it
used to be said of the Russians
that they drove with the horn
and the acceleratar. Now they
drive with concern for the “man
on the street,” and repeated dis-
regard of this rule means they
don’t drive, period.

We would commend Volga’s
article to the attention of “safe
criving” authorities. It would help
make clear to many drivers what
the totals of “Safe Driving Week”
made obvious; they “didn’t know
it was loaded.”

December 13, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 5