te : Ny a | G eee b ol ed ih | ED ‘if il ling ! : «AR ity p LOS) () mF bi: ) oe SURAORELE 303 Peo Soapiannnlll ‘otewwucers <> 2° Five Cents Vol. 7. No. 6. _ Profit figures withheld OIL MONOPOLIES ON Vancouver, B.C., Friday, February 6, 1948 Two of the giants of the oil industry, Imperial and Shell, and a smaller company, Home Oil, were on strike against the people of British Columbia this week, slashing their services and curtailing develop- ment plans. They asked for a five-cent a gallon in- crease in the price of gas. The Coalition government, after delaying decision on their application reportedly while its accountants examined the oil companies’ figures, gave them three cents. The companies have spent thousands of dollars in advertising their need for a 4}-cent increase, but the public is still,denied figures of their operating expenses —and their profits. If this were a strike of workers in the oil industry, threatening to tie up transportation, the daily newspapers, the paid radio commentators and government. spokesmen would be making threatening statements about the need for protecting the public interest. In the province this week the daily newspapers had only weak editorial comment to offer, pleading with the companies, urging them to prove their need for the full increase. The government, whose Coal and Petroleum Board has the figures, was silent. Presumably, having granted a three-cent boost, it was adopting a waiting policy. If the public put pressure on the oil companies it might force the companies to retreat and take the government off the spot. If the pressure applied by the oil companies prov- ed stronger, it could bow with pretended reluctance to the demand. Caught in the squeeze-play between the oil companies and the government were gas station operators who own or rent their stations, from the companies. Faced with mounting overhead costs, they threatened action to obtain a one-cent a gallon increase for themselves. For their plight motorists had some sympathy. For the giant oil companies they had none. Gas at the new price of 34 cents a gallon was already too high. They wanted to know how much of it showed in the oil companies’ profits. In Victoria last week CCF leader Harold Winch de- manded publication by the government of financial data on which the three-cent increase was based. He asked to see the oil companies’ submission and was refused. ; “Tf I don’t get it, I will move on the floor of the legis- lature for a return of all the documents relating to the increase,” he declared. Nigel Morgan, LPP provincial leader, demanded that if oil companies continued their strike, the government use the powers it already possessed to force the companies to supply the public with gas. “The public must be protected against such unwarrant- ed price-gouging by the oil monopolies,” he declared. “The figures on which their claims are based must. be made. pub- lic and firm action taken to put an end to the threat of sus- ension of this vital service.” . “Such barefaced concessions as the allowance of un- justified increase’ to the monopolies in civic transportation, light, gas, fuel and other petroleum products provide further (Continued on page 8 — See. OIL) -PRICE-GOUGE STRIKE “Make your protest’-- new milk boost looms Protest against the proposed 2-cent a quart increase in milk prices came from all sides this week as working men and women foresaw -the prospect of again having to cut down their children’s al- ready precariously low con- sumption of a basic food. “Every time the price of milk is raised people have to buy less for their children,” declared Marion Parkin, sec- retary of the B.C. House- wives Consumer Association to Vancouver Trades and Labor Council this week. “We believe there should be a subsidy to take care of any increased producer or distributor costs of a basic food.” Condemning the proposed price raise as “another seri- ous blow at living standards and health of our people,” (Continued on page 8) See MILK ® _ Province heads anti-labor drive \ sae PS ES 78111 || WN PoP