: si. ¥

Mild

si aside a

OL’ BILL

SHORT JABS

OF BILL is in hospital for a few weeks to rest up and regain his

health. They have him on a diet and he’ll be coming out one
of these days as slim as a greyhound and as hungry as an ox..
Meanwhile those of us at the Pacific Tribune office have the job
of keeping Short Jabs going until Ol’ Bill takes over again.

The task of trying to fill Ol Bill’s shoes includes urging his
regular readers to kick along with a few extra bucks for the $15,000

press drive. Bill wanted to raise ten percent of the total target;
you have already put him one-third along the way
to this goal. How about sending along a specific
amount—you decide how much—for every year
you've known -O! Bill? ~ This would ring the
bell in jig time. And it might prove to be
just the tonic needed for our great old comrade
who is eRe y flat on his back in a hospital
bed.
e

The atomaniacs of Wall Street are licking
their chops over juicy war contracts these days
as they eagerly anticipate another blood-bath.
War is terrible—but also terribly profitable, as
Lenin once remarked.

The present generation knows Charles Lind-

bergh as an anti-Soviet stinker and a ore-time admirer of Hitler.
Many old-timers remember that his father was a different type—a
genuine progressive who fought the war mongers of his period.
Here’s a poem written by Charles Lindbergh, Sr., during the war
of 1914-18, which is just as timely today. He called it “Joy ‘in
Wall Street.”

This is the war stock soaring high

That brings all the joy to Wall Street,

This is the gambler, wild of eye,

Who shares with his broker, brisk and spry,
The profit in war stocks, soaring high,

That brings all the joy to Wall Street.

,So this is the list of what they buy:

An orphaned infant's feeble cry,

A widowed woman’s sob and sigh,

A field of graves where the dead may lie,
A skambles where thousands daily die,

A billion shells that in battle fly.

Gladness glows in the gambler’s eye,
As he shares with the broker, brisk and spry,
The profit in war stock, soaring high,
That brings all the joy to Wall Street.
e

Truman and the Wall Street crowd (and St. Laurent of St.
James Street and St. George of Bay Street) have everything on their
side—except the people. They have a servile press, obedient radio,
docile pulpit. Opposing them are the workers and _ progressives,
speaking through the columns of our small weekly paper. The
strength of our press is that it speaks the truth. Our weakness is
that we do not yet reach enough people ‘with our message. In
appealing for funds to carry on the battle for peace and progress,
one can’t do better than repeat a poem from the gifted pen of the
late Mike Quin:

The long collection speech is done
And now the felt hat goes

From hand to hand its solemn way
Along the restless rows.

In purse and pocket, fingers feel,
And count the coins by touch.
Minds ponder what they can afford
And hesitate — how much?

In that brief, jostled moment when
The battered hat arrives, ‘

‘Try, brother, to remember that
Some men put in their lives.

: It's Time for
SPORT SHIRTS

New styles in gabardines, ray-
ons, woollens and Baratheas in
checks, plaids and plain. They
have two-way collar.

$4.50 to $8.95
See the ROGUE SPORTSHIRT

in plain and 2-tone shades with
“Cross-over” front.

$8.95

Postage Prepaid on Mail Orders.

Tribune reporter
denounces ouster
as discrimination

—OTTAWA

Veteran members of the parliamentary prets gallery expressed

their concern over the ‘

‘undemocratic and unfair”

methods used by

a rump membership meeting of the gallery in withdrawing news coverage
privileges from Mark Frank, Canadian Tribune representative.

Some newsmen termed the ac-
tion a “violation of the constitu-
tion” which provides for a hearing
of members before the executive
and possibly ‘the general member-
ship before disciplinary action is
taken as a result of alleged in-
fractions of gallery rules. The is-
sue is being widely discussed and
it is believed that a demand for a
hearing for Frank will be pressed.

Technical grounds for suspension
of privileges although not stated
in a letter received by Frank, were
believed to be alleged reporting of
an “off-the-record” interview on
the Atlantic pact with External Af-
fairs Minister L. B. Pearson, ap-
pearing in the March 21 issue of
the Canadian Tribune and ‘“mis-
representation” by Frank in the

|hiring of a Chateau Laurier hall

for a meeting with Tim Buck, LPP
national leader. In the latter in-
stance, it was charged that Frank
had hired the hall in the name
of the press gallery.

The meeting which passed a
motion calling for suspension of
Frank’s privileges as an associate
member was attended by no more
than 20 members of the approxi-
mately 75-member gallery. Long-
time members of the gallery can-
not recall a similar case in the
peanoke. of the gallery and believe
that it is without precedent. While
notice of the meeting was duly
posted, no mention of the nature
of business to be brought up was

‘noted.

Only last month a similar ef-
fort to unseat both Mark Frank
and Dorothy French, writer for
the CCF Cooperative Press Asso-
ciation. was unanimously turned
down.

Suspension of Frank’s privileges
action is seen as a continuation
of a program of discrimination
against the representative of Can-
ada’s only national labor weekly.
Frank also acts for the Quebec
progressive weekly, Le Combat,
under padlock by Premier Duples-
sis, and the Pacific Tribune.

Frank, in a prepared statement,
termed the action “completely un-
democratic, unwarranted and dis-
criminatory” and said he intended
“to appeal the suspension and
apply for the opportunity of being
accorded equal status as an asso-
ciate member in the coverage of
news ‘on Parliament Hill.”

The Tribune correspondent said
the hotel management had been
in error about the leasing of the
hall for Tim Buck and had priv-
ately admitted this to him, prom-
ising release of a statement cor-
recting the false impression creat-
ed.

In a letter to the gallery, Frank
pointed out that leasing of the hall
had been arranged for in his own
name as an individual, and he
had simply given his press gallery
address as a mailing point, with-
out relationship to ‘possible spon-
sorship of the meeting. The use
of the press gallery as a mailing
address is normal procedure with
all mewsmen covering Parliament
Hill. ‘

Frank denied the alleged viola-
tion of cenfidence in publishing
“off-the-record” information on
the Atlantic pact, saying he per-
sonally had had nothing to do
with sending the story. Nor, he
pointed out, did he provide the
information on which this par-
teular story was based. He be-
lieved tke story had been donc
as a re-write piece of work in
the Toronto office, based on
sources of information cther than
himseif.

Frani noted that such mistaken
mention of a minister’s name in
connection with a given news story
is not without precedent, and that
singling out of himsc!f for such

“discriminatory action as suspen-

‘sion’ was unjust.

be CHARLES STEWART

chairman of the Committee to
Defeat the LaCroix Bill. formed
in Vancouver this week.

: Non -Hurtieus®
rally business

Vancouver’s Tory-Liberal ‘Non-
Partisan Association” is already

hard at work preparing for thef

1949 civic elections. Still visibly
shaken by the 19,000 votes for Effie

|Jones in 1947 and the huge anti-

NPA vote rolled up last December,
the backroom boys who rule Van-
couver are seeking to mobilize their
support among businessmen _be-
tween now and next election day.

Basing their strategy on the un-
democratic system which allows
companies to have voting privi-
leges, the NPA machine is circu-
larizing a letter to such firms, re-
minding them to appoint voting
agents and have their names

| placed on the municipal rolls.

The NPA is also panhandling
for money. Businessmen are re-
minded that they can join the

NPA for two dollars, and the clincb- |

argument is that “the fight to pro-
tect your city from control by the
Socialists and Communists con-
tinues.”

All this activity should serve as
a warning to ordinary citizens that
they too, should see that their
names are on the voters’ lists this
year, in order to sweep out the
Non-Partisan clique.

Pacific

Sy
>

‘4

Committee
will fight

LaCroix bill

A vigorous campaign for defeat
of the new Lacroix police state
bill is the, aim of a .prominent
group of Vancouver laborites. Un-
der the chairmanship of Charles
Stewart, the movement will be
known as the Committee to Defeat
the LaCroix Bil. Other members
of the committee are Emil Byarn-
son, vice-chairman; Jack Phiilips,
executive secretary and Effie
Jones, William Stewart, Alex Tooth,
William “Douglas and James

‘| Thompson. Irene Howard will serve

as secretary-treasurer.

Interviewed by the Pacific Tri-
bune. committee members outlined

their plans for a campaign of pro-
tests directed to Justice Minister
Garson, organization of a broad
delégate conference, and a series
of public meetings to bring home
the real meaning’ of the bill to
B.C. citizens. All Vancouver mem-
bers of parliament will be urged to
oppose this.undemocratic measure.

During the 1947-48 sessions of the
House of Commons, as a result of
wide public protest, the LaCroix
police state measure was shelved.
When it was before the House
in 1948 it was “talked out” by An-
gus MacInnes ((CCF-Vancouver
East). Stanley Knowles, CCF MP
for Winnipeg North, declared that
the LaCroix bill “would be vigor-
ously opposed by the CCF and a
number of MP’s of other parties”
who are opposed to its flagrant
violation of civil and democratic
liberties. At that time Knowles
put the position of the CCF before
the House by stating:

“May I say that so long. as we
28 CCF MP’s have breath to
speak the LaCroix Bill will not
pass. Both our opposition to it
and our determination to use that
opposition in an effective manner
are very definite. So far as we
are concerned this iniquitous
Secton 98 will not be enacted.”

While some modifications in) the
original LaCroix Bill draft are in-
dicated from Ottawa, the fact that
the St. Laurent government is now
said to be giving his new Section
98 “favorable consideration,” while _
the RCMP “experts” of the justice ©
department are “studyng it?’ shows
that the danger of enactment. of
such a bill is greater now than on
the previous occasions when _ it
came before the House.

itis expected that committees —

similar to the new Vancouver or-
ganization will, come into being
in other Canadian centers to op- ,
pose the passage of the LaCroix
Bill, since the labor movement is
keenly aware that any legislation
aimed at outlawing the Labor-

Progressive Party or other pro-_ ;

gressive groups become a threat’
to all democratic organizations.

— See

ribune

May Day Issue
PLAN A WIDE DISTRIBUTION TO
FURTHER THE FIGHT FOR

PEACE

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Personal, Organizations and Business Firms
Greeting Rates: Personal, $1.00 per name

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Phone or write to 650 Howe St. — MA. 5288

Vancouver, B.C.

’ PACIFIC TRIBUNE — APRIL 1, 1949 — PAGE 2 —

: ORDER BUNDLES NOW FOR ALL MAY DAY AFFAIRS