LETTER FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA

People building or f

while West Europe

L. OSIPOV, Prague: After liv-
ing in Cyechoslovakia for a few
short weeks I was suddenly filled
with an overpowering desire to
fly back to Canada for just one
day—just long enough to shout
that the western press was selling
us “cabbage” instead of the truth.

The Iron Curtain—that product
of a Churchillian hangover—was
the first illusion to go. AsTI reg-
ularly picked up my copy of
Time magazine at the freely func-
tioning American Information
Service here, as I read every con-
ceivable British publication, as
I saw thousands of tourists walk-
ing the streets of Prague, and
when I learned that foreign jour-
nalists had complete freedom from
censorship, I douldn’t imagine
how the latter continued to per-
Petuate the Curtain myth in their
respective newspapers!

In spite of seven years of occu-
pation by the Germans, a disas-
trous drought in 1947, the Mar-
shall Plan blockade, and exten-
Sive pre-February sabotage and
black market activity by foreign

Classified —

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insertion of five lines or less with
10 cents for each additional line
is made for notices appearing in
this. column. No notices will be
sccepted later than Monday noon
of the week of publication.

Oldtime Dancing
To Alf Carlson’s Orchestra
Rivery Wednesday and Saturday
Hastings Auditorium
Phone HAstings 1248
Moderate Rental Rates
“or socials, weddings, meetings

Russian People’s Home—
available for meetings, weddings
and banquets at reasonable rates.
600 Campbell Ave. HA. 0087.

Dance, Clinton Hail—
2605 East Pender.. Dance every
y night. Modern and

Old-Time.. Viking’s Orchestra.
Hall is available for rent,
HAstings 8277. ;

WHEN BUYING OR SELLING
home, acreage or business, CON-
SULT CARLTON REALTY.
Auto and Fire Insurance, 1749
Kingsway. Phone FA. 4610, or
Eve., DE. 3412-L. J. F. Woloshyn.

CRYSTAL STEAM BATHS—
Open: every day. New Modern
Beauty Salon—1763 E. Hastings.
HAstings 0094,

SALLY BOWES—

INCOME TAX PROBLEMS.
Room 20, 9 East Hastings:
MA. 9965.

MEETINGS— :

Swedish-Finnish Workers’ Club
meets last Friday every month at
7:30, /p.m., in Clinton Hall.

DR. R. L. DOUGLAS HAS OPEN.
ed a new office at 9 EAST HAST.
INGS STREET, cor, Carrall St.
Phone TA. 5552. All old friends
cordially invited to drop in for
a visit.

SEMONSON’s WATCH REPAIR—
At 711 E. Hastings. Come and
see for yourself how we clea:
your watch. :

WHAT’S DOING?

NORTHLANDS DANCE—
At Swedish Park, Saturday, May
vth, 9 p.m.- 227. Admission 50c.
Everyone welcome.

.agents, the average Czech worker

lives better now than he did in
1938.

Due to “an excellent system of
pricé control and government ser-
vices the worker not only can
buy everything appearing on ra-

tions but today is managing to

Save a considerable amount of
money.

The most’ marked and rapid’

improvement in. the life of the
people can be measured on the
health and social welfare level.
All employed people and their
families receive completely free
medical care, from _ penicillin
treatments to false teeth. A
worker simply does not know
what doctor bills mean. When
his child or his wife has some
ailment he simply gets a slip of
paper called a “poukaz” from his
work place and the medical
world looks after the rest. If
the doctor prescribes a sSanatori-
um or health resort, that too
comes under the Health Bill!

‘Before the war, natural springs

and health resorts were luxuries
enjoyed only by wealthy Czechs
and foreign tourists,

You may well ask the question
which Western Politicians have
so conveniently coined — where
does the money come from?
Part is obtained from salary de-
ductions, another share is con-
tributed from trade union funds
and finally the government adds
the healthiest portion. ‘The latter,
of course, has no difficulty rais-
ing the money because profits
from industry no longer go into
greedy private pockets. With 95
percent of industry nationalized,
there is hardly any question as

to where the money for the wel-

fare of the people
from.

“For the past while the greatest
interest here has centered around
the newly-launched Five Year
Plan; and most recently, the cre-
ation of an open or free market
for food and clothing. These de-

is to come

velopments follow upon the suc- .

cessful conclusion of the Two
Year Plan, mark the end of im-
mediate post-war rebuilding, and
signify the beginning of far-
reaching steps in the direction
of ‘socialism. . :
Petiletka—as the Five Year
Plan is called here—is an under-
taking without parallel in the
history of this small country, and
obviously not the perspective you
would expect a “suppressed sat-
ellite” to have. The plan aims at

Highest Prices Paid for
DIAMONDS, OLD GOLD
Other Valuable Jewellry

STAR LOAN CO. Ltd.

Est. 1905
719 Robson St. — MAr. 2622

uture
stagnates

establishing Czechoslovakia as an
independent and prosperous econ-
omic unit, cooperating and ‘trad-
ing freely with all countries that
accept her as an equal.

LETTERS DIGEST :

Not pact,
but pack

HENRY PATTERSON, Van-
couver, B.C.: The Atlantic pact is
wrongly named. It should be the
Atlantic pack, for: most of the
pack promoting it are the same
gang that attacked the Soviet ,
Union in 1917,

~< * *

BILL MANNERING, Calgary,
Alta.: Well, I’ll be a son of bald-
headed eagle. In California people
have actually been praying to a
headless rooster—no doubt for the
preservation of the wonderful
American way of life.

* * *

E. GAUTHIER, Vancouver: The

idea of building up the Pacific

‘Tribune for the fight for peace

is a splendid one... . I pray that
great success will be granted to
you from above ... but I have
to know more about the freedom
and liberty that the PT has to
offer to readers who have things
to say in the fight for peace, and
how you work with them.

My knowledge may not satisfy
your ideas at all. But I see that
you have a department wherein
one can write what he pleases;
provided it is not detrimental to
the welfare of humanity, of
course ... t

I am a lone preacher .. . and
I defend the peacemakers with
the blessings that proceed from
a higher source of knowledge
than what the commercial press
and the war mongers have.

SOMETHING NEW!

GRAND
MASQUERADE
"and

DANCE

at

CLINTON HALL

2605 East Pender

SAT., MAY 7
9 p.m.
COME IN COSTUME

ADMISSION
LADIES
GENTS 50c

THREE PRIZES

Auspices: Finnish Organization

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PACIFIC 9588

Jack Cooney, Mgr.

FERRY MEAT MARKET

119 EAST HASTINGS’

VANCOUVER, B.C.
FREE DELIVERY
Supplying Fishing Boats Our Specialty

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Nite Calls GL. 1740L

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GUIDE TO GOOD READING

‘Our flag stays red‘

ENGLAND'S SECOND Communist MP, Phil Piratin, has

wmitten. a charming selfportrait which in one easy reading provides 4
treasure house of information about the makeup, temper and working
methods of the British Communist party,

A semi-autobiographical work,
Our Flag Stays Red, begins with
the author’s childhood and youth
in Stepney, a working class, slum-
ridden suburb of London which,
in addition to confounding the
politicos by electing Piratin to
parliament, has put 12 more Com-
munists on to the borough coun«
cil, This 91-page book has the
answers. It explains not only
the remarkable election victory
of 1945 but how it is that “Step-
ney people” when they move to
another community are enthusi-
astically welcomed as possessing
the key to proper Communist
organization.

There is much in this book
that will be quickly recognizable’
as applying to our own country |
and its Labor-Progressive party.

Piratin’s book is essentially
the story of how Communists in
this teeming community of a
quarter of a million met and
mastered these problems through
painstaking yet imaginative ap-
plication of first principles, to
become what Communist branch-
es everywhere strive toward and
dream about, the fully recognized
champions of the people’s inter-
ests.

—

Peace pamphlet

PEACE IS IN YOUR HANDS,
# new pamphlet by Leslie Mor-
ris, editor of the Canadian Tri-
bune, is directed to all Cana
dians It not only clearly ex-
poses the plots of those wh0
would lead us to war, but shows

‘how the march to war can be
halted.

The Pacific Tribune urges
everyone to buy several copies
of this 10c pamphlet and sell
and distribute them on the job
and to neighbors. It is a power-
ful weapon for peace. Order :
them from your prog'nessive
bookstore today.

—

PITY THE WRITER .

No thrills —

in thrillers

quote no less. an authority than
Lawrence Blochman, director
and past president of the Mystery
Writers of America, in assessing
the ability of reprint publication
to add strawberry jam ito the
bread and butter mystery writers
eke out these days.

The average successful mys-
tery brings $800 in royalties t?
its writer as a hardcover edi
tion, Blochman estimates. T
figure is based on first editio®
sales of 3,000 copies. ;

But please, urges Bantam
Books, consider the reprint mat-
ket. One successful reprint edi-
tion, which means a minimum 0
200,000 copies, will double that
initial income. Note that in 1938
the six leading reprint publisher?
sold 35 million copies of detective

' fiction. j 3 }

Bantam’s point would be more
impressive if it were coup!
with a change in the present in-
credibly - low author royalties
paid per copy in the two bit field.
That rate is now around 114 cents
per book, less than, one-fourth
of what the dealtrs receives £0°
his arduous labors of. makin&
change when you buy that book.

* * *

A FIRST HAND account of
the Communist-led street victor-
ies~over the Mosley fascists and
the tremendous victorious rent
strikes which swept England in
the late thirties makes the most
exciting kind of reading. To
Many readers, much of the de-
tailed record of the party’s heroic
work before and during the war
comes as exciting news- never
adequately bridging the ocean be-,
fore, and through this increased
familiarity brings a new impact
to the wartime bombing and suf.
ferings undergone by the work-
ing people of London,

The book's title refers to the
song, “The Red Flag,” sung
jointly by the Labor and Com-
munist MP’s as parliament con-
vened in 1945. To those who
have abandoned the flag and
aspiration of the working class,
Piratin proudly proclaims, “Our
Flag Stays Red!” The book, pub-
lished by Thames ~ Publishers,
London, is obtainable in Vancou-
ver at tHe People’s Cooperative
Bookstore, ee

A

%

UNION MEN!

a
. i F i,

For your own good and welfare,
support Trade Unionism by demand-
ing the Union Label in Clothes,
_ created by Vancouver Union Crafts-

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0
PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MAY 6, 1949 — PAGE 1

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BANTAM BOOK publicists —