‘ The Canadian Congress of Labo _ ger by the windy speeches of president A, R. Mosher and secretary-treasurer Pa By BERT WHYTE “unity Pion. ’” blown bigger and big. Conroy during the five-day CCL conver tion here last week, burst with a bang i1 the final hours of the last session when results of the executive council electior were read. White-faced and trembling with rage when he heard Rout announc SAM BARON When the vote was taken the smile wore. thin. Whitewash of BCHIS seen by. LPP head. A sharp public protest over the predictions from Victoria that the probable outcome of the BCHIS inquiry will be a “new collection method” was urged‘ by Nigel Mor- gan, LPP provincial leader, in a statement issued here this week. “Hasn't this board learned any- thing from what it has heard?” Morgan’s statement asked. “The people of this province must, let those responsible know that they are not going.to get away with it. “The board of inquiry must not be allowed to hide behind such a manoeuvre and whitewash the Co- alition’s bungling and maladminis- tration,” the statement continued. “Let the government provide the Services the people are being charg- ed for and the collection problem will not be so difficult. But much More is needed than a new collec- tion system. “The people must tell the Coali- tion and its dummy inquiry board that they will not be satisfied with anything short of a genuine new ‘deal, and that means nothing short of the elimination of co-insurance and reduction of the ridiculously high premiums. e “The government must institute €@ surtax on the profits of those in- dustries eating up the natural re- Sources of the province, an instance of which is provided this week in the $12,858,000 profit for nine Months ending June 30 reported by H. R. MacMillan Export Com- Pany Ltd. “The people want adequate hos- Pital services and they want them at reasonable rates. The board of inquiry must heed the expressions. of widespread dissatisfaction brought to its attention. The Coali- tion must, in conformity with the Principle of responsible govern- Ment, give the people what they Want.” Auslane, newly re-elected vice- president, who quit the following, day). ‘Philip Murray’s man, Charles Mil- ’ ship continued unabated in execu- that in a second ballot for last place on the executive board Steel candi- date Pen Baskin had defeated the outgoing executive slate nominee, Sam Baron, Conroy stepped to the microphone on the platform and said: “In the fight, I supported@ Sam Baron. vote as a test of my judgment. I take the result of. the As your chief officer around whom Baron’s support revolved, I feel I no longer have the confidence of the Congress and | tender my resignation, effective at once.” Then the rasp-voiced, red-baiting little leader of the Reuther fac- tion in the CCL stalked from the hall while delegates shouted and milled around the floor microphones. Conroy’s dramatic action was not, as many delegates imagined, an on-the-spot deciston, but a care- fully worked out tactic. Rejection of Baron was to have resulted in a mass resignation of Conroy, Mosh- er, and other executive members who had been on the official slate. But the plot mis-fired. In the hub- bub which followed Conroy’s walk- put President Mosher got as far as saying, “You can have my resig- nation too if you won’t obey my gavel and calm down. If you want Soviet rule you can have it.” He didn’t resign, however. Nor did any of the Congress leaders (with the exception of Alex Mac- The battle between akhtaving factions in the Congress which culminated in the big split just as the convention was to wind up on a¢ “firm unity” note had its genesis in the United States, where a bitter struggle for top leadership has been developing in the CIO. Walter. Reuther (United Auto-! mobile Workers) wants the CIO presidency when Philip Murray retires, but Murray is said to be preparing to hand over leadership to Jacob Potofsky (Amalgamated Clothing Workers). Both groups are busily engaged in inner-union. politics, lining up allies prior to the CIO convention ‘in November. Sam Baron, with the support of Mosher and Conroy, joined forces with vice-president Baldanzi (Tex- tile Workers) to unseat President Emil Rieve, an opponent of Reuth- er. The scheme miscarried, Rieve was returned as president at the 1950 convention in Boston, and heads began to fall—among them Baron’s, who was unseatéed!as Can- adian textile director. . * Conroy and Mosher continued supporting “Baron, insisting that he be placed on the official slate at:the CCL parley. This angered lard, head of the 60,000-strong Un- ited Steelworkers. While Mosher and Conroy de- livered “unity” speeches at regu- lar intervals throughout the Con- gress, the harsh debate which ultimately split the CCL leader- tive meetings in smoke-filled hote! rooms. — “There is plenty of room in our Congress for differences of opinion and diverse views, but no room for communists,” piously proclaim- ed Conroy when engineering the expulsion of Fur ard Leather Union at the opening session. “This convention’ realizes that labor must have organic unity,” sermonized President A. R. Mosh- er, in expressing the hope that Trades and Labor Congress would soon resume’ “united action” with the CCL on immediate . issues, Meanwhile, in the. backrooms where the real business of the convention was carried on by a handful of ambitious and schem- ing CCL-CCF brasshats, stilettos were being sharpened and coup d’etats discussed. Millard refused to support Baron. Conroy insisted that Baron be on the official slate. Baron’s succes- sor as Textile boss in Canada, Harold Daoust, rushed, in more delegates to support his indepen- dent bid for an executive post. More of Mosher’s CBRE delegates arrived for the voting. As chair- man of the sessions, Mosher sud- denly began to give the floor to more left-wing delegates, perhaps hoping to win a few votes for the official slate. Right-winger Charles Millard, Steel boss who faces a growing revolt from his own membership, made the first move when he re- fused to seek re-election as a Congress vice-president. Then the aging Silby Barrett (United Mine Workers) vas quickly drafted to fill the job. Mosher, the 70-year-old “farm boy” (as the dailies called him) was re-elected to his 12th term as president, defeating progressive candidate Bill Stewart (Marine Workers and Boilermakers, Van- couver) 507 to 65. Conroy, 51, was returned as sec- retary-treasurer, defeating Drum- heller mineworker Tom Mackie with a 532-53 vote. : ‘ Elected vice-presidents were Sil- by Barrett, United Mine Workers; George Burt, Auto Workers; Sol Spivak, Amalgamated; and Alex McAuslane, Oil Workers. All re- ceived more than 500 votes. Pro- gressive candidates Fred Collins and Stan Thornley received 50 votes in opposition to the official slate. Elected to the executive commit- tee were: Bill /Mahoney, Steel- workers, 508 votes; Stewart Als- bury, IWA, 540; Raoul Leclerc, Municipal Employees, 522; J. E. McGuire, Railway Employees, “485; Freeman Jenkins, Mine Workers, 520; Fred (Porky) Dowling, Pack- inghouse Workers, 530; Harry Chappell, Railway Employees, 525, and Pen Baskin, Steelworkers, 200 (second vote). When Conroy saw that a com- bination of votes from Steel, TWA, Packinghouse and a part of the UAW and UMW delegations had defeated Baron. he grabbed the mike and made his move, de- signed to start a rash of ton brass resignations. But except for Mc-~’ Auslane’s delayed-action » follow- up on Saturday, the big boys have remained at their posts. A move by some delegates to get Conroy to “reconsider” failed. Pat sat sulking in his hotel-room, like Achilles in his tent. The convention (which Conroy and Mosher had labelled “the best ever,” a scant 24 hours previously) hastily adjourned, dumping piles of unheard resolutions and other unfinished business into the lap of the new executive. Harry Chap- pell was named temporary secre- tary-treasurer and it was announc- ed that the split would be reviewed by the officers next month. Rumors current include these.: Mosher will resign; Conroy will come back; Conroy won’t come back—Hon. ster B. Pearson will find ‘a spot for him as labor at- tache in the external affairs depart- ment; the CCL will split with the CCF; Silby Barrett will insist ‘on a special CCL convention within a few weeks. _ a an I CCL -‘unity balloon’ bursts as Conroy, McAuslane quit PAT CONROY: “Achilles sulking in his tent” anadian Slav ommittee scores Dillane sentence Canadian Slav Committee in Vancouver this week issued a scathing protest against the small fine and token imprisonment meted out in the ee ~ + name of “justice court. “We protest the shameful and unprecedented sentence of a fine and three hours’ imprisonment for John Joseph Dillane, found guilty of manslaughter in the death of Stanley Deren,” the statement, is- sued under the signature of secre: tary John Dubno, read. “We will urge the Attorney-Gen- eral to appeal the sentence imposed by Judge Manson as a2 prejudiced and improper one. “The remarks of the judge will give comfort to every racist who goes around with hate in his heart directed against a Cana- dian of Slav descent, a Jew, a Negro, an Oriental, or almost anyone who is not of Anglo- Saxon origin. “By the same token, no person belonging to a racial minority can feel safe when the judge accepts Dillane’s explanation that his mali- cious remark to Deren, ‘Why don’t you speak English?’, followed shortly after by the death blow, was a ‘joke.’ “The judge was remiss in his duty as an ordinary citizen, let alone a member of the Bench, when he failed to warn Dillane about this murderous hatred ~ he holds for ‘foreigners’, and which led, even if unintentionally, to the death of Deren. The judge’s atti- tude on the contrary displays a rare solicitude for the guilty Dil- lane, a poor: innocent who in the judge’s words suffered a ‘momen- tary lapse which in ordinary cir- cumstances would not have war- ranted a hearing in Police Court.’ Si “There is ng doubt whatsoever that had the slain man been a prominent socialite or politician in- stead of a progressive-minded worker, of Polish descent, Judge Manson’s remarks would not have been so casual nor his sentence so light. Therein lies the prejudice against which we protest and which must not be allowed to stand. We ask all interested persons and organizations to lend their sup- port to our request that the Attor- ney-General appeal this shameful and unjust sentence.” against a man convicted of manslaughter in a local MERE CONSUMER: ‘| can't afford my light bill! = “My name is Buck—not Frank, Pearl or Tim, but Maurice,” said the white-haircd pensioner, as he faced a galaxy of Public Utilities Commission members and lawyers to present an individual brief op- posing electric rate increases. Then, reading from a dime school scribbler, retired postal supervisor Maurice W. Buck of 1574 West Twelfth gave PUC and BCElectrie legal lights anc financial experts a rough going over. “Before the increase my bill was $1.20 a month plus six cents tax. Now it is $3 plus nine cents tax. This is an increase of 66 2/3. per- cent, far above the slight increase forecast when the rates were an- nounced,” he told them. _ “How is a pensioner like myself going to meet these additional costs?” he _asked. Buck wasn’t fazed “by the ex- perts’ maze of figures. “I don’t know much about cor- poration finance.” he readily ad- mitted, “but I know that my electric light bill bas risen higher than I can afford to pay.” Other things he told them: His first light bill, for July, 1911, totalled 95 cents; the PUC had ealled.the hearing “at a time when the consumers are at work”: rates had gone up last March yet no hearing was held until September. Paul’s Beauty Sélon: @ RENO’S CURLY CUTTING e PERMANENT WAVING 2511 E. Hastings St. HA. 6570 Opposite Forsts (Upstairs) PACIFIC TRIBUNE — SEPTEMBER 28, 1951 — PAGE ?