‘I want my son back’ HIS is the story, of oné of the 60 young Great Lakes seamen now in prison. They must be freed. Their families must be assisted. Expensive legal ‘operations have still to be launched. The National Seamen’s Defense Committee, none of whose officers receive ‘a penny for their work, must acquaint the Canadian public with the issues al stake. release of the seamen is now in nationwide circulation. A signature petition urging the immediate For this reason the Commitiee is appealing to the generosity of the Canadian people for the money to ‘advance this vital work. The value of freedom’ cannot be measured in money, but money is essential to The issues are crucial. the fight. of all, to their full civil rights. Bi ARMSTRONG was too young to go overseas. to join his two brothers in the war against fascism, but he enlisted at the age of eighteen and did all he could to ensure a victury for world democracy. Today Bill is in Kingston Penitentiary. Today he is serving a prison sen- “tence because he believed in the ght of a worker to belong to a union of his own choice, in the night ‘to protect his life and job against armed company strikebreakers.. Because he fought for his conception of democracy, a Canadian court, bound by the medieval Shipping Act under which he was tried, handed down a harsh two-year sentence for the ‘‘crime’” of trespassing. Bill’s mother is fighting hard for her son’s freedom. In a letter she has written to Harry Davis, president. of the Canadian Seamen’s Union, of which Bill is an enthusiastic member, Mrs. strong tells him what the imprisonment of her son has meant to her. She writes:.“‘It has been an awful worry to me as Bill has never been in any trouble before. It is terrible to think that for his first offense he was sent to Kingston Penitentiary. No. doubt there are other wives.and mothers in the same position. “We hope our boy will be home again soon,” she concludes. found guilty of going aboard a strike-bound ship without the captain’s permission. He was. ‘tried under the Shipping Act which denied him the Bill, who was 22 on his last birthday, was. Denial of freedom to even a single citizen jeopardizes the freedom The cause of Canadian democracy demands that all 60 seamen be honorably freed and restored Every dollar contributed will bring this goal closer to success. donation to: National Seamen’s Defense Committee, 113. Parliament Street, Toronto, Ont. Send your ‘ right to trial by jury. Before his trial he was held in the Welland Jail where he was forbidden ’ even to send a card to his mother on Mother’s Day. While Bill was in the, Welland Jail he became ill. He called for a doctor but none came. After many hours of painful waiting the guards sent for a doctor. - He arrived at 10 in the night, gave the young seaman a shot and promised to return the next morning. But no doctor came for two days. He received no treatment, no further ‘Te- lief. He was told to lie down on the cold cement floor. Other seamen, held in the same jail, tried to make Bill comfortable but little could be done. There were 35 men in a cell block meant for nine. There were no beds. They had blankets— one for every three men. e ~ Now Bill is in Kingston, sentenced to two. years for trespassing. But Bill's spirit is high. His mother wants his freedom immediately. In her letter to Davis she tells the CSU president that “‘Bill’s two brothers fought overseas: for three years and Bill jomed up. on his eighteenth birth- day. And all this the government forgets.” But his fellow seamen have’ not forgotten. The labor movement has not forgotten. The National Seamen’s Defense Committee will spaye no effort to win his release, to return him to his family, to return him to his task of fighting for the rights of real Canadian citizenship. All this spells dollars—a great many doliars. Life is happier in Liberated China By ALAN. WINNINGTON i HARBIN, Manchuria "THIS can be regarded as a test city for the success or failure of. the Communist-led, democratic government of Lib- erated China. pra It is a big‘city of over 800,- 000 inhabitants; it has a fairly well-developed industry, rich surrounding: farm-lands, good rail communications; it ‘has been under democratic rule for two years. Two yeats ago, however, ‘its industries were wrecked by the Japanese, its farm-lands under ° feudal Ownership and largely derelict, its rail system dislo- cated. ! : Today a walk through Har- bin is enough to convince even a@ sceptical observer that life here has been transformed. Harbin’s trams are running again, the bus fleet is grow- ing, taxis ply for hire, street lighting is adequate, new shops. are opening every day. You will see no underfed people in your walk. A few beggars are to be seen, invar- iably outside a temple or one of. the numerous churches. You will see no prostitutes; the system of selling girl chil- dren has been stopped and suth past sales have no legal valid- ity now. ; There are no queues. - The people ‘know that their ration, at the controlled price, will be available and extra Supplies, if they want and can afford them, at higher prices on the open market. Staple foods—Kaoliang mil- let, maize corn, green vege- tables, cooking oil, soya and po- tatoes — are plentiful and cheap. Meat, eggs, milk, poul- try and other dairy products are dearer, but there -is no scarcity. e The average monthly wage of a skilled worker in Harbin fac- tories is based on the value of 194 pounds of Kaoliang, 414 sacks of .coal, 5% pounds of salt, 2% quarts of oil, 2% yards of cloth. o This is only the mode of fixing payment. They may spend their money as they Please. Women get, equal pay for equal work and many are now going into factories or per- forming useful and profitable Spare-time work at home while they keep an eye on the chil- dren. he standard of living com- pared with the permanent near-famine and frequent fa~- ine in the Kuomintang areas, and compared with any pasi period in Ckina’s history rep- reseats real plenty. Land reform is the basis of this rising standard of life and of the increasing efficiency and fighting power of the People’s Liberation army. With every harvest, the land produces more and more var- ied crops. The peasants, free from multidudinous taxes and impossible extortions from us- urers and the degradation of feudal chains, are culling rich crops’ from land which is theirs for the first time. ~ In the towns, the. factory workers are keeping pace with the peasants, turning out in- creasing quantities of arms, consumer goods, farm imple- ments and machine tools. All this new-found plenty is a miracle to the Chinese workers, and they are stretch- ing themselves to the limit to help the Communist party and the People’s Liberation army which has made it possible. In Liberated, China, all basic and decisive industries are state-owned, but private’ capi-" talists are encouraged and helped to enter and expand Secondary and consumer in- dustries and are given every protection. 2 Conditions of labor are fix- ed between the trade unions and the owners of industry on the basis of “benefits to both labor and capital,” and any worker, whether employed by publicly or privately-operated concerns, \will tell you how much better off he is and what he personally is doing to increase output. Capital is guided into useful channels by a differential tax policy, lowest on essential goods, highest on luxuries and and by control of materials. és The political consciousness . ness of the workers is extraor- ‘dinarily high. Each regards it as his, personal duty to speed . production, support the army — and win the war against Chi- ang Kai-shek. Soldiers of the People’s Lib- eration army take their tasks very seriously and even a cas- ual glance at a company of them, marching silently on their cloth-soled shoes along the street, sturdy, well-train- ed, is enough to show that they are formidable antagonists. The contrast between them and the Kuomintang trained, or rather untrained, -men is “very great. Most of the People’s Libera- tion army fighters are peas- ants who have received land under the land réform, and know that they must win the war to ensure that the land re- mains theirs. While the men are away fighting the village Peasant ‘Union takes care of their fami- lies and sees that all remain- ing villagers share the work of tilling their land. e Communist party and gov- ernment workers gain no per- sonal advantages from the po- litical power which they ex- ercise. They receive no wages but adequate food and lodg- ing. Their diet is on the same level as industrial workers, their hours of work unlimited, their integrity and selflessness unchallengeable. With such vast achievements to the credit of the Communist party, it is to be expected that the mass of the people regard it as their party and take a close personal interest in its work and the actions of its in- dividual members. : It has brought them through civil war, occupation and civil war again to a life of com- parative plenty; it has lifted the grip of feudalism from the people and brought them free- ‘dom. ss In Liberated China, where every shell fired by the Peo- ple’s army, every soldier’s uni- form, every day ofgwar, must be calculated in terms of food-« stuffs, the usual chain of ev- ents has been turned upside- down. : Generally, in war-time; the living Standards of the people go down; here they are rising. This is ‘at once a measure of the brutal poverty that existed hitherto in China, and the sweeping .advances that will be made when the war ends in the victory of the people and the full force of China’s millions can be turned to con- . Structive effort. In Shanghai and elsewhere in Kuomintang China, all the “injections of American dollars cannot prevent raging infla- tion, race-riots and chaos. _ Without any foreign help, the Communists are proving by deeds that China's cities, properly administered, can cre- ate well-being for all their citizens. What “has been done in Harbin will be done more easily and faster in “Nanking, Peiping and Shanghai. PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JANUARY 28, 1949 — PAGE 56 .