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EDITORIAL PAGE

Lumber profiteers

AST WEEK chairman of the
giant MacMillan & Bloedel
timber trust, ex-chief justice J. V.
Clyne tabled the financial report
of his company’s operations for
1959. ‘

‘Despite a two-month strike of
forest workers in mid-summer,”
*said the ex-legal beagle, “the com-
pany reports gross receipts (sales)
at a new peak of $181,469,915. This
was up some $20.6 million, or 13
percent, from the previous year,
and a gain of $4.6 million from the
former high in 1956.”

When all taxes and other inci-
dentals were met, including a gen-
erous write-up for “depreciation,”
the MacMillan & Bloedel octopus
cleared a net profit of $13 million,
er some 60 percent above a 1958
net boodle.

Now for a flashback. During the
IWA mid-summer ‘strike for a
modest wage increase to try and
keep pace with steadily rising
living costs, the big timber bosses
(with M & B in the lead) through

_ their Forest Industrial Relations

and J. V. Clyne, were howling blue
ruin. IWA wage demands were
“unreasonable”; they were “pri-
cing us out of markets,” causing
“inflation,” “ruining our export
trade,” and in general “ruining
B.C.’s basic industry.”

This monopoly extravaganza *

brought forth a chorus of support
from the Socred government, the
press, and the Chamber of Com-
merce boys, all hell bent on “hold-
ing the line” on wages,. but step-

ping softly on the soft pedal on —

the matter of profits.

Meantime the IWA leadership -
of the strike made a good case on _
the operators’ ability to pay, citing ©

production and market facts and
figures to back up their case, but
failed miserably in mounting the
type of labor unity required. to
make a profit-glutted monopoly
disgorge. The result was that the
EWA came out of its 1959 wage
struggle with Sonshierevly less

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than half of its convention wage
demand — which explains in part,
the fine net profit showing of $13
million pocketed by MacMillan &
Bloedel as one of the top “bene-
ficiaries.”” Thus the M & B share-
holders will begin a Happy New
Year in 1960 with $2.44 a share
instead of a previous “paltry”
$1.53.

Forecast for 1960 by M & B’s
ex-justice Clyne is a rosy one.
Markets are improving, Jumber
demands are good, and there is a
“buoyancy” in the air which
should double the $13 million fig-
ure in 1960, particularly since the
giant merger of MacMillan & Bloe-
del and Powell River Company
Ltd., completed in December of
1959, will not “be plagued by ex-
oe wage demands of labor” in
1960.

The story of the $13 million net
should provide a salutory lesson to

_all labor in coming wage negotia-

tions, viz.,-that monopoly can pay,
that its Specious arguments about ©
“high: wages” causing inflation

_and_loss of markets is just so much
~malarkey. That united labor can

beat back the nation-wide employ-
ers’ attacks upon its living stan-
dards, and win substantial wage
increases. There’s $13 million net
in MaeMillan’s pocket to prove it.

Schools and arms

IKE the “advisory commission”
on hydro power, natural gas
and similar resources set up by
the Bennett government, but pro-
hibited from “advising” when big
resources give-aways to monopoly
are in the making, the Chant Com-
mission on Education, within its
“terms of reference” was prohibit-
ed from putting its finger on the
root cause of.the problem it was
presumed to study, that of educa-
tion financing. Hence its report on
public education in B.C. can be
thrown in the ashean, since it

couldn’t. study school ~ operations

in areas where badly needed school
facilities didn’t exist.

The impact of this school crisis
is already felt in almost every B.C.

‘municipality. In Greater Vancou-

ver alone school authorities esti-
mate that come September, four-
teen or fifteen thousand school
children will be on “swing shift”

‘school attendance, a condition in

which both the teaching profes-
sion and thousands of parents and

‘children. will be subjected to a.

nerve-wracking ordeal, in which
the health, education and safety of
the school “child is placed in jeopar-
dy. Thus our boasted educational
opportunities for every Canadian
child go by the board.

For new schools and additional
classroom -facilities we have “no
money”; for new armories, Bo-
marcs, missile bases, nuclear
bombs, armaments of all sorts,
billions to be squandered, when
Washington decides for Ottawa.

The Bennett government has

made much ado about its “debt
free” hallucination, the essence of
which is that the main burden of
school and other municipal finan-
cing, rightfully the responsibility
of Ottawa and’ Victoria, is left to
the municipality to carry. The end
‘result (among other things) is the
educational “swing shift” victim-
ization of cur children.

On the choice of schools versus
armaments the “no money for
schools” subterfuge must be end-
ed. The right of Canada’s children

“to the fullest educational oppor-
tunities, free from “swing shift”
hazards, must become paramount. .
School construction must be given
priority over armories,. and. the
government which can’t or won’t
face up to this choice and need,
has no moral claim to exist; a fact
which should be brought to the
attention of Bennett and Diefen-
baker -in_ the. strongest. possible
terms.

HAT does “Do It Now” really
“mean? A good question, de--
pending to whom and what it is

directed. If, for instance “do it
now” were directed at the Diefen-
baker government to cut. loose
from the political, economic, mili-
tary or other’ entanglements im-
posed. by - Yankee imperialism, it
makes. good sense.

were directed to the top brass of

the monopoly-controlled .coldwar
bandwagon; to cease parroting the
red-baiting propaganda of big busi-

* ness; to provide.-the leadership,
initiative: and unity the times -de-
- mand, then this “do it now‘ query
contains a lot of good sense and
realism.

In. this case, however, such ob-
jectives ‘don’t enter into this

' “What .does ‘Do It Now’ -really
- mean?” query. Like a soap-opera
sponsored ‘fix-it-yourself’ blurb,
‘this ‘Do It Now” is a four-page

Or,-as another example, if it

the CCF-CLC to climb down ‘off ©

‘tract issued by Labor Minister
Michael Starr on’ how to solve
capitalism’s most unsolvable social
evile—— unemployment.

: The Hon. Mike lists four “do-it-
nows”’ to turn the trick, based on
the misleading assumption’ that

skilled labor and‘ good. materials...
are always in more plentiful sup- .

ply during winter months, and
' (or some unaccountable reason
known only to tory medicine men)

a lot cheaper in getthes than in
summer.

_ Also in this Starr-y-eyed ‘do it
now” prospectus for solving unem-
ployment, the Hon. Mike ticks off
a whole variety of chores that can
be done in order to make capital-
ism look like a going concern. Fix
the family lawnmower, tune up

‘the old car, do a little wiring
around the house for that extra
plug-in, help the wife shake out
the rugs, drapes: and whatnot,
keeping in mind that Mike’s “do
it now”
guaranteed to take “the kinks out

of jobless lines around city mis- —

sions waiting for a handout, but
‘contains its own sure-fire formula
for ‘good citizenship” — as a Tory
interprets that term.

Had a corner grocery published
a leaflet of this low vintage on a
major national crisis (even at tax-
payers’ expense) the matter could
have been overlooked. But that
the government of a country such

campaign is. not. only .

as Canada, with all. its rich ma-
terial and human resources, is un-

‘able to do better that this in its

so-called ‘winter work campaign’

‘is not only an insult to the intelli-

gence of the Canadian people, but
an accurate barometer of: the’ total
bankruptcy of capitalist . govern-
ment.

Just compare the Ra deaai=
economic, cultural and. educational
achievements and: growth of Social- .
ist enterprise in the Soviet Union,
in the young People’s Republic of
China, in the new Socialist Demo-
cracies of Europe; yes, even in
some of the colonial countries,
only now winning ,a measure of

_ independence and self-government

from. foreign imperalist domina-
tion. What they have. achieved,
what they are planning and doing;
what they will achieve in the. im-
mediate period ahead — because
human welfare and needs take
precedence over monopoly profits.

Compare their mighty _indus-

‘trial, scientific and technological

advances—without unemployment,
and with the labor of hand arid —
brain an honored calling, instead
of a market commodity, and a
target for tory stupidity.

Compare all that and more with
Tory Mike Starr’s “do it now”
garbage —— then make’ a really
meaningful 1960 resolve; to Do It
Now—but not the way Mike and
his Tory demagogues: explain it:

January 22, 1960—PACIFIC-TRIBUNE—Page Ae