Mr. Hangers says Give ‘em the boot “It would have been longer if I’d known you’d éC¢ | ONG TIME no see,” greeted Mr. Hangers. have nothing more original than that to say to me,” I retorted. the week.” “As often as that? “T can hear that silly salute every day of Where have you beer hidin’ since we discussed Gerry McGeer? Musta been six months ago.” “Oh, I’ve been around.” “Yeah, you an’ Satan an every other reporter. ‘Goin’ to fro upon the earth an’ walkin’ upan’ down upon it’. Holy Scrip- ture, as well as I remember. ‘Ain’t this a swell mornin’ and @ grand view!” He walked over to the edge. of the flat, and gazed out over the water. “Where every prospect pleases, an’ only man is vile,” he carol- roled to the surprised gulls in a voice that .seemed a. medley of a bullfrog’s wooing, Gerry McGeer on a stump, and nuts and bolts tumbling down an iron chute. I had to stop the concert somehow, so I selected a ques- tion at random, but quickly, and shot it at him before he could think up the next line. “Do you think men are really vile, then?” . “Some men are unspeakably vile,” he said solemnly. “Nature never is, but man very often. Take nature, the animals an’ the birds an’ the most ferocious fishes. However cruel, they fol- low only the instincts of their species. If they’re cannibals, then all the family live off the family, so to speak, but I never heard tell of a mother b’ar kuntin’ down an’ eatin, the cubs of her neighbor.” Sch: Bae 5 “Such as a whole raft of vile old men in the world today who think of the young an’ strong the same way the operator of a hamburger stand thinks of the raw meat he feeds intuh his hoppers!” “Those there foul atavists of evolution, these moral an’ men- tal eunuchs, wanta enslave all science to build a grindin’ ma- chine composed of tanks an’ atomic energy, planes, an’ all the gadgets an’ machinery that coud make this earth a para- dise in ten years, a grindin’ ma- chine just to rend and tear an’ knead young flesh an’ blood “in- to pounds an’ dollars! Aren’t they vile now?” “They only want to save the world from communism,” I prompted. : “I. know you're baitin’ me. But how does communism men- ace them? Let’s just analyze the thing. Ye’ll notice, I said * ‘men- ace them,’ an’ you said, ‘save the world’, which just goes tuh show that ye’re a sucker fer just that much of their propa- ganda. They weren't interested in the world when Hitler start- ed fleshing his jaws on it, were they now?” , “YT didn’t notice it, were” Apt they didn’t seem tuh _ think it was worth savin’ when depression was on it like a FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 1947 if they poison gas from Mars. They got theirs outa both those crises, did those crusadin’ hypocrites, en’ tuh hell with thuh world! But they have an idea, an’ I hope it’s no mistake, that what they'll get under socialism is a productive job* or freedom tuh starve without one, an’ that’s no choice for thuh like of them that think they’re divinely or- dainde tuh live like lice on thuh backs of honest men. So com- munism is a menace tuh them, an’ that’s all that counts, an’ by thuh same token it must!be a menace to thuh world, for they can’t conceive uf any world that don’t revolve around their own narrowed, wizened, self-centereq souls. They are very vile amen! An’ you can go into a lather. It’s too. nice a day. Lookit them gulls, now, an’ thuh_ white-capped mountains! ‘An’ only man _ is vile’,” he bawled out again. e E squatted down on a stick of lumber with his long legs jacknifed about his ears, and bit off a chew. An old feathered friend and target got the first gob on the tips of his claws u> he made a quick and practised hop into the air to dodge it, and then settled back on the corner of the float. Peace brood- ed for five minutes. “You make a hell of a look- ing buddha,” I observed at last, “Why don’t you give out? What do you think of it?” He looked up quizzically. “I was just thinkin’ of a yarn an old school teacher of mine told me when I was a credulous brat back in Ontario. He’d been out here in the Rockies, he claimed, caryin’ thuh mail on his back to a camp, an’ he met. a b’ar when his rifle wa’n’t handy. So he climbeg a tree. “So the b’ar climbeg after him, an’ up near thuh top Sam crept out on thuh branches, that were too small tuh hold thuh b’ar, onto another tree. The var- mint didn’t waste time experi- mentin’, but just slid down thuh trunk an’ climbed thuh second tree, an’ then slid down again an’ climbed thuh first when Sam shifted over. “This went on all day, Sam shiftin’ an’ thuh b’ar_ climbin’ an’ slidin’ with his belly gainst thuh trunk an’ his legs around it. Sam got tired, but that b’ar had lots uf stamina an’ was goin’ stronger’n ever, it seemed, while every ‘shift made Sam More weary an’ weakeneg the branches. Then one broke, an’ down he went to thuh ground, an’ thuh b’ar took his final slide after him. ; “Here goes nuthin’, says Sam, eo who was a very modest man, an’ he was so played out he didn’t even try tuh run. Thuh b’ar comes trippin’ up on_ his hind legs with his front paws out invitingly an’ a gloatin’ leer in his little pig eyes, an’ Sam figgered he’d get at least one kick in before he became a b’ar’s supper. So he lasheq out square at the brute’s navel with his caulked boots, an’ he con- nected.” He shot another wad at the gull, who dodged it easily this time. “And then . . .?” I insisted. “Oh, then Sam® picked up hs mail-bag an’ went on. You see, that b’ar had worn the skin of his belly so thin slidin’ down those trees, Sam’s boot connect- €d with his backbone an’ killed him instanter, deader than Hit- ler. He was a fearsome lookin’ beast, though, till he met Sam’s boot!” ‘ Bi “So you think all reaction needs is one good kick, eh? Well, you’re hardly a brat any longer, but I think you're still credulous!” “WWEBBE the parrallel is a leetle overdrawn, but you got- ta admit the situation matches a bit. Several kicks may be ne- cessary, but I don’t think it’d take too many to hang Bill 39’s pelt on thuh wall, f’r instance.” “How’d you handle that?” “Well, this May Day would be a good day tuh give those toadyin’ heels uf thuh CMA no- tice that a law forced on thuh people by a vicious gang will never be ‘respected by thuh people. A record turnout then would be thuh first kick, an’ yuh could judge its effect in di- rect ration to thuh new howls for blood from thuh CMA an’ its political floosies.” “I see. And the second kick?” I asked him. “I never prophesy more’n two p My weeks in advance. But that first ° one might be enough tuh crack - thuh ribs of thuh Coalition. A few more’d scatter the splinter- ed bones from here tuh Juneau. “Don't forget, it took everty- thing they'd got, with a passel uf apologists from thuh AFL thrown in, tuh pass that ‘bill. Enough commotion, an’ that Act will become a government’s obituary!” “And if the government did fall, what would you have?” “We'd just have bloody chaos, unless labor supported one party. an’ put it in power, after pledg- in’ it tuh repeal Bill 39 as its first official job and to replace it with another drafted, by labor. And labor could put that party in, if all got behind it in unity.” “You're still carrying a torch for the CCF,” I charged. “Damn well you. know what I think of the CCF. But the im- portant thing is to smash up those rotten CMA stooges over . fiance there in the Coalition, an’ the CCF is the party most guscept- ible to labor pressure, an’ don’t think even its most oppo! tunistic politicians would wanta break an explicit pledge as their first official act.” “Yuh know, this May Day might be a good time tuh make the announcement of such 2 deal,” he concluded. “Nobody ever made a deal to help the Winch whirligig except on the CCF’s own terms,” I: argued. “Look at the mayoralty elections in Vancouver, ‘We suP- Ported them, and they didn't even start to fight. And you wer among the first to advocate that. support.” “Yeah, but I thought Alsbury might get some rust inta his spine if not the’ actual] iron,” he defended. “Anyway, this time they’ll fight; for thuh most in- telligent uf them are gettin’ scared, That is, those who aré too honest tuh figger they cat allus save their hides with 4 sellout. Dorothy Steeves an’ 2 lot uf others know that this anti-communist filth is really anti-CCF, an’ they’re less scared now of takin’ power than they are of what this CMA poison gas promises them. I think they would go in tuh win, an’ if la- bor gets behind them as a body, they'd better win unless they wanta pass outo thuh political landscape! Thuh _ workers’d never give them _ another chance!” “So this is your only May Day message!” J mused. “What d’yuh want? All thuh— sermons I’ve preached in thuh past? I ain’t ashamed uf them, as some of you self-styled Marx- ists are scared or ashamed uf emotion, but this ain’t thuh time~ fer _ rhetoric; action, an’ it’s a time for right now is the time an’ a darned good Place tuh give that b’ar thuh — boots right in thuh guts, an’ then get thuh CCF ‘tuh help bury him!” “Sez you!” I derided. “Sez I! An’ I sez further that May Day 1947 ain’t no pray day nor no bray day it’s a day for action! For strike action in de- labor laws, spawned at fascist wakes; for economic action against profiteers who _ ploat their greedy guts on your chil-_ dren’s food; and of political ac- tion against the hate-howling hyenas who do the dirty work of the vile old men! It’s a day for action, a day tuh give thuh boot tuh the bad old b’ar! An’ what thuh hell have we lose, anyway?” i “Maybe you're right,” [ haz- arded.- . ATi been out plenty. So if ye wanna make another uf those freak interviews of yours outa it, go ‘ahead. I can take it!” So I did. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 12 and contempt of anti- xy got tuh mebbe I ain't. But it don’t matter tuh me. My neck’s .