- Top economists |

see U.S. slump

WASHINGTON

The political pollyana optimism of President Bisenhowen s cabinet aides about
the economic outlook for 1954 does not jibe with the estimates of the top U.S. econom-
In these economic circles there is general agreement that

ists and business magazines.

the national economy is headed for a recession in the new year.
factors, here is how a survey of the prevailing forecasts shapes up:

U.S. News & World Report
(January 1, 1954): “Probably an-
other 1.3 million will lose their
jobs during the year. Factory
layoffs are likely to be more fre-
quent, often with extended pe-
riods of idleness. .. .”

Fortune magazine (January,
1954): “Unemployment, now two
million, will not rise much above
three million this year.”

Courtney C. Brown, chief of
the economic research staff of
Standard Oil Company of New
Jersey, forecast an economic de-
cline “on the order of 1949 or
even somewhat greater than
1949.” (Official estimate of un-
employment in 1949 was in ex-
cess of four million.)

Gerhard Colm, chief economist
of the privately supported Na-
tional Planning Association and
former senior economist with the
President’s Council of Economic
Advisers, estimated that the num-
ber of unemployed would rise to
3.5 million.

President George Meany of the
American Federation of Labor,

Seek East-West trade

LONDON

The Federation of British~ In-

dustries plans to make “a con-

certed drive” for increased trade

with the socialist world during

the coming year “in anticipation’
of a possible U.S. slump.”

SONS

predicted that 1954 would bring
a “rising tide” of unemployment
and said the era of full employ-
ment had “disappeared.”

Meany said in a New Year's
statement that the start of 1954
brought e indication that the

Taking key economic

rising tide of unemployment will
be reversed; all the facts are to
be contrary.”

He said “uncertainty” was the
“one word” that symmed up the
employment outlook for the com-
ing year.

Continued from page I

UNEMPLOYMENT

have between 400 and 500 skilled
and unskilled members unemploy-
ed, and the future doesn’t look
bright. Unemployment insurance
payments act as a temporary
‘cushion,’ otherwise we’d be as
bad off as in the Hungry Thirties.”

Some 200 CPR workers were
laid off recently in local shops,
and railway workers in many pro-
vincial points — notably in the
Nelson and Cranbrook areas —
have been thrown on unemploy-
ed lines.
line and lack of bulk cargoes has
helped to produce this situation.

A drastic slash in B.C. Electric
transit service in Vancouver and
Victoria has resulted in big cut-
backs in staffs.

Logging operators on the Lower
Mainland continue to reduce pro-
duction. Camps which closed in
the past two months show no

FEATURING THE GREATEST SOVIET STARS

GALINA ULANOVA

Easily the best of the
world’s ballerinas . .... LIFE

MARK REIZEN

Opening of the oil pipe-"

CT

STARTS

His rendition of
IVAN SUSANIN is
magnificent .. . VARIETY

A dazzling, titanic variety package with ballet sequences
from “SWAN.LAKE,” “ROMEO. AND JULIET” and
Borodin’s “POLOVETSIAN DANCES,” excerpts from
Borodin’s “PRINCE IGOR,” Tchaikovsky’s “EUGENE
ONEGIN” and Glinka’s “IVAN SUSANIN” and a
marvelous display of folk dancing and singing.

HASTINGSS

TT TTT

signs of recommencing opera-
tions; some camps which shut
down for the Christmas season
are reopening with substantial
reduction in crews.

Camps on the Queen Charlotte
Islands are only partly active and
camps on the south end of Van-
couver Island are operating at
less than half of normal produc-
tion. There are large inventor-
ies of logs on hand and the mar-
ket is poor.

Sawmills on the Lower Main-
land have the smallest crews in
years on their payrolls.

There has been a general cur-
tailment in the plywoods indus-
try, and the market is reported
“at the saturation point.”
anese plywood is now on sale
here at competitive prices.

Some 1,600 trappers who took
out licenses at Prince Rupert this
year hope for a good season, but
the prices offered for pelts is 20
percent less than last year.

Closure of the Bright Mine at
Nanaimo recently ended 104
year’s history of coal mining in
that area. The 95 men laid off

_at this last major coal mine are

nearly all over 50 years of age.
Only a few are eligible for pen-
sions and the remainder have
little hope of finding jobs.
There has been a gradual de-
cline in the construction indus-
try, with workers in the Kootenay
area being hardest hit. Comple-
tion of major projects such as
the Waneta Dam at Trail, plus a
decline in private house building,

_has caused a crisis condition in

that area.

Nelson reports “an unprece-
dented number of building trades-
men” being registered for em-
ployment. There is a recession
in the Prince George area. Labor
forces have been cut at Alcan

_ and Kitimat.

Coastal and deepsea shipping
is in the doldrums. Some CPR
coastal vessels are laid up, and
the towboat, industry is poor.
Hundreds of seamen are on the
beach.

All this is being reflected in
the retail trades, with some store
clerks and many warehouse em-
ployees laid off.

In the trades and services the
picture is also bad. Hotels have
laid off holiday staffs.

A noticeable decline in the de-
mand for office workers and a
lull in garment manufacturing
hits women workers especially
hard. There has been a falling
off in openings for both men and
women who suffer from physical
handicaps, while figures show’ a
sharp reduction in the number of
unplaced youth of both sexes.

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 8,

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Vili raneneesnittll

SANE.

Bx ath Kamm 1 ED: Ie :

1954

New Year’s message

Buck sees new gains
for peace in 1954

TORONTO

“Life will not be easy in 1954, but it will see the camp of peace,
democracy and socialism make great new gains, and the camp of
war, political reaction and imperialism lose even more of its strength,”
Tim Buck, national leader of the Labor-Progressive party, confidently
predicted here in a New Year’s message.

Full text of his message read:

Three events in 1953 held great
promise for the cause of peace.
First, the war in Korea was end-
ed by the forces of peace and de-
mocracy. Second, the president
of the USA was compelled by

_gathering world peace opinion to

propose conversations on the
peacetime use of atomic energy.
Third, the world demand for the
lessening of international tension
through Great-Power negotiations
brought about the agreement on
the four-power conference in Ber-
lin. «

These are indeed steps forward
on the long road to the peaceful
co-existence of capitalist and so-
cialist states, that principle of
international affairs which must
be accepted in the interests of all
states and peoples.

No country more than Canada
requires the easing of interna-
tional tension. Because of the
cold war, we have been brought
under the domination of the USA,
our markets are shrivelling and
our domestic economy has been
militarized. And now the signs
are that economic crisis is once
more overtaking our economy.

1954 confronts the working peo-
ple of Canada with the question:
Will the Hungry Thirties come
back ‘again? Already the work-
ing people have made their views
clear: No More Hungry Thirties!

So, while we face bitter strug-
gles for peace and against an-
other depression, we can also say
that the rising democratic con-
sciousness of the Canadian people,
their experience and organization,
and their profound democratic
sentiments, cause us of the Labor-
Progressive party to be supreme-
ly confident that the New Year
will witness new advances on the
road of Canadian independence,
peace and democracy, and that
the great trade union and farm
movements will unite to beat the
threat of depression.

The slogan put forward by the
LPP in the 1953 federal election,
“Put Canada First! Stop the Sell-
out of Canada to the USA!”,, is be-
ing recognized by more and more
Canadians as the great unifying

Union ‘secession’
attempt flops

DENVER
International officers of the in-
dependent Mine, Mill and Smelter
Workers Union this week brand-
ed the so-called “secession” of
the union’s big Butte, Montana,
local a “manoeuvre by a handful
of opportunists who have failed
to give true leadership in the
fight for higher wages and the
‘welfare of their membership.” ..
Less than 200 members out of
5,500 in the local attended the
“secession” meeting.

slogan around which all patriotic
and democratic elements can
gather, to make Canada truly
great in a world at peace, to stop
the drive to war and economic
crisis, and to build Canada in the
interests of her people.

Life will not be easy in 1954,
but it will see the camp of peace,
democracy and socialism make
great new gains, and the camp of
war, political reaction and im-
perialism lose even more of its
strength.

The socialist world, devoted to
the maximum satisfaction of the
needs of the people, is proving
to millions still under imperial-
ist domination that there is an-
other kind of life in which the
drive for maximum profit at the
expense of people’s blood is no
more—when man comes first, not
private profit.

' We of the LPP greet the work-
ing people of Canada and call
them to unite for their pressing

‘needs — peace, democracy and

economic security.

We join hands with the work-
ing people of other lands in the
fight for peace.

We send greetings to the peo-
ples of the Soviet Union and the
People’s Democracies and wish
them well in their work for the
new life.

I greet all members and ‘sup-
porters of the LPP and ask them
to mark the New Year by the re-
solution to work harder than ever
to Put Canada First!

Continued

PROGRAM

ernment plans to spend $10 mil-
lion on rolling stock.)

The Labor-Progressive party,
which fought the election last
June around a program of econ-
omic development to create an
estimated 100,000 jobs, has been
the only other political party to
comment on the government’s
program and its rejection by Ot-
tawa.

“The working people have every
reason to be resentful of the.
federal government’s attitude,”
Nigel. Morgan, LPP provincial
leader, told the Pacific Tribune
this week.

“The proposals submitted by
Premier’ Bennett were not only
constructive and timely, but high-
ly important to the welfare of
this province.

“At a time when unemployment
has already reached serious pro-
portion in B.C., implementation
of this program offers many work-
ers their only immediate hope
of getting jobs. =

“Organized labor and all or-
ganizations concerned with the
problem of unemployment and
the need for carrying out the
government’s proposals for rail-
road and highway extension must
certainly campaign to compel the ©
federal government ‘to cooperate
in this program.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JANUARY 8, 1954 — PAGE 12