” _ torium. - RUSSIAN PEOPLE’S HOME — Nisussdileders’ light bills bee AU will be 22 to 66 percent higher, Bjarnason charges BCElectric’s overall 11.5 increase in rates — approved on an “interim” basis by Pub- lic Utilities Commission this week — will actually mean an increase to householders of from 22 to 66 percent, Emil Bjarnason told an audience of 350 Vancouver citizens in Pen- der Auditorium here last Sunday night. Bjarnason, statistician for the Trade union Research Bureau, and Dr. H. 'L. Purdy, BCElectric re- search director, were the speakers at a public forum sponsored by Marine Workers and Boilermakers Union, “When the BCElectric claims it is losing money it simply means it would like to be making more money,” said Bjarnason. “Suppose you’re a_ well-to-do householder, with an electric range, CLASSIFIED A charge of 50 cents for each insertion of five lines or less with 10. cents for each additional line is made for notices appearing in this column. No notices will be accepted later than Monday noon of the week of publication, WHAT’S DOING DANCE — Modern and Old-time Music, at Clinton Hall, 2605 E. Pender St., every Saturday night, 9 to 12. Music by Clintone’s Or- chestra, Hall for rent. Phone HA. 3277. LEAGUE FOR DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS, VANCOUVER BRANCH —CONCERT MEETING— To Pro- test Threat to Citizenship. SUN- DAY, APRIL 1-8 p.m. Pender Audi- All Organizations are urged to keep date open! OPEN FORUM —. ‘WHAT IS COMMUNISM?’ Come to the open Forum, Norwill Hall, 153 Seventh Ave. East, Thursday, March 22, 8 p-m. and hear Maurice Rush, LPP labor secretary, speak on this important question. Discussion, question period, refreshments. Sil- | ver collettion. Auspices Labor For- um Committee. BUSINESS PERSONALS. % TRANSFER & MOVING, Cour- teous, fast, efficient. Call Nick at Yale Hotel, PA. 0632, MA. 1527, CH. 8210. . SALLY BOWES INCOME TAX PROBLEMS — Rm. 20, 9 East Hastings. MA. 9965. A. Rollo, Mgr. WORK BOOTS high or low‘cut. see Johnson’s Boots. 63 West Cor- dova Street. ; HASTINGS BAKERIES LTD. — 716 East Hastings St., Phone HA.~ 3244. Scandinavian Products a Specialty, CRYSTAL STEAM BATHS—Open every day. New Modern Beauty Salon—1763 k. Hastings. HAs- tings 0094, 0.K. RADIO SERVICE. Latest! fac- torv precision equipment used. MARINE SERVICF, 1420 Pen- der St. West, TA. 1012. GOOD USED RECONDITIONED PLUMBING FIXTURES & MAT- ERIALS at substantial savin Max Goldberg -.424 Main St. FOR SALE — BABY’S SHOES from Infants 1 to 3. Exceptionally low priced. Apply Pacific ech 426 Main St., Suite 6. HALLS FOR RENT — Available for meetings, weddings. and hanquets at reasonable ratés 600 Campbell Ave., HA. 6900 . _ NOTICES NEW OFFICES OF E CI- FIC TRIBUNE RE: R sac 426 MAIN isha PT Dixieland Trio — Available for dances and socials, “Assure’a suc- cessful evening.” Quality tops rates reasonable. Call MA. 5288, for booking. “TELL THEM YOU SAW IT | IN THE TRIBUNE” water heater and so forth. You use 500 kilowatt hours of electricity a month. Under the new rate your bill will go up $1.58, an increase of 22 percent. “Or, maybe you are a middle- sized householder, with a stove and fridge but no water heater. You use 200 KWH per month. In that case your bill still goes up $1.58, but on a smaller base, That’s a 28 percent increase. “Let’s suppose you have a fridge but no stove. You use only 100 KWH. In your case the bill goes up $1.20 a month, or 46 precent. “Finally, suppose you are an old age pensioner. You have no electric stove, no fridge, no water heater, You just use electricity for lights, that’s all you can afford: You use 60 KWH _ per month and your bill goes up 66.66 percent under the new rates. “But that’s only half the story. If you are a householder, your rate goes up 22 to 66 percent. But if you are a business concern, you get off scot-free. Commercial and industrial users of electricity who are making a profit on the juice they buy, blood brother of the BCElectric, get no increase in their rate. The idea jis that H. R. Mac- Millan, the CPR, the Vancouver Sun. and such-like cannot .afford an increase.’ But you and-I can. Or so the BCElectric argues.” Speaking in rebuttal, Dr. Purdy said: “When the BCElectricf says a 10 percent overall increase, why it obviously will have to be more than 10 percent for some people. Yet this ‘horrible’ increase only amounts to a couple of cents a day. The BCE can’t solve the dilemma of the small user, the old age pensioner, That problem can only be solved through social legis- lation.” Bjarnason rapped the argument that the rate increase was needed to cover a deficit, in street rail- way operations. “BCElectric has the highest tran- sit fares of any street railway . in Canada,” he charged. “Toronto fares are 4 for 25 cents; Montreal, 3 for 25 cents; Ottawa, 4 for 25 cents. Not one of these street’ rail- way systems has any electric util- ity to subsidize it.” Purdy’s counter claim that “Toronto gets 20 percent more people on’ its vehicles than we do — statistics prove it,” brought Joud Iaughter from the audience. “Vancouver pays more for elec- tricity than any other major city in Canada,” said Bjarnason. “For 200 kilowatt hours, a Vancouver householder pays $4.40; a Montreal householder pays $4.04; a Winnipeg householder pays $3.15 and a To?- onto householder $2.48. Those fig- ures do not include the new rate increase. Now our rates are 43 percent higher than ~ Montreal, 84 percent higher than Winnipeg, 134 percent higher than Toronto. “Tf you examine the BCE’s operating statement, you will find that in 1949 (the latest year available) cost of production .of electricity was $7,117,643; and in- SHIMON: pAicBRIDE timtitea_ TORS OF AL SERVICE| 1995 WEST BROADWAY VANCOUVER,B.C. FN BAY VIEW AAD CANADA‘S FINEST MORTUARY terest, dividends and income tax, $7,366,717. Thus over half the price you pay for electricity goes into profits, or as, the BCE euphemistically calls it, the “fair yeturn’,” Dr. Purdy said credit should be been able to avoid a rate increase for so long.” Price increases in other fields are “an old, old story and they have long since ceased to é¢arry any novelty.” _ “Since 1939 our costs have risen tremendously,” continued Dr. Purdy. “An ordinary meter in your house cost us $14 in 1939; now it costs $20.36. Transformers, copper wire and other materials have all gone up. A generating unit which cost $567,000 in 1939. now costs $978,000. Up to the Korean war had stopped. Obviously it has not. We can see $2,000,000 increases in costs in 1951 which we had: not previously expected, plus another $2,000,000 in wage increases, “Income from residential rates has dropped 25 percent, as com- pared to a drop of only 6 percent from commercial service. We want to bring them back to their normal relationship, and that’s why we are increasing residential rates.” Scoffing at BCE’s “poverty” plea, Emil Bjarnason’ charged the com- pany is “hoodwinking” the public. “The company claims that it has invested $108,000,000 in the last four years,’’ he said. ‘Perhaps so. But is this any reason for higher prices? On the contrary. The capi- tal that has been invested in the last four years has been borrowed at from 3% to 4 percent interest: The capital invested prior to that time was costing the company 5 and 15 percent. Now, with an ever larger proportion of its investment being financed at lower rates of interest, the company should be reducing its prices, not increasing them. : “Suppose that instead of paying through the nose to satisfy share- holders, bondholders and income tax collectors, we were to raise the entire capital required by the BCElectric on ‘the credit of the provincial government, at 3 per- cent. Then the capitalscosts of the BCH, which are their largest. item of cost, could be cut in ‘half. “And suppose that the annual saving in interest, dividends and company’s debts. In 25 or 30. to pay on the company’s in-- vested capital and the cost of electricity could be cut in half. “Does that sound like a pipe dream, If you think it is, look at the record of the Toronto Transportation -Commission and youll be convinced that it is a feasible plan. Dr. Purdy may argue that public ownership’ is not the given the BCElectric “for having | we had hoped the inflationary rise, taxes were used to reduce. the | years there would be no interest | ‘|rate at the General Hospital just. issue here tonight. I think it is. v5 Open forum speaker communism? What in the pet What is about communism, union movement?” Maurice Rush, LPP provincial labor secretary, will discuss these questions at an open forum in Norwill Hall, 156 Seventh Avenue East, on Thurs- day, March 22, 8 p.m. A question and discussion period will follow his address, and light refreshments will be served. | Marine Workers launch monthly official paper A new trade union paper joined the ranks of B.C. progressive pub- lications last week when™Ship and Shop, official organ of the Marine Workers’ and Boilermakers’ Union, rolled off the presses. The four- page tabloid-size paper will appear monthly. _ The first’ issue featured a story about a “burn the mortgage” cele- bration to be held in Pender Audit- orium this Friday, March 16. Cost of buying and renovating the build- ing in 1943 was close to $120,000 arfd some $35,000 in mortgages were taken out. The entire mort- gage has now been paid off and the building- is free from all en- cumbrances. ‘ . Articles by union president W. |L. White and secretary’ Bill Stew- are are featured, and the lead edit- orial, under the heading, “Clean Up the Racket,” deals with the hos- pital insurance plan. “We are not getting hospitaliza- tion, &nd we are paying plenty,” the editorial says. “There is some- thing wrong, and the government should find out what it is. We are not going into a bunch of statistics here. We do not think it is neces- sary. . When onexruns afowl of 4 skunk, all the Latin jin the medical dictionary will notg convince one that the cute little animal is not odorous, .. . “Prior to the act, a public’ ward bed cost $6.50 daily. Today is $13.50. ... t “Money cannot be found today for hospitalization. Nevertheless, overnight the government can find billions for destruction. It boils) down. to this: war is profitable to big, business. On the other hand, lives of workers are cheap. i] A 25-cent - hourly pay neages will be sought by 6,000 miners and smelterworkers working for Con- solidated Mining and Smelting ‘Company when wage negotiations open next month, Mine-Mill region- al director ara ey ae oA said this week. Other union demands include _ |Mine-Mill seeking ‘Q5-cent” pay hike at ‘Consolidated three weeke’ vacation after 10 years, instead of three weeks’ after 25, and implementation of the ‘Rand formula of union security. |’ Included in negotiations will be local 480 at Trail, Local 561 at Kim- berley and Local 690 at the CMS: nitrogen plant in Calgary. 2 >. ¥ - STANTON e- & MUNRO. Barristers, Solicitors, Nétaties _ SUITE 515, FORD BUILDING, 193 E. HASTINGS ST. — Act to make it democratic; the |}. Campaign to of citizenship TORONTO A national campaign to stop ‘the government’s proposed amend-- Act and replace them with demo- cratic proposals for progressive changes has been launched by the League for Democratic Rights, sec- here last week. Aim of the LDR is to block the proposed amendments; amend the take away the arbitrary, absolute power from the minister and cabinet; and establish citizenship as “an elemen- tagy, fundamental, right.” Act was passed in 1946, and came into operation January 1 ,1947. It Canadian citizenship. “Natural-born” Canadians citizens by virtue of birth. cording to the latest figures in the 1950 Canada Year Book there were 9,475,252 eaatyural Dorey +| citizens. / \ “Other than natural-born” adians of whom there were 1,735,058 in 1941—have to pass cer- tain tests (some proper, and some not) to become citizens. They al- ways run the risk of having their citizenship taken away from them, for performing acts which do not similarly penalize citizens, An amendment to the Act in 1950 and Immigration the power “in. his discretion” to grant or withhold’ citizenship. : The section of the Act dealing with “loss of Canadian citizenship” gives the Governor in Council, fact, the cabinet—the leaders of the particular political party which has a majority in the House of Com- mons—power “in his discretion” to revoke citizenship for a number of causes... Worst of these is the than a natural-born citizen who ‘ff out of Canada, has shown him- affected or disloyal to His Majesty, or, if in Canada, has been convict- court of competent jurisdiction.” “Disaffection” and “disloyalty” are undefined. An alien, a non-citizen, deprived of Canadian | citizenship, cannot qualify for any. office, or for any municipal, or other franchise; nor. can such a person become the owner of a Canadian ship; nor is such a per- ilege .of Canadian citizens except certain property rights. “The recent Throne, projecting amendments to their allegiance or shown by their conduct that they are not loyal to ‘Canada’ is the government’s of- ficial forecast of forthcoming legis- lations,” said UDR Thomas Roberts. “The CCA most certainly needs amending, but not in the way proposed by the government. Now is the time for us to arouse and rally public opinion and force the government to change. its ‘ plans. That is: why the League. for Democratic Rights is conduct- ing a national campaign for de- mocratic Canadian: citizenship.’ tae pagal kis ELECTRO CAFE Che 6.30: to 6:00 p.m. Weekdays Union House | HA Dunsmuir = Sena aaaianaensnines bus “Caslle Jewelers tS Wi dtohitinlcar and ,. ) Jewelers. | Special Discount to ~ Pi\ all Tribune Read- Niers. Bring this ad_ with you Me obi Main & Hastings Sts.) MArine ue a. E 12 Granville St. “= eas aurea id — MARCH ae: 1951 - _ PAGE 2 ments to the Canadian Citizenship retary Thomas Roberts announced © individual” The first Canadian Citizenship: provided a “double-standard” or a. sort of “first and second class” for are: . Ac-- in 1941 Can-. gave to the Minister of Citizenship: ins clause applying to anyone other self by act or speech to be dis-- anyone: parliamentary” son entitled to any rights or priv- e speech from the secretary” protect rights — “natural-born” — ed of treason or sedition by a ~ the Citizenship Act to ‘prevent the retention of Canadian citizenship - by persons who’ have renounced i