_ 7, Na KAN Pod

HC I ANU AED.

"FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 1951

Profits of death

Profits Before Taxes Percent

ES PE

CORPORATION 1949 1950 Increase
e Normetal Mining Corp. ....-..---- 2,862,730 4,219,530 130%
(zine, copper)
Quemont Mining Corp. ........-. 531,269 4,321,987 813%
(zine, copper)
Goodyear Rubber Co. .......-.--- 2,429,974 5,536,554 127%
Aluminium “Ltd. ...........-.-+- 29,039,885 35,229,372 21%
Steel Co. of Ganada ...........--- 16,904,640 25,766,921 52%,
Hamilton Cottons .........---+- 239,088 751,767 214%
Can. Western Lumber ..........- 3,609,483 7,957,688 148%.
Torbrit Silver Mines Ltd. ...... 273,215 592,266 217%
Amalgamated Electric ........-. (124,634 - «3098805 148%
International Paper Co. ........ 83,973,143 129,229,116 45%
Can. Industries Ltd. ...........- 14,727,389. . 19,877,654 85%
Profits After Taxes**
Gan. Pacific Blwys.  ..<...-5--.-* 29,700,000 47,800,000 261%
McColl Frontenac Oil ........... 4,249,229 6,661,296 56%
Corby’s Distillery Ltd. (6 mos.) . 301,246* 619,150 105%

** Tax figures not available. Corporation Taxes in Canada went

up from 33 to 38 percent in 1950. Provincial taxes are about

7 percent. But some corporations have allowed as much as

_ percent (Goodyear) of net income after depreciation, for
xes.

* But after depreciation and all other expenses, in the case of
Quemont, for instance, depreciation charged in 1950 was $845,-
000 as against no allowance at all in 1949.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE

Death merchants gain
by subverting peace

manufacturers. Truly any “mor-
ality” ever possesesd by capital-
ism has now reached a new deg-
radation. .

Living costs continued to sweep
ahead in February by the biggest
monthly jump in history — 45
points — setting a pew all-time
in official cost-of-living index of
179.7, Otawa reported this week.
Leading the parade were food
costs, which shot upward 9.5
points. :

Copper and zine are key metals
in the arms trade. Last week,
Quemont Mining Corporation re-
ported a profit increase over 1949
of 813 percent. In 1949 it mined
11 million pounds of copper; last
year the figure was 23 million.
Production of zinc jumped from
396,000 pounds to 18 million
pounds. In making his report,
president H. L. Roscoe announced
that almost the entire 1951 pro-
duction had already been ordered.

In February last year, CPR net
earnings were $42,611; this year,
for the same period, they jump-
ed to $1,724,2830—an increase of 4,-
900 percent; '(CPR’s profits in 1950
were 61 percent higher than 1949
—the highest they have been since
the war year of 1944.

Oil is another war industry.
Last week McColl - Frontenac,
owned by the Texas Company, of
the U.S., reported a profit after
taxes of 56 percent over last year.
‘This corporation now has 35 pro-
‘ducing oil wells in Alberta and re-
‘cently wormed legislation through
the Alberta legislature giving it
‘the right to pipe Alberta natural
gas to Montana war industry. The
people of Alberta will get a maxi-
mum annual royalty of $75,000;

* but McColl-Frontenac will get $1,-
200,000 a year.

Alcohol is essential in war pro-
duction. In the six months’ per-
iod ending February 28 — six
months of the Korea® war — Cor-
by’s Distillery Ltd. raked in a
profit increase of 105 percent.

Canadian Industries Ltd., tied in
with Imperial ‘Chemicals and the
Dupont atomic arms ring, showed
a comparatively small _ increase,
only 35 percent, from $14 million
to $19 million. Most of this added
business came in the latter part

of 1950, reported George Hugget,
president, who also sees “an ex-
panding demand” for explosives,
particularly from its new nitrate
plant in Alberta.

The paper companies are re-
porting highest profit-killing in
history—and it’s due in great
measure to increasing sales of
kraft. and heavy wrapping pa-
per,, needed in munitions manu-
facture. The tremendous $129
million profit of International
Paper was 45 percent above
1949 and president John Hin-
man told shareholders: “We are
living in an age of cellulose.”
The figure includes $62 million
for taxes—almost double the
1949 figure.

How do the workers fare in this
bonanza? ~

Take the case of the CPR. The
1950 profit was a 61 percent. in-
crease but the volume of freight
carried was less than in 1949. W.
A. Mather, president, is demand-
ing a third freight rate increase,
this time of five percent.

Shareholders’ coupons jumped
in value from $1.93 to $3.32, a
jump of 72 percent. But the
railroaders, the men and women
who do the work, got a seven
cent an hour increase after a
nation-wide strike. This amount-
ed to only a bit over six percent, +
or about $3 a week—less than
the value of one coupon from
one CPR share!

Does big business raise prices
arbitrarily to fatten the profits?
See the report of the Western
Lumber Company, Ltd. H. J.:
Macken, president, reported that
while sales had increased only 10
percent, profits had doubled, due,
he said, to higher prices and
“greater efficiency’, meaning, as
every worker will understand,
speedup. Actually profits before
taxes increased 148 percent.

Defense Minister Brooke ‘Clax-
ton, speaking in New York last
week, said the armaments drive,
which he forecast would last a
generation, would be “hard to take
—hard for governments, hard for
taxpayers, hard for housewives,
hard for soldiers.”

Right, Mr. Claxton!
hard for big business.

But not

¢

All eyes upon |
eace rally —

4

TORONTO

ae

. @
As the first of what is expected to be a total of 3,000 delegates and observers arrived

‘in Toronto for the National

Assembly to Save Peace this weekend, officials of the Can-

adian Peace Congress announced that thousands of letters were being received from

supporters and well-wishers
James Endicott,

Canadian Peace Congress chairman,

eager to add their names as corresponding delegates. Dr.
will deliver the opening address to

the great assembly this Saturday and the main guest speaker will be Dr. Christopher

Woodard, outstanding British

CONTINUED

PROTEST

@ Rocked by the demands of the
public, the Coalition decided to
try and rush the present session
to a close by April 15.

@ 200,000 B. C. trades unionists,
from CCL, AFL and railway bro-
therhoods united to launch an all-
out drive against the ho&pital
insurance policy. (At Pacific Tri-
bune press time shop stewards,
unign committeemen and active
union delegates were scheduled to
meet in Pender Auditorium to
plan a one-week whirlwind cam-
paign).

@ Four groups of employees in
Vancouver and Victoria rebelled
against compulsory deductions of
retroactive premiums from their
next pay cheques, instructed their
employers not to make the de-
duction. The movement is likely
to spread. (The four groups that
revolted were: 60 employees at
Neon Products of Western Can-
ada; employees at Pacific Athle-
tic Club; more than 100 workers
of the Vancouver sawmill divis-
ion of B. C. Forest Products; and
50 employees of Moore-Whitting-
ton Lumber Company in Victor-
ia),

@ ‘Thousands of angry citizens
continued to flood MLA’s with
letters of protest against the hos-
pital premium hike and the co-
insurance clause; groups of citi-
zens called on MLA’s to voice
their opposition; scores of long-
time Liberal and Tory party mem-
bers. resigned; Coalition MULA’s
Tillie Rolston and W. A. C. Ben-
nett crossed the floor of the
House and will sit as Independ-
ents.

@ A “Withdraw the Hospital In-
crease or Resign!’”” demand, was
put forward by the Labor-Pro-
gressive party in.the form of a
large advertisement in the daily
press. The ad urged citizens to
write their MiLA’s, support citi-
zens’ protest meetings and the
shop stewards’ conference.

@ Letters-to-the-editor columns
in the daily press reflected the
mass resentment aroused by the
Coalition’s hospital scheme. One

writer likened the legislature’s an-.

tics to “a low-calibre product of
Hollywood.” — -

@ Opponents ofeincreases began
going into court and paying fines
in order to get their complaints
aired in public. A brother and
sister, George Nuhn, 21, and Ha-
zel, 26, of 3451 Commercial, were
fined $5 for failure to pay prem-
iums. Said Nuhn: “I feel it is
my duty to object on behalf of
all citizens.” (“You should have
used your vote at election time,”
said the magistrate. “I. was _too
young,” pointed out Nuhn.)

The upsurge of protest against
the hospital scheme shows that
it is not yet too late to force the
government to rescind the in-
crease or resign — but the Coal-
ition’s announced intention of
rushing the session to @ close
on April 15 makes it a race against
time. :

peace leader, who will afterwards speak in a number of.
Canadian cities.

Letters being received by the
‘Canadian Peace Congress, it was
reported, are from all provinces,
including major cities and rural
areas. They cionsist of messages
of support, proposals for the As->
sembly agenda, and invariably
are filled with suggestions for
greater effort to organize public
sentiment for peace. A spontan-
eous expression of the feelings of
‘the man in the street, they are
signed by veterans, trade union-
ists, church members, ministers,
officials of mumerous organiza-
tion's, and others.

A number of letters in reply -

to the Assembly Call snggest a
national plebiscite in which the
people of Canada would have the
opportunity to record their senti-
ments about the negotiation of a
Big Power Peace Pact, supported
by Canada, “The men framing our
foreign policy,’ a Wancouverite
writes, “‘vould be surprised at
the public response.” f

From Calgary, Alta., a veteran
clergyman says in reply to the
Peace Asembly Appeal that the
Church should beware of being
“misled by the big interests.” He
adds the hope, as a retired min-
ister of the United Church, “that
the Church will line up solidly
behind the peace movement.

A French-Canadian bushworker
at Port Arthur, Ont., returned the
Call to a National Assembly with
the comment: “In my opinion war
would bring our working people
nothing . but, privations, misery,
death and orphans ... As a work-
ing man I stand for peace, and
detest those who would lead us
into another war. Our order of
the day should be: ‘A bas la
guerre!’ Down with war!”

From Pelly, Sask., a westerner,

writes: “We in this part of the
country are interested in Point 8
(of the World Peace Congress
Appeal to the UN). We would
like to see Our country open
trade relations with all countries
in the world, on a barter basis,
on Canada’s own initiative in-

MRS. TILLIE ROLSTON, MLA

Protest speaker

Mrs. Tillie Rolston, Conservative

MLA for Vancouver-Point Grey”

who last week broke with the Coal-
ition government over the issue of
higher hospital insurance pret

iums, will be one of the speakers—

at a protest rally to be held in Re
gent Theater, North Burnaby, Su

day, April 15, 8 p.m. The meeting”

will be sponsored by Burnaby Ci

tizens’ Committee organized this —

week at a meeting called to protest
amendments to Hospital Insult

ance scheme...The meeting, held

in Capitol Hill Community Hall
and addressed by Mrs, Jean Bird
and Harold Pritchett, adopted #
resolution calling on the Coal-
ition government to withdraw its
amendments »r submit the issue

to the people in an, election by —

resigning office,

: ae
stead of ‘under’ the dictates of
U.S. policy.”

Another letter from Britanni@
Beach, B. C., says: “I believe in
the moral right of fighting 1
lasting peace. It is a fight direch”
ly connected with the right 0!
free expression and the right 4
work for a better world for all.

——_J OO
’

/

fo) — Co)

ono moe moeI0 10
PACIFIC TRIBUNE — APRIL 6, 1951 — page

ALL PACIFIC TRIBUNE READERS ARE —
. INVITED TO A ~ . v

CONCERT.
AND SOCIAL EVENING

: in honor of ; ge,
Tom McEwen
EDECOR Ob TH -PACTRTC TRIBUNE

on the occasion of his

60th BIRTHDAY 4

Friday, April 6, 8 p.m.

PENDER AUDITORIUM
339 W. Pender

‘

a

ono—————10F5

oe OOO IO OMIO