_WEEK IN THE HOUSE

Gov't still blind to

Unemployment crisis

By BERT WHYTE

east this year’s Speech
a the Throne was gener-
oe conceded to be the dull-
‘siti ras and Opposition
See r Obert Strachan’s lead-
% beech in ‘the debate some-
ae less than spectacular
2 ner compared it to the
5 ret which didn’t get
Bae gTound) there are indi-
sak S that several burning
Soe Issues will make this
On of the legislature

of the live i j
;
year : liest ae recent

ne issues include unem-
ae ent (the No, 1 problem
cs Sa BC.); the development
Soa ro-electric power; forest
oe Sa licenses and the
= ntment of Sloan as tim-
fe ao Opening up of the
: =e peace and trade;
is a ore tax and the need.
- asic steel industry.
’ eS has already
€adlines, thanks to
Strachan’s astute move on the

Seco
2 hae day of the session. Out-
Pressure by the labor

m,
: eT (such as the send-

¥ a delegation to Vic-
ie te lobby MLAs) could
.,. 6 £overnment to take
itive action,
ae the government is ex-
a i. Sensitive on this mat-
Steshan'. shown following
ducati s Speech, when young
Son w, On Minister Les Peter-
Vote €nt on the air and de-
almost his entire time
ee of government
gettin S now proceeding, or
creat § underway, which will
. € winter employment.
lion 180M cited the $80 mil-
Spent On road construc-
during the past fiscal
the bridges opened and
: geen the work on Deas
Posed unnel and the _ pro-
the Rot tone highway to
Bropos . border at Blaine, the
oa o widening of the
Pattuy anada Highway from
& uo Bridge to the King
Tse Highway (four lanes
a lanes), the PGE ex-
n, the $50 millions spent
‘C. Power Commission,
tess eer work on forest ac-
we Oads now getting under-
ve etc.
Pend no time, however, did
co indicate any under-
crisi Ing of the gravity of the
Sa or suggest that the gov-
: ment intended to treat it
an emergency situation re-

airing a “crash program” of
action.

tion,
year,
eing

the w

yan his first “Legislature and
4” broadcast LPP provin-
os leader Nigel Morgan
in anented on this blind spot
pocred thinking, and said:
‘To you, Premier Bennett,

eC

I want to say in all serious-
ness that the vague statement
that ‘everything possible will
be done’ is just not enough!

“There are more than three
quarters of a million unem-
ployed in Canada this week;
the numbers are _ steadily
mounting. And no_ province
has been hit harder than B.C.

“National Employment Serv-
ice figures for mid-December
showed that with 459,000
working in B.C., there were
93,939 searching for jobs. In
other words one unemployed
for every six working — and
things have grown worse in
the last month, And it’s now
that the government has
chosen to cut back works and
services, instead of expanding
them to take up slack.”

LPP proposals to relieve
unemployment will be pre-
sented to MLAs this week. In
all probability the labor move-
ment will also come to Vic-
toria soon to present its pro-
gram on unemployment.

Fifty years ago, in 1908, the greater part of Fernie was destroyed by a fire which caused

damage estimated at $5 million (above). Now another fate threatens Fernie

of a ghost town.

Continued from page 1

... the fate

MINE CLOSURE

under instructions from the

legislature to give priority to

Fernie,

The argument will be heard
there, for it has been voiced
repeatedly, that there is no
market for coal.

Sam English, the Pacific
Tribune’s correspondent in
Michel, disputes this.

“There is a market for
Canadian coal in Canada,” he

LPP names Stewart
in New Westminster

WHALLEY, B.C.

Declaring that unemployment had reached the dimensions
of a national crisis, Charles M. Stewart, former Street Railway-
men’s leader, accepting the Labor-Progressive federal nomina-
tion for New Westminster, told an LPP nominating conference
here last Sunday that he intended to make this the central

issue of his election campaign.

“Unemployment is the in-
evitable consequence of Lib-
eral and Conservative cold
war policies,’ Stewart said,
“Fo create favorable condi-
tions for secure employment
we need policies based on
peaceful co-existence, friend-
ship and trade with all coun-
tries. We need policies that
will lift the freezing hand of
the cold war from the coun-
try’s economy and enable
money now being squandered
on arms to be spent on homes,
hospitals, schools and roads.”

Stewart called for a new
deal for farmers who, he said,
had been “forced into a fur-
row from which they can see
no way out” by high costs,
low prices and declining mar-
kets, aggravated by Ameri-
can dumping.

“Policies of peace and trade
will help them to secure new
export markets.” he said, “but
it will take the . combined
forces of farmers and labor
to defeat the monopolies
which now extract all the
profits from the soil and leave
the farmers empty-handed,”

CHARLES STEWART

Moon jumping off
station to space

MOSCOW

A Soviet scientist, Prof. K.

Sergeyev, writing in Pravda,

sees the moon as “the main

intermediate station on the

road from the earth into the
depths of the universe,”

writes.

“In 1956, 14,915,033 tons of
coal were produced in this
country, but in the same year
Canada imported from the
U.S. 22,613,374 tons. The fig-

Uphill pleads

for action to
save Fernie

By BERT WHYTE
VICTORIA, B.C.

Before the legislature went
into session on Monday I visit-
ed Tom Uphill, the veteran
Labor member from Fernie,
in his small office. He looked
like a heartbroken man.

“T came to Fernie in 1906,”
he told me. “The very. next
day I bought a house — not
much of a house, it only cost
me $40 — and within a fort-
night I was working in the
coa] mines.

“Have you ever been in
Fernie? “It’s a fine town, but
it depends on coal mining
for its life, Now, suddenly, at
a moment’s notice, this Am-
erican company shuts down
the colliery and moves its op-
erations to Michel, and work-
ers who have their life savings
invested in Fernie will be
ruined.”

Later, on the floor of the

House, I heard him make an
iimpassioned plea for action
to prevent Fernie from be-
coming another ghost town.

“Something — everything
— must be done at once if
Fernie is to be saved,” Up-
hill, who has represented the
constituency in the legislature
since 1920.

The legislature’s standing
committee will give the Fernie
situation “priority” when it
makes its report later in the
session — but by that time
the damage will have been
done, and they'll be discussing
history,

ures for 1957 will show a
much greater spread as Cana-
dian. production will be fur-
ther reduced by one third.

“It should also be noted that
imports of U.S. coal increased
by four million tons between
1954 and 1956, while Cana
dian mines remained idle.

“Five mines in the Crows
Nest Pass were once the larg-
est producers in Canada, In
the week ending January 18,
Michel worked three days,
Fernie and Coleman one day,
while Blairmore and Bellvue
were closed down entirely.

“The picture is the same or
worse in Drumheller and
other camps in the United
Mine Workers’ Western Can-
ada District 18.”

It is expected that the ques-
tion of U.S. coal exports will
be raised, as well as the ex-
porting of B.C. iron ore which
could be smelted here. A
steel mill could provide a
market®for Canadian coal, and
would be the means of estab-

lishing secondary industries
creating jobs for Canadian
workers,

But the immediate, pressing
question is one for the fed-
eral and provincial govern-
ments — emergency action to
keep the mine operating while
means to secure its future are
worked out.

the
LEGISLATURE
Ee and

m.
Every Sun
LABOR-PROGRESSIVE

POINT of VIEW by
NIGEL MORGAN

January 31, 1958 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 7