Review —

Paddle no
' solution

ike the oldtime medicine man
jon the village square extoll-
® the virtues of snake oil as a
retire cure for every human
from dandruff to fallen arches,
@ncouver’s morning journal
endishes its editorial paddle
ey time a handful of our more
Mberant youth run a bit wild.

‘The youthful fracas last week
1 Granville Street easily hand-
d by a few policeman, was all
vat was needed to inspire an-
ther literary gem on ‘‘Paddle
de Punks.” “Punkdom,” ponti-
= the editor, ‘‘will disappear
fe

ore the threat of a strong right
tm.’ ,

p By a very few such a “solu
fon’ to juvenile delinquency
May be considerd quick and
sy. Unfortunately however, as
-: years of experiment has
Foved, it solves nothing. The
Muses of the:problem must be
@ckled at its roots if its evil
Hects are to be eliminated.

Greater opportunities and fa-
dlities for working off youthful
Agor in an enlightened direction
S what is required. As the late
N arden E. Lawes of Sing Sing
pson once observed, “‘you
a0 t tame a rat with a club,’
#0r can rambunctious young
Pople be moulded into good
ae with a leather paddle,
matter how strong the
tong right arm’’ may be.

| Paddling the punks” is no
More or less than a public ad-
1ssion of moral defeat.

=

Pacific Tribune

Published weekly at
Room 6 — 426 Main Street
Vancouver 4, B.C.
Phone: MArine 5288
Editor — TOM McEWEN
Ssociate Editor — HAL GRIFFIN
Usiness Manager — RITA WHYTE
Ff Subscription Rates:
f One Year: $4.00
a Six months: $2.25
( Canadian and Commonwealth
Pountries (except Australia): $4.00
) ne year. Australia, United States
end all other countries: $5.00 one
year.
A

,

sai - silence heals el i a hal

“e EDITORIAL PAGE

‘] NATIONALISED"

“Suezide, Anthony?”

‘Man of Destiny

patee Columbia's. self-
styled ‘‘Man of Destiny’’ has

finally spoken, and ended all

speculation. There is to be a
provincial. election on Wednes-
day, September 19.

Like a crafty veteran of the
ring, Premier Bennett doesn’t
believe in giving his opposition
too much time on the hustings.
To be exact they'll have just 35
days, including Sundays.

The premiers announcement
of the date of elections came at
the end of a fifteen minute Te
Deum on radio to four years of
Social Credit achievement. It
was a magnificant piece of dem-
agogic oratory, unmarred by any

reference to

such mundane

things as the Stewart-Cassiar

road

scandal, the Sommers

Sturdy jousting, natural re
sources giveaways or other poli-
tical trivia. Under Social Credit
B.C. was ‘‘marching forward to
her destiny’ and all Bennett
desires is a new mandate from

the people to continue leading
the parade.

Now the issue goes to the
people and Bennett, with un-
canny foresight, limits their
choice to a “‘vote for progress’
meaning Social Credit, or a vote
for ‘‘partisan politics’ meaning
the rest of us. Looks as if there
will be a lot of ‘“‘dirt’’ moved
during the next four weeks at
a lower quotation per yard than
that given by our Socred premier
in his opening election broad-
cast.

Cut traffic
death toll

YANCOUVER'S traffic death

toll already equals the 1955
total, and for British Columbia
as a whole the fatal record will
probably be trebled by the end
of the year.

Many citizens are of the opin-
ion that if the same police vigi-
lance was exercised against
reckless drivers as is given to
dishing out two-dollar parking
tickets, the accident rate could
be considerably reduced. In the
long run it might mean a few
thousand dollars less in the city’s
tax coffers, but it. would also
mean that a good many more
people, now dead or permanent:
ly injured, would still be walk-
ing our streets.

The alarming increase of auto
fatalities requires, not a noisily-
publicized police ‘‘crack-down,”’
but a serious and sustained tack-
ling of the problem. Many years
ago the noted American author,
Upton Sinclair, defined insanity
as an individual having “‘wrong
ideas about the use of an axe.”
Today he could make the same
definition—with automobile in-

stead of axes, and find proof of
this insanity in a steadily rising

death toll.

(August 9) on the source of
election slush funds, “Greenbacks
Under the Table” is a very com-
mendable document. Taken real
seriously by the electorate, it
could become a revolutionary
recipe for wringing much of the
political guff and graft out of our
“democratic” electoral system. As
such I heartly commend it to
every citizen coming in contact
with a ballot box, whether munti-
cipal, provincial or federal.

A VANCOUVER SUN editorial

The widest publication of the
sources of partisan slush funds
would be of tremendous value
in putting the average elector
wise as to precisely who and
what he or she was voting for. If
the elector knew exactly who
was paying the piper he would
know better how to evaluate the

tune when he got to the ballot
box.

The Sun editorial mentions a
few of the likely donors, B.C.
Electric, MacMillan and Bloedel,
B.C. Telephone, Crown Zel-
lerbach, etc. and poses an old
question to these Lords of the
Levee . . . “How much?” The
same question could be extend-
ed to several hundreds of the
same type of “free enterprisers,”
large and small — each of them
with their hands out for a goodly
slice of pelf, profit, preference
and prestige, in return for their
political-slush fund “investment.”

Since booze and politics in our
free-way-of-life are like Siam-
ese twins, it may be assumed
(with small fear of contradiction)
that the liquor interests have a big
say (measured by their slush con-
tributions) in determining gov-
ernment policies.

With the present Socred gov-
ernment spending money in
elections and election prepara-
tions like the proverbial drunk-
en piper, the Sun editorial spot-
lights the growing public con-
cern on the graft, corruption,
bribery and political diddling in
a governmental system which
keeps the source of its election

funds more secret than its bal-
lot box.

With a fine show of feigned
indignation Liberal hacks like
Arthur -Laing and his Tory
partners fulminate against So-
cial Credit and demand to know
where the money comes from.
To such political tribesmen the
answer shouldn’t be hard to find
— from the same source as they
got theirs when they were in a
position (politically) to deliver
the tune called for by those who
kept their election coffers full.

Touching a vital election nerve-
centre as it does, the Sun edi-
torial should have avoided uto-
pian naivete in seeking an end
to this evil. I am convinced the
millennium will be here long
before partisan slush funds come
to be regarded in law and cus-
tom “as a contribution to the
public welfare.”

Like the “muffled” CCF in the
Sun editorial, it is highly prob-
able that the LPP are also “un-
likely to be embarrassed by grand
donations” (not even from Mos-
cow), but it is certain the good
people in both organizations will
echo the sentiment, well and
timely expressed: the right to
know how much to whom and
from whom, and for what.

August 17, 1956 —PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 7