- More

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ae RAS
Women scientific
People’s Republic of Korea

research workers

in the Democratic
are shown at work making

tests on various spices. The progress in North Korea

Stands out in sharp contrast
hess in South Korea.

as

to the chaos and backward-

Writes on Congo

K. K. Johnson, Salmon
Arm, B.C., writes: In a CBC
program, Sept. 15, A. D. Dun-
ton and the reporter, Bill
Stevenson, had great fun
chuckling at the agony of the
Congo. Apart from the bad
taste of this, their stupidity
should be pointed out.

They were especially hilar-
ious over their own failure to
understand an African soldier
who had told Stevenson that
white men take money out of
banks that they did not put
in. Evidently the African,
though uneducated, was too
intelligent for them. Is there
a kind of mental blindness

which enables capitalists to

Penner tract on civic
government very timely

THE CRISIS IN MUNICI-
PAL GOVERNMENT, by Al-
derman Jacob Penner. Pub-
lished by Progress Books, for

the Communist Parity of Can-|
ada. 5 cents. Available at Peo-

Ple‘s Co-op Bookstore, 307 W.
Pender St.

It suits the purposes of big
business to spread the idea
that municipal 3 are of
Minor importance. Thus they
Work to create apathy around
Municipal elections to help
them maintain their grip over
local government.

issues

The truth of the , matter is |

that those great democratic
Issues upon which more and
the people will
@8ainst the monopolies lie at
the heart of every municipal
Election battle.

This point comes home in
Yeading the new tract which|
aS been written by Ald. Jacob
fnner of Winnipeg, and
Which will be widely distrib-
uted throughout the country
this fall by the Communist
arty.

With that thorough, unchal- |
€ngeable logic which for dec-|
ades now has been the despair

Of the reactionaries on the
Innipeg city council, Ald.
€nner exposes the domina-

tion of pig business interests
°ver the municipalities.

This, Penner shows, is the
Teason why a “staggering debt
Structure with mounting inter-
€st payments is being built up
alongside heavier real estate
8xation, until local govern-
Ments face bankruptcy.”

Productive capital in re-
Sources, industry and finance,
€ explains, is concentrated in

€ hands of corporations op-

unite |

erating on a national and in-
ternational scale, “But the sys-
tem of local government tax-
ation is still based upon real

lation to production, income,
nor real ability to pay.”

Aggravating this is “the
colossal federal spending on
armaments and military under-
takings.”

The result is that the enor-
mous burden of municipal ex-
penditures, particularly for
education, is loaded on real
estate, unrelated to ability to

| pay.
|

Ald. Penner presents a care-
fully documented case for a
democratic municipal program
which calls for “a higher rate
of taxation on industrial and
business properties . .. the
federal government assuming
the cost of education of the
six elementary grades... the
provincial governments assum-
ing at least 50 percent of the
balance of education costs.”

He discusses the problem of
traffic, of ‘widening streets,
building new bridges, con-
structing overpasses, express-
ways, perimeter roads, by-pass

roads and off-street parking
facilities,’ all of which must

be shouldered by local govern-
ments while senior govern-
ments pocket the revenues de-
rived from gasoline taxes and
motor vehicle licences.

Ald. Penner does a masterly
job in dissecting the real
causes of suburban “blight’’—
the widespread development
of slum areas in the central
and older parts of our cities.

While productive industry
find it profitable to build new

estate and the old economic re-}
: . : |
lationships, which bear no re-|

modern factories and office
buildings, the owners of older

als from housing originally in-
tended for one family into
which three or more are now
crowded. At the same time
these landlords benefit from
dropping assessment and lower
| taxes.

|

ates in every city a powerful
group of vested interests who
fight tooth and nail against
low rental housing, slum clear-
ance, and urban redevelop-
ment.

He concludes by showing
how, through the struggles of
the people, these conditions
can be changed and how our
cities could be made
beautiful places in which to
live.

Penner’s tract sets forth clear-

}

any progressive municipal pro-
gram must rest. It will help its
readers greatly to understand |

progressive candidates, and to|
see the relationship between,
ithose platforms and all the}
struggles of the (Canadian peo-
ple against the big monopolies,
and for peace and progress.

It should be added that al-
though the tract is primarily
written with a view to urban
problems, his penetrating ob-
servations on municipal finan-
cing apply with equal force in
rural areas as well.

valuable weapon to be widely
used in the course of the civic
elections which will be taking
place across the country this

fall. (N.C.)

Penner shows how this cre-|

truly |

| forget

unearned

|}even while living on it
so, Dunton and _  Stevenso
have a bad case of this dis-

| ease,

)

|

|

}

Despite differing conditions|
from one city to another, Ald. | a

ly the foundations on which|§

the platforms put forward by}:

Here, then, is really an in-|.

The whole Congo affair has
provided valuable evidence of
the utter dishonesty of our
usual sources of information
on world news. All the re-

resources of the United Na-
tions were used to _ destroy
the Congo government © and

that government had nothing
but the loyalty of its people
and some slight non-military
Soviet help. Yet it lasted for

Over two months, a marvel-
lous record under the cir-
cumstances.

The Congo was represented
as deeply divided by primi-

tive tribal feuds, yet the divi- |

sions there have been artifici-
ally created by Belgium and
the U.N.

Letfer from Effie

Effie Jones, Vancouver,
writes: I feel that this is the

properties fatten on the rent-} time to propose the following

suggestion to readers of the
Pacific Tribune and other pro-
gressive people.

May I suggest our readers
instead of buying Christmas
cards to send to friends they
see and contact often, donate
the amount, however

small,

which would be spent in this |
Tribune. |

way to the Pacific

The Pacific Tribune is
anxious to publish as
many letters from its

readers as space will per-
mit. However, to ensure
that as many as possible
will have their say we ask
contributors to please
keep their letters within
200 words.

| for God to show the U.S.

;} humanity. What

BS

RR: RIVES

contriputing

peace and sociaiism.

God and the U.S.

Joe Ivens, Okanagan Land-

ment of

ing, writes in part: By radio
on Oct. 5 an announcement to
the effect that Billy Graham,
the plough-boy preacher, ask-
ed that a day be set aside for
prayer on the eve of the U.S,
elections for guidance of God.

As we all know the USS. is

a Christian country. Both
sides, Republicans and Demo-
crats, have the same brand of
Christianity. Of

of the voters are of other mys-

course, some

tical brands of and

vith no religion at all.

religion
some

But Billy’s suggestion covers

them all, which

in my opinion
puts God in a fix. He

han 7 tT
them all, even

vout Billy knows this.
favors the Republicans
then vote for them or
versa. Where do
The
the
1080 oy".

The great
jin Africa
preted the

devout Billy was
and no doubt inter-
great blessings of
the U.S. towards the African
doing everything pos-
sible to carry on the Christian-
izing of the colored peoples.
This is what Billy has in mind:

states,

com-
mon man how to vote to carry
on their hellish crimes against

a fix to put

i Godan...

Above is a new Chinese poster depicting support from all
the people and industry for carrying through agricultural

objectives.

October 21, 1960—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 9