FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES

Democratic policies
brought no landslide

RES OENT: Eisenhower said he
was going to the electorate to
win a vote of confidence for his
program. Instead, he got a vote
of non-cenfidence. The voters re-
buffed his appeal for a Repub-
lican Congress.

Republican setbacks were due
chiefly to unemployment and
economic discontent in such in-
dustrial states as Pennsylvania,
Illinois and Michigan — and to
the protest by workers and hard-
pressed small farmers against the
big business policies of the Eisen-
hower administration, against the
callous attitude to the problems
of the people typified by Charles

E. Wilson’s now notorious dog

fable.

This protest against the Eisen-
hower administration was suf-
ficient to cost the Republicans
control of Congress and the loss
of eight governors. It resulted
in toppling the entrenched Dew-
ey machine in New York, and in
defeating that Eisenhower , stal-
wart, Homer Ferguson, of Michi-
gan. With California an excep-
tion to the rule, the big business
crowd in Washington suffered
important setbacks in major in-
dustrial states.

But the protest of the people
did not achieve its potential. The
outcome was considerably closer
than might have been anticipated
from earlier results in Maine,
New Jersey and Wisconsin.

5°3 os 03
Why didn’t a possible anti-Re-
publican landslide materialize?
The story is sae by the old politi-

—,

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

eal adage that you can’t beat
something with nothing. The
warnings by this newspaper and
by progressive spokesmen that
the Democrats would fritter away
their opportunities if they tried
to duck the issues and failed to
put forward a clear-cut program
of their own proved all too sub-
stantial.

Democratic leaders failed to
challenge the administration’s
blustering ‘massive retaliation”
threats and its plans for interven-
tion in Indochina, failed to put
forward a program for peaceful
negotiations and co-existence with
the socialist world. “While Presi-
dent Eisenhower talked glibly
about a peacetime economy, they
urged heavier expenditures for
arms.

The result was the Republicans
were permitted to masquerade as
the peace party, were able to ex-
ploit the peace- sentiment
throughout the country and es-
pecially in Midwestern and Rocky
Mountain states.

Democratic spokesmen for the
- most part ducked the decisive is-

sue of McCarthyism and pro-

fessed to be even more anti-Com-
munist than the Republicans. The
- result—they destroyed their own
defenses against the last minute
fear-and-smear oratory of Vice-

President Nixon.

Defeat of such Republican Mc-

Carthyites as Reps. Charles Ker-
sten (Wis.), Fred Busbey (Ill.) and

-Kit Clardy (Mich.) showed that

red-baiting was far from a guar-
antee of election.” Indeed, it
showed the strong anti-McCarthy
sentiment of many voters.

ADLAI STEVENSON

But by failing to challenge Mc-
Carthyism from the outset top
Democratic strategists permitted
the Republicans to use red-bait-
ing with damaging effect in some
states such as Idaho where Glen

Taylor was decisively defeated

and in California where they knif-
ed Rep. Robert L. Condon, who
went down to narrow defeat des-
pite a hard-hitting, vigorous cam-
paign.

At a time when an aggressive
attack on the Eisenhower admin-
istration would have won warm
response from the people, Demo-
cratic leaders appealed for votes
so that they could support oe
president in Congress.

At a time when a vigorous,
fighting crusade on the issues was
imperative, they adopted a pas-
sive strategy and failed to put
forward a clear-cut program for
peace, for civil liberties, jobs, for
aid of small farmers, for full
citizenship rights for the Negro
people. Indeed, they permitted
the president to get away with
demagogic appeals to the Negro
people by their failure to fight
on civil rights issues and by con-

‘tinued: flirtation with Southern

Dixiecrats.
% % $e

The 1954 elections showed that
the Eisenhower “Cadillac Cab-
inet” can be ousted in 1956 and
replaced with an administration
responsive to the will of the peo-
ple. But they also showed it
takes a fighting campaign, a posi-
tive, forward-loking program and
independent political action to
turn the promise. into reality. '

To help organize and unite the
people for such a campaign and
such a program is now the re-
sponsibility which faces labor,
progressives and the Negro peo-
ple as they look frward with con-
fidence to the new legislative and
political battles ahead.

*@ Condensed from an editorial

in the San Francisco Daily
People’s World.

OPEN FORUM

School planning

Dr. JOSEPH BLUMES, Van-
couver, B.C.: The provincial min-
ister of education, Hon. Ray Wil-
liston, recently stated that school
planning in B.C. is “in a bad jam”
because of the climbing birth-
rate in this province. This. situa-

. tion will logically have its most

serious effect right here in the
city of Vancouver where the larg-
est number of B.C. schoolchildren
are to be found.

What is theeschool building sit-
uation in Vancouver?

Last year Vancouver voters ap-
proved the sum of $19,600,000 for
school construction for the five
year period 1954-59. One would
expect that this money should be
spent at the rate of close to

$4,000,000 per year. However, up
‘to August 31 of this year only

$200,030 of the money voted in

December 1953 had been paid out

on completed school buildings.
All the rest of the monies spent
on new school projects this year
came from sums approved by the
voters from 1945 to 1952.

A year ago I disclosed that half
of all the monies voted for school
construction in Vancouver had
not yet been turned into new
schools and classrooms. The
school board claimed that it was
not “sitting” on the money; that
it was all “committed” for new
school projects. My criticism,
however, was that schools were
not being built fast enough or
with the greatest economy.

This has been proven by the
fact that school construction is
going on this year twice as fast
as last year but still using monies
approved prior to December 1953.

It is encouraging that in yield-
ing to public pressure the school
board was able to open 143 new
classrooms this year to the end of
October, compared to 70 new

classrooms opened during all or

1953.

However, even the present rate
of school building is not good
enough.

If Vancouver School Board had
avoided the building bungling of
previous years, a great deal of
money would have been saved on
construction costs and city schools
would not have suffered from
chronic overcrowding and swing-
shifts.

But Vancouver schools are still
the most crowded in Canada and
a great deal more remains to be
done.

Vancouver citizens voted $19,-
600,000 for new schools last year.
The school board must see to it
that this money is used efficient-
ly and expeditiously. We should
be able to avoid unnecessary ex-
penditures such as $30,000 or
more to “sell” last year’s money
bylaw to the voters. We should
be able to find even more econ-
omical ways of raising school
finances than by the present meth-

ods which produce debt charges
in excess of $600,000.

In view of all this it is clear
than Vancouver citizens must
continue to pay close attention
to the school system and the work
of the school board. Vancouver
parents should realize that they
have a share in the responsibility
of solving the planning jam dis-
closed by the minister of educa-
tion. .

A good suggestion

READER, Vancouver, B. C.:
Now that the PT drive is over
and successful and the circula-
tion campaign is drawing to a
close — after a real hard battle
to get those 1,500 subs — maybe
it would be a good thing to start
asking ourselves some. questions.
Particularly the question: “Why
is it so difficult to get the paper
into the hands of more people?”

The principles of the Pacific
Tribune and the issues around
which it conducts such forthright
struggles should make it a paper

desired and read by every mem-

ber of the working class. .

How would the workers benefig ~
if the consistent demands of the ©

paper were met?

We would be assured jobs “for

‘all, for all time; adequate wages

\

Flashbacks |

40 years ago

(From the files of the B.C.
Federationist, November 13, 1914)
Charging that Vancouver Is-

land coal operators were violat-

ing all agreements to re-employ
miners who ended their two-year
strike on August 19, Robert Fost-
er, District 28 president of the
United Mine Workers, advised
workers “to stay away from Van-
couver Island this coming winter
unless they wish to come into a
locality where oer is starvation
existing.”

I5 years ago

(From the files of The Advocate,
November 10, 1939)

Substantiating charges made in
August 1938 by D. Godfrey Isaacs,
Oyama grower, F. A. McGregor,
commissioner of the Combines
Investigation Act, concluded that
an unlawful combine existed in
wholesale fruit and vegetable
distribution. His report was made
public by Labor Minister Norman
McLarty.

10 years ago

_ (From the files of The People,
November 11, 1944) |
President Franklin D. Roose-
velt was elected for a fourth term
with increased majorities in both
houses of the U.S. Congress.

_ material?

and controlled prices; new or bet-
ter homes, better furnishings and
better clothes; free education to
all; a national health and dental —
plan; adequate old age security;
adequate child care centres and
nurseries; adequate. health, sports
and recreational facilities.

Above all, the paper demands
peace on earth, brotherly love
and understanding amongst ali

peoples of the world, so that to-  —

gether we may prosper and lve
our lives in happiness and securi-
ty.

Now who on earth doesn’t want
these things? And yet — let’s
face it — in spite of its struggles
for all of these things which the
workers want, the paper has 4 —
small circulation. st

-Why?

It is the format? Is the staff
too small, tired and overwoiked?

Are there enough feature at
ticles? Is consideration given to
the limited vocabulary of the
people, which is roughly about
750 words?
sions and cliches used that do
not convey their meaning as they
should? e

Is there too much _ political
Are there enough ar-
ticles of local interest? Have all
the methods and avenues for
greater distribution been fully
analysed and taken advantage of?
Are we sitting on our hands too
hard and too long? Again, how
much effect does the present poli-
tical and social pressure have on
circulation?

Is it this or. is it that? Is it
all of the aboveeto some degree,
or.is it due to other factors? |

How are we going to find out
the how and the why?

Don’t you think it is about time
that a reader's -cdnference be
called, where we can have a 80

at all these questions, hot and ou

heavy, and then start from there?
What do you think?

© The Pacific Tribune would

welcome more letters from
readers dealing with ques-
tions of content and, circula-
tion. A conference of press
club representatives is pian-
ned for December and a gen-—
eral readers’ conference will
be held early in February.

‘This way to egress’

EDWARD W. GREEN, Van-
couver, B.C.: The B.C. Electric
Buzzer reports that “today, de
spite the way population. mae
‘grown in this area, transit rid’
ing has dropped by nearly 4
third from the high-water matt:
set in 1946.” :

The answer to the company’s
problem is obvious. Lower the
fares and get more passengers;
greater volume for the same OP”
erating expense. .

They are going towards the
egress rather than the entrance.

es Bs

~ALL. THE CAMERAS MUST
BE WELL HIDDEN ! I
DONT WANT THE EMPLOYEES/
TO KNOW THEYRE
BEING WATCHED !

wees
a

WE'LL KEEP ees
THE UTMOST } | CAN
SECRECY NEE

at} THE PLANT!

EVERYONE
WITHOUT THEIR
KNOWING IT!

AND BY TURNING

THESE KNOBS YOU
CAN SEE WHAT'S

GOING ON IN
ANY PART OF

Are certain expres- —