-Ruddell asks city council support

for public owners

The BCElectric, driving for higher
electric and gas rates and 15-cent transit
fares, got a rough going over by Elgin Rud-
dell, representing Civic Reform Association,
at a meeting of Vancouver city council’s fin-
ance committee on Monday this week. Rud-

He rapped

CITY’S DOPE PROBLEM

Drug addicts require
treatment, not prison

By BERT WHYTE

Sure, the cops had knocked off
Plenty of pushers over the week-
end, but Mickey the Mole knew
Larry was still on the outside,
Going business at the old stand.

urrying up the alley half a
block off Main Street, he glanced
furtively over his shoulder, then
tapped on the weather-beaten
tenament door, waited a moment,
then rapped hard, three , times.
The door opened and he stuttled
side.

Upstairs, in the dingy room,
Mickey flung himself down on
the unmade bed and begged
Larry to hurry. “My guts are

_ freezing, Larry. Fix me, kid,
fix me.” While he was talking
through dry lips his hands were

_ busy, sliding his worn braces

Off his shealders and using
them to bind his left arm tight-
ly, just above the elbow. “Hit

, mie, for Christ’s sake, hit me.”

Larry, the pusher, who wasn’t

- On the habit, smiled coldly. ‘Sure,
Kid, I'l hit you,” he said, pouring
three grains of heroin into a
bent spoon. He added half an
€ye dropper of water and a small

Wad of absorbent cotton, lit. a’

Match with his thumbnail and
held it under the spoon to heat
the,mixture ‘to body temperature.

Tt took two matches to melt the.

Stuff.

Mickey the Mole was fading |

Out. Ice worms were crawling in
his stomach, his bowels were fill-
Cd with ice cubes, he was freez-
Ang to death.

Larry probed with the needle,
trying to find the Mole’s shrunk:

€n vein. Then, with professional

Skill, the injected the charge.
It didn’t take long for it to
hit. A flush ‘appeared in Mic-
Key’s sallow cheeks, his eyes
Contracted and began _ to
Sparkle. The big drive melted ~
the ice in his bowels, sent a
Warm glow clean down to his
toes. In a few minutes he sat
_ Up, feeling normal again. Not
Ncrmal, better than normal.
He felt super. He felt that this
Was his night do something
big, Perhaps knock over that
drug store he’s been casing for
8 week out.on Kingsway. For
_ tmorrow he’d need ten bucks
for another lift ... . and there
Would be many mcre tomor-
ROWS Sok h4: :
43 * * Anges ea
«Vancouver is a heroin town.
f all the nacroties used by drug

| Addicts, heroin is the most habit-
_ 7*0rming and ‘the most dangerous.

And Vancouver has more heroin

_  8dd’cts than any city in Canada.

_ Weekend headlines in the daily
_ Press reported numerous arrests
_.0f “junkies” and “pushers” in a
combined RCMP and city police
‘ arive to “smash the illegal trade”
_ 1 Vancouver. But are the pol’ce

| S0ing to be any more successful

y this. time than they were in the

Sw

past? Will the roundup of a few
dozen victims and small-time
pushers halt or even appreciably
slow up the dope traffic? Is
there a Mr. Big. in the background
who will escape scot free, while
his victims take the rap?

Police procedure is to treat °

drug addicts as criminals. They
face a judge, get a term in
jail—and eventually are releas-
ed, completely uncured. The
tapering-off process used in our
prisons rarely, if ever, breaks
the habit. -
What’s the answer? Tiere
isn’t any easy one. The peddling
of drugs-is increasing in Canada;
pick up Mr. Big in Vancouver
and another Mr. Big will step in
and take his place. As William
Z. Foster says, “It is just one
more of the insoluble problems
of a decadent capitalist system.”

. * * x

Foster, in his book Pages From
a Worker’s Life, told of drug
addicts he met in the New York
pen.tentiary: :

‘Women, food, drink, theatre,
the usual joys of life mean
very little to the heroin user.
One day this was graphically
illusirated. Nearby lies City
Island, where were anchored
many palatial yachts, includ-
ing Morgan’s and Astor’s. On
this day a big steamer yacht,
after loading aboard a. gay
party, headed away tcwards
the sea. A prisoner, eying it
enviously, said, ‘Jesus, I’d like
to be on that one. TIl bet
‘there’ll be plenty of wine,
women and song.’ Whereupon
a junkie in our farm gang look-
-ed at him scornfully and _ re-
marked, ‘Listen, do you know
what Vd like? If we were all
on that yacht together you
‘guys could enjoy yourselves in
the swell cabins with the fine

' dames and booze and grub;

but give me plenty of heroin
and you could put me down in
the held alone, in: the filthy
bilge or anywhere, and I’d have
a much better time than you.’
Every junkie would agree with
that sentiment.”
x x ok
William Z, Foster doubts if the
drug traffic can be halted this
side of socialism, but he does
conclude that “to make headway
against, the ‘terrible drug-taking
evil, the basic thing to do is to
treat the addicts upon the basis
of hospitalization, rather than of
‘mprisonment.”

When will our federal gov-
ernment wake up to this men-
ace to cur country’s youth
(half of the drug addicts start
using drugs at the age of 17)
and begin to deal with the prob-_

Jem scientifically? When will

judges on the bench realize that
drug addicts are sick people
who require curative care in
hospitels, mot cells in prisons.
oy penitentiaries?

Resignation asked

Demand for resignation of
acting chairman D. K. Penfold
of the Public Utilities Commis-
sion will be made to Premier
Byron Johnson by the 3,000-
member Street Railwaymen’s
Union because of statements
Penfold recently made urging
city councils to fight against
union wage increases that
“might lead to higher utility
rates.”

MacLeod fells
Slory of visit
fo Sovief Union

PORT ALBERNI, B.C.

Alistair MacLeod, trade union
delegate from the Nanaimo area
to the Soviet Union recently,
spoke of his experiences to an
audience of 150 people in Eric
Graf Hall here on Sunday this
week.

“I visited the Soviet Union to
learn the truth about that coun-
try, as the Canadian people are
daily subjected to a barrage of
anti-Soviet propaganda from the
press, radio and platforni,” he
said. :

Commenting on the trade union
movement in the USSR, the found
that 97 percent of the workers
are. organized into 66 national
unions,with a combined member-
ship of 30,000,000. “This com-
prises the largest trade union
centre in the world,” said Mac-
Leed. “The unions are run de-
mocratically, the. leadership be-
ing elected by two-thirds major-
ity vote, subject to recall by-a
simple majority. Unions under
socialism play an important part
in the administration of indus-

in
try.

Dealing with construction, he
referred to the great Stalin pro-
ject—a system of canal building
which will link the Don and Vol-
ga and reclaim millions of acres
of waste-land.

“The thing uppermost in the
minds of the Soviet people is
peace,” Macleod — concluded.
“Everywhere IE went, among
.the people and ameng the
leaders there was a fervent
desire for peace and friendly

relations with all countries.”

in Canada.

onto, $3.57; Montreal,
Winnipeg, $4.07.

“The most obvious reason for
high costs in Vancouver is the
heavy load of interest and in-
come tax resulting from the
BCElectric private mcnopoly
set-up. eo

“In 1950, BCER interest, divi-
dends, income tax and surplus
amounted to $10,262,541. If re-
cent rate revisions enable the
company to earn its ‘fair return’
of 5.8 percent of the rate base,
the total for this year will be
$15,000,000. If the company’s
present application for a ‘fair re-
turn’ of 7.5 percent is allowed,
the burden of ‘financial costs will
amount to $21,000,000. i

“By .comparison, the Quebec
Hydro pays $3,025,000 interest on
a funded debt of $184,000,000 —
which is greater than the BCElec-
tric’s total investment.

“Similarly, the Ontario Hydro
last year reported total financial

costs of $16,792,596 on an invest-
ment of $722,370,178 ~~ that is
$5,000,000 less financial cost than
the BCER, with four times 'as
great an investment.*

“The Ontario and Quebec
hydro-electric systems can do
this because they are publicly
owned—-they can borrow money
on the credit of the provincial
government, thereby escaping
| high interest charges and income

$4.33;

tric rates.

“We propose, therefore, that
rather than allow the BCE to
add another $6,000,000 to its
financial charges at this time,
the provincial government. be
asked to re-open the question
of public ownership of the
BCElectric.”

|. Chairman J. W. Cornett leaned
hack in his chair and said: “Well,
now, in 1946 the Hart govern-
ment said the province might
consider taking over the BCElec-
tric. Maybe costs would be lower
but I have my doubts. It seems
to me governments these. days

interfere too much with private
enterprise. TI don’t know, but
there seems to be an astounding
amount of government control
everywhere. Astounding.”
' Sard Alderman George Miller,
who likés-to be called “the watch-
dog of the treasury”: “The BCE
pays a lot of taxes, you know,
Mr. Ruddell,.”

Ald. Birt Showler, trying to
achieve profundity: “If the BCE

up of BCER

Ss
dell presentel a brief calling for public
ownership of the BCElectric.
the proposed fare hike, ridiculed the com-
pany’s claim that it loses money on transit
operations, and presented figures showing
that Vancouver citizens pay moré for elec-

tricity than residents in any other large city

“The comparison of rates to domestic
consumers for typical consumption of 300
kilowatt hours is as follows,’ said Ruddell.
“Vancouver, $7.

52; Regina, $6.85; Tor-

didn't pay those ‘taxes, some one
else would have to.”

A question from Ald. Halford
Wilson: “Now, Mr. Ruddell, if
the BCE was taken over, just
how would, you propose to oper-
ate it?”

Replied Ruddell: “I can only
give my views. The most effee-
tive operation of this kind In
Canada is the Ontario Hydro
Commission. It generates, oper-
ates the main distribution lines
and sells power to the munici-
palities at wholesale rates. The
municipalities do the retailing to
the consumer, so to speak.

“As for the transit system, the
Gilman report, which I am sure
you gentlemen are familiar with,
put forward some excellent pro-
posals; it envisaged the creation
of a Vancouver and a Victoria
utility board. But the main pro-
position I want to press for here
is action to have the provincia]
government take over the BC-
Electric.”

After further argumentation,
council members appeared to be
trapped ‘by Ruddell’s facts and
figures, and did a fast bit of side-
stepping.

“If only the federal govern-
ment would make a special in-

tax. This in turn allows them to |
sell electricity at half the BCElec-. |

come tax exemption for the BC-
Electric ....” said Ald. Miller.

“No chance of that,” said Rud-—

| dell. “If they gave special privil-

eges to the BCE, the BCTele-
phone and CPR and other would
immediately want the same =
privileges.”

But council members had found
the “out” they were seeking and
used it to end the debate by
agreeing to take up the question
of federal taxes re private-mon-
opoly enterprises at the annual
meeting oz mayors. ;

Then they moved. on to the
next point on the agenda.

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JANUARY 25, 1952 — PAGE 3