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By ISRAEL
EPSTEIN

HE so-called British dollar
crisis, which has brought

Buitain’s Foreign Secretary Ern-
est Bevin and economic czar Staf-
ford Cripps to Washington with
hands outstretched, is really a

Crisis of the whole private owner-
ship monopoly system.

In its youth, this system was

known as free enterprise or com-.

petitive industrial capitalism. A
fairly widespread profit motive
Was its prime mover. No factory-
made article could be produced
some em-
Ployer or merchant could make a
profit on the deal. Profit, not
- Supply and demand, determined
What was made, and how much.

This was proved by recurrent
slumps, when food was left to
tot and goods stayed in ware-
houses at precisely the times when
‘Most people went hungry and un-
‘clothed—because they could not
pay a profit-yielding price.

Today, as any ex-independent

_ Corner grocer now behind a chain _

store counter can tell you, the old
free enterprise is practically dead.

Production and distribution in
Many countries are still moved on-
ly by profit—but by the profit
of a very few instead of a good
number. The average small manu-
 facturer or merchant is not even
allowed to try for a profit unleis
some bank finds it’ profitable to
lend him money, or some national
brand manufacturer to give him
an agency or sub-contract. -

This is known as monopoly, or
finance capitalism. Under it, when
the big fish have eaten the little
ones, the biggest ones start on. the
merely big. And depressions are
bigger too. Instead of single
trades, or at most nations, they
-affect the whole free enterprise
Orde 4.4

Under gathering world depres-
sion ,clouds today, the Bevin-
Cripps pilgrimage to Washington
is an attempt by a shrinking Mr.
Big to seek better merger terms
from victorious, but — uneasy,

_ Mr. Bigger.

In the time-honored, | stern-
faced banker’s way, Mr. U.S.
_ Bigger tells hat-in-hand Beaten

British Big that he had better pay
his help less and make them work
harder if he wants more credit.

In the equally time-honored
way of the debtor, the British

half wheedle, half threaten that
all busines will go to the devil
if terms are too harsh, and even
Bigger himself won’t escape the
consequences. Particularly as
‘some other fellows across the
street, the Russians, Chinese and —
assorted east Europeans, have
started a cooperative that asks
no bank loans and wants to make >
things for use with no profit to
_ anyone, Big, Bigger or even Small.

If Big and Bivger fight each
other too hard, the British say,
these subversive characters may
‘ ee \. *

succeed. Worse yet,
follow their example.

U.S. threatens, Britain pleads, Canada chisels -
capitalist crisis grows in own contradictions

others may

There is no mutual love nor

mutual trust in this horse-trading.
Washington has long told the
British that if they will ‘‘sharply
reduce the price of goods they

want to sell,’’ America might buy
such goods for dollars (New
York Herald Tribune, quoting
Ambassador Averell Harriman,

June 5).

The British fee replied that
they don’t believe it because U.S.

customs duties on woollen goods

already amount to 50 percent,
and American business is asking
even higher tariffs to keep out
other British goods (New York
Times, July 12).

They threaten further that if
Britain does not get dollars un-
conditionally, she will have to cut ,

her own imports from U.S. man-
ufacturers, who will then “scream
discrimination’ (New York
Times, July 12).

Changing the subject, the Brit
ish say that if they don’t get dol-
lars quickly this might “impair
Britain’s ability to continue safe-
guarding joint British and U.S.
interests in Hongkong and the
Middle East; a depression in Ma-
laya, resulting from reduced U.S.
purchases of tin and_ rubber,
might open the door to more social
discontent and communism.”

This means, briefly, that un-
less the British are paid to do
police work, the natives in these
countries might take possession of
their own natural resources for
their own benefit, instead of being
whipped into working for coolie
wages for the profits of Messrs.
Bigger and Big.

A voice from U.S. Bigger’s
side of the table reminds the
British that they aren’t even Mr.
Big anymore, and its not up to
them to decide what’s best. .

The Population Reference Bur-
eau of Washington, according to

the New York Times on Septem-

ber 6, thinks as follows:

“There can be-no permanent
solution of Britain’s problem ex-
cept by migration of ... a sur-
plus population of 15 millions

. to the thinly inhabited coun-
ices (This) will save the
eta: people billions of dol-
lars in capital and natural re-
sources (and) help protect the
U.S. on at least three sides in
case of war.”

From the sidelines of the ar-
gument, a New York Times
Washington correspondent wor-
ried as long ago as June 21:

“The Soviet Union . . . has
contended from the first that cap-
italist economies, ultimately will
be the victims of self-induced ec-
onomic depressions. The fear is
that this Marxist prophecy may
come a litile too close to the fact.”

- movie,

Mel Colby

HESE are the hey-days for
unemployed renegades. Any-

one who once had a nodding
acquaintance with a Communist
can'step up to the witness stand
and “reveal” all. Or sign a con-
tract giving a national maga-
zine first rights to all “confes-
sions”; or endorse a face cream
advertisment swearing that con-
tinuous use of the product will
prevent the skin from becoming
RED. :

‘The movies, of course, are
never far behind, and we notice
that one of MHollywood’s cul-
tural sewers has prepared an

‘indecency called I Married A

Communist, an epic whose ad-

mission price should be restrain-
ed to one stomach pump. The
however, has aroused
our ire to the point where we
intend to throw caution to the
winds and publicly reveal the
confession of Dolores Snagsby,
a piece of literature | aptly en-
titled “I Married A \Conserva-
tive.” Movie and radio rights
are open to the highest bidder.

Mrs. Snagsby’s unabridged tes-

timony is as follows:
r ) *

HEN TI first married J. K.
Snagsby, I didn’t know he
was a Conservative. I must ad-

| MARRIED A CONSERVATIVE

mit quite frankly that we didn’t
discuss politics during the first
mad, passionate weeks we were
together, although I do recall
now that he once said some-
thing about having a brother
with two heads.

When I look back I realize
that J.K.. was always a little
secretive. He was never frank,
for instance, about what he did
for a living and would answer
my inquiries by casually kick-
ing me on the shins. 4

Love is blind, however, and
I refused to recognize all of
the sinister portents which
swept around me daily. I admit
I was a little nonplussed on the
occasion that he broke my jaw
for remarking that I thought
George Drew knotted his cravat
in bad taste; but when my hus-
band sorrowfully explained that
he had intended to take off his
brass knuckles before striking
me, I forgave him and urged
him not to go home to his
mother,

‘Perhaps my suspicions should
have been aroused when I
heard J. K. bitterly denounce his
father as a Communist because
he argued in favor of the eight-

‘

The confessions of Dolores Snagsby

hour day. Or perhaps I should
have suspected his political
creed when I heard him urge
the building of a shrine in hon-
or of Simon Legree; but as I
said before, love is blind.

When TI look back now I
realize it was the little things
that slowly caused me to realize
I had married a Tory. By them-
‘selves those little things didn’t
seem very important at the
time, but taken altogether and
gauged clearly and calmly, they
added up to the horrible truth.

What would you do if you
suddenly discovered you had
married a Conservative? I tried
to face the issue firmly, al-
though at the time the shock
was such that it was difficult
to think in a coherent manner.
“J.K.,” I said to the man I had
once adored, “is it true that
you are a Tory?”

“Of course,” was his brutal
reply. “Do you think poh had
married an angel?”

“But J.K..” I pleaded. “Isn’t
there some decent way you
could a living, forging

cheques or burning down build-
ings, or something?”

“Don't be silly, gal,” was his
testy answer. “You'll get accus-
timed to the idea of being mar-
ried to a Tory. Just pretend
that you never found out, and
if your family makes inquiries
stick to your story that I rob
graves for a living.” =

tions earlier I might have spar-

It was too late, however. I
found that the hot flame of love
had burned itself out. When I
told Snagsby that I intended
to leave him he was a little
irritated and refused to stop
twisting my arm until I agreed
that I would tell our children _
that their father had gone
down with the Titanic.

Now I feel that circumstances
have released me from my
pledge to keep silent. I am tell-
ing the world the ugly story in
the hope that some other in-
nocent girl may learn a lesson
and thus be spared the same
horrible fate. In some ways, of
course, J.K. was not entirely
to blame. Looking back I real-
ize I should have asked myself
a few straightforward ques-
tions before it was too late.

1. Why did Snagsby put the
family dog on the voters’ list?

2. Why did he strike me with
the coal shovel and chide me
for being a “silly girl’ when I
asked if it wasn’t against the
law to stuff ballot boxes?

3. Why did J.K. have to get
permission from the parole
board every time he wanted to
leave town?

4. Who were those sinister-
looking men who used to sit
around the living-room reading
the Globe and Mail?

If I had asked those ques-

ed myself the tragedy of having
married a Conservative.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — SEPTEMBER 16, 1949 — PAGE