ie
ie
ff
ij

As We See It

‘ Uncommon occurrence.

ds

~

-— by Tom McEwen

EN the question comes up in fed-
eral or provincial parliaments as

to whether John Doe should receive a

_ bension (any kind of pension) increase
of $1.79 the matter stirs up a great
“deal of debate. Our politicians caution ©

against “undue haste,” lament about

the “poor taxpayer,” and unload a -

Cargo of snide observations about the
evils of “the welfare state,” the loss
of our “pioneering stamina,” and the
alarming readiness of the citizenry
8enerally to rely on tthe government
for a livelihood, rather than upon
their own efforts.

These wordy debates fill up countless
Pages in Hansard, and endless columns

in the pages of the daily press. Should ~

John Doe happen to get a pension. in-

crease of $1.79 or so, after a million
. Words have been poured out, pro and

Con, our daily press, that versatile or-
$an of confusion and make-believe, will
hail this political cheese paring as an

€xample of “Canada’s great advance”

and use the event to make grist for
the old-line political’ gangup that con-
trols its editorial “opinion.”

; When however, the professional poli-
licians are getting set to give their
Wn salaries and pensions a boost, a
different atmosphere prevails. The
Cheese-paring knife used in the case
of John Doe, iis set aside, and the pork-

barrel cleaver brought out and whetted

to a good cutting edge. Gone ‘too are
the orations about the “welfare state”
and the well-feigned concern for. the
Poor taxpayer.”
; On the colossal pretext that, as par-
liamentarians, they are rendering the
Country “a great public service,” a
Stipend boost ranging anywhere from
000 up per annum is not an

nce during the past decade our par-
lamentary representatives at Ottawa,
and in some provincial legislatures,
have voted themselves a wage boost

Which would cause any “free enter-

Prise” exploiter of labor to go com-
Dletely berserk, were workers ‘to de-
Mand a like increase for their honest
*nd useful labors!

During recent weeks, with a mini-
Mum of debate and a haste ‘that was

—_—

"Ehrenburg’s appeal

HE Soviet writer Tlya Bhrenburg

. told the World Peace Council in Ber-

tn last week: “‘The Russian ‘people re-
SPect the achievements of the ‘Ameri-
yan people.

er Be assured—the people of Russia
~ © hot massing to snatch your cars

from you, nor are the people of China:

cat to take away your television
“haed people cherishes its way of
‘\83 The plain American who likes the
Merican way of life must respect the
‘anners, laws, customs and tastes of
act Peoples.
with = cannot inculcate an ideology
Taste rom. You cannot inject a
with, With a shell. You can kill a man
Dla, the germs of encephalitis or
Chee ‘but no microbe will compel @
Rigrese to think or feel like General
deway,”
the¥’ Ehrenburg then pointed out that
58 Voice of America” regularly an-
UNces that in America a “Society for

i ;
a liberation of Russia” has been
orm: :

jg 2 my country,” ‘he went on, “there
sa! and could not tbe a similar So-
<2, Lor ‘the liberation of ‘America.
Rimi et much we may desire the
the wenn of racial discrimination In
the | S,, we know ‘this depends not on
On the owth of Soviet armaments but
«J, Srowth of ‘American conscience.
Sig?» tler, too, talked of ‘liberating Rus-

Ci

‘More ‘than:

positively indecent, our MP’s at Ot
tawa rushed through a measure which
will pay all MP’s a monthly pension of
$250, after 14 years of “service” as an
MP. Aside from the fact that our
MP’s already graw quite a respectable
stipend for the ardorous task of sit-

‘ting on ‘their beamends about eight

or nine months in the year, this addi-
tional pension of $250 a month will
undoubtedly provide a greater incen-
tive for them to remain sitting there.

Now, we are not complaining about
this $250 a_month MP pension plan,
although for some MP’s we know, it
is a very high price by any standard
of reckoning. What we are complain-
ing about, is how. the same people who
vote ‘themselves a pension of $250 per
month square this with 'the miserable
cheese-paring pensions handed out to
iour senior citizens, to many thousands.
of our war veterans and their depen-
dents, to broken ‘and disabled workers,
to widowed and deserted mothers, left
with a family to care for. In the
struggle for “life, liberty and the pur-
suit of happiness” the MP’s decree
that for them it requires a minimum
of $250 a month after 14 years’ “'ser-
vices” ‘they have already ‘been. well
paid for—but for the aged, widowed,
disabled and orphaned, one-fifth or
Jess of that amount per month is suf-
ficient.

We note that quite a large number
lof ‘these MP’s who voted. themselves
this ‘tidy handout, were the same lads
who orated long and loudly about the
“welfare state,” the “growing depen-
dence upon government,” the expect-
ancy on the part of the people “of
something for nothing,” when thé
plight of John Doe was before the
House. On this occasion ‘they kept
their traps shut, and voted “vea” with-
cut the prod of the party whip.

No, we're not complaining. We think
the amount just about right to meet
the needs of old age ‘pensioners, ‘war
veterans, widows, disabled workers.
But, like countless thousands of other
(Canadians, we resent the discrepancy.
The gap is too wide and the political
stench too high. It\is pork-barrel poli-
tics of a very low order—a crude car-
ricature of the Harry Truman “mink-
coat-deep-freeze” corruption, eating at
the vitals of ‘Canadian democracy.

These MP’s should be faced with a
“rolling” job when they return to their
home territory—either rolling the leg-
jitimate pensions of John Doe forward
—or rolling their own back, so ‘that
some semblance of equality will be
established. Common decency demands
nothing less!

This is the time of year when the
labor movement (theoretically speak-
ing) goes into the “hot weather dol-
drums”—when the idea gets around
that there’s no particular need at the
moment to get into a sweat about any-
‘thing. *

Nothing could be wider of the mark.
With nearly 40,000 workers on strikt
in B.C. alone; with 'the Yankee war-
mongers and their yesmen in Ottawa
planning to extend their mad war ad-
ventures in Asia and Europe; with the
political’ setup in our own province
reaching the crisis stage (thanks ‘to
the now thoroughly discredited Tories

and Liberals), and with the commer: .

cial press pouring out confusion in
greater volume ‘than ever before—how.
can anyone say we're in the summer
“doldrums”? ~

The moral to this story is ‘obvious.
With the rise in Summer ‘temperature
we've got to boost Pacific Tribune cir-
culation. Get new readers, hold onto
the old ones: Get 'the PT into the hands
and homes of workers!

Let’s go, and forget about ‘the “dol-
drums.”: That's a luxury’ workers can-
not afford.

CONFUSION, COLLUSION AND CONCLUSION x

os

"And dont go Si

thinking things ©
about = friend :

Negotiate now

REMIER BYRON JOHNSON’S caretaker cabinet refuses to act on union appeals
to step in and attempt to end the strike situation which is paralysing this
province. Lumber barons and the big contractors reject all offers to meet rep-
resentatives of the woodworkers and carpenters at the bargaining table in a
sincere effort to reach a satisfactory settlement. :
This adamant refusal on 'the part of big business and the cabinet to take
action in a situation which is perilling the economic wellbeing of our province
reveals how far they are prepared to ‘go in an effort to smash trade unionism and

reduce workers’ living standards.

Lumber tycoons and big building contractors made fabulous profits in the

post-war era, during a period of expanding markets.

Now that the market

situation has deteriorated, they refuse to be content with “normal” profits, and
want to continue piling up super-profits at the expense of 'the workers who created

their wealth.

Speedy solution of the strike situation iis essential.

That solution requires

government action 'to force employers to reopen negotiations with the unions
concerned. A rising public pressure directed against Premier Johnson and his
cabinet can prod the government into motion. -

They forget the people —

FTER considerable recrimination the

(House of Commons has just passed.

its Redistribution Bill and sent it up
to the Senate.

Under the redistribution B-C. will
have four new seats, 22 instead of 18,

and the Mackenzie district in the North-

west Territories, added to the Yukon
before the last federal election, will be
constituted as a separate constituency:

-The former Yale riding thas been di-
vided to form Okanagan-Revelstoke

and Okanagan-Boundary ridings, Burn-—

aby-Coquitlam and Burnaby-Richmond
will replace the present Burnaby-Rieh-
mond riding and two other new con-

stituencies Ihave ‘been created, Van-

couver-Kingsway and Esquimalt- Saan-
ich. :

‘No one will deny that British Colum-
bia is entitled to greater representation,
jn ‘the House of Commons. And judg-

A damning admission
‘gal ea have a particular inter-

est in the admission extracted from
Prime Minister Winston Churchill that
the main points of Defense Minister
(Lord Alexander’s report on Korea and
the Far East to the British parliament
were censored by General Omar Brad-
ley, U.S. chief of staff. And had it
not been for Lord Alexander’s confid-
ing to a Canada ‘Club meeting in Lon-
don a “secret” he had been asked not
to mention in the House of Lords,
Churchill might not have been com-

- pelled to make this damning admission.

For the Canadian as for the British
people this is a warning, an alarming
indication of how far their sovereign
rights, their national independence,
have ‘been betrayed by their govern-
ments to predatory American imperial-
ism.

This is the real menace to our peace
and independence, against which all
patriotic Canadians can find common
cause for united struggle.

‘ing ‘by the tremendous protest vote in
last month’s provincial election, ‘the
majority of the people are equally con-
vineed of the need for new’ represen-
ttatives pledged to fight in the people’s

. iintterests.

; \

Nothing was more contemptible or
futile than the elaborate manoeuvering
of Ralph Campney, Liberal MP for
Vancouver Centre, and Tom Goode,
‘Liberal MP for Burnaby-Richmond, to
ensure that however constituency boun-
daries were defined along whatever
‘impractical geographical lines, they
must be drawn to their own political
advantage. ‘

: Their approach to this, as to all other
issues, without regard for the people
offers a certain guarantee that, no mat-
ter how constituency lines are drawn,
the people will throw ‘them out as
soon as they ‘get the opportunity.

Liberal Premier Byron Johnson and
Conservative leader Herbert Anscomb
also thought that by altering election
procedures they could win re-election
without regard for policies and people.
They are sadder if not wiser men today.

Pacific

TRIBUNE

Published Weekly at Room 6 - 426 Main
Street, Vancouver 4, B.C.
_ Tom McEwen, Editor
Hal Griffin, Associate Editor
Elgin Ruddell, Business Manager
Subscription Rates:
Canada and British Commonwealth
_ countries (except Australia)
One Year: $2.50 .... Six Months: $1.35
Australia, United States and all other
~ eountries
One Year: $4.00 Six Months: $2.50
Printed by Union Printers Ltd.,
650 Howe Street, Vancouver 1, B.C.
Authorized as second class mail,
Post Office Dept., Ottawa.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JULY 11, 1952 — PAGE 5