TS together these three things: The Marshall Plan for
the domination of Western Europe by Wall St.; the
Abbott Plan, which is the Canadian edition of the Marshall
Plan; The Truman (1948) Budget, which is the operating
schedule for U.S. policy.

The Marshall Plan expresses the Truman doctrine of
“containment” of Communism (read: the preservation of
capitalism, on Yankee terms.) :

The Abbott Plan depends for its success on the tieing-in
of Canadian with American economy, which means the sub-
jugation of this country’s interests to American arms in
Greece and China, or wherever people struggle for their
national and social freedom. : ;

The Truman Budget is a war budget. Over 76 cents
of every tax dollar is earmarked for war. For past and
future wars, the president asks $29 billion. For peace, he
asks $10 billion. . ‘ ;

The King government ties Canada to the tail of the
Truman-Marshall kite, © ee
- Let the warning be heeded now: to keep on this path
means war and disaster for Canada. The way to change the
Path is to prepare now to unite all the forces of labor, the
farmers and other people for removal of the King govern-
ment, es

This, the alternative path indicated by Tim Buck last
week, can lead to the defeat of the old line parties by the
election of a CCF government.

Cause for real alarm

“HE information that Canada has now more armed forces

operating in its Northwest Territories than at any time

in, the 81 years since Confederation should profoundly dis-
turb all those who work for. peace.

Before the war the King government did not consider
it necessary to have more than a few Royal Canadian
Mounted Police posts dotted about its Arctic regions to
assert its sovereignty and carry out its administrative work.
Apart from the RCMP, the Army was responsible for a
handful of Signal Corps men assigned to operate communica-
tions and the RCAF for the occasional mapping survey.

What then has changed since the war ended that the
government now considers it necessary to lavish the tax-
payers’ money on elaborate military undertakings of which
the general public knows too little? the

If it is contended that the Soviet Union poses a threat
to our vast northern regions, that contention will not stand
examination. The only covetous eyes that have ever been
cast upon these regions have been those of certain imperialist-
thinded Americans who have questioned Canada’s sovereign
right to them.

_ If it is contended that development of aviation has re-
moved the polar wastes as a barrier between Canada and
the Soviet Union, no one will seriously dispute this and,
properly bent to the strengthening of friendly relations, it
must be considered a good thing. But it should also be

pointed out that Soviet fliers like Sigmund Levanevsky |
hurdled this barrier before the war, pioneering. in the de-.

velopment of polar aviation, and the King government show-
ed no signs of the alarm it now pretends.

' Itis apparent that the King government’s “alarm” coin-
cides with the adoption of a bellicose anti-Soviet policy by
the United States. By the same token, it is clear that the
real occasion for alarm in our country is the fact the mili-
tary preparations in the North are undertaken at the dic-
tates of American brasshats who have already marked
Canada as a main battleground in the war they seek to
provoke,

The King government always refers to its military prep-
arations as being purely defensive in character. So too, did
the Germans refer to their war preparations in Europe and
the Japanese to their invasion of China. The King govern-
ment also claims that the knowledge gained in its many

“e: ercises” will . . . . Bd fe . .
x! be applied to’ civilian purposes. If this is _ ee ee ee

true, Canadians would be far more assured of its peaceful

intentions by announcement of a program to develop the .

lands and resources of the Northwest Territories in their
interests—not the interests of American corporations seek-
ing to exploit our riches and fit them in with U.S. military
plans. Such a program of peaceful economic development
would also go a long way toward assuring our northern
neighbor that we want no part of American designs against
its territory.

oe |

Se

Published Weekly at 650 Howe Street
By THE TRIBUNE PUBLISHING COMPANY LTD.
Telephones: Editorial, MA. 5857; Business, MA. 5288
Tom McEwen Editor
Subscription Rates: 1 Year, $2.50; 6 Months, $1.35.

Printed by Union Printers Litd., 650 Howe Street, Vancouver, B.C.
Authorized as second-class mail by the post-office department, Ottawa

FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 1948

i a

FAS we see it

AE} TR By Tom McEwen

UTTER at 71 cents a pound with

an “Abbott ceiling’ of 71
cents—a leaky roof at best —
projects the contentious issue of
the manufacture and sale of
oleomargarine (‘‘oleo"“ for short)
into the forefront.

Opinion on oleo is considerably
divided. Trade unions, farm or-
ganizations, and ‘public individ-
uals of one persuasion or an-
other have voiced strong oppo-
sition to “the “legalization” of
oleo. Dairy farmers have been
quite emphatic in their opposi-
tion to oleo, and the big dairy.
monopoly “free enterprisers” like
Bordens. maintain a steady high-
pressure campaign against oleo
—a fact which is highly sus-
picious to say the least.

The first reaction that comes
into the mind of a worker when
the issue of oleo comes up (the
capitalist system being what it
is) is that the dairy monopolists
having shot the price of butter
up to a prohibitive level, oleo
will become the working man’s
butter. :

One can readily imagine the
boss loggers, the mine operators
or others of those “free enter-
risers” who operate big labor
camps in their given industry,
happily substituting oleo. for
putter in their mess halls, while
keeping the board cost as is. But
‘the workers could settle this
matter though the medium of
their union, just as they have
settled a great many other
problems created for them by

‘these “free enterprise” feudal in-

dustrialists. :

One can also envisage (capi-
talism being what it is) some of
the big dairy produce distribu-
tors—yes, perhaps some of the
small retailers—seeking to palm
off a pound of oleo for a pound
‘of butter on the unsuspecting
consumer—at butter prices. Leg-
islation can be effected to take
eare of this also.

It is not difficult to under-
stand the fears of the dairy
farmers to the manufacture and
: “ sale of oleo. But
* the stark fact
remains
with butter at
72 cents or
more a pound,
/the dairy farm-
er is much
worse off than
he twas’ with

48-cent butter.
By and itarge
the dairy farm
industry is in

Tom McEwen
the vicious grip of the power-

ful dairy monopolists who set
the pace—and the price. In fact,
ity is beginning to look as.if
butter has had its day, both
as far as profitable dairy farm-

available commodity on the
‘working man’s table. A variable

Vitamin A content at 72 cents.

a pound for a family of five
with a shrinking 50-cent dollar
is definitely out. Likewise Bos-
sie’s intake of fodder and grain
at prevailing prices will compel
dairy farmers to break into the
monopoly controlled fluid mar~-
ket—or go under.
e@

E argument that oleo is a

‘poor substitute”
no longer stands up. During past
years scientific laboratory tests
have poved time and again that
oleo is just as nutritious as
butter—that its Vitamin A con-
tent is often much higher than
in butter. In the U.S. oleo man-
ufacturers are required by law
to put in a minimum of Vitamin
A units in a given weight of oleo

:

that |

for butter

the year round, while the Vita-
min A content in a similar
weight of butter during certain
months ‘of the year may be less
than one-third of that contained
in oleo.

The rich creamy-yellow color
of butter, at 72 cents a pound, is
only artificial coloring «most ‘of
the time. Unless Bossie gets a
lot of ‘good green pasture her
product is almost as white as
oleo. Coloring of oleo is taxed in
oleo-producing countries. This is
presumed to lessen its competi-
tion with, or being palmed' off as
butter.’

In my youthful days in Scot-
land. oleo was our main butter.
Some of it tasted quite good and”
some of it had the taste and ap-
pearance of inferior axle-grease.
Today in the U.S. oleo is made
from cottonseed and soybean
oils. Legislative restrictions and
taxes govern its coloring and its
use in institutions, public eating
houses, etc, Soybean preduction

in the U.S.:is rapidly catching

,up with corn and dairy farming,

and farmers as wellas others are
plugging. for the extended manu-
facture of oleo, with adequate leg-
islation governing its production
and sale,

wtesye

Anyone who thinks that the op-
position of the big dairy monopol-
ists and their political Charley
McCarthys to the manufacture
and sale of oleo is prompted by
concern for the well-being of the
farmers or the common people,
must be blessed with a mental-
ity that sees capitalism as a
benevolent entity. The big shots
are not, moved by fear of shrink-
ing incomes to the dairy farmers
or loss of productive energy of
the workers as a result of using
oleo. What these “free enterpris-
ers” are afraid of in the manu-
facture and sale of oleo is that
it will blow holes: in. their «price
racketeering in butter and other
farm produce—that it will clip
their shell-game of skinning the
primary producer and the con-
sumer of dairy products.

We. don’t want oleo a8 a sub-
stitute for, or to: take..the place
of butter on the working man’s
table.: Nor do we think its ma-
nufacture and sale: would “ruin”
the dairy farmer. On the con-
trary we think there is ample
room for both products and that
the. availability of. oleo would
break the monopoly butter © rac-
ket—and we support the promo-
tion of genuine free enterprise.
What do you think about ‘oleo?

437
‘ aa ae “man,
“This man Anscomb only wants the workers to be fair
to us, my dear.”

| No comment needed
And that ain’t peanuts

@_“Virginians are opposed to communism, are oposed to

the communistic objective of world domination, and they
realize our stake in the survival of democracy in Western
Europe as a bulwark against Russian expansion as well

as a future outlet for our tobacco, peanuts, apples and

other export commodities.” - - U. S. Senator A. Wllilis

Robertson,

Shades of the Clivedon Set

@ “We've got to get Germany back on her feet. It’s
not only the decent thing to do, but it’s a matter’ of self-
preservation.” - - Lady Astor. fide.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 4

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