OL’ BILL-

SHORT JABS

Over the years OI’ Bill’s “Short Jabs” won him a wide fol-
lowing, and his sharp pen never delighted his friends more than
when he used it to strip the pretensions from government and courts.
These excerpts ate OF Bill at his best, and it is hoped soon to
make a selection of his writings available in booklet form.

RATORY is not. a matter of wordage. The truth of this was
never more surely demonstrated than one day last week in
the Vancouver Police Court. A young boy, 18 years of age, stood
in the prisoner’s dock, charged with committing a series of burg-

laries, eighteen in number, during the past six months.

Ques-

tioned by the magistrate drew from the boy the simple state-

ment, “I have no work.”

er’s Magazine or the Saturday

no orator ever reached such sublime heights of
denunciation as that young lad did with those

four little words.
~ Even Eugene Debs could

condemnation of class rule and class injustice
than the simple phrase, “I had no work,” spoken
from the dock by a boy who should still be
going to, school, when confronted by the majesty
and symbol of the capitalist state.

beautifully .simple,
English words, exposing the rottenness of cap-

These four poignant,

_.. From Demosthenes, the father of oratory, to the Boy Orator
of the Flatte—all the silver-tongued spellbinders, whose blathers

are done up in 10-volume calfskin editions and
given away with a yearly subscription to Folly-

Evening Ghost—

utter no greater

italist rule and capitalist justice, are more pregnant of meaning,
of greater oratorical force, than all the windy verbiage of R. B.

Bennett. and William Lyon Mackenzie King during their entire’

political careers.

If justice instead of law ruled in that court, the boy would
have sat in the judge’s seat and the judge and everything he rep-
resents would have been in the dock.

—People’s Advocate, May 13, 1938.

©
DS the camp workers strike of 1935, the biggest meeting
ever held in B.C. gathered at the Malkin Shell, when 25,000

workers celebrated May Day.

A member of the Parks Board

said later, “Not one blade of grass was destroyed.” A few months
later, on the death of King George V, a memorial service was
called at the same place by “Gerry” McGeer and his henchmen in
the city council, including Miller. Those participating behaved

in a most scandalous manner.

They climbed into and broke the

limbs off trees, destroyed hundreds of shrubs and flowerbeds and
tore down the public address system. They did about $600 worth

of damage, according to the
vandals?

press of the time. Who are the

Mayor Miller's record enables us to interpret his meaning

when he speaks of “valuable”
mean “valuable” in an esthetic
means, according to a dollars

understood by the capitalists
Bumbles.

art works. Certainly he does not
or cultural sense. Undoubtedly he

and cents standard, the only one

and their official Dogberrys and

_It is a “valuation” in which the most magnificent products
of artistic genius, the paintings of Raphael and Rembrandt, the
marbles of Phidias and Michel Angelo, the Bambinos of Della

-Robbia and the bronze doors

of the Baptistry of the Domo of

Florence are placed on an equality with stable manure, provided
there be enough loads of manure.

Nothing is sacred in commodity production, the basis of the
capitalist system. Art, literature, and snooze, are all estimated in
quantity. Quality means nothing. “All that is holy is profaned”
as the Communist Manifesto says, and beauty, to the upholders
of capitalism, assumes its most sublime form in the vulgarly
elaborate stock certificates that represent gilt-edged securities
when they are buying them and salted mines when they are sell-

ing them.
e

People’s Advocate, June 8, 1938.

\y OU will read on another page Dr. Bethune's story about the
university in the cave. In this university, Kong Ta, is the
Staff Military Academy, established by Chu Teh, where students
from all over China are taught. the maneuvers and tricks of

partisan guerrilla warfare. They go out to become leaders of.

the peasants in the partisan bands against whom Japan can of-

fer no counter-move,

But this training takes money, which the school does not
have and this is where we, who do so little otherwise, can help.
Jean Ewen has sent a collection sheet from Mao Tse-tung and
asks that I try to raise a few dollars for this work.

How about it? Can we send Mao Tsetung $50 to help turn
out some more Chu Tehs?, Ten dollars will pay for the training
of one. One leader may direct the operations of three or four
thousand guerrillas, so our $50 will mean efficient leadership
for fifteen or twenty thousand enthusiastic fighters against ag-

gressive, fascist imperialism.

Tf you like this column, if you desire to see the Chinese people
drive out the fascist invaders, if you would like to see your name
on this honor roll, send in your donation to Ol Bill at this of-
.fice. All donations will be acknowledged in this column only.
Let's have that $50 a month! Here is the first installment: Bill
Hope $1; Alex Thomson $1; Hugh MacDonald 50c; Don MacKay
50¢; Eric Thomson 50c. ?

People’s Advocate, August 5, 1948.

strong votes.

Fac from attaining its objective,
big business sees its worst fears
realized,-for labor, led by Commu-
nist spokesmen, has maintained a

to conduct its struggles for jobs,
homes and peace.

The city-wide vote of controller
candidate Stewart Smith increased

|Norman Freed, in Ward 4, increas-
ed from 5,917 to 6,553.

_ Although Sims was defeated in
Ward 5, his vote, according to un-
Official figures, increased from §8,-
429 to 8462. Sims was 1,648 be-
hind Ald. Frost, and the votes re-
quired for his election were more
than taken away by the CCF vote-
splitting candidate, McKay, who
polled 3,116. McKay boasted of his
support from the Tory Toronto Tele-
gram. :

Sims’ running mate for the Board
of Education, Trustee Edna Ryer-
Son topped the polls with 9,414
votes, Last year she was acclaimed,
in 1948 receiving 8,006. Trustee
Sam Walsh was elected by accla-
mation in Ward 4.

In an election which saw main
efforts concentrated on Wards 5
and 6, aldermanic candidate Dew-
ar Ferguson held 5,596 votes in
Ward 6 as compared to 5,904 last
year.

‘In the same ward board of edu-

cation candidate Stan Thornley,
making his second bid, increased
his vote from 4,647 to 5,212. Ward
2 board of education candidate
Louise Watson increased her vote
to 3,700. Bee:

Labor candidate May Birchard
came within 82 votes of winning
@ Ward 2 aldermanic seat for
labor.

Around. 170,000 people (45 percent
of the electorate) went to the polls
and commercialized Sunday sport

STEWART SMITH
45,000 Votes

strong civic position from which,

from 43,384 to 45,251. Vote of Ald.|

Toronto’s big business political bosses, estimating the results of their well-financed
drive labor’s representatives from all positions in the city hall, could derive scant satisfaction from the
returns in this week's civic elections. Through the vote-splitting candidacy of a CCF’er, Moses McKay.
labor lost the Ward 5 seat held for the past six years by Ald. Charles Sims. But in Ward 4, labor Ald.

Norman Freed was retumed with a larger vote, in Ward 5 Trustee Edna Ryerson topped the poll for
board of education, and all labor candidates, headed

\

Labor rebuffs big business’
rive in Toronto election,
ut loses seat by CCF split

By BRUCE MICKLEBURGH

TORONTO
campaign to

by board of control candidate Stewart Smith, polled

ALD. NORMAN FREED
Re-elected

was approved 88,108 to 81,793. The
issue was designed to obscure the
basic question of jobs, homes and
taxes — on which reaction did not
want a record vote.” But passage
of the referendum in itself marked
a defeat for the narrow-minded and
ultra-reactionary forces behind the
“No” vote, whatever special in-
terests may have benefitted. by the
“Yes” vote.

Balanced against this was pas-
Sage of the referendum to change
the voting day from New Year's
Day to the first Monday in, De-
cember, a move long sought by
elements. interested in making it
harder for labor to turn out at
the polls. é

Upset for the daily newspaper
slates was scored with the reelec-
tion to board of control of Con-
troller Allan Lamport, Sunday
sports advocate. Lamport, a Bay
Street playboy type, was dropped
from the slate of the Star, Tele-
gram and Globe. His simulated
“left” appeal is belied by his record.
All three dailies campaigned vigo-
rously for a “No” vote on Sunday
sports, ‘

In Ward 6, Toronto Labor Coun-
cil and CCF candidate Lester Nel-
son, was elected to city council with
Globe and Mail and Telegram back-
ing, and in Ward 7 CCF candidate
Mary Temple upset the board of
education’s red-baiting chairman,
W. J. Skeans:

CCF candidate Moses McKay’s
vote-splitting operation in Ward 5
Was made the object of a division
of labor on the part of the Star on
the one hand and George McCul-
lagh’s papers, the Globe and Tele-
gram, on the other.

‘The McCullagh papers endorsed
and publicized McKay as a “la-
bor” candidate to aid his splitting.
McKay worked prominently with
the so-called Anti-Communist com-

: mittee in the ward.

The Star meanwhile endorsed Ald.
Arthur Frost, a candidate slated
for reelection. And all three papers
endorsed alderman-elect Joseph
Gould. es

That the Star-McCullagh feud is
secondary to Bay Street’s anti-labor
fight was also seen in the united
front of the three papers on the
sports issue, and on the specific and
intensive drive against the Com-
‘munist civic representatives.

The pattern of events already un-
folding gives evidence that in hold-
ing its powerful civic position To-
ronto labor has maintained the base |

for counter-offensive against Bay

Street reaction in the days ahead.

Canada must
have new —
constitution ©

TORONTO

Next week’s federal-provincial

| meeting will serve the peéople’s: in-

terests “only if it abandons narrow
legalistic arguments, and comes
out for a new Canadian constitu-
tion which would provide written
guarantees of social security, per-

sonal] liberty, civil rights and econ-_

omic protection from the un-
bridled rule of monopoly capital,
with special guarantees to French
Canada of full national equality
in all its aspects,” the LPP nation-
al executive stated here this week.
Partial text of the statement fol-
lows:
On January 10 the federal gov-
ernment is meeting with the prov-
inces. The stated purpose of the
meeting is to clarify the results of
the adoption by the British parlia-
ment of legislation empowering
Canada to amend its own constitu-
tion—the British North America
Act of 1867. The meeting, according
to the press, will be limited to leg-
alistic arguments as to which fields
of authority lie within federal or

| provincial jurisdiction, insofar as

constitutional amendments are con-
cerned. re

Actually, the timing of this meet-
ing is to give the pretense of
strengthening Canadian national

sovereignty by doing away with

remnants of colonial subordination
to Britain, while under cover of
this pretense solidifying the pres-
ent policy of complete military, ec-
onomic and diplomtic subordina-
tion to the “cold war” Truman
doctrine and the Marshall plan.
The question arises: of what use
is the power to amend our own.
constitution, desirable though that

be, if Canadian policy is to be sub--

servient to that of the Wall Street
trusts who control the 'U:S, govern-
ments and are driving to World

wey I? ae:
Real Canadian interests can be
served at the Ottawa meeting only
if Canadian independence replaces
the present line of subservience to
Wall Street imperialism and our
national policy becomes one of
world peace, world trade, and
world cooperation with the States
pursuing the socialist path,

With regard to domestic ee

the January 10 meeting will be o:
service only if it abandons narrow
legalistic arguments, and comés
out for a new Canadian constitu-
tion, which would provide written
guarantees of social security, per-
sonal liberty, civil rights and econ-

omie protection from the unbridled —
rule of monopoly capital, with spe-_

cial guarantees to French Canada
of full national equality in all its
aspects. i S

But the St. Laurent government
has no intention of following such

a path of devotion to the people's ©

political, economic and social needs.

It is using the constitutional cri-

sis not to make Canada independ-

ent, provide greater freedom for -
Canadians and. guarantee peace —

and democracy, but to increase

the subordination of Canadian in- - :
terests to a foreign power, the US,

while at home preparing to unload
the burdens of another economic

crisis upon the backs of the people,
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 6, 1950—PAGE 2 |

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