Editor's Note: The following
two letters have been forwarded
to the Pacific Tribune for pub-
lication, after the Vancouver Sun
refused to print them. The Trib-
une being a ‘free’ paper in the
true sense of the word, does not
hestitate to print the opinions
of others in its columns.

The ‘spy’ trials
Editor, Vancouver Sun:

i have been following with in-
terest the ‘spy’ trials, of which
some people here are making
such a ballyhoo! Being interest-
ed in genuine democracy, I have
been wondering as to the valid-
ity of the said ‘convictions’ of
the so-called ‘spies’ From a
humanitarian point of view, and
to my humble way of reasoning,
even if some top officials had
Siven our Russian ally some in-
formation on means to excel her
Military exploits in strategy or
Weapons, due reductidn in the
deathrate of our Canadian boys
then overseas, would ensue rap-
idly. That makes sense to me.

I have come to the conclusion
that this ‘spy’ affair is another
link in creating ways and means
for a third world war, by and

W145 V3

White What

f

for, the profiteering racketeers,
with Canada in the role of an-
other Belgium.

This is food for meditation—
and action. It is heartening to
note that the Civil Rights Union
is urging that the spy report be
probed. Prodding the ‘bear’ does
not make sense to me, We have
plenty of prodding to do right
here at home. The people as 4
whole are tired of ‘war and war-
mongers.

F. R. H. TANCHE.

Vancouver, B.C.

Social Credit
Editor, Vancouver Sun:

In the Sun of February 15 a
letter over the signature of Peer.
Vv. Paynter certainly requires
clarification. A glaring example
of ‘a little knowledge being a
dangerous thing’ is certainly dis-
played in that letter.

“Under social credit,” says
Paynter, ‘the individual shall be
free to live his own life,” etc.
Would he? Under social credit
the individual would be free to
be ruthlessly exterminated in a
futile swar against the USSR. No

-other political pary in Canada,

not even the pro-Fascist Bloc
Populaire in Quebec, is openly

Yous Dooartinzat
, Yin Peale

advocating a war against So-
viet Russia, like Norman Jaques
and the other social credit lead-
ers are doing now.

In the letter, Paynter states
that under “socialism, or com-
munism and the outgrowth of
both—Fascism .. . the individ-
ual serves the state ...” That
statement is simply a bald lie.
The Soviet Union and the com-
munist. parties of all countries
tried desperately to prevent the
second world war by establish-
ing, collective security. in Eur-
ope, demanding an embargo on
the shipment of scrap iron to
Japan and boycotting Japanese

' goods. When the war came, these

same forces contributed more in
toil and blood in stamping out
fascism than all the other politi-
cal parties combined. Commun-
ists are still striving to crush
the remnants of fascism within
their countries. Yet in the opin-
ion of Mr. Paynter, fascism is
the outgrowth of communism!

I would suggest that Mr. Payn-
ter take more than a cursory
glance at social credit, and then
use his grey matter to better
advantage.

G. F. HALVORSON.
Kamloops, B.C.

Hollywo

Today,

the bulk of which is in theatres,

By JOHN GRANGER

real estate and studios.

Primitive days of nickel-odeons and John Bunny comedies.

In the short space of 30 years,
thousands of individual entre-
Preneurs have been reduced to
a handful of large companies —
three of which are among the

largest non-financial corpor-
ations in the United States
‘Loew's, Paramount, Warners’) ;

es

five of which possess strategic
power in the entertainment mar-
ket; and eight of which produce
the bulk of profitable films.

The first significant attempt at
monopoly control came as early
as 1908, with the organization of

day attire to watch the color-
ful parade which has been
hailed as one of the greatest
Spectacles of our times.

Photographed for the first
time in color, the full beauty
of the event is reproduced on
the screen in ‘Russia on Par-
ade,” new Soviet color film.
which has its Vancouver pre-
Miere at the Lyric. theater
starting Monday, March 10, for
three days with all seats re-
served.

Photographed by 25 leading
newsreel cameramen, and ed-
ited by Vassili Beleyev, ‘Rus-
sia on Parade’ offers a com-
plete pictoria] record in dazz-
ling color, of this happy Mos-
Cow holiday. :
_ The film opens with scenes
of Red Square, a blaze of
Color in preparation for the
Parade. Emblems of the Sovi-
et Union and all the Republic
@re suspended from the walls,
the buildings opposite the
Kremlin are decorated with
8arlands of flowers and rose
leaves. From one end of the
Square to the other, athletes
in gaily colored costumes line
Up on the massive green car-
bet which covers the ground.

Flags and pennants of the
Sports clubs wave in the
breeze. Sports delegations
‘from the Ukraine, the Trans-
Caucasian Republics, the Fin-
nish Republic, the Moldavian,

‘Russia on Parade’

NE of the most eagerly anticipated holidays in
‘Moscow is the day of the annual physical) cul-
ture festival, when young athletes of the sixteen Soviet
Republics proudly parade through Red Square, and
the entire population of Moscow turns out In gay holi-

-dle Asia, the Baltic republics,

Republic, the people of mid-

from Turkmenia, from Uzbe-
kistan, from Kazakstan, from
Georgia, pass before the re-
viewing stand.

, Thousands of children from
Moscow’s schools turn the
square into a huge Pioneer
camp with ‘flaming’ bon-fires
and tents. Famous gymnasts
perform breath-taking stunts
on parallel] bars. Suddenly a
skating rink of artificial ice
appears and champion figure
skaters perform while riding
through the square on a float.

The camera shifts to the
watching crowds, whose in-
terest never lags as they watch
ana vociferously approve the
spectacle, ‘

The famous Red Army En-
semble, which makes one of
its rare screen appearances
in ‘Moscow Music Hall,’ new
Soviet musical film showing
with ‘Russia on Parade’ has
since its founding in 1928,
grown from a group of eight
singers, two dancers, an ac-
cordion player, a monologist
and one trumpter, to a staff
of over three hundred singers,
dancers and instrument play-
ers, all. talented young sol-
diers. i

On the same program is a
delightful short, ‘Golden Slip-
pers, from the opera Chere-
vichki.

>

FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 1947

: aos
od's movie octopus |

HE motion picture monopoly is a young giant, but it is certainly a greedy one.
the motion picture industry involves some $2,000,000,000 of invested capital,
This is a far cry from the

the Motion Picture Patents Co.,
which pooled he patents of seven
makers of motion picture equip-
ment. By 1912 it controlled all
but one of the existing film ex-
changes, selling films only to
theaters using the pool’s installa-
tions, pisces

When. their requirements for
additional capital brought pub-
lic financing, Kuhn, Loeb and
other finance and investment
houses entered the motion pic-
ture field.

Morgan interests, via Western
lectric, organized a subsidiary,
Electrical Research Products
Corporation (ERPI), for specific
exploitation of sound patent
rights. ERPI’s monopoly was vir-
tually unchallenged until rival
finance-capital (Rockefeller’s and
RCA’s Photophone Company)
entered the field—even though
it was obliged to organize the
RKO concern on a gigantic scale.
Came the depression, and Para-
mount, RKO, and Universal fell
into receivership. Reorganization,
mergers, and refinancing went on
steadily during the crisis years
and the hold of the banks on the
industry was tightened. :

The war years bloated the prof-

‘its of the major film companies

and gave them vast funds for ex-
panding their control. The Big
Bight (Loew’s, ‘Paramount, War-
ners, Twentieth Century-Fox,
RKO, Universal, Columbia, Unit-
ed Artists) managed to stabilize
finances and hoard reserves

' while paying high dividends, to

say nothing of huge bonuses.
While it is true that there has
been a resurgence of ‘independ-
ent’ operations in recent yars,
most of these independents are
adjuncts of the monopoly and
serve the useful purpose of giv-
ing the industry the false face
of free enterprise. The fact is
clear: the pattern of control in
the motion picture industry par-
allels that of business corpora-

* tions in other fields. 4

measure of gall.

Short Jabs by Ol’ Bill

E have heard and read much about ‘rehabilitation’ since the latter
days of the war. All disorder, the disjointed lives of the peoples

of the ‘civilized’ countries were to be put back into a state which,
: we were led to believe, would, if not one
Russia on parade of social perfection, be at least an im-

provement on the ‘normalcy’ that preceded
the outbreak of, hostilities.

How much, in our part of the world, the reality approaches to
the promise almost two years after V-J day, the numbers of veterans
without roofs over their heads, of workers without jobs, the appeals
to the workers to produce more for less wages and the millions
vegetating in ‘displaced persons’ camps, is measure enough of the
progress, or lack of progress, made in that direction.

If the main picture showing at the Lyric Theater in Vancouver
during the first three days of the coming week and on Thursday
in Victoria, is any kind of guide, rehabilitation means something
different in ‘the Soviet Union to what it does here.

“Russia on Parade” is a spectacular documentary film in tech-
nicolor, suchsas can be made only in the Soviet Union. Nothing like
it could possibly come out of Hollywood and the best the British
studios have done in the postwar years was “Victory Parade.”

The subject matter of these two pictures will demonstrate the
difference between what ‘rehabilitation’ means in the two worlds—
the socialist world and the capitalist world. “Victory Parade,” tech-
nically miles ahead of the florid productions of Hollywood techni-
color, is handicappeq from the word go, since its content is essen-
tially tied up with the politics of a crumbling, dying empire which
no form of art is capable of bolstering up. ;

ES
There, the possibilities of rehabilitation are smothered by profit-

mongering and rehabilitation actually means the re-establishment of

a privileged class, a class which has wasted the economic resources
of their own country and now find that they are no longer powerful
enough to prevent colonial and subject peoples from freeing them-
selves of imperialist slavery, The coal-less coal mines they sold to
the government, the so-called nationalization of mines, is only one
angle of the question of waste but there are many more.

In the Soviet Union, rehabilitation means erasing the scars of
war and that in the interest of the people. This picture, “Russia on
Parade,” is a proof that it is being accomplished.

To see 23,000 of the youth of the 160 nationalities. that make up
the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the pick of a generation
in all the color and brilliance of the Many races and nationalities
who live between the tropic of Cancer and the Pole, is to be con-
vinceq that the critical tourists who return to tell uS that “every-
thing is drab in Russia” have axes of one kind or other to grind.

It is a demonstration that the first consideration of the
Soviet administration is health of the people, while the
best we can boast of in B.C. is to pass a Health Act that
has been a dead letter for 12 years now because the medical

‘profession’ has been on strike against the government during
all that time.

“Russia on Parade” is a symphony and a ballet combined, de
picting rhythmic movement and prismatic coloring that pleases the
senses but at the same time makes an imprint on the intellect, for
it is propaganda at the same time that it is art—propaganda that
carries its messagae merely by mirroring one aspect of life in the
workers’ republic. :

Along with “Russia on Parade” there are two musica] plays,
one a shortened-up Tschaikovsky opera written around one of Gogol’s

tales, “Golden Slippers” and a lighter piece, “Moscow Musical Hall.”

Although in this latter, the music is of 4 more popular character
the artists are no less gifted; Sergei Lemeshev, first tenor of the
Leningrad State Opera, and the famous Red Army Ensemble, con-
tribute to the program.

The same is true of the Tschaikovsky opera which feafures
leading stars and the orchestra and chorus of the Bolshoi Theater.
Hope to see you at the Lyric.

C IS now many years since one of the most scoundrelly hypnocrites
who ever darkened the politica) skies over the United States was
proven to be a link in the fascist chain that was to enslave the
American people. Gerald L. K. Smith, ex-Silver
The link-up Shirt No. 3223 The Silver Shirt leader, William

: Dudley Pelley is at present serving a sentence of
15 years for criminal sedition and was also indicted in 1944 for
participating in the Nazi conspiracy against the United States.
Smith’s usefulness to the Dies Committee saved his neck. -

That Smith is a fascist is a statement which needs no further
proof. It is accepted as a commonplace among political writers, just
as self-evident as the axiom in physics that water will find its level.

The Social Creditors here in Canada, when the close similarity
of their program to nazism and fascism is pointed out to them,

always answer, “that is just Communist slander, anyone who does
not agree with them is a fascist.”

Well, here is something to go on. A friend of mine, while giv-
ing California the once over, received an invitation to attend a
meeting» held under the auspices of “West Coast Nationa] Conven-
tion” in the Embassy Auditorium, Los Angeles. :

Speakers at this Nationalist Convention were, Gerald L. K.
Smith, “The Honorable’ Norman Jacques, member of the Canadian —
Parliament and some imposter named Kenneth Goff of “National

Youth League” claiming to be a “former top-notch leader in the.
Communist Party.” :

There are certainly not two Norman Jaques (or Jackass as my
friend pronounced it) in the Canadian parliament and the one who
is there can only be called ‘honorable’ by the assumption of a large

.

The presence of Norman Jacques, M.P. for Wetaskiwin,

on the same platform with Gerald L. K.' Smith definitely

‘places the brand of fascism on him and unless his Social

Credit associates denounce. him, on them aiso.

“Jacques (or Jackass) is just'so ‘honorable’ as to be the author
of the scurrilously lying statement the Canadian Press of Jan. 29
reports him to have said at Regina, that, “Buchenwald prison camp
in Germany was operated by Communists from 1941 until it was
relieved by the American army.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5