|Sub Talk :
Subs count

in campaign
Dear Reader:

The road to new readers (writes
the editor of the New York Worker)
is the road up the staircase and
down the hallway which leads to
the doorbell which has to be rung.

Our army of Pacific,’ Tribune
doorbell ringers know that’s the
truth. Getting subs and renewals
Means lots of
legwork.

In spite of the
foul weather
we've had so far
this year, our
Supporters con-

~ tinue to bring in
subs. Since Jan-
uary 1 the total
Is 266, about
equally divided
between Greater Vancouver and
the province.

_ During the March-April financial
drive we don’t want readers to ne-
glect this vital job of increasing
circulation.
that press clubs and individuals
ee be given credit for subs turn-
ed in,

That doesn’t mean, though, that
we don’t need $18,000 in cash be-
sides. We sure do. Printing costs
have continued to rise during the
Past year (more than half our total
Yearly income is used to pay print-
shop bills) and we have also agreed
to donate $500 this year to that
fine French-language paper, Com
bat, which organizes the people of

Quebec in their battles against Du-

Plessis.

The financial drive opens in less
than two weeks, and we’re busy
in the business office these days
mailing out materials and complet-
ing organizational preparations for
what we hope will be one of the
best campaigns in the paper’s his-
tory.

Our Press Builders are beginning
to champ at the bit, waiting for the
drive to start. Harry Mackewich
came in this week, pledged $100,
and challenged Mat Droch and
Walter Gawricki to raise $100 each
before the end of the drive. Let’s
have more challenges!

Rita Whyte

eS

7 HUB. HUMOR.

,

“Il told you that you've been doing
it wrong at the ranch!”

Customers like our idea of FREE
‘CREDIT because they can us it
like cash here and it costs nothing
extra.

( 45. EAST HASTINGS

So we have decided}

lar one next year.

LABOR

BRIEFS

and Labor
this week de-
manded a wintertime public works
construction program to ease the
unemployment situation.

Vancouver Trades
Council delegates

Council referred a Painters’
Union resolution advocating a 75
percent increase in unemployment
insurance benefits and extension of
benefits to cover the entire period
that an insured worker is jobless.

Delegates also went on record
as expressing concern over Bill 7
sections 52, 365 and 372.

d x x x

Addressing an audience of 450
people at Pender Auditorium last
Friday on the subject “Britain and
World Peace,’ John Burns, nation-
al president of the British Fire
Brigades Union, said: “I did not
have to come to any peace move-
ment to learn the need of peace.
I have been fighting for peace
since I was a boy in short pants.”

In dramatic narrative Burns de-
scribed the great sacrifice and ef-
fort of the British workers during
the dark days of the Battle of
Britain; the terrible ordeals he
and his firefighters had to face
during Luftwaffe bombardments;
the great courage of Britain’s work-
ing class women; and the horrible
things war does to the bodies and
minds of youth.

Burns urged all members of the
audience, regardless of their social
or political differences, to support
the world movement for peace so
that “the horrors of war would
never again be inflicted upon hu-
man beings.” :

x x

Vancouver Civic Employees’
Union, Outside Workers, has re-

jected city council’s offer of a two
percent raise this year and a simi-
Union mem-
bers at two packed meetings this
week voted unanimously to turn
down the offer.

The union will now ask for a
government conciliation officer.

* x x

‘Mine-Mill spokesmen labelled
Kitimat a “feudal compound” in
talks with the B.C. provincial
cabinet last week.

“Alcan has established a closed
town and the CPR and Union
Steamships will not sell tickets
to anyone without written per-
mission from Alcan or Kitimat
Constructors Ltd.,“ charged the

union.
~ x

General executive board of the
United Fishermen and Allied Work-
ers Union this week expressed
“deep concern” over an announce-
ment by the federal government
that: it intends to put the Prince
Rupert drydock up for sale and
in any event, intends to close it
in March. :

In Ottawa a private meeting was
held in the Parliament Buildings
to discuss the subject. The meet-
ing was attended by Transport Min-
ister Lionel Chevrier; E. T. Apple-
whaite, MP (Liberal, Skeena); and
Bruce Brown, MLA (Liberal, Prince

Rupert). Afterwards they refused
to make any statement to the press.
Be an is x

ss a.
Social services committee of Van-
couver City Council is due to bring
in recommendations for dealing

with the acute local unemployment

situation at a meeting in city hall
committee room number one this

coming Monday, February 22, at;

10 a.m. :
Several union delegations are

expected to attend the meeting, as

well as a Labor-Progressive party

delegation which visited city hall

last week with proposals for allevi-

ating the jobless crisis.
* x

_*
Some 1,600 members of Inter-
national Longshoremen’s and

Warehousemen’s Union have vot-
ed to accept a six-cent hourly pay
hike recommended by a recent
majority report of a federal
board of conciliation and investi-
gation.

‘Pull up stakes’ only
gov’t reply to jobless

OTTAWA

Three major Canadian industries suffering as a result of US. policies can go on the rocks and the
524,000 jobless across the country, now admitted by the government, can find for themselves for all the

federal cabinet. cares.

In a cynical “now I’m telling you w

hat to do” reply to a joint delegation of the 150,000-strong United

Auto Workers and the United Steelworkers on Wednesday last week, acting Prime Minister C. D. Howe

Continued

HYDRO

Premier Bennett is just as aware
of the actual situation as the Ot-
tawa official quoted in the Vancou-
ver Sun of January 22: “The Am-
ericans are the toughest bargain-

-ers in the world. When it comes

to water power, you can forget all
about the after-dinner speeches, all
that hands-across-the-border and
hearts-and-flowers stuff. Unless the
people of B.C. know what the water
is worth, they might let it go.”

The Financial Post of January
23 commented on the B.C. prem-
ier’s unwillingness to discuss the
Frobisher group’s proposals for a
Canadian development. :

“A tentative meeting which had
been arranged for earlier this
month is now off,” said the Post.
“Mr. Bennett’s latest word is that
it will not be convenient for him
to discuss water power with the
Frobisher-QMI group until after the
sesssion of the legislature which
starts next month.”

Actually, in his eagerness to
carry through his own scheme,
Premier Bennett is deliberately
minimising the importance of the
Frobisher plans. They envisage, not
the 25,000 hp mentioned in the
News-Herald story, but 100,000 hp
in the initial stage. The ultimate
plan involves the utilization of 5,-
000,000 hp and an investment of
about $2,000,000.

But even if the Frobisher plans
are unsatisfactory, there can be no
justification for the plan to turn
over our hydro-electric resources
to a foreign power.

The U.S. Congress has already
refused to consider sharing hydro-
electric power with Canada in re-
spect to the proposed Libby Dam.
The U.S. Army has now asserted
its authority over the projected
joint project of the St. Lawrence
Seaway.

‘In the face of this, does Prem-
ier Bennett think he can assure
the public by talking of iron-clad
commitments by Alcoa to “give
us back” as much power as we
could develop ourselves?

There is only one guarantee that
B.C. citizens will be able to enjoy
tHe benefits of hydro-electric dev-
elopment in the Yukon watershed.
and that is, a binding commitment

on the government that hydro-elec- |

tric resources shall be developed
by Canadians for the expansion of
Canadian industry. Once that is
done Canadians can consider “shar-
ing” surplus power — if there
should be a surplus.

Canadian-Soviet

UU EIE ULE RLIELE

Friendship Month
GRAND _ :
CONCERT

Native Indian and
all-nation folk
_ songs and dances

See Canadian culture

- in the making

SUNDAY, FEB. 28
8PM ae

- PENDER AUDITORIUM
339 W. Pender

IEE)

Ausp.: C.S.F.S., Van. Branch

AOU CUO C TOGO LHL Ch Lb Biel

told unemployed farm implement
workers in effect to pull up stakes,
abandon their families, and hit the
rods in search of jobs.

“You must face the fact that it
will be several years at least,” he
said, “before you can hope to see
production up to 1952. I suggest
that those who have been in the
industry only a short time, or who
are skilled mechanics, should look
elsewhere for work. That is the
cold fact of the situation.”®

The day following the delega-
tion Transport Minister Chevrier
told Commons the CNR-govern-
ment-run rail system has laid off
1,500 of its workers due to lower
traffic.

What Howe chose to ignore
was the union’s pointed demand
-that Canada cut itself off from
the policy of “placing all our ex-
port eggs in the U.S. basket” and
to regain her world markets out-
side the U.S. dollar area. The
brief condemned U.S. flooding
of the domestic market with
farm implements and machinery
while Canadian production went
down.

Industries suffering today along
with farm implements were ship-
ping and textiles, Howe told the
delegation, but he offered no solu-
tions to their problems.

A survey of six farm implement
plants showed layoffs ranging from
28 percent to 90 percent, accord-
ing to the union brief.

Finance Minister D. C. Abbott
followed Howe on Thursday last
week in telling a joint TLC-CCL
delegation representing nearly a
million organized workers there
was no need for special anti-de- ~
pression measures.

In fatuous manner he told the
union spokesmen too much talking
about depression would cause busi-
ness to contract its plans, placing
responsibility for layoffs on labor
itself. As if this were not enough,
he challenged the claim that more
than half a million were unemploy-
ed, asserting that while not behav-
ing like the celebrated ostrich, he
believed that 1954 was “going to
be an exceptionally good year.”

A few hours before he declared
the situation was not “very serious”
Abbott’s own Bureau of Statistics
released unemployment benefit fig-
ures for December 1953. They were
50 percent higher, than those for
the same month in 1952—$16,882,-
000 compared to $10,926,000. Jan-
uary and February figures are ex-
pected to be still higher.

f 828 EAST

RULES:—

-

FIRST PRIZE — MEN
f .

BONUS TO GRAND WINNER

e@ Apple Pie Baking
DANCE

ibe Hel

|

"O11 ig a OR aN RES RE SAE I PC,

_ 2nd ANNUAL
‘FRIDAY AND SATURDAY

; FEBRUARY 26-27
Hastings Auditorium

APPLE PIE BAKING CONTEST
FORM

‘ _ 9 Double Crust — Plain Apple Pie —
Using Plain Pastry.

FIRST PRIZE => WOMEN: SA et Ae $10

PROGRAM
@ Bazaar Opens Friday
3 e, Bread-Baking Contest - Judging 9.30 p.m.
@ Junior Choir - Saturday —
- Judging — 2.30 p.m.

For further information :
Phone Mrs. Evans - FA. 1471-L

EXTRA HALL SECURED FOR OVERFLOW.

HASTINGS

— 8 p.m.
2 p.m.

‘9 P.M.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — FEBRUARY 19, 1954 — PAGE 7

%