y e new schools for children in _ tial government officials. Will do “in the public interest.” has SU S0vernment a charter amendment allowing ht youusiad | ALBERTA LETTER — Independent scores war pact —EDMONTON Wiehe WRAY, Independent Social Credit MLA for Banff-Cochrane, spoke up strongly for peace in the Alberta legislature last. week in a heated debate on Canada’s foreign policy. : Wray, who is a vice-president of Calgary Peace Coun- cil, condemned the North Atlantic pact as 4 political weapon in the cold war and a violation of the ideas, aims and objectives of the United Nations. He castigat- ed warmongers as people who must be sought out, brand- ed and dealt with in the same way that one would deal with a drunken driver tearing down the street in a high-powered car. ; : Calling for unity of all decent citizens to defeat the -war-makers, Wray said that when he took part in a Peace meeting he accepted the people around him, re- gardless of their political affiliations, as @ group who banded together for the very preservation of life. He explained that the peace movement in Canada was made up from all political beliefs in an effort to build an effec- tive united front against the warmongers. The debate was précipitated when two Social Credit members brought in a motion protesting a statement by Lester B, Pearson, minister of external affairs, who in a& foreign policy speech had spoken in favor of limiting “Canada’s national sovereignty for the sake of an “inter- National community.” Elmer Roper, CCF provincial leader, proposed an amendment supporting the United Nations. J. H. Prowse, Liberal leader, proposed a further amendment support- ing the Atlantic pact. The motion as finally passed, with CCF packing, called for support of the UN and the Atlantic pact but “without the surrender of national Sovereignty.” The press reported Roper as stating that only the “Communists and Major C. H. Douglas” opposed the United Nations. The debate was also a vicious attack on Father Clarence Duffy, Irish American Catholic priest, who has beén touring Western Canada, by R. E. Ansley, Social Credit MILA, who belongs to the pro-fascist wing of the party. Father Duffy recently addressed a large peace rally in Edmonton. : Although reporters were present from the local news- papers and the national press services, Edmonton dailies did not carry a word about Wray’s denunciation of the ina pact. ; Wray's denunciation of the Atlantic pact is given 8reater point by the St. Laurent: government's plans to spend $15,000,000 on a combined army and air force building project at Namao, just north of Edmonton city limits, Included in the project will be: @ A multi-million dollar army ordnance depot. @ 600 army houses to cost $4.500,000. : . @ 400 air force houses to cost $4.000,000. @ Additional runways and buildings for the Na- mao airport. ‘ Purchase of farm property at a reported price of $40,000 opens the way for this big project, which will Probably be started in 1951, although part of it is already being proceeded with at the Namao airport. Edmonton citizens who, for the past five years, have elamored for low-cost, low rental housing to relieve over- crowding and provide decent accomodation for thousands now Atay nbised, will take grim note of the fact that these one thousand homes to be puilt under the military Project will have “most of the city’s modern conven- iences. Each house will have plumbing, electricity, and gas ‘installed. A modern 12-room school will be built. “Cost _ of each dwelling at the Namao airport is expe - between $9,000 and $10,000 and on these figures cted to run the hous- ing alone will be about $4,000,000.” ; or veterans? And where are ES Mae Sees Alberta rural districts? a tax steal, In Edmonton, a gigantic property and known as the Detwiler scheme, is being anager by U.S. financiers aided and abetted by civic and pr for U.S. in- LB, Detwiler, front man and promoter ewes terests identified as the First New Amsterdam Santen =e of New York City, is asking Edmonton City 0 grant his backers a lease on ; 99 years, with an free for y ». $28,000, 000 Detwiler, who paints a glowing picture Way or another) in winning most of the Mt Scheme. The council has obtained from the Social Cre Concessions, exemptions and allowances ee ik council hess concerns. Ratepayers, dive melden : one them, are has no intention of placing the scheme DO. out to a demanding in increasing numbers eae AB Civie plebiscite. By BEN SWANKEY four of the choicest blocks ~ An apple from the ‘Boss’ INE HUNDRED boys of Harrow County School each received one pound of apples as a gift from the fruit growers of British Columbia last week. The Hon. Byron Johnson, Premier of British Columbia, was present to distribute some of the apples to the boys. This was part of the gen- erous gift of 20,000 cases of apples from the fruit growers of British Columbia, which is being dis- tributed through the Commonwealth Gift Center. —wNews Flashes from Britain. A barter deal with Britain for B.C. apples would have been more appreciated in the Okanagan. THE PRESS By MARK FRANK Canadian Press fights union —OTTAWA REIGN of terror among Canadian Press workers across Canada has been instituted by its manage- ment in order to forestall certification as an American Newspaper Guild unit. ° Chief area selected for intimidation and discrimina- is the Ottawa bureau of the news service, according to reports here. Alarmed at the fact that 90 percent of its staff took out cards with the Guild, top man Gill Purcell, rushed down from Toronto head office to call on members to withdraw their cards—‘“or else.” Sent into a panic by the ordering ‘of a vote by the Canada Labor Relations Board, Purcell began a program of shifting staff to and from distant cities, taking men out of Press Gallery coverage with a ruling that such reporters must be “impartial,” and actually flying at least one London, England, staff.member in to replace . a union supporter. Two are coming from London to Ottawa, one from Washington. | Others are being asked to transfer to distant Canadian cities. Officials of the Canadian Press, reported to be under pressure from the big newspaper publishers, have beén making a tour of all points in Canada in order to organ- jze a vote against the Guild. What is well recognized is that once the Canadian Press is certified, the big papers across Canada will face similar organizin& drives for a union of editorial workers. It is reported that workers of the Ottawa Citizen may soon sign a collective agreement providing wage increases, reasonable hours of work and union security. ‘ The Board’s ruling, rendered March 18, rejected the Canadian Press argument that certification would affect the loyalty and “unbiased” character of its workers’ news reporting. “The Board does not consider this contention to be pertinent to the merits of the application or its disposition,” reads the ruling. “The Board wishes to make it clear that employees of the Respondent (Canadian Press) .. . are by the Act accorded the right to belong to a union of their choice, to participate in the activities thereof, and to organize for collective bargaining purposes without interference or pressure by their employer.” Despite this clear ‘statement, Purcell immediately ignored it, by ruling that its Press Gallery correspon~ dents on Parliament Hill withdraw from membership in _ the Guild on the grounds they were not “impartial’ re- porters. Threat of firing ‘was held over their heads. One argument advanced was that if Purcell’s ruling were to be applied to Gallery men, why not to all legis- latures across the country and to all wire editors who have responsibility for editing copy written by Canadian Press reporters. Clearly Purcell was defying the Board ruling even before a vote had been taken among his editorial workers. _ ’ . 7 a ‘Beware the Americans.. EAN dues Greece, April 4—(BUP)—U.S. “Ambassador Henry Grady began shutting off American aid to Greece today because Liberal party leader Sophocles Venizelos refused to admit other parties into his government, forming a stable govern- ment.—Vancouver Sun. - The U.S. doesn’t want te interfere with your internal affairs—not much. LABOR FOCUS By BILL KASHTAN Why employers stiffen resistance CONSIDERABLE number of trade unions are now or will shortly be in negotiations with their em- ployers. Such is the case with railway, auto, rubber, steel, textile, lumber, pulp and paper workers, coal and metal miners, fishermen, civic employees. These unions constitute a big and important section of organized labor. All of them are coming up against stiffened em- ployer resistance to their just demands. The employers pursue a simple technique: they drag out negotiations and refuse either to concede anything, or propose wage freezes and wage cuts. Conciliation boards, presumably “impartial,” monotoniously come for- ward with majority reports that in no way differs from the original proposals of the companies. < What explains this stiffened attitude of the employ- ers? Certainly it cannot be explained by “inability to pay,” for company profits were never higher. Neither is it due to the unorganized state of the workers. The number of organized workers is also at an all time high, although organization of the unorganized is still an Al task for labor. : : What is the reason then? The employers’ resistance arises from the fact that they feel they now have labor where they want it—in a state of disunity, demoraliza- tion and paralysis. And they are taking full advantage of the situation they created. They feel this is their year, that now is the time to say “no” to the legitimate wages, hours and pension demands of the trade unions and give limited, cheap concessions, or no concessions at all to labor. The cold war, which the right wing made the official policy of the trade union movement and in support of which it splits and raids, is today being heated up by the employers and aimed against the labor move- ment, The CCF-CCL top leaders are directly and mainly responsible for this situation. Instead of advocating policies that would result in a coordinated wage drive, as was the case in 1946 with considerable gains for all of labor, they decided that each union should go it alone against the united front of employers. Instead of advo- cating policies of mutual aid, cooperation and assistance by all unions which would strengthen their bargaining ‘position, they suspend and expel unions like UE and Mine-Mill and then raid them on the eve of and during negotiations with their employers. These policies of division, splitting and raiding, and. support for the cold war have weakened the trade union movement. They have opened the door for the employers to step up their drive against labor, to resist wage in- creases and, instead, carry through their wage-freezing and wage-cuttting drive against all sections of labor. The more the right wing within the CCF-COL and the old-line trade union bureaucrats splits and raids, the bolder the employers become and the less. the work- ers get, That is fact number one. The second fact is this: It is not only unions under left and progressive leaderships which meet stiffened. employer resistance. The employers are quite indis- criminating. Their first immediate objective was to use the right wing to attack the left inside the trade union movement in order to isolate it, split the trade unions and leave the workers leaderless. Now they feel the time is ripe to move over to their second objective—a more direct frontal attack on all section of labor. Current negotiations give emphasis to this. The em- ployers oppose wage increases and propose wage freezes — and wage cuts to all unions, whether these unions ba under right, center or left leadership. For the companies, profits, as always, comes first, and having used the right wingers to weaken the trade unions, they are now quite prepared to discard and throw them aside like an old pair of shoes. The right wingers figured the employers would give them some concessions for “services render- ed.” But it isn’t working out that way, although the employers will continue to use them to sell a cheap settle _ ment or wage freeze to the workers under their leader- — ship. os e : That is the picture. Difficult as the situation is, — it can still be changed. Despite the resistance of the employers and the raiding policies the right wing, the workers can nevertheless achieve gains this year. Work- erg are ‘beginning to see that conciliation boards lead — them nowhere and neither does a policy of “nestling ap 2 to the employers. They are beginning to understand © that, short of a cheap settlement or no settlement at all, — : they will have to unite and fight to get what they want. The workers as always, must depend upon their militancy and ‘unity, both to hold their positions and ad- vance them. That is the only way the auto workers can get out of the impasse Reuther’s policy brought them to. That is the only way the railway workers will be able to get their 40-hour week with increases in take- Re home pay; that is the way the steel workers will win) their wage, hours and pension demands. That is the way the B.C. lumber workers and Ontario pulp and paper workers can win. That is true for every section of the trade‘ union movement. é ; Rank and file unity and militancy can win wage [an creases this year. ce PACIFIC TRIBUNE — APRIL 7, 1950 — PAGE $ _