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Scandinavian festival

Sir: On June 20 the Scandina-
vian Central Committee will once
again play hosts to the Scandina-
vian people and their friends as
they “gather at the Swedish Park
for their thirteenth annual Mid-
summer Festival.

We were proud and happy to ga-
ther with the working people of
British Columbia during their May
Day festivities when the Scandi-
navian Central Committee had the
honor.of receiving a shield for the
best decorated float in the par-
ade. Now we wish to welcome all
workers to join us, to see how
midsummer is traditionally cele-
brated in the Scandinavian coun-

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tries. Our immigrant ancestors
brought a lot that is fine in
Scandinavian culture and festive
spirit to Canada and we shall try

' to duplicate some of it for you

at our festival.

_A midsummer festival will not
be complete without a queen, so
this year we will have five charm-
ing girls in full national costume
who will compete for the honor of
representing the Scandinavian
people as their queen. Candidates
are Ruth Hansen (Denmark),
Doris Backlund (Finland), Donna
Torfason (Iceland), Solway Ler-
vold (Norway), and Violet Anne
Axelson (Sweden),

This year's festivities begin at
11 am., and our program will

A WRITER’S RESPONSIBILITY |

name}

What you Pleme.

start at 1 p.m. This includes mu-
ic, dancing, songs and speakers,
featuring many well known Scan-
dinavian artists, among them be-
ing the Bellman’s Male Chow.
There will be games of skill,
sports for the children and music
in the pavilion after the program.
Anyone coming to the festival in
national costume will be admitted
free. .;

Transportation will be available
from Cassiar and Hastings, so
make it a date and bring your
friends to the Swedish Park in
North Vancouver on June 20 and
have the time of your life.

—Carl Erickson, Secretary.
Vancouver, B.C.

a

Ps
te

‘Custodian of free expression’

TWO- HOLLYWOOD movie
writers were sentenced May 21 to
pay fines of $1,000 each and serve
cne year in jail for contempt of
Congress. They were John How-
ard Lawson and Dalton Trumbo,
two of the ten accused Hollywood
‘figures whom the House Un-Amer-
ican Committee is persecuting.
Before passing sentence on the

WHAT I HAVE TO SAY is in
no sense a comment on the legal
aspects of the case. It is an ex-
pression of personal feeling and
‘> pelief. I consider that such a
‘statement is proper, and neces-
. sary, in a:case which involves, as
_». Iam convinced that this does, a

_ matter of conscience .. .

"  T speak of this, because the
faith by which a man lives is im-
portant. I do not think there is

Tofitls...

The HUB Salis. union:

any single, all-embracing defini-
tion of Americanism, but most of
us would agree that it includes a
respect for the individual’s con-
science. We expect a man to act
according to his conscience, not
only as a private right, but as an
obligation to others. A community
or a nation cannot thrive unless
its members give their best, each
out of his own experience and be-
lief, to the common fund of ex-
perience and belief...
oP

* * *

A WRITER derives. special
benefits from freedom of speech
and communication, and has a
special obligation to preserve
these privileges. The writer is, in
a sense, the custodian of free ex-
pression. He employs his freedom,
not only for himself, but for
others. Without communication,
his professional life is meaning-
less. I have devoted a great deal
of time during the past 20 years
to motion picture writing. I have
regarded the film as a serious art,
as potentially at least, a great
people’s art.

I have practiced film writing, as
I have practiced citizenship, with
a sense of responsibility and so-
¢ial purpose. When I was called
to the hearings before the House
Un-American Activities Commit-
tee last October, I realized that
my whole life as a writer and a
citizen was under attack. I realiz-
ed, as events have since proved,
that the Committee was seeking
to gain control of the motion pic-
tures, to dictate its employment
and production policies. I. believed
then, as I believe now, that I was
defending the motion picture in
defending my integrity—my very
existence—as a writer.

My 20 years of motion picture
writing,
life’s- work, counts for nothing
against the order by the Commit-
tee that the film industry shall
cease employing me. The industry
has obeyed, and has declared me
unemployable... |

‘| Until I am gagged by force, I

will exercise my sacred right to
believe what I please, to assemble
with other Americans for any

the accumulation of a

peaceful purpose that I deem de-
sirable, to say what I choose to
say, to write what I choose to
write. In all conscience, I can
take no other course.

GUIDE TO GOOD READING

An immortal story

ONE OF THE MOST REMARKABLE books to come
out of the undergrourd movements of the last world war
is “Notes From the Gallows,” by Julius Fuchik, one of the
two Book Union current choices.

Writen by a man imprisoned, tortured and finally mur-

dered by the, Nazis, it is a story
of almost inhuman courage and
unanswering loyalty, a_ story
through which shines the blinding-
ly bright light of faith in the ul-
timate -triumph of the working
people.

The book is composed of notes
smuggled out by a sympathetic
guard and put together by Fu-
chik’s wife—whom he thought was
dead, It tells of his hours of men-
tal and physical torture, of how
he was given up for dead and
was on the point of being buried
by his captors when he managed
to move ever so slightly to let
them know he was still alive.

teading it, you wonder how
a man could go through such
pain and still be able to record
it in a brilliant fashion. Fuchik’s
little word sketches of his guards,
of his former comrade and of the
various Nazis he encounters are
literary gems in themselves. He
describes the two comrades, Joe

and Marie, who, imprisoned and.

tortured at the same time, had
Stood side by side with their up-
raised hands touching.

“Such handsome fellows,’ Ma-

SPEAKING OF CIRCULATION

Street sales go up

- DYSON CARTER, THE NOTED science writer who

is one of our most popular
to answer the “scientific”
Walter P. Thompson, dean
University of Saskatchewan
Society of Canada, in a paper
read to the society's convention
here this week.

If you read the reports of Dr,
Thompson’s presentation in the
daily press, which played it up
for its anti-Soviet character, you
must have been astounded to find
a scientist twisting proven facts
to reach his conclusion that hu-
man biology is essentially “demo-
cratic’ and “anti-totalitarian,”
meaning, of course, anti-Soviet.
No Nazi theoretician, in his elab-
orate ‘scientific’ attempts
prove the “superority” of some
races and the “inferiority” of
others, ever reached more absurd
conclusions.

We're sure you'll want to read
Dyson Carter's article, which will
appear in an early issue.

x * x

THE LAST TWO ISSUES, in
which members of the Pacific
Tribune’s staff and several volun-
teer correspondents went out in-
to the Fraser Valley to give you a
first-hand report of what people
were doing and saying and de-
manding of their governments,
have brought us some nice com-
pliments.

The compliment we appreciate
most, however, comes from Vic-
toria where our supporters sell
the paper on downtown streets
every Saturday. They tell us that
sales are picking up every week
and that more and more people
are coming back every Saturday
as regular customers. The street
sales are also stimulating news-
stand sales. F ;

Incidentally, this energetic
salesmanship is a follow-up of the
splendid work our Victoria press

HIGH QUALITY LOGGERS AND WORK BOOTS
HAND-MADE

JOHNSON’S BOOTS

63 West Cordova Street -

- - - - Phone MArine 17612

to.

contributors, has been asked
arguments advanced by Dr.
of Arts and Science at the

and president of the Royal

committee did in the recent sus-
taining fund drive. There were ac-
tually four press committees in
the capital and together they did
the best job of any region in the
province.

Now, we hear, our Nanaimo
supporters are taking a leaf out
of Victoria’s book—in labor jour-
nalism it’s an old and time-tested
book—and are starting regular
_street sales, too.

ok * x:

WE KNOW IT’S not too much
to expect a lot of new subscrip-
tions and renewals from these
energetic street sales, In the West
End, Norquay, Fairview and the
East End our supporters are also
pushing street sales and before
long we hope to have every im-
portant corner covered. In some
other areas, Commercial Drive
and Mount Pleasant, for instance,
supporters are getting bundles
and selling them to their neigh-
bors. And this should suggest to
some of our supporters in indus-
tries the opportunities there are

: for selling our paper in shops and
factories,

Naturally, we want to see even
keener competition for the prizes
we're offering to the five top sub-
getters by tne Labor Day deadline.
Renewals and new subs. are
equally acceptable—$1.35 for six
months, $2 for one year, and you
can’t recommend a better invest-
ment in the fight against high
living costs—-FEL ASHTON.

TTR RT
. aa
PUBLIC LECTURE |
“WHAT IS’ MARXISM?”
SPEAKER — ELGIN RUDDELL
PENDER AUDITORIUM
339 West Pender Sst.

_ Sunday, June 27th, 8 p.m.
Auspices: Vancouver Committee LPP

SILVER COLLECTION

rie had ‘said to the guards. “Such
handsome fellows and such
brutes.” A few hours later they
carried her out of the office of

-the “examining commissar’ beat-

en almost to unconsciousness but |
they could not beat anything out
of her—neither then nor later.

On the other side of the pic-
ture, Fuchik describes the traitor -
in their ranks, the one who in
hopes of saving his own skin, had
betrayed everything. “This was
the worst I had to bear, I had
expected death but not betrayal
—I could find no other word for
it. than betrayal. This was not
wavering or weakness, nor eyen
the feverish floundering of a man
tortured close to death.”

Even in the close confinement
of Gestapo prisons, the indomi-
table spirit 6f working class bro-
therhood found ways and means
of expressing itself, found sympa-
thetic guards to transmit mes-
sages, managed to contact the
“outside.” Even the atitude of the
“examiners” could be used as a
means of finding out the war's
progress.

“When they were tense and of-
ficious, you could tell that the
Germans were making progress’
towards Stalingrad. When they
were affable enough to start a
conversation with a prisoner, you
knew that the Germans had been
beaten back at Stalingrad. If they

_ begin to tell you about their an-_

cient Czech forbears or that they
had been forced into service with
the Gestapo—excellent! The Red

_Army_is certainly marching on

Rostov.”

Julius Fuchik knew he would
never live to complete his story,
the “happy ending’’ he always
maintained would be written for
him—it is being written in Czech —
history today, His pain and tor-
tue, and that of millions of
others has not been in vain, but
his last words should be remem-
bered by all. “BE ON

GUARD.”-—K.E.

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