Hitler’s textbook

Editor, Pacific Tribune:

During the last period of our
Pitman class. last night, Thurs-
, day, October 16, 1947, a strange
event took place in the Victoria,
High School, We read it in our
daily papers, hear much of it over
the radio, but not often does one
hear it in private conversation
&mong working people, slander
of the USSR.

The people who attend the Pit-
Man shorthand class under the
tutorship of Mr, W. H. Grott were
apparently upset iast night. They
felt rather than said it, that in
One of the higher: halls of learn-
ing in Victoria that a travesty of
truth was being perpetrated, Dur-
ing the last fifteen minutes Mr.
Grott dictated for a student, who
apparently was there for a re-
fresher course in speed. The text
book used was a pamphlet which
Contained comparisons between
Canadian working men and wom-
€n, and those of the USSR.

The total content of this text
book was of such stuff as you
heard Herr Hitler spouting prior
to the beating he took by our Al-
lies, including the USSR.
Comparisons were drawn be-
tween the trade unions of Canada
and thé USSR. The trade unions
in the USSR were likened to a
large company union run by a
boss and you did as .you were
told. :

Or the educational standards of
‘the USSR students left School at
the age of 17 to go to work at
forced labor. If they refused they
Were sent to Siberia to think it
Over, Here in Canada we had all
the opportunities in the world, ed-
Ucation was free to Grade XIII.
Notorious were the comparisons
and examples of the standard of
living—Mein Kampf could not do
beiter. Many of us thought it had
* S0ne out of use.

The comparisons with regard to
religion came in for comment too,
One group of sentences remain
in my mind with reference to
the period following the Revolu-
ton 1917-1921, that certain people
in the USSR were set the task to
demolish churches, and even threw
Jesus Christ into a hole with
Cither 2 or 3 empty whiskey bot-
Hes for company?

The concentration camps, ac-
°ording to this pamphlet, were full
8nd overflowing in the USSR with
hese poor Russian people -who
had neither bread, liberty nor
homes—no rights, no privileges,
‘NO nothing. y

In brief, it was one of the
Worst pieces of literature written
fer the prime purpose of creating

teens

distrust, disaffection, scandal and
war-mongering that I, personally,
have ever heard. To be read in
a loud voice in one of our Public
Schools and used as a text book
filled me with apprehension for
the future of our young citizens.

Another student remarked that
“surely, there is something better
to read than that.” No one could

_ study, yet that is why we attend.

In writing this, I wish to pro-
test the use of textbooks such
as these in our night school, and
hope that some form of investiga-
ticn will be forthcoming to pre-
vent any further use of Such ma-
terial,

We want the truth, and our
teachers who dare to use our
schools for the dispensing of such
foul slander against any Nation
should be asked to forfeit his or
her position as such.

MARY MEZGER.

What's your guess ?

Editor, Pacific Tribune:

Have you noticed the spate of
letters to the editor’ appearing in
the Vancouver Sun lately on the
street railwaymen’s strike? The
theme of hostility to the SRU is
too uniform to be accidental. I
would lay dollars to doughnuts
that Dal Grauer’s propaganda ma-
machine, telling us what a public-
spirited benevolent outfit the
BCElectric are, is mainly: respon-
sible for. this rash of ‘public opin-
ion’ directed against the strik-
ing busmen and _  Toonerville
trolley boys. What do you think?

And while I’m at it, here’s
another quiz for your readers.

What benefits do the public re--

ceive from a ‘legal’ strike with
all Bill 39’s palavers and delays
strictly observed, and an “ille-
gal’ strike, which ignores Bill 39
but gets the shekels for the
worker? :
: INQUISITIVE.
Vancouver. Z
\

A hard taskmaster

Editor, Pacific Tribune:

As an outstanding example of
the workings of American Capi-
talism, the recent British loan of
$3% billions from thr United)
States, should shock the decent
people of the world.

Great Britain borrowed $3%
pillions, gave her bond for it,
promised to repay it dollar for
dollar, with interest in full at
muturity. But ... here is the
infamy ...- ‘

Before Britain could buy one
tenth of the goods she needed
from the U.S. the prices ‘had
advanced by inflation, until the

OTED war correspondent

Milepost 12214...
Line.”

Canadian equip
cepted as the G&

was

—_—,

Ready for atom Bee, x

ted Fair-
Daily Mail has published the following report da

bane, Alaska: “There’s no shot or shell, but Evething’s
on a war footing. The troops and equipment are here all pees
+. . Travel along the Alaska-Canadian highway and enter a
it’s like trying to get into the Maginot

m ‘ail adds that Monks states the “preparations -
are Pee iain Russia,” and continues to quote the cor-
respondent: “No one up here fools himself about that .
It’s ironic that this town, through which the American and

t was poured to help the Russians, is ac-
Q of the early stages of the atomic war that
everyone is convinced will come. ib peor med aoe a

: “at 26-Mile, an airfield w: complete
, Rinicvin iat sei weeks which is especially an cin aoe
...2tom-bombers capable of 5000 miles non-stop. There are i
other major airfields in Alaska, and a young air Ba agai re
-Temarked to Monks: ‘They aren’t just to eget ae !
- This report, written by one of the most reba foun iets
in Europe, was not relayed to the U.S. ues appeared.
published throughout the rest of the wo! ;

Noel Monks of the London.

fie

FRIDAY, OCTOBER $1, 1947... 00 0~.

actual value of this $3% billion
loan had shrunk by $600 million,
that is, Britain will pay back
the full loan, while losing to
U.S. business interests, through
their inflated prices the stupen-
dous sum of $600 million,

And it is more than likely that
the actual value of the loan will
shrink still further before the
anguished people of Britain can
utilize the -loan,

Is it any wonder that the U.S.
shylocks are the most hated
group of people on the earth to-
day?

Is it. amy wonder that the eas-
tern European countries will
hesitate to accept a cent from
from the _ so-cailed “Marshall
‘Plan,” because of its tricky as-
pects? Already, through U.S. in:
filtration, the $22 billions propos-
ed for this “Marshall Plan” has

been reduced in actual value to
these suffering nations, by some
$2,200 . million, although those
countries are expected to repay
the $22 billions in full, Old Money
Eags is a hard, cruel taskmaster.

BERT HUFFMAN.
Newton Station.

‘

Time for action

Editor, Pacific Tribune:

Three recent developments, to-
gether with an old one, are head-
ing this farming community for
tough times,

The lifting of price controls.

Bill 39.

Land taxation for school pur-
poses,

We have already. tasted the bit- .

ter result of the first develop-
ment; sharply rising prices with
more to come, Although price con-
trols are a federal matter we
feel sure that the Provincial Leg-
islature could do a lot to cushion’
the effects if it would meet at
once,

Bill 39 is an insult to every hon-—

est trade unionist. As long as the
trade unions were rendered in-
effective through  dissensions,
scabs, etc., they had no difficul-
ties with the lawmakers. When
the workers finally learned to
build their organizations into a
real ‘help to better their living
standards, along comes the curb-
ing and smashing attacks cul-
minating in Bill 39.

AS many of the farmers work
at least part time in the woods,
fishing industry, mines, ete., the
bill affects the farmers also and
should be amended at once by an

early session of the Provincial —

Legislature. Waiting for the or-
dinary session in the spring al-

lows more damage to be done:

thousands of workers made into
criminals through court action,
_with resulting bitterness and
strife, :

The question of school taxation
on land can still less wait for
a spring session. Wherever you
go you hear the farmers groan-

ing under the load of steadily

increasing taxes. They would not
mind so much if they could see

_ how some improvements on the

roads or other civic improvements.
-Now the school system takes
most of the revenue.

Unless the old promise of the
provincial government taking
over educational costs is imple-

- mented now the whole province
will join’ in the taxpaying strike
_ already started on Vancouver Is-

land and in the Kamloops area.

_ Special sessions have been. call-
ed in emergencies before—it can

‘be called now in the interests .

of the common people.

fighter of lost causes,

his fellow delegates

Short labs |

RY so often the world is witness to a craze of some kind

or other. Many have swept across the world since the end of
the first world war which most of us can remember with a little
effort, beginning, let us say, with the hobble skirt and following
that, flagpole sitting, goldfish Swallowing and so forth.

Crazes The latest, having its origin in the U.N. Assembly, is a
craze of hypocrisy for “freedom of the press.” Senator

Warren Austin, U.S. delegate to that august body, led off this crazy
dance of hypocrisy and has been followed blithely by politicians,

publishers, scribes and other hypocrites in all parts of the capitalist
world.

Senator Austin, knight of iron,
defender of a ‘free press,"
noble cause

of oil, of cotton, chivalrous
J was goaded to take up his lance in that
like his valiant predecessor, Don Quixote, another
to resist the attempt of the Soviet communists,
whose proposals to deal with war-mongering by the capitalist press
would lead, according to Don Austin, “directly to the establishment
of censorship and a police state.”

The proposals of the Soviet delegate, Vishinsky,
war-mongering propaganda by’ the newspapers,
an “outrage.” -

The term is not original by any means, because when the Soviet
representative, Maxim Litvinov, made practically the same proposals
for the same purpose in the League of Nations preparatory com-
mission about twenty years ago, the British representative, a Tory
Trish lord, replied, through the froth on his lips, that it was
‘an insult.’ :

for stopping
says Don Austin, is

There is, of course, a difference between the .peace-loving Don
Austin, who stands so valiantly for the defense of those other ‘peace-
lovers,’ James F. Byrnes who wants the American atom-bomb army
to drive the Russians out of the so-called Russian zone in spite
of the Yalta and Potsdam agreements and John Foster Dulles who
was Hitlers No. 1 counselor in the United States before
Pearl Harbor, and the sad knight, Don Quixote. The Spanish jouster
at windmills had a program that appeared to be plain ordinary
foolishness; Don Austin’s program is not foolishness, but hypocrisy.

Ho” otherwise could he ask the Assembly “to kill the Soviet reso-
lution” and use such hypocritical words as these: “Nothing could
be more calculated to outrage the sensibilities of honest men than
the attempt of fallible leaders to arrogate to themselves the power
a to determine what men think or say? How does
Hypocrisy Austin know the sensibilities of honest men? Could
any one not a hypocrite utter such words in the
face of the Americanism of the Thomas un-American committee,
of whose existence Don Austin cannot be ignorant. The
attempts of that committee “to determine what men think or say”
have occupied at least as much space in the press, investigating
Hollywood for “reds” as.the windy hypocrisy of Don Austin and
in their efforts to give . the war-mongering

press ‘a clear field and no opposition,’ > ee

Is it not hypocrisy for any one to indulge in such moralizing as —
Senator Austin in the face of the Taft-Hartley Act which makes —
it a crime for a labor paper to publish a criticism of trick anti-—
labor political parties such as the one Senator Austin belongs to?

I pick up a copy of the News-Herald of October 18, the nearest
one at hand. Here are some of the headlines: “Movie reds face in-
quiry Monday.” “United States bars citizenship to Victoria woman.”
(She had written an article favorable to the Soviet Union and
advocating friendship between the two countries.) “11 newsmen oust-
ed in army red purge. 40 others barred to U.S. zone. Okayed by Forre-
stal.” “Italy reinstates fascist workers (at the bidding of American
moneylenders undoubtedly). “To determine what men think, do or
say?” =

Nor does it let Canada escape the responsibility for the spread
of the war fever when one of otir delegates at the U.N. Assembly,
Justice Minister J. L. Isley, dodges the issues by claiming that the
Soviet resolution defines incitement to war “in a way which makes
one suspect that its authors are more interested in its propaganda
value against certain countries and certain views than they are in
stopping war-mongering.”

And just what is the tenor of this resolution proposed by the
Soviet Union to the U.N. that Austin considers an attack on “free-
dom of the press,” and Isley sees some hidden meaning in? It was
quoted in part last week in this column but here it is in rull,
since the capitalist papers won’t print it: ‘

“1. The United Nations Organization condemns the criminal
propaganda for a new war conducted by reactionary circles ina
number of countries, in particular, in the United States of America,
Turkey and Gree¢e, by means of dissemination of all kinds of
fabrications through the press, radio, films, public speeches con-
taining undisguised ‘appeals for an attack on peace-loving demo-
cratic countries, j

“2. The United Nations Organization regards permission of,
and the more so support for, such propaganda for a new war,
which inevitably will become a third world war, as a violation of
the duty assumed by the members of the UNO, the Charter of
which demands ‘the development of friendly relations among na-
tions based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-
determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate meas-
ures to strengthen universal peace,’ and ‘not to endanger inter- _
national .peace, security and justice’ (Article 1, par..2, Article 2,
par. 3). ‘ feiss? “—

_ “3. The United Nations Organization believes it’ necessary to —

‘urge the governments of all countries to forbid, under pain of
criminal prosecution, propaganda for war in any form, and to
take measures to prevent and stop propaganda for war as an
activity dangerous to the public and threatening the vital’ inter-
ests and wellbeing of the peace-loving peoples. Ls Mesa :

. “4, The United Nations Organization reaffirms the necessity for
the earliest implementation. of the decision of: the: General As-
sembly of December 14, 1946, on the reduction of armaments, and
of the decision of. the General Assembly of Jarmuary 24, ‘1946, con-
cerning: the exclusion. from national armaments ef atomic weapons
And all. other. basic armaments destined for mags, destruction,
and believes that the implemeniation of. these decisions :meets the

interests of: all peace-loving peoples and -would’ constitute ‘the
* VICTOR VESTERBACK. |

strongest blow at ‘the: propaganda ‘and instigators of ‘a ‘new war.”
oe PACIFIC T ‘E—PAGE 5

——
i. Hae