we

: Social Credit. waves ‘red-herring’

to obscure barren legislation

By K. FOUNTAIN

-EDMONTON-—First reading of the Speech from the T

of the fourth Session of Alberta’s legislature left one clear i
Overnment has granted some concessions
why, and exactly how much are they conc

For some time past it has been:
“pparent that Social Credit is
more and more losing the confi-
dence: of the people. That this is
Fealized by the leadership was
indicated in an editorial in the
January 16th issue of “The Ca-
Radian Social Crediter,” which
stated: -

“1947 will see the most vio-
Jent effort ever launched to un-
Seat the present Social Credit
goverrment of Alberta, Already
this has become apparent to
very Ovseryer, | . The Marxists
wilt be in the spearhead of the
att . .. A continuous bar-
‘Fage of propaganda will be un-
leashed, ranging from down-
Tight lies to playing on preju-
dices; dreams and the petty
Complaints from which we all
Soffer at one time and ar
other”

This is a defensive statement
Which tries to divert attention
from the shortcomings of the
Social Credit government, and
using a familiar method to do it.

Around the countryside one
hears many rumblings of revolt
against the Social Credit gévern-
ment and its policies, They were
beara very distinctly during the
armers’ non-delivery strike last
fall. The anti-strke attitude of
the Social Credit government
(which went so far as to turn
Police on striking farmers) sowed
Additional seeds of doubt which

semen.

Spanish boys
| forward thanks

Four Spanish refugees, desert-
€fs_ from Franco’s army, who,
Teached. Vancouver as stowaways,
Were held by immigration author-
ities for deportation and have
Now found a haven in Mexico,
this week expressed their grati-
tude in a letter sent to John

_ Turner, secretary of Vancouver
Labor Council, and other mem-
bers of the committee formed to
aid them.

' “We seng you these lines to
©xpress to you our profound
8ratiude for your help to us,”
the letter read. “Our stay in
_ Your city, which was made s0
_ Pleasant for us, will always re-
: in our memory, taanks to°
‘the sympathy and generosity of
the people.”
The letter was signed by Julian
Onedero Fuster, Jose Cruz, Se

aia Garso and Francisco Gas-

- grrr

FRASER CAFE
JUST GOOD FOOD

732 Columbia Street
New Westminster

Os
er.

jj increased grants

to the people.

hrone delivered at the opening
mpression; the Social Credit |

That, prompts the question,

eding at the present time?

KATE FOUNTAIN
a well-known smokescreen’

‘ «

have been slowly germinating
ever since,

In such circumstances, therefore,
it is not surprising to find the
government taking steps to re-
store its damaged prestige. The
concessions granted at this time
are victories for the people, won
through mass pressure. Abolition
of the three-mill Social Service
Tax on land is the most import-
ant concession. Others are the
to education,
provisions for free medical care
to recipients of old age, widows’
and blind pensions, and their de-
pendents,

Keen disappointment
expressed
lack of any concrete proposals re-
garding labor legislation in the
Throne speech. A. joint delegation
of CCL and TLC leaders present-
ed the government with concrete
proposals for measures to be in-
cluded in a provincial labor code.
These proposals include the 40-

is being

in labor circles over.

hour week, a minimum wage of
65 cents an hour, two weeks
holidays with pay ang union se-
curity. Labor is also asking for
the creation of a Labor Depart-
ment with a responsible minister
in charge, Alberta being the only
province. without. this vital gov-

‘|ernmental department,

The Speech from the Throne is
not necessarily the last word to
be said on any of the problems
it deals with. MLAs will be well
advised to heed the urge of their
constituents for progressive ac-
tion. The main need is for lively
pressure to ensure it. At the last
session it was mainly the MLA’s
from industrial centres who voted
against the government policy to
table labor’s demands. This ses-
sion, if the fact of strong labor-
farmer unity is brought home to
them sufficiently, the large ma--
jority of MLA’s will take a pro-

gressive stand, or risk their seats.

B.C. unions plan aid
to Nova Scotia miners

Full moral and financial backing to the strike of Nova
Scotia’s 13,000 coal miners has been pledged by leading B.C.
unions during the past week. A special seven-man committee,
representing CCL unions in the province, was set up last

Saturday to carry on a province-
wide financial campaign for the
striking Nova Scotia miners.

Addressing the Vancouver La-
bor Council (CCL) last Tuesday,
Michael Higgins, chairman of the
Cape Breton Mines Grievance
Committee, told of the revolting
conditions under which ‘the Mari-
time miners work. Higgins re-
vealed that the Nova Scotia min-
ers receive $2.23 less than western
miners, who received an increase
of $1.40 a day and a welfare fund
recently.

Higgins claimed that Justice
Carrol of the Nova Scotia Su-
preme Court had “double-crossed”
the miners, by not. carrying
through his promised recom-
mendation for $1.40 daily increase,
after the miners returned to the
pits for a stipulated period of 15
days. Their demands ignored, the
miners then struck.

In pledging complete backing
from BC's hard rock miners, Har-
vey Murphy of the CIO Mine, Mill
and Smelter Workers Union de-
clared “the Nova Scotia miners

have taken the lead im this wage
Grive and will certainly be fol
lowed by other leading unions, I:
am glad to see that they have’
taken this action. Their fight is’
that of the entire B.C. labor
movement.” ;

Donations tothe Miners’ Strike

|Fund have already been received

from locals of the TWA, Vancou-
ver Labor Council] and CBRE
here. The executive elected to
heag the Strike Fund committee
are: Daniel, O’Brien, . chairman;
Pen Baskin, vice-chairman; Hil-
leen Tallman, secretary; Ernie
Dalskog, Jack Greenall, John
Turner and R. Adair.

John R. MacDonald and Mich-
ael Higgins of the United Mine
Workers (CCL), who arrived here
last week from Glace Bay, to in-
form B.C. workers of the story
of the striking miners’ fight, will

tour main industrial centres on

Vancouver Island and the in-
terior, addressing mass meetings,
during the coming two weeks.

Sask. CCF budget provisions fall
short of pre-election promises

The budget brought down in the Saskatchewan legislature confirms the viewpoint of
the Labor-Progressive Party that the main weak spot in the CCF administration is to be
found in its financial. policies, Nelson Clarke told a Saskatchewan radio audience last

Monday.

The Provincial leader of the
LPP pointed out that although
the government had secured over
$7,000,000 in the recently negoti-
ated. Dominion-Provincial agree-
ment there was little in the pres-
ent budget to show for it.

Old age pensions have been up-
ped $2.00 per month to $30.00 but
this by no means compensates
for the rapidly rising costs of
living.

Although

educational grants

tion for an exclusive, 20-year trans-
portation franchise in Greater
Vancouver.

The delegation from the VLC
will also ask for enactment by
the legislature of a bill estab-
lishing public ownership of all
electric power resources in Brit-
ish Columbia.

It is felt in labor circles here,
that the gaining of the cabinet
‘interview on March 18 and the
fact that the bill on> the BC-

enn

For a Good . .

REGENT

Suit or Overcoat

come to the
OLD ESTABLISHED RELIABLE FIRM

. 324 West Hastings Street

TAILORS

4

After lengthy negotiations, a ver I
(CCL) has managed to secure an interview for Tuesday,
March 18, with the Hart-Anscomb cabinet, to present a brief
demanding rejection of the. BCElectric Company’s applica-

VLC will meet cabinet —
on BCER franchise issue

the Vancouver Labor Council

Electric franchise has not been
read to the housé, is due to the
mass public protest by many
hundreds of individual citizens,
who have sent telegrams to the
cabinet members, protesting the
BC#lectric monopoly.

The fact that the injunction
issued by VLC secretary John
Turner is now before the courts,
is also felt to have influenced the
decision to grant the interview
with the local labor leaders.

Turner’s injunction would re-
strain the ratification of the 20-
year BCElectric franchise, and
instead calls for a plebiscite on
the question to be submitted to
the electorate. s }

GREETINGS to
Pacific Tribune

have been increased by 1,300,000
they still do not equal the educa-
tional costs still being borne by
the over-burdened municipalities.

Agricultural services will be ex-
tended to the tune of $800,000 but
there is no indication that the
government plans a vigorous at-
tack on the much discussed prob-
lem of rural electrification.

The education tax — the notor-
ious 2 percent sales tax imposed

in the depression years by the|
liberals—has been removed from
a few more commodities such as |
drugs and soap. It remains on’

clothing, furniture and
er items.

Mr. Clark singled out as the
most revealing statement in the
budget speech of the Hon. C. M.
Fines his warning that “I antici-
pate that the revenues of this
province will not enable us to

many oth-

go any further in the extension

of social services, and economic
developmersi, unless the legisla-
ture is prepared to find some new
source of revenue.”

This meant said Mr. Clarke,
that “insofar as the provincial
treasurer is concerned, the CCF
government has come to the end
of its rope. It can do nothing
more for the people unless the
legislature is prepared to find new
sources’ of revenue. .

The lLabor-Progressive spokes-
man then suggested that the pro-
vincial treasurer might well re-
read the platform on which his
own party was elected in 1944. In
this platform were set forth sug-
gestions for pressure upon Ot-
tawa for really adequate federal
financial aid for old age pen-
sions, education and health ser-

HAST, 0340 766 BE. HASTINGS

Hastings Steam Baths

Expert Masseurs In Attendance

vices. It was also suggested in
the platform >that a CCF govern-
ment might refuse to pay exhor-
bitant interest rates to the bond-
holders on Wall Street.

Mr. Clarke concluded by. point-
ing out that the “Labor-Progres-
Sive Party is deeply concerned
about the weaknesses which are
So evident in the financial posi-
tion of the CCF government —_
weaknesses which can only play
into the hands of the liberals and
pave the way for the return to
power of a government in Sas-
katchewan which would be noth-—
ing but an agent for the big mon-
opolies. It is against such a de-
velopment as this that all pro-
gressive people—CCF and Labor-
Progressive alike must unitedly
fight.” ;

Doukhobors plan :
Tribune banquet

The Doukhobor committee of
Vancouver is staging a banquet
and dance in aid of the Pacific
Tribune's ‘Press Drive’ on Satur-
day, March 15, 8.00 p.m. at 533 __
Georgia Street East.

Last year, the Doukhobors of
Vancouver and vicinity did splen- _
did work in raising financial sup- —
port for the Tribune, and_ this
year, with the need for a power-
ful labor press even ' greater,
these progressive New Canadians
are determineg to work harder
still, and make the Drive a big
success.

The musical program will be
highlighted with a ballet dance by _
Mary Toochin and songs by Sonia _
Nesteruk. The choir of Russian —
Doukhobor women will also be in
attendance. Minerva Miller will be

x ahs . the guest speaker of the even- ©
DR. W. J. CURRY Vancouver, B.C. ing. All interested in a colorful —
OPEN DAY and NIGHT |j/evening of Russian song and —
ss ; oo = dance are invited to attend.

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 7 _