Xv * For five years Imperial Oil has been trying to buy the old home occupied by 10-year-old Mrs. Isabel Massie in Toronto. When the company first approached. Mrs. Mas- sie and her neighbors to buy their property for its new 19- storey office building all agreed not to sell. Butt one by one they sold until only Mrs. Massie was left. After the office building was erected the company increased its offer to $100,000. But Mrs. Massie won't sell. She likes it where she is, although, she admits, her oil heating bills have gone up since the neighboring houses were torn down. Courtenay CCF asks gov't take over phones COURTENAY, B.C. fora very inadequate service,” At a meeting of Courtenay that the number of people on CCF club last week sharp one party line, in some cases criticism of the local telephone as many as eight, renders system was voiced. The meet- such telephone service almost ing forwarded a letter to CCF useless to individual sub- provincial leader Robert Strachan urging him to place before the government the necessity of putting the tele- phone system under public ownership. The letter pointed out that “exorbitant rates gre charged scribers. Many Courtenay residents, irked by poor service and high rates, are reported to be in full accord with the local CCF club in its demand for public ownership of the utility. You are Cordially Invited to attend a READERS’ CONFERENCE to discuss the PACIFIC TRIBUNE with the staff Friday, March 1 - 8:00 p.m. PENDER AUDITORIUM 3RD FLOOR LOUNGE ~ \ 339 West Pender Street SEY 9 Vise Refreshments will be served : { CCF bill held step backward REGINA A CCF government bill to wipe out its powers to exprop- riate privately-owned corpor- ations is now before the Sas- katchewan legislature. Nelson Clarke, provincial leader of the Labor-Progres- sive party, described the move as “a retreat from the funda- mental principles on which the CCF was organized and on which it won the support of the people of Saskatchewan.” The legislation is covered in Section 8 of the Crown Cor- porations Act. It was used a number of years ago against anti-labor employers in Prince Albert when a box factory was taken over and operated as a crown company. “It is most regrettable,” said Clarke, “tha: the provincial government should remove its most effective instrument for bringing industries and com- mercial enterprises under pub- lice ownership at the very time when the need for curbing and ‘ controlling the power of mon- opolies is becoming more press- ing.” The reason given by Prem- ier T. C. Douglas, was that re- moval of the section would re- move an argument from oppo- sition Liberal politicians. “If this thinking were carried to its logical conclusion,” com- ments Clarke, “the govern- ment might as*well resign and let the opposition take over.” Clarke declared that the ac- tion weakened the govern- ment’s: ability to meet exploi- tation by big business and un- dermined the principle of pub- lic ownership. Council will not bar Communists LONDON Efforts. to include a clause in the new constitution of the merged London and_ District Labor Council that would have barred holding of office by Communists was defeated by delegates at the council’s first meeting. Attending the meeting was Thomas B. Ward of Ottawa, director of the Provincial Ned- erations and Labor Councils division of the Canadian La- bor Congress. He told delegates that no other council in the country had entertained inclusion of such a clause. The parent Can- adian Labor Congress consti- tution, while containing cer- tain discriminatory sections, avoids any reference to bar- ring the seating of delegates or their holding office, on ac- count of their membership in a political party. Delegates ‘from packing- house, auto, railroad and other locals challenged the discrim- inatory clause and voted it down by 36 to 28 after heat- ed debate. CONTINUED FROM PAGE | Now it’s the 200 big shots very much smaller number,’ he writes in a note titled “Concentration of Economic Power.” Had Prof. Ashley pursued the matter further by in- vestigating interlocking directorates, he would probably have come up with a still smaller number that holds the dominant economic power in Canada.