Anarchy on wheels By LESLIE MORRIS, On July 25 Vehicle No. 7,130,001 (1963 model) rolled off an assembly line in some unknown U.S. auto plant. The Associated Press reported that it was a ‘“shistory-mak- Output of 7,130,000 in one model year. When the production of 210,000 will have been made. More than 5,000,000 used cars have been sold so far this year and by the end of 1963 the 1955 record of 10,139,000 may have been broken. * ae * A rough calculation would be that about one-third of American families will go deeper into debt in 1963 by the purchase of a new or used car — all for the purpose of going on Wheels from one place to another. _ No one could estimate the output of new masses of carbon dioxide, baq nerves, accidents and new super-highways (and the taxes to pay for them) produced in turn by this enormous automotive binge. x * * To the nearly one million working in U.S. auto plants (743,000 hourly and salaries employees work for the Big Three, GM, Ford and Chrysler) must be added steel, coal, oil and cracking-plan, rubber and other producers the results of whose labor end up on the streets, highways, ditches and junk dumps. * * * The car is King of the American economy. It is also Anarchy. The original idea of the car was to enable humansxo move ern cities to walk faster than one can ride. The car brought the speedways; the speedways bring the Cars, Life is a battle between the highway and the car. * * * _ Streams of automobiles take workers to work and home again, often a ton of metal and engineering ingenuity is requir- €d to take one person to work and back, not to speak of the fuel consumed in the process. : Transportation, like housing, for most people is a private responsibility, not a public one. Millions of North Americans Could not get to work without their personal transportation system any more than they can have shelter without a 20-year Mortgage “life sentence.” * e * * hat the It was remarked by a scientist the other day t Concentration of nervous strain piled up in a car to work and home again is as great as that experienced by an s&s astronaut at the moment of take-off. Actually, in terms of nervous Work starts the moment the family jalopy takes off, a the moment it arrives back home. * * * The auto companies act according to the classical dictate Of capitalist production: they produce as though there was no limit to their market. This is the anarchy of capitalist produc- tion. Nowhere is it more evident than in the main North Am- erican industry: one based not on real human needs but on ie esire to move from one place to another on a set of privately- ©wned wheels. : * * * Of course, there is money in this. big money. “Barnings”’ (the euphemism for profit) of the auto companies are the high- est in history. | And not only for the auto firms. Stan Jersey) reports a six-month profit of $513 of $88 million over the first six months of last year. _ Sclipses the record of 1957 by $50 million. * % and physical exhaustion, nd ends dard Oil Co. (New million, an increase This Think of that when you roll up to the filling stations the day before pay day to buy enough gas to get you to the plant - and home again. A shrewd economist once wrote that the a American car lives better than its owner. The fa verage- North cts bear him out. € * * 3 : If private car ownership is the hallmark of North Amer!- can prosperity and “our way of life”, may heaven preserve oth moving the "er peoples from it, and may they find ways of uman- corpus from one place to another. weal T vie "And before the drama of this case unfolds may I say that. my client wishes to reserve full film an d television rights.” August 9, 1.963—PACIFIC, TRIBUNE—Page 7. »- - a4. ers) iz » j : ee AG... 378 Vieus ing vehicle” because with it the industry broke its 1955 record’ 1968 models ceases in mid-August, another from one place to another quickly. Now it is possible in mod- driver getting . TAX DEAL ONLY ’STAY OF EXECUTION’ Canada’s finance policy now under Yank control | “The events of past weeks make mincemeat of arguments that it is anti-American to try to gain wider control over the direction, of our industry and institutions.”’ This is how the Financial Post responded to the U.S. “interest equalization tax’’ and to the later announcement that at President Kennedy’s discretion, Canadians would still be allowed to borrow ’ in-the U.S. market. The financial Post did not men- tion the Communist Party. Most likely, the people who wrote the editorial didn’t even think of the Communist Party. But it is well worth remember- ing that it is the Communist Party which has been carrying on the longest and most faithful struggle for the right of Canadians to have “control over the direction of our industry and our institu- tions.” The fight began in 1947, when the Communists labled the Ab- bott Plan of the Liberal govern- ment an economic sellout to the U.S: At that time, U.S. investment in Canada was under $7 billion. In the subsequent years of Liberal and Tory rule, American own- ership rose to more than $20 - billion worth of our economy. The Communists warned that economic sellout would be fol- lowed by political sellout. Early this year the Americans dictated the terms of our nuclear policy. Now they control the Canadian budget. That is the meaning of the recent agreement between Finance Minister Walter Gordon and U.S: Treasury Secretary Douglas Dillon. WHY THE SHARP OUTCRY? It has to be remembered that all our economic problems are tied one way or another to the overwhelming U.S. ownership and control of our economy. This control has crippled our economic development. We have a one-sided, raw-materials econ- omy. AS a result we buy more from the U.S. in manufactured goods than we sell to that coun-— try. U.S. ownership of branch ~ plants here limits our trade with other countries. _ : — Buying more than we sell re- sults in a deficit trade balance. In other words, we use more foreign currency (U.S. dollars) in trade than we receive. “Besides this, hundreds of mil- lions of dollars flow out of Can- ada each year in interest and dividends (profits). This the the fruit of U.S. investment in Can. ada. These two factors, our imbal- ance of trade, and the huge U.S. profits flowing out of Canada, help to create a deficit balance of payments. Canada has been cov- ering this deficit through the an- nual inflow of U.S. capital — loans by the municipalities and provincial governments, and by private companies, and most im- portant, US. stock takeovers of Canadian companies. BREAK EXISTING PATTERN Kennedy’s proposal of a 15 percent tax on U.S. purchases of foreign common stocks and a graduated tax of up to 15 percent in the case of bonds threatened to break up the whole existing pattern, to cut off the supply of U.S. dollars and to create another balance of payments crisis for Canada. The move would also force up interest rates in Canada, dis- courage the expansion of industry and lead to unemployment. On the other hand, Kennedy proposed that no tax be im- posed on the U.S. investor if he buys stock from a company al-- ready 10 percent U.S.-owned, or if the stock purchase creates a 10 percent U.S. ownership. This would speed up U.S. takeovers of Canadian firms. After secret talks between Gordon and Dillon, it was an nounced that in its proposed leg islation, the U.S. administration would provide power for Ken- nedy to establish exemptions “from time to time” on new Can- adian securities issues floated on the U.S. market. The agreement was actually no U.S. kindness to Canada. It was clearly in the U.S. interest to make Canada a special case. Without continued access to U.S. money markets to help cover our purchases, we would have to buy less in the U.S. Without the continued inflow of U.S. dollars, Canadians would have to consid- er some kind of curb on the out- flow of U.S. profits. Even the Americans recognize this. In January, 1963, the Brook- ings Institute told the U.S. govern- ment it should not be worried about any increased ‘flow of in- vestment dollars to Canada. Al- most every dollar, the institute added, comes right back to the US. CAN BORROW JUST ENOUGH Kennedy agreed to allow Can- adians to borrow just enough annually in the U.S. to cover the deficit balance of payments cre- profits. Again, he was looking out for interests of U.S. business, not Canada. But the agreement also sharply © increased U.S. political control. Now the president can veto Can. adian spending. The recent $300 million borrowed’ by Quebec to buy out the private hydro com- panies has been referred to as the example which shot up Canadian borrowing in the U.S. Now the Americans can halt that kind of borrowing. Press reports hint there may be even more secret agreements. “This is a quid pro arrange- ment,”’ one treasury official in the U.S. is quoted as saying. ‘We expect them to do certain things - and they expect us to do certain things.’ US. WATCHDOG COMMITTEE Does this involve an understand- ing that Canadians cannot afford to spend on welfare, increased old age pensions, public works and similar undertakings? The U.S. has already set up an inter- financial watchdog — to keep an eye on the promised exemption for new Canadian securities is- sues from the U.S. tax. The Gordon-Dillon agreement doesn’t solve any of our econo- mic problems, but simply post- pones them. We have been given a “reprieve,” a ‘‘stay of exe- cution,’’ says the Globe and Mail. The Financial Post puts it even more bluntly. ‘“‘Are we condemn. ‘ed forever to the self-defeating idiocy of perennial borrowing to pay dividends and interest on old debt? This is the road to recur- rent crisis.” But only the Comunist Party points out that since the prob- lem is such a fundamental one, the solution has to be drastic as well. The only decisions that will meet the situation, even part way, says the party, are the na- tionalization of U.S.-owned indus- tries as the first step to a New ated by our purchases in that-—-Canadian Economie Policy and a country and by the outflow of new made-in Canada constitution. B.C. Electric gouge Cont’d from pg. 1 session of the company pending appeals on the Lett decision. There was a strong public sus- picion that the B.C.E. was pres- sing its case in court in order to pressure the provincial gov- YCL speakers for Stanley Pk The B.C. Executive of the Young Communist League has announced that it intends to make “full use’’ of the speak- ers corner in Stanley Park, ° starting on Sunday, August 11 at 2 p.m. with orations on the unemployment situation. ' “We estimate between 15 to 20 thousand young people haven’t been able to find sum- mer jobs or any permanent work since last June,’’ com- mented Ron Forkin, Y.C.L. Chairman. Y.C.L. soap boxers will appear regularly in the Park during August. er POINT GREY GARDEN PARTY Keep This Date Open. Sat. Aug. 17-3 p.m. 4697 W. 4th ernment into an early settlement on terms demanded by the com- pany. : This suspicion was echoed in court Tuesday when Mr. Justice Ruttan, before. adjourning the hearing until Thursday, said: “There is a healthy suspicion that the effect of these proceed- ings could be used as a gambit in the negotiations for settlement between the parties.” SOCREDS WILLING _ Most disturbing to the consum- ing public are signs that the Social Credit government are prepared to submit to the B.C.E. demands. At press time it was reported that Attorney-General Bonner announced that the gov- ernment is willing to negotiate a settlement acceptable to it and the B.C.E. ¥ ae Premier Bennett, attending a conference of Provincial prem- iers in eastern Canada, has also given statements to the press indicating that the B.C. govern- ment is seeking a deal with the B.C.E. which would cost con- sumers many more millions of dollars. 7s Meanwhile, the big constitu. tional issues involved, which deal a blow to public ownership in Canada’s provinces and strengthens the hand of monop- olies in fighting public takeovers, has been pushed into the back- _ ground. See article on page 2.