Mil Poets corner _— Pacific Tribune receives a considerable number of contributions in verse, far more than can be published. This feature is being started in an effort to provide a place for the best submissions in the opinion of the editors, og x x HYDROGEN SPRING This is the first of May; the evening sun has come After a long delay, pale and ilf at} ease, April it did not find, April so -deep in gloom: ‘Bark xs though dust, the wind; black as though burn- ed, the trees. ‘It was the same last year: a strange hold winter had; The evening sun knew fear: how could the storm wind shake Over innocent human heads in a month once green and glad? “Spring sails this evening’s tides, but a spring of evil make! My son wants his April back, _ April the month of hope! : Green is better than black, with clouds clean of killer dust, The evening' sun is our friend; his rays slide their river- like slope: We bloom in their gentle blend, not in radioactive lust! Rebels for spring’s old way, with strong hearts, no bombs, police: This is the first of May! Hu- ‘manity sings out Peace! ROY LOWTHER OPEN FORUM. Dr. Scotts’ economics WOODWORKER, Nanaimo, B.C.: I see that Dr. A, D. Scott of the UBC department of economics has been telling the B.C. Chamber ‘of Commerce that this province should con- centrate on primary produc- tion and should not be too concerned with~ secondary manufacturing. His argument is that prim- ary production has produced a high standard of living and that diversion to secondary manufacturing would ulti- mately lower wages and salaries. I have always felt that in- tellectuals can benefit by get- ting out and acquiring some practical experience of the things they profess to know so well in theory. Dr. Scott confirms me in this opinion. In other words, I think he’s all wet. I was not invited to give my opinion, as a worker, in the panel discussion arranged by the B.C. Chamber of Com- merce. The Chamber of Com- merce reserves such invitai- tions for people like Tom Als- bury. So I must content my- self with giving my opinion in the logical place, a work- ers’ paper. Let me ask Dr. Scott, why did this province suffer so terribly in the depression years? It was because we were dependent on primary industries which in turn were dependent on world markets. We had very few secondary industries — most of the sec- ondary products sold in this province were (and still are) manufactured in the east or in the United States. That’s why . whole towns were out of work. They: were dependent on primary indus- Prizewinning letters Each week the Paci- fic Tribune will present a book to the writer of the most interesting, en- tertaining and _ topical letter published on this page. Contributors are urged to keep their let- ters to a reasonable length. The prize-winning let- ter in our last issue was written by P. Uut, Whon- nock, B.C. tries that closed down and there was necthing for the workers to turn to. The depressed state of the woodworking industry today is a warning to us that the sit- uation has not changed a great deal and that what happened in the thirties can happen again. Unless we find new markets in the socialist coun- tries, the- shrinking ‘of our present capitalist markets, for whatever reason, can bring hardship and suffering again to this province. As for Dr. Scott’s argument that secondary industry would bring lower wages, I would like to ask him why he relates high wages to primary in- dustry? Maybe he can prove his arguments to his own satisfaction with figures. I can prove mine with experi- ence, including a good many stints on the picket line. Aren’t the relatively good wages in this province a trib- ute to our strong labor tradi- tions and the struggle the workers have conducted down the years? Primary industry didn’t hand us these wages, as anyone who was in a log- ging camp in the thirties knows. We won them by fighting — and we'll only keep them by fighting. : Who said it? RETIRED LONGSHORE- MAN, Vancouver, B.C.: I think some of your readers may be interested in the fol- ‘owing quotation front’ the Dispatcher’s “Who said it?” department: ‘Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who. hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. “This world in arms is not spending money alone. “Tt is- spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. “The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a mod- ern brick school in more than 30 ‘cities. “Tt is two electric plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. “It is two fine, fully equip- ped hospitals. “It is fifty miles of concrete highway. “We pay for a single fighter plane with half a million bush- els of wheat. “We pay for a single de- stroyer with’ new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. “This, I repeat, is the best - way of life to be found on the road the- world has been taking. “This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Un- der the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.” Who said it? It was Presi- dent Eisenhower on April 16, 1953. ’ electorate as Social Credi- ters. John Milne, nominated as the Socred candidate to contest. the Burnaby pro- vincial by-election, report- -edly “climaxed a fiery nomination address in Ed- monds High School gym- nasium by leaping four feet to’ the floor without stop- ping his speech to 220 dele- gates.” The report continues: ‘The husky. six-foot-three lawyer said the idea ‘came to me in a flash — it was an inspiration.’ Hal Griffin A SOCIAL CREDIT candidate has just | made some sort of history by adding physical acrobatics to the mental gym- nastics by ‘which so many rejected Con- Servaiives have re-emerged before the “He said he would likely repeat his leap dyring the election campaign. ‘I might even rip my jacket off next time,’ he said.” No doubt a man of Milne’s soaring aspirations can rise to’ great heights — provid- ed the voters don’t trip him up and leave him flat on his face after election day, as they are apt to do in this traditionally CCF riding. If by some remote chance he should be elected, he is obviously, a man to be watched. Otherwise he is likely to be inspired while reading his maiden speech on the plane to Victoria and some poor voter in Saanich wil] get it in the neck with- out ever knowing what hit him. Besides, this sort of thing can be contagious. Premier Bennett may get the idea of reading his next pre-elec- tion budget speech para- chuting from a plane above the Parliament Buildings to demonstrate that “his -re- bates of money filched from us by the sales tax are real- ly manna from heaven. And Highways. Minister Gaglardi, who is never a man to be outdone, may take to hovering above his highway projects in an ar- mored helicopter personal- ly apologizing to motorists with flat tires for the in- convenience. _ Obviously, Milne’s inspir- ation has tremendous possi- bilities and could change the whole style of political campaigning around these parts. He should be warned though, that Premier Ben- net will probably frown on his proposal to add a strip © tease to his act. There’s no reason he should not go further and offer to wrestle his oppon- ents, so long as he doesn’t do it an a Sunday and charge admission. It might take a bit of practice to continue a speech while held in a hammerlock but, as some Social Credit MLAs have demonstrated, they: can talk their way out of some very uncomfortable positions. Personally, I feel that after the election the gov- ernment should reconsid- er its stand and send him to the Harrison Hot Springs centennial committee’s Sas- quatch hunt. He’s just the man to persuade the Sas- quatch to vote Social Credit. briefly GOLD BRICKS The slicker who sold Brook lyn Bridge had nothing on ap enterprising character name Witczak in the Polish city of Wroclaw who has been selling the city hall — brick by brick. He informed his would-be cus- tomers that the city hall was being demolished and under- — took to supply them with hard to get building materials when it came down. He sold several lots of 6,000 bricks before PO | lice caught up with him. % be be ROMANCE The old idea of romance: The country boy goes to the city, marries his employer’s daugh- ter, enslaves some hundreds ° his fellow human beings, gets | rich, and leaves a public lib: | rary to his home town. Fy The new idea of romance: -To undo some of the mischié done ‘by the old ideas of 10° mance. %