BECOME A PRESS BUILDER!

‘TN the first 10 days of’ the, Pacific Tribune's 1950

B financial drive for $15,000, a dozen eager beavers
turned in $25 or more and joined our non-exclusive
Press Builders’ club. This weekend, at the provin-
‘cial convention of the Labor-Progressive party, the
Press Builders who can attend will be honored by
the delegates, and will receive their PB buttons from
guest speaker Charles Sims, former Toronto alder-
man, who is representing the LPP national executive
committee at the convention.

In 1949 the coveted PB buttons were awarded to
214 Pacific Tribune supporters. This year we hope
that at least 250 readers will top the $25 mark.

_ Will YOU be one?

Reports coming in to the
the press drive this year can become the most suc-
_ Cessful in the paper's history. Financial targets have
been accepted with enthusiasm, and sale of dance
tickets is expected to surpass all previous records.

All this is fine and dandy,
but our business office
staff can‘t meet the pa-
per’s pressing obligations
with promises, and so
Fel Dorland, our business
manager, raises this per-
tinent point:

PT office indicate that

North Vancouver Club
Becky Buhay Club
Bill Bennett Club

Commercial Drive Club
Civic Workers No. 1 Club
East End No. | Club
Electrical Workers Club
Fairview-Mt. Pleasant
Forest Products Club
Georgia Club
Grandview Club
Hastings East: Club
Kitsilano Club
Maritime Club
Niilo Makela Club
Ol Bill Memorial Tributes

ONE GRAND IN - 14 TO GO!
ae $500." Peng. Par Club 8.50
Dae 30.00 Ryerson Club -........-----t----- 24.50
Ake 51.00 Strathcona Club -.....--- 32.00
14.70 Victory Square Gleb... 3 eee 100.00
ee 7.00 West End Club -.....--—------ 14.75
ee 21.25 Burrard Section -..------------------- 83.80
sok 10.60 Hastings East Section 5.00
ei 25.00 Miscellaneous, City -......------------------ 37.50
aes 39.00 Courtenay —----..-------------nreteeeee 50.50
one 12.00 Kamloops » ....--.---------------eeseecse 39.50
Sere "106.15 (Kelowna .-----------enet 50.00
Nanas ho Sees ie Ae 26.00
Salmon Atm |... 17.50
Veriuni ee ee 3.00
: Wictona i 17.10
vy ete 16.00 Miscellaneous, Pianute ol eee
Motel ist soa tae $1,066.85

“Don’t wait until the
drive is nearly over be-

fore sending in cash in a
lump sum. When you
hold a social and collect
a few bucks, rush. it in!
When you sell a book of
dance tickets, let’s have
that sawbuck right away!

So do your part to generate social
ween clubs and organiza
donations and proceeds from aN
our office pronto. Let’s hear from you SOON!

. *

competition

‘Speaking of socialist
Center East,

Organizer for Vancouver
this week to issue an open ¢
Organizer for Vancouver Center West. _
‘tions have $3,000 quotas,” said Ruddell.

section aims to ring the bell by May
_ weeks before the drive officially closes.

it, Alf2” :

*

- For Pacific Tribune readers who want to

but do not belong to a :

- Cially participating in the drive,

ate filling out of the form print
; eee LS

ed below.

{

We know that the best way to step up the tempo of

the drive is to get off to a flying start the first month,
, ist competition bet-

tions by seeing that all
affairs are hustled into

| Elgin Ruddell,

dropped around
hallenge to Alf Dewhurst,
“Both sec-
“My
Day, two full

What about

help
ny club or organization offi-
we suggest immedi-

Pacific Tribune seeking more —
volunteer correspondents in 1950

By BERT WHYTE

E arenotrichin editors and
reporters in the left-wing 1la-

bor movement. Financial pressures
make it impossible for us to main-
tain and train adequate “full-time
staff members ,on our papers. We
are always short-handed.

All the more reason, then, why
we should build up a wide network
of writer correspondents — @ group
of volunteer reporters who will
send in stories from all parts of
the province, dealing with the de-
velopment of peace movements, of
trade union struggles, unemployed
organizations, political happenings,
etc.

Workers learn to write by writ-
ing, There is nothing mysterious
about the craft of writing — any
intelligent person can, with train-
ing, learn to turn out readable
copy. However, news writing, like
bricklaying or carpentry, isa
craft, and must be mastered.

All Iam attempting to do in this
short article is to pass on a few
practical writing hints to those
volunteer correspondents we now

t

1 WANT TO HELP

i

Fel Dorland, business manager, Pacific Tribune,
B.C.

650 Howe Street, Vancouver,
: collection card by return mail.

Please send me a PT drive

CUPY. OR- TOWN oh. - te

have, and perhaps encourage other
workers to try their hand at news
reporting for the Pacific Tribune.

In covering any type of story,
the first rule is, GET THE FACTS.
Correspondents sometimes send in
stories starting like this: “At the
unemployed meeting there was &
hectic discussion and a Mr. Wilks
said the only thing to do was to
unite and form an organization,
and after some more discussion we
set up an unemployed organiza-
tion.” . g

When was the meeting held?
Where? How many were there?
Who is Wilks? What is his first
name? What caused the hectic
‘| discussion? What is the. name of

am $1 5,000 by May 15 i

the organization set up?

in sensationalism, have their pecu-
liar ideas on this subject. “One
bank cashier plus one wife plus
seven, children isn’t news,” one
editor used to say. “But one chor-
us girl plus one bank president
minus $100,000 is news.”

The sensation-mania of the capi-
talist press is currently illustrated
in the sordid, screaming headlines ©
and front page stories on the Du-
charme case. International news —
or national news of first-rate im~
portance is relegated to inside pag--
es, while a murder trial hogs the

spotlight.

: BERT WHYTE >
job would be if the correspondent
answered the who, what, when,
where, why and how questions in
his opening paragraph, something
like this: — a6

ra

“An Unemployed Action Associ-
ation was formed Wednesday
night by 60 jobless citizens who
gathered in the Legion’ Hall to

ployed in the Green River area.

of the UAA .. .” etc.

.

was a reporter:

“T have*six honest serving ‘men;

They taught me all I knew;

Their names are Where and
. What and When

And How and Why and Who.

“What is news?”

How much easier the desk man’s

commercial newspapers wallowin

PACIFICO TRIBUNE — MARCH 2, 1950 — PAGE

protest civic and. provincial gov-
ernments’ refusal to start local pub-
lic works projects, at a time when
there are more than 1,000 unem-

“Ernest Wilks, jobless bricklayer,
was elected chairman of the orga-
nization and stated that the aims

Volunteer correspondents collec-
ting facts for stories should perhaps
memorize this little verse of Kip-

ling, written in the days when he

Next let’s discuss the question,
There is quite
a distinction between the capitalist
and labor definition of news... The

Our labor press has a different
conception of news values. We try _
(within the limits of 12 weekly
pages) to present articles and news
stories of personal, family, commu-
nity, national and international
significance. We do not pretend ©
to write “objectively” for we hold
a definite bias — on the side of
the working class. Capitalist pa-
pers make great pretenses of “op-
jectivity” but actually are always
biased on the side of big business.

What are some of the subjects
that we consider have news value?
The struggle against high prices.
The fight against raiders in the
trade union movement. Strikes
and lockouts. ‘The work of unem-
ployed organizations The fight
for peace. Housing campaigns.
Elections and labor political ac-
tion. Civil liberties. Juvenile de-
linquency. The, exposure of profit-
eering and the profiteers.

You can take it from here. What’s
going on in YOUR community?
We'd like to know. Become a vol-
unteer reporter for the Pacific Tri-
bune, send us in your stories when
events take place (not a fortnight
later). :

One final word: please remember
our limited space and keep your
g | Stories short. : 2B

nh