ears

Contempt for the People

} JF ANY indication were needed
of the St: Laurent govern-
ys Ment’s cynical attitude towards
xs the people's needs, it is provided
+ | by the budget brought down last
FA Week by Finance Minister Wal-
ter. Harris.

Harris warns against inflation.
K | But inflation is already here.
js Working people know that from
i the prices of the necessities they
Hs Must buy in relation to the pur-
ae Gasing power of their wages.

ai LO give senior citizens a mere

us: ‘
of
* giveaways
yn
tly :
4 | HIS week in Ottawa and Vic-
he’)... toria the controversial Col-
ele
1) tibia River development will
€ on the agenda. Powerful
‘hydro. electric monopoly inter-
has “sts in the U.S. have been man-
5 _uvring for years to secure
/ Control of Columbia River power

sources on Canadian territory.

Just what development would

8 bg the greatest economic and

ad Social gain to B.C. is still an

‘i , Pen question. But some facts
sat ate clear.

oh One is that there must be no
be Biveaways of Columbia River
| "sources to U.S. power mono-
‘Polies, either by Ottawa or Vic-
‘oria. The Columbia must be

developed by and for ourselves.
il ee
nt) Whatever the discussions,

iv he people’s rights must be
pe ‘igidly observed. And the only

‘Ssurance that there will be no
ea iveaway is the vigilance of the
ae “ople themselves.

sPacific Tribune

Published weekly at

ot “Room 6 — 426 Main Street
ght} “sa Vancouver 4, B.C.

ght Phone: MArine 5288

ois! Editor — TOM McEWEN

30%" piociate Editor — HAL GRIFFIN
Siness Manager — RITA WHYTE
Subscription Rates:
One Year: $4.00 '
Six months: $2.25
cone ttaidian and Commonwealth
G tie Niries (except Australia): $4.00
0 year. Australia, United States
all other countries: $5.00 one
year.

to raise the
federal old age pension to $46

$6 more a month,

‘when most people are agreed

that the minimum should be $60
is to perpetuate the poverty level
existence imposed upon the men
and women who have built this
country.

The juggling around with
Family Allowance categories to
give an extra dollar at certain
ages without any absolute in-
crease at the high school ages is
equally a refusal to recognise the
consequences of inflation to
working people.

The budget has been described
as giving a little to everyone.
But, like the Social Credit bud-
get with its $28 tax refund for
home owners recently brought
down at Victoria, the Liberal
budget introduced at Ottawa re-
turns only a fraction of what
high taxation at the lower levels
and high living costs have al-
ready taken away.

The St. Laurent government's
contempt for the people is shown
by the cheap price it places on
, their votes.

775

Comment

Tom
McEwen

AST week I had a short letter
from a grand old veteran of
labor, living out the last years
of his life in the ‘Pioneer Home”
in Prince Rupert.

“T hope,” he said in his brief

letter (which also contained. $6
of his meagre old age pension)
“that this year’s drive will be
successful, for yours is the only
paper worth reading, and I am
glad I am still able to help out
a little.”

Nearly 15 years ago in one of
his columns during a similar
campaign, Bill Bennett said of
this courageous veteran of nearly
80 years: “There’s old Bob Kydd
up in Prince Rupert, for instance,
who has been selling subs and
getting donations for our papers
ever since the Cutty Sark was
launched in Dumbarton.” (That
was a long time ago. This famous
British three-masted tea clipper,
the fastest sailing’ ship in her
day, was launched in. 1869.)

So you can see, old Bob Kydd

was rooting for the working class
press before some of us were
born.

In his letter Bob had a few
words. to say on the lot of the
old timers who are compelled to
live out their colorless days in
some of these “homes.” When
an aged companion passes away
the ceremonies are scant and often
his aged colleagues are not even
consulted about the funeral serv-
ices. “They exploit us when we
are living,” says Bob, “and they
even exploit us when we pass.”

One of Bob’s old friends in
the “Pioneer Home,” William
“Kitimat” Brown, passed away
recently. The funeral services
were rushed through, with Bob
and others of his cronies kept in
the dark until it was all over.
To Bob Kydd and to many others
William “Kitimat” Brown wasn’t
just another old pauper to be
buried with scant concern.

Brown was a pioneer in the
Skeena district for nearly 60
years; trapper, hunter and trail-
blazer, and one of the first white
citizens in the Indian areas of
Kitimaat, now corrupted to Kiti-
mat.

Born in the West Indies in
1862, Brown emigrated to the
U.S. and pioneered in trade un-
ion organization in the hard-
rock mines of Colorado. In the
early days of the Western Fed-
eration of Miners and later the
Mine-Mill, he was known as a
fearless union organizer.

The Prince Rupert press char-
acterized William “Kitimat”
Brown as “one of Skeena’s most
famous pioneers.” Bob Kydd, ‘the
veteran fighter for a working
class press is more to the point.
“They call us paupers, but to
organized labor men like Wil-
liam Brown should be remem-
bered as heroes.”

xt % $e

Noting the stories in our press
about the Wenner-Gren deal, a
friend in California has sent me
up a quotation from G. Hau-
mann’s book, Atlantic Pack Con-
cerns: The International Inter-
locking Cartels in West Germany:

“Referring to the Swedish ball-
bearing manufacturing concern
(SKF) connected with thé Wal-
lenberg brothers, and assisted
during the war by John Foster
Dulles, the extent of German par-
ticipation in it is not exactly
known. It was founded by S.
Wingquist, who was a member
of the motely clique of interna-
tional advencurers associated with
the Duke of Windsor — former-
ly Edward VIII. With him were
the Swedish industrialist Wenner-
Gren and Charles Bedeaux, the
well-known inventor of intensive :
methods of work’.

If we must give -away large
chunks of- B.C., at least let’s give
it to people with some little claim
to poli:ical decency. By compari-
son, H. R. MacMillan and ‘Dal’
Grauer are almost. respectable.

MARCH 22, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 7