Editorial . 4,

“Poor For Keeps:

y= fo the Canadian Welfare Council confer-

ence in Ottawa have registered concern over the
fact that the rich nations of the world are getting richer
all the time, while the poor nations are getting poorer.

While this fact is disturbing another fact, far more
important in our opinion, is that the rich here in Canada
are getting richer while the poor are remaining poor.

The claims of economists that the distribution of
national income since the war has closed the gap be-
tween the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ has proved to be

untrue. :

in 1959, the bottom fifth of the population in
Canada had to settle for less than five percent of the na-
tional income, while the top fifth took in more than
forty-three percent.

The poor of course are better off than they were in
the 1930's. But they are better off simply because every-
one is better off. In relative terms they are no better
off than they were in 1944. ;

The same condition exists in the U.S. and caused
Secretary of Labour Willard Wirtz to state recently “that
a sixth of all Americans live below the proper minimum

level.”

This fact is also noted by Michael Harrington, author
and sociologist, in his recent book entitled ‘The Other
America.’ In this book he makes the observation that
there are forty to fifty million Americans who differ

from their fellow citizens because they are poor.

To the casual viewer, these people may appear well
fed when in reality they are fat with hunger, for that
is one of the penalties of eating cheap foods.

While nobody will argue that the poor here in Can-
ada or in the U.S. are as badly off as the starving
millions in the under-developed countries, the fact still
remains they are scarred in body and spirit through
existing at levels beneath those necessary for human

decency.

The prospect that any strong government action will
be taken to alleviate this plight of the poor appears
negligible. It is a sad commentary on our so-called
“affluent society” when the majority of us are content
to cast a blind eye on this tragic skeleton in our country's

closet.

And as long as we continue to do so, most of the
poor will remain poor for keeps. ;

og ANH NU
° ° °

P a

Mechanization Ending

Coal Workers’ Jobs

Last year 15 million more tons of coal were mined
in the U.S.A. in 1961 with 3 million fewer man-hours
of work.

A new pushbutton miner, already in use, can tunnel
800 feet into a coal seam and bring out more than a
thousand tons of coal in one shift without a single man
going underground.

A giant stripping machine installed by the Peabody
Coal Company to provide coal for a Tennessee Valley
Authority power plant at Paradise, Kentucky, is talier
than a 20 storey building and capable of uncovering
14,000 tons of coal a day — more coal than a thousand
men can dig in the average mechanised deep mine. One
man operates this machine.

EM

_.. Or Walking the Streets

You can’t make footprints in the sands of time by sitting
down. —Citizen, Berea, Ky.

BY

Publication date of the next issue of the WESTERN CANADIAN
LUMBER WORKER is June 20. Deadline for ad copy is June 6,

and for news copy June 7.
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ROTATES E
THE WESTERN CANADIAN A
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Published Twice Monthly on the First and Third Thursdays by
INTERNATIONAL WOODWORKERS OF AMERICA

(AFL-CIO-CLG) Regional Council No, 1
Editor . . . Grant MacNeil >?
B=) uf X=} Ce (9 | eee a Oa ee Jack Moore

REGIONAL OFFICERS:
1st Vice-President . Jack MacKenzie

2nd Vice-President -~.. ... Jack Holst
8rd Vice-President Bob Ross

peer e
International Board Me Joe Madden, Walter F. Allen

Address all communications to:
FRED FIEBER, Secretary-Treasurer
2859 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C.

TR. 4-5261 - 2

Subscription Rates ........................ $2.00 per_ annum
Advertising Representative ... G. A. Spencer

Authorized as Second Class Mail, Post Office Dept., Ottawa,
and for Payment of Postage’ in Cash.

27,500 COPIES PRINTED IN THIS ISSUE

f
'

THE FLAME THAT MUST NOT BE EXTINGUISHED

Immigration
Figures
Show Rise

A larger flow of arrivals
from Britain caused Canadian
immigration figures in the first
three months of the year to
rise slightly over 1962. Ar-
rivals in the first quarter to-
talled 13,410 or a gain of
1,648. British entrants virtu-
ally doubled at 2,806, with
Italians easing off to 2,440.
Full immigration was 74,586
compared with 71,689 a year
earlier. British arrivals ex-
ceeded Italian—the largest
group for the last five years—
at 15,603.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Workers Must Tell Facts Publicly
To Offset Employers’ Propaganda

Now that B.C.’s lumber
companies have reported im-
pressive profits for the past
year, it’s interesting to note

that the usual effusions of
gloom and ruin did not accom-

pany the fiscal announce-
ments. \

The reason is simple en-
ough, though. The I.W.A con-
tract negotiations are a year
away yet. Hence, there is no
necessity in espousing
through radio, television, and
newspaper- advertisements
the employers’ dubious cause
in an attempt to foster anti-
union feeling on the part of
the public. For the time be-
ing at least, a rosy glow will
be superimposed on the prov-
ince’s economic picture and
the possibility that all is per-
haps not well will be thought-
fully ignored. Ignored, that
is, until woodworkers request
a raise.

Though union members are
familiar with the employer
tactic of dropping the blame
for market conditions and un-
employment problems into
the lap of labor, there is dis-
quieting reason to believe
that a large sector of the non-
union public is not. Many en-
tertain the curious illusion
that chokermen and fallers

earn the same wage and a
surprising number also enter-
tain the notion, thanks to the
public misinformation service
of employers, that all wood-
workers are employed 12
months a year.

_Because the public memory
is chronically short, the fore-
bodings of economic disaster
that engulfed the coast dur-
ing last year’s negotiations
will be all but forgotten, ex-
cept by union members. Con-
sequently, when negotiations
begin next year a large chunk
of cash will be needed to re-
mind the public that markets
had not crashed (as F.LR.
perenially predicts), that the
austerity dollar fattened pro-
fits on foreign sales, and that
shareholders generally had
one hell of a good year in con-
trast with many not-so-fort-
unate wage earners.

For that reason it is im-
portant that members lend
active support to their union’s
purpose not only at contract
time, when solidarity is ‘im-
perative, but during the rest
of the year as well. Each
member could, for example,
make a point of drawing to
the attention of non-union
friends and neighbors the dis-
crepancy between F.LR.’s
wails of bankruptcy during

last year’s negotiations and
the handsome dividends being
declared by shareholders to-
day.

Conversely, if 1.W.A. mem-
bers fail to fulfill this obliga-
tion to themselves and their
union, company propaganada
at negotiation time will con-
tinue to persuade a suscept-
ible public that wage increas-
es are unrealistic and that
B.C. would practically crum-
ble away should union de-
mands be met.

Unhappily, the only party
to receive a more-than-fair
public hearing is the one with
capital to pay for it all,
namely F.I.R. But this un-
fortunate situation could be
altered somewhat if each
union member undertook to
expose daily, for the inform-
ation of the non-union public,
the grandly erroneous pro-
nouncements made by the
well-heeled public relations
departments of employers.

Only then will LW.A. de-
mands ‘be given the reason-
able public consideration they
deserve and which the F.1.R.
manages to out-buy at con-
tract time. And only then will
the union be in the strongest
possible position when it is
needed most.

KEN LONG

Two Unions Thank Lumber Worker
For Publicizing Picket Line

Many thanks for running
the pictures and caption on
the front page of your May
2nd issue.

As you know, we have been
on strike at Mitchell Press
since last August, and are
very disgusted with the fact
that the “Lions” would have
their programs produced in
the struck plant.

“Bill 43” was used as a
basis to gain and continue an
injunction from the courts
preventing us from contin-
uing information picketing of
the “Lions” offices.

We are determined to win
this strike and are apprec-

iative of the co-operation and
support that we have re-
ceived.

EARL KINNEY,

President, Local 44
Amalgamated Lithographers
of America.

I should like, on behalf of
the Allied Printing Trades
Council to thank you for cov-
erage and pictures in a recent
issue of your paper, “The
Lumber Worker”, of our
picket line in front of the
B.C. Lions Football Club
Office.

The council feels that the
Lions Club should have their
printing done at a union shop. ©

As labour is a strong support-
er of the B.C. Lions Football
Club, this contract should not
be given to Mitchell Press,
where, at the present time,
there are two unions on a leg-
itimate strike. ’
WM. DUNSMUIR,

President,
» Vancouver Allied Printing
Trades Council,

Personal income of Cana-
dians — excluding the more
than 500,000 out of work —
rose by eight per cent to $30,-
947,000,000 in 1962. This was
the largest percentage since
1957. poet