THE September 9 “(ittle election’
fo fill vacant MLA seats in
Burnaby, Delta and Cariboo will
ae the electorate with an-
a ©pportunity to express its
*PProval. or otherwise of Premier

‘ A. C. Bennett’s Social Credit
’dministration,

a among the issues in this
mina is the people’s growing de-
tdi or the outlawing of H-bomb
‘ a oy menacing the health
wus umanity, and standing as a
ild threat of atomic destruction.
Be resolutions and pre-election
Ses on this dread issue are
necen sufficient. Every en-
os ae fovernment and legisla-
ie 8ardless of political philoso-
oe must be compelled by the
ie take a firm stand for. the
he fate banning of ‘nuclear
s.
Amon

up € other key issues coming

° debate on the hustings ‘will
| we © Columbia River power de-
: “pment and the need of safe.

La cetinat further Socred give-
tliminari, Power monopolies; the
ridges 10n of onerous tax tolls on
action ne tunnels; more energetic
Mote ae the legislature to pro-
toe Ina and other Asian and
d nN markets for B.C. pro-

? Steater economic aid to B.C.

ame :

dlim ts suffering from adverse
ati ie

b He and market conditions; and

n
Mu¢ © ‘means least, the need of
fielg Steater municipal aid in the

fen. Ospital and educational
| “Witements P d

ina ete pre only a few of the
People Pressing hard upon the
dates? and upon which the candi-
tr ries € respective parties seek-
Hong cle
the

‘ ar. It is quite obvious that
a
Ne

tming rise of unemploy-
CUtba “Nstruction and industrial
Specin,? Cannot be solved by
the me Pre-election promising. In
Sog, eh § of the people too is the
Which. Sive - away” _ policies,
lunbian et only deprive British Co-

ot their rich resources,
P Acific Tribune

Ublished weekly at
Nom g¢ — 426 Main Street
ancouver 4, B.C.
Edit One: MArine 5288
Associate ot — TOM McEWEN
© Editor — HAL GRIFFIN
Subscription Rates:
Yne Year: $4.00
) Cana ai 1X months: $2.25
Cunt 22 and Commonwealth
Ong ys (except Australia): $4.00
iq ay, Australia, United States
other countries: $5.00 one
year.

little election’

8 must make their posi- -

~

EDITORIAL PAGE +

but thousands of our working
people of their jobs.

In preparation for the elections
the Delta constituency commit-
tee of the LPP will meet this week
to field a candidate, since the CCF
nominee Len Sheppard has de-
clared his policy of “going it alone”
rather than in seeking for the
widest unity as a means of serving
the needs of the people.

In Burnaby the LPP stated it
will throw® its support behind the
CCF candidate, Cedric Cox who is
putting forward a legislative pro-
gram which organized labor and all
progressive people generally, can
readily support. A longtime labor
seat held by a veteran CCF social.
ist, the late Earnest Winch, a
united front vote around the Cox
program is the only assurance of
continuing the Burnaby tradition.

In the Cariboo the LPP will
conduct an independent campaign
around the key issues by radio,
newspaper advertising and other
media, aimed at assisting the people
in bringing these issues squarely be-
fore their prospective candidates.

All in all the three byelections
can have the effect of a province-
wide debate, since they will force
into the open those basic issues
which the Bennett. government seek
to play possum with.

OME weeks ago this paper ran

a lead editorial on the steady
increase of unemployment at a
“seasonal” period when normally
it should be at its lowest ebb. Since
then city councils, central labor
bodies and other public orgénisa-
tions and spokesmen have added
their voices to this growing con-
cern.

William Horrobin, chief of the
National Employment Service in

B.C. expresses his worry about
people “crying calamity” and as-
sures us that NES does not re-
gard the situation as being “drastic.”
He adds however that he himself
can “not be optimistic about em.
ployment this’ year since we're still
having growing pains in B.C.”

That is the kind of reasoning
which sets about putting the fire
out after the house has been com-
pletely gutted. According to NES
figures these “growing pains” add
up to 16,000 unemployed in Van-
couver in July of this year or some
7,000 above the same period a
year ago.

Aware of the problem, the Die-
fenbaker gcvernment is presumed
to have “clamped down” on fur-
ther immigration to Canada this
year. Spelled out that simply means
no new immigrant bookings from
various countries will be. sought
meantime, but that all existing

Act on unemployment

thousands of bookings will come in

as scheduled.

By July of this year some 35,000
Hungarian “freedom fighters” had
been admitted to Canada, making a
grand total of some 175,000 immi-
grants from all countries since the
beginning of 1957, Immigrants
from West Germany are arriving
in Canada at-the rate of 1,500
monthly and, says the West Ger-
man embassy in Ottawa, things
would be better for these immi-
grants if “they knew what to expect
in Canada before. embarking.” Just
so. Thousands of Hungarian “free.
dom fighters” are learning the
hard way, the difference between
expectations based on_ political
promises, and stern reality.

What is required now is a pro-
vincial-wide conference of industrial,
civic, labor, veterans, welfare and
other public bodies to tackle the
problem of unemployment. First,
by ‘helping to clear away present
trade barriers as a direct aid to pro-
viding thousands of new jobs, and
secondly, to call a halt to present
chaotic immigration policies until
the needs of Canadian workers are
satisfied.

NES’s Horrobin wants to wait
until “calamity” is upon us. We sug-
gest wide publication now to fore-
stall the calamity of mass unem-
ployment.

gHIGHWAYS Minister Gaglardi’s

numerous “sorry for the in-
convenience” signs along B.C.s
highways are causing a lot of
grief among motorists, motel
keepers, and other establishments
which depend upon the touring
buck to balance their budgets.

On the highways one meets
with two schools of thought on
the why and wherefore of the
state of the roads. One, diligently
seeking to cushion the motorist
wrath anent Social Credit,
blames “the weather” for the
wide variety of potholes, mud-
slides and other hazards. The
other, with an ever-present men-
tal calculation on what it cost
him in taxes and insurance to
drive a car, unlimbers a barrage
of rich, unprintable invective on
the state of B.C’s roads in gen-
eral, and on Socred Gaglardi’s
“sorry for the inconvenience” in
particular.

Some American tourists with
their national flair for bombast,

observe that immigration posts
at the border are quite -unneces-
sary as reminders they are now
in B.C. The state of the roads
they say, are sufficient for that.

On the subject of highways we
are somewhat inclined to be

-Sympathetic with Gaglardi and

company despite the “inconven-
iences.” From fifty years or more
of successive Tory, Liberal and
Coalition “road work” the Soc-
reds inherited a skeleton net-
work of rutted wagon trails and
decrepit bridges. For sheer cuss-
edness the old Marpole Bridge
(as Exhibit A) won international
fame.

Without going into the total
mileage of hard-surfaced roads
and bridges built since the ad-
vent of Social Credit government
in B.C., and to be charitable with
credit where it is due, it may be
said that in highway and bridge
construction, they have accomp-
lished more in five years than
the Tory-Liberal Siamese twins
managed in fifty.

The main trouble today in
highway construction is not “the
weather” or the blankety-blank
Social Credit. It is just that
Gaglardi bites off too long
stretches of highway reconstruc-
tion and puts far too few men
and machines to work on these
stretches.

The average motorist, tourist

or other, doesn’t mind road con-

struction. In fact he is all for it
since it gives him a feeling of
something in return for the high
motorist taxes he has to
shell out. What gives him a Gag-
lardi “inconvenience” bellyache
is that when he comes back over
the same route the following
month or the following year, he
finds a road building mess simi-
lar to what he experienced the
year before and almost in the
same area; a few road machines
and a skeleton crew digging a
vast mileage of road hazards,
garlanded with Gaglardi “incon-
vience” signs. Then he blows a
fuse and seeks a fast “detour”
home.

With 16,000 unemployed work-
ers in Vancouver alone, and tons
of road-building machinery rust-
ing in municipal backyards,
Gaglardi should throw away his
“inconvenience” equipment and
give his highway reconstruction
top priority as “rush jobs” in-
stead of homesteading projects.

We have the men and the ma-
chines to give B.C. the best high-
ways on the continent—and the
motoring public have a “very
legitimate beef which cannot. be
explained away by “the
weather.” The motorist doesn’t
mind “inconvenience”, but he is
already good and tired of it as
a permanent diet.

August 16, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 5

ee