SS

Pauline Johnson

Centennial on March 10

MY NAME IS
BIG BUSINESS

‘ Here’s a poem blished time ago in the
‘U.S. F published some time ag:
hl nis arm News”. The poet’s name 1S Arthur C.
as.

My name is Big Business,
T am not concerned with human welfare,
I have neither heart nor soul,
Only profits are my goal.
Some consider me a blessing
Some ‘consider me a knave,
But I get my little “rake-off”
From your cradle to your grave.
I have no office hours,
T work both night and morn.
I profit from your funeral,
As I did when you were born.
If you should wonder at your poverty,
- Why you vote and act like fools,
It is I who write the text-books
For your colleges and schools.
I dictate the editorials
For your metropolitan press,
And offer all the “reasons”
The world’s in “such a mess”.
The people pay in peace-time,
But they pay more in war,
So I control your diplomats,
Your Congress, Courts, and Law.
If you grow tired of being robbed
Through profit, interest, and rent,
In seeking relief you'll no doubt find
That I’m the government.

* zi , GE $4 CEN S OM 5% ;

CUI NT 1 TE LTC LOS Fee SN ERNIE OO es OO AS AO ER LE A Gc Ee oc

HE

Ottawa that the postoffice|
department is issuing a special
stamp on March 10 to mark
the centennial of the birth of
Pauline Johnson will be wel-
comed for the recognition it
gives to Canada’s beloved Mo-
hawk poetess.

Born on an Indian reserva-
tion near Brantford, Ontario,
to a Mohawk Indian chief and
his English-born wife, Pauline
Johnson learned, while still.a
child, the bitter truth about
the way her people were be-
ing robbed of their property
and rights. On one occasion
her home was saddened when
her .father, a leader on the
reservation, was nearly beaten
to death by a gang for trying
to block a scheme by. which
wealthy men tried to gain con-
trol of the reservation’s tim-
ber.

Throughout her life she
cried out against the injustices
meted out to her people. Her
most powerful poems such as
THE CATFLE THIEF were
protests against the inhuman
conditions imposed on Can-
ada’s Indians. In later years
when “respectable” society
tried to forget her native In-
dian origin she reminded them
with these words: :

“T am an Indian, my pen
and my life I devote to the
memory of my people. Forget

Pauline Johnson spoke
out against injustice

By MAURICE RUSH

Tekahionwake, the Mohawk
that humbly aspires to be the
saga singer of her people, the
bard of the noblest folk the
world has ever seen.”

-Were Pauline Johnson alive
today. she would continue. to
cry out against the monstrous
injustices against Canada’s. In-
dian people by a- government
which, while hypocritically is-
suing a stamp to mark Pauline
Johnson’s contribution to Can-
ada, at the same time. carries
out. a vicious. policy which
robs .the Native . Indians. of
their rights and. lands; .and
seeks to perpetuate a form of
genocide against. Canada’s or-
iginal peoples.

*
HEN 23 years of ~age
Pauline Johnson was
deeply influenced- by the

Northwest Rebellion in 1885,
led by Louis Riel. She saw this
struggle as a just one in which
the Indian people of the North-
west were attempting to right
the wrongs being done them.
In her poem A CRY FROM
AN INDIAN WIFE, she urges
the Indian people to “Go and
strike for liberty and life.”

As a great artist and human-
darian, Pauline Johnson con-
sidered it her duty to speak
out against injustice wherever
she found it. Thus it was that
she was moved to cry out
against the injustices of the

I. was Pauline Johnson; but re-

Pauline Johnson and her signatures
—in Indian (above) and in English

Dreyfus case in France. Using

announcement from member always that I was the weapon she knew best, her

poetry, Pauline Johnson de-
nounced the French author-
ities in a poem called GIVE
US BARABBAS.

Pauline Johnson was pro-
foundly patriotic and. loved
Canada deeply. While she lay
in a Vancouver hospital dying
of cancer she told one of her
friends: “I wish that there

were but one of my poems that |

could set fire to the hearts of
men, and thrill them with the
glory of their nationhood.”

It’s a sad commentary on
our times that so many of our
“Jeading” figures do not feel
the burning - patriotism of
Pauline Johnson. They. ara’
thrilled more by the dollar to
be made from selling their
country to the U.S. and for-
eign monopolies than by the
“slory of their natienhood.”

Influenced by many reac-
tionary ideas of her time, and
although she wrote poems ex-
tolling various reactionary in-
stitutions, and events, the
strong fresh current of her
patriotism and blazing denun-
ciation of injustice and the
treatment of her _ people,
shines through her work with
a powerful light.

Few Canadian artists were
as deeply loved by the peopla
as Pauline Johnson. This wag
illustrated at the time of her
death when practically thse
whole of Vancouver went into
mourning. Flags flew at halt
mast, the city council closed
its offices for the day and
thousands took part in the fu-
neral procession.

Progressive Canadians wilt

-|honour “Pauline -Johnson om

her centennial. because Cana-

|dians recognize in her work

part of the. democratic tradi-
tion which is being handed oa
to present and future genera-

tions of Canadians.

The anniversaries of three
outstanding world cultural
personalities — Franz Liszt,
Hungarian composer, Rabin-
dranath Tagore, Indian poet
and philosopher, and Taras
Shevchenko, Ukrainian na-
tional poet — will be com-
memorated in several centres
throughout Canada this spring
at qa series of meetings spon-

i
4

sored by the Canadian Peace
Congress.

WILL HONOR LISZT, TAGORE,

The three names were chos
en from a list of 12 -world cul-
tural personalities recommend-
ed by the World Peace Council
for commemoration during
1961.

In its announcement of the
proposed commemorative
meetings the Congress says,
“While we struggle to rid the
world of war, to save all civil-
ization from the insane death
of H-bomb madness, we do

SHEVCHENKO

well to promote the knowledgé
of the great spirits who have
made civilization worth sav-
ing.” '

In Toronto, the Congres¢
and the Toronto Association
for Peace will jointly sponsor
a meeting of music, poetry and
commemorative lectures in
Massey Hall, Sunday after-
noon, April 23. Similar gather
ings are being organized across
Canada.

March 3, 1961—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 9