THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

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"TO SHOVE A CAMEL
‘THROUGH THE EYE OF A NEEDLE”

Editor’s note: The following
obituary to H. R. MacMillan,
founder of MacMillan-Bloedel
who passed away recently, was
given by Ben Metcalfe the CBC
commentator on his regular
morning radio program which
appears every Tuesday and
Thursday. In giving permis-
sion to publish the obituary,
Mr. Metcalfe stipulated that it
must not be altered or edited.

By BEN METCALFE

Let us now praise famous
men... .

Harvey Reginald MacMillan
had more outside help getting
into heaven the day after he
died than it would take to shove
a camel through the eye of a
needle. ,

But, in the process, he suf-
fered the same injury that all
rich men suffer at the hands of
their self-appointed eulogists:
namely, that they were so
earnest in preparing him for
the sainthood that they forgot
(or feared) to give him his due
as a man. |

Tugging at their forelocks to
the very brink of his -grave,
they begged God and admon-
ished men to remember old
H.R.’s insatiable appetite for
hard work, his philanthropy
and his love of nature — vir-
tues for which he was no differ-
ent from many another man.

Of his idle observations that
Capitalism is dead and that
Canada should have recog-
nized the People’s Republic of
China 30 years ago they made
prophecies of revelation,
whereas less wealthy men in
large numbers urged these
things long before him.

Their appeals on his behalf
for these virtues are tanta-
mount to begging history to
remember Attila the Hun only
for his superior horsemanship;
or Genghis Khan for having
brought Mongolian folkdanc-
ing to Samarkand; or Churchill
for his paid-up membership in
the Bricklayers’ Union.

It’s as though those. fearful
obituary writers still believed
in ghosts — or that the public
relations valets of MacBlo are
under divine orders to stave off
by any means the inevitable
visit of those two body-
snatchers, Arthur Hailey and
Harold Robbins, the Burke &
Hare of the “‘truth-is-juicier-
than-fiction’”’ school of tycoon
literature.

’ But old H.R. himself would
have had nothing to do with it
personally,

It’s the eulogists and clerks
of the system who exploit a
rich man’s life and death to
“prove” that the system in
which he made it must be good
for everybody; that anybody
can make it as he did if they
work hard, love nature, and
are very wise — which is to say

smart.

Of course, old H.R. loved
nature! No man who didn’t
would have bothered to corner
so much of it.

As to his philanthropy, it
certainly had style, as well as
substance. He was the only
man I ever met who could
“donate’”’ a grove of ancient
cedars ‘‘to the people of British
Columbia’ with the same
imperious grace of the man
who planted them there on the
third day of creation.

That scene truly prompted
one to say, ‘‘There, but for the
grace of God, goes God!”’

We should never look a gift
horse in the mouth, but ‘“‘phil-
anthropy” is a horse of a dif-
ferent colour, so to speak, and
a fascinating subject for study
in the Capitalist system of
fiscal magic.

There is also much evidence
today that more and more
hard-working ordinary people
— given a properly informed
choice — would rather have
their fair share of their harvest
now than wait upon the belated
whim of a kind old philanthro-
pist. :
What H.R. gave to the people
of B.C. was,-in fact, mostly
theirs in the first place — the
profits. from their own
resources and their. own hard
work in harvesting them.

And H.R. knew that; and
nothing his clerks can say
about it can alter it from the
fact.

Which brings us to the virtue
of hard work, which our
keening obituary writers
praise so highly (as if they
know what it is) in order to
admonish the common people
standing around his catafalque
for their lack of it.

THIS GROUP
SHOULD
KNOW

It seems as if the labor
movement is not the only group
in society that doesn’t believe
in the federal government’s
anti-inflation program. The
people who work for the Anti-
Inflation Board share the
opinion, if a message uncov-
ered by Ottawa Citizen
columnist Geoff Johnson can
be taken‘as an indication.

The message, according to
Johnson, is widely circulated
in the board’s offices and

reads:

We the unwilling,

Guided by the unknowing,

Are doing the impossible

For the ungrateful,

And having done so
much ..For so long for so
little,

We are now qualified

To do anything with nothing.

WE CAN EXPECT THIS

Some Quebec insurance companies, worried over the
possibility of the provincial government taking over automo-

bile insurance, are demanding a package deal with their car

insurance coverage.

Their clients are now being informed that their present car

insurance policy wi

ill be terminated unless they also insure

household possessions with the company.

Old H.R. tried to level with

his eulogists about the role of-
hard work in his life. He openly

attributed his success mostly

‘ to good luck, by which he

meant that he was not born to
any false sense of honesty and
that he knew how to run the
inside track when he reached
it.

Hard work is no magical
thing in the capitalist system.
If it were, more than half of his
loggers and deckhands would
have ‘‘madeit” with him. Most
people in this system work
hard: just to get by. And
miraculously they still love
nature and give to charity.

No — the ascendency of a
rich man in Canada or
anywhere else no more
justifies our system than does
the fact of Canada’s current
unemployment rate of 800,000
workers. It merely explains it.

The system has frozen those ~

people in official, systematized
idleness, and there is nothing
they can do personally to make
their jobs come back. They are
told to hang in there until the
system ‘‘needs’’ them again.
Don’t call the system, the
system will call you.

That is the one fact of life
worth noting today in. the
context of a rich - man’s death

It is easier for a rich man to
get into heaven than it is for a
poor man to get a job here on
earth.

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The Vancouver Citizenship
Court is offering a special
service to persons who are
eligible to apply for Canadian
citizenship in the metropolitan
area.

A section of the staff of the
Court service has been
delegated to work with in-
terested groups seeking
citizenship applications out-
side of normal office hours.

A team of staff members are
prepared to attend at a pre-
arranged place and time to
service applications submitted
by new applicants. They will
handle the initial processing
which will include the
examination of appropriate
supporting documents, at-
testation, and collection of
statutory fees.

The only stipulation is that
these organizations sponsoring
applicants must provide suit-
able space such as offices,
church halls or small audi-

‘toriums, plus chairs, tables or

desks and a couple of type-

writers.
The service would require

advance information of the
number of people likely to
apply. No minimum number
has been set but the service
suggests at least ten applica-
tions during the course of any

particular session.
Those interested should

contact Mrs. Dorothy Sankowy
— phone number 666-3971.

Farmworker demonstrations in Canada help win settlements

in California.

| MANITOBA RAISES INCOME
FOR PENSIONERS

Effective January, single,
widowed and divorced pen-
sioners in Manitoba _ will
receive a guaranteed income
of $233.94 a month. Pensioners

‘ with no income except pension

receive a federal old. age
security (OAS) pension of
$139.90 plus the federal guar-
anteed income supplement
(GIS) of $93.22, plus the Mani-
toba Supplement for the Elder-
ly. This provincial supplement
is $23.46 quarterly.

Married couples with both
spouses over 65 will receive a
guaranteed combined monthly
income of $448.22. This is made
up of $132.90 OAS for each
spouse plus GIS of $82.78 each,
plus a Manitoba Supplement of
$25.29 quarterly. Couples
where one spouse is an old age
pensioner and the other be-
tween 60 and 64 years of age
also receive this amount.

(By way of comparison, here
is an extract from an article on

U.S. retirees which appeared
in the Guild Reporter, Novem-
ber 28, 1975:

“The average Social Secur-
ity benefit for an elderly couple
is now $341 a month or $4,092
annually. This amounts to a
little more than half the money
needed to live on what the
Bureau of Labor Statistics
calls an Intermediate Budget
— a budget which allots only
$30 a week for groceries, $170
per month for housing costs
and $27 a month for clothing
costs. Pensions don’t help
much either. According to the
Social Security Administra-
tion, the median monthly pen-
sion benefit is $200 for those
people who work until 65 and
$224 for those who retire early
because of a disability. And
many people don’t have pen-
sions. What all this means is

that an estimated 4.8 million -

people aged 65 or over are
living in poverty.)

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C

NEW OFFICE OPENED:

The Citizenship Branch of the Department of Secretary of State

takes pleasure in announcing the opening of an office at Britannia
Community Services Centre — 1661 Napier Street, just a few

steps off Commercial Drive.

We are endeavouring to reach out into the community to
persons of all ethnic origins to take applications for Canadian
citizenship or proof of Canadian citizenship. This service will
enable eligible persons to file their applications in surroundings
familiar to. them. Commencing January 5, 1976, the hours of
service will be from 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., Monday to Thursday,
and 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Friday. :

Documents required for examination are birth ciertificates,

passports, landing cards and other related documents where _

necessary. Fees in cash are also required, such as:

Other than British Subjects
British Subjects

‘Minor Children

Proof Applications

$10.00
10.00

2.00
2.00

If you are already a Canadian citizen, perhaps you may know
of someone who may be interested in applying for citizenship at

this Centre.

For further information, phone 666-3971 or 253-4391.
CITIZENSHIP REGISTRATION
DEPARTMENT OF SECRETARY OF STATE