~ US. progressives unite to repeal thought control NEW YORK Immediately following passage of the McCarran-Wood _ thought- control act progressive and peace forces launched a campaign to repeal and nullify it. First reactions showed that Congress had failed in its effort to intimidate the people but instead had roused the beginnings of a great mass movement for nullification and repeal. The Communist party’s National Committee declared: “We Com- munists are not going to be stam- peded. We are not going to dig a hole for the Bill of Rights,. and crawl into it. We urge all our fellow Americans to come out fighting and to fight together. “The sovereignty of the American people cannot be revoked by any act of Congress,” it stated. “Let the people unite to nullify the McCarran-Kilgore police state bill and call a halt to its enforce- ment.” The statement, signed by Wil- liam Z. Foster, Gus Hall, John Wiliamson, said: “To be stampeded or to make a stand in defense of the Bill of Rights. That is the ques- tion which all people’s organiza- tions must now answer.” | “Many Americans are asking if al] is now lost and if this means that fascism has come to power in the United States. No, all is not lost. No, fascism has not come to power. On the eontrary, the struggle to defend the Bill of Rights: has entered a new stage. It will go on. And it can be won. “Phe immediate danger is that the American feople will tenmipor- arily fall victim to the moods of fatalism and hysterical fear which ‘the sponsors of the McCarran-Kil- gore bill seek to create. “The law provides.a host of meth- ods -for restricting all ‘political ac- tivity for the advancement of peace, the economic welfare of the work- ers, the rights of the Negro people, etc. These methods involve lengthy processes, which can be contested every step of the way. But the danger is that individuals and or- ganizations, through fear and con- “fusion, will curtail their own activ- - ities and yield ground which can and must be defended.” - Communist party leaders had said earlier that no member would register if the bill was passed. Former Congressman Jerry J. mnell, head of the National Committee to Defeat the Mundt. Law, who headed the fight against the anti-democratic legislation in Washington, issued a statement the moment the bill was passed. “The fight to wipe out this vici- ous legislation will go on, beginning MILO CAFE “We Specialize in - : Ukrainian Food” 242 E. Hastings St. PA. 3037 C58. foreign Vancouver Auspices: West End Social Club = Tt = JO-ANNE'S : = ELECTRO CAFE : = Open 6.30 to 6.00 p.m, Weekdays SS Union Houge = 111 Dunsmuir St. Niet Brother's Bakery ; Specializing in Sweet and Sour Rye Breads PA. 8419 $42 E. HASTINGS ST. Prt eT et te Wholesale index hits new high of 168.5 OTTAWA. Ganada’s wholesale price index climbed 1.6 points during August to hit a new all-time high of 168.5, the Bureau of Statistics re- ported this week. At the begin- ning of the year the index, stood ~ at 157.1. Advance in prices of raw rub- ber, calfskins, raw sugar, canned peas, automobile tires, pepper, teilet soap, sheepskins and _ tal- low accounted for mosit of the ad- vance, which will undoubtedly be passed on to the. buying public in the’near future. . Such consumer articles as soap, shortening, and coffee have re- cently been boosted in price, and further advances are predicted. en Ue At with a repeal bill which will be in. troduced when Congress meets in November.” Elmer A. Benson, chairman and Baldwin, secretary of the Progressive party, declared: ‘|. “The Progressive party will fight with all its energies in the courts and at the ballot box to see that nod individual or group suffers or loses his freedom as a result of the pas- sage of this bill. We will work with the organizations and with the masses of the American people to see that this blot on our national character and morality is removed from the statute books of our coun- try? : ‘The McCaran-Wood bill is law,” the statement asserted, “but only in the sense that Congress has pas- sed it over the President’s veto. It is unconstitutional and it will be so declared if past history is any guide. It is a product of American policy. It demonstrates again that the two old parties are both bankrupt and corrupt.” Rep. Vito Marcantonio, New York state chairman of the American Labor party, declared at an ALP press conference: “We will deal with the McCaran Act in the same manner that the Jeffersonians dealt with the Alien and Sedition law, in the same man- ner that: Lincoln dealt with the Fugitive Slave law, and in the man- ner fhat Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes dealt with the Palmer raid hysteria that “followed World War 1. The Jeffersonians went to the people who brought about not only the repeal of the Alien and Sedi- tion laws but cast into ignemy those responsible for it, with the result that Jefferson was elected presi- dent of the United States.” Nat Ross, executive secretary of the New York state Civil Rights Congress, said: “A mass movement of the people will demand its re- peal and make it inoperative.” Earlier, pressure on President Truman to veto the bill came from AFL president William Green, CIO president Philip Murray and hund- reds of prominent citizens, includ- ing 500 Protestant clergymen. More than $11,000 of the esti- mated $20,000 needed by union officers Bill White and Bill Stewart of the Marine Workers and Boilermakers Industrial Un- ion to carry an appeal to the Privy Council in connection with the notorious “Kuzych case” hag been donated by trade un- ions in all parts of the country, and cheques are coming im daily. Most outstanding contribution to date is the sum of $640 raised Marine Workers get $11,000 of | $20,000 needed to appeal case by 35 members of the Prince Rupert local of the Marine Workers. They followed up an initial donation of $140 with a second cheque for $500 (see photostat above) for an average of more than $18 per member. Largest single donation was $1,000. from local 200, United Auto Workers in Windsor. Sev- eral unions have made donations of $500. “This shows that trade union- ists realize the threat this case represents to all trade unions in Canada,” said White. The union’s appeal is coming before the Privy Council in Jan- uary, 1951. Fees and prepara- tion of documents are costing } the union a tremendous amount of money, but unions from coast to coast are responding magnifi- cently with financial support. NO JOB, NO MONEY, NO HOME By BERT WHYTE Years ago the great American writer, Theodore Dreiser, took an incident indicative of life in capit- alist America and around it created a literary masterpiece entitled An American Tragedy. Writers of Dreiser’s ability are few, but under capitalism the mat- erial for a thousand tragedies is not wanting. Behind the surface news contained in the daily press are sordid facts which reveal the ugly havoc wrought in the lives of common people by the predatory “free enterprise’ system. Headlines in one recent issue of the Vancouver Sun (for September 23) shriek, “2 PLUNGE OFF BRIDGES HERE” and again, “COUPLE FAIL IN SEPARATE SUICIDE TRIES.” ‘The bare facts are given, but the. real stories remain untold. A young Negro lad fell 60 feet from Georgia Viaduct to the cobblestone road below. An unidentified woman plunged into the waters of False Creek from Granville Bridge. A woman tried to gas herself in the kitchen of her home; and at the same time, unknown ‘to her, her husband tried to commit suicide in another part of the city iby pumping fumes from the exhaust pipe into the cab of his truck. ‘A Sun reporter gave some details in connection with the separate suicide attempts of the married couple. There were in dire financial] circumstances and facing eviction A relative of the family “took over care of the young children” when the man and his wife were rushed to hospital. Police discovered the “strange double suicide plot” when they went to tell the woman that her husband was in hospital. Here is the story the Sun untold. : The couple (who shall be name- less) had three small children. The youngest baby was born with an abnormality, and the worried par- ents spent hundreds of dollars on doctor bills. left ~ a S LAN AON Barristers, Solicitors, Nota7ies SUITE 515, FORD BUILDING, 193 E. HASTINGS ST. (Corner Main & Hastings Sts.) MArine 5746 & MUNRO from their home on September 25. Behind attempted suicides lies story of,a Canadian tragedy _ The husband, a war veteran, was in business for himself, but couldn’t make a living at it and was forced to give up the attempt and get a job, as a truck body builder. The bills piled up, there seemed to be no end of their troubles, and both husband and wife took to drink. A week ago the bread-win- ner lost his job, and right on the heels of this misfortune came an eviction notice from Central Mort- gage Company. The eviction order only gave the family 15 days to get out. The situ- ation was desperate. No money, no job, and now no home. - ‘To the harrased husband, suicide seemed the easiest way out. He got in his truck, drove to Kitsilano Beach, attached a length of garden hose tothe exhaust and brought it up through the floor of the truck, closed the window and sat back to await death. He was unconscious when found by the police. The wife, sitting alone in her kitchen, also decided that there was no way out of their difficulties except death. She»wrote a note, closed off the rooms in which her children were sleeping, and turned on the threeegas jets of the stove. Police, arriving to tell her that her husband was in hospital, found her slumped over the stove. This isn’t the end of the story. When the couple are well enough to leave the hospital, they may face charges of trying to commit suicide—a crime in a capitalist society which nevertheless does not consider it a crime to let hungry people starve. And the children, now living with relatives—what is to become of them? The eviction order has been carried out and there is no home for the family to return to. : This story, title of which could well be A Canadian Tragedy, is only one of: thousands of similar tragedies which develop with hor- rifying certainty under capitalism’s “democratic way of life.” NFLY ‘blitz secures more names for peace Members of the National Federa- tion of Labor Youth in Vancouver are taking an active part in the campaign to gain signatures for the Stockholm Appeal demanding banning of the atom bomb. Last Saturday 16 NFLY members staged their second “blitz” on New Westminster streets with the peace petition and rolled up 500 names. One young girl, who collected 44 signatures in an hour and a half, reported: “All I did was, to ap- proach everyone, even those whom I thought looked most unlikely, and ask them to. sign.” A week previous the youth peti- tioners visited New Wesminster for the first time and secured 350 names, Total number of signatures obtained by the NFLY now stands at the 4,500 mark. “In the short time remaining, We intend to work harder than ever to collect every possible name t? the Stockholm Appeal,” said NFLY provincial organizer Steve Endicott. 1320 E. Hastings St. INTERNATIONAL : PEACE CONCERT & BAZAAR FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1950 2.30 - 11 p.m. SWEDISH COMMUNITY HALL SPONSORED BY VANCOUVER PEACE ASSEMBLY ———T] Admission: 50¢ ee . PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 29, 1950—PAGE &