Rail cuts a proble Much too little is being done to make the general public aware of what is going on in the rail- way industry and what railway labor is presently struggling to achieve. This is unfortunate be- cause the railway workers can- not hope to win their fight un- less they have public support. At the same time railway workers have taken up a battle that is every bit as much in the public interest. The problem is to relate this to developments in this industry that affect every person in Canada. For years the railway workers .have fought desperately against the railway companies’ continuous efforts to reduce passenger service and to reduce train services and aban- don railway lines. While it is natural for the rail- way worker to fight to maintain his job, this may not seem to be of such immediate and urgent interest to those who do not work on the railways. But while the loss of a job is of immediate personal concern to the railroad- er, reduced railway services af- fect economic and industrial de- velopment and whole communi- ties. Many communities , are forced to accept alternate ser- vices and in many cases, such as rural areas of the. Prairies, there is no alternate: service. This means added expense of travelling to some areas where there is a service. This handicap leads people to move out and communities eventually disap- pear as such. Small businesses in rural communities are forced to collect added transportation charges on their merchandize with the result such communi- ties become ghost towns. Large tracts of land original- ly given to the CPR as an in- ducement to provide services has now enabled it to become a conglomerate operation which shows no concern for services provided to the public but only for the profitable operation of its subsidiary empire. Dwindling numbers of railway workers, re- duced transportation services, and tax evasion may be referred to as the “Great Canadian Pa- cific Rip-Off.” The Canadian Na- tional as a Crown Corporation is not different. It operates ac- cording to our present govern- ment’s transportation — policy which makes of the CNR a mere pawn controlled and manipulat- ed in a fashion that serves mon- opoly, including the CPR and CPR Investments Ltd. The railway workers are be- coming aware of the conspiracy of the railways to sidestep their obligations—not only to their employees but to the Canadian people in general. The railway companies have another situation going for them in that railway labor is divided between many unions making it more difficult for them to unite in effective struggle for common demands. This makes it much easier for the railway companies to pursue their divide-and-rule policy. However, within the past cou- ple of years some of the railway workers have taken the initiative to develop unity and a common front of struggle. This initiative has manifested itself in the re- activating of railway councils and in organizing new ones where they did not previously exist. The purpose of the railway councils is to unite railway workers in the various unions on issues of common concern to all railway labor. These councils are rank and file organizations. That is the reason they often * _ Big Business. -didates,” confusing people; pol, “usurp the = inist party.” ‘ Don’t be deceived by them. ES "Beware Maoists parading as Communists Whoever conceived the idea of planting Maoist “ringers” in the federal election posing as the “Communist Party of ~ Canada (Marxist-Leninist)” has certainly earned a medal from e@ The media keep referring to them as “Communist can- -_@ They present the worst possible caricature which they call Communism, deceiving people; __. - e They exploit the election for the vilest slanders against the real Communist Party and the socialist countries, espe- cially the USSR, thus serving the Cold War groups of mono- @ They besmirch the memory of the great Canadian Com- munist, Norman Bethune, by pretending he was “theirs.” - pO NOT LET YOURSELF BE FOOLED BY THESE FAK- “ERS! VOTE FOR THE CANDIDATES OF THE REAL AND ~ ONLY COMMUNIST PARTY OF CANADA. As William Kashtan stated at last Sunday’s election rally: “The Communist Party of Canada has a rich past, a richer - present and a radiant future. The Maoists who are trying to name have no past, no present and certainly no - future. They are not a Communist Party nor a Marxist-Len- PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1972—-PAGE 10 GACAT = STS Cae PG a4 et eee m for all meet with opposition from the railway companies and in many instances even by _ different union leaders. Nevertheless, workers’ united action has been able to bring about an unprecedented cam- paign on the railway employees’ pension issue. Workers’ unity can be a decisive factor in this year of bargaining for new con- tracts. Lack of unity in past years led to failure in gaining a just pension set-up, and even to negotiate on the pension is- sue. Important as pensions are, they must not be used as a trade-off item to water down other demands and past gains which are already a part of the collective agreements. This year railway workers must not give up in any way on the need for substantial wage ' increases, improved sick bene- fits, improved vacations or the all important issue of job secur- ~ ity. To guarantee that all these timely issues are made a central focus in this year’s bargaining, plus the added benefits of some improved pension plan, it is es- sential that the railway worker’s voice be heard by all labor orga- nization and the general public. Only in this way will enough support be forthcoming to pre- vent another shabby deal pushed down the railway workers’ throats by behind-the-scene ma- nipulations. Negotiations must be dragged out into the open, and if a strike becomes necessa- ry, steps must be taken to pre- vent another sell-out through political manoeuvring, state in- tervention and compulsory arbit- ration, as has happened so often in the past railway negotiations. (Railway Worker) Waste pumped down could give us oil MOSCOW — What is to be done with industrial effluents which cannot be purified? So far, say Soviet findings, the only way out is to bury them deep underground in the zone of slow water exchange, under thick strata of impermeable rocks. Geological surveys carried out on the Russian Plain during the past 40 years indicate that this method is effective. Thousands of “wells” have enabled the scientists to estab- lish that at depths of 500-2,500 metres there are several horiz- ons. Some parts of these horiz- ons contain salt- water while others contain oil and gas. These horizons are covered with im- permeable strata and conditions for pumping down _ industrial waste waters at great depths are very favorable. It has been established that strata of sand-stone and karst- forming lime-stone in the Volga- Ural oil and gas bearing region can accept considerable’ quanti- ties of industrial effluent. More- over, in oil and gas bearing re- gions this effluent can be used for transcontour flooding of oil- fields (forcing oil out by forcing water in). This, in turn, will in- crease the production of oil. In this case we shall be able to save precious fresh water. For instance, the Yarino-Kamen- nolozhsky oil-field alone (Perm region) uses more than 70,000 cubic yards of fresh water every day for flooding oil-bearing strata. Pay and pa on Soviet rail lines By BERT WHYTE MOSCOW — Railways bear the brunt of the Soviet Union’s haulage (75% of the total freight turnover). “At the present time the overall length of the rail lines exceeds 135,000 kilometres,” (about 84,000 miles) a press con- ference was told by the USSR Minister of Railways, Boris Beshchev. “Some 35,000 kilo- metres (22,000 miles) are elec- trified: we hold first place in the world. During the current five- year plan another 6,000 kilo- metres (3,700 miles) will be electrified and we will build 5,600 kilometres of new rail- roads.” Passenger traffic will increase by 24% and freight traffic by almost 23%. In June this year 2,410,000 railway workers. in low and middle-income brackets received wage increases averag- ing 20%. Containerization “Automation and mechaniza- tion will be introduced more ex- tensively,” said Beshchev. ‘‘Mar- shalling yards with electronic computers have been set up in many parts of the country. Com- puters are also used in drawing up traffic schedules. Attention is being given to increasing the speed of passenger and freight trains.” Work is being done in Come- con (Council for Mutual Econo- mic Assistance) to introduce a common system of container handling for all the’ member countries in Europe. The Soviet Union also hopes to set up a container transport system be- tween this country and Japan, and to transport Japanese con- tainers by rail from the Far East to Western Europe. Regarding jet trains and air cushion transport, both are in “ie On the Moscow-Irkutsk electric rail line. ssengers UP) the experimental stage 2 the present time. Railway Research aM Recently I visited the Set tific Research Railway ie port Institute of the USSR M! istry of Railways, near Mosc" and took a ride around 4 ig mile circular line on the Dy mometer Car for locomoh testing. Deputy-director Ne Phuphrianski explained that f f car is designed to carry tractive, thermotechnical an’ other kinds of testing of st@® ard-gauge locomotives. Localt in the car interior are systems f water heating, water supply ventilation, equipment 10° workshop and sleeping © partments. Its maximum * ning speed is 124 m.p.h. of The Research Institute f Diesel Locomotive Engineet near Moscow is designing a cushion trains capable of 4 Fs loping a speed of over m.p.h. Such hovercraft itt expresses will consume F third less electric power 4 could, at some time in the fv ture, be successfully operat in marsh-ridden areas of SiD@ as well as in perma frost Faster Service " The Soviet Union is also 0 ing ahead to the development ‘ overhead monorail lines. A? 4s perimental stretch of road “a built in Kiev, at the Exhibit of Economic Achievements inf the Ukrainian SSR. The test, ground will be situated of shore of the Kiev Sea, sev® miles from the capital. But it should be remembe that jet trains and mon?™, ‘transport are still very mu¢ of preliminary stages of devel ment. What the country is © centrating on at present Ba speeding up of passenger! | f freight service, both diesel electric.