Review. & EDITORIAL PAGE Comment TOM McEWEN, Editor — HAL GRIFFIN, Associate Editor — RITA WHYTE, Business Manager. Published weekly by the Tribune Publishing- Company Ltd. at Room 6, 426 Main Street, Vancouver 4, B.C. — MArine 5288 Canada and British Commonwealth countries (except Australia), 1 year $3.00, 6 months $1.60. Australia, U.S., and all other countries, 1 year $4.00, 6 months $2.50. Printed by Union Printers Ltd., 550 Powell Street, Vancouver 4, B.C. Authorized as second class mail, Post Office Department, Ottawa The prospect for 1954 N the United States official spokesmen for the Eisenhower administration are still making op- timistic economic forecasts for the year ahead. But their optimism is not shared by even the most conservative of professional econ- omists. They see a recession shap- ing up for 1954—a five percent drop in production and an in crease in the number of unemploy- ed to 3.5. million. In Canada, echoing the Eisen- hower administration’s false op- timism just as they have shaped the country’s economic destiny to suit the policies of U.S. big busi- ness, Trade Minister C. D. Howe and Finance Minister Douglas Abbott see no slackening of our economy. This, despite increas: ing unemployment, widespread layoffs, growing inventories and all the other signs that the coun- try’s market crisis is bringing us to economic disaster. devious reasoning do Howe and Abbott arrive. at the conclusion that Canada can escape. the effect of a U.S. recession when they have deliberately tied our econ- omy to that of the U.S. and. spurned the Commonwealth, the Chinese, Soviet and other markets SAAR Tom McEwen} WHEN the old year is drawing to a close the editorial poohbahs of the monopoly press amuse themselves with an annual “vote” on what they consider to be the outstanding news events of the year. Having written the bilge themselves they like to take one last wallow in it before Father Time rings in the new year. Not having the distinction of being in- cluded in the Canadian Press’ annual “news” regatta, the Pacific Tribune is free to place its own working class com- mentary on what these hired inkslingers regard as “top” news — and what we think merits top rating. On the world scene the Canadian Press editors picked. the death of Joseph Stalin as the top “event” of 1953. Meas- ured by the amount of anti-Soviet propa- ganda they poured out on the subject, ‘there is no doubt that for them the passing of one of the world’s greatest men was a “top event.” For millions of ordinary working peo- ple in many lands the death of Joseph Stalin was a grievous loss. Only to the enemies of human decency and progress was it an “event.” Sixth on the list of selected “events” | was the judicial murder of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. Of course the Cana- dian Press didn’t phrase it that way, but it is already a foregone certainty that the names of these two innocent victims of McCarthy hysteria and cold war will 5 eee By what. that could give it a balance now lacking? Howe's statement this week that Canada is willing to trade with the Soviet Union “‘in a limit- ed list of commodities’ is an in- dication that the St. Laurent gov- ernment is less confident of the future than its ministers are pre- pared to admit. But there is no indication that the government is prepared to take those bold de- cisive steps to open up trade with the Soviet Union and China, to regain our lost markets in Com- monwealth countries, in the man- ner and on the scale demanded by the circumstances. While the St. Laurent govern ment hesitates, with an ear cock ed for Washington's reaction to its Cautious overtures, markets are being lost for Canadian goods and Canadian workers are being laid off for lack of markets. That is the all-important fact for us — for organized labor and the farmers, for all progressive sections of the people, including businessmen chafing under U.S.-- dictated restrictions. The need for an end to cold war trade poli- cies was never more obvious than now in face of the gathering econ omic storm. The liberties of all pee W. M. Aseltine says of Bill 7: “This is the most important piece of legislation that has ever been brought -before parliament for many a day. It affects the life and liberty of every in- dividual in the whole of Canada.” Bill 7, in its present form, could be the death warrant of our democracy. That is why, with MPs returning to Ottawa for the reconvening of parlia- ment this Monday, January 11, it is im- perative that all those concerned with this threat to their liberties continue to press their demand upon their members for opposition to the McCarthyite clauses of Bill 7. We urge all our readers: Do your part now to stop the spread of McCarthyism in Canada. shine with working class dignity, cour- age and brilliance, when the “news’”’ pablum dished up by these Tarzans of the Fourth Estate will have disintegrated in its inherent rottenness. The CP placed the Korean truce fourth on its list. It should have been first because it represents a moral force far more powerful than all of Eisen- hower’s ABC bombs — the power and will of the people in Korea and through- out the world for peace and freedom as it is written in the Charter of the United ~ Nations — before that institution be- came a pawn of the U.S. State Depart- ment. In between, the editors of the CP sandwiched the Coronation, the conquest of Everest and the Greenlees kidnap- - murder case as “top” world events. In the journalese of capitalism, which centres upon morbid sensation and maximum profits, doubtless the CP edit- ors made the best choice as seen from their side of the tracks. Igor Gouzenko and the amorous desire of the McCarthy witch-hunters to woo this rodent on Canadian soil was rated as “top news” in Canadian “events.” Later in their “news” regatta the CP editors had Ex- ternal Affairs Minister L. B. Pearson just nosing out Gouzenko in their popu- larity contest. : A cynic might be inclined to observe that it is a sorry day for Canada when the gentlemen of the Fourth Estate have difficulty in determining whether a responsible minister of the crown or a traitor to his country is the most - “popular” national figure. But our “free press” being what it is, the cynic could be wrong. ’ : It all depends from which side of the tracks one sees it. On a world scale this paper thinks the most important events in 1953 were, first, the truce in Korea and the growing determination of mil- lions of people to block the war mach- inations of the Yankee atomaniacs. Second, the statement of Soviet Prem- ier Malenkov, that there was no differ- ences between any nation, people, or social system which could not be settled by peaceful negotiations. A statement which coincides in every respect with the sufferings, experiences, and hopes of decent people everywhere. Third, the struggles of the colonial peoples from Guiana to Kenya, from Viet Nam to Suez, to break the yoke of imperialist exploitation, and to choose their own forms of government, modes of life, and institutions best fitted to ~what they feel they want and need, rather than the mousetrap policies ex- ported by the “West” labelled “our free way of life.” Of that the colonial peo- ples have had more than enough. On the Canadian scene, we think the Labor-Progressive party program to Put Canada First was the top event of the year — and will remain so for 1954 and later. It marked a beginning of the halt to the plundering of Canada by the U.S. war trusts and their Canadian agents. It marked the awakening of growing numbers of Canadians to the realization of what the men of Wall Street and their Canadian agents are do- ing to their country, their birthright, their resources, their trade, and their desire to remain a peace-loving nation. Second on the Canadian scene, and in this instance something of a happy con- tradiction; the general unanimity, of leading Canadian papers, regardless of political affiliation, to keep the Mc- Carthy yeggmen out of Canada, to let them have Gouzenko for keeps — a fine | admission that such vermin are not an asset to a healthy nation. Main top event for 1954: Keep the Pacific Tribune rolling. PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JANUARY 8, 1954 — PAGE 5 Forty years Ago (From the files of the B.C. Federationist, January 9, 1914) Tom Barnard was one of three labor candidates for alderman ih New West- minster. The others were Ald. Walter Dodd, standing for re-election, and Archie Hogg. Fifteen years ago (From the files of the People’s Advocate, January 6, 1939) Dr. Lyle Telford, newly elected mayor of Vancouver, resigned from the CCF and announced that he would continue to sit in the provincial legislature as an independent member for Vancouver East. The CCF provincial constitution, prohibiting any member from holding two elective public offices at the same time, required that he resign his seat in the legislature or step down as mayor. In his inaugural address to Vancouver City Council, Mayor Telford outlined a comprehensive 18-point civic program “placing human values as the first con- sideration.” Ten years ago (From the files of The People, January 8, 1944) British Columbia’s big shipbuilding ‘in- dustry, employing 28,000 workers, was hit by layoffs and shipyard union lead- ers protested that they, had not been notified. of the layoffs nor consulted on future plans. As a result, “morale in the yards is low,” they said.