Nay;
a
Wigat

"On:

k Sine 1910 the Post Office (abov
Mey jy ncouver landmark. Now another Post Offic
Mark and early next year the old building
NS of Vancouver citizens will close.

and
*heratig

e) at Granville and Hastings has been

e has arisen to be a
that has served two

Why not negotiate?

N
ne Of these days the British
Wit Yenment will negotiate
. about freedom of
®n through the Egyptian
at & Sy ple
my known as the Suez
Oeryt It has done practically

hin

\ e c eee:

MRotiate © Ise so far except
it

The

Reh _Dritish people can take

f Ben

tedit for having stopped
ae over the brink.
back Ce they have dragged him
dy ay the brink of war —
but he a Nick of time, too ee
Which «tun up a frightful bi
to th the British <055 have yet
the se * And all to make Britain
Dostyeeest laughing stock of the

at era

i t :
of wane all these weeks

8 € Moves and backstairs
hay y i teaching a point where
Nation.” Single one of the 18

Ns
there eo the other 17,

gy no effort to bring

about ordinary polite negotia:
tions with Egypt.

This was, is, and will remain
the one and only step to ensut-
ing peace and freedom of navigay
tion.

And it is the simplest step in
the world.

ted because contractors belong-
ing to the Heavy Construction
Association refuse to recognize
the newly-formed Tunnel and
Rock Workers’ Union of Can-
ada. Instead, the contractors
have joined with top officials
of the International Hod -Car-
riers and General Laborers Union
in striving to foist upon the
workers a union which has for-
feited their confidence. That
confidence was lost because these
same international officials tried
to impose upon Canadian work-
ers a sub-standard wage scale
negotiated in Washington, B. C.

The popular support given to
the striking Tunnel and Rock
Workers by their fellow union-
ists should be warning enough
to the Heavy Construction Ac
sociation to quit meddling in

union business.

The strike should also prove
to Labor Minister Lyle Wicks
which union holds the workers’
confidence. He should instruct

A way can be found

WORK on several important
construction jobs has beervhal-

the contractors without further
delay that they must recognize
the Tunnel and Rock Workers’

Union.

At the same time, it must be
recognized that the best inter-
ests of the rock and _ tunnel
workers will only be served
within, and not outside, the
united body of Canadian labor.
So long as top officials of the
International Hod Carriers per-
sist in ignoring the autonomous
rights of their Canadian mem-
bers, they do a disservice to labor
unity and members of all unions
have a responsibility to bring
them to reason. By guarantee-
ing the rights of their Canadian
members . international officials
can make it possible for unity to
be restored.

That is why we join with Mr.
Justice H. H. Sullivan in saying
that surely a way can be found
by which the international and
the Tunnel and Rock Workers
can resolve their differences in
accordance with the expressed
wishes of the majority involved.

Pacific Tribune

Room gushed weekly at
— 426 Main Street
‘Ncouver 4, B.C.
ito, © MArine 5288
Sotlate 14;; LOM McEWEN
{Sines Editor — HAL GRIFFIN
Manager — RITA WHYTE
Ubscription Rates:
Sin” Year: $4.00
Canadian Months: $2.25
oneutties ed Commonwealth
any Year, qicePt Australia): $4.00
ay ;,,“UStralia, United States
€Y countries: $5.00 one
year,

As
8

Griffin

OMEWHERE in the Vancouver
S Sun tower, oblivious to the
journalistic three-ring _ circus
ronnie him, there’s an editorial
writer who is overdue for one
of the trips on which Hal Straight
delights in sending his writers.

This trip should not cost any-
thing. ‘It need consist of no more
than a visit to a few offices, a
few industrial plants, | a few
homes, where the editorial writer
could talk to people about such
problems as living costs. Then
perhaps he would be less in-
clined to write such nonsense as
ee Pheee powerful statistics re-
veals a community enjoying a
level of prosperity steadily Soe
and based on sound economy. or
most citizens financial worry 1s

undreamed of.”
it xt

e would find some
d to question the
prosperity based

Inevitably h
people dispose

on the export of raw materials
and alarmed by the consequences
of such a policy to our own in-
dustrial development. But even

among those who shared his il-
lusions about the soundness of
the economy he would find many
who wonder where the economy
is headed.

He could listen, as I did tne
other day, to a credit manager.

“Don’t. ask me where ‘it’s all
going to end,’ he declared. “I
don't know — I just go along.

“Not so long ago we were
holding our contracts dowa to a
year. Now we're writing con-
tracts for two and three years.
If the customer can’t pay what
we would like to have, we ask
him how much a month he can
pay and usually we take it. If we
don’t, he'll go down the street
and get it anyway.

“Delinquent accounts ? I spend
all my time on them. And that
doesn’t include those who stretch
the payments out to five and six
weeks or skip a month.”

He would get much the same
story from a neighbor of mine
who works in a garage where tie
sheriff is a customer. ““The wad
of papers-he carries around with
him gets thicker all the time,” he
said to me not long ago, consoling
himself with this thought, “T don’t
go nowhere, I don’t do nothing,
and I pay cash for what I get.

But I pity guys like you with
families.”

From this the Sun’s- editorial
writer could draw either the
cynical conclusion that people
don’t worry about their financial
difficulties or gain an inkling of
the truth that for most people,
who buy only what they need,
life remains a constant struggle
to pay off bills faster than they
accumulate. Between the illus-
ion of prosperity and the spectre
of want there is only a pay cheque
whose figures never equal the
price tags in the stores.

There are statistics other than
figures of forestry sales, gross
manufacturing and retail sales
that the Sun’s editorial writer
might profitably study.

Some are to be found in the
recent survey conducted by Re-
search Associates of Montreal
which shows that haif the famil-
ies in the country. with two chil-
dren — 53.6 percent to be éxact
— have incomes of less than
$4,000 a year. But, the report
observes, “the cost of a modest
but adequate budget for a family
with two children in Canadian
cities was around $5,000 in 1954.”

How much more does a home
cost to build and furnish in 1956?
How often have food and clothing
prices been increased in the past
two years ? And how much have
wages gone up ?

soundness of a

OCTOBER 5,

1956 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 7