OL’ BILL

we come to the parting

N° matter how long we travel together,
I regret that I have to record one of these partings

of the ways.

now. Perhaps it should have been printed in another part of the

” paper but because old Ben Sparks and I were such close friends, I
would like it to appear in this column.

It must be 35 years since I first met him when we were both in
e the Socialist Party of Canada. Any time when I had occasion to

speak in New Westminster, I had no worries about
an introduction to break the ice, I ‘could always
tell them a little story involving myself and Ben
Sparks. I am going to tell it here, maybe for the
last time; it shows what a good critic old Ben
was. He died last week in New Westminster and
we won't have his criticism to guide us anymore.

Ben was a rough product of Newfoundland
outport life, fishermen and boatbuilders. In his
early days he was a complete answer to St. Laur-
ent who would appoint three senators to the Cana-
dian Senate, representing the “three principal re- F oe
ligions in Newfoundland,” the Catholic Church, the Church of Eng-
land and the United Church.

~ Old Ben could have answered them that none of these is a prin-
cipal religion in Newfoundland, ‘but that the principal religion in New-
foundland is the Salvation Army. Old Ben spent 20 years of his
youth in the Salvation Army and was actually trained to become an
official init, a fate he escaped when he came to Canada to take his
place as a worker and as a worker to become conscious of the historic
role of his class. He was a member of the fishermen’s union when he
was fishing, and when he was' building boats he was in the Boatbuild-
ers’ union, and it wasn’t a very far cry from the unions into the political
movement to which he belonged. If he ever had any: doubts about
_ theory and tactics they were all of them dispelled at the time of the
Russian Revolution. Asa

The story I feltired to at the beginning of this column was an
incident which occurred at the door of the Empress Theater in. the
closing days of the First World War.

At that time the Socialist party could not find speakers to keep
its propaganda meetings going and everybody who could stand on a
platform was pressed into service whether he could speak or not. I
was one of those conscripts!

On one occasion Ben and his whole family came over from New
Westminster. I was standing in the doorway of the theater when he
came over to me and asked me who the speaker would be that night.
I told him I was to be the speaker. “Well,” he said, “I think we'll
go for a walk in the park”——which he did. That was probably the
best criticism of my poverty-stricken oratory, at least I thought so, and
many people have agreed with me since. '

For everybody like Ben Sparks who dies we have a new task
ahead of us; we have°to find replacements, not one or two but twenty
or more for one like him. cers, 2

SHORT JABS _

GUIDE TO GOOD READING

New book

of Rajk-Tito conspiracy

THE UGLY FACTS of espio-
nage, police terror, blackmail and
corruption are brought to light
in a book which International

‘ Publishers is issuing this month—

Tito’s Plot Against Europe: The
Story of the Rajk Conspiracy, by
Derek Kartun.

The author, who is foreign edi-
tor of the London Daily Worker,
Was present throughout the whole
of Rajk’s trial in Budapest, talk-
ed with Rajk’s associates, and
made a careful study of the trans-
cript of the trial issued by the
Hungarian government.

Writing ‘as a newspaperman,
Kartun takes this vast amount of
material and weaves it into a
continuous, dramatic narrative,
which includes all the questions
brought up by the defendants
themselves, the prosecution, wit-
nesses, and the final action of the
court, — ae a

Through this medium there un-
folds a story which reveals the
machinations of the British For-
eign Office and the American
State Department. Drawing upon
the reports of secret meetings de-
scribed by the defendants, Kartun
explains how the Tito clique plan-
ned to set up a Balkan federation

_and to ally themselves with the

capitalist powers. He shows how .
behind this were the Anglo-Ame-
rican big business interests which

‘did not want to lose Eastern Eu-

rope as an area of exploitation.

In the light of the facts Kartun
presents, the international impast
and importance of the Rajk trial

becomes clear. In the final sum-
mation, he writes:
{

“It should be very clearly un-
derstood that there ig no such
thing as this middle way of Ti-
to’s. Either states are based
on an existing or developing
socialist system, or they are
based upon a capitalist system.
If the former, they must form

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING

XMAS SOCIAL at Lower Russian
‘Hall on Dec, 29 at 8:30 p.m. Re-
freshments, Dancing and Skits.
Sponsored by the Social Com-
mittee N.F.L.Y.

ROOM AND BOARD WANTED
for elderly convalescent gentle-
man. Ground floor with no chil-

A charge of 80 cents for each
insertion of five lines or less with
°10 cents for each additional line
is made for. notices appearing in
this column. No notices will be
accepted later than Monday noon
of the week of Publication.

WHAT’S DOING? ~

XMAS EVE PARTY®e

Sponsored by Pacific Tribune,
Saturday, December 24, 9° p.m.
Hastings Auditorium, Lower.
Hall. Refreshments. Admission”
50c. Drop in, Say hello to your
friends, and stay as long as you
like.

une office, MArine 5288;
HALLS FOR RENT

Oldtime Dancing
To Alf Carlson’s Orchestra
Every Wednesday and Saturday
Hastings Auditorium: ek
Phone HAstings 1248
\ Moderate Rental Rates _
For socials, weddings, meetings,

_ NEW YEAR’S EVE FROLIC~At
_ Fishermen’s Hall. Limited attend-

dren, Please contact Pacific Trib-

ance. Full orchestra. Door prizes.
Refreshments. Noisemakers, Ob-
tain tickets from Alf Dewhurst,
Room 501 Ford Bldg, 193 E. Hast-
ings, TA. 1451.

TURKEY DRAW — North Burn-
_ aby Women’s Committee. Win-

ner: Mr. McCallum, 895 E, 15th,
- North Vancouver,’

XMAS SOCIAL DRAW WIN-
NERS — held at 4274 Sophia St.,
Dec. 16, 1949. First prize Mrs.
A. Antifov, No. 159; second prize

Dora Bjarnason, No. 136; —

Russian People’s Home— ,
Available for meetings, weddings
and banquets at reasonable rates:
600 Campbell Ave. HA. 0087.

Dance, Clinton Hall—
2605 East Pender. Dance every
Saturday night. Modern and

Old - time. Viking’s Orchestra.
Hall ‘is’ available for rent
HAstings 3277, ;

MEETINGS

Swedish-Finnish Workers’ Club
meets last Friday every month

BUSINESS PERSONALS

DR. R. L. DOUGLAS HAS OPEN.
ed a new office at 9 EAST HAST.
INGS STREET, cor. Carrall St.
Phone TA. 5552. All old friends
cordially invited to drop in for
a visit. 3 On
* NOTE NEW ADDRESS.

CRYSTAL STEAM BATHS—
Open every day.. New Modern
Beauty Salon—1763 KE, Hastings.
HAstings 0094,

SALLY BOWES— }
INCOME TAX PROBLEMS.
Room 20, 9 East Hastings:
MA. 9965. a

O.K. RADIO SERVICE. Latest
Factory Precision Equipment
Used. MARINE ‘SERVICE. 1420
Pender St. W. TA. 1012,

_ FIRST CLASS CARPENTER
Cabinets, remodelling, new
homes, city or country, M.
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Steveston, Phone: Steveston
108-Y.

rized heating installation, noofing
contracts and repairs. Office at

at 7.30 p.m.; in Clinton Hall.

1821 Main St., FA. 3271,

_ the foot of the Lincoln Memorial.

_ Princeton, one of the most exclu-
_Sive colleges in the U.S., in spite

- deration; let alone his athletic

tells full story

part of the peace bloc with the
Soviet Union at. its head, be-
cause without the power and

assistance of the Soviet Union
they will inevitably be gobbled
up by the ever-watchful im-
perialist power. If the latter,
they are bound by the logic of
political and economic facts to
be drawn into the orbit of the

WHAT'S ON THE SCREEN 3
Why not bring story.
of Robeson to screen?

WE'VE HAD SO MANY lives of famous people interpreted
on the screen for us; some fine movies too, Zola, Louis Pasteur, to
name two. Wonder when Hollywood will get around to making a
movie on the life, say, of Marion Anderson, the great ‘Negro con-
tralto, who had such a long hard fight against jimcrow. She was
refused admittance to the old Ho- 4 :

tel Vancouver, did you know?

most powerful capitalist state im
the world—the United Statex
Whether their political System
is bourgeois democracy, as in
Britain, or dictatorship and the
rule of the police, as in Spain
and Greece and Yugoslavia, they
are still dependent for their sur-
vival upon the good-will of the
United States.” e

at nominal fees just sufficient to
cover expenses. ¢
What a terrific climax could be ea
built out of her first Washington
concert. Doubtless, you will re-
member that the Daughters of the
Revolution, in order to prevent
Anderson from appearing, hired
every hall in the city. Whereupon,
Marian Anderson gave her con-
cert standing in the open air, at

Then Peekskill! The fascist at-
tempt to lynch him; where a small
band of true American patriots
held back, for hours, the fascists
and mobsters. ,

This is a story which has yet
to be played to its end; but what
an inspiration to the whole hu-
man race such a picture could be.
What about it, Charlie Chaplin?

i —G.L.

Then, of course, the story re-
mains to be filmed of one of the
greatest men who ever lived, Paul
Robeson. A man who attended

Castle Jewelers @.

Watchmaker, Jewellers Iru\

Next to Castle Hotel &

752 Granville MA. 8711
A. Smith, Mer.

of his color. His scholastic honors
alone entitle him to great consi-

Highest Prices Paid for
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Other Valuable Jewellery ~

STAR LOAN CO. LTD.

prowess,

Then his voice was discovered, .
and he went on to even greater
glory; without doubt one of the

greatest draws in show business : pee ee
; Spank 719 Robson St. — MA, 2622
All this time he was fighting raci- ; : (
al discrimination; first by win- Moen
ning persgnal laurels, thereby_ : ;
showing the world what one mem- EAST : END
ber of his people could do. : Tv A x I
Slowly, life taught him that it ’
could only be done with other peo- UNION DRIVERS
ple, in an organized fashion, until
today, Robeson has dedicated his HAstings
life to the betterment of all man- 0334
kind. His electrifying announce- ;
ment in Europe shat this was Bie 2 FULLY a 24-HOUR
last tour of the snob-circuit”. INSURED SERVICE
He would sing, in future, wherever : ;
the workers wanted him to sing, § 813 E. Hast, Vancouver

STANTON @& MUNRO
Barristers, Solicitors, Notaries
SUITE 515, BORD, BUILDING, 193 &, HASTINGS ST.
(Corner Main & Hastings Sts.) MArine 5746
a ee
ANNUAL LOGGERS’ BALL
Thursday, December 29th

HASTINGS AUDITORIUM

9 TO 1 AM. — ADMISSION $1.00
Auspices: W.1.U.C. of Canada, Local 71

MRNAS TL SaaS

F7
z
y

150 CHIMNEY SERVICE—Autho-

____ JANUARY 5-6-7

SEASON’S GREETINGS _
from ne

State Theatre

Soviet Film Festival Postponed
UNTIL Or

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—DECEMBER 23, 1$49—PAGE