‘Bargains’
By HAL GRIFFIN

It might have been only a coinci-
ence, but the day Simpsons-Sears
opened its new $7.5 million depart-
Mental store in Burnaby, Eaton’s
took a full page in the Vancouver
News-Herald extolling itself as “a
Vast Canadian institution, an all-
Canadian operation—a symbol of
Canadian enterprise.”

It certainly is no coincidence,
ut part of a calculated public re-
lations Policy that Eaton’s has
chosen this time to run a series of
advertisements linking its growth
with Canada since Confederation
—Part of the growth of Canadian
Monopoly—and appealing to the
National feeling of the Canadian
People with the slogan, “Over 85
Percent of the goods sold in Eaton’s
are bought in Canada.”

Eaton’s has cause to be concern-

US. goods dumped through Simpsons-Sears

with layoff tags

ed. More than any other depart-
ment store chain‘in the country it
is threatened by the aggressive ex-
pansion policy of the U.S.-domin-
ated Simpsons-Sears chain.

Eaton’s management in Vancou-
ver cannot have been happy over
the fact that an estimated 90,000
people jammed the new Simpsons-
Sears store on Wednesday last
week, The majority of them were
working people looking for bar-
gains. In these days of high liv-
ing costs and high markups _bar-
gains are not easy to come by. And
the word spread around that prices
of many things at Simpsons-Sears
were lower than elsewhere.

But in trying to stretch their pay
cheques a little many workers, un-
knowingly, were in danger of los-
ing them entirely.

The point was illustrated during
last year’s federal election cam-
paign by Tim Buck, LPP national
leader, when he recounted the, story
of the Canadian stove manufactur-
er who formerly had sold to Simp-
son’s and ‘now, as a result of the
merger with Sears, stood to lose a
major outlet because Simpsons-
Sears intended to market a U.S.-
made stove. With his Canadian
market curtailed, Canadian work-
ers would be laid off.

To some of the “bargains” in U.S.
goods dumped on Simpsons-Sears’
shelves layoff notices for some of
the workers buying them might
well have been attached. For the
dumping of U.S. goods which has
brought unemployment to many in-
dustries in the east -has now been
extended to B.C..

Steve Endicott
NFLY leader

A pledge “to enter the fight to assure decent jobs for all young
People, to help win a lasting peace for the world and to join with all
Patriotic Canadians to win back full independence for Canada” was
‘Made by 300 delegates and guests attending the third national con-
Vention of the National, Federation of Labor Youth, held here May 7-9.
a

‘

Youth rally speaker

nett Lawrie, provincial sec-
= ry of the National Federation
th abor Youth, will report on

€ third national convention of

@ NFLY, held last weekend in
Bra io, at a meeting in Hastings
. Auditorium here May 21, at 8
Aas Other B.C. delegates will

So give their impressions of
aed convention. A “welcome
will: dance for B.C.: delegates
5 be held this Saturday, May

7 at 9 i
as p.m. in the new Youth

re, 1238 Commercial Drive.

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45 EAST HASTINGS

TORONTO

The convention marked the re-
tirement of Norman Penner as
NEFLY national leader and the elec-
tion by acclamation of Steve Endi-
cott to the post. (Endicott, at one
time B.C. provincial secretary of
the NFLY, has just returned from
Europe, where he worked in the
headquarters of the World Fed-
eration of Democratic Youth as a
representative of progressive Can-
adian youth). :

In his main report Norman Pen-
ner denounced the Canadian ruling
class for “reversing the entire
course of Canadian economic de-
velopment.” In doing this, he said,
“they condemn Canadian youth to
the bleak perspective of serving
Yankee masters through servile,
arduous and menial labor.”

Of the policy of turning over
‘Canada’s raw materials to the
U.S. he declared: “As our raw
materials go, so go the oppor-
tunities for Canadian youth.”
In fact, he ‘said, the Canadian
goyernment is putting out recruit-
ing propaganda suggesting that the
only real opportunity for careers,
adventure and economic security
for youth is to join the armed
forces—there, too, to serve Yankee
masters. : j

Steve Endicott described his
work in Europe and.told of his
recent visit to Moscow as a fratern-
al guest at a congress of the Young
Communist League. He said that
Soviet youth were volunteering by
the hundreds of thousands to go out
to help extend the area of land
under cultivation. Ls

“Tmagine,” he said, “what it
would be like if here in Toronto
Maple Leaf Gardens were filled

four times over by young people

between the ages of 17 and 25,
with their bags packed and ready
to leave for the Peace River coun-
try to open new land and industry.

Such is the great vision and wide}

horizons, the adventure which lies
before the Soviet youth.”

In his summary, after two days
of thorough discussion, Endicott
said the enthusiasm of the conven-
tion was its outstanding feature.

One highlight observers could
not fail to note was the warm com-
radeship of the delegates from all
parts of the country—and especi-
ally the unity of French and Eng-
lish-speaking. youth. _ There were
simultaneous translations of pro-
ceedings for the Quebec delegates,
who led the country and won a
special honor in recruiting 130 new
members to the NFLY in the past
ix months.
0h Lusty cheers greeted Roger
Messier, Quebec NFLY organizer,
when he rose to address the con-

STEVE ENDICOTT

NORMAN PENNER.

vention. Messier is the young
man who was brutally beaten by

Duplessis police om March 29
while being held incommunicado
four hours at police headquarters.

There were cheers,-too, for Vic-
tor Lee, a young Chinese Canadian
from Vancouver who came to Can-
ada four years ago from Canton.

“Young Canadian Chinese are
concerned about the future of Can-
ada,” said Lee. “What happens to
Canada happens to them. And
young Chinese are the first vic-
tims of any unemployment or dis-
crimination.”

Delegates cheered again when
Tim Buck, national leader of the
Labor-Progressive party, greeted
the youth convention in a recorded
message. He paid a tribute to the
great role of youth in the fight
for peace and progress and spoke
of how the working youth were the
first victims of economic crisis.

William Kashtan, LPP labor sec-

retary, brought fraternal greetings
from his party’s national execu-|
tive. : :
“This convention,” he said, “will
mark a historic landmark if we all
work as never before to recruit
new members for the NFLY, gain
new readers for Champion, build
unity with the young people of
Canada behind the struggle for a
new national policy that puts Can-
ada first.” !

At the banquet that concluded
the convention many warm tributes
were paid to retiring national lead-
er Norman Penner, who has head-
ed the NFLY since his return from
overseas at the end of the Second

World War.

Victoria

library

faces ‘boycott’

VICTORIA, B.C.

By its McCarthy-style dismissal of John Marshall over widespread
public protest, witch-hunting members of Greater Victoria Library

Board have brought about a virtua

1 boycott of Vietoria Public Library

by professional librarians in the province.
Six of the library’s 11 librarians have resigned since the firing of
Marshall and the library has not been able to replace any of them.

Current issue of the bulletin of

the B.C. Librarians Association ear-'
ries a review of the Marshall case}

and. says:

“Can or should a member of the
BCLA apply for any position in the
Victoria Public Library as long as
the policy of the board remains
what it is? ;

“tt is in'the answer to this
question that the association‘s
real attitude toward witch-hunt-
ing may be made known. Let us
hope we have the conscience and
the courage to say ‘no’.”

And Miss Georgiana Wilson, act-

ing head of the circulating depart-

ment, who is resigning next month
to get married, wrote the board:

“¥ cannot... . in all honesty re-
sign without registering a plea that
the present board support the prin-
ciples of tolerance, . intellectual
freedom and high ‘standards of
service that were characteristic of
early and excellent boards.”

The library board has never giv-
en an official reason for dismissing
Marshall from his position as book-
mobile director. At its last month-
ly meeting it cut its 1954 budget
by $4,519 to $181,406 on orders
from city council.

UJPO scores

with ‘Dybbuk’

Through four acts of a difficult
play, a talented cast directed by
Shelah Norman-Martin managed to
hold the audience in the palm of
its hand at York Theatre here this
week when the Drama Workshop
of the United Jewish People’s
Order presented Sholom Ansky’s

| \ great Jewish classic, The Dybbuk.

The piay is full of superstition,
mysticism and discourses on the
nature of good and evil. In the
hands of a less capable group it
could easily have dragged, how-
ever .the pace never faltered.

Perhaps the most outstanding
feature of the production was the
sets designed by Gary Ness. They
were beautiful and authentic.

Among the evenly good cast,
Luba Greenberg as Leah, the bride
into whom a “dybbuk,” or devil,
enters, must be singled out for an
exceptionally strong and _ artistic
performance.

Myra Benson as the old Granny
carried conviction in every word
and gesture throughout the whole
long four acts, and Lou Osipov in
the first act managed the difficult
feat of transporting the audience
with him through a long discourse.

Members of the cast were:

Searle. Friedman, Pat Graber,
Harry C. Weinstein, J. Green, A.
Smith, Jack Kates, Jack Goodfield,
Soli Jackson, Betty Liberson, Lou
Osipov, Oscar Osipov, Luba Green-
berg, Myra Benson, Ruthe Sherman,
David Peltin, Nate Wiseman, E.
Frohman, B. Liberson, P. Robb, D.
Pellin, Florence Turple, Harold
Berson, Edward Gofsky, Mickey
Drake. . ‘

Sarah Kates was production man-
ager and Clive Kaplan was stage
manager, with Oscar Osipov as his
assistant. :

Music for the production was ar-
ranged by Searle Friedman.

Prides probe sought

TORONTO

Toronto’s 60,000 AFL trade union-
ists are demanding a federal probe
into retail price spreads and mar-
kets similar to the Stevens expo-
sure during the Hungry Thirties.

LABOR

BRIEFS

Failure of the management at
Canadian Exploration, Salmo, to
make any serious wage offer to
Mine-Mill, has forced the union

‘|to set a strike deadline for this

Saturday, May 15. The strike vote
followed 15 month of fruitless ne-
gotiations.

* koe

Three thousand carpenters in
Vancouver, New Westminster and
in the Fraser Valley are taking
their wage. dispute before a gov-.
ernment conciliation board fol-
lowing rejectiori Monday this
week of a contractors’ nickel-an-
hour offer. The carpenters are
seeking an eight-cent hike in
their $2.17 hourly pay rate.

x * ae

Following a meeting: with repre-
sentatives of the United Fishermen
and Allied Workers Union, Fisher-
ies Minister James Sinclair an-
nounced in the House of Commons
that the Fraser River area above
New Westminster bridge will re-
main open to October 8 this year
instead of the September 16 clos-
ure previously ordered.

Next year, the closure on fishing
will take effect September 30 and
in 1956 it will be September 12.

In his speech Sinclair said that
the objective of “conservation”
,had been aimed at “in a little too
‘big a sweep.”

x ae ke
B.C. Federation of Labor, B.C.
| Trade Union Congress and the Rail-
, way Brotherhoods will discuss the
‘new provincial Labor Relations Act
at a series of meetings beginning
June 5 in the Electrical Workers
Hall. ‘
x * *
; Negotiations between the Alum-
inum Company of Canada and the
Allied Aluminum Workers Couneil
for the first wage contract on the
big Alcan project, have stalled and
will be taken over by a government
conciliator this week. .

At present Alean. pays $1.53
hourly base. rate for a 42-hour
week. The 10 AFL unions want a
base. pay rate. of $1.88 and a 40

hour week. : :
_*k * *

Mike Solski, secretary of. the
Canadian Mine-Mill Council, and
Al King, president of the Trail
local, have been elected to visit
France in June as guests of the
French Metallurgical Workers’
Union. :

* x *

Commenting on action of IWA
officers suggesting that they would
be happy to sign a long term con-
tract, Timber-r-r, organ of the LPP
loggers and millworkers, warned
this week that “a long term con-
tract would benefit the boss and
harm woodworkers.’

A long-term contract, says the
paper; opens the way for an in-
tensified speed-up campaign on the
part of the boss, while the union
is not free to fight for the actual
needs of the members.

“Everything in Flowers”
FROM...
EARLE STKES

56 E. Hastings St. PA. 3855
VANCOUVER, B.C.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MAY 14, 1954 — PAGE 7