Gold-dust McCarthy

Editor, Pacific Tribune:

The other night T dialed quite
by, accident a program supposed-
ly presented by the B.C. Metals
Mines Operators “in the public
interest,” the speaker being a
very loud mouthed person, one

_ Bob Morrison.

Now, I don’t mean to eriticize,
but after listening to what he
had to say, I found myself of
the opinion that he had more
than the public’s interest at
heart.

in the course of his short talk,
he had the downright audacity
te refer to the Canadian work-
er aS a human donkey So! At
last we know exactly where we
stand in the eyes of our lords
3nd masters, although we have
had more than a sneaking sus-
Picion for sometime.

Among many other things, he
insinuated that the people of
€anada have shown and will
eontinue to show their contempt
for the Labor-Progressive Party
by not voting for them. The
truth of the matter is, before
the last election, the Liberals
and the Conservatives got their
thick heads together and decid-
ed that if they willed to retain
their more-than-ever insecure
seats in the government, their
only hope was to form a coali-

©

FORE the tIlast provincial
election the Coalition govern-
ment promised the people of B.C.
that if it were returned to power,
it would carry out the popular
démand for public ownership of
provincial power resources and in
particular the resources con-
frolied by the B:C. Electric Rail-
way Company-

Anticipating the popular senti-
ment for public ownership, the
Hart government, at some con-
siderable cost to taxpayers, hired
a competent commission of tran-
Sit utility engineers, known as
the Gilman Commission, to study
the question and bring down pro-
posals for taking over the BCER.
The Gilman Commission’s report,
compiled before the election, was
not made public until after the
Goalition government was return-
ed to power. =

Many of the propositions con-
tained in this report were open
to debate, as for instance, 2p-
praisal of BCER holdings at ap-
proximately $8,000,000, which was
the base figure of the Public Util
ities Commission, 1944. Neverthe-
less, the Gilman report consti-
tuted a feasable blueprint for the
people to acquire BCER haldings
and operate them in the public
interest.

Subsequent events show clearly
that the Coalition government
bad no such intentions right from
the start. The people of B.C. were
being taken for a ride by the
government to achieve a dual obs
jective: First, to steer the senti-

*ment for public ownership into

channels harmless to the power
monopoly, and second, to give the
power monopoly time ,to prepare
for a new postwar steal of pub-
lic resources.

How has this been accom
plished? Immediately after the
election, Premier Hart announced
that the provincial government

would not take over the BCER
and run it as a public enterprise,

but would assist any municipality
desiring to do so. The irony of
this gratuitous ‘offer, vastly dif

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 5

tion, and thus obtain the many
votes that would otherwise
Swing towards labor.

If, what Mr. Morrison Says is
true, then why ell the letting
off steam if he is so wery, sure
that the people he had the ef-
frontery to term “human don-
keys’ will cast their ballots as
he suggests?

He went -further to criticize
Britains Labor Government, and
oh! how he sympathizes with the
poor down-trodden Briton! And
seeing as how he and the men
he represents are -hostile to-
wards any country promoting
any ideal which sounds the least
bit socialistic, I would not be
Surprised in the least to hear
them deéclare- war on Attlee’s
Government tomorrow.

The theme which predomin-
ated throughout his talk was
“the terriffic less incurred by
the Metal Mines Operators.” We
are all very sorry for these
gentlemen, T am sure, but noth-
ing is mentioned about the ever-
mounting cost of living which
the worker and his family has
te contend with.

As for his reference to the
great difference between Social-
ism and Communism. I would
ask him to refer to his diction-
ary. He will find that they are
defined as one and the same
thing. Of course, to brand the

- People taken for

By Tom McEwen

ferent from pre-election promises,
can best be seen in the fact that
ne single municipality on the
Lower Mainland or Vancouver
island was in a position to carry
such an undertaking, No munici-
pality could finance the greater
part of.the cost of acquiring out-
moded and decrepit rolling stock
—A junk-pile on wheels’—and
several hundred miles of dilapi-
dated trackage, and then purchase
modern equipment. If the proposi-
sition was too big for the pro-
vineial government to handle,
then the suggestion that the
municipalities run it themselves
becomes sheer political humbug.

So the Gilman Report was
quietly shelved, and one by one
the municipal councils, all of
which have a goodly sprinkling
of BCER stooges, fell into line
and sidestepped the issue of pub-
lic ownership. The result was all
to the liking of the power moguls.
The Coalition had wangled itself
out of a difficult spot without
‘loss of face’ and the road ‘was
open for the BCER to carry out
its postwar plans. ~

@

KE next step was renewal of

the BCER franchise. Before
the BCER could spend the mil-
lions necessary to giving the
people of Vancouver and envir-
ons 2 modicum of decent trans-
portation for the tribute exacted,
it had to have an exclusive fran-
chise barring all present and
future competitors. It had to over=
come the fact that public opinion
was and definitely is against giv-
ing this power octopus another
20-year lease on its streets and
highways.

Running true to form the BCER
monopoly proceeded to ‘buy OuE
its competitors. It ‘bought out
the Deep Cove stages in North
Vancouver. It ‘bought out’ Neville
Transportation lines in Burnaby
and Moorhouse stages in : the
Fraser Walley. A wordy circus
was staged between the BCER
and the Blue Lines for transpor-
tation ‘rights’ in North Vancou-

worker a Communist because he
is standing up for his rights,
is quite in order, because, ac-
cording to Webster’s dictionary
he is exactly that.

His crowning blunder was to
infer that the Labor-Progressive
Party was only pretending to be
interested in the good and wel-
fare of the workers.

They don’t have to pretend,
Mr. Morrison, they are! Be-
cause the Labor - Progressive
Party, be it in Canada, the USA
or Great Britain, is composed

of the rank and file of the work—

ing class! The LPP is fighting
for the common people just as
the Liberals and Conservatives
are fighting for the right of
Canada’s capitalist class and all
they represent.

Quit kidding yourself, Bob
Morrison. We know that those
gentlemen whispering sweet
nothings in your ear, are no
more interested in protecting the
democratic rights of the workers
than the fly in the air, If any-
thing they are banding every
effort towards suppressing them.
I do agree though that there
will be as you suggest some
changes made, but in an alto-
gether different way to what
you are thinking of, because the
“Human Donkey” is at long last
waking up.

H. A. G CORMIER.

Vancouver, B.C.

a ride

ver and to the public it looked
like a ‘stiff fight.’ The weight of
popular feeling was behind the
Blue Lines. The feeling was that
in a choice between two transit
monopolies nothing could be

worse than the BCER, while im-_

proved transportation might be
cbtained from a new competitor.
When the ‘fight’ reached a given
Stage, the BCER ‘bought out’ the
Blue Lines. It is as fine a piece
of manipulation as has ever been
put across since the contractors
collected on the PGE and left
the people with a railroad which
begins and ends nowhere.
oe.

ee whole picture reflects, on
: the part of the provincial goy-
ernment and the BCER power
monopoly whose servant it is, an
arrogant and cynical unconcern
for the desires and wishes of the
people.

It should be noted in passing,
that until now, the BCER pub-
licity department has always told
the people, especially where wage
rates, car fares and light and gas
rates have been under discussion,
that it has been providing serv-
ices at ruinous losses. The ‘buy-

ing out’ of all actual or potential

competitors in transportation
services tells a different story and
one that bodes no good for the
the people dependent upon the
BCER for transportation. ~

Any long term franchise to the
BCER must be voted down. That
is a responsibility the people of
Greater Vancouver and areas
served by the BCER must insist
their elected representatives ac-
cept. The onus for a gigantic
power and transportation deal
foisted upon the people by poli-
tical trickery and chicanery must
be placed upon the provincial gov-
ernment. In view of all that has
transpired there are now good
grounds for the belief that the
Gilman Commission itself was
just the Coalition’s political ruse
to bypass the demand of the
people of B.C. for public owner-
ship of their power resources.

_ Was played down. In Greece “democracy” had its big day,

Short Jabs by A Bill

ef 2

Democracy (?) Ovz= Labor Day the air lines were busy
at work with news of election and plebiscite, in
Saxony and Greece. The plebiscite was played up and the election
working
than at had ever worked
the worker.

harder to return a fascist king to a throne
to win concession for “demos,”

The world was treated to what the London Daily Worker called
“a flagrant display of gangster politics.” The biggest aircraft car
rier in the world, battleships, eruisers, destroyers and other naval
craft of two navies, all inspired by the sentiments of Admiral
“Bull? Halsey—“we'll go where we damn please’—lined up just
outside of Greek territorial waters with their guns pointed in the
direction of the Greek voter te ensure that he marked his ballot
im the right way, which, of eourse, with so much encouragement,
he did. 7s

In Saxony there was an election. There were no battleships
and no “Bulli” Halsey shooting off his face. But the “predicters”
of the gutter press had it all figured out, The Red army was
going to dominate the poor, downtrodden Saxon elector and accord—
ingly the Germans would not have a chance to freely express
themselves, which of course would mean a landslide for the Social-
ist-Communist party sponsored by the Soviets.

The results so far are a reply to these liars of the press. In
Saxony, the Socialist-Unity Party, SED; although getting the largest
vote, did not poll an overail majority and the vote itself, since
Saxony with Hamburg and Berlin, has always been considered the
‘reddest’ part of Germany, is a clear indication that there was
no outside pressure used by the Soviet administration. Neither were
there any Anglo-American referees to see that everything was done
according to Marquis of Queensbury and New York State Boxine
Commission rules.

These two events, and the results of them, make us think of
the pronouncements that have been made since the war broke over
Europe. In his first “war aims” speech, Chamberlain, hoping to win
the occupied countries to his side, promised to each HPuropean
country, the “unfettered right to choose its own form of internal
government.”

Then, later, Churchill and Roosevelt, in the famous Atlantic
Charter, had their say. What was it they said? They would “re-
spect the rights of all peoples to choose the form of government
under which they will live.”

_ And ‘on November 7, 1942, in his speech to the Soviet people
celebrating the 25th anniversary of the October Revolution, Stalin
spoke of the liberation of the enslaved nations and that one of
the objectives of the Soviet Union was “the restoration of their
sovereign rights.”

After the elections held in Greece last March, under much
the same conditions as Sunday’s plebiscite, a delegation of British
trade unionists visited Greece. On their return they published their
impressions of the situation in that country. Qne of the delegates,
Labor M.P. for Peterborough, wrote in Reynold’s News: “I have
seen a fascist state at work.” So much for Mr. Bevin’s baby!

And as for the American angle in this “democratic” plebiscite,
Admiral “Bull” Halsey and his naval show of force have already
been labelled in the South Pacific Islands.

If R. L. Stevensen, who was one white Man who had the
respect of the natives of Samoa, could rise from his grave to pro-—
test on their behalf, he would Surely do it now. “Bull” Halsey’s
navy is in control in Samoa now. Before they moved in, United
States civil administration had the picture shows divided into sec=
tions for the whites and the natives, Jim Crow style. But ‘since
“Bull” Halsey and his gang have taken things. over, the Samoans
are not allowed inte the “white” shows at all.

This is the kind of “democracy they wish to fasten on the
Greek people with their fascist king, who has been drawing $300
000 a year salary while the people of Greece were starving.

Simple! i Jeee how simple it is to lick the Big Boys is better

understood by B.G.’s minister of labor than by.
many of those who should be most interested in knowing. He was
quoted in the Vancouver Sun of August 9 last, as Saying, “If the
workers of this province are going to make up their minds they
won't work and won’t produce, then we'll all Starve. It’s simple
as that!” :

If we all did like Joe Whelan it would help too. Joe had to
buy the stores for a boat on which he worked. The handiest place
was a Chinese store near the dock. He ordered the stores over the
telephone so they would be ready when he called for them. A
couple of weeks ago he put in an order as usual and when he
called to pick it up, he saw the strikebreaker-produced Province on
the counter.

He immediately cancelled the order and told the storekeeper
why. He also told him he should be selling the Tribune instead
of thé Province. A week later he called in to see if there was
any change. There were no Provinces any more but the Pacific
Tribune was. So he put in another order for groceries.

It’s as simple as that!

More fSs 2 L222 week we had occasion to comment on
discrimination a flagrant case of race discrimination in
the Nanaimo district. That that phase of Hitlerism is not confined
to one district of B.C., is not localized, is to be seen in another
case that has been brought to our notice, this time in Kelowna,
the stamping ground of that breed of Englishmen whose families
hoped to get rid of them by shipping them to “the colonies’—_the
remittance men. :

This time the discrimination is aimed at a young East Indian
girl who has the temerity to want to live in a district that the
snobs want to keep for themselves. The case has agitated the city
council and the board of trade and although the alibi of the into
erant and arrogant taxpayers who object to this young woman
living among them, is based on a claim that it will result in the
depreciation of the value of their properties, the real reason is race
discrimination.

if the claimants were honest in their contention about the
depreciation of their property, they would have accepted an offer
the girl made them to sell her $6,000 option to them for $8,000, but
like all their petty lLourgeois tribe, they were not willing to dig
down into their own pockets.

Their only-objection was to her race, a2 race that has produced
its quota of great and brilliant men -and women and which was
civilized when the ancestors of Kelowna’s remittance men put their
elothes on with a paint brush. ;

ERIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1946