be

etment is out to buy up the

SeMior citizens’ votes with a

token’’ increase in old age
Pensions.

The same government which
Voted its cabinet members sal-
ay increases ranging in the
thousands and found plausible
teasons for doing so now ponders
With Scrooge-like caution wheth-
| its pre-election handout to
Sthior citizens and other pen:
| Sioners should be $5 or $10 per
“Month.

-Even our own Premier W. A.
C. Bennett, whose Social Credit
' 80vernment is no piker when it
Comes to giveaways of the peo-

ple’s resources, has stated that
the federal increase to senior
Citizens ‘‘should not be less than
$20 per month.”’ And spokes
Men for senior citizens’ organ
Wations across the country have
branded the St. Laurent govern-
Ment's proposed increase as
“totally inadequate.”

*

No statistics are required in
these times to establish the fact
that no human being, young or
old, can live on $40 a month.
On the contrary, there are ample
Statistics to prove that our senior
Citizens are condemned to a
Miserable existence on such a
Pittance.

- The $5 or $10 proposal now
being discussed by the St. Laur-
ent government is an insult to

Published weekly at
Room 6 — 426 Main Sireet
_. Vancouver 4, B.C.
Phone: MArine 5288
Editor — TOM McEWEN
Associate Editor — HAL GRIFFIN
Business Manager — RITA WHYTE
Subscription Rates:
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Countries (except Australia): $4.00
She year. Australia, United States
and all other countries: $5.00 one
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a:

The old age pension

“EDITORIAL.

ers

increase is not enough

“WITH a federal election in the our senior citizens and a disgrace
\ offing, the St. Laurent gov

to. Canada. If human well-

being were held in higher esteem
than cheap votes a $25 a month
increase would scarcely be
enough. Even with that our
aged ‘citizens would still have
to scrimp.

A few thousand letters, reso-
lutions and protests from trade
unions and other popular org:
anizations might help to convince
an arrogant Liberal regime at
Ottawa that the only govern:
ment that deserves the people's
consideration is one that makes
the people’s interests its first
consideration.

ee

eo

TESTS.

_ Rie as . is

Hal
Griffin

i Rew three men lurking behind
the car in the East Pender

Street gas station startled me. For
a moment I thought I had sur-
prised them in the act of steal-
ing the car. But they weren't
interested in me. They weren't
interested in the old Chinese
walking behind me who gave
them a quick suspicious glance
and hurried past. They were in-
terested only in staying out of

sight.

Then their purpose became
clear. Across the street a wo-
man walked slowly, provocative-
ly out of the darkness, her heels
click-clacking loudly above the
muted roar of distant traffic. -

As she came into the patch of
light thrown from the hotel en-
trance a man approached her
from the opposite direction. I
sensed rather than heard them
speak. Then the man went on
and the woman turned into the
hotel.

Even before the door stoppped

swinging one of the men ran
across the street and flattened

himself against the hotel wall.

He beckoned to his companions,
but just as they started to cross
a car roared down the street,
cutting them off. Above the
flash of the headlights I glimpsed
a face at a first floor window.
Then the face was gone and all
three men were running into the
hotel, leaving the door swinging,
back and forth, back and forth.
Finally it was still.

But not for long. The woman
came out again and, without a
backward glance, walked quick-
ly toward Main Street. The three
men were at the first floor win-
down now and one of them rais-
ed it to watch her until she was
out of sight.

The man who was watching
slammed the window down and
a minute later all three men came
out, no longer furtive, no longer
hurrying.

The morality squad had lost
this time. But next time... .

x $e 50

The problem of prostitution, a
problem as old as class society,
was recently discussed by the
International Abolitionist Fed-
eration at its 20th congress in

Frankfurt-on-Main, There, inev-~

itably, the question arose, what
can be done to eliminate prosti-
tution in capitalist society?

It was answered by. Senator
Linda Merlin of Italy, who rep-
resented the Women's Interna-
{ional Democratic Federation at
the congress.

“The first motive is the need

or even the craving for money
in order to satisfy desires for
comfort or luxury which have
been aroused by the display ef
luxury in wealthy surroundings
... This is the atmosphere of a
society based on inequality, in-
justice and corruption which in-
fluences everybody,” she said.

“Evils of this scope are not so
easily remedied by little formu-
las or laws which are not carried
out because they are largely re-.
strictive. But this rather pessim-
istic consideration should not ex-
cuse anyone from fighting for the
solution ...

“People are coming together,
regardless of political or religious
convictions, to study the phen-
omena common to social commu-
nities which offend human dig-
nity and threaten society itself.
They are prepared to use their
influence to convince those who
are ignorant of or indifferent to
the facts.

“On the other hand, state laws
should not be accessories to vice,
but should create the conditions
for teaching men and women a
sense of decency -and responsi-
bility, courage and strength.”

It’s. too bad no one attended
that congress from this provinces,
to tell of the Native Indian girls
who haunt thé cheap skidroad
hotels, the shabby cafes, degrad-
ing themselves, but only because
governments have become ‘ac-~
cessories to vice’ by the degra-
dation they coniinue to impose
on ihem as a people.

FEBRUARY 22, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 7