Let’s go on from here

UN expressing our sincere thanks to all readers and supporters who
helped in the recent subscription drive, we must add a clasical re-
minder coined by Joseph Stalin, not to “grow dizzy with success’’.
- We made our objective, but no more.
This month several hundred subs expire. All must be renewed.
And there are thousands of workers to whom our paper has not yet
been introduced. It is up to us to make that introduction and sign
them up as new subscribers.
The fight for peace is primarily a “fight to extend the truth. How
better to do this than to see that your fellow worker gets a fighting
labor paper? Get the PT into the hands of your ngighbor.

Lessons of Esquimalt

URING the recent Esquimalt byelection the Coalition “‘staked its
reputation” on the outcome. Premier Byron ““Boss’’ Johnson
and his Tory side-kick Anscomb almost camped on the hustings.
The Coalition machine, squeaking and grinding with’ a few cogs slip-
ping here and there, was put to work overtime to bring grist to the
Coalition mill. When the votes were counted the Coalition “reputation”
-was as worthless as a BCHIS sweepstake ticket on a hospital bed.

; While only the Labor-Progressive party called for resignation of

the Coalition goverment following the byelection verdict, the general
consensus of opinion among large numbers of the people was and is,
that the only decent thing the Coalition could do’ (if it is capable of
any decency?) was to take its case to the people in an early election.
Even the Vancouver Sun’s professional fixer-upper, Roy Brown, felt
the necessity of doing some “expert”? word-juggling on the issue.

Split from stem tg stern, with every plank in its decrepit structure
warped or broken, and wallowing in the wake of the Esquimalt “blow,”
the Coalition is now desperately attempting to hang onto its moorings
‘to effect a little patchwork before it parades its leaky craft before
the people. In other words, it is now trying to pretend that Esquimalt
‘never happened, and is playing for time to do a political repair job
-. in its Victoria legislative drydock and to put a touch of corrective
coloring on some of its most glaring deficiencies before it again sails
out with its tattered banner of “sound administration” nailed to the-
masthead.

The Coalition’s docket of legislative crimes against the people
is almost endless: The BCHIS swindle, which no amount of parlia-
mentary whitewash can hide. It’s Punch and Judy show, billed as a
Public Utilities Commission, to voice its class approval to the endless

demands of powerful monopoly capital. ‘ts “‘guns before butter”

ties, Its “soothing syrup” of specious promises to harassed beef, dairy
and fruit farmers, caught between the jaws of a cold-war economy
and the growing impoverishment of the people. Its taxation policies
which raid the living standards of the workers and primary producers,
but bypass the spiralling profits of the big monopolists and profiteers.
These are-only a few of the Coalition’s major crimes against the
~ interests of the people. With a prodigal hand the Coalition has handed —
over, bit by bit, the natural resources of the province to the war-
_ profiteers of Yiankee and Canadian imperialism. ROE aa
Never since the oppressive days of the McBride-Bowser Tory
regimes have the people of British Columbia been saddled with such
an unholy incubus as the partisan conspiracy of Tory and Liberal
politicians who have clamped themselves upon the people of this

province as a Coalition government. = Sind :
"The CCF won in Esquimalt, not because it advocated policies
~ sharply at variance with and critical of Coalition policies, but because
~<in the minds of a majority of the electorate it couldn’t be any worse—
of being a little better: The essence of its

and held some promise of t
election campaign was fundamentally social-democratic, that it could
do a better job of running capitalism than the capitalists!
Esquimalt holds an important lesson for the people of B.C. First,
that ,Farmer-Labor-CCF unity is the key to ending the Coalition
conspiracy at Victoria. That is the prime lesson of this byelection: —
caeeplte ely eo ahia dhouiee penile: toa: toils
_ The Coalition is groggy, hanging onto the ropes, playing for
more time to cook up new “‘explanations,”” new “promises,” by. which
it hopes to undo some of the evil of its regime and continue its unholy
office. It must not be gi bypass vital issues and con-

fic be given this time to
Organized labor handed it a resounding wallop in the BCHIS
- yound, a wallop that could have been decisive at that time, had it

been followed up with the unity required for the coup de grace.

Esquimalt shows it can be done. What are we» aiting for?
Do tema Nee } Se ee ca : Be OR
Pacipi@ees= caf E
Hit fl { HD ! y iw) y . i ih {i
Wy Qu ay Ms
aff Ut a0
“published Weekly at Room 6 - 426 Main Street, Vancouver, B.C.

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Pom McEwen ........--be esse eee e ees Editor
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Authorized as second class mail, Post Office Dept., Ottawa

‘fortunate we are to have the BCElectric, and for

night, and no amoun

1€ labor, allied in united effort with the CCF and the farmers
‘can hand it a knock-out blow—with a 22-cent-and-up milk bottle,

- manded.

ae eer

As We See It

by TOM McEWEN

,

ALLL
T HAS happened on innumerable occasions, and in-

variably with similar results. When some section
of our “free enterprise” setup begins to show thread-
bare at the seams, we call in “expert” advice on
what to do about it. Needless to say, the bulk of
these “experts”, to whom we pay a fat fee for
reports (which in the main serve to gather dust in
administrative archives), hail from the good old
USA. It is one of the fascinating characteristics of
American capitalism that it always has a large ©
surplus of “experts” on hand, ready to advise other
and more backward countries on how to carry on
in the best American tradition.

_ Last week, Vancouver citizens were advised
through the medium of the daily press that another
of these alleged “experts” from San Francisco . will
make a survey of our BCElectric transit system,
for the modest sum ‘of $5,000. This “expert” is a
Col. Marmion D. Mills, who is reputed to be a wow
on the question of converting streetcars into bussés
and trolley ° coaches. _ The Mills’ survey of the
BCElectric transit service will tell us about the
“adequacy and reasonableness” of what Vancouver
commuters get for their dime fare. In all proba-
bility it will wind up by telling Vancouverites how

further conversions to rubber we should only be too
happy to cough up any other fare hoists the BCElec-
ric and its PUC may consider necessary for the
orderly advancement of “free enterprise.”

Back in the middle years of the Hungry Thirties,
another of these transit “experts,’ Bradshaw by
name, was retained by the city to do a like job for
the BCElectric. We never did know what fee he
collected from the city coffers, but Ol’ Bill, who
used to keep a sharp eye on BCElectric affairs,

placed the question on a two-way basis in his “Short
Jabs” column. “If it was a big amount,” wrote Ol’
Bill, “the money would have been much better spent
on milk for the kids of unemployed workers. But
whatever it was, if this Bradshaw got more than ~
fifty cents, the city was gypped out of the balance.”
In the course of his “investigation” Bradshaw as-
sured Vancouverites that “they had a good street-
car system.”

‘

‘The proposed Mills survey promises to be much
of the same sort, a “face-lifter” for the BCElectric,
presaging another fare hoist, with the taxpayers.
footing the bill. It may sound good, but it won’t
be, not with a U.S. army brasshat on the job as
“expert” adviser, pinch-hitting for the BCElectric.

Despite the added advantage of having at its
beck and call a very amenable ‘Non-Partisan”
civic adminstration, and an equally amenable Pub-
lic Utilities Commission that says “yes” with amaz-
ing alacrity to everything the BCElectric demands,
if and when the people of Vancouver are given an
opportunity to vote on the taking over of the BCElec-
tric octopus-like monopoly and running it for 'them-
selves, the decision will be overwhelming, final and
decisive. That ghost haunts the City Hall and the
back rooms of the BCElectric directors day and

t of imported ‘expert” advice
can exorcise it. Be eg vat : :

Moreover, if and when that plebiscite does take
place, any dozen workers who have piloted BCBlec-
tric toonervilles around this town for a quarter of

' berworker’s wages, to be paid out in driblets whe? —
pee: slump, unemployment, or other shut-down hits

were to say to H. R., “Now, see here old boy, y®

idea of industrial peonage with a straight face

CT

a century or more, can supply all the expert advice
required (without raiding the city treasury) on how
to transform a transit system that rooks the public,
into a system to serve the public. ;

Just as Sir Isaac Newton is immortalized as the
scientist who discovered the law of gravity, so is
the scientist Karl Marx, who discovered the social
laws of capitalist development, and what made
capitalism “tick”: wages, the buying of labor power
for nominal wages, which permits the capitalist to
pocket the surplus values created by expended labor
power. But in these last dying days of, capitalism
we have a lot of brilliant “scientists” trying to ou
mode Marx by thinking up new schemes on wageS:
not only on how much, but on how and when these
shall be paid, in order to “cushion” the growing:
crisis of capitalism. ia

The latest stunt in this regard comes from som
of ‘the up-Island logging camps. The boss logge
of course, are the promoters of the “plan” which
roughly, goes ‘something like this: they agree on an
“average” wage, which will be paid: while the camP%,
are working, holding back the balance of the lum”

the industry.

Doubtless the idea stems from a number of
well-rehearsed boss-class concepts: one, that
w8rkers are incapable of “judiciously” handling their —
own finances; two, , that it will relieve the bo
loggers, in their phoney role as “great captains 0!
industry,” of being responsible for mass unemploy
ment in their own industry; and three, and n°
unimportant, it will give, them the further use 0
tens of thousands of dollars, interest free, which
doesn’t belong to them. Nothing like using some
one else’s money—if you can get away with it! ,

It is rumored that the IWA leaders are “all fo
the “plan,” which, if such is the case, adds nothin
to its commendability, é ;

Considered on a strictly reciprocal basis, tbé
idea could have some merit. The bosses “save” th
workers’ wages, paying it out piecemeal as th?
former see fit. Now, let’s reverse the process.
R. MacMillan, in the poorest wage-year the loggers
have had in a long time, netted well over $13 ml
lion profit. Not bad, despite the thousands of wat
veterans and others who are still short of a place
they can call a home. Supposing a comm ittesien
the loggers, or through the medium of their union

fF;

“may be sitting pretty at the moment, but you ¢®
never tell what is going to happen. We'll take ove!
your thirteen million and look after it for you. |

you should hit a bit of a slump we'll see that

have always enough for pork chops.” Ae
It is not hard to imagine what an ungodly how! |
would go up to high heavens from the “free enter
risers” at the very audacity of such a suggestion
But for the wage earners these birds hand out |
“We'll look after your money for you.” :
To this “rainy day” economy of the boss 108
gers, the boys who hew the timber Should have om
one reply—more wages and less profits is how we:

P. T. BARNUM, the famous American showman,

* piled up a fortune on the assumption that —
“there’s one born every minute,” ready-made for
taking to the cleaners. In our day the percentage

_ would appear to be definitely higher, if we use as a
-¢eriterion the number of times and the issues, upon
which the
bunch of “suckers.”

Just take this week’s hoist in the price of milk
as a case in point. A one-hundred percent phoney
Milk Board is conducting alleged hearings on the
milk jue—“hearings” on the economic problems
of ie mae in ida A ee essential food
at ; es, and | uall i pi :
lem of the consume eine Weak pring ae

_ Then boom! Right ‘in the middle of its alleged _
_ hearings the Milk Board authorizes a ees cents
a quart “interim” increase in the price the con-
| Sumer pays—from 19 to 22 cents. Milk consumption —
in Vancouver has already dropped alarmingly—
from the view-point of public health—as a result
of increases’ which have carried the price from 10
to 19 cents. What this new increase will do is
apparent to everyone—except the Coalition govern-
ment, which apparently doesn’t care. _— ae

What wpnig ths public think if in a law court.

The people can put an end to it

' justice, keep their preconceived decisions well

r in paying the high prices de- |

| PACIFIC TRIBUNE — OCTOBER 19, 1951 — PAG

the learned judge. was to hand down his ve!
before all the evidence, pro and con, was in?
course, such things do happen and judges,
Coalition milk boards, are known to have arr!
at a decision before the formality of a court
got under way. But at least the former, in keep?
with the time-encrusted formalities of bourge
ered up until all the palaver has been comp
Not so with our modern milking boards. —

_ That body blandly commiserates with the 4
culties of the harassed milk producer and th
less harassed consumer, and in the midst of
urbane commiseration, jacks up the price ano
three cents. This three cents comes out of
emptying pockets of the milk consumers.
_ much we know. i ekew ae eres ou! cS

Obviously the Milk Board “hearings” are st@
to facilitate taking milk producers and consw
alike “to the cleaners” in the best P. T. Bat
‘style. It would appear that a genuine Milk
is required to investigate whose cows the
Coalition milk board is-milking—and for whom

It is high time workers and farmers got
gether and put an end to this sucker game,
deprives children of milk—and makes monkey$
of adults. : by TAA aE

1