1 Provincial communities have host of plans to celebrate centennial VICTORIA, B.C. __ Plans for celebrating British Columbia’s 100th anniversary next year, ranging from lavish productions to simple entertainment, are rapidly being approved by the B.C. Centennial Committee. Reporting on the plans o applications for the 40-cent per Man L. J. Wallace disclosed that 20 per cent of local cen- tennial committees represent- Action faces 32 foundries Some 32 city foundries Which have flouted an order to install smoke reduction equipment may face prosecu- tion under Vancouver’s smoke bylaw unless they take action to eliminate smoke pollution before July 1. When the anti-smoke bylaw Was passed last year the firms Were granted until January: 1, 957 to comply with regula- tions, Last January the dead- me was extended another six Months, but few foundries have made an effort to install the necessary equipment. Foundry operators claim it Would cost them between $24,- 000 and $49,000 per plant to _€nd the smog menace, and say this’is beyond their financial ~ Means. One big foundry is putting in water spray equip- Ment which may cut down Smoke density some 70 to 80 bercent. : The city’s board of adminis- ‘tation has recommended to city council that there be no further extension of time after July 1, ee f more than 20 additional local centennial committees whose capita provincial government grant have been approved, chair- ing 40 per cent of the prov- ince’s population have now had their plans approved. Greater Victoria Centennial Committee, planning to work with all the area’s many dif- ferent groups for a year-long pattern of sports, cultural, artistic. and other events, will receive a $47,273 grant. Up-Island, the small district of Cedar and surrounding area of Bright, part of Cranberry and North Oyster has ambi- tious plans including a pioneer banquet, hobby and crafts show, monthly dances, pres- entation of a three-act play by Yellow Point Drama Group, a picnic and a possible air show at Cassidy. Parksville plans a similar, pattern of activities. So does Ladysmith and area, with the added attracion of an oyster- shucking contest. Qualicum Beach will have a July carnival, including a swimming gala and water sports. Central Saanich, with 2,477 people and $990 to spend, will hold school contests, dedica- tion of a Centennial Park, sports, competitions, a parade pioneer-honoring banquet and a pageant in conjunction with the fall fair) of the North and South Saanich Farmers’ Insti- tute. Bear Creek’s 140 persons » LAKE COWICHAN DIRECTORY CANADA DAY GREETINGS from LAKE COWICHAN Fix-It Shop Ltd. a LARS FURNSETH, Prop. CANADA DAY GREETINGS FROM THE LAKE COWICHAN CONSUMER CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY ’ USE CO-OP PRODUCTS Insist on Co-op Label and “You Buy from : Yourself” OUR SLOGAN STOP and SHOP at your CO-OP! will have a sports day in May and a beach party and barbe- cue in August. Comox Valley Centennial Committee has $5,600 to spend since its area takes in 14,000 people in Courtenay, Cumber- land, Comox and 18 other dis- tricts. It will extend and promote Cumberland’s annual folk fes- tival and May 24 holiday cele. bration, and Courtenay’s July 1 celebration. Comox Harbor - will be used for water sports and yacht racing and Comox wharf for fireworks and an open air dance. Errington and Coombs both plan centennial activities fea- turing dancing, picnics, sports and pioneer-honoring _ ban- quets and ceremonies. For: Dawson Creek and*area, the celebrations will centre around expansion of the an- nual August agricultural ex- hibition at Dawson Creek and the annual hospital barbecue at Pouce Coupe as well as sports and cultural activities. Armstrong - Spallumcheen Centennial Committee will hold a big celebration in September centred around the three-day Interior Provincial Exhibition, extending it an- other day. Creston Valley’s 3,510 peo- ple plan celebrations from May 10-17, some of which will include the annual blossom festival, veterans’ day, an air pageant and Kootenay Night in the civic centre. New Den- ver will celebrate on the Vic- toria Day weekend. At Prince Rupert, which has 10,498 persons and $4,199 to spend, a two- or three-day celebration to be called the Prince Rupert Centennial Pot- latch will be staged. The his- tory of the district also will be published. Port Moody and its 2,713 per- sons plan a large-scale party involving a swimming pro- gram, drama and folk festi- vals, special days and sports and other events. Port Coquitlam, plans a ball, souvenirs to all its 1958 babies, good citizen awards and a four-day series of special events, mainly sports, in Aug- ust. Boswell and its 104 persons plans an ambitious program of water sports January 11 - 25, fishing derby in August, water sports August 21 and a dedica- tion day. Britannia Beach plans a sports day and Copper Queen celebration and ‘dance, and Canal Flats will hold a sports day and dance. o By LESLIE MORRIS During the summer of 1867 when John A. Macdonald was in Westminster negotiating the details of the British North America Act, a mile away, on Dean Street, Soho, Karl Marx was correcting the final proofs of the first volume of Capital. Our country was born as a national state on July 1, 1867, in London. On August 16, 1867 at 2 o’clock in the morning, Marx wrote to Frederick Eng- els, “So this volume is finish- ed.” Thus, the birth of the young- est capitalist country coincid- ed with the appearance of the science of the replacement of capitalism by socialism. ’ m es bos Canada came into being as a single state at the end of the American civil war, when the industrial north, victors over the slave-holding South, began the expansion which still con- tinues.. The threat of the an- nexation of Canada was very real, If Canada was to survive it was necessary that the scatter- ed provinces be brought - to- gether to form a single home market for her small indus- tries. First the eastern prov- inces (though not all of them) then the West, had to be unit- ed into one, Canadian state. Looking back it could be said that if Confederation had not. taken place the British colonies in North America would have been swallowed by the United States. x es xt At the time of Confedera- tion, about 3% million people lived in all of Canada. Four- fifths of them were on the farms; industries were ill-de- veloped. But not long after Confed- eration the ‘iindustrialization of Canada began. In 1871 manu- facturing employed 188,000, mostly in small workshops. ‘In 1955, the number had_ grown to 1,290,000. The working class has grown seven times in 86 years. But the gross value of in- dustrial products grew 88 times — from $222 million, to $19,469 million, in the same period. At Confederation there were thousands of small capitalists. Today a handful of monopo- lies, controlled, in the US., dominate industry. As Marx said, “One capitalist kills many.” The 1955 worker produced 12% times as many goods as the 1871 worker. The average wage of an industrial worker in 1871 was $218 a year, a miserable pittance. In 1955 it was $3,265, about $63 a week, or 15 times as big for produc- ing 12% times as much as the 1871 worker. Over the 90 years the abso- lute physical conditions of the workers have improved, but in comparison with the wealth they produce they are little better off than in 1871. June 28, 1957 — Labor has become giant since 1867 Creation of the modern in- * dustrial working class was “the most potent and important product of Confederation. Almost as soon as the ink was dry on Queen Victoria’s proclamation industrial work- ers were on strike — in Tor- onto in 1872 when 10,000 massed into Queen’s Park for the 9-hour day and the On- tario Workman was published wih quotations from Marx’s Capital. In the same year the Tory government of Sir John A. Macdonald legalized the trade unions and the long associa- tion of Tory-protected indus- tries with the working class vote began. (It is still felt in parts of Ontario). Following the American Ci- vil War the decline of Britain ~ and the ascendancy of the U.S. was set into motion, because the’ Civil War was the condi- tion for industrial supremacy of Northern capitalism over the vast American home mar- ket. xt x Canadian development under Confederation came late in the capitalist era. In 1917, when in the First World War Canada was speed- ing her industrial growth through war -contracts, the Russian Revolution took place, and Canada has not been the same since. When in 1931 that Statute of Westminster established the legal independence from the British Crown this country was in the throes of a dreadful economic crisis with over a million Canadians living on handouts. In the 43 years since 1914 this country has been at war for almost ten years — about one quarter of the time. Great Canadian fortunes and indus- tries were built, not for peace- ful pursuits, but on war con- tracts. t be _ It is not true, therefore, that Confederation has been peace our course since Confedera- tion has been peaceful. It has been stormy, in a turbulent world of the decline of the world capitalist system, and the rise of the new socialist order. The Canadian working class strong in organization, still has to weave the socialist idea into its thinking. Labor’s Com- ing of Age, through its as- ssumption of its rightful econ- omic ,and_ political heritage, is the*next great chapter of . Confederation. Let us say on this 90th birth- day of this lovely and fruitful land: Speed the day, when la- bor will assume its leadership of the nation, to pilot Canada into the full tide of its passage to peace and prosperity — to bring the great monopolies under public control, establish socialist | democracy, rivet down our national independ- ence — of which the Fathers of Confederation dreamed, but still: faintly. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE § cornices ane