he IWA District confer-
is scheduled for Sept.
Woodworkers, realiz-
at they are faced with
problems, are wonder-
ihether the coming con-
ce will be a repeat of
Sual pattern — many
and few actions. They
Caught on to the idea
alot of smoke does not
arily mean a big fire,
lat smoke can serve as
en for leaders who de-
the membership.
re is no better illustra-
bf this than last year’s
ations. They showed
luculated role of the
4€rship willing to agree to
inimum settlement on the
ln’s demands. This was
itted by the leadership.
n, in recommending ac-
tance of the Perry pro-
S, they said: ‘“The mem-
 » Of the Policy Committee
fed that the proposed
,©ment terms are not as
@S they should be under
Circumstances.”
that was the case, why
the leadership recom-
que acceptance? Were con-
48S unfavorable for the
to fight for more? Any-
ho wishes to review the
Od when _ negotiations
in progress will have to
that there was never
er time to win the

union’s demands.

In fact, at that time the
“lumber buccangers”’ (so
aptly christened ,by The Bar-
ker, paper of Local, 1-217)
were arrogantly boasting of
record profits. MacMillan-
Bloedel & Powell River’s
Jan.-Mar 1962 profit was
$8.7 million, compared to
$5.5 million during the same
period in 1961 (a rise of
57%); the second _ largest
coast lumber company,
Crown-Zellerbach, showed a
net gain of 23% when they
increased their profit for the

same period to $2.4 million

from $1.9 million.

It is obvious, therefore,
that the problem lies not in
unfavorable conditions, but
in the unwillingness of the
leadership to initiate or lead
a fight to win just demands.

Last year’s negotiations
solved nothing. Instead of
well-being, woodworkers suf-
fer from the ill effects of in-
creased profits. Lay-offs,
speed-up and a lower stand-
ard of living for the employ-
ed, and a desperate situation
for the unemployed—that is
the present state of affairs
in the industry.

To claim as was done dur-
ing negotiations that ‘the
membership is not prepared
to fight for their interests,”
does not stand up to examina-

tion. Everyone will recall that
the membership was subject:
ed to many forms of pressure
to accept the present con-
tract, and still it voted by
over 40% for rejection of the
leadership - proposed  settle-
ment.

There were also sectional
struggles in the industry —
struggles. which confirmed
the membership’s prepared-
ness to stand up and fight
against actions by employers
engaged in chiseling on the

By Charles Caron

contract. The positions taken
by the loggers at Hillcrest and
the boom crews at Somass, il-
lustrate this fact.

Woodworkers are fed up
with policies of capitulation
to the employers. They see in
those policies not only a
failure to deal with present
problems, but an omen of the
difficulties that would be en-
countered in an unfavorable
period and the indications
are that we are entering such
‘a period.

There can be no doubt that
a U.S. cutback of Canadian
lumber imports, and the pos-
sible entry of Britian into the
European Common Market
would have a very negative
effect on the lumber produc-
tion of this province.

These factors, _combined

AUL BJARNASON

“ Sunday, August 26,
1962; the noted explorer
Cientist Vilhjalmur Stef-

€w Hampshire, where
‘me years he had been
al consultant at Dart-
College, and where
Ch and unique: library
€posed.
days before, he had
&d a stroke from which
Ued to recover and the
fame quietly and peace-
Y to a great man. He had
Nin full possession of all
Culties, and, as he had
\ left to do and seemed
ve the energy to accom-
1b his untimely death is
m. seedy that in years to
ne will be felt even more
_y than at this moment.
ef, as he familiarly came
re Called, was ag person
from all the ordinary

Orn of Icelandic parents at
8, Man. on Nov. 3, 1879,
Taised on a small farm
th Dakota, his advan-
Or schooling and de-
ment were very few.
“so, when in his teens,
©ut a sou in his jeans,
Pped out to get him-
8 education at the only
Available at the time,
Soon ran afoul of some
Ts of the faculty, un-
Whose dominion he was
a Student, and was

n passed away at Han

_ About
he author...

Paul Bjarnason, who is
Sted British Columbia
Cr and poet was a
~-Ong friend of Vilh-
fur Stefansson. He is
. fly recognized as
i an authority on the
““Ndic language, and
Just published _ his
book of poetry in

lish language

Stefansson left

eventually expelled for alleg-
ed insubordination—of spirit
rather than action.

Being a brilliant scholar,
he often skipped classes and
also composed unorthodox
rhymes about certain methods
used at the university; and
though he never wished to
publish the details relating to
his expuulsion, because of his
sympathy with all people,
that story will some time
come out in its true light, as

Yilhjalmur Stefansson

analogous incidents in due
time have appeared about the
early years of other great
men through the centuries.
Suffice it to say here that
shortly afterwards, when he
had been proposed for the
office of Minister of Educa-
tion for his state and found
to be disqualified because of
his youth, he had no diffi-
culty in enrolling as a student
at Iowa University and later
at Harvard, where he major-
ed in anthropology and be:
came a member of the

the world a better

faculty.
e

But another incident cat-
pulted him into another, more
active, field — that of ex-}
ploration — and, again, of
the unorthodox kind. .

As with methods of edu-
cation, he had his own priv-
ate ideas about the North
which he wished to verify
and make known to _ the
world, and he did _ this
throughout the rest of his ac-
tion-packed career. | ¢

Eventually, he became an
accepted authority on the
North and all his bold and
early predictions have come
true. All the tremendous re-
sources he foresaw have
come to light and the shorter
and more feasible routes be-
tween points in the northern
hemisphere, over and under
the Pole, which he advocated
forty years ago, are now
commonplace. :

And that is not all.

Through his keen observa-
tion and deep reasoning he
discovered long ago that our
way of life in recent timcs
has brought on numerous
physical diseases that threat-
en our extinction, unless we
mend our ways and begin to

live more nearly in conson-_

ance with Nature and her
inexorable laws.
Politically, he never be-

came a fanatic or crusader;
but his arguments and ad-
vice, if heeded, could give us
a new _ dispensation
would make for a much bet-
ter world than confronts us
now. 2
e

He published some 27 large
volumes of scientific deduc-
‘tions and facts, all of whicn
are packed with useful knowl-
edge, and his life philosophy,
recorded. in the great work
“I Believe” (published
1922), comprising the views
_ of 22 of the world’s supposed-
ly deepest thinkers of the

day, is a revelation that hu-_

with the continued introduc-
tion of mechanization, can re-
sult in widespread unemploy-
ment in the industry.

Tommy Douglas, leader of
the New Democratic Party,
called, during the last federal

election, for a consumers’
bill of rights. *
Claude Jodoin, president

of the Canadian Labor Con-
gress, called, in his Labor Day
message, for labor to ‘win
greater security now.”

These things will not be
achieved by holding hands
with the boss under the table,
but through militant struggle.

Bold, imaginative leader-
ship can provide an answer
to the problems facing the
woodworkers. The crisis,
which is in the making in the
industry, is not one of the
workers being unable to pro-
duce, but one of monopolies
following cold war policies?

There are markets for
Canadian lumber.

Since the second world war,
40 new states have emerged
from their former status cf
colonies. These countries are
in the process of developing
their economies and certainly

could use Canadian lumber
There are also the socialist

coutries. They are prepared
to trade with us on the basis
o f mutually advantageous
agreements.

A must begin facing up to problems |

The question is often asked
— are such trade relations
realizable? The answer, of
course, is yes.

However, the starting point
has to be the adoption of
policies independent from the
operators and their political
parties. Labor, with its own
organized strength in the
unions and its own political
party, (NDP) can provide an
alternative to the present
policie of crisis, austerity and
drift towards war, policies
which are followed by the
monopolies and their govern-
ments.

Consistent with such a
role, labor must demand that
Canada withdraw from war
alliances like NATO, NORAD
etc. and oppose Britian’s en-
try into thee ECM, which
could. only serve to bolster
NATO economically.

The IWA will be comfort-
ed with many problems in
the period ahead; the answers
to those problems will’ be pro-
vided to the extent that a cor-
rect stand is taken on the
overriding issues outlined in
this space.

A grave responsibility rests
with this union, and not only
to its members. Because of
the size of the industry, its,
responsibility extends to the
whole progressive movement
of this country.

that ©

Wii ss

manity will have to heed and
profit by, if there is to be
any tolerable future for the
human family.

Even his smallest book, ‘‘The
Standardization of Error,”
published in 1927, is gradu-
ally becoming a sort of text-
book and guide for science—
a: midget symbol of “the uni-
versity of un-learning” that
he was pleading for at that
period.

In his early years, Stefansson
wrote poetry of a high order
and undoubtedly could have
become one of America’s
greatest poets had the muse
not been diverted by more
immediate and pressing

place

claims and eventualities.
And because he chose, as
one of his last acts, to write
a preface to my latest book,
“More Echoes,’ I wish to
append herewith one of his
own poems to show, not only
his gift as a poet, but also his
deep and prophetic mind. His
“Philosophy at Twenty” is a
premature, but true, story of
his nature and his life, and
a useful lesson for all to
learn.
‘ A great mind has passed
away, but its works are still
with us and will ever be.
The great can never depart
and leave the world as it
was.

To wear a hero’s crown

The gold of a fair renown

In the life of any man.

Falls not to me or you.

PHILOSOPHY AT TWENTY

A feeling comes to my heart tonight
That has filled since the world began
The centuries, and been the light

Of the life of the common man.

For love is the law, the master force
That makes the world akin;

That throws a glow over all without
And mellows the soul within.

‘Tis glorious on a world-wide stage
That shines with the gems of mighty deeds,

But every prize the earth holds out

Or has held since the world began,

I’d renounce and live for a woman’s love
The life of a common man.

For what care I that the world go wild
At the whisper of my name?

The love of the woman my song has sung
-Is not priced in terms of fame. -

“There is no boon this earth holds out,
Or has held since the world began,

That can fill the place of a woman’s love

But if the prize of a woman’s love

Let's hide the blight of a ruined life.

‘In/a work that is strong and true.

For those who have built earth’s fairest shrines
And have wrought since the world began,

Are those denied a woman’s love

And the life of a common man.

*

¢ V. STEFANSSON (1899)

Sept. 14, 1962\—PA

CIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 7