LW AL AA

Ol’ Bill

~ Short Jabs

Aa

WHEN I read in the Vancouver
Sun Jack Scott’s retort (I
think that is the right word), to
Tom McEwen’s comment of a
recent column of his dealing with
the freedom of
the press, I was
very surprised
to note that
Scott, notwith-
standing his 15
years of exper-
ience, is still
numbered
among that na-
ive coterie of
professiona 1
newspaper men fF
who talk about Ff
“objective writing.”

According to his innocent mind
it is “a carding! sin in daily news-
Paper reporting” for editorial
opinion to get mixed up with
“news” and that such a thing is
frowned upon in the capitalist
press—it only happens, if I un-
derstand him rightly, in Com-
munist papers. \

The best way to answer thate
nonsensical contention is to quote
the pages of the paper in which
Scott's column appears (Vancou-
ver Sun, July 7). On the front
page is a news item from Berlin,
part of which reads: “The Rus-—
sianms today were carrying out
harassing tactics apparently de-
signed to hamper efforts of the
Western Alligés ..., American
sources said the Soviet authorities
had given them verbal warnings

«OR three long bitter months
the strike of the Canadian .
Seamen's Union has raged in the
ports of the Great Lakes. Basical*
ly the issue is not so much wages
and working conditions, although

these are in-
4 NWolved.” “Ech e
prime issue be-

law”

force to ship owners and their
_ hirelings as it does to striking
“trade unionists, =~
In this epic struggle the CSU
is confronted with the full power
~of the state. Here is the lineup.
A powerful segment of big busi-
. hess, including Canada Steam-
ship Lines and Misener’s Sarnia
and Colonial Company, disregard-
ing the laws of the country, and
under the pretext of “fighting
communism”, are seeking to
smash the CSU on the Great
Lakes, and replace it with a com-
pany-inspired and subsidized out-

- fit known as the “Canadian Lake

_Seamen’s Union”, headed by the”
notorious renegade and fink, J. A.
“Pat” Sullivan. . :

‘inanced’ by ‘these powerful ©

and

-tences and fines,

... U.S. Air Force officers infer-
entially charged the Russians
with interfering with the radio
Beam a”

That is on page 1. On the inside
is a piece of “objective writing”
the gist of which is “on the basis
of regular reports from behind
the Iron Curtain . .. a Commun-
ist wave of terror will strike the

Czechs within a month and the |

Red Premier Gottwald will be
ousted by Moscow ... Dr, Nemec
predicted the assassination of
Marshal Tito ...” All under the
“objective” head, “Blood Bath
Forecast for Czech Reds”

On another page is half a col-
umn of “objective news” based on
rumors current “in Washington
—all tripe about the alleged situ-
ation in the Balkans and a “news”

_ Survey from the BUP about the

rise and fall of communism.

Where the news is innocuous
and there is no need to slant it,
it is played up in an objective
way. The only item in this issue
of the paper that was truly “ob-
jective” was a cut of a notice on
a butcher’s window which read,
“Gone fishing till beef prices
come ,down.”’

Scott and other journalist
lambs may not know of the clas-
sic exchange between Hearst and
a reporter he sent to Havana a
few weeks before the outbreak of
the Spanish-American war. The re-
porter’s assignment called for him
to write up everything about the
war. In his first telegram he said,

by Drew's provinciale police and

swarms of RCMP—this mongrel
coliection of finks, gunmen, scabs,
dope addicts, ex-jail birds, stool
pigeons, gangsters and other riff-
raif which comprise the “Canad-
ian Lake Seamens Union”, have
spread a veritable reign of terror
in the ports of the Great Lakes
against the CSU. Every method
of organized and armed violence,
including the use of high-pressure
live steam shot through hoses,
have been used by the shipowners
their Sullivan-led storm
troopers.

The minister of transport has
allowed shipping on the Great
Lakes to sail undermanned, or
manned by totally inexperienced
hooligan elements, thus endanger-
ing public safety and cargo trans-
port, and in violation. of statutory
regulations.

-When this organized violence
has failed to intimidate the CSU,
the courts have “taken up the
slack”. Literally scores of CSU

members, arrested for minor law

infractions, are given vicious sen-
while Sullivan
hoodlum elements who come be-
fore the courts, armed with Ger-
man lugers and other lethal weap-
ens, are commiseratingly dealt
with. : ;

This biased attitude of the
courts is causing grave concern
in many Ontario centers, since it
more than smacks of kangaroo
“justice”, An armed hoodlum do-

shipowners; — aided and abetted ing a union-smashing job for

Tom McEwen ....... racks,
Subscription Rates: 1 Year, $2.50; 6 Months, $1.35.
ed by Union Printers Ltd.. 650 Howe Street, Vancouver, B.C.

‘print

Mm
i

om
ea

Aig
) kK

Hi
WENe

Manin

I

PL) Ny
CL iis

UMM vo....scattlirecatlinnina

Published Weekly at 650 Howe Street
By THE TRIBUNE PUBLISHING COMPANY LTD.
Telephones: Editorial, MA. 5857; Business, MA. 5288

wee eee .

Editor

~

“I can’t find any war here.”
Hearst wired back, “You write
the stories, I'll make the war.”
It’s true, and very “objective.”
The twisting and distorting of
“objective” news writing stems
not only from what is written
but from what is kept out. My old
friend G.B.S, exposed this kind
of thing once in a story he told
in regard to just such methods.
He told his audience that in a
Scottish regiment that had been
in’ India for four years, 50 per-
cent of the teetotalers died and
the other 50 percent were invalid-
ed home. That was quite a blow
to the teetotalers until he let
them into the secret—there were
two of them in the regiment. One
was killed in a brush with a tiger
and the other was so badly maul-
ed trying to save him that he had
to be shipped back to Scotland
on a stretcher. News is made that
way, too.
The Sun: published Dewey’s ac-
ceptance speech when he. was

_hominated as Republican -candid-

ate but the Sun never told its

readers that the speech was writ-_

ten by John Foster Dulles, Hit-
ler’s representative in the U.S.
right up to Pearl Harbor. But it
is “objective” writing.

_ Scott doesn't Ike communist
writers. I would. recommend. him
to read, Notes from the Gallows
by Julius Fuchic, one-time editor
of the Czech communist paper
Rude Pravo, murdered by the
Nazis.

Canada Steamship Lines is treat-
ed before the courts as a man
pursuing his “inalienable right to
work’, while a CSU member who
fights for the preservation of his
union is read long homilies on
‘law and order” as an introduc-
tion to a stiff jail sentence or fine. '
Heading all the forces ranged
on the side of the shipowners’
Sullivan gangster “union”, RCMP
and provincials, and to a great
extent the courts, is Labor Min-
ister Humphrey Mitchell. i

Instead of compeiling the ship-
owners to comply with the laws
of the land—and the recommen:
dations of his own appointed con-
ciliation commissions (as other
shipowners have done, to their |
credit, and to the honor of the
CSU), Mitchell rhakes the start-

ling discovery that he “cannot in-°

terfere” as the CSU strike is “a
jurisdictional dispute.”

Leaders and union members of
the Trades and Labor Congress of
Canada and the Canadian Con-
sress of Labor have condemned
this lawless union-smashing by a
segment of the powerful Shipping
Federation, and have demanded
that Mitchell do the job for which
the people of Canada pay him a
fat salary. :

The CSU needs three things to

‘win this fight, which is as much

your fight as theirs. It needs fin-
ancial support to meet mounting
legal costs and keep a far-flung -
picket line solid; popular pres-
sure to enforce governmental re-
sponsibility, and to compel the
bumbling Mitchell into a sense of
decency and ministerial respon-
sibility. And finally, it needs help
in spreading the truth of the real
issue that is being fought out on
the Great Lakes, and that is:
whether free trade unionism is to

prevail .in .Canada, -or .a .ship-

owner-sponsored “labor front” as

the forerunner of industrial slav-

ery. This is the issue. There are
no alternatives,

Strengthening the CCF

N O progressive—in this province or nationally—can afford
to overlook the resolution on the Marshall Plan passed
by the thirteenth annual Manitoba convention of the CCF.
Full text of the resolution reads: “This convention is
strongly in support of an aid program for reconstruction
of Europe, but in our opinion the American program of aid
to Europe is framed to provide capitalists with markets
rather than to help the people of Europe and is designed to
support reactionary governments against development of
socialism by supplying those governments with arm's to be
used against the people and is thus increasing the possibility
of war.

“This convention. declares itself opposed to any policy
that tends to strengthen forces. of capitalism and declares
itself in favor of an international aid program under the
United Nations which respects the sovereignty of all nations
concerned and gives freedom of political choice to all peoples
in receipt of such aid.” -

The resolution reflects the growing alarm with which
Socialist-minded people view the CCF national leadership’s
embracing of the Marshall Plan, principal imperialist weapon
against socialism and against peace and freedom.

Here is an answer to those whose revulsion at many
aspects of the Coldwell - Millard policies has prevented them
from joining in the fight to convince the majority of Can-
adians to unite at the polls for the election of a CCF gov-
ernment. Here is encouragement to all those honest CCF’ers
who have become discouraged in the fight for policies of
unity and progress. te

For this is the voice of the great majority of CCF mem-
bers and followers—people who support the CCF because
they want a break with the old*line party regime of anti-
Soviet, warmongering, slashing living standards and raiding
civil rights. f

And it must be recognized that the biggest obstacle to

the election of a CCF government is the Coldwell group’s
adoption of the Marshall-St. Laurent policy of tearing up the
United Nations to build a dollar-dominated war bloc in
which Canadian independence and living standards would
go down the drain. Accept the enemly’s foreign policy and
you can’t fight him. Consequently a key part of the fight
for CCF electoral victory is the fight to overcome such
policies in the CCF and the whole labor and progressive
movement. ;
' Congratulations to those CCF’ers who stood fast in
the Manitoba convention for an honest and correct statement.
The have strengthened their party and. strengthened the
Canadian people.

e t “ <.t ‘ 4 eae
“We're celebrating Christmas now, Master Clarence.
= . * G . .
Your father just won a damage suit against the union.”

Looking backward

Advocate, July 15, 1938)
country by caravan because