WILL: GENEVA LEAD TO 4 Fig em bbe Vol. 18 No. 20 Pltone MUtual 5-5288 Authorised as second class mail by the Post Office Department, Ottawa 10c VANCOUVER, B.C. FRIDAY, MAY 15, 1959 O'Neal takes a crack at Bonner’s figures Pat O’Neal, secretary of the B.C. Federation of Labor, took a verbal slap at statistics presented by Attorney-General Robert Bonner to a luncheon of the First B.C. Industrial and Trade Conference at UBC on Bonner, said O’Neal, had given the impression that “wages were rising rapidly and ' keeping ahead of prices. The total average wage in- erease in Canada last year was i.9 percent, and the cost of living rose 2.8 percent, said O'Neal. ' “Not only has labor failed to keep pace with the cost of living, but it has completely failed to get any return on the advance of technology and automation” he said. In many industries, after a temporary slump, plants have returned to full production ‘and are setting new records. _ But this is being done with less workers than before, due to automation and speedup. O’Neal said labor would welcome an impartial probe of the relationship between prices and wage increases because workers are unjustly accused of forcing prices up. “When bakery workers in Vancouver won a wage hike N82 that amounted to five-eighths _of a cent a loaf, the bakeries Monday this week. used it as an excuse to raise the price of bread two cents a loaf.” After Ottawa brought down its latest budget, the price of liquor in B.C. went up more than the federal tax — “and you can’t blame that on labor,” said O’Neal. Bonner didn’t have an an- swer to that barb. Canadians attend world peace meeting Several Canadians are at- tending the 10th anniversary meeting of the World Council of Peace in Stockholm, They include Dr. James G. Endicott, chairman of the Canadian Peace Congress and member of the World Peace Council; Mrs. Mabel Hanway, of Re- gina, chairman of the Saskat- chewan Peace Council; Wil- liam Irvine, of Edmonton, for many years a United Farmers and CCF member of parlia- ment, who is also a member of the World Peace Council. COLD WAR? Will the foreign ministers’ meetings in Geneva lead to a thaw in the cold war? Not if the cold war warriors have their way—but there are indications that pressure from the peoples of the world will force agree- ment on some issues and open the door for a Summit meeting later this summer. It is an illusion to think that because the Western powers have gone to the conference table at Geneva, the danger of war has been averted. But the people of the world—whose unseen presence will be felt at Geneva —could tip the scales against war. (See political analysis on Page 3). Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, speaking at Kiev as the Geneva conference got under way this week, expressed optimism and said his gov- ernment had prepared everything so that Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko could “achieve positive results.” If a Summit follows, said Khrushchev, ten- sions will be further relaxed, although “no solutions will be conference found in a day.” x Se xt What a relaxation of ten- sions and an end to the arms race could mean for Canadians was pointed out this week in a statement issued by the Can- adian Peace Congress. Ottawa is planning to spend “for defense” this year $1,705,- 800,000. That’s $100 apiece for every man, woman and_child in Canada. Two events stirred the pub- lic mind recently; the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, and the closing down of Avro Arrow. Both of these projects cost about the same amount of money—$450 millions. One was a peace project; one was for war. “Nothing could better illus- trate the choice before us than this contrast between the peaceful prosperity of the great Seaway and the bankrupt junk heap of the armaments pro- gram,” said the Peace Congress statement. And the Financial Post warned editorally: ‘War is the inescapable end result of pol- icies now being pursued.” Which will we have—Sea- ways, dams, irrigation, housing and increased welfare for all, or burned out junk heaps which used to be factories and cities? Outcome of the East-West foreign ministers’ conference at Geneva depends not only on those diplomats sitting around the table, but on the people of the world, whose feeling and actions forced the reluctant West to a meeting in the first place.