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A big day tor peace As We See It.

HIS Saturday, June 2, will be a big day for peace. For
T a second time Vancouver will compete with Toronto
in a unique contest—to enrol the greatest number of signa :
tures to a petition for a World Peace Pact. Let the war
propagandists of the daily press sneer. The battle for

by TOM McEWEN
peace is not a game, but a sacred obligation on the part

of all peace-loving peoples. UL

In the last contest of this kind, Vancouver beat Tor- HERE was a time not so long nit when, 2 anit pe reine tn aeee an ae capele er a see
nto three to one) It was a bio day for Vancouver with conversation on spme proposition or other, on of Anscomb’s “goof,” in order to get John Barley-
. Shad of over 11,000 Goad foe yeace. But it will have would hear the oft-repeated stock observation, Safe corn out of his system. ;
a en , § = = t as'the Bank of England.” Even in those halcyon ; The financial sharks who manipulate the bank- ©
to be bigger on June 2. Toronto is not likely to be caught days any student of capitalist economy could have ing and currency—and to them it doesn’t matter
napping a second time. The capacity of Vancouver to up pointed out that it wasn’t gold bars or paper cur- a hoot in hell whether the amount of folding money _
its total of May is not dependent upon the desire of Van-  rency which made the Bank of England ‘safe, and gold correspond or not (they go on and off the
couverites for peace ; that is well established in the affirma- but rather the confidence of masses'of people in gold standard to suit their own capacious pockets

tive. The job is to get a growing number of peace workers
on the streets with petition forms in order to provide Van-
couverites with the opportunity to sign on the dotted line

for peace.

Thousands of citizens of Vancouver and other BC,
cities have already signed the petition, but the majority—

the normal function of that or any other bank,

A study of the periodic decline of that mass
confidence between World Wars One and Two will
reveal a staggering number of bank failures, where
thousands of depositors got property taken to the
cleaners, together with numerous bank mergers to
head off financial collapse. In Canada the 26-year
period between 1913-39 saw ithe failure of almost

and interests)—find war and the production of war
material much more profitable than those numerou
things we associate with peace. Ree
Hence a dollar-dominateq nation, assumed to
be at peace, goes into an unprecedented expansion ©
for “defense” (read war); and new billions of paper
dollars are tossed into the production of :non-prp-
ductive, destructive equipment. That portion of
the national economy left to the Job of producing

and who will deny that the Majority, of SHIZERS: sincerely two-thirds of Canada’s banking institutions, or their 456 values, food, clothing, homes and other civilized
want peace ?—have still to affirm their desire by signing the merging into the ‘powerful control of the “Big. services, is knocked clean off balance by this paral-
petition. All that is required is for peace petitioners to give _ Four” banks: Montreal, Royal, Commerce and Nova “ j9}, inflated “defense” economy.
them the opportunity. The pledge of the Second Canadian Scotia. The government printing presses grind out new.
Peace Congress, made by Dr. James Endicott was to “give

every Canadian an opportunity to sign for peace”.
most favorable estimate, it can be said that peace workers,
despite all the good work done, have not as yet reached
one third of the people of B.C. or in this great city, who

are ready and willing to sign fOr peace.

The Pacific Tribune appeals to all its readers and sup-
porters, as well as to peace workers everywhere, to turn
out on the streets of our cities and towns.on June 2, and
roll up a total for a world peace pact, in such numbers as
will put Canadians in the front ranks of the world’s people
as fighters for peace. And, important in this contest, let’
Vancouver maintain its lead over Toronto’ as a city dedi-
cated to peace. Together the people of these two cities
should be able to give the warmongers and their Charley

McCarthys a staggering wallop.

Make June 2 a big day for peace in Vancouver by
g g ) )

doubling all previous turnouts of petitioners.

Victims of war policy.

RAGEDY struck at a young Canadian soldier and_ his
wife in Vancouver this week, by a fire which wiped
out their humble “home” and took the lives of their two
children, three year-old Frankie McKerry, and his eighteen-

month old sister Linda.

Already the “expert investigators” have arrived at their
superficial conclusion that an improperly assembled oil
stove was the cause of the fire—the implication being that
Sapper M. F. McKerry and his wife are primarily respon-

sible for the tragedy.

Thus the period saw. one cardinal: “principle” of billions of currency. to facilitate the profit tabula-

“our way of life” attain full bloom, the emergence
of Carfada into a top-level imperialist power with
finance capital, which in turn dominates industrial
capital, concentrated into the hands of an ever-
narrowing financial oligarchy. An oligarchy which
holds the power of life and death over governments,
and ‘peoples in the capitalist world!

All this is by way of an introduction to a burn-
ing present day manifestation of “our way of life’—
inflation. What is it, some of our readers ask?
How does it come about? Who is responsible?

Because of inflation Canadian wage earners
and those in the low!bracket salary categories, must

eat less, wear less, use less, have less of all those -

things which constitute a recognized Canadian stan-
dard of life. : ~

Today the average Canadian housewife can verify
the fact that it takes two dollars to buy what one
would purchase in 1939. That is a modest calcula-
tion. Others will readily verify from bitter. experi-
ence that Canada’s “peacetime” dollar of today is
even a poor facsimile of the domestic dollar of the
war years of 1940-45. Skyrocketting prices are so
prevalent in every sphere of economic service that

it is unnecessary to belabor the point here. The

problem is what is this inflation and what can the
people do about it? — :

e : : De > athe ‘

Webster’s Twentieth Century Dictionary de
scribes inflation as “to blow into, to inflate’ and
“undue expansion’ or an over-issue of paper cur-
rency.” Finance Minister Douglas Abbott must
have accepted Webster's first simple illustration be-
cause the essence of the ministerial “advice” given
to Canadian wage earners recently, was to work
longer each day for the same or less wages, eat
less, wear less, want less, and presto, the Abbott-
invented “dragon of inflation” would be slain. Much
like Alcoholics Anonymous suggesting to its latest

tions of our “defense” program, a currency far in
excess of the actual peace-time productive needs |
and desires of the people. An immediate con-_
sequence~-of this stupid, lopsided arrangement is
the skyrocketting of domestic prices to assure the
producer of bread, shoes, homes, fridges or what, —
that his profits will come somewhere close to those —
of the big corporate “pay-trioteer,” who deals ex-
clusively in death-dealing equipment and explosives.
Inflation! Who doesn’t remember the middle —
and late thirties when one needed a sizeable club
bag to pack away the exchange 'ot Hitler Reich- -
marks for one modest Canadian’: dollar? A one
million Reichmark note was only one of the lesser
token “premiums” in a 25-cent packet of smokes.
And who doesn’t remember that “guns before butter”
was the highest expression of Hitlerite patriotism?
And who doesn’t know,. with the possible eX- —
ception of Finance Minister Abbott, what happens |
when a government inflates the balloon of “defense”
financing with several billion dollars in excess of

_ the capacity (and the opportunity) of a nation to

produce useful civilized goods and services. Some-
thing goes “boom” sooner or later—and in the bang —
of inflation it is the well-being, security and peace
of the common people that goes up in smoke.
Ignoring quack doctor Abbott’s “cure” for in-
flation, what can the common people do about it?

’ Going after wage and salary increases to meet its
consequent evils is very important, But the most
immediate thing everybody can do about it at this —
moment is to sign the peace petition for a World

‘ Peace Pact sponsored by the Canadian Peace Gon-
gress. That is one of the first, and best, ways 10
let the “defense” wind out of the inflation bag, bY

' signing for peace, and insisting that the govern

ment gear its economy to butter instead of guns:
Exchange values of useful commodities would

then return to their normal level—as normal 25 —

things can be under capitalism. 1

There are some hard facts which speak much louder :

ere ee er No wonder the bosses don’t like them

_ The McKerrys’ by necessity rather than choice, lived
in a slum, in the centre of a slum area; in a small back-lot : : >
RONTO’S top political muck-raking journal, Sat- in recent weeks in British Columbia:, The Compas*,
urday Night, took time out in a recent issue to issued by LPP clubs in the fishing industry, and

~ shack surrounded on all sides by slums, with a two-foot.
back alley-way as the only exit from what is (or was)

; ‘ do a “feature” article on workers’ shop papers. The The Beacon, issued by the LPP Ship and ‘Steel clubs.

main target of attack On this occasion was the

a veritable slum crematorium. —
On the same day as- this Canadian soldier ‘and his Workers’ Voice, # shop paper produced and circu- We can anticipate, as these additions to th®

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Published Weekly at Room 6 - 426 Main Street, Vancouver, B.C. ~
By THE TRIBUNE PUBLISHING COMPANY LTD.
4 Telephone MA, 5288 ;
: - Tom McEwen .. :

: - Subscription Rates: 1 Year, $2.50; 6 Months, $1.35. ,
Printed by Union Printers Ltd., 650 Howe Street, Vancouver, B.C.

of slum “victims, D'Arcy Leonard, vice-president of the Toronto, Caen tee soeeenes eet eee
“this business of shop papers.” Strangely enough, | T4NKs of labor journalism, confident that the strengt?
Ottawa’s “guns before butter” policies, “private’ housing Workers’ Voice, it just didn’t like the idea of shop
in profits for the big monopolies should be satisfied
a Pete rie Be tang ; : ty ‘ * ae : Aiea ray ater
_ by Ottawa in order to provide mote and more material Saturday Night is not alone in this splenetic eo sella asnen Bee eh wert oa
how were little Frankie and Linda to know that guns bee took an 8-inch single column side-swipe at Timber-r-r, | ingrad University, in,a lecture on recent —
If blame is to be apportioned for the cruel death of blurb was to the effect that the lumber and sawmill
Nictoma, and-at Wancouyer, City “Hall, for insisting: ther 28apts., msten4 of insisting on. greater labon unity article on the life and work of Pushy.
— = : fae ee shop papers make sections of the kept press run todical. ‘ “y
Mme gl Hil ATG all time high, the working class as such) regardless ; ORG
graphy of Pushkin. It was discovered, —
— A no intention of becoming a class of cowed and inti-.
: The shop paper is an instrument of rank-and-file é ourer. :
of the average worker’s worries; for him the shop
and leader, whom Karl Marx great}
y vis ‘ ‘
Authorized as secund class mali, Pos Dffice Dept., Ottawa

wife saw their two little children added to the“long total lated by the workers in the big Massey Harris plant, fighting ranks of the labor press advance the caus’
“ a : : a them also come under the ban of yellow-pres®
Canada Permanent Mortgage Company (there is something pia ‘4
a : PUES cones Ahr m D 1“ ist. trick”, ¢ disapproval. Meantime we welcome them to th®
prophetically ‘sinister in the words “Permanent Mortgage’), oP ei ll ta Br ng ag gly Neecoor a Phin Sg h
stated that with a genral increase in interest rates and a neither in or between the lines had Saturday Night hey will generate will be on the side of progres®
“tightening” of the money market in conformity’ with anything to say about the current content of democracy and peace. a
SPC eRe papers! According to Saturday Night, the workers : rr ale
Sere will be curtailed”, : 3 ; } at Massey Harris or elsewhere who pile up millions Fs hig ; i yrs
_ Leonard is only repeating what is already all too ob- L k th Ch rt ts a1
vious, that the pressing need for adequate and modernized with the propaganda pablum provided by the com- INK WI : a \ IS
housing, as well as other peace-time needs, is being shelved ™ercial press. bh EE eh ate : 2
for the rapacious ‘needs of war in the making—to provide wail against diminutive but hard-hiting shop papers. ” was brought to light the other day —
greater profits for the armament merchants of death. But A few days ago the Alberni West Coast Advocate’ | by Professor Mikhail Alexeyev, of Len-
nN ein i ay ws organ of LPP workers in the lumber and sawmill work on istor iteratur nd |
o much more important .than. good- homes: industry. The burden of the West. Coast Advocate’s linguistics ie bastory of ce ah
_ these two little tots, it must be laid at the proper door; Workers should accept the first wage increase offered re aes . eg
at the door of every parliament building from Ottawa to by the lumber barons and their social democratic a rs aeyey mneniae Gn ee
eatage Us . << % . 2 i and action to get more, as u ' -r-¥, -kin, Russia’s % . i phen
_ Canadians live in slum fire traps at the price of bigger , ° a ‘ eal e ine ra : 1848 if Th Sess. Pe Fase ak er-
and better guns. | 8 ; Ras It can be taken for granted that when such | :_. a Pty PE URE ES) eee
such a fever these papers are doing a good job — ® 1. aioe, oa a
: bes for the workers. With profits and prices at an z The’ article WS unsigned and had’
— mT not hitherto appeared in any biblio-
nD AD) Fl) fe A Y ilo of the whims of the bosses, their kept, press, or
is) i img | Mi # their “safe and sane” trade union bureaucrats, have said the Professor, in the Soviet Union, —
aS : _midated Oliver Twists, hesitant to ask for more! By our ofthe TERSGRORIES: of The Lab-
unity, understanding and decision. As such, the , : BY rate a a
boss press doesn’t like it. But that is the least Its authorship had been established
as that of Ernest Jones, Chartist Write!
paper helps to obtain the unity needed to get results, .
‘Two new and welcome additions to the increasing esteemed, :

number of shop papers have made their appearance

“ee”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JUNE 1, 1951 — PAGE

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