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‘Canadians
proud of

tradition’

The 32nd convention of the

Amalgamated Association of
Street, Electric Railway and
Motor Coach Employees of Am-
erica opened in Hotel Vancouver
on Monday this week with close
to 800 delegates from every
major city in the United States
and Canada attending.
_ Stan Wilcox, president of Divi-
sion 101, Vancouver, chaired the
‘opening session, and _ business
agent Charles Stewart welcomed
the delegates.

“Just as the Americans have a
rich heritage of which we are all °
justly proud, so also are we Can-
adians proud of those. patriots
who helped set our country on
the road to Confederation and
independence,” said Stewart.

While the convention was in
session in the main hall, the. Wo-
men’s Auxiliary of the union
were holding sessions in one of.
the salons. One of the import-
ant resolutions discussed by the
women was aimed at curbing the
circulation of indecent comics
and films.

“Our 10,000-strong Women’s
Auxiliary have opposed the sale
ef indecent comics and other de-
moralizing and immoral litera-
ture for many years,” said presi-
dent Mrs. Anna Kelsey of Salt
Lake City. “It’s all tied up with
marijuana peddling to youngsters
and with juvenile delinquency. It
must be stamped out.”-

LPP gets
CBC free

radio time

The Labor-Progressive party
has been assigned four of the 38
CBC free-time political broad-
easts for the coming season,
- Nigel Morgan, LPP - provincial
leader, announced this week.

The series, which will include
‘spokesmen of all parties, will

September 28 and will. be
heard every Monday night from
10.15 to 10.30 p.m. immediately
after the regular CBC news
roundyp.

The LPP, which has been ex-
cluded :for several years, won
recognition after Morgan filed an
application pointing out the LPP
qualified for free radio time al-
lotted between elections by rea-
son of its having contested bet-
ter than half the 41 provincial
constituencies.

Periods were allotted by a
conference of provincial party
leaders with the officials of the
Canadian Broadcasting Corpora-
tion here, Social Credit being
given 13 broadcasts, CCF 8, Lib-
erals 7, Tories 6 and LPP 4.

Dates of the LPP broadcasts,
which will be carried on all prov-
incial stations, will be announced
later.

PAUL ROBESON

Miners ired

by ban on
Robeson

LONDON

“This action by the U.S. State
Department reveals that liberty
and freedom for the individual
‘as practiced in the United States
is far different to what they
preach abroad.”

This was Will Paynter’s scorn-
ful comment at Swansea, Wales,
this week when the South Wales
Miners executive committee, of
which he is president, learned
that the U.S. State Department
had refused to allow Paul Robe-
son to accept their invitation to
attend their Esiteddfod.

(Announcement that Robeson
had been invited to attend the
miners’ great annual musical
festival was made at the Peace
Arch last month when the world-
renowned American singer and
peace leader sang for and ad-
dressed the huge rally sponsor-
ed by the International Union
of Mine, Mill and Smelter Work-
ers.)

Premier W. A. C. Bennett sat with an expansive smile in the legislature
Tuesday this week as he listened to Lieutenant Governor Clarence Wallace reading @
Unlike the legislative session last spring when his minotl
Social Credit government sparred with the opposition parties for political advantage
never knowing when they would combine their forces to defeat him, he now has a col
And the program announced in the Speech from
Throne contained substantially the measures to which his first government was comm
ted and on which he campaigned so successfully after his

Speech from the Throne.

fortable majority in the House.

defeat on the “Rolston Formula”
for reform of education finances.

However, despite the general-
ly. acknowledged popularity of
his proposals to raise the sales
tax exemption on meals from 50
‘cents to $1 and reduce. auto lic-
enses by 10 percent, there was
one significant omission in the
Bennett government’s program.
As Nigel Morgan, Labor-Progres-
sive party provincial leader,
pointed. out this week (see state-
ment on this page), no mention
was made of British Columbia’s
growing trade crisis, accentuated
by falling prices for lumber.

There were indications too,
that the government’s get-tough
policy toward the radical Doukho-

. bors will arouse*the same public

protest as when essentially the
same harsh policies were tried
and proven bankrupt by Con-
servative and Liberal administra-
tions in the thirties.

Of two new measures the gov-
ernment proposes to introduce at
this session, writing the principle
of “equal pay for equal work”
for women into the province’s
labor statutes is being warmly re-
ceived by the trade union move-
ment, which has long campaigned
for such. legislation.

The second new proposal, fre-
quently mooted since the election
last June, is to revise the Elec-
tion Act again, this time to elim-
inate the alternative ballot and
—presumably — to reinstate the
old single ballot.

This proposal is certain to stir
considerable debate, not only in
the House but outside it. For
one thing, it is linked with the
question of the redistribution of
seats which is now due, and it is
known that the government has
been weighing the merits (and
advantages to itself) of eliminat-
ing the multiple city constitu-
encies and substituting smaller
single - member constituencies.
Again, there is a considerable
body of opinion which believes
that the alternative ballot was a

step toward proportional repre-.

sentation, a far more accurate
and democratic means of reflect-
ing the popular vote that either
the straight or alternative bal-
lots.

Board recommends 12}c

wage increase for WIUC

CRANBROOK, B.C.
A conciliation board majority
report dealing with a dispute be-
tween Columbia ~ Contracting
Company Ltd. and Woodwork-
ers Industrial Union of Canada,
Local 405, has recommended a
12%-cent hourly wage increase,
adoption of the Sloan formula,
the 40-hour weeek and other. con-
cessions. _
(Two conciliation boards meet-
ing at the same time in disputes

‘between International Wood-

workers of America and interior
lumber operators recommended
a 6-cent and 3-cent hourly hiké
for IWA members.

Chairman of the conciliation
board which met here September

2 was Allan H. Hull. Employer’s —

nominee was J. C. Munro; the
WIUC’s nominee was Harvey
Murphy.

J. C. Munroe voted against all
items in dispute, but the chair-
man, Allan H. Hull, felt that
some concessions should be made
and voted with Harvey Murphy.
Their majority report, which has
been forwarded to the B.C. Labor
Relations Board, recommends
that the report recommendations
take effect the date the old
agreement expires.

In other interior negotiations
the IWA has been: seeking an 18-
cent hourly wage boost, but have
only been offered six cents and
three cents. IWA officials plan-
ning to call for a strike vote
which would affect 8,000 men.

é

By HAL GRIFFIN

The government’s position, of
course, is not hard to ascertain.
When the Liberal-Conservative
Coalition was foundering on the
rocks of its own policies, its last
desperate act for self-preserva-
tion was to introduce the alterna-
tive ballot in the hope that Lib-
eral and Conservative voters
would support each other’s candi-
dates. As everyone now knows,
popular disgust with the Coali-
tion’s policies reduced the Lib-
erals and Conservatives to minor
parties in the House and elevat-
ed Social Credit and the CCF to
major contenders for office.

In the 1952 election, the CCF
led in 21 and Social Credit in 14
seats, and Social Credit emerged
as the largest party only with
second and third choice votes. In
this year’s election, Social Credit
led in 30 seats, the CCF in 17,
and both parties lost seats in sub-
sequent counts.

There is no doubt that Social
Credit now feels confident of its
chances shoul it return to the
old balloting system.

‘Cause for concern
states Morgan as
vov t ignores trade

“Great concern will be felt by
thousands of workers and farm-
ers in British Columbia over the
fact that the Speech from the
Throne failed to project any
action by the legislature on the
key trade-jobs problem already
hanging like a. dark cloud over
the province’s future,” Nigel
Morgan, LPP provincial leader,
said this week.

“A serious market crisis is
descending on B.C. just as the
LPP predicted during the recent
election campaigns. Last week
the daily press predicted the clos-
ure of 2000 lumber operations,

when lumber prices took the —

biggest tumble since the war,
with hemlock logs dropping in
price from $36 per thousand to
$27.50 because of the loss of
traditional market outlets. If
this development is allowed to
continue mass unemployment is
going to be felt very shortly.

The legislature must not be
allowed to adjourn without prob-
ing into the market crisis and
taking appropriate action to send,

‘B.C. trade missions to win back

our traditional markets and util-
ize the vast potential in Asia to
provide jobs for B.C. workers
and farmers,” Morgan said..

“Certain important changes in
taxation, first introduced at the
last session, which can day the

basis for easing the burden of..

taxation on the small taxpayer,
the homeowner and farmer by
making possible repeal of the
hated sales tax and reduction in

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — SEPTEMBER 18, 1953 — ©

for senior citizens have

- out of its lethargy on

~ to local MLA’s, resolution’

an important developm

+

government went down ?

The government’s program |
this session, as announced if
Speech from the Throne af
aborated by Percy Wright
cred-Victoria) in his reply, ccalls
for:

@® A tax on logging an bes
ing profits. above $25,000.
~@ Discarding of the altert
tive ballot, and overhaul °
Elections Act. ee
@ School costs to rece
“the most serious and intel
and immediate considera
through implementation °
Rolston Formula.
@ Women to get “equal
for equal work.”
@ Local option, which
govern the number and tyPé
liquor outlets in any commu!
® Removal of sales tax
meals under $1.
@ Ten percent reduction
auto license fees for ye
© Construction of
coast road on Vancouver "sh ne
@ Curbing of ribbon deve
ment along new highway>

car license fees, gasoline
ete., will be welcomed.

“At the same time, cist n
ment will be felt that ce a0
ments to the Labor AC Act
Workmen’s Compensatitt eat
and provision of a much- aa
increase in the living alle agaid

been bypassed. \

“A yigorous public cat
to give expression to oy
orates’ desires is obviol
quired to prod the gover” vita!
these ation
Weekend deles@

questions.

government, _ letters an
grams should be poured int te
toria immediately before 2 en
Jong session comes t?
Two byelections are in
and the government
made to feel the fall
popular pressure,”
clared.

a
a

organ

a ted
“The legislation rol i
provide equal pay for

labor and progressive jalatio®
must see that the legis. wall
made effective, and it 5 tO
the job of the trade unions worn?
that seniority rights bs server

workers are strictly °

“What is needed with
‘equal pay’ legislation is
incial - Bill of Rights 0 P
stiff penalties for discri
whether by reason of §
religious or political
Such security for ioe
rights is long overdue.”

Pi ‘