Dike N KEEPING with Yuletide the staff of the Pacific Tribune wishes all its many readers and supporters a merry Christmas and good fortune for the coming year. ! Despite the fact that our “‘free enterprise’ proht-grabbing system has utterly commercialized this symbolic institution. of ‘Peace on earth, good- will toward men’’, it: still remains a refreshing Oasis in a vast desert, where the hearts of men are temporarily rekindled with thoughts of peace and goodwill toward their féllow humans. > -* As we stand bi the threshold of the half- HAMMAM AAA ABABA. earth...” i | century mark, noting the devastation of two world wars—and a third one in ‘the making by the evil _ breeders of fascist imperialism—we of the com- mon people must resolve with even greater deter- mination that “‘peace on earth” shall become a reality, and that the fear and hatred promoted by the atomaniacs: shall be erased by “goodwill. to- ward men’’. . Peace and goodwill are things to be fought ~ for—365 days in the year. After nineteen cen- ‘turies, Christmas should symbolize. the victory, rather than the hope for peace. That is the re- ‘solve and greetings of the Pacific Tribune for 1950.4 SOURIS IRIAN OPE HNRNP Union rights the issue a Bs THE LAW supposes that,” Mr. Bumble “once observed, “‘the law is a ass, a idiot.” Had Mr. Bumble lived in Vancouver in 1949 instead of in the days of the illustrious Dickens, he might have _ added, “‘the law is a ass with a objective,” in this instance at least, to undermine and destroy democratic trade unionism. ia _ This week, two union officers, William White and William Stewart of the Marine Workers and Boilermakers Industrial Union, were committed to Oakalla jail. The essence of their “crime”’, described _ as “contempt of court’’, rests upon their action in bar- ring a person who, according to the law as interpreted by Mr. Justice Whittaker, former. speaker and erst- _ while Coalition Liberal member of the legislature, ~ must be admitted into union membership, despite the 3} = he “Gentlemen Adventurers of England, | Trading Into” Hudson’s Bay”” still retain a bit of the jold buccaneering. spirit. No- asking “permission: to -unanimous opinion of the union membership to the ‘contrary, — x KS , 2 Stewart and White carried out the mandate of their union membership, all of them trade unionists - ~ Gentlemem lawbreakers aN full page advertisements and press statements, the Hudson’s Bay Company announced that its | Vancouver store would be open Wednesday, despite ‘a civic bylaw (and provincial legislation) stipulating the closing of all retail stores on that day. ~“skin’’ the Indians alive for. a skin; no grovelling to - ‘the city’ council, ‘requesting that a civic bylaw be hoist- _ ed for one day—or permanently—under the pretext of doing the public a Christmas shopping “favor”. Just a curt take-it-or-leave-it declaration that -the ~ “HBC will stay open Wednesday’’ and the devil ‘take your bylaw! _ What a -yowl to high heaven would go up if — some labor organization were to say, “Your bylaws fines” —if any! To cap it off the new Non-Parti-. are the bunk, so I’ll ignore them.” The trained seals ‘of the Vancouver daily press would work themselves “into a -hysterical lather for days about ’ the “Red » threat to law and order” But the “Bay”, with its te “eye on cash register receipts, openly declares its con- ‘tempt for an existing law, and in so doing) gives a fine _ demonstration of the “moral codes of free enterprise”. & Taking advantage of the law scuttling by the | “Bay”, some of the lesser fry in the retail business follow suit, and the Retail Merchants’ Association cheers from the sidelines and promises to “pay the san city council has “amended” the bylaw to’ permit a half-day Wednesday opening next week, thus giving the lawbreakers all the aid needed to do the job. ¥ Meantime, it seems the duty of organized labor, — and first and foremost the Retail Clerks’ Union, is to ene whose ideas of their interests and the effect of Myron Kuzych’s actions on those interests could hardly be expected to coincide with Mr. Justice Whittaker’s opinion. ae : The question all trade unionists must ask them- selves—and waste little time in the asking—is one. which faced millions of trade unionists in Germany, ~ Italy and Japan in the pre-war years. Delay in an-_ Swering it unitedly and decisively led to the speedy destruction of those powerful trade union federations, The question is simply this: Have Canadian trade unionists and their elected officers the right to run their own affairs according to the. constitution of their union, or is that “‘right”’ to be the prerogative of a capitalist court to say who shall, or shall not be, admitted to union membership 2 That question is definitely not the private con- cern of the Boilermakers’ union alone, but vitally af- fects every trade unionist in Canada. As such it can only be effectively answered by trade unionists and everyone else who cherishes democracy. demand that the city council strictly enforce existing Wednesday closing laws, and to impose penalties sufficiently heavy to curb the profiteering lawbreakers. Prosperity plus LLEN and. Viner, contractors. We don’t know them personally, but they must be real down-to-earth, bed-rock, cost-plus Liberals, whose loyalty to the government is only equalled by the government's loyalty to them. Look at the “‘sefvices”” they have rendered to taxpayers, and all in the very | best tradition of the present Liberal government. _. The Alvin building and the Begg building, both substantial structures, and more so than a couple of years ago, since the St. Laurent government has sunk $1,100,000 in one and $1,050,000 in the other. Tn - both cases Allen and Viner got the “contract”, with- ders, since there were none. out the bother of having to compete with other ten-- : _ with a quick professional efficiency, _ have made it—now it’s too late.” The kept press of the Sctooges gave two lines to the effect that “John Doe, of no fixed address, expired in According to Hon. Alphone Fournier; minister of public works, the government intends to “purchase” these buildings later. No, | there were no tenders”, a rush job, you know. We just had to have a place to house our Unemployment Insurance Branch, and presto, up popped the Alvin building, “‘the best laid “\"™* says Hon. Humphrey out in North America” | (Bumbling) Mitchell. poy Nee _ And the Begg building, also a “rush” job with- ~ out call for tenders. The taxation division of the oe en ee _ department of national revenue ‘‘needed these offices _ THE COMMON PEOPLE MUST SAVE THAT DEATHLESS _ if they were to collect the money owing there,”” de- clared the minister, and that was that. All very vague and incoherent. Fournier relied on his deputy to supply some of the answers, and his deputy looked to his chief for a lead. only party apparently not embarrassed by the deal, according to Hansard of December 10, was the firm of Allen and Viner, contractors. , Prosperity may be “‘just around the corner” for ad _ the unemployed, when and if the government gets its _ “shelf” of public works going, but for the contractors political label, it’s. right in their _ who wear the correct dap. ae AMAA AAA RAR PAAARAAAAAAA BH ‘retired to their posts with:a sigh of relief. OOME A TOM McEWEN~ As We See lt pee on earth, goodwill towards men.” Nineteen centuries © have passed since that dynamic ideal fired the hearts of men. Of course, you won’t find that ideal in the profit balance sheets of the monopoly Scrooges, nor. will you find it,in the conspiracies of the atomaniacs of Wall Street or their kept press. That such have learned to sing’ Christmas carols and cash in on the hopes of man- kind is but a yardstick of their colossal perfidy.” . oe ‘ For the profit-glutted few “Peace on earth” is a well-commercial- _ ized sham. Fo the many, with whonf the fear of insecurity, hunger, ; privation and. war is ever present, its attainment is an undying struggle, ebbing and flowing like the - waves of the sea, ; eee ei a Listen! As the dark clouds of unemployment cils of the Scrooges, you can hear a clarion chal- lenge coming down the winds of time. i “And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; ‘and they shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of ‘ them.| They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for as the days of a tree are the days of My people, and Mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.” (Isaiah, 66.2.22) Bete The late James Shaver Woodsworth, founder pf the CCK, was charged with “sedition” by the Scrooges when he uttered these words in defense of the Winnipeg strike of 1919. - ame : P Dispossessed of the right to earn a livelihood, the unemployed — are preparing to march again. And the music is not exactly a Christ- mas caro] set to the stupid mouthings of a Humphrey Mitchell. Listen to a rhapsody on “Hunger” by James Stevens, - “She had not known for years what it was like not to be hungry for one day, but life is largely custom, and neither she nor her hus- band nor the children made much complaint about a condition which _was normal for them all, and into which the children had been born. _ “What bravery she had. What a noble unvarying courage, when in so little a time, and as so small a pain she might have died. A. bone in a world of bones. And they gnawed these bones until it seemed that nothing moved in the world except their teeth. _ “Almost... he had given up looking for work. It was strange how he had arranged with himself not to look at the children. He had even arranged that their whimperings should “seem to be in- audible ...and their very presence invisible. He went far afield to look for work. | : d “The youngest child died of an ill which, whatever it was at the ' top, was hunger at the bottom, and she grew terrified. She went into the streets to beg; she was frightened, for one can be arrested for begging. And she was afraid not to beg, for one can die of hunger. When she got in the crippled boy turned dull, dumb eyes upon her; she laughed at him excitedly, exultantly, for she had food, lots of it, two whole loaves of bread. But the other child did not turn to her, and would not turn to her again, for he was dead—and he was dead of hunger, : : : fs dd : “The next morning after he began work he was found dead in _ a laneway. He had no lodging in the city. At the post-mortem ex- amination it was found that he had died of hunger and exposure.” ’ The searing brand of exploitation, the hall-mark of the Scrooges. That was the Hungry Thirties, to which they would force workers to return, Turn back the page and look at it! : s Long densely packed lines of shivering humans upon whose faces hunger had already stamped its brutal mark, Scowling visages and dull somber eyes that held little human. spark. Brutalized, degraded, \ pauperized, a fertile garden of hideous menace. Waiting, waiting — for their measure of the thin gruel of charity. - “Now then,” barks a club-swinging—and well-fed—policeman, “keep in the damn line.” ‘ aE aa sea: “Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden and I will give you. oe rest,” intones a seedy-looking, shifty-eyed mimic of the WNazerine. Two hard-faced rubby-dubs who have been “saved,” ladle out the por- tions of thin soup that marks the narrow borderline between star- vation and death. Another “convert” issues a slab of stale green- streaked bread to go with the soup, » (st he “Man shall not live by bread alone,” sonorously drones the flop- joint’s celestial pilot. “Hey you, whattayer grouchin’ abaht, d’ya think this is the Ritz? Gettahellout.” The patrol wagon clangs and an “agi- tator” draws 60 days for lese majeste in the soup temple, _ 5 “Peace on earth, goodwill towards men.” : Te mee “Take him into the outdoor clinic,” a ‘trim nurse snaps at the — ambulance attendants, “Dr. Ross will be down immediately.” ‘They . laid an inert bundle of rags and bones on the examination table and Dr. Rioss looks it over “A week ago this mar could General Hospital today one half hour after admittance. Doctors said the man was in a starved condition.” Dia Ga othy ee es Back in the Hungry Thirties, while the John Does were cashing _ in,on hospital tables, prison cells, and back lanes, “delegates to the London Wheat Conference representing the United States Canada, Argentina and Australia, agreed to reduce espective countries by 25 percent... .” _ sep eles ‘ And in Canada, the charity soup ladlers were “congratulating” the Bennett government on its “firm stand against communism,” while a million workers tramped the streets, hungry? ; Above the commercialized din that marks Christmas 2 van hear the shout that “Peace on earth,” goodwill towards men” is wheat production in their _ “subversive,” and that soup, anti-ccommunism and war are the only bk ; true “solutions” for unemployment and hunger. SLOGAN FROM 17 -SCROOGES. ONLY THEN WILL IT BE- CHRISTMAS CAROL OF THE PEOPLE. — ue ts 7 : 5 7 + i Ny a Tt cl no iP 2 Cipil Cae anal] py tll ine RTRUIN ib Uiinwatftrvaerthonatinsittll ines ttessetl mai Pham Published Weekly at 650 Howe Street By THE TRIBUNE PUBLISHING COMPANY LTD. a Telephone MA. 5288 2 hea Tom McEwen . Subscription Rates: 1919 -PAGE, ne ee with its attendant miseries emanate from the coun- ~ of 1949, one :