OL’ BILL SHORT JABS | DON’T know which is worse, having a real bad cold on top of all my other troubles, or reading about the CIO convention and how Philip Murray and his stooges have now decided to raid and bust unions, Anyhow, the CIO business can put one’s temperature up faster than a cold. Murray’s plan to raid and bust the unions so that the Manutfac- turers Association can move in and drive the standards of the workers still lower, underlines the big job the Pacific Tribune has to do in helping rank-and-file workers rout the splitters. Maybe it was just old duffers like me who thought that when we had settled .with Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito, that we wouln't see any more of this wholesale union busting. It appears I was wrong, and I’m hure there are a lot like me in this respect. ‘ Our job is not to sit back and bemoan the fact that the bosses find people in the ranks of labor to do their dirty work; our job is to see that they are effectively stopped in their union-busting activi- ties, no matter what pretext or excuse they give. Like Hitler, who set the world on fire on the excuse that he was “saving” it from Communism, these wreckers plan to smash the unity and solid- arity of organized labor on the same phoney excuse. One thing we can do to throw a few monkey Nd wrenches into their plans is to keep a paper like the Pacific Tribune going, bigger and better and further afield than ever, That is the main purpose why I took on Betty Tarnowski and all her young bloods to give the PT a real Christmas boost. Be- devilled with cold and all the ills of increasing years, it is not going to be any cinch outstripping Betty and her youthful supporters. Anyhow, I have a few young supporters too, to say nothing of the grand old timers of B.0. labor who have~stuck with me for more years than I care to. mention. So let’s go, boys, and show the youth we old codgers can still strike a home run or two for the PT. The ‘rest of this column I am turning over to Betty. My cold wouldn’t have been too much of an obstacle, but Philip Murray’s union splitting on top of that leaves me without ideas fit to print. é os : Bas just about come to the conclusion that challenging Old Bill wasn’t such a good idea. He’s already shown that he has plenty of fight. I don't know if it’s supposed to be a secret how each side is going, but I heard that right after Bill’s column appeared, an old- timer came in and left $30 for Bill’s side, and that’s only one contri- bution. Of course, I have received a few donations but these still leave me in the class of “also-rans”. Yet, I know it isn’t for lack of support. I’m sure many of you readers have every intention of help- ing this Christmas fund but there are all the problems of remembering to put the money aside and then to get it down to the office—or you just haven’t seen Bill or me around. We've decided to provide for all this. . Any day now you will be getting a little Christmas sock—in which you will be expected to put your gift to our Christmas fund—I’m hop- ing my sock gets to you before Bill’s does—and mail it or bring it back. If we haven’t got a sock to you, don’t feel you are being left out. Bill and I will have lots of socks: on hand, as will some of our “team”. Don’t be shy about asking for ne. Speaking of our teams, Bill isn’t the only one with supporters. I’ve had a few “younger ones” come through with offers to help me in any way they can (you'll be hearing more about them). But I would still like to see a few more people get into this socialist competition. When you start making up your Christmas gift lists—don’t forget the Pacific Tribune. I wonder if you realize how much the PT gives to the workers of this province in a year. One of the reasons for the spontaneous support from Bill’s contemporaries is that experience has taught them the need and importance of a labor paper. There have been. moments when I’ve wondered whether I should have started this competition. Bill has, been ill, and bela not well or very strong—and a thing like this is quite a strain on him. Bill knew it would be, too, but he feels so strongly about the labor press that he didn’t stop to consider this at all—he was right there to accept the challenge. Let’s show him we know all he’s doing and appreciate it. Let’s send in lots and lots of donations and build a big Christmas fund for the Pacific Tribune. I want to hear Bill say, “It was worth it.” STANTON & MUNRO Barristers, Solicitors, Notaries. SUITE 515, FORD BUILDING, 193 E. HASTINGS ST. (Corner Main & Hastings Sts.) MArine 5746 Keep Warm - Keep Healthy- STANFIELD'S commrxarions .... *6:00 $3.50 BLUE LABEL SHIRTS AND DRAWERS, Each .... $3.15 \ MAIL ORDERS PREPAID . SHIRTS AND DRAWERS, Each ... ed’ oe, : “STANFLELDS Bs Unttrimkalte | UNDERWEAR.- Tenants’ groups spring up to fight rent increases —-TORONTO Despite attempts by the government to confuse the issue with reports that rent increases would be less than at first announced, the labor movement and tenant associations are continuing to bombard the government with protests. the need for wage, increases. The rent control board has an- nounced that the increases will be 18 percent for unheated and 22 percent for heated premises, the boost to apply to present rentals being paid. Montreal, a city of tenants, will feel the blow perhaps harder than any other city in Canada. From one end of Quebec to the other protests are pouring, in on both federal and provincial repre- sentatives. Scores of trade unions, tenants’ organizations, city coun- cils, Legion branches, have blasted the government’s action. A meeting of 300 tenants set up the Quebec Federation of Tenants to coordinate the © movement against the rent increase. In every community of Montreal, tenants’ organizations are form- ing. The Central Labor and Ten- ants’ Association demanded that Ottawa rescind the rental hike, keep controls, and build low-rental homes in large scale. It also called upon Duplessis to use his “autonomy” and ban the increases in Quebec at the same time as he should inform Ottawa he favors federal rent control to continue. Verdun Workmen’s Association has started a big drive to organize the battle against imcreases in that community. Other tenants’ groups are forming in Park Ex- tension, St. Louis, Rosemount and Quebec City. In Montreal the three trade un- ion centers—AFL, CCL, and Cath- olic Syndicates—along with the Canadian Legion and the Montreal Tenants’ Association, have formed a coordinating committee to fight the increases. Four hundred members of the Montreal Slav Committee wired Prime Minister St. Laurent de- manding “no removal of govern- ment controls on rent unless there is a compensatory increase in wages and incomes of working people.” : At one meeting addressed by Harry Binder, LPP organizer in Montreal, more than 400 tenants marched in a body to the home of Maurice Hartt, MP, to reg- ister their indignation at Finance Minister Abbott’s callous action. Percy Bengough, president of the Trades and Labor Congress, has written to Prime Minister St. Laurent that “your action in this respect displays a total disregard of the cost of living problems of the many thousands of citizens in the medium and lower income brackets, the vast majority of whom placed their confidence in the present government at the last federal election.” : Toronto area council of the ‘United Autoworkers Union (CIO) told Abbott, in the name of its 10,000 members, that the rent in- crease was “in complete disregard for the needs of the Canadian working people who will be mostly affected and who are unable to meet these drastic increases due to the present high cost of living, devaluation of the dollar and in- sufficient wages.” The UAW council told the min- jister of finance that his action “will necessitate still higher wage demands.” ‘ In Welland, the Labor-Progres- sive Party is collecting signatures to a petition headed, “No Rent In- creases.” The petition, addressed to Prime Minister St. Laurent asks that the rent increase be dis- allowed and that full rent con- trols be restored at previous levels. Thousands of Welland workers,’ in- cluding many veterans, are now unemployed, a leaflet accompany- 7 Sections of labor,, have already pointed out that the rent boost emphasizes ing the petition declared, as_a re- sult of the ruinous policies of the federal government. These work- ers will be unable to meet any additional rent burden. Toronto and Yorks LPP is urg- ing the organization of tenants’ associations in that city to fight the increase: The LPP ‘is also demanding low-rental subsidized housing to meet the housing crisis in that city. A. A. MacLeod, MPP, has called upon provincial premier Frost to call a special session of. the legislature to deal with the housing question. . Poa In Ottawa last week, a judge of the Juvenile Court, Allan Fraser, declared that thousands of Ottawa citizens were living in houses “not fit for animals. There are families of nine and ten trying to live in two rooms with the father and mother sleeping on the floor,’ he said. None of the present housing schemes, Fraser said, can deal with the problem of the worker earning $25 or $30 a week. He urged the building of large apart- ment blocks for workers, with rents based on ability to pay. 4 ~ For service in the cold war U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson became the latest ad- ‘dition to the CIO top leadership’s “heroes of labor’ when he ad- dressed the recent convention. Here CIO secretary-trasurer James. Carey pins a delegate’s button on him. Canadian UE members repudiating splitters —TORONTO An up-to-the-minute survey shows that thousands of workers in plants throughout Canada and the United States are challenging and repudiating attempts by raiders to force UE locals into the new “electrical union” established by the right-wing of the CIO. In Canada,’ the raiders, assisted by top CCL leaders, are unsuccess- fully concentrating on the workers in UE General Electric locals. At Peterborough, where the largest GE local is situated, the [UE has won a court injunction which pre- vents the right-wing from seizing the local’s funds and which pre- vents them from having access to the union office. A majority of the big Peterbo- rough local’s 3,200 have signified their intention of staying loyal to the UE and have removed right- winger John Morton from the presidency. At Toronto, Hamilton, Kings- ton, Brockville and other centers, UE locals are voting overwhelm- ingly to remain loyal to their union. Toronto GE locals are all solidly behind the UE, j At Toronto, UE Local 512, rep- resenting six shops, voted unani- mously to “fight, throw back and defeat the traitors and raiders.” Ferranti Local 525 at Leaside pass- ed a similar resolution at a packed membership meeting which saw. only five votes for the right-wing. At Hamilton an_ enthusiastic meeting of nearly 1,000 Westing- house workers voted unanimous repudiation of the raiders. At Kingston UE workers in a comp@site local denounced the CCL raiders and affirmed their solidari- ty with the UE and its leaders. PACIFIC TRIBUNE — ‘On the air’ Refused radio time, these radio engineers for station NEW, New ‘York, “take to the air” with helium balloons filled with leaf- lets in efforts to win renewal of the contract between NEW and + the American Communications Association (CIO). NOVEMBER, 18, 1949 — PAGE ?