PROVINCIAL AFFAIRS | ‘ i | iy By NIGEL MORGAN Fight against unfair taxation sparked by farm RITISH COLUMBIA is in a taxation crisis. Dissatisfac- t§Yon over | unjust and outdated taxation methods is breaking out into the open again. Vast changes have taken place in the province’s economy since the days of early settlement. Where once the homesteader was the main source of tax revenues, great wealth-producing indus- tries have grown Up. But the base. of taxation remains the same as before. And injustices flowing from such methods have found but slight relief. from successive Liberal and Tory governments. In the last 15 year public pressure has compelled the provincial govern- ment to set up no less than five Royal Commissions, thereby demonstrating the need for democratic tax reform and a complete overhaul of taxation methods, The, findings of those special hearings have repeatedly laid bare the roots of dissatisfaction, and just as consistently the Coalition government has refused to implement many of the t recommendations of perts. Provision of new pital facilities has no rapidly growing po of outworn buildings has Asa result there are now the needs, “double shifts’ is rising sharply to take up the slack. x 3 n Vancouver last October, Education Minister a ive the problem very frankly when he re - ve will have 40 percent more children in our schools in five years. That will mean we will need 2200 more carpe an average of 44 new classrmooms.a month. ee n - to open two schools of comparable size (to Gladstone—co $1,165,800) every month for the next five years to accom- modate the 1955 school population.” replacement nts. ical. of tax trends is Salmon Arm municipality Sees taxes have been almost doubled. Since ee the mill rate has climbed from 13.85 mills on 100 percen of land and 15 percent of improvements, to 20.36 mills on 100 percent of land and 40 percent of improvements in 1950. In the rural unorganized territory, mill rates have peau as much as three times over the same period and the re mill rate given only three years ago has already been n- creased 50 percent to 12.97 mills, Still another big boost in sccangnnei avn aumcncniiacgauacececacnvasia a(@AUIRGaURUARSURIAUANY i Progressive An article on the forthcoming Labor- national convention by Stanley Ryerson, national organizing secretary, held over for lack of space, will be published on this page next week. _ PPP LU ttt Ue ULE ee ala an school taxes is ahead this year for many og ee harply mounting costs, resentment is rising Pees tenuttleg which exist and are being felt more and more, particularly .in the rural farm areas. Jeadership of the B pamee ne a of farm organizations throughout the province are preparing briefs outlining their Baeyances) interviewing MLA’s and organizing for 4 showdown ai the next session of the legislat they have, too! 2 People in the farm areas, called upon to pay heavy school taxes, are becoming generally aware of how they are being victimized by unjust ‘and antiquated tax pees, methods are unfair, first of all, because of varying methods of assessment as between different cities, municipalities and unorganized territory within the newly formed consolidated school districts. In Salmon Arm municipality farmers are assessed on only 40 percent of improvements, less $5,000, while in the surrounding - unorganized territory of the same school district, im- provements are assessed to the extent of 75 percent with x ion. inator for no exemption,. Thus there is no common denominator for | taxation between farmers in the rural areas and those vithin t) unicipality. at ae ee in Salmon Arm School District on six 160-acre mixed farms, the school tax varies from $37 ‘to $155, according tothe brief presented last week to A B. Richie, MLA, by six local farm organizations. The dif_ ference in amounts charged for education in these cases is largely due to differences in improvements (farm - puildings, etc.) and has no relationship whatsoever to annual income. Obviously such methods are grossly unfair in that they permit some to contribute proportionately little tewards education Costs. eR : ~ Secondly, the land tax places an unfair burden on farmers because in proportion to their incomes the vast majority pay more to education than do those in other employment. — . = Death occupational groups carry on profitable 4 : : 44, re t a : 4 - C, Federation of Agricul- ure, And a powerful case _ Gallup ~ undertake this job fr less.” organization PP OE ULL UL OLLIE Lat et AR a Who said this and when? dees _. , bombers whipped down to the valley, whirled around and came back once again . . . ney whirled around and came back again. .. They knew what they were doing. They knew they were destroying private houses in a helpless village m a country which _ had given them no cause of offense—and people in these houses if they were not quick enough. The story of air warfare of this sort has been told and retold—in Ethiopia, Spain, Poland, Finland, Norway. It is not an accidental. ' “atrocity” needing a Bryce commission to prove or dis- prove it. It is an_ attested, studied, boasted method of attack. These are the gangsters of the air. Maybe they gain a temporary military advantage. They gain it by building up a world-wide horror and contempt which some day, be © it late or soon, will plow them under. —New York Times, commenting on Nazi bombing of Norway, May 10, 1940. PP He eB businesses from:small acreage with a minimum of what are classed as “improvements”—they only pay a fraction of the school tax paid by their farmer neighbors. Proof of that statement is to be found in the Salmon Arm farmers’ brief, which cited the following two glaring examples: Aied A sawmill situated on 17 acres with a daily output of : 50,000 feet; included on the mill property are 9 dwell- ings for mill employees—total school tax, $246.56. Operator of four trucks in general hauling—operates residence and business from 3 acres of farm land— total school tax, $17.30, : Obviously such assessment methods, and such tax basis, which is without the remotest relationship to income or earning capacity, is viciously unfair. And having established such injustice in black and white, the power- ful B.C. Federation of Agriculture and its affiliated organ_ izations is vigorously seeped that the government find a solution in new and more equitable methods for raising necessary school funds. In December 1947, before the McLean Commission, the Labor-Progressive party urged the government to implement the recommendation of both the Cameron and Goldenburg commissions that the provincial government _ increase its grant to 80 percent of school costs—with the actual mill rate being varied to raise the balance needed. The LPP agreed that practical measures be adopted to _ bring about uniformity of assessment methods and greater equalization of school tax levies, and that in rural and un- organized districts where the incident of taxation is bear- ing with excessive severity, corective formulas must be worked out, i f Experience since that time has fully confirmed the urgent necessity of those and additional recommendations to eliminate present unfair and discriminatory practices. The immediate establishment of a Provincial Assessment Commission with over-all provincial authority to super- vise and equalize taxation is a pressing need. : The farm, labor and entire progressive njovement of this province should study carefully the demands be- ing pressed, The provincial government must, and can be compelled to overhaul British Columbia’s unjust taxation methods. Gallup wants $5 billion to convert world opinion to ‘Americanism’ 2 AP Tae WASHINGTON Dr. George Gallup, director of the American Institute _of Public Opinion, wh is generally recognized as the foremost authority on sampling public opinion for the benefit of advertisers and coloring the findings of public opinion surveys to suit the propaganda campaigns of his spionsors, wants five billion dollars’to convert the world to “Americanism.” | ; j ; Recently he told a Buffalo conference that “victories in Korea or anywhere else in the world will be completely empty, in fact dangerous, unless we have first won a vic- _ tory over the minds of men.” To win this victory he pro- posed a “sweeping program using motion pictures, pic- ture books for children and illiterates, comics, newspapers, radio” at a cost of five billion dollars diverted from cur- rent military appropriations. With an eye to business, added, “No practical businessman - would. 411}! _ too pleased to publish his “repudiation.” x ° LABOR FOCUS. _ By J. B. SALSBERG A case of CCL regimentation | eae! the top leadership of the Canadian Congress of Labor. is slavishly devoted to the war policies of the U.S. state department is not news. The Conroys boasted that they were ahead of the Canadian government in advocacy of policies which emanate from the U.S. state department. That the right-wing CCF-CCL leadership declared war on all unions that dare advocate an independ- ent peace policy for Canada is well known. . It is com- mon knowledge that the real reason for the expulsion and later raiding of the Mine-Mill and the UE was the insistence of these unions and their leaders in Canada on the right to ad- vocate an independent Canadian for- eign policy. ? ; What has also been generally known was that the liason between the labor agents of the U.S. state de- — partment and _ the Mosher-Conroy leadership of the CCL was miost direct and intimate. But its subservience to : the state department is deeper than I thought and its fear of offending the powers that be in the realm of foreign policy would seem to be over- powering. That was made sickeningly apparent to me last week. I was in Montreal on November 30. The press was filled that day with alarming reports that US. imperialism was threatening the world with the im- mediate use of the atomic bomb. It was a day when the peoples of the entire wprld were clamoring for decisive action from their governments to stop the A-bomb ~ : maniacs, It was on that day the Montreal Star carried the following news item: S “Ottawa, Move. 29 (CP)—George Burt, Canadian — director of the United Automobile Workers (CIO-CCL), - today in a statement publicly repudiated his support of the so-called Stockholm peace petition. : “(Certain Communist party publications are at- tempting to make capital out of the fact that I signed a peace petition spme months ago,” Mr. Burt said. ‘The petition I signed was sent me through the mails and I signed it in good faith, believing as do most Canadians in peace and the true outlawing of the bomb. “, Lam sure a very large number of other people who had signed the petition in good faith found that — they had been duped. 5 “Personally, I fully supported the policy state- ment passed at the Winnipeg convention of the Can- — adian Congress of Labor and the principles of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions’” — What was positively revolting was rot so much the statement itself, but the fact that a union leader of George Burt’s proportions, who heads a union in which the rank- a and-file is quite alert and effective, was obviously dra— gooned into making the statement. It was apparent to — ‘everyone who read the item that the Mpsher-Conroy clique utilized the executive meeting of the CCL to whip © Burt into line and to demonstrate its dependability as unwavering supporters of the Truman-MacArthur line. A bs f more flagrant demonstration of regimentation, of goose- stepping and of the cpmplete abrogation of inner trade union democracy is hard to find. - What should be noted is that during the fateful days of the CCL executive meeting, even such rightwing social_ democrats as Attlee, Bevin and their French counterparts, felt obliged to publicly call a halt to the recklessness and madness of Washington. But the COL leaders had not a — word to say alfout the gravest crisig facing mankind. Instead they tried to help the atpmaniace by insisting © that Burt “repudiate” his signaure to the petition for the __ outlawing of the atom bomb... As for Burt’s statement, the less said the better. I made enquiries of the Canadian Peace Congress and find _— that nothing was done that could be objected to in any — way. Burt signed the petition voluntarily some time in > June or July of this year as his conscience dictated to — him to do. He did that in the privacy of his office upon re- — ceipt of the petition by mail. That laudable action of Burt’s was not an act of secrecy, nor did Burt request that his endorsation of the petition be kept secret. Public mention of his action was -made by the Congress sometime in October, towards the end of the petition campaign, when it issued a press release giving the names of thirty or — more prominent trade union leaders who signed the petition. The reactionary press, which failed to mention Burt’s endorsation of the Ban the Bomb petition was only ‘ a ; I can find no trace of wrongdoing on the part of tiie : Peace Congress and not a shred of evidence to justify the — “charge that Burt, was misled or “duped”. If any criticism is due the Congress it would seem to be on the score of © slowness in its publication of the names of prominent trade union leaders who signed the Ban the Bomb petition. ‘ The U.S. state department’s attache in Canada will ~ now be able to report to his masters in Washington that George Burt was forced to retract and thnt the Mpsher Conroy leader of the CCL is fully dependable even in thi shadow of an atomic war. In the eyes of all decent Can- adian. working men and women, however, the Mosher- Conroy clique-will have been further exposed by its shame— less act of forcing Burt to make his public “repudiation.” PACIFIC TRIBUNE — DECEMBER 15, 1950 — PAGE 9