_ schools,

WEEK IN THE HOUSE By HAL GRIFFIN

ce ha a 9
Gov't proves Time's
mistake no error

—VICTORIA, B.C.

EPORTING on this session of the legislature in a recent issue,
Time magazine made a factual error which for: once was not
intentional. It referred to ‘Boss’? Johnson as British Columbia’s Con-
servative premier. Premier Johnson, of course, claims to be a Liberal,
but you would find it difficult to discover any traces of liberalism
in the Coalition government’s program at this session. In fact, the
only aspect of the government’s plans to which the word “liberal”
‘can properly be attached are the handouts to be made in area mEe
‘for the coming provincial election.

The grievances most commonly voiced by working people, the
sales tax, the labor act, hospital insurance, were ignored both in the
Speech from the throne and Premier Johnson’s policy speech a few
days later. Unemployment too, is apparently not a major problem
for Coalition MLA’s, although their, fear that they will be receiving
their dismissal slips as members of the legislatures unless they do some-
‘thing may impel them to bring such unpleasant questions on to the
floor of the House. -

The government obviously would like this to be a short session.
It has announced its plans and undoubtedly, from the government side
of the House, they sound as pleasant as the rustle of soft lead pencils
marking “X” beside the names of Coalition candidates at the polls.
How they sound to the people is another matter. |

The government intends to extend the PGE, the provincial rail-
road that has carried more political promises than it ever has pas-
sengers, to Prince George at the northern end and to link it with
Vancouver by road, another long promised project. One suspects
that the interests of a powerful pulp concern and the military designs
of our aggressive neighbors to the south have weighed more heavily
with the Coalition than the’long neglected needs of the people in
northern B.C. In any case, as John McInnis (CCF, Fort George)
pointed out, the people of northern B.C. have been hearing such
promises at every election since 1924 and are not likely to become
excited over this latest project,

The CCF, by needling the government members and making the
most of every point, hopes to prolong the session and provide itself
with a stage from which it will presently dispatch its representatives:
to platforms throughout the province.
ever, whether the CCF will utilize its opportunities only for propaganda,
as Herbert Gargrave (CCF, Mackenzie) has already done with the
BOCElectric and ‘CCF leader Harold Winch is doing with the inquiry
into payments made to Hart Highway contractors, or whether it will
press for action on such urgent issues as the sales tax and the
labor act.

So far, the CCF has refused to commit itself to repeal of the sales
tax, perhaps because it visualizes retaining the tax if it should be
called upon to form the next government, and is asking only for an
extension of exemptions. And it has effectively undermined any real
-hope of securing amendments to the ICA act through the maneuvers
of its recognized spokesmen in the trade unions. They too, are more
‘concerned with tying the trade unions to the COF and making propa-
ganda. than with breaking the ties the ICA act places upon labor.

e

The Labor-Progressive Party, which has no representative in the

;House to cut short the windy diatribes such as Mines Minister R. C.
_.MacDonald inflicted on the House this week, has been the subject of

considerable discussion aimed at the front pages of the daily papers.
MacDonald, envisioning no doubt a whole series of smear head-

‘lines like those which reflected his speech, wanted an inquiry into

‘what he termed the “very dangerous” communist infiltration into
churches and other provincial institutions. He demanded
‘that the LPP be banned from the University of British Columbia
‘campus and added that, if it were feasible, the LPP should be banned
entirely. .

It was not a coincidence, Sor a symptom of the monomania that
‘obsesses all parties today today and the Conservatives in particular,
that Col. George Drew, national Conservative leader, was suggesting
‘around the same time that all Communists be imprisoned, legally,

by changing the country’s laws to suit the anti-democratic aspirations.

of the “backroom ‘boys. ~

The underlying motive of MacDonald’s speech was explained far
better by an item on a back page of the February 19 issue of the
Vancouver Syn that headlined his speech. Testifying before the U.S.
Senate labor committee, Howard I. Young, president of the American
Mining Congress, urged Congress to tighten the Taft-Hartley anti-
Communist clause. Young denounced what he described as “Communist
domination” of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter
Workers and said: “We should surely not be remiss in our endeavors
to prevent Communism from further infiltrating into our labor unions.’
These sentiments evoke a sympathetic response in Mines Minister
‘MacDonald and the mine owners whose case he pleads.

‘On the floor of the legislature last Friday he called for a ban on

‘the Communists, admittedly with ‘Harvey Murphy, Mine-Mill western },

regional director, foremost in his mind.

: In a broadcast on Monday this week he recounted the sorry
plight of B.C. mine owners whose wage costs “have risen in proportion
to production to a point, in some cases, where mining is actually no
longer profitable... .”

And, he added, “we must take care not to crush the industry
with taxation.” (It is another matter, of course, when a sales tax
is loaded on to people already burdened with high living costs.) .

If the people of B.C. can learn anything from MacDonald, it is
that like all red-baiters, the rights of Communists are only first on
his list. After that come their trade unions, their living standards,
their demoratic rights. MacDonald’s concept of democracy can be
measured by the fact that his speech bewailing the plight of idle
mine owners made no mention of unemployed miners. The voters of
Dewdney will do well to remember that.

It remains to be seen, how-"

We're all friends together’

%

Saskatchewan’s CCF Premier T. C. Douglas is shown giving a warm greeting to Col. George
Drew, national Tory leader, and Mrs. Drew. Provincial treastrer.C. M. Fines is also happy about
the whole thing at a public reception given for Drew at Regina during his recent warmongering
tour. Tim Buck, national LPP leader, recently declared that on all issues “fundamental to capital-
ism” right wing CCF leaders are now in accord with St, Laurent and Drew.

JOBLESS

“Every day more men come
iiere,” said Mrs. Severson, as she
ladled out the soup.

St. Vincent’s Home and Shelter,
853 East Pender, also reports a
“boom” in “business.” They feed
about 130 hungry men daily.

First United Church on Gore
Avenue gives out 50 free meal
tickets a day. The Salvation
Army supplies meal tickets to
twice that number. .. .

Minister Mayhew pushed back
his chair, and presently was am-
plifying his remarks, with an eye
to the coming federal elections.
“The federal government has
many public works projects in-
tlhe blueprints,” he beamed. “We
have been holding back on them
waiting until such time as _pri-
vate industry is no longer pro-
viding year-round employment.”
One crumb of scant comfort
was tossed to the 50,000 unem-
ployed. Mayhew announced that
that he “looks favorably” on Van-
. couver city council’s proposal to
implement the federal govern-
ment’s 1945 “Green Book” scheme.

Honor roll

Pacific Tribune subscription
boosters who turn in two one-year
subs or four half-year subs during
the current month will receive a
copy of Tim Buck’s new book, Can-
ada: the Communist Viewpoint.
Names of those who have already
qualified this month are indicated
by asterisks in the honor roll below.
month will receive a copy of Fred-
erick Engel’s Anti-Duhring.

GREATER VANCOUVER

SMU senNNett ie es eas 10
“Percy Budd (Commer. Dr.).. 3
Dulce Smith (Fairview)..... 2
Roy Lawriniuk (East End
INOS 2) Ss et SG HE 2)
*Norman Smith (Bill Bennet) 2

*“W. WH. McConnell (Vict. Sq.) 2
*Ray Masse (Victory Sq.) ....2

PROVINCE
*George Stevens (Ladner).... 3
*L. Tellier (Extension)....... 2

*Les Fillmore (Kamloops)... 2
Ethel Mickleson (Ladysmith) 2
Connie Hudson (Victoria)... 2

Port Alberni Directory

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His appetite sated, Fisheries —

ISLANDSIDE

nitro-prills, supposedly for use as
fertilizer, but more likely design-
ed for high explosives.

Formosa is the island to which
Chiang Kai-shek has “retired” fol-
lowing his crushing defeats by the
Chinese People’s army.

“The people of Formosa have
suffered oppression for many years
at the hands of the Chinese Na-
tionalists,” said the Islandside sea-
man, “and from what the people
told us, it is eVident that Chiang
Kai-shek will never be able to or-
ganize them to fight for him.”

Press reports have indicated that
Chiang, now playing for time, is
hoping to build a new army in For-
mosa and continue his war against
the Chinese people.

American military advisors are
stationed in Formosa and are
thought to be in close contact
with Chiang. There are reported
_to be more than 20 air strips on
the island.

From Takao the S.S. Islandside
went to Shanghai to unload part of
a Canadian-made steel bridge. Chi-
nese stevedores, working long hours
for low wages, called a port strike
and after a two-day tie-up won a
substantial wage increase.

“The black market in rampant
in Shanghai,”
from the Islandside. “It is a proof
of the vicious corruption which
grew up under Chiang’s rule and
which still exists in Nationalist
China.

“Everybody seems to be in the
black market. For example, it is
against the law to use American

money ashore. Yet the YMCA will

do business only in American
money. They are openly operating
a black market traffic in money,

“Shanghai is a city of extremes’

—~extreme wealth alongside extreme.
poverty. Shops are filled with food
while people starve in the streets.
Prostitution flourishes; procurers

| ple’s Army,

said ethe seaman |

traffic in children of 12 and 13
years of age.

“I met an intellectual—a college
graduate who spoke good Engish
--and he openly admitted that con-
ditions. in North China, where he
had come from, were much better
for the peasantry and poor work-
ers. ‘No one has very much, but
no one starves; the government
distributes food and clothing, and
generally runs things more effici-
ently than here,’ he told me. The
people of the north are solidly be-
hind the Communists and the com-
mon people of Shanghai are await-
ing the coming of Chu Teh’s ar-
mies.

“One thing is certain. The or
dinary citizen of Shanghai will
never rally in defense of their .
present corrupt rulers, nor will
they support any attempted
‘come-back’ on the part of the
discredited Chiang Kai-shek.

“Streets are filled with Nation- -
alist soldiers in U.S. uniforms. They
are paid about $3 a month, and
show no desire to go to the front.
When they are given American
arms and sent into battle zones,
they promptly desert to the Peo-
bearing their arms
with them.” :

7229 W. Hastings
Upstairs

SSS
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PACIFIC TRIBUNE — FEBRUARY 25, 1949 — PAGE 12