EDITORIAL PAGE x

Review *«

wt .

of The CPR shutdown __ Bennett's budget —

| uae tersely, and without
any public preliminary palaver,
the CPR announced last week it
was‘ discontinuing its Vancouver-
Victoria steamship service for the
winter months, Two ships and two
crews summarily beached, on the
pretext of an old monopoly tale:
“No profits.” :

Regardless of its chartered obli-

Victoria ferries in the interests of
“essential services.”

Either that, or standing exposed
as the willing political tool of the
monopoly interests, who always
place profits before the “essential
services” of public wellbeing.

Which is it going to be Premier
Bennett, CPR profits or public
services?

jN TERMS of round figures the
budget brought down last week
by Premier Bennett is the largest
in B.C.’s history. Premier Bennett
has described it as a “happy”
budget. No doubt it is—for-a few.

High on Premier Bennett’s bud-
get is his “debt free by 1960”
obsession, designed to demonstrate
the superiority of Socred financing

and bookkeeping. A simple P
of transferring provincial deb
to a “contingent liabilities” coll
Seen in this light the inet
aid to municipalities is a §
“gift horse” that shouldn't be
ed at too closely in the 2
Most municipalities in B.C.
to gain little from Ber

¥ gation to provide an important pub- a » ;
Comet lic service, it is already obvious happ y budget. soe ee
i that the CPR had the go-ahead nod ; PE Flying ae departm
from Ottawa to put profits before ighways and bridges a mo
service, and to close down its Vic- CLIP AND MAIL 10 YOUR MLA eral dispensation of “happine: =
toria run. I wish to register my support for the resolution moved by Leo Nimsick evident. Almost 25 percent of ™
; ee we learn that wee one (CCF—Cranbrook); . total budget will go to make Pom
: mia aS Sa a is Ben “Whereas the question of exports is so important to the economy of and —_ bridge-building co
| ’ ne oe Cae : “ ” * ° =a
nett-Bonner government, which British Columbia; : are happy” with Phil. of
sprung into action with ill-con- And whereas China, due to geographical position, is a natural avenue For the tens of thousands &
f ceaed haste to invoke the Civil for trade with British Columbia: : B.C.’s jobless workers there is ®
K aS Defense Act against the. striking Therefore be it Resolved, That this House urge the Federal Govern- direct budgetary “happiness” stated
seamen of the Black Ball Ferries ment to give immediate diplomatic recognition to the Government of + as have
, F - or indicated. Perhaps they too
last summer, and kept these coastal the People’s Republic of China. _4a
hi : : been trasferred to another c¢
ships running under an unconsti- : : “fiaui
tutional government decree, is NAME ---~----------------+-~-------+- +--+ --- 2-2-2 in Socred bookkeeping, to be 7
strangely inactive. = dated” like the provincial debt j
On the pretext of maintaining RD DREDS cso 35 ee ees eee = at the expense of the municipal
“essential services” the Bennett ties? a
gevernment draped itself with a ¢:
Civil. Defense Act as its authority bay

for governmental strike - breaking.
Public. “indignation” against sea-
men seeking a modest wage in-
crease to meet rising living costs
was whipped up to hysteria pitch.
Labor had’ become “too. powerful
+ . . too unreasonable” and there-
fore had to be “put in its -place.”
Thus armed, the Bennett govern-
ment enabled the Black Ball Fer-
: ries to maintain its “essential” (and
a highly profitable) services.
Now the shoe is on the other Bae : i :
eee. is foot, but this time it is monopoly ~ NTIRELY aside from the obvi- cisely what they were in the CCF
} profits that are in danger, so “es- E ous fact that “socialism” al la for — to win socialism in Can-
sential services” be damned. ; CCF presents no threat now, or ada! coe E
Having set a precedent, how- in the immediate future to the : In ea Aeeee pees Declara-
ever, in the art of strike-breaking . B.C. or national economy, it still tion which now ae aces the old
by sailing the strike-bound Black holds first place in the political Manifesto, socialism. has heen
* Ball’ under'a Socred “cipal defense” hocus pocus of Tory, Liberal and wrapped in moth balls and care-
flag, and regardless of the inter- Socred medicine men. Waving fully stowed. away from public
ests of the Black Ball seamen, the this bogey of CCF “socialism an 3) Nicieex eee
Bennett government is now faced aloft with appropriate incanta- é Dae fe aos ers tas 5
- with the public duty of taking over tions, they seek to frighten and ale a8 ee “a Bre eae
and operating the CPR Vancouver- confuse the electorate, and most ea EOnenuS Planning, a it-
important (for them) obscure tle “mixed economy here and
the real political issues. there, «so that the patient suffer-
Hence it is not entirely an ing from an overdose of capital-
accident of history that a Tory- ist economy: can_absorb CCF soc-
Liberal shotgun alliance (Coali- ialism “gradually” .and without: -
tion) managed to misgovern this any disturbance of the status quo. —
banner province for ‘nigh on A little tinkering here and _
two decades mainly on the ‘pre- there with experiments at state _
text that 4t had “saved B.C. capitalism (with a. “socialist”
from CCF socialism,” or that its label). On the whole however,
Socred successor climbed into ~ basically an assurance to a poli-
the seats of government on the tically fluid electorate that the
same phoney pretext. Thus for CCF top brass, if given the op-
nearly thirty years B.C. has portunity, would run capitalism
been repeatedly ‘saved’ from better and more efficiently than
something which doesn’t exist! the capitalists do! as ike
Much of this miraculous “‘sav- Prior to and since the Ross-
ing” has been helped along by land-Trail byelection CCF woo-
the CCF top brass itself. With ing of the Liberals has warmed

up. In point of fact it was CCF —
provincial Jeader Robert Strach- —
an’s first appeal: not to heal the
political disunity in labor’s ranks, —
accentuated by the CCF’s “go-it-
alone” policy, but to invite the
Liberals into the CCF boudoir _
in order that together they could —
toss out the Socreds.
_ Liberal leader Arthur Laing is —
not adverse to this wooing, but —
would prefer the CCF to come —
into the Liberal fold rather
than vice versa. Remembering St.
Laurent’s paternal embrace of
CCF *leaders, Arthur wouldn't —
mind a few “Liberals-in-a-hurry”
in the old corral. 38
At its coming convention the
CCF is faced with the need of
drastic policy re-appraisal. For
nearly 25 years its “go-it-alone |
political - arm - of-labor” attitude
has enabled the old-line parties
of big business to repeatedly —
“save” B.C. — for themselves!
The continuing blind insistence —
of the CCF leadership to cast ~~
itself in the role of the labor- —
farmer politica] alternative as en-
visioned in the CLC resolution; —
- to tie the trade unions and farm
organizations, willy-nilly, to the
tail of a CCF kite, and exclude |
those who challenge such _poli-
cies, wil] fare no better. It will,
however, guarantee that the —
Tories, Liberals and  Socreds —
can. continue, without any serious —
challenge, to “save” British Co- |
lumbia for themselves — and
the monopoly exploiters they
serve...

the scrapping of its Regina Mani-
festo some three years ago the
word “socialism” is rarely men-
tioned in top CCF circles.

If the objective of socialism,
even of a “distinctive Canadian
type” was somewhat obscure in
the CCF foundation manifesto, it
did at least get some honorable
mention in top echelons, while
hundreds of rank-and-file CGE
workers believed that was pre-

Pacific Tribune
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Managing Editor — BERT WHYTE

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= February 13, 1959 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE |