8 WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER The October pi the index on agriculture piielets was unchanged from September at 241 — with the period 1935-39 equalling 100. Small increases in livestock and dairy products counterbalanced a sharp potato price slide. * * x Canada’s September employment industrially sagged contrary to seasonal trends, the Dominion Bureau of Statistics reports. Calculations showed fewer men and women at work in factories compared with August although a shade more than in September, 1960. This runs against government hopes—and claims—that the economy is picking up. The industrial composite index of employm2nt—with 1949 equalling 100— stood at 123.2 compared with 123.9 in August and 123.1 a year earlier. Most major industrial divisions were down. They did rise in forestry, trade and non-durable goods manufacturing. But construction was down more than three per cent for the month and losses ranged between one and two per cent in mining, durable goods manufactur- ing, public utility operation, transportation, storaze and communication. The decrease in durable goods—autos, washing machines, stoves, and machinery —was contrary to seasonal patterns and included auto-maker disputes re- sulting in layoffs. * = * Canadian air carriers bore fewer passengers and less freight in July than a year earlier. The passenger drop was 2.2 per cent to 477,901—questioning the wisdom of the government’s policy of letting Trans-Canada Airlines and Canadian Pacific Airlines battle it out on national runs to the detriment of both, especially the taxpayer-supported TCA line which is the chief victim. Freight dropped 2.8 per cent to 23,354,147 pounds. Operating revenue was up nearly nine per cent but operating expense was up a full nine per cent so that net income fell to $2,602,100 from $2,750,000. * * * Exports and imports for the third quarter of the year rose on 1960 levels a the comparable period—highest of any year yet, in fact. Exports shot 12.7 per cent for the July-September period of three months to $1,570, 100,000, giving a rosy hue to the government’s trade drive and the campaign to control the dollar at lower levels to pare Canadian export prices. But imports, contrary to government wishes, also rose steeply due to higher prices for items that Canada must buy—prices driven up because the Canadian dollar is worth less in terms of United States currency now. Im- ports rose 9.7 per cent to $1,422,000,000, said the Bureau of Statistics, Exports declined to the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. For the full nine months of 1961, exports are up 6.2 per cent over 1960 at $4,242,- 700,000. Imports are up 2.2 per cent at $4,193,300.000—providing a precari- ous export advantage. The bureau of Statistics reports that Canadian homes with electrical and other modern conveniences continued to rise this year and that about 84 per cent of those homes have television sets compared with 80.6 per cent in 1960. The number with radios—96.3 per cent—was unchanged from last year. The percentage with telephones rose slightly to 84.5 while 68.8 per cent had autos compared with 66.6 per cent. The percentages for auto- matic or other washing machines, however, declined slightly to 86 per cent. * * %* Labour income statistics for September from the Bureau of Statistics showed a small overall increase due largely to gains in British Columbia. Paid workers got an estimated $1,688,000,000 in salaries, wages and sup- plementary income—up 1.2 per cent from August. But the index for the four Atlantic provinces was unchanged at 110, down a point in Quebec at 412, down eight points in Ontario at 676, up a point on the prairies at 244 and up three points in B.C. at 172. ON WAGE FREEZE British Electrical Union Blasts Hole In Policy Employees of Britain’s nationalized electricity supply industry have blasted a great hole in the government’s wage freeze policy. A wage increase for electrical workers will come into effect Jan- uary 28, 1962, two months before the expected official end of the wage and dividend ‘“pause“ instituted by Prime Minister MacMillan and his government. Agreements Won Other unions are now winning agreements from their employers for wage boosts early next year. Farm workers get an increase from February 26, clothing workers from the beginning of March and the airport loaders, after a strike causing some chaos at London air- port, have -also gained an early Victory. It is becoming apparent that the government is recognizing defeat. Both the PM and the Chancellor of the Exchequer now use the word “restraint” instead of “pause”, al- though they still maintain the gov- ernment policy is intact. - Reject All Claims Labour observers here believe the government will continue to reject all claims where there is no real threat of a strike, and will settle where there is. Civil servants will be bullied but the truck drivers, who can disrupt the country, will be pacified. The electrical workers’ victory came when the five unions repre- senting 120,000 employees refused to accept a council offer of an in- crease in April. They asked for an immediate boost. The council re- plied with an offer of late February. Finally the January 28 date was agreed upon. The shattering of the govern- ment’s wage policy, all the more ironic coming in a nationalized in- dustry, caused a storm of protest among business circles in London. Dividend Pause Yet a “dividend pause” was also Prime Minister Sets Stage For Next Federal Election Prime Minister Diefenbaker has made four calls on provincial Progressive Conservative party organizations in a final drive to he the apparatus for winning the next election. New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Manitoba and Newfoundland have been covered and more visits else- where will be paid on schedule. June Election It now is assured, party work- horses say, that the election will be in June or thereabouts and that the next session of Parliament will meet after Christmas. Not all the election meat will be in the customary outline delivered in the speech from the throne. Fresh vote-catchy items will be added as the session proceeds, partly to at- tempt to catch the opposition off guard, partly to give the draftsmen time to operate and partly to leave the freshest-possible impression in the minds of the public that Mr. Diefenbaker has all the answers to all the questions that should be answered, Drought Payments It is taken for granted that west- ern farmers will get drought-relief payment in the form of an acreage bonus, the third since 1958 although they are paid irregularly on the whim of the government. Total cost about $41,000,000 but election in- surance for the three provinces in which the government record stands in fairly good repute on the basis of high wheat exports and prompt ac- tion to alleviate the impact of drought. Mr. Diefenbaker knows his western farmers. In lieu of the promised revision of the Immigration Act, tidying up Canada’s discriminatory legislation to put it in line with the full-blown pious hopes of the Bill of Rights, there will just be a juggling of the act’s regulations. of Tricks a Voters may well be asked to en- dorse a National Development Fund, too, which has been cooking in the Tory bag of tricks for several years. In effect, Canadians would get the opportunity to invest in Canadian resources — a gimmick in line with the Diefenbaker song of the 1957 and 1958 campaigns that the country is top-heavy with foreign investment. The government may well start the fund off with an initial deposit of some millions of dollars and then, despite the objections of the orthodox Finance Minister Fleming and his strait-laced cabinet collea- gues, urge investment by Canadian citizens in the exploitation of min- erals, a industry or other projec ag would be an outstanding ex- ample of Mr. Diefenbaker’s ability to declare an election on the grounds of “free enterprise vs socialism” from one side of his mouth and then embark on a program capable of raising hackles on Toronto’s Bay Street. It is an idea which would prob- ably catch the imagination of more people than it would repel and on those grounds alone it has Tory merit, in the view of observers who have watched Mr. Diefenbaker plot and plan for more than four years. Canada’s Attitude Meanwhile, a great shift seems on in Canada’s attitude toward the British application to join the com- mon market, greeted so coldly at one time. Mr. Fleming has returned from a tour of European capitals, where it is suspected that he was trying to make peace on one hand and the best possible bargain on the other. Hows have hed Goby aC reconciling their respective views in it opposition market and to Britain’s entry there- in to a more moderate approach summed up by expressed determina- tion to check all the facts and then judge. Look-and-See While Mr. Hees is handicapped by some very specific criticisms in the past of just what Canadian in- dustry would suffer from the Market itself or British entry, he has swung to more qualified utterances of a look-and-see nature. Mr. Fleming has been equally uncertain of late. Mr. Diefenbaker has gone so far as to suggest that British entry in the Market would not unduly dis- tress Canada. Why? Canada's largest farm or- ganization, representing a_ section of the economy which is most vul- nerable to trade disruption if Com- mon Market tariffs are protectionist or Britain should have to impose tariffs on Commonwealth farm pro- duce as a requisite for joining the Market, has come out strongly for the longer-term benefits of an ex- panded Common Market, Dangers Exist The Canadian Federation of Agri- culture said dangers certainly exist — particularly short-term risks and . particularly those arising from Brit- ain’s possible entry. But it said the over-all concept appears wise and statesmanlike. This is just one example of views from various economic sec- tions urging a good look — with- out undue wailing — before Canada rejects a trend toward trading blocs which appears steadily developing. If high levels of unemployment persist, Congress will be asked to cut the 40-hour work week, says the AFL-CIO. The federation executive council, in a report released in advance of part of the government plan. One or two public spirited companies main- tained their dividend level and a number of others, suffering from a recession, made a virtue out of neces- sity. While protests were being heard about the electricity workers, how- ever, two breweries increased their dividends from 13% to 14% per cent and from 25 per cent to 27% per cent. A property company also increased from 25 to 27% per cent. Although electricity supply is nationalized, the government has no control over wage negotiations by the Electricity Council. It could per- aps exert some control over the nationalized coal mines and rail- ways, which are at present showing a deficit, by refusing to make credit available. Electricity is earning a good surplus. iners, railwaymen, engineers and shipbuilders, the latter two in private industry, are in the line-up with wage claims. so convenient with a CURRENT ACCOUNT © you receive a monthly statement with your cancelled cheques. © open your account with us today. at keep track of expenses IMPERIAL BANK OF COMMERCE OVER 1240 BRANCHES TO SERVE YOU. CANADIAN High Unemployment ‘ill Cut Work Week convention sessions in Miami Beach, also called on unions to redouble their own efforts to reduce work hours through collective bargaining agreements. . Benjamin Franklin: “Carelessness does more harm than want of knowledge.” Quote .. Fed. Officers To Meet Cabinet Officials of the B.C. Federation of Labour will meet with the Provincial Cabinet in Victoria, December 18, in an annual discussion of labour’s g the delegation will be Federation President, Bob Smeal and Secretary, Pat O’Neal. 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