* MUVE CE upon a time this Country " was peopled with Mice. They were a Happy Breed of Mice, carefree and fun-loving, indus- jrious and honest. There was only one fiy in the ointment—one louse in the limburger: the Cats. There were Fat Cats and Skinny Cats, Mangy Cats and Slinky _ Cats, Grey Cats and Purple Cats —but they all had one thing in - Common—they were lazy and didn’t like to work. So they herded the Mice into _ Factories. The Mice labored and _ produced Mountains of Great ' Wealth: Alphabet Soup and Auto- mobiles, Brassieres and Bridges, ‘Corn Flakes and Corsets, Decaleo- mania and Dredgers, Egg cups and Engines, Freezers and. Fry- ers and Full Dress Suits. ... Everything you could want, in short, for a well-ordered life, was produced by Mice. They were the only ones who worked. But the hard-working Mice. got - None of this. The Cats owned the Factories. The Mice were _ paid-off in large, round Holes sur- - rounded bv thin Rings of Cheese. When one more thoughtful Mouse protested timorously, he was Laid Off. The Cats found a Hun- grier Mouse to take his place . . . _ for Less Cheese. : _ This was known as catitalism. 5o3 % es Not only did the Cats own the Factories . . . they Governed the _ Country. Every 4 years the Coun- try went to the Polls to elect their _ MPs to the Mouse of Commons. The.Mice were Free to Vote for any Cat they liked. They were _ offered a Free Choice between _ the Catservative Party of the Lib- _ ereats or the Social-Democats. All the Parties came out with Prom- _ises that sounded pretty good but they always proved to have been nothing but Catch-all slogans, _ The Mice produced great and Cats with manicured toenails’ Are we Mice or Men ? Wealth but since they were paid- off in Thin Cheese, they could not buy back the Things they made—so Depression set in and Millions of Mice became Unem- ployed. . . . A real catastrophe. The Catitalists said. there was Over-Production. The Mice thought it was more like Under-Consumption. But the Cats got out of the De- pression by a Neat Strategem. They went to War to capture Markets. That is to say, . they sent the Mice to War to Fight for the Cats’ Way of Life. Mil- lions of Mice were slaughtered, the world was drenched in their Blood, but the Cats waxed Fat. So it went. As one Mouse re- marked: “They either Bleed you Death or Starve you to Death.” The Mice led a Hard Life until one day a very Thoughtful Mouse got a Bright Idea. : ‘ “Why not,’ he asked his Bro- thers, ‘elect Mice to Parliament?” ... “You can’t do that,” said the Cats, “that’s . Subversive,”” . . . “Go back to Russia,’ ‘said the C.M.A. (Cats Manufacturing Asso- ciation). . . . “Bolshevik Plot,” said the Premier of Quebec, 2 cat-loving bachelor. “Sounds like a Great Idea,” said the Mice, “let’s stop being mouse-trapped.” They saw their Salvation lay in Organizing as a Class to defend their own Class Interests. “Communists,” shouted the Cats. “Red Plot,” the cat-domin- ated press thundered. But the Idea began to grow. First in tens, then in hundreds, later in thousands, and finally in millions they came together un- der the great Emancipating Ban- ner: UNITE! — The Mice took over. “ at it x The Cats were 'Petrified. Power was slipping from their fingers. If they lost All, the worst might IW EINSAIN IN PAE Happen — they might have to go to Work! Never, they vowed. So they called on, their last hope, the Dollar-Rich Americats. ” We will give you‘our Country, they said, if you will Save us from the Menace of Communism, protect us from the Mice who are Organizing, The Americats were very gen- erous. In return for a’ First Mortgage on the world, they arm- ed the Cats against the Mice. Their anti-Mouse alliance was called N.A.T.O. (Not Allowed To Organize). In Canada, too, the Mice were on the March. The Canadian ruling Cats were so put out by the organizing An- tics of the Canadian Mice they couldn’t hand the Country over to the Americats fast enough. “This will never Do,” said some of-the more Progressive of the Laboring Mice. “If something is not done Soon, they'll have the Stars and Stripes over this Coun- try. We'll have to P.C.F.” So, from one end of the Coun- try to the Other, these Progres- sive Laboring Mice went, repeat- ing throughout the land Magic’ Words “P.C.F.” Be i m Patriotic Canadians bestirred themselves. “By all means P.C.F.” they said. The battle was on to “P.C.F.” When the Cats heard what “P.C.F.” stood for, they shiv- ered with rage like a Cat trying to cover droppings on a tin roof. But throughout Canada wher- ever honest Mice heard the cry “P.C.F.” they straightened up and began to move into action. “Are we Mice or are we Men,” they said as they began to fight. And do you know, good Cana- dians, that the Battle is Still Go- ing on to PUT CANADA FIST! Won’t you join in too? Depression _ Certain Without National _ Wage _ Increases ae PROFIT HOPS! 2 Sug Buying STOPS BUSMESS SLUMPS “PAY TOO LOW ‘ WORKERS SACKED —~ oboe fe: Signo the . Expert on night life DEPRESS IONS BACK ttle. When Little Hoci, the baby owl, came to Stanley Park Zoo a couple of months ago he was a tough little fellow but still liked his glass of milk every day. Now he’s growing up and has become quite an authority on night life in the park. OPEN FORUM Save the totems Mrs. E. M., Victoria, B.C.: I am very glad to see that some action is being taken to rescue a few of the totem poles that are being allowed to rot away in deserted coast Indian villages. Many of them have unfortun- ately-decayed beyond repair, and some more have been carted away to museums in other parts of the world. In fact, many of the best specimens of totem poles are in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington and others were housed in the fine collection in Berlin that was destroyed in the bombing raids of the last war. - Our own province can boast of only two collections of these poles — the largest owned by the provincial government and the other by the University. Some - totems from each collection are set up*in parks — Thunderbird Park in Victoria and the UBC botanical gardens. But of course wooden carvings will not stand constant exposure to the weather for long and already the ones in Victoria are being taken down and stored away with their places taken by replicas carved on the spot by Mungo Martin from Fort Rupert, the last of the great In- dian carvers. ‘ It is a real thrill to go down to the open shed in Thunderbird Park and to watch Martin and his son David, Working on a new pole. Their painstaking and laborious work on the huge logs makes one realize just how much time goes into the carving of a totem. It is no wonder that the art of the totem pole did not _ reach its full flower until after the white traders had brought iron tools among the Indians. Wilson Duff, Provincial Mu- seum anthropologist is to be con- gratulated for his determination to save the last of the totems still standing in the deserted Haida villages of the Queen Charlotte Islands. But it is a sad’ com- mentary on our neglect of the culture of the primitive inhabit- ants that the money did not come from the provincial government ‘but had to be begged from 2 private company. y The six totems he salvaged this summer are about all that re mains of 350 of the largest and finest poles ever carved on the coast. The Haida Indians of the Queen Charlottes are noted for the excellence of their work and their slate carvings are also just- ly famous. But the tribe once 8,000 strong and living in 15 vil- lages has been decimated by dis- ease and their villages were all deserted by the 1880's. One thing that is urgently need- ed is some sheltered place where totem ‘poles can be set up out of the wind and weather. No one who ‘has seen it will forget the impression made by the tall totem that lifts its head three stories high in the stair well at the Royal Ontario’ Museum in To- ronto. But here in the’ province where the totem is our symbol most of the surviving poles must be stored away for lack of dis- play space. Flashbacks I5 years ago (From the files of the,People’s - Advocate, August 18, 1939) Countrywide support was. forth- coming for the citizens’ picket liné _ established in Victoria to prevent shipment of scrap iron to Japa. — The picket line was organized by — Victoria Embargo Council. 10 years ago (From: the files of The People, _ August 19, 1944) Vancouver estra gave a concert in Malkin Bowl in honor of the people of he. Odessa, Soviet city “adopted” by — Vancouver, as a climax to cele-_ bration of Odessa Week. PACIFIC TRIBUNE — AUGUST 20, 1954 — PAGE 4 6 Symphony Orch: