Men behi ae) (Continued from previous page) ter, where the Standard Oil crowd is backing the Minute Women’s, movement. The Minute Women are an in- fluential group of rich fascists. They control the public school system. (Two English teachers have been dismissed from Rea- gan High School in Houston—one for reading Studies American Literature, the other for reading selections from D. H. Lawrence to students.) They also have power in some of» the churches. They throw their weight against Ne- groes, Jews, and labor union. And . they have the official blessing of Senator Joseph McCarthy. The Standard Oil crowd is also attempting to purge the churches of Texas of anti-fascist pastors, and some of its members are en- couraging McCarthy himself. I watched the fascists at a ‘meeting in the Houston Music Hall soon after I came to ‘Texas. The chairman was Hines Baker, president of Humble Oil Com- pany, biggest subsidiary of Stand- ard Oil Company of New Jersey. And IT saw Baker nodding his head and smiling as McCarthy was cheered. ’ A smile may not mean much of itself. But the Standard Gil president knew that he was pre- Siding at a McCarthyite meeting. . In fact he had helped to call that meeting himself. He knew that the official pur- pose of this meeting was to pro- mote the purge of anti-McCarthy preachers and other pulpit liber- : als as “Communists.” He was a leading member ,of the pulpit purge committee. And he had personaly helped to pay the printing casts of a pamphlet cyn- ically entitled Will Individual Freedom Survive? stating that any one who complained of “Mc- Carthyism” was a “Communist” himself. . ; Baker’s meeting was packed by the rich Minute Women, whom the Standard Oil crowd is abet- ting. The first president of the Houston chapter of this fascist group was the wife of a Humble Oil representative. And’ 60 of its leading members were the wives of oil millionaires, oil executives and oil technicians. ® In the fascist drive of which McCarthy is a part the role of the monopolists is all-important. It is true that the big oil “in- dependents” are making more noise and perhaps putting up more money at this time. But the activities of the monopolists will be far more decisive in the long The monopolists—not the “in- dependents”—are still the mast- ers, although the wealth of the “independents” gives them some power. The big oil trusts like the » Texas and Gulf com- panies can clamp down on the Billion Dollar Trio if they find it mecessary to do so. Hunt is rich—fabulously rich. He could buy his weight in plati- num like the Aga Khan many many times over. But the trusts hold the position of power in the ‘The trusts own the pipelines that carry Hunt’s oil from his wells in half a dozen states. The trusts own the great refineries that turn this oil into gasoline. And the trusts own the filling sta- tions that turn his gasoline into doHars. The trusts also control the banks that furnish the credit that the biggest “independent” needs. The trusts also have far more control of the Eisenhower govern- ment than Hunt and his fellow “independents” possess. And this in Classic : Lit i Wilgiiae control is most decisive in U.S. economic life today. Hunt would like to change the relationship of forces by putting his own man into the White House. But McCarthy does not belong solely to Hunt and _ his fellow “independent angels.” Some of the men of the trusts also have invested some chips at UL Ue EE Ue ee te ee Eee MG EY Oe Ge Oe YE HTP Tit Git 0) G0 Td TV GP TA nd McCarthy SRM ET the McCarthy table. And the role of these men of the trusts must not be forgotten in fighting the fascist menace. : The fight against McCarthyism is a fight against the big business interests that have underwritten the fascist movement in every country since Mussolini came to power in 1922. Typical of McCarthy’s methods was the incident pictured here when U.S. deputy marshals hustled Nathaniel Mills out of the hearing room at Lynn, Mass.,. after he had charged McCarthy with ‘conspiring against General Electric workers in his Senate investigating sub- committee probe. OPEN FORUM | Evdokimoff appeal JACK PHILLIPS, secretary, League for Democratic Rights, Vancouver: We read a few days ago-that Mr. Justice Manson sentenced Peter Oscar Jorgenson to four years in the penitentiary for the crime of arson. Jorgen- son was convicted of burning down his business premises in Vancouver. Some $400,000 worth ‘of processed film was destroyed; all of it, we are informed, cover- ed by insurance. Thus, if Jorgen- son had been found not guilty, he could have claimed $400,000: ~ We can assume that Mr. Justice Manson had two things in mind when he sentenced Jorgenson. First, to punish him for his crime. Second, to make an example of Jorgenson, as a warning that the laws of the land must be obeyed. With these functions of the courts we have no quarrel, but we must examine how these functions are carried out. — The same Mr. Justice Manson, last August in Nelson, sentenced Nick Evdokimoff, a Sons of Free- dom Doukhobor, to 14 years in the penitentiary for allegedly being in possession of an explosive sub- stance (a jug of gas mixed with oil) and with intent to cause de- struction to property. For Eyvy-: dokimoff, who is 55 years of age, this is virtually a life sentence. Evdokimoff did not burn down his premises, or anyone else’s. Neither was he convicted of con- spiracy. He was given 14 years for alleged intent to cause de- struction to property, not any property in particular, but just property. Some who read this will recall that Mr. J. A. Charters, a high school teacher from Castlegar, . testified as a defense witness at the Evdokimoff trial. On Febru- ary 26 of this year, he published an unsolicited letter in the Nel- - son Daily News. Permit me to quote from that letter: “I have long been under the impression that our Canadian courts of law, though they might fall far below the misty heights of perfection, are as fair as the laws, the weight of precedence, public proceedings and the watch- ful impartiality of an unbiased, learned and “gentlemanly judge could make them. This impres- sion would begin to appear some- what naive if my experience in the Assizes held recently in Nel- sons responsible for his convic- “I found it impossible to ban- ish the impression that the judge was determined, though unconsc- iously perhaps, that the trial. should end in a conviction. The impression was heightened later by the judge’s directions to the jury. Passing rapidly and unemo- tionally over the standards of proof required to convict the ac- cused, when once he came to the question of explosives, his entire attitude seemed to change. Ad- dressing the jury in a strong, vig- orous and visibly agitated man- ner, he almost shouted in words to the following effect, “I don’t see why so much time has been spent on the questions of ex- plosives.” He then went on to offer unsupported opinions as to the explosive qualities of the jug when ignited, entirely ignoring as he did so the experimental proof to the contrary offered by the defense.” : These quotes eloquently illust- rate the importance of the Ey- dokimoff appeal. It it not a phil- osophy or the practise of any group of Doukhobors that was in the dock at Nelson. It was a hu- man being, a Canadian citizen, who was in the dock. The ques- tion is this: Was the case present- ed against him sufficient to con- vict and send to jail for 14 years, or was it not? When the appeal opens in Van- couver on April 2, it will not be Evdokimoff who is before the bar of justice. It will be the entire chain of circumstances and pro- ceedings that led to his being sent to the penitentiary. Some people wonder why a Gert Whyte Ce SPOR 1 be Saturday, March 27, the In- ternational Sports League will hold its first banquet, marking two years of sports activity, at the Russian People’s Home, 600 Campbell Avenue. Dinner starts at 7 p.m., featuring chow mein, and afterwards trophies are to be presented to winning teams, and a dance will wind things up. “The banquet should attract many sportsmen, particularly among those young people who took part in various league activi- ties,’ ISP president Harry Stooch- nov told the Pacific Tribune this week. : ‘ “Our league treasury is begin- ning to grow, and we should have better equipment and facilities in the coming period,” said treas- urer Jimmy McFarlan. - “Tell uS more about the Inter- national Sports League,” we sug- gested, and Jimmy replied: “The banquet will be an occa- sion where youth from Chinese, Jewish, Ukrainian, Russian and Finnish organizations, along with members of the National Federa- tion of Labor Youth, will get together to promote friendly re- lationships through sports. ' “In past years we have spon- sored baseball, basketball - and bowling, and in the-future will attempt to organize soccer, vol- leyball and ping-pong. “The basketball finals are not quite finished, but the Chinese civil liberties organization like the LDR can support an appeal of this type? The best way to ans- wer this question is to ask an- other: If one man can be sen- tenced to 14 years because he is a Sons of Freedom Doukhobor when the Sons are unpopular, doesn’t this set the precedent whereby any one of us can be sent to jail on the basis of member- ship in, or association with, an- other unpopular group? The LDR is supporting Evdokimoff because we believe he is innocent in this case. In our estimation, it is not Evdokimoff who must answer to public opinion, but the very per- sons responsible for his convic- _ tion and harsh sentence. Gas action needed E. MARSH, Vancouver, BG While the tragic toll of gas deaths was being discussed at a Van- “couver City Council meeting, one brilliant exponent of Bumbledom said that too much fuss was be- ing made about the matter, as we . don’t know how many of these deaths are suicides and how many are accidents. : Bumbledom should realize that in many of the suicide cases, long before this act is resorted to by unemployed, veterans, handicap- ped people or old age pensioners, economic and cultural starvation has sapped all the health and heppiness out of their tortured bodies and minds: These people do not take their lives: it is a case of their lives being taken from them by misery _ and want. What is needed is a campaign -at federal, provincial and city levels for a comprehensive hous- ing program so that people could have decent homes that are not gas traps, fire traps, health traps nor any kind of death traps. It seenis that the most efficient way to combat gas deaths is for the gas company to install safety equipment. PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MARCH 26, 1954 — PAGE 10 _ a “waiter” who is the best stretch the “iron” game. | Comets seem to have the situa- tion pretty well in hand. This is the first year the Chinese org- anization has participated in the league, and their athletes have WILLIE SHOEMAKER. shown the older teams quite a lot about sharp-shooting, dribbl- ing and ball handling.” * * * Willie Shoemaker is the great- est modern jockey, and probably, will find a niche in turf history — alongside Earle Sande, Tod Sloan, and Snapper Garrison. The “Silent : Shoe’’ is a natural in the saddle, easy on the horses he pilots, and expert ever. Coming from be- hind to win is fine, if you don’t get boxed in. Willie seldom does. But it is said that he secretly envies Johnny Longden’s ability to win wire-to-wire with a front runner, : f x x * The Soviet Union goes . from success to success in the sporting world. Its win in the world ice hockey championships was mere- ly the crowning achievement in a whole series of victories. In Japan, Soviet contestants fill- ed 11 of 15 medal-winning places in the men’s world speed skating © championships. Boris Shilkov took the all-round title. Two weeks later in Switzerland he added the European title to his collection. Soviet girls took the first three places in the women’s world speed skating championships in ye Sweden, with Lydia Selikhova be- coming the new champion. Also in Sweden, Soviet entrants take four titles in the world ski- ing championships. ; : Flick the sports diary pages back over the past nine months: The USSR first of 17 nations in the European men’s basketball championships in Moscow. World weight-lifting champion- ships in Stockholm: 1, USSR. Seven Soviet lifters entered five weight divisions in seven, gained three gold medals, three silver, one bronze, one world record. There followed a regular deluge , of Soviet-made world marks in In track and field athletics, two men’s and seven women’s proved best, the last quite recently, with Nadefihda Konyayev, scoffing at the muscle-chilling tricks of sub- zero weather, pushing the javelin mark out to 175 ft. 856 in. Lesson in this is that a new era in sports achievement is on the way, thanks to-the Soviet | ap- proach. rae Masses of young Soviet people _ are taking part in sport. They don’t muddle through. They are — taught correct technique from the outset. z :