Tom
- McEwen

WUC MMA

BUBB EN

‘Qome time ago the Vancouver Daily
_, Province sent out one of its bright
lads to do a bit of literary slumming
On Vancouver’s famed Skid Road. A
Series of real tear-jerking articles on
“ie social and moral depravity of this
Colorful area was the result.

No doubt a lot of people shuddered
at this pen picture of “our-way-of-life”’
at its lowest level and in its sordid
Ugliness, Burned-out loggers, hard rock
Miners, old salts, human derelicts, pros-

_Titutes, rubby-dubbers, canned-heat con-
Noisseurs, pimps and the rest; truly a
Ctime-incubator of a very intricate and
Complex sort.

The Province was all for doing some-
thing about it—but what, it didn’t say.
€thaps it harbored a notion that Police
hief Walter Mulligan should have his
Parking meter stalwarts roll up the skid
Toad like a carpet, together with its
denizens and tow them away some
Place until the tourist season was over.

oN One point the Province avoided—men-
4, tion of a social system which produces
Skid roads. To have gone into that
“Phase of the situation would have
_*tought out some interesting data on a
S0cial order which makes millionaires
in Of some and canned-heaters, prosti-
tes and petty thieves out of others.
Ww “respectable” slummers avoid that
fact with the same care as a mangy
Mongrel avoids a nest of polecats. ’

; Fat Ourselves we have always been
Shly allergic to slumming, literary
f other. We hate snoopers who nose
found with goggle-eyes prying into how
We live, what we live on, or why we
ve. Particularly do we abhor the
Slummers of yellow journailsm who like
Poke around in the septic tanks of
Nodern society in order to dig up some
Hoisome sample of filth with which they

ae to boost sales circulation and pro-

put, and we frankly admit it, the
"ovince skid road slumming excursion
a Us an idea—to do a little slumming
wtselves, but up in one of our more
wosbectable” skid roads. In other
Sones: to take a look at Who’s Who in
\ , me of our stock exchanges, broker-
> big business and other brothels of
age finance. Our researches were
hi Py to say the least, just a scratch-
a the surface. What could be dug
left a real investigation had better be

to the imagination of our readers.

in Way of background qualifications
ad slumming research, we might
“4 for the benefit of our readers that
tigi’ quite a number of “successful
ie executives” during the Hungry
B «,/©S when the late Tory Premier R.
' Iron Heel” Bennett provided us with
tentj ard and room in Kingston Peni-
We ha. for a number of years, because
eld some views on social change
Undourermization which would — and
subtedly will—put an end to the
€ causes which produce skid roads.

og Vhile in K.P. we got to know some
3 anada’s top criminals; outstanding

. Ness men, real-estate brokers, min-
Dron, Peculators, financiers, gold-brick
. Oters, devout sky pilots, stock ex-
8S experts, sex perverts, and ordin-

ee! |e eee ee MT

ary run-of-the-mill porch climbers. All
had an interesting story to tell—with
plenty of time to tell it. Naturally very
few ever admitted they were guilty of
any violation of the rules of the game,

‘just a slight slip here and there. Most

if not all were already maturing plans
to take up where they left off—but of
course, on a higher plane than before.

Now to our slumming expedition. In
the rotunda of one of our leading brok-
erage firms we ran into “Doc.” The
sartorial effects were stunning, and
strictly standard. Double-breasted gab-
ardine, shoes, shirt, bow tie and fedora

. to match, together with bulging brief-

case. ‘“Doc” is high up in business \ex-
ecutive circles, selling apartment blocks,
mining stocks, industrial loans and gen-
erally engaging in high finance. His
sales “line” has all the high-pressure
exuberance of the old days when he
used to sell social dowagers and rich
widows “sure thing” investments—with

a touch of sex elixir on the side to

sweeten the deal. Then, the law re-
gards “Doc’s” technique as a_ shade
unorthodox. Now, as a superbly vocal
executive in high finance “Doc” speaks
with the assurance that he is the law.
Observing our plebian attire and status
with unconcealed disdain, “Doc” waved
us a condescending bye-bye as he rush-
ed off to. advance the cause of rents,
interest and profits!

In the old days “Alex” was one of the

partners known in the “Big House” as .

the “Gold-dust Twins.” Selling fake
gold bricks to suckers with a get-rich-
quick complex was “Alex’” forte until
the law intervened. Now “Alex” is do-
ing the same job for a big B.C. promo-
tion firm, one of those outfits who
spend large sums advertising their con-
fidence in B.C., but this time says “Alex”
it is all “on the legit.” Also attired
in the standardized business executive
mode, and exuding the confidence of
the gold-brick fraternity, “Alex” shares
the common worry of his big business
skid road—how to stay in business when
laissez faire “free enterprise” and cold-
war buying and -selling get in each
other’s way.

Another of our slumming discoveries
on the big business skid road is a lad
who has done considerable time because
of his inability to distinguish between
the sexes. This fairy now specializes in
writing highly “moral” anti-Soviet and
antilabor editorial drivel on one of
British Columbia’s leading daily news-

‘papers, garnishing his scribblings with

copious quotations from Holy Writ,
thereby giving his special talents as a
staunch defender of our “free demo-
cratic way of life” an added punch.

‘Space, rather than any shortage of
the “business executives” with a crim-
inal record who circulate on this upper
level skid road, demands we cut our
slumming observations short. There is
just one comparison we would like to

draw between Vancouver’s colorful Skid

Road and the other: the one is a pro-
duct of a society which lives by exploita-

tion; the other is the parasitic fungus
which thinks it does the “living.”

“Doc” periodically used to regale his
fellow business men in the hoosegow
with a fair rendition of “Ah-sweet-mys-
teries-of-life-at-last-I’ve-found-you.” Now
it would appear that he and the Old
Lady of Cambie Street had made the
re-discovery almost simultaneously!

Personally we prefer Vancouver’s of-
ficial skid road’ Deep down at least,
it is comparatively clean; lilywhite in
fact when placed alongside the social
decay in double-breasted gabardine
which animates our upper level skid
roads. :

> :

Tom McEwen, Editor —

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McCarthy tries to influence
a Canadian election

ARD on the heels of a lot of press publicity about a mythical “long list of spies”
which the late Prime Minister Mackenzie King is supposed to have given to
President Harry ‘lruman to help launch their cold war, the ineffable Senator Joseph,
McCarthy has now called upon a self-styled Canadian “expert’’ to testify before his
Un-American committee. The fact that McCarthy chooses ‘this particular time
when Canada is engaged in a federal election campaign cannot be regarded as a
coincidence. It is calculated to influence the course of Canadian politics and there-
fore is deliberate and insolent interference in Canadian affairs.

The latest “expert” from Canada to regale the Yankee witch-hunters with lurid
tales of the “Communist menace” is Pat Walsh, ex-seaman and stoolpigeon who
though he never was a communist has now become a professional “ex-communist.”
To all the hair-raising tales which have been concocted about the Canadian Seamen’s
Union strike of 1948, this RCMP stool adds still another, that the Communsts or-
ganized the CSU strike “to wreck the Marshall Plan. and NATO.” The fact that
NATO was not officially in existence in 1948 is of little consequence, either to

expert” Walsh or his McCarthy prompters. Their job is to fan the dying embers
of anti-Sovet hate and they feed the’ megalomania of the dollar imperialists.’ Truth’
is not required in such objectives. Having set himself the jok of “exposing an inter-
national conspiracy of the Communist party,” McCarthy must first invent what he
plans to “expose.” Hence the need of “experts” such as Walsh.

_ With such “experts” it shouldn’t be difficult for McCarthy and his warmonger-
ing lunatics to work up a real dime thriller. However, Canadian workers know the
Walsh breed for what it is and any “conspiracy” attested to by Pat Walsh in the
McCarthy “expose” on NATO will carry about as much weight as an old-line poli-
tician’s pre-election promise!

And Senator McCarthy? Well, it was the McCarthy mentality which murder-
ed the Rosenbergs; which wants to sink all British ships carrying goods to people
not “approved” by McCarthy; which wants to make a bonfire of all books. music
and works that do not conform to McCarthy “standards”: which would turn the
world into a prison-house of nations — with McCarthy as top warden,

Canadians are not impressed, either with the professonal lying of Pat Walsh!
—or the lunacy of Senator McCarthy. If NATO has failed it is not due to the

“subversive” activities of Communists, but to the arrogant stupidity of the McCarthys

who have failed to learn the glorious truth, spoken for millions of people in her last
hour by a courageous woman who refused to barter her life for a lic, Ethel Rosen-

berg: “Our respect for truth, conscience and human dignity is not for sale. Justice
is not some bauble to be sold to the highest bidder.”

‘Project X’ flops

‘URN a member of the Dulles family
loose with $100 million voted by
the U.S. Congress — and plenty more
where that came from—for the speci-
fic task of stirring up trouble, and some-
thing is bound to happen.

That is the key job of Allen Dulles,
brother of U.S. Secretary of State John
Foster Dulles. Chief director of U.S.
“Operation X,” Allen Dulles’ job is to
organize a vast army of fascist gang-
sers, spies, saboteurs, assassins, crimin-
als and other agents provocateur, and
turn them loose to prey upon states
which do not grovel before the high
priests of Yankee imperialism.

The recent East German disturbances
are the end products of U.S. “Project
X.” iust as.on: the other side of the
world, the gangster Syngman Rhee
is coached by Yankee imperialism to
block a world-wide desire for an end
to the wanton slaughter and destruc-
tion in Korea.

With the threat of peace in Korea,
the organizers of “Project X” made a
desperate attempt in East Germany to
foment counter-revolution and civil
war, which would have provided them
with the “moral” excuse for armed
intervention. Eisenhower’s “congrat-

ulations” to Chancellor Konrad Aden-
auer of West Germany on June 18, ac-
companied by a bribe of an additional
$50 million to keep up the “good
work,” points up the provocative role
of the Wall Street aggressors and their
“Project X” conspiracies against the
German people.

In this attempted “Project X” putsch,
the Reuthers, Moshers and Bengoughs,
together with the leading organs of
right-wing’ social democracy every-
where, joined with Eisenhower in their
“congratulations” to the Nazi terrorists.
and Yankee copperheads who sparked
the East Berlin disorders. Those mis-
leaders of labor who out-shout their
paymasters about Communist “force
and violence” thus place themselves to
the forefront in their advocacy of
“Project X’-inspired violence against
the people.

In the failure of the U.S.-inspired
and financed East Berlin disturbances,
the atomaniacs of Washington and
their henchmen everywhere suffered
a smashng defeat — a defeat that no
amount of monopoly press propaganda
can cover up! The “golden opportun-
ity” they spent so much to achieve,
has passed for good.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JULY 17, 1953 — PAGE 5

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