Review

EDITORIAL PAGE

TOM McEWEN, Editor — HAL GRIFPIN, Associate Editor — RITA WHYTE, Business Manager.

Comment

Published weekly by the Tribune Publishing Company Ltd. at Room 6, 426 Main Street, Vancouver 4, B.C. — MArine 5288
Canada and British Commonwealth countries (except Australia), 1 year $3.00, 6 months $1.60. Australia, U.S., and all other countries, 1 year $4.00, 6 months $2.50.
Printed by Union Printers Ltd., 550 Powell Street, Vancouver 4, B.C.

Authorized as second class mail, Post Office Department, Ottawa

Pay envelopes for jobless

W E do not begrudge Prime
Minister Louis St. Laurent
his six-weeks’ junket around the
world. Having just increased his
salary from $15,000 to $25,000,
with a $10,000 sessional indem-
nity and $2,000 car allowance
thrown in, making $37,000 in all,
at least he can enjoy a holiday
without having to worry about
where next month’s rent is com:
ing from.

In these recent cabinet wage
boosts across the board, which
will clip the harassed taxpayer a
neat $577,000 per annum, it is
a comforting thought for working
men to know that there were no
vexatious arguments about “‘ruin-
ing’’ this or that industry. It
would seem this ‘‘ruination’’ only
operates when a working man
through his trade union asks for

an extra dime to balance the

family budget.
We do feel, however, that with
unemployment in Canada reach-

ing the half-million mark — a fact
which no amount of chicanery or
evasion can hide, the Prime Min-
ister would have been much more
“gainfully employed”’ had he stay

ed at home and given the urgent .

problem of pay envelopes for
these hundreds of thousands of
unemployed workers and_ their
families his immediate and _pres-
sing attention. ‘

Having voted themselves a
very nice wage boost, it cannot
be said that the members of the
St. Laurent government are not
highly appreciative of the need of
a well-filled pay envelope. It is
therefore not asking too much to
expect the same consideration for
thousands of jobless Canadians
who, through no fault of their
own, have been deprived of their
pay envelope.

Only a united trade union
movement, alert, decisive and ac
tive in a struggle against the men-
ace of unemployment will awaken

) Pace |

“You two don’t need to bring anything. I’ve got everything!”

the Liberal somnambulists at Ot
tawa to, the seriousness of this
issue.

Last week the B.C. Federation
of Labor (CCL) made a worthy
start in this direction by its de
cision to unionize the unemployed
in B.C. and bring their collective

‘strength into action for jobs and

pay envelopes. Every section of
the labor movement should fol-
low suit. |

SS)

The issue is not “‘who’’ is go
ing to provide this pay envelope,
but that it must be provided.
This, we think, should have en-
gaged the attention of Canada’s
prime minister at this time, rather

than flying around the world
while a half-million of his fellow
Canadians don’t know where
their next pay envelope is com-
ing from.

pra

Tom |
McEwen

: TEVER we as a people do in the

7 unceasing battle against the great
crippling and killing diseases, polio,
eancer and TB, carries us a little closer
to mankind’s age-old dream of the con-
quest of all disease, the mastery of the
secrets of life. ;

How often have we ‘heard some one
say, perhaps some one close to us, strick-
en by grief: “If only they would spend
the money on cancer research that they
spend on bombs!” What could be ac-
complished if our scientific and financial
resources, now harnessed to “defense”
were marshalled instead for the defense
of the people’s health — for life, not

death. ~

But, committed as we are by Liberal

government policies to the insane and

destructive designs of U.S. imperialism,
we make token contributions to the
battle against disease and see our birth-

right squandered in the pursuit of poli-

cies which create the social conditions
wherein the killing diseases thrive.
These same policies produce another
and equally deadly disease, a disease of
the mind, popularly known as McCarthy-
ism. And as with all diseases, it recog-
nizes no bounds. It flourishes wherever
greed and corruption seek to preserve
themselves against progress, wherever
blind hatred and prejudice abandon reas-
on for hysteria in their desperate efforts
to prevent change. The very daily news-
papers that, on rare occasions speak
editorially against it, foster it in their
columns. Its germs are cultivated and
spread to silence all opposition, to para-
lyse resistance to the policies of war
and destruction. It is the disease of
fascism.
@ ;
What this disease does to seemingly
intelligent people can’ be seen from the
many examples where not only has it
taken root but in fact has become the

ideological core of executive and judi-°
- cial dictum.

Last week in Detroit, Mrs. Helen Win-

~ ter, one of the six Michigan Communists

charged by the disease carriers of Mc-
Carthyism with “conspiring to overthrow
the U.S. government” was brought into
a federal court. Very ill and suffering
from sciatic neuralgia, Mrs. Winter had
to be wheeled into court on an ambu-

lance stretcher, covered with the regu--
lation ambulance blankets, which hap- -

pen to be red in color.’

“Get that red flag out of this court-
room at once,” screamed Federal Judge
Frank A. Picard in a choleric fit. Mrs.
Winter’s legal counsel tried to explain
that the blankets were part of the regu-
lation ambulance equipment, but this
judicial maniac, his mind apparently
quite deranged, would have none of it.
The red ambulance blanket had to be

_ removed before the “learned” judge
could be calmed down. |

That, some one may want to argue, is
an extreme case of the symptoms of this
mental sickness. Well, it is still not ‘so
long ago since one of the architects of
the McCarthy “hate Russia” phobia, the
late James V. Forrestal, U.S. Secretary
of State, succumbed to the disastrous ef-

‘fects of his own mania. Hearing a fire
truck siren passing his hotel, this “diplo-.

mat” was so convinced that the Red Army
was at the front door that he took a
header out of the window—sixteen floors
up. The jump permanently cured this
poor unfortunate, but it didn’t stop the
spread of this deadly mental disease he
had been instrumental in incubating!
Only a few weeks ago two young Tories,
who must have felt that “Honest” John
Bracken did the party a bad turn when

he insisted on changing Liberal-Conserv- |

ative to Progressive Conservative, found
themselves picked up as “undesirables”
in Florida because the U.S. Immigration
takes a dim view of anything or anyone
with a “progressive” label, real or fic-
titious!’

@.

We saw the disease virus spread to
our own city the other day. In the de-
spicable Red Cross incident of the hiring

-and “firing” of Miss Beatrice Ferney-

hough, the Vancouver Sun and the Van-
couver Province both contributed to
spreading the disease. But a few days

~ later, when a Kelowna school principal

was compelled to relinquish his post be-
cause of the pressures of local thought

controllers, the Vancouver Sun became
alarmed. From this one can only assume
that our “free press” is all for this mental
polio—just so long as it doesn’t strike
too close to home.

The present book-burning incident in
Victoria, whatever else it may do, points
up the ever-present danger of the spread
of this mental sickness. An ignorant civic
.official who probably couldn’t tell the
difference between an Oxford classic and
a bag of oatmeal, would burn all books
he thinks are “communistic.” In other
words, this ignoramus would set himself
up as a censor on what Canadians should
or should not read. It is encouraging
to see the almost universal condemna-
tion of this civic stupidity—but it is also
disturbing to see a disease as deadly as
polio or cancer find a foothold anywhere

in Canada. .

Some time ago a number of members
of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra were
dismissed and denied the opportunity of
contributing their talent to Canada be-
cause, forsooth, their views were con-
sidered “dangerous” and they had to be
dropped from Canada’s premier orches-
tra as a pre-condition of that organiza-
tion’s entry to the land of McCarthy. ~

And only recently a Canadian ballet
organization, scheduled to appear at a
Mine-Mill sponsored concert in Sudbury,
with a full house guaranteed and all
tickets sold, cancelled its engagement to
dance before an audience of Canadian
miners, because to do so might “en-

danger” their opportunity to appear be-

fore American audiences. In this inci-

dent it is obvious that the disease can

often reach epidemic proportions. Those
afflicted claim that the Mine-Mill union
is dominated by “Reds,” so, if you want
to dance, keep away from anything red,
whether it be blankets or ballet.
_At the moment this disease virus is
liberally sprinkled between the sheets
of a proposed new statute. for Canada—
Bill 7. And, as your doctor will in-
variably tell you, “prevention is better
than cure.” :
Right now that advice should be heed-
ed by all freedom-loving Canadians who
desire to keep Canada strong in body
and mind. The mental disease of Mc-
Carthyism is spreading to our border.
Let us stamp it out as we would a
disease-infected rat which had invaded
our home. Preserving our sanity is a
precondition for restoring our indepen-
dence and our resources!

Forty years ago

(From the files of the B.C. Federationist,
February 6, 1914)

The B.C. Federation of Labor held its
fourth annual convention in New West-
minster, January 26-30. A verbatim re-
port of the convention proceedings filled
a special 32-page edition of the B.C.
Federationist. Among the issues debat-
ed were the Vancouver Island coal min-
ers strike, votes for women, Asiatic ex-
clusion, prison reform, unemployment
and trade union support of a labor party.

Fifteen years ago

(Froim the files of the People’s Advocate,
February 3, 1939)

A joint statement issued by Commun-
ist parties of Europe and America warn-
ed: “War threatens France, Europe
and the world. Help Spain in order to
help ourselves.” The statement called
for an end to non-intervention, restora-
tion of international law enabling the
Spanish Republic government to| pur-
chase arms and war materials and inter-
national action to compel withdrawal of
German Nazi and Italian Fascist armies
from Spain. It concluded: “Assure the
triumph of Republican Spain to assure
world peace.”

* * *

The Soviet government lodged an of-

. ficial protest with the Japanese govern-

ment against continued Japanese forays
along the Manchurian-Siberian border
and coupled it with a warning of the
grave consequences that would follow
if the Japanese government ignored the
protest. .

Ten years ago

(From the files of The People,
February 5, 1944)

Tim Buck, national leader of the
Labor-Progressive party, ‘said his party
had no intention of making changes in
name or structure similar to those pro-
posed for the U.S. Communist party by
Earl Browder.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — FEBRUARY 5, 1954 — PAGE 5