_THE NATION $500 million for armaments, but 1 = — — P 4‘)! ry , nh By TIM BUCK St. Laurent won't subsidize housing ‘TERE are more than 5,000 families in Toronto who are about to become DPs—displaced persons in their Own land. They’ have received notices to vacate their homes within the next 11 weeks and if they don’t they ~ will be evicted—thrown onto the streets. According to Frank Dearlove, the housing officer for Toronto welfare department, most of these families have three or more children. That means that over 20,000 Toronto people face a homeless future because, as Dearlove pointed out, there . 8 no accommodation available. No words of mine are necessary to describe the des- berate feeling of insecurity, the worry, the concern that lies behind an evasion notice. How can families have a Pleasant, constructive life when the shadow of dispos- Session hangs over their homes? But, apparently, there are quite a few hearts of stone at Ottawa, at Queen’s Park, yes, and in’ Toronto’s own city hall, Only a callous, indifferent federal government could have issued the housing de-control order of last November Without making sure that accommodation would be pro- Vided for our dispossessed citizens, Where are People to Sleep, St. Laurent? In the streets? The prime minister Speaks very loftily of family life. But, by his own gov- *rament’s inaction on housing, he strikes a blow at the very heart of Canadian family life. And, that synthetic superman, Colonel George Drew, is no better. Toronto efRizens still remember the promise He made last June to build a thousand low rental houses . in Toronto. Not a single home has been built so far. Obviously he had no intention of honoring his pledge, Once the election was over. And it will be well to re- member the “promising” record of this modern Baron uNchausen .when he blossoms into promises again, in - the hopes of becoming prime minister at the next federal - election, _. There is no excuse whatsoever for the critical housing Situation that exists today. The “do-nothings” who sit in Sovernment office were warned repeatedly that their in- action would result in a crisis. In 1946 the LPP submitted an all-embracing housing - Plogram’ for Canada, to the Liberal government. We ad- Vocated the construction of 100,000 houses per year for three years with preference to be given to veterans. In addition we advocated the construction of 75,000 low rental housing units financed. by government subsidy. ® Just examine the huge profits of the powerful real estate corporations for the past few years and you will find the answer. The scarcity of homes made it possible to ‘Sack-up” prices sky-high. Remember that at no time Was there ever a ceiling on the price of homes. _I charge that the federal and provincial governments to this very day cater to the real estate speculators and Profiteers and as a result have deliberately created this artificial Scarcity of homes that exists right now. What is St. Laurent doing in the face of the terrible housing crisis—the rising cost of living—-the ominous Signs of a coming economic collapse? He’s very busy With a pact. No, not a trade pact with Britain or the New Democracies of Europe. Wall Street wouldn't ap- Prove of that. St. Laurent is busy with the North Atlantic Security, or rather “Suicide,” Pact. Make no mistake, this is a war pact and no mat- ter who you are it is of deadly concern to you. It is the big Gunn solution to the housing problem and r° all the other problems that might threaten their Profits, Already, St. Laurent has announced that $500 Million of dast year’s $600 million surplus will be used ;2° armaments, That will be only a flea-bite compared ‘o what you will have to pay if Canada signs the Atlantic Suicide Pact which is aimed at war—with our eighbor, the Soviet Union. _Do you want the money that should be used to build homes, schools and to denote our standard of ‘ving to be used for atomic bombs? Do you want ‘nada to become a shattered battlefield at the com- and of that profiteering scavenger, the American Cagle? Canadia i ivagi wants peace, not Ware Pre ee oople. like; coursehy: r Dhe yeas, : t hate and — ; it friendship with other peoples—not Aa’ De hysteria, Prime Mihister St. Laurent, the Colonel ews, yes, and the Coldwells, too, must be made to “nderstand that fact, ; 5) DAS vOutoT a aen voice be heard. ; k up and let your tte or wire Sour enue of parliament, Let him °w that you want homes, not bombs. | * . au They want trade pacts, not Atlantic Suicide Pacts. Do vets want homes ? _ Conscript them! —QUEBEC CITY "THE Pacific Tribune’s warning that the St. Laurent government was planning to put over conscription in peacetime has been substantiated “by a speech made here by General H.. D. G. Crerar. Crerar opined that to prepare for a third world war Canadians “should accept, while still at peace, the procedure of compulsory military training.” He said nothing about the housing crisis which bedevils the men he commanded in the Second World War. : Along with the Atlantic War Pact goes the propaganda for peacetime conscription. Even while General Crerar was making his pre-war talk, Toronto Canadian Legionaires were meeting to denounce the government for its dismal failure to provide kousing within reach of the veterans. Crerar’s plan to regiment Canadian youth by putting them into uniform to become cannon fodder for the U.S. brass is not being received quietly. The National Federation of Labor Youth has called an “absolute lie’ Crerar’s . statement that Quebec young men favor conscription. The Ontario council of the CCF youth movement has condemned the Atlantic ‘War Pact. The pact itself is running into trouble in Europe, where the people are saying that the Yanks want them to do the fighting in another war while the U.S. Congress tries to make up its constitutional mind as to whether the Presi- dent can send Yanks overseas to fight or not. Crerar’s blunt statement is expected to arouse indignation throughout the country. “Homes, not bombs,” as Tim Buck puts it, is the way veterans are thinking. . Now it’s an effort to whitewash Arcand —MONTREAL. Ee LAVERY, KC, lawyer formerly active. in Montreal civic politics, is carrying on an active ‘publicity campaign on behalf of Adrian Arcand, former leader of pro-fascist anti-Semitic groups in Canada who was interned during the war. ¢ e Arcand was arrested in May, 1940, and charged -under Defense of Canada regulations. Shortly after his trial began, an internment order was issued and the trial abandoned. Progressives at that time demanded that the trial be continued so that the public could ‘see what influential people were backing Arcand. In 1945, Arcand was released. Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent, then minister of justice in the King gov- ernment, announced that no further proceedings would had been sufficiently punished. On September 7, 1945, the department of justice asked the Montreal lawyer G. Fauteux, KG, now a judge, and one of the counsel,of the Kellock-Taschereau be taken against him, his offence was “stale” and he _ Commission, for an opinion that would justify the re- lease of Arcand. Fauteux obliged. That was the day Gouzenko was interviewed by the minister of justice. Apparently the first reaction was to think about the release of Arcand. * © eee Lavery recently took action in the Montreal courts asking that Arcand’s fingerprints and photographs be destroyed and that the 1940 proceeding against him™ be dismissed (equivalent to an acquittal) and that all exhibits be returned to him. This request was ‘carefully considered by the court. . It turned out that the RCMP had already agreed to destroy the fingerprints and pictures of Arcand. The exhibits had been destroyed by the police, but photo- stats had béen given Arcand. On the request that the action be dismissed and treated as an acquittal the court found that it had no jurisdiction to grant it, _ Lavery now is seeking to publicize the result of these proceedings which he claims represents a victory for Arcand. His victory lies in the fact that the court listened seriously to the fantastic claims put forward on behalf of the former leader of the fascist “National Unity Party” and made every effort to find a way to grant his requests. \' bi BA t LABOR FOCUS By J. B. SALSBERG CCL members | can end raidin an end raiding A RECKLESS trail. is being left behind throughout the Canadian labor scene by the Mosher-Conroy- Millard créwd. The damage they do becomes more serious as they go along. Having been exposed by their own deeds, they have cast all restraint to the winds, and like, self-acknowledged outlaws, proceed with shock- ing disregard and defiance. Latest information about their rampage comes from Timmins. Conroy and Millard swooped into that mining town with wild cries for the scalping of the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers’ Union. They did this in defiance of the majority of the CCL membership and the most prominent leaders of CCL unions. Conroy and Millard know: that the representatives of auto, electric, and other unions voted against the raiding of the Mine-Mill at the last CCL council meet- ing. They also know that Freeman Jenkins, leader of the Maritime coal minefs, stated that if he had been at the: meeting he would have voted against the raiding. Millard also knows that many of his own steel locals— some of the largest, too—have protested. Decent-minded trade unionists find it hard to ex- plain Millard’s shameful action. A key nevertheless was given by none other than Conroy himself at the last CCL convention. Many delegates did not get the full meaning of his words, but the bosses did. In its review of the CCL convention, the December issue of the fed- eral department of labor’s Labor Gazette picked out Dr. Conroy’s meaningful words and placed them in bold relief: Lene “Pat Conroy declared: ‘The job of this Congress is to clean out communism... Uniil we do that we cannot fight for trade union objectives ... We can- not fight the boss with one hand and the Communists with the other... .” : The labor ministry understood the full implication of those words asa message to big business not to worry about labor demands because you “‘cannot fight the boss with one hand and the Communists with the other.” And since the main job of the Congress is “‘to fight communism’ then such “‘secondary” things as wages, hours, speed-up, social legislation, will just have to wait. That also applies to the organization of the un- organized. There are a million or so unorganized work- ers in the country but the CCL leaders cannot be bothered with them. They have a more pressing job. They have to try to disorganize ‘a union like Mine-Mill. That is more important to Conroy and Millard! Now everybody knows that Bob Carlin, district board member for Mine-Mill, and all the top leaders of the Sudbury and other Mine-Mill locals, are not Com- munists but were members of the CCF—auntil only a few months ago. But they were “bad CCF’ers’” who did not believe that the “‘main job” was to “fight communism.” They believe the main job is to fight the mining cor- porations for wages, shorter hours, welfare funds. But Conroy and Millard cannot tolerate such CCF’ers. They consider them even more harmful than Communists. They really embarrass the Conroys and Millards by - their’ old-fashioned ideas that “in unity is strength” and “united we stand, divided we fall.” Such: ideas run counter to those of big business and its politicians. The gold barons will be happy—that is exactly what they and their press prescribed. The steel mag- nates whose plants are unorganized will chuckle—it is exactly. what they prayed for. All enemies of labor will drink a toast to the Conroys and Millards. But what about the working class? The shameless appearance of Conroy and Millard in Timmins to launch their drive to destroy Mine-Mill is a challenge to the entire CCL membership. It is an action which can only lead to the decimation of labor’s ranks, a violation of every principle of trade unionism and decency. It is a plague that must be stopped before it spreads. Will the workers of Stelco, Dosco and Algoma sit idly by when their funds and the name of their union are being used to destroy a sister union? Will coal ‘miners be satisfied with a mere protest against this murderous attack on a sister union of miners? Will the auto, electrical, rubber and packinghouse workers allow themselves to ‘be silent partners to this outrage? I cannot conceive that they will. There is no time to be lost if the CCL is to be saved from inner dis- ruption! The rank and file and their trusted leaders must act, and act now! PACIFIC TRIBUNE — FEBRUARY 25, 1949 — PAGE 9 \