ee ee ee a for unemployment must lie with Rush demands council act on unemployment ‘SWith unemployment in Vancou- ver greater than at any time in the postwar years, and with thousands of jobless workers who have al- ready used up their unemployment insurance benefits, many citizens face destitution for themselves and their families unless council takes action to alleviate this ‘situation,’ Maurice Rush, city secretary of the Labor-Progressive party, told Van- couver City Council this week. Following Rush’s statement and a long debate in which many alder- men expressed sympathy with the views Rush presented as spokesman for an LPP delegation, council’ turned over the problem to a spéc- ial committee which is instructed to report back to council with pro- Posals in two weeks. “Trade unions and other bodies have estimated present unemploy- ment in B.C. at over 60,000, with more than half of them in Vancou- ver,” said Rush. ‘The LPP recog- nizes that the major responsibility MAURICE RUSH e ties, but we feel that city council has a responsibility to press for action, and to initiate such steps as the federal and provincial authori- F Write 50 words, or $1,000 IN PRIZES RADIO-PHONOGRAPH lie within its jurisdiction to prov- IRS TP RIZE TV set or $500 CASH 50 Other Prizes less, telling us why you enjoy reading the Pacific Tribune, and: 50 words, or less, ‘giving your ideas on how we can improve our paper. Letters will be judged by the’ paper's editorial receive a TV set, or a radio-phonograph combination, or $500 in cash. Writers of the next best 50 letters will receive valuable prizes. Decisions of the judges are final. board. Writer of the best letter will | LIKE READING THE PT BECAUSE: Name _ Address _... ' MAIL ENTRIES TO Contest Editor, Pacific Tribune, Room 6, 426 Main Street, Vancouver 4, B.C. ime teen ted to stand now,” SSS og SS SS RN TO FS ide additional employment in the city.” Rush “proposed three things that should be done: City council to press the federal government to im- mediately reinstate all those on unemployment insurance whose benefits have run out; to continue payments as long as a worker is unemployed; and to increase the amount paid. “In view of the fact that the Unemployment Insurance Fund now stands close to $900 million, we believe the city should urge wider use of that fund to meet the present jobless crisis,” said Rush. — MNidey =S City council to press for a public works program to be undertaken immediately between federal, provincial and civic gov- ernments. “Concretely we say council should press for a housing program in Vancouver to be started at once,” said the LPP spokesman. “Further, we propose that the city press for | early action on construction of needed projects such as the Mar- pole bridge, civic auditorium, etc.” City council press the fed- eral government for the} earliest establishment of trade with China and for acceptance of sterl- ing from Commonwealth countries to expedite trade between Canada and the Commonwealth. “The broadening of our markets would provide thousands of new jobs and lead to a vast expansion of our harbor,’ concluded Rush. Ald. Anna Sprott suggested that council’ should ask Ottawa to “ex- tend UIC benefits three months.” Ald. Syd Bowman said the “un- employment insurance fund should be tapped” to help those who have used up their benefits. — Ald. Birt Showler declared that an emergency situation exists and government action is needed “here and now” on public works projects to provide more jobs. Finally the matter was turned over to a special committee for further study. ‘Seatless’ buses violate franchise Vancouver City Council this week asked B.C. Electric for ‘a full re- port” on the proposed operation of new 42-seat coaches after Effie Jones of Civic Reform Association charged that the new buses violate the franchise agreement. : “Too many passengers are forc- ” asserted Mrs. Jones, quoting a section in the franchise agreement which says the BCER. must provide vehicles Soviet speed skaters, shown above, made a clean sweep of the 1954 world championships held fast month at Sapporo, Japan, beating out teams from Sweden, Norway, South Korea and Japan. - Gert Whyte's —SPORTLIGHT TJAVING a muffin with Griffin at tiffin the other day, the talk turned to sports and Hal allowed as how cricket was a jolly fine pretext for exercise, although he had also played rounders as a lad in London. “I understand,” he ob- served, “that they call it baseball over here.” “Quite,” I said in my best clip- ped English. “It’s become rather a fad, y’know.” Kibitzing aside, this is the time of year when the birds are flying north and the big league ball clubs are flying south. A dozen National and American teams are already in Florida and the four others are in Arizona. ; By the time the National Hockey League finals are being played, the major baseball clubs will be breaking into print as they play exhibition games in the citrus belt. The Yankees have the oldest camp, in St. Petersburg, where they have trained since 1925. Their chief rivals, the Dodgers, have two camps, at Vero Beach on the Atlantic and down at Miami. It’s no wonder the old baseball stars say the modern game has gone soft. Originally all clubs worked out under their own grandstands, sometimes drilling in the snow. 2a * * The Sporting News, which mod- estly calls itself “the baseball paper of the world,” reports that in 1953 only four of the 16 major league clubs made money, and three of these — the Yankees, Indians and White Sox “of such size and seating capacity as may be necessary . . . for the convenience, comfort and safety of the patrons.” “Removing seats certainly doesn’t add to the comfort and convenience of passengers,” con- tinued Mrs. Jones, “nor does it live up to the clause which says BCER coaches shall be ‘of rea- sonably modern design and fur- nished with reasonably modern improvements and appliances.’ The only thought the BCER® seems to have is to squeeze in more passengers and make big- ger profits.” _ BCER transit planner Douglas Sutcliffe told. aldermen “we are experimenting with these buses and if they don’t prove satisfactory, we'll convert them back.” The new buses have six fewer seats than those now in operation, but more standing room. — would have énded in the red except for radio and television receipts: Milwaukee alone would have finished in the black solely through its gate receipts—they drew a record season attendance of 1,826,397. ; : * * * The New York Daily Worker‘s campaign to break down the color bar in baseball bore fruit some years ago when Jackie Robinson was signed to play for the Dodg- ers. Since then the trend has con- tinued, and this year the Cardinal © organization has 14 Negro players. First baseman Tom Alston, is the only member of the parent club, - but the others are with minor league teams and some may come up during the season. * * * Casey Stengel thinks his Yank- PACIFIC TRIBUNE — ees are going to win another pen- nant, and who dares say him nay? “Except my pitchers are getting older, -’'m not worried,” says Casey. “We've still got hitters. Now this guy Mickey Mantle, I don’t expect he’ll ever bat less than .300 because he’s so fast he can beat out anything that bounces.” * * * Two books by oldtimers held my ‘attention over the weekend. They are far apart in style and subject matter, but my tastes are catholic and I found them almost equally interesting. The first, by Somerset Maugh- am, is called The Summing Up, and contains some excellent auto- biographical material and urbane comments on writing by a man who knows how to tell a story. The second, no literary master- piece, is called Dumb Dan and is co-authored by 80-year-old veter- an fight manager Dan Morgan se newspaperman John McCal- um. 4 * Morgan, known as Dapper Dan or Dumb Dan, is remembered as the skipper of former welter- weight champion Jack Britton, who in turn is chiefly remember- ed for his 22 scraps with the British champ, Ted Kid Lewis. Morgan insists that all these bouts were on the level. In a back- handed compliment to the Eng- lish, he says: “I couldn’t have done anything if I’d wanted to. Could you trust Lewis to go along? He’s English, remember.” During the second world war, some veterans in an army hospital asked Morgan that inevitable auestion—what he though would happen if Jack Dempsey and Joe Louis, both in their prime, were to meet. Dumb Dan gave them a blow-by-blow description: “The bell rings . . . Louis comes out, ready to jab or wait- ing to counter. . . . With Demp- sey, he hasn’t long to wait for action. .. Dempsey, weaving, lets ‘fly with a left hook to the body. . . . He repeats with half and full swings. . . . Louis is taken off guard. . . . Nothing to jab at, no chance to counter... . Only a hurricane of punches backing him up. . . Against the ropes, a short right to the chin, an upper- cut, and then an overhand right, and a left hook, also on the chin, and Louis is finished. . . . In less than a round.” FEBRUARY 12, 1954 — PAGE 11.