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Big resource sellouts mark
province’s 100 year history

By WILLIAM TURNER

During the one hundred years
Since British Columbia entered
Confederation in 1871 there have
been many moments in the
history of the province when
public scandals have rocked
governments and exposed
crooked politicians.

Many such scandals arose
from the predatory ambitions of
profit-seeking individuals and
stock promoters who
manipulated governments to
pass favored legislation to grant
concessions in the interests of
private capital.

Following the completion of
the Canadian Pacific Railway to
the coast in 1887, B.C. entered
into a period of rapid industrial
expansion ‘spurred not only by
the lure of the market and its
profits, but what was for the
capitalist the untapped natural
resources of the province. The
plunder of public lands which
ensued dimmed the peoples’
faith in responsible government,
as, amid charges of corruption
and bribery, governments and
politicians, capitalists and
promoters, conspired to

- engineer what was to become the

biggest land steals in B.C.
history.

What was to become one of the
most notorious and brazen steals
occured in 1884 in the action of
the provincial. government of
Premier Beaven allowing the
grants of public lands on
Vancouver Island to the
Dunsmuir‘family.

A group composed of Robert
Dunsmuir, his son James; John
Bryden, and linked with the
infamous ‘‘Pacific Quartet’’ of
American stock-brokers Charles
Crocker, Leland Stanford, Collis
P. Huntington and Mark Hopkins
of California, were successful in
obtaining government grants and
subsidies to construct a railroad
on Vancouver Island.

Headed by Robert Dunsmuir,
an influential B.C. politician and
capitalist, the big prize that

motivated the group was the

Ownership of the vast coal
deposits that radiated about 200
miles from Nanaimo where coal
had been mined since 1852.
Without the investment of a

single cent of private capital, the

provincial government granted
outright ownership to Dunsmuir
of 1,900,000 acres of crown land
and $750,000 as a subsidy to build
a railway line of 78 miles
Operating as the Esquimalt and
Nanaimo Railway between
Victoria and Wellington. There
is a familiar ring today to the

Workers

Benevolent Assn.
Of Canada

Progressive Fraternal Society
Caters to all your needs in the
Life Insurance field

LIFE INSURANCE
ENDOWMENTS
PENSION PLANS
WEEKLY BENEFITS
Apply to: B.C. office at

805 East Pender Sf. or

National Office at
595 Pritchard Ave.
Winnipeg 4, Manitoba

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charges hurled at _ the
government in 1884 that the
immense grants constituted a
monopoly of Vancouver Island’s
coal reserves.

These accusations were well
founded, for B.C. was to
experience the shaping of a coal
empire, the Canadian Collieries,
(Dunsmuir) which left a legacy
of anti-labor violence that has
seldom been equalled. The
collusion of government with
Canadian Collieries flared into
sharp clashes with miners
fighting for union recognition,
safety regulations, and in bitter
strikes for higher wages. The
government of Premier Bowser
was the first B.C. government to
use troops for strike-breaking
purposes, calling out 1,000
soldiers to break the strike in
1913.

In the hundred years since 1871
the rule of monopoly capital has
emerged full cycle to dominate
the economic and political life of
British Columbia and its people.
From the days of the Dunsmuir
land steal the growth of
monopoly has been marked by
calculated policy to control and
exploit. the vast natural
resources of the province. Our
mineral resources, oil, natural
gas and forests have fallen prey
to the big steal through foreign
investment and control.

American monopolies, more
powerful than the earlier-day
carpet-baggers Dunsmuir and
the Pacific Quartet, have
garnered the lion’s share of
B.C.’s resources which have
been generously handed over by
a benign Social Credit
government.

The timber resources of B.C.
have passed under the control of
U.S. monopolies through
government grants of forest
management licenses to the
giants Crown-Zellerback,
MacMillan-Bloedel, Columbia
Cellulose, B.C. Forest Products
and their subsidiaries.

The present government and
its predecessors have made
outright gifts of vast tracts of
valuable crown land by granting
the monopolies forest licenses
“in perpetuity” at the bargain
price of a cent and a half per
acre per year.

U.S. Kaiser Corporation with
Socred blessing contracts the
mining and sale of 50 million tons
of B.C. coal to Japan under a 15
year contract. The blessings of
the government included a gift of
$60 million of public funds to the
Kaiser interests as a subsidy
towards construction of the
Point Roberts super-port built to
handle minerals and coal.

The giveaway of our natural

(eee eR OR RE

TED HARRIS.
757 East Hastings St.
Vancouver 4, B.C.
Painters ‘and Paperhangers

~ Supplies :
Sunworthy Wallpaper

Reg. 45¢ — Now 19¢ a Roll

i et ae |

Beaver Transfer
* Moving
* Packing
* Storage

790 Powell St.

Phone 254-3711

resources extends to the U.S.
Bethlehem Corporation who
jointly with Japanese capital are
mining and exporting to Japan
175,000 tons of copper ore
annually from the Highland
Valley area.

The province’s unlimited
reserves of natural gas have
been grabbed by U.S.-controlled
Westcoast Transmission for
shipment south of the border.
British Columbia’s energy
resources of hydro-power from
the giant Columbia River system
have been siphoned away to the
U.S. by Bennett’s Socred
government. The financial
returns to B.C. from the
Columbia sell-out have been
whittled down by the enormous
construction costs for storage
dams, forcing the Bennett
regime to make up the deficit
from public funds.

In short, the pattern followed
by provincial governments since
B.C. joined Confederation in 1871
is being repeated on a more
grandiose scale by the Socreds.

Today, their drive towards
policies of free trade and
economic union with the U.S.
echoes the reactionary pressures
of 1871 which failed to swerve
the people from the path of
Confederation. It is inevitable,
as history closes the door on the
Centennial, that the people of
B.C. stand on the threshold of a
new era destined to witness the
final completion of responsible
government in the struggle
against monopoly. Therefore it
is for the people to restore to
their own rightful custody the
natural wealth of this province,
and to retrieve the lands stolen
and halt the giveaways that have
blackened the pages of B.C.
history since Confederation.

No guideline here!

A retired commercial fisher-
man living on a pension recently
sent this newspaper a copy of a
contract he had signed with
Marshall Wells when he
purchased a second hand fridge
on the installment plan.

It is a standard contract, and is
noteable only in that once again
it proves the hypocrisy of federal
government moves to set
‘Guidelines’? and fight ‘‘infla-
tion.”

Here is the data: Cost of
fridge, $240. Tax, $12.00. Total
selling price, $252. The customer
paid $20 down, leaving a balance
of $232.

But wait a minute. There is a
finance charge of 26% percent,
plus a registration fee of $3.00,
which means our friend will pay
a total of $322.20 for that $240
second-hand fridge!

A six percent ceiling on wages
for workers; a .42 cent a month
increase in the old age pension; a
26% percent interest rate for
finance companies and chain
hardware stores. Strange world
we live in!

PACIFIC TRIBUNE —

Just Swete’
pa rdner /

What d’you
think of m
COMMON MARKET:
idea?

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contain many interesting
features. Personal greetings
and advertisements should be
in the PT office not later than
Friday, Dec. 10.

IN MEMORIUM
In loving memory of a dear
husband and father, a loyal
Comrade and staunch fighter
for the rights of labor, the
family of CORAY CAMP-
BELL donates $10 to the

Pacific Tribune in _ his
memory.
Mary Campbell & Family

SPECIAL!
‘2 PRICE

FROM 6TO9 PM

MEN’S WATCHES

EVERY WATCH GUARANTEED
$40 FOR $20, $50 FOR $25,
$100 FOR $45, $75 - % PRICE

Phone A. SMITH — 263-5661

MINI-BAZAAR

Saturday and Sunday
DECEMBER 11 & 12
3365 Victoria Dr.

1 P.M. to 7 P.M.

Ladies Boutique

Home Baking

White Elephant Stall

After browsing and buying have a cup of tea

Candy
Country Store

Kingsway, Broadway and Point Grey Clubs, C.P.C.

Classified advertising

COMING EVENTS

DEC. 17 — MacKENZIE-PA-
PINEAU XMAS PARTY.
FRIDAY — DEC. 17th at the
FISHERMEN’S HALL 8 138
East Cordova St. Smorgas-
bord & Refreshments from
7:30. Dance 9 to 1 with the
Country Gentlemen’s Or-
chestra. Adm. $2.50. All

FOR SALE—’68 V.W. BUS —
Must Sell — Going to Mexico.
Sleeping Arrangements,
Curtains, Stereo, Tapes. $1000
or nearest offer. PH. 733-6121

BUSINESS PERSONALS

DRY CLEANING
& LAUNDRY
Also Coin-op
LAUNDERETTE
2633 Commercial Dr.
879-9956

REGENT TAILORS _ LTD.-
Custom Tailors and Ready-to-
Wear, 324 W. Hastings St. MU
1-8456 of 4441 E. Hastings - CY
8-2030. See Henry Rankin for
personal service.

HALLS FOR RENT

UKRAINIAN CANADIAN
CULTURAL CENTRE - 805
East Pender St., Vancouver 4.
Available for banquets, wed-
dings, meetings. Phone 254-
3436.

RUSSIAN PEOPLE’S HOME
Available for meetings,
banquets and weddings at
reasonable rates. 600 Campbell
Ave. 254-3430.

CLINTON HALL, 2605 Easi
Pender. Available for
banquets, meetings, weddings,
etc. Phone 253-7414.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1971—PAGE 11