Labor urges publ:

Vested Leb

,
-

ic ownership

of natural gas distribution

Vancouver Trades and Labor Council (TLC-AFL) decided at its meeting Tues’
day this week to ask Vancouver City Council to investigate the setting up of a public
body to take over distribution and sale of natural gas when it reaches this city some time

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FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 1955

Prevention

sole defense
for H-bomb

Admission by Sir Winston
Churchill that there is “no ab-
solute defense against the hydro-
gen bomb” was cited this week
by B.C. Peace Council as “em-
phasizing the vital importance of
the World Appeal Against the
Preparations for Atomic War.”

The appeal, to which signatures

are being sought in all countries,
demands “the destruction of all
‘stocks of atomic weapons wher-
‘ever they may be and the im-
“Mediate stopping of their manu-
facture.”
. Fifteen thousand copies of the
appeal are to be distributed from
house-to house in Vancouver and
other B.C. points this Saturday.
A million copies are to be dis-
tributed nationally.

In its statement, the council
said:

“Sir Winston in his speech to

the British House of Commons.

stated, ‘There is no defense—no
absolute defense — against. the
hydrogen bomb. . . . What ought
we to do? Which way can we
turn td save our lives?’ .

“We submit that there is some-
thing we can do, a way we can
turn to save our lives. We must
put an end to tle preparations
now being made for atomic war.
This can be done through an
international agreement to de-
stroy all stocks of atomic weap-
ons and to stop: their manufac-
ture. This is, in fact, the only
turn we can take if we wish to

leave the present road that leads -

inevitably to atomic war.

“It is for the dimplomats and
their experts to spell out all the
details of such an international
agreement. But it is for the
people to see that they are ob-
liged to get down to the job.

“The most effective way to
accomplish this is for the people
everywhere to sign the World
Appeal against the Preparations
for Atomic War. In the end,
public opinion must triumph over
the bombs. Hundreds of millions
of signatures to the World Ap-
peal can save the people and
destroy the bombs.”

the

LEGISLATURE

a
ae ‘SAT.
7.10 p.m.

LABOR-PROGRESSIVE
POINT of VIEW by
NIGEL MORGAN

LEO NIMSICK, MLA

Continued

NIMSICK

He particularly condemned the
RCMP raid on Krestova that took
40 children away from their par-
ents to the school at New Den-
ver.

“My child would go into hys-

terics,“ he said, relating how
RCMP had raided Doukhobor

homes in the early morning hours
and dragged children from under
beds.

“Even if we have the legal
right to send the children to
school, something should be said
about the moral right,’* Nimsick
argued. “It would be different
if the parents were not respon-

sible or didn’t love their child-.

ren or were injurious to society
as a whole.”

“The policy we’ve adopted has
not solved the problem and I
don’t think it’s going to solve
the problem,” she warned.

“By our methods we are in
danger~ of not only strengthen-
ing the faith of the Sons of
Freedom, but of having the Orth-
odox relatives coming back into
the fold of the Sons.”

He pleaded that the prsblem
should be treated like chat of
conscientious objectors whose ob-
jections are based on religious
beliefs and this is prectly the
same.”

Attorney-General Robert Bon-
ner in his reply indicated that
the government will continue to
rely on forcible measures to com-
pel Sons of Freedom Douk-
hobors to attend school.

LDR assists fight
against Padlock Law

The executive of the Vancou-
ver branch of the League for
Democratic Rights this week
sent a $50 donation to the Mont-

real Civil Liberties Union which

is carrying a test of the constitu-
tionality of the notorious Quebec
Padlock Law to the Supreme
Court of Canada. The LDR branch
expressed the view that “defeat of
th Padlock Law will be a victory
for civil liberty across the coun-
try.”

next year.

Introduced by John Hines, delegate from the Painters Union, the motion called

for a public body similar in
structure to the Greater Vancou-
ver’ Water Board to assume con-
trol of gas distribution.

(Burnaby Municipal Council
has already sent a letter to Van-

_ couver ‘City Council proposing

consultation on gas distribution
and the question is now before
Vancouver City Council for con-
sideration.))

“Tt would be unfortunate if the
B.C. Eleetric got full control of
this distribution,’ said Hines.
“This company should not be al.
lowed to get a further strangle-
hold on our utilities or natural
gas resources.”

Present plan for distribution
of natural: gas in the Lower aMin-

iand when the projected pipeline
from Fort St. John to Vancouver -

is constructed is for the B.C.
Electric to be the sole distrib-
utor.

Vancouver Trades and Labor
Council’s action brings virtually
all sections of the powerful trade
union movement into line with
other popular organizations in
calling for public ownership and
distribution of natural gas.

Recntly Vancouver Labor
Council (CCL-CIO) adopted a
similar resolution favoring pub-
lic ownership of the pipeline and
gas distribution.

Thes two central labor bodies
represent the great majority of
organized labor in this province.

é

Plot seen to scuttle
Trans-Canada line

By JOHN STEWART
TORONTO

More details of the move to
scuttle the all-Canadian trans-
Canada natural gas pipeline came
to light last week. The objective
is to sabotage the Canadian line
in favor of -the free flow of
Alberta natural gas to the U.S.
midwest with Tennessee gas ser-
vicing the eastern Canada
market.

Out of a tangled mass of con-
tradictory statements, propagan-
da and speculation, it has be-
come clear that the US. and
Canadian interests working to
block the ‘Canadian project — as
important to Canada as was the
building of the trans-Canada rail
line which U.S. intersts also tried
to kill back in 1867 — include:

@ Big U.S. coal operators who
stand to lose the rich metropoli-
tan Toronto market,

@® Midwest and Pacific Coast
USS. industry which wants cheap
Alberta gas to compete with in-
dustry in eastern U.S.

@ Consumers Gas Company of

Toronto which is now allied with

“Tennessee gas interests.

@ The Social Credit Alberta
government. Premier Manning
last week told the Alberta legis-
lature that his government had
never been enthusiastic about
the eastern project” and declar-
ed that the best market for Al-
berta gas was in the U.S. Pacific
northwest.

@ The Trans-Canada Pipelines
Ltd. itself, which is basing itself
almost exclusively on export to
the U.S. via Manitoba. ;

@ The Liberal federal govern:
ment which has enacted legis-

lation to remove the export tax

on natural gas in order to assist
its competitive position in the
U.S. market. :

The fact is, the U.S.-controlled «
Trans-Canada Pipeline Ltd., is
not one step nearer to starti
the 2,220-mile $300 million pro-
ject today than it was two years
ago when the federal govern-
ment handed over to the Texas
aa a the sole right to build the
ine.

City claims PUC fare
decision irregularities

Irregularities charged by T. G, Norris, representing the City of Vancouver, may
lead to the 15-cent fare granted to the B.C. Electric last year by the Public Utilities Commis-
sion being thrown out by the B.C. Appeal Court.

At the hearing this week, Chief
Justice Gordon Sloan told B.C.
Electric lawyers he would expect
them to reply to points of law
raised by Norris claiming ir-

regularities in the PUC decision.

Norris argued that under the
act, 14 days must elapse between
giving and implementation of the
PUC decision. The 15-cent fare
went into effect only four days
after the PUC gave its decision.

Norris argued further that the
cabinet was required to pass on
a PUC decision before it was put
in effect, but this was not done
when the PUC increased fares
in Vancouver from 13 to 15
cents.

Attempt by the B.C. Electric
to bar Civic Reform Association
and other citizens’ groups repre-
sented by the Far Protest Com-
mittee was defeated here this
week as hearings opened.
The court rejected the B.C.

Electric’s move to exclude the
groups from the hearing.

Seeking to upset the 15-cent
fare are these cities and muni-
cipalities: Burnaby, New West-
minster, Vancouver, District and
City of North Vancouver, Rich-
mond. Also seeking reversal of
the PUC decision are Vancouver
Council of Women, Richard-Mc-
Bride Parent Teacher Associa-

tion, Senior Citizens’ Association’

and the Fare Protest Committee,
representing. the widest united
public action against a B.C. Elec-
tric increase in recent years.

T. G. Norris, speaking for the
city of Vancouver, set the tone
of opposition to the fare boosts
when he declared: “The city’s
stand is that the PUC’s decision
should be quashed entirely.” He
made this statement in reply to
a question by Chief Justice Gor-
don Sloan whether the city feels
the fare boosts should be revised
or wiped out altogether.

Main grounds on which setting
aside of the PUC decision is be-
ing sought are:

@ That the PUC erred in ac-
cepting the company’s argu-
ment that, more profits are
required in order to be able
to attract investment capital.

@ That the PUC erred in ac-
cepting the company’s argu-
men that wage increases had
resulted in higher costs and
reduced earnings.

@ That the PUC erred in ac-
cepting the view that a reas-
onable and fair rate of return

for the company on its de-
preciated base rate was 6.5
percent.

@ That the PUC erred in con-

sidering evidence submitted

by the company after the hear-
ings had ended.

@ That the commission and pat-
ticularly its chairman, Percy |
George, showed bias in favor

of the company ne the
hearings.

Facts were brought out during
the public hearing and again be-
fore the Appeal Court this week
which showed the B.C. Electric
to be in the strongest financial
position in its history, with 4
larger rate of return and a sharp
imerease in the market value of °
B.C. Electric stocks.

During the public hearing last
summer it was shown that for,
every $100 revenue the portion
representing wage costs fell from
$80.7 in 1951 to $78.1 in 1954.

Chief B.C. Electric witness, Dr:
Purdy, admitted under oath at
the hearing that the wage bill
for street railwaymen was $6,6717
552 in 1950 and in 1953 it stood
at $6,738,470—an increase of onl¥
one percent in the four year
period!

. At the Appeal Court this week
T. G. Norris challenged the et
tire legality of the 6.5 fair ra
of return under which the PUC
granted the increase by drawin&
attention to the fact that whet
it was set in 1952 it had never
been approved by the cabinet.

Effie Jones, who has been if
the forefront of the fight against
the fare increase, this week bh
ed the stand taken by the city
in urging that the PUC decisio®
be quashed in its entirety.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MARCH 4, 1955 — PAGE 12