Review

ESPITE the millions of words
D written and spoken on Colum-
bia River hydro-power develop-
ment, the general public are still
in the dark on the basic facts of
this gigantic sellout to U.S. inter-
ests.

This of course is standard prac-
tise with monopoly-dominated gov-
ernments where big giveaways of
the peoples’ resources are involved.

Some salient facts however are
painfully clear. One is that Vic-
toria and Ottawa (with some minor
differences) are ready to hand
over the bulk of Columbia River
power potential to American in-
terests. In the tentative “treaty”
agreement, nearing finalization be-
tween Victoria, Ottawa and Wash-
ington, which neither the Canadian
public nor parliaments have yet
seen, the U.S. power-hungry mon-
opolists are the prime beneficiaries.

It is well known that. Premier
Bennett. and his Socred govern-
ment, already notorious for B:C.
resources giveaways to monopoly,
has-been a willing broker for U.S:
hydro-electric power ,. interests
right from the start. Had _ it- not.

been for General A. G. MacNaugh-~

ton, Canada’s representative on the

joint Canada - U.S. Commission; -

Bennett - would have handed over
the Columbia to U.S. interests
quite some time ago. With the re-
moval. of MacNaughton from: his
post by the Diefenbaker govern-

ment, this hurdle has been elimin-~*

ated.

‘During the last federal election
Dief ‘promised’ that his govern-
ment would. “assist” B.C: in the’

Columbia development, providing
development was “under public
ownership.”

Again more confusion; was this

a ‘gift’ to B.C. or a loan? Bennett
wanted to know which and ‘how
much’?, and let it be known if it
was the latter, B.C. could borrow
the money itself independent. of

Ottawa. Finance Minister Fleming. }.
stipulated the amount in a letter.

to Bennett; $172-million dollars, at. |.
joan market. -]- -

‘the lowest possible
rates.

As if. all that horse-trading on

Pacific Tribune

Editor — TOM McEWEN

Associate Ednor — MAURICE RUSH 7
Business Mgr. — OXANA BIGELOW .

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14

«* £E

‘Get redling’ — for B.C.

one of the most -vital resources
afffectine the future economy of
B.C. weren’t enough, we now find
CCF provincial leader Robert Stra-
chan publicly whooping it-up for
the Bennett plan, and noisily clam-
oring to “get on with the job and
get things rolling.”

_Reminds us of “socialist” Harold
Winch some years ago in the B.C.
Legislature, when in face of wide-
spread public demand for “taking
over” the B.C. Electric, Winch
voted with the Coalition to give
B.C.’s power and transit octopus
another 20-year franchise at rook-
ing the public.

This Columbia “treaty”? which no
one save the political brokers have
seen, should be completely scrap-
ped. and replaced by a plan for
Columbia development on an East-
West grid-system to serve present
and. future needs of Canadians.
This- is what the people of : B:C:
are demanding, in the Kootenays
and elsewhere, including H.-W.
Herridge, CCF-MP.

That is what CCF leader Stra-
chan should be demanding, instead
of whooping it up to get the Ben-
nett sellout “rolling.” we

DITORIAL PAGE

Let's end stooge rule

T the coming Commonwealth

prime ministers conference in

London there will be some knotty
problems to get around. ;

Peace or nuclear destruction;
trade, the common market vs. mar-
ket ‘blocs,’ the business of economic
survival by taking in each other’s
washing, ete.

The ‘delicate’ one will be that of
racist South Africa, recently be-
come a ‘Republic’ by virtue of a
White referendum, in which the

_ vast majority of South African

native people had neither voice nor
vote.

Shall South Africa with its
shameful “apartheid” racist segre-
gation policies and virtual slavery
for its Negro and Colored peoples
be readmitted as a member of our
much - boasted “free” Common-
wealth?

The prime ministers from other
African states now rated independ-
ent will have no difficulty finding
a fitting answer. Their skins are
Black, and their ideals of human
dignity above color.

But the White frock-coated min-
isters from other Commonwealth
countries will not be so forthright,
and the need of double-talk will be

very much in demand.

At the last conference of its kind
Canada’s Diefenbaker played thé
role of bed-chamber. valet; don't
let us criticise South: Africa’s dis:
graceful racism and segregation
‘Jaws’ in public. It just isn’t done
gentlemen. Just think of the Cont
monwealth needs. Let’s get int
the back room and talk it over #!
private. The massacre of Negré
people is ‘regrettable,’ but the Com
monwealth (read British imperial
ism) needs “statesmen”’ like Prem
ier Verwoerd. And our “free
Western ally in Washington won!
object since they too have thel
Little Rock, and New Orleans ra’
ist segregation mobs.

It. would: seem: that whether #
is in-a-Commonwealth conferenc4
a NATO, NORAD, or United Na)
tions confab, Canada manages
play a consistent: stooge role fo
coldwar imperialism, be it a Peal‘)
son or Diefenbaker at the bat. |

Already there are strong voice’)
in Canada being raised to excludé
South Africa from the Commot
wealth as a racist leper colony:
We'll soon. see how our Whit?
“statesmen” measure up to thé
job of preserving human dignity

~~ Tom
~ McEwen

; OME 180-years ago an English

S philosopher, Thomas R. Mal-
~. thus (1766 - 1834)

“theory” which,

developed a
among other

world population is greater than
- the increase of the means. of sub-
sistence.” This doctrine -has he-
come known as ‘‘Malthusianism;”’
“+ or excess. of world. population
“ over food-producing capacity.’
Much has changed. in’ Merrie
- England and elsewhere since Mal-
thus burned the midnight oil at-
tempting to “prove”’ that the starv-
ing hordes of England and other
lands were the result of ‘“over-
population” rather than ‘the vic-
tims of an unjust class division of
the ‘‘means of subsistence,” viz,
food, clothing and shelter.
~~: Readers may have noted during
recent weeks that various ‘‘author-
ities,” “experts,” ‘learned pro-
fessors’” and what not, have been
filling up a lot of space in the
commercial press with their ‘“Mal-
thusian” versions of present day
world problems. F
In these “learned’ professorial
blurbs we hear qa great deal about
“backward,” ‘“over-populated” and
“hungry” nations, and what should

* things, held that “the increase: in ~

be done about it: At rare times,
with adequate coldwar strings on
the wrappings, a cargo of low-
grade wheat, powdered’ milk or
stale eggs are. dispatched, (with
much virtuous fanfare) to these
“over-populated’ nations. Meantime
our ~Malthusian literati. peddle

, their : wares about the need of

“education,” “birth control,” ‘‘wes-
tern enlightment”’ and so on, but
are extremely retiscent. on any
changes in our social system which
would.provide an equal division of
an already over-abundant “means
of subsistence.”’

Even: the sub-standard condition
of nearly a million jobless work-
ers in our own land, cannot be
explained away by “over-popula-
tion” while our granaries burst at
the seams with: food:

Then there ‘is a specie of Mal-
thus. ‘“‘doctrinaire”’ among our so-
called “statesmen” and military
brass, who regard war’as an essen-
tial “counter-balance’’. to .world
over-population. Hitler, who has
already become a piker compared
to some of the Penatgon atomani-
acs, sought to round out the Mal-
thus ‘theory’ by the. extermina-
tion of whole populations, to pro-
vide “living space,” ‘“‘means of sub-
sistence,” (and of course profits)
for a super-duper “Herrenfolk.”

Clearly the problem is not one
of ‘‘over-population” versus food
supply. Farmers in this and other
countries produce more than they
know what to do with. There are
many instances:in past years when
our primary producers have been
subsidized by governments for the

' crops they didn’t grow, for the

‘life; enough. to meet all. the food

- resurrecting the decayed corpse of

beef they didn’t produce, for the i
food they were paid to plow under.

Even today our. primary pro-. |)
ducers and industrial° workers are’
penalized in a score of ways by an
overproduction of the ‘means’ of

and other requirements of so-call-
ed “over-populated backward’? na-
tions, but prohibited from supply-
ing these needs because of the in-
sane policies of the modern atomic-
minded~- Malthusians who seek to
solve the problem of ‘‘over-popula-
tion” (and profits) with H-Bombs'
instead of food. )

Thus in the shadow of a moun-
tain of food, the under-populated
primary producer “and ~worker
lacks the ‘méans’ of. subsistence”’
almost as much ‘as his “over-popu- |}
lated” brother.’ They both -have ‘||
little or nothing; but only one {|}
knows it. They are both the vic- —
tims of a common enemy; which |)
is now recruiting the aid of Mal- ||
thus to cover up its crimes against
humanity. i

Just as man in this atomic age
reaches out for the stars, ‘so also
will man in the years to come,
discover vast new scientific tech-
niques and resources for the
“means of subsistence,” far sur-
passing every population needs.
Of course it won’t be done under
a profit system, which cannot even
now distribute the abundance it is
capable of producing. Hence it —
seeks to Cloak’ the hunger and —
poverty it imposes on mankind by

Malthusian dogmas.
_.

December 16,

1960—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page!)