Reply to Conroy Editor, Pacific Tribune— Sir: Boasting about going _ through picket lines is something we do not expect from any union member, and when the secretary- treasurer of the CCL, Pat Con- roy, states that it is quite all right for loggers to go through picket lines it is time that all _ trade unionists who try to live up to the principles on which their organizations are founded made themselves heard. Conroy brings the miners into the picture when he tries to make believe that members of District 18 of the United Mine Workers, in the past, have gone through what he chooses to call phoney picket lines. To the best of my knowledge and the knowledge of other miners here, this is not so, al- though there have been _indivi- duals, perhaps Conroy and some of his friends (his own statement leaves that impression, anyway), who have tried to go through picket lines. But every honest miner will proudly state that wherever picket lines have been established in the Crow’s Nest he has done his duty—keep the scabs out! * : When men can only go to work by getting police protection, as the IWA members at Iron River did, the situation stinks, and every trade unionist of any ex- perience knows it. I’m sure the miners of District 18 know at SAM ENGLISH | ‘Michel, B.C. Pablo Neruda’s poem issued as booklet PABLO NERUDA'S great poem, “Let the Rail Splitter Awake,” which appeared in a recent issue of the Pacific Tribune, has been issued in booklet form by the Ry- erson Club and is now on sale _ at the People’s Cooperative Book- store, 337 West Pender, at 25 cents a copy. a John Goss has written the fore- word and the dramatic line-cut illustrations are by Jack Leyland. The Ryerson Club has an- nounced that proceeds above ex- ‘penses from its first publishing venture will go to the LPP fight- ing fund, Classified A charge of 50 cents for each insertion of five lines or less with 10 cents for each additional line is made for notices appearing in this column. No notices will be _ &ecepted later than Monday noon Me of the week of publication. Oldtime Dancing To Alf Carlson’s Orchestra _ Every Wednesday and Saturday ; } Auditorium Phone HAstings 1248 _ _. Moderate Rental Rates ~ or Socials, . weddings, meetings Russian People’s Home— _ available for meetings, weddings and banquets at reasonable rates. _ 600 Campbell Ave. HA. 0087, Dance, Clinton Hail— 2605 East Pender. Dance every Saturday night. Modern and Old-Time. Viking’s Orchestra. Hall is available for rent, : HAstings 3277. A SALLY BOWES— 1 ANI TAX PROBLEMS, Room 20, 9 East Hastings: MA. 9965. : MEETINGS a ~ 4 _ Swedish-Finnish Workers Club Meets last Friday of every month - Scientist's eyes damaged Dr. P. Gerald Kruger is shown working on the University of Illinois cyclotron. It was disclosed recently that Dr. Kruger and tour otker physicists are suffering from cataracts caused by radiation from the cyclotron. FILMS AND PEOPLE Best movies,of 1948 “SEEN ANY good movies late- Iyte The answer for 1948, generally speaking, was no, This isn’t news to the Canadian public, which shares in’ common the experience -of trying to find acceptable entertainment from the weekend listings at the local mo- vie houses. - $ Nor is it news to the billion dol- lar film industry, whose worried corporation interests which laid eff employees in unprecedented numbers early this Christmas sea- son. In 1948, increasing numbers of people refused to buy the film entertainment packages of routine formula and phony “re-releases,” It was a bad year for Hollywood -~and in lesser degree for for- eign films. It was a bad year in which to select the five best movies. As a Hollywood writer put it: “Some- times they don’t give Nobel peace prizes.” But taking the best from a nar- row choice, Laurence production of Hamlet deservedly tops the list. Still on road show exhibit basis, it is a superlative interpretation of Shakespeare’s most famous drama, excellently acted, for once intelligently adapted to the artistic medium in which it is presented. Another Part of the Forest, the screen version of a play by ‘Lillian’ Hellman, demands recognition for the same honesty and penetrating approach that characterized its companion piece, The Little Fox- es. The story of an American cap- italist and his warped, twisted family, “it moves,” as one review- er put it, “to its climax with a ¢lean, easy sweep that makes for: , quate word...” was described. All My Sons, a Universal-Inter- Olivier’s’ top theater.’ Michael Gordon di- rected the picture for Universal- International. ’ With To Live in Peace, the Ital- ian film industry continued the tradition of beauty and honesty in movie’ production which brought such honors to Open City and Shoeshine. It is a distinguish- ed work, dominated by a sensi-’ tive sense of humanity and com- passion. It is named here despite its characters’ lack of militancy in the face of fascism, and, in- deed, one scene marred by chau- vinism. As a whole, however, this production in the year 1948 must be termed outstanding, John Huston wrote and directed The Treasure of Sierra Madre, the story of three men’s search for gold in Mexico. “Tremendous - is the best, yet. still a most inade- is the way it national picture directed by Ir- ving Peis, brought the powerful Arthur Miller drama of wartime profiteering to the screen with no decrease in power and mean- ing. Edward G. Robinson’s por- trayal of a plane parts manufac- turer merits academy mention. Had several films, both foreign and domestic, now showing in New York, reached the Coast in time for consideration here, this list might well have been chang- ed. Paisan, The Snake Pit, and Tragic Hunt, have received high critical praise from reviewers, Honorable mentions for the year include: Sitting Pretty, The Pearl, Call Northside 4U7, Vil- age Teacher, Red River, My Fa- ther’s House, I Remember Mama, and Search_JOSEPH MORTON. STANTON & MUNRO BARRISTERS, SOLICITORS, NOTARIES Vancouver Office 501 Holden Building 16 East Hastings Street - MArine 5746 Nanaimo Office | Room 2, Palace Building Skinner Street 1780 ; Shmootiful satire TO ANYONE NOT acquainted with Al Capp’s Li'l] Abner comic strip, any attempt to describe it would involve staggering difh- culties. Capp’s antic imagination has invented a wonderful world full of fantastic people, moved by incredible motives into absurd action to overcome non-existent obstacles—well, you can see what I mean. Capp’s Mammy and Pappy Yo- kum, their muscular, moron off- spring, Li’l Abner, and the rest of the colony of cracked-brain deni- zens of the backwoods town of Dogpatch, Somewhere, U.S.A., live lives full of such pixie doings. That Capp is able to juggle all this into a believable story that builds and holds both its parts and an estimated 40 million fol- lowers testifies to a genius of tow- ering proportions. Few men out- side Shakespeare and Lewis Car- roll have ever dared attempt such a feat. ; Not satisfied with the normal complexities of his invention, Capp last fall introduced some- ‘thing new--a Shmoo, the doings of which are now recorded for its vast audience in Capps’ The Life and Times of the Shmoo, a 90- page book published by Simon and Schuster. 2 ahem