66 UCHARME to Hang!”

screamed the daily press
last week. Thus culminated a
murder case which had held the
headlines for weeks, with trained
seals slobbering happily all over
Page One describing every grue-
some detail, and photographers

snapping candid shots of the mur-
_derer.

Sex murders sell papers. Capi-
talist newspapers are in business
to make money. The Sun, Prov-
ince and News-Herald squeezed
every penny of “‘surplus value”
out of the juicy Ducharme sex
murder.

A murder story of far greater
importance hit Vancouver the
same week, when the Canadian
freighter SS Argovan put into
port on her way to Formosa, car-
rying a cargo of death — 75
Yankee howitzer-tanks consigned
to the murderer Chiang Kai-shek.
These tanks will be used to kill
Chinese men, women and _ child-

ren.

The Pacific Tribune was the
only newspaper in British Cal-
umbia to give the “murder ship”
front page billing. This aillust-
rates, concretely, the different
conception of “news value’ which
distinguishes a workers’ paper
‘from the gutter journalism of the
capitalist papers.

Perhaps the best working-class
newspaper published in the Eng-
lish language is the London Daily
Worker, It recently made the
vital pomt that “accuracy in a
newspaper is not only a matter of
the correctness of the news it car-
ries but of the accuracy with
which the newspaper as a whole
reflects the significant news of

the day.”

The metamorphosis of the Lon-
don Daily Worker from (in its
own words) “‘the old-time propa-
ganda sheet into a popular news-
paper of the people’ was to a
great extent the work of founder-
editor William Rust, who died
just a little over a year ago. In
a moving tribute to Rust, Allen
Hutt quotes from a historic mem-
orandum to the staff which Rust
wrote, and which mapped the path
for the changes that made the
Daily. Worker into a popular
paper, and did so in a manner
that has remained of permanent
value and inspiration to the staff.

This is what Rust wrote:

“ The success of the paper
chiefly depends on the correct
presentation of the political line
of the Communist Party and the
technical achievement of a very
high standard of journalism. These
two conditions of success are put
together because they are indeed
inseparable; good journalism with-
out a correct line, or a correct
line unpopularly presented, spell
failure.

“All heavy, stereotyped politi-
cal writing must be avoided, the
leading articles must be written in

Six we

an easy style and an elastic poli-
cy pursued with regard to feat-
ures; no tying down fo general
articles on set subjects but a quick
adaption to changing events.”

We try to follow this advice of
Rust’s in editing the Pacific Tri-
bune. The warm support given
our yearly financial drives and the
wonderful response to our recent

subscription drive encourages us
to believe that the paper is win-
ning wider mass support through-
out British Columbia.

To continue and expand in the

Two murder stories

days ahead, it is vital that the
drive for $15,000 before May
15 is successful. Will yeu do
vour part by rushing in your dona-
tions post haste?

2,000 IN THE

Capitol Hill Club .........:....--+------

Vancouver Heights Club

North Vancouver Club ............-.------

Becky Buhay

Northlands ss .g2. Stone ea

Bill Bennett

Commercial onve enone

Civic Workers No. |
East End No. |
East End No. 2
Electrical Workers

Frair View c.-sosss-senceo-snssereceenrsersrse

Forest Products
Georgia

Grandview scscickiiet: Set

Hastings East
Kitsilano
Maritime
Moberly No. 2
Burnaby Club, NFLY
Sparks Club, NFLY
Niilo Makela ...---.-------- sesteeeeeenceeetes
Ol’ Bill Memonal Tributes

stacehinentee~ Bo in saean where fous sane eeres $

Olgin
Peng Pai
Renfrew
Ryerson
Strathcona

Victory quatente ss s3 8 ee ae

Waterfront
West End
Burrard Section
Hastings East Section
Miscellaneous, City
Courtenay
Kamloops

Kelowna 2 ped ae

Mission

Port Alberni

SE fiito can ava): Eales Sagi Ss easel ane

Vernon
Wictora cc.
Miscellaneous, Province

Nisriinieh ee eek ee ee ee

More than %5 delegates and
visitors to the LPP provincial
convention last weekend pledged
to become Press Builders by
raising $25 or more for the Paci-
fic Tribune 1950 financial drive.
This brings the total of pledged
PB's to 125 — just half our goal
of 250 Press Builders this year.

Charles Sims presented new
PB buttons to 33 Press Builders
who have already reached the
$25 mark this year. (PB’s who

PRESS BUILDER

were unable to attend the cere-
mony will be awarded their but-
tons along with other Press
Builders at the termination of
the drive. It is hoped that Tim
Buck may be in Vancouver to
make the presentations.)

In her report on the press
drive, PT business manager Fel
Dorland paid tribute to Salmon
Arm Club for being the first to
top its drive target, and to Kitsi-
lano, West End, Becky Buhay
and Strathcona clubs for good

LIST GROWS

work to date. She also men-
tioned the fine work of one old
age pensioner who has been a
Press Builder for several years
running, and the pep shown by
another PB who has sold more
than $100 worth of dance tickets.

Describing the late William
Bennett as “the greatest Press
Builder of all’, Fel Dorland urg-
ed every delegate to honor Ol’
Bill’s memory by doing every-
thing possible to carry on in his
footsteps.

Drive targets have been accep-
ted in all areas, and several per-
sonal and club challenges were
made at the convention. One of
the hottest competitions will um-
doubtedly be between West End

and Bill Bennett Clubs, which
are in competition to see which
can overshoot their target first.
Building Trades and Electrical
are also in a close race, follow-
ing a dispute as to “who won”
last year’s contest.

eks to go--speed the drive!

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MARCH 31, 1950 — PAGE li

sac ceimi a ate