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Protest |

Board of Transport Commissioners,

The real issues at Trail

s coming Monday, December

15, the voters of Rossland-
Trail will go to the polls in a
byelection which is being regarded
in many political circles as a “little
election.”

This would be true if those ques-
tions vitally affecting the interests
of the working people of this prov-
ince had been made an issue in the
campaign. But they have not been.

It was not to be expected that
the Liberals or Conservatives, seek-
ing to reestablish themselves after
tout of their own discredited coali-
tion, would raise these issues, ex-
cept for demagogic advantage. But
the failure of the CCF to inject
the real issues into the campaign in
a challenging way has given the
initiative to the other parties. More
than that, it has obstructed develop-
ment of the broad movement led
by labor which can only be rallied
around a fighting people’s program.
Had De Vito, the CCF candidate,
Carried into effect the policy of all-
inclusive labor unity for which he

fought before the CCF provincial
council, there would have been
little doubt about the outcome.
What are the real issues? They
! May be summed up in one word—
Corruption.

Social Credit cabinet ministers
have striven to create the impres-
sion that the case of Robert Som-
Mers, former Social Credit mem-
ber for Rossland-Trail convicted of
conspiracy and accepting bribes
while holding office as minister of
lands and forests in the Bennett
80vernment, is the exception. On
the contrary, it is the direct reflec-
tion of government policy.

The Bennett government’s whole-
Sale giveaways of our natural re-
Sources to big monopoly interests
Constitute corruption on a grand
Scale. Its attempts to conclude deals

Minister P. A.Gaglardi has demon-
strated the government’s unscrupu-
lous readiness to bribe the voters
with promises of roads and other
favors — provided they send an-
other Social Crediter to Victoria.

The real issues in this election
are recognition of China, trade and
jobs, health and hospitals, a con-
structive program to put the unem-
ployed to work, measures to relieve
the burden of municipal taxation.
They have scarcely been heard.
And they will not be heard if a
Social Crediter, a Liberal or a
Conservative is returned.

The compelling need is to ad-
minister a resounding defeat to this
government of deception and de-
ceit. That task would have been the
easier had De Vito, the CCF can-
didate, spoken out in a compelling
way for the people’s needs. Despite
this, it is obvious that he alone of
the opposition candidates can de-
feat Social Credit and offer more
than an empty promise of reflect-
ing the demands of workers and
farmers at Victoria.

Ottawa, Ont.

NAME |
ADDRESS

I wish to enter my protest against granting of any further increase in
local and long distance rates to the B.C. Telephone Company.

No more phone increases

N A LETTER to the Board of

Transport Commissioners this
week, the Civic Reform Association
of Vancouver expressed popular
opposition to the B-C. Telephone

Company’s application for a 12.5
percent increase in its local and
long distance rates succinctly and
vigorously.

“Our reasons for opposing an -

increase in telephone rates were
fully set out in our brief at the
previous hearing in May 1958, and
we do not propose to elaborate
them here, inasmuch as nothing

has happened in the meantime to
change the situation other than the
company’s decision to pay income
taxes which it might have deferred.

“Essentially, the situation was
then, and is now, that the price of
telephone service in Vancouver is
excessive when compared to that of
cther cities Be

You can add your voice to this
protest against the B.C. Telephone
Company’s application, on which
decision has been deferred, by fill-
ing in and mailing the coupon
above. Do it now! It can help to

ptevent another price increase.

Tom
McEwen

with U.S. interests, as in the pro-
Posed deal with the Kaiser inter-
ests, are no less corrupt.

In. this campaign, even while
Waving Social Credit’s tattered
banner of “honest government”
from the platform, Highways

Pacific Tribune
Phone MUtual 5-5288

Editor — TOM McEWEN
Managing Editor — HAL GRIFFIN

Published weekly at
Room 6 — 426 Main Street
Vancouver 4, B.C.
Subscription Rates:
One Year: $4.00
Six Months: $2.25
Canadian and Commonwealth
Countries (except Australia): $4.00
One year. Australia, United States
8hd all other countries: $5.00 one
year,

IFE teaches working men and
L women many lessons, not a
few of them the hard way. One
of these is that labor unity is not
won by fine resolutions, or-pull-
ing punches when treating with
labor fakers.

A few years ago when I could
no longer restrain myself in these
columns from expressing some
caustic criticisms anent the ‘“la-
bor” acrobatics of R. K. “Roly”
Gervin, it was not uncommon for
some trade union bureaucrat to
blast me to high heaven. “That
goddam Red, why doesn’t he shut
up'and go back to Russia?”

Now (at least I hope so) my
red-baiting critics have learned
for themselves. Roly eventually
“crossed the tracks” and emanci-
pated himself. From his erstwhile
pretentious position of a “labor
leader,” Roly is now a_ noisy

. Charley McCarthy for the big

boys’ in the building construction
business. Quite. a transformation
SONsIS Ite.

No doubt a lot of carpenters,
electrical and other construction
workers, from their experiences
with Roly in wage negotiations
could elaborate the point, and in
stronger terms that the printer—
or propriety—permits here.

“Those goddam Reds .. .”

Another of Roly’s ilk and with
the same ideas on “unity,” who
ruled the labor roost for some 14
years in Victoria, is now’ doing
his stuff as vice-president of the
Marwell Construction Company.
I refer to “Brother” George Wil-
kinson,

At a recent Langley board of
trade luncheon, ,George sounded
off on a higher-than-usual agita-
tional note for “a bold new look
at labor relations,” which, put in
simpler terms, means that in
George’s “humble opinion, strikes
have long since outlived their use-
fulness,” and therefore should be
abolished so that “we can con-
vince investment capital that we
in B.C. recognize and will live
up to our responsibilities . . .”

You see how it is? “Damn it
gentlemen, pardon the language,”
says George, “but if I may be
permitted to say so... what we
need is a Willing To Work Act.”

When we catalogued the symp-
toms in these columns years ago,
readily evident in the chamber of
commerce antics of this alleged
labor “leader,” we got more of the

“soddam Red” treatment from the
phoneys who loved to bask in the
sunshine of George’s “labor
statesmanship.”

Four columns of the Marwell
Construction vice-presidental guff
in the Langley Advance of Octo-
ber 30 edition compel one to
reach for the aspirins. George re-
cites a boss’ dream, an old and
persistent one, as a grand finale
to his Langley oration. “. . . This
change in legislation should also
make provisions whereby unions
can be held financially respon-
sible for their actions when such
actions are illegal, thoughtless,
reckless, or detrimental to our

society . .. the time is long past

due when unions must assume
responsibilities | conmmensurafe
with their great power .. .” In
other words, fit labor with a good
substantial dog collar.

One can almost hear a labor-
hating chamber of commerce de-
votee murmur a devout “Amen

. let George do it,” as only
such Georges can.

In its long hard struggle for
broad united political action
against recurrent attacks on big
business and its subservient gov-
ernments, labor is often held back
by dubious products of its own
incubation.

Some timely attention to what
those “goddam Reds” say would
certainly help. Roly proves it as
a spokesman for the bosses, and
George with his “bold new look”
dog collar for union men.

December 12, 1958 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 5