a

By NELSON CLARKE.

YEAR has passed since

"* that bleak November day
4 When we laid Leslie Morris

‘his grave,

A How greatly we have missed
is Wise and kindly counsel, his

ot is not of this I would write,

lt rather of that which he

matteathed to his party and his
s.

g For “men must age and men
Bt Pass, but the work of,
Which their life was a part need
“ve no end.” :

‘He has left us his passionate
ttiotism, his bright vision of
°W full and fair life will be
°r all Canadians in the socialist
Uture that is to be.

He saw that way. forward, as
all Communists must, as a
iueale for the widening and
ip pening of democracy. He saw

88 the struggle for a true
onanism, against all the cruel-
“8 and suffering imposed by
48s society. He tirelessly strove
“i all one man ‘could to strike
th What William Blake called
°se “mind-forged manacles”
eh hold men in mental bond-

He had an abiding faith in the
wa adian people. He loved to
* them coming into “ornery”
attle with one or ‘another sec-

igg;

be

this delight at the success of
8toup of Winnipeg citizens

“quent voice, his brilliant pen.; -

0 of the “Establishment” on:
Wes great or small. I remem-

in saving a great tree marked
for the developer’s axe, I remem-
ber too, how already stricken
with his last illness, he walked,
in physical pain, on the massive
picket line which protested Gov-
ernor George Wallace’s presence
in Toronto. :

With what special joy, he

“welcomed the presence of so

‘many young people on that line,
rightly seeing in this a confirma-
tion of the rising spirit of demo-
cratic militancy among Canada’s
youth.

How he would have relished
the spectacle of Pearson with
all his back-room boys, pundits
and pollsters being denied the
majority government they
sought so arrogantly!

With keen Marxist insight,
Leslie Morris saw the great
changes being wrought in Cana-
dian society in this age of the
rapid advance of socialism, the
forward-sweep of the . national
liberation movement, and the
struggle for peace in this time

of the Bomb which threatens,

universal death, and of automa-
tion which promises universal
abundance.

He placed demands on himself
and on his party to meet the
challenge of this revolutionary
age. :

He fought for a full grasp of
the meaning of the great demos
cratic and national movement
which has swept through Que-
bec in this decade, and of the
necessity of recognizing French

LESLIE MORRIS

Canada’s right to self determi-
nation if this coutry is to
survive. .

He insisted on the need to
think through anew. and much
more deeply the socialist per-
spective for. Canada. In his last
political report, he said: “We're
in favor of the utmost. differen-
tiation in pathways to socialism

in the world. This flows objec- .

tively from the. vast differences

in the development of countries. .

And we have to see socialism

as arising from the history of

each country, and being a next
chapter in the history: of each
country, and not something uni-

‘versal plastered from the outside

on them.”

But these were not the ideas
of a man who saw his country
in isolation from the world. For
Leslie Morris understood full
well how true patriotism and
working class internationalism
march hand in hand.

On his death bed, he penned
the last of the tens-of thousands
of words he had written for the
labor press he loved and served
so well. It was an article on the
47th anniversary of the great
revolution in which the Soviet
Union was born. He concluded: ©

“November 7, 1917, was less
than half a century ago, yet its
impact on the world and on the

life of every human is such that
we can lift up our hearts and
know that all human problems
can be solved by humans, and
that peace and friendship be-
tween all peoples is a new force
which will conquer the ancient
and condemned forces of exploi-
tation of man by man, ignorance,
fear and war.”

The life of Leslie Morris was
tragically cut short. But his
vision, his insight, his creative
thinking have left to Canadian
Communists, socialists and radi-
cals a heritage to be treasured
and used in battles to come.

And. as that future for which
Leslie Morris lived becomes
clear to the great majority of
Canadians they will accord him
his: full place of honor in the

r-

Point of view:

Break this choking noose.

history of our country.

By STAN LYNN

Outs?

Tations.

May go up as high as 6 percent.

Obscure,

Which carries the airline’s policy.

RE WE in danger of being stran-
gled by the tightening noose of

the three P’s of the insurance
business—premiums, profits and pay-

Profits were never better. The in-
Surance companies are making money
not only in premiums, but on their.
Investments in various large corpo-

And it is obvious that they intend
to keep it that way. Last week it was
‘announced that premiums on auto-
Mobile insurance are due to rise again
Next year. This makes it at least
three for three. The rates in Ontario

The third P is payouts. It is not too
hard to see how each one of us is
affected by. profits and premiums. The
effect of payouts may be a little more

Recently, in New York, the highest
Payout in history was given to the
Widow and daughter of a 60-year-old
financier who died in an airline crash.

he award of almost a million dollars
Will be paid by.the insurance company

is that it is based not on need, but on
permitting the recipients to continue
to live in the manner to which they

_ were accustomed when their husband,

father and breadwinner was still alive.

A family death is a tragedy to
anyone, rich or poor. But the point
here is that higher and higher pay-
outs in airline disasters and in auto-
moboile accidents, and the trend is
higher on both sides of the border,
affect all of us.

The higher payouts are not going
to hurt profits, at least not if the
insurance companies can do anything
about it. The cost of paying higher
awards will find its way back into
higher premiums or higher costs for
services, such as the price of an
airplane ticket. The higher ‘rates aren't
graduated according to income either;
they have to be paid by everyone.

As the-noose gets tighter and tight-
er it is inevitably the guy on the
bottom of the heap who gets hung
first. If. anything happens to the
breadwinner of an average family, if
he or his family can claim insurance,
they will get no more than the sub-
sistence they are already getting. In
most such cases the family will be

far worse off.

_ “It's the rich wot gets the gravy,”
says the old song. “It’s the poor wot
gets the blame.”

The way to smash the insurance
noose is to eliminate the whole busi-
hess of the private financing of the
type of insurance which is an abso-
lute necessity in this fast-living day
and age,

We widely recognize the public
insurance principle involved in work-
er’s compensation. We are coming to
recognize it in medicare.

At least one state in the United
States has further acknowledged the
principle of a form of public insurance
by passing a law awarding compen-
sation to victims of robbery..

We ought to take this whole prin-
ciple a step further and to recognize
the need for a comprehensive system
of social insurance which, besides
compensation and medicare, would
include automobile, airline and other
types of accident insurance.

A standardized system of awards
could be established. It could take
into account the extent of the handi-
cap, the size of the family and the
need.

sy

His vision, insight a heritage
to be used in battles to come’

\ F ate
er eer

Thinking
of books

for Xmas

RE you giving books
for’ Christmas this
year? The following

books ate recommended:

PETROVKA 38: by Julian
Semyonov, Ambassador,
5.

Semyonov clearly owes
more to Dostoyevsky than
to Earle Stanley Gardner.
He is a 35-year-old Soviet
author of several travel
books and film scripts.

DIALOG: a bi-monthly U.S.
magazine, subscriptions
$5 per year from Pro-
gress Books, 44 Stafford
St., Toronto 3.

As the title suggests it
is an exchange of views.
Contributors have includ-
ed religionists, non-beliey-
ers, Marxists, liberals.

PEDRO MARTINEZ; A

Mexican Peasant and
His Family: by Oscar
‘Lewis, Random House,
$10.75.

Twenty years of tape re-
corded conversations with
‘one Mexican family produ-
ee a novel-like study.

THE BOSSES: by Ralph
G. Martin, Longmans
’ Canada, $7.50.

‘Martin reveals the dark-
er, little-publicized aspects
of ballot-box rule in the
U.S.. The weapons which
put power into the hands
of the political bosses in-
cluded poverty, money, ra-
cial and national divisions,
illiteracy, patronage.

THE BOY WITH AN R IN
HIS HAND: by James
Reaney, Macmillan Can-
ada, $3.95.

The author gives his
young reader a glimpse of
“muddy York” as it was
then. The adult who wish-
es to arouse his 10-13-year-
old child’s curiosity about
Mackenzie’s role in Can-
adian history might begin
by giving this book.

-” reason the award is, so high

December 3, 1965—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5