Alberta’s Premier E. C. Manning has been touring the East preparing for Social Credit’s entry

‘into the national field.

DILEMMA FOR B.C. SOCREDS

Solon Low opposes national.
health scheme as ‘socialism’

"THE federal Social Credit party

is absolutely opposed to. na-
tional health insurance, according
to Solon Low, , Socred national
leader, because it is “socialistic
from the ground up, the same as
in some Communist countries 1
know.” :

(in British Columbia, hospital
insurance was a major factor in
- bringing the minority Social Credit
government to power last June
as the popular protest vote, not
against the principle of hospital
insurance but against bungling
Coalition administration, swept
the Liberal government from of-
fice and reduced its former Con-
servative partner in the Coalition
to the status of a minor party.
Hospital insurance remains-a key
issue in B.C. politics and any gov-
ernment that attempted to des-
troy it would_not remain long .in
office, as the Fennett government
is well aware.) 4

Solon Low was speaking to a
gathering of some .70 people spon-
sored by the Greater Toronto So-
cial Credit League and held in a
Leaside school on the outskirts
of Toronto on January 2. Both
he and Alberta Premier E. C.!
Manning, who toured Ontario re-
cently, are seeking to build the
Social Credit party in Ontario in

preparation for the next federal

~ election: ,

Low, taking his cue from the
B.C. election, said thousands of
Canadians are seeking an alterna-
tive to the “frustrated” old-line
parties and Social Credit is out
to represent itself as that altern-
ative. Social Credit, he said, is
the only alternative to socialism
in Canada and rests upon defend-
ing what he constantly referred
to as “private enterprise.” Even
3 the Liberals were going “social-
istic” he charged.

- Low cleverly felt out his audi-.
ence, seizing upon anything that

brought a “hear, hear” or a bit

of applause and expanding it like

an old-time medicine man.

_ He developed the Social Credit:
thesis that all the government has.
to do to solve the problems of the:
people’s purchasing power is to is-.
sue its own money—enough to.
make up the difference between.
the price of all the goods produc-.
ed and the total purchasing power. '
No more borrowing’ from the.
banks. (But when asked how)

Social Credit would develop the
St. Lawrence Seaway, he. said_it
would be much the same approach -
as with the present government.)

He castigated the Liberal party
in ‘power, but said not a. single
derogatory word about the Pro-
gressive-Conservatives.

He won the strongest applause
when he spoke of what a ‘“mar-
vellous country” Canada was and
what her potentialities were. But
he made no reference to the seiz-
ure of our resources. by the United
States.

e

He favored sterling trade with
Britain and warned against de-
pendence on the U.S. market.

He lauded the recovery of West
Germany (where he said, “the
people are not demanding the
eight hour day”) and Japan, and
said they threatened Canadian
trade because with lower wages
they could undersell us.. And he
added that he had warned Cana-
dian labor against ‘asking for
higher wages. :

He blamed rising prices not only
on higher wages, but on govern-
ment taxation; 50 percent of all
taxes, he said, are hidden. There--
fore, Social Credit demanded the
_changing “of our whole financial
policy” to get away from bank
borrowing. ;

In Alberta, he claimed, Social
Credit had cut taxes three times
in its, 18 years of power.

He lashed the: “arrogance” of
the “overpowering, overbalanced
government in power” in Ottawa,
but never once mentioned Tory
policies.

Low skirted carefully around
the question of unemployment and
higher living standards, but his’
statement in the House of Com-
mons in February, 1947, is worth!
recalling. He said then: “It is.
my belief. . . that any time the
government sets out to achieve
as its major conscious objective’
full employment, social security’
or a planned economy, that gov- |
ernment is going straight down.
the road to the slavery of the.
people. ...”

As for cooperation with the’
Tories (Premier W. A. C. Ben-:

welfare state . .

nett.of B.C. is an ex-member of
‘the Conservative party), the tory:
Toronto Globe and Mail set the
line last September 8, calling the
federal Social Credit party ‘“es-
sentially a Conservative party”
which stands firmly for private
enterprjse,” and which “sees the
- as ‘a menace to
the real welfare of individual Can-
adians.” Then it added: “It has
gained strength by occupying the
position which the Progressive
Conservatives might have been ex-
pected to occupy.”

Defense donation

NON-COMMUNIST ,Owen Bay,

B.C.: My curiosity has really been
aroused by the Clarence Clemens
case. I would like to know what
the people of Vancouver are pay-
ing taxes for — morons or police-
men.
manity two strong healthy police-
men should have been able to sub-
due one individual who, according
to their own testimony at the in-
quest, was so drunk that he had
passed out on the counter in a cafe
were picked up ,without inflicting
such bodily harm as later resulted
in death.

I enclose a small donation to
help your battle.

Enioyed McEwen's book

B.C: i

READER, Parksville,
Thanks for sending Tom Mc-
Ewen’s book on OI’ Bill Bennett,
He Wrote For Us. Today I’ve

reached Chapter 14. I will always !

remember OI’ Bill’s kindly and un-
derstanding eyes.

McEwen’s book is a must for a.

progressive library, and I know
that George Hardy will be delight-

ed with the copy you sent to him.

in England. Hardy, who is known
to many old timers in the B.C.

labor movement, is now writing his —

memoirs, and I am eagerly await-
ing publication of his book.
Hardy sent me aj postcard from
Moscow in 1951, on his trip to
China, and it asid: “I have seen

from my hotel window workmen °

=

Surely in the name of hu- ~

WILLIAM KASHTAN

Labor should

speak up

against McCarren Act

TS a sad commentary indeed

when the leaders of the Trades
and Labor Congress and the Can-
adian Congress of Labor utter not
one word in protest against the
U.S. McCarran-Walter Act being
used to screen seamen from all
countries whose ships enter U.S.
ports. Traditionally, seamen have
never been barred such entry.

Now all this is changed. U.S. in- .

spectors will be on all ships going
to U.S. ports, checking on the
antecedents .of the seamen and
arbitrarily deciding who can and
who cannot land on American
soil.

Both the French and British
people have correctly seen this is
an additional affront to the in-

. dependence of. their countries and

a further example of U-S. efforts
at control and domination. Theil
wide-spread indignation has forc-
ed those governments to protest
to Washington, as has the. ClO—
but never a word of protest has
come from either the St. Laurent
government or the leaders of the
Canadian trade union movement.
Apparently these gentlemen,. hav-
ing become so accustomed to ac-
cepting U.S. dictation on other
vital matters, merely turn their
other cheeks and ask for more.

I assume these gentlemen adopt
the attitude that it is no skin
off their collective noses if the
alleged purpose of the McCarran-

_Walter Act is to screen Commun-

ists and other ‘undesirable’ ele-
ments thereby preventing them
from entering the U.S. with the
alleged objective of overthrowing
its institutions. Such a line of
argument may be all right for a

on their way to work carrying
their lunch pails and singing.”

In the bar of the seaside hotel —

where I was then living, I put this
picture up to a Tory acquaintance.
“Oh! he said, “They obviously”
were putting on a show for your
friend.”

No need to tell him that George’s
bald head sticking out of a 17th
story window over a broad street
of hurrying thousands would hard-
ly be recognized in ‘a teeming city.
Does the Tory mind lack imagina-
tion, that it reverts. to childish
parries, or is it a form of humor
looking for a rise?

No fight in them

B.M., London, England: John
Steinbeck and Erskine Caldwell
are not among the blood-and-guts
school of American writers who
are busy reducing the American
novel to a long, brutalised, porno-

_. graphi¢: bore.

Both have‘ a knowledge of real
people. Both have a gift of easy
narrative and can bring a char-
acter to life. Both are easy to
read.

Why, then, do the new works of
these writers—as smooth, as read-
able, as packed with ‘human per-_
sonality, as anything they - have
produced before—seem absolutely
flat? :

The answer is that the fight has
gone out of them. Steinbeck him-
self describes his new novel, East
of Eden (Heinemann), as a book |
about “the battle, the balance, and
the victory in the permanent war:

“be

knowledge of it and- 1953 is

six-year-old child, although it
might be insulting the intelligence
of the six-year-old. Who can be
lieve the powerful United States
of America is now so weak and
puny that one or more seamen will
able to “undermine or ovel
throw” its institutions? Its @
farcical argument, to say the least
e
The real purpose of the M&
Carran-Walter Act is entirely dif-
ferent. It is an organic part
the U.S. pattern directed towards
achieving world domination. :
this case’ the anti-Communist
smokescreen is being used to ham
per and if possible dominate the
shipping of other, countries and t0
transform the Atlantic Ocean int?
an American pond. ‘
The same can be said of its OP\
eration here because the end Tt
sult will be the same—the hamper
ing and control of Canadian siP
ping and the transformation
our Canadian lakes into America?
controlled lakes. ‘ Be
To be silent in the face of ths
further encroachment on Canadia?
independence and sovereignty is tO
be party to a crime which 2°
patriotic Canadian will tolerate om
aecept. Both the government on
the leaders of, the trade union
movement should be told in 2°
uncertain terms to begin sp&
ing up for Canada and to ¢é
being acquiescent partners
“Made in the USA” policies:
Certainly the trade union mov&
ment should make itself heard a
the most vigorous fashion agains
the McCarran-Walter Act
against all measures which under
mine the national interests of OU"
people and country.

0.

< A e.
between wisdom and ignorant a
light and darkness, good 9”
evil.” :

But the sense of real battle be
tween good and evil is just W
is missing. 48
And so ovel

this enormous 7?

_turns out for all the many 8°"

(4
things embedded in it, to be Bs
more than one of those vast, (™P™_
best-sellers which circulate by ©

€
hundred thousand and move tng"
reader not at all.

Cleanup overdue

SUPPORTER, Garibaldi, BO
Yesterday we mushed down to ae
train to get our PT which we wy
very anxious to read because °
the Clemens case. That’s what ihe
enclosed $10 is for. In this 14”

of ours we’ve found it takes plenty

of money to fight rats and the ©.
is going to need eyery cent W& ee
readers and supporters, can scrap
together. ;

It’s time Some one prought ue
into the open the corruptio? a
the Vancouver law (?) represe?
and the Pacific Tribune is the 0”
paper that can do it. Hous t
cleaning in the police departme”,
is long overdue from my 25 yer
good a time as any to-go at it wit
the scoop shovel.

4
PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JANUARY 16, 1953 — PAGE