EDITORIAL PAGE

TOM McEWEN, Editor — HAL GRIFFIN, Associate Editor — RITA WHYTE, Business AAanager.

PT

Comment

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Tom McEwen

Toss a poll or plebiscite, as every one knows, is supposed to record the joice or will of the people on any given sue. Were a poll taken in Vancouver n the question, “Should the BCElectric “Ye taken over and operated as a publicly- wned enterprise?” there is no doubt a

Mis majority vote in favor would result. -

(That, of course, wouldn’t mean that Wery yoter was fully conversant with ie financial, administrative and, techni- tal structure of the BCER. It ‘would ‘Sitoply mean that the great majority of j fs voters were fed up to the teeth with ying a high tribute for a low-grade rvice to a profit-grabbing monopoly.

‘But “public opinion” polls can also be

Shly misleading, as some recent Gallup ‘abulations on election results have Stown,

_ Recently there have been two polls, ®ne conducted by three big Chicago dailies on the MeCarthy-versus-the-U.S. My scoreboard, and another in Mc- arthy’s home state, Wisconsin. |

In Madison, Wisconsin, a pollster hit the streets with the question, “What 1s Ommunism?” and from 197 persons in- €tviewed, 123 confessed complete ig- Rorance of what Communism meant. The ‘Other 73 came up with some queer re- dlies, One individual stated Commun- Were “no good” but had no idea Why he thought so! Other replies re- Minded us of one of Al Capone’s famous _ SPeeches in which he said, “We (with *Mphasis cn the ‘we’) must protect Am- _ *tiea from bolshevism.”

_ The-other polls showed (Chicago Trib- _ “Re) 91.2 percent for McCarthy, with _ only 7.9 percent for the U.S. Army; the aily News showed 56.5 percent for Mc- arthy and 43.5 for the U.S. Army, with

ste Sun-Times chalking up a similar

Core,

Here we see a considerable number 0+ 2 cross section of the people, unable "Yen to define what they think “Com- ‘Nunism”, is but on the other hand vot- 8 in “favor” of a fascist windbag, _ *Qually as ignorant as themselves, who olds “an office which permits him to llow louder, branding all objections ‘O his bellowing as “communism.”

“st reaction relies primarily upon abys-

-Sttives to impose its will udon the com- ae People. It was that way when ‘Alitler and Goebbels were “saving” the World from Communism and their a wkee successors cling to *the same _ “arkness to. achieve their evil work.

Coming back to the question of home Wet It is now about 40 years ago since aay B.C, Federationist reported the B.C.

lectric turning off street lights early

Siving a protesting people the argu- Ment that they didn’t need street lights Au €n the moon was shining.

a { : , + Since those halcyon days, fare hikes, 88s hikes, power hikes have come in €ss succession, with services soins

down in almost exact ratio to tariffs 20°

So up. And the moon is still shining. “© also is the B.C. Electric.

_A city-wide plebiscite on public own

; tretip of the entire BCER holdings 1s

# he only solution. And, unlike the Mc-

Dl tthy polisters, in this case the Bay

ey of Vancouver will know why 2a

é ‘hat they are voting for—if they are Yen an opportunity to vote.

-__All such polls emphasize is that fas-

‘ignorance as a weapon-by which it”

‘cognition can be won.

/ A EUROPEAN SECURITY SYSTEM A UNIFIED PEACEFUL GERMANY

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: Bennett and the PUC ©

’ 7 HERE do you stand, Prem- W ier Bennett? The B.C. -Elec- tric and Public Utilities Commis sion have done it again. ,Vancou- ver and Lower Mainland com: muters have been hit with a stag’ gering and unbearable load of in- creased fares in spite of the fact the company’s case was demolish- ed in the public hearing.

But the public’s memory is not as short as the company seems to imagine. For example, some

ple are mulling over the

oiar that although we have a.

‘new Social Credit government in

Victoria, we have the same old Public Utilities Commission : that contributed substantially to the discrediting and defeat of the de- funct Coalition. In fact, people might be forgiven if they came

oe

to the conclusion that this com:

mission is now your body, Prem- ier Bennett. Did you sanction the uncon- cealed company bias demonstrat- ed so blatantly by Commission Chairman Percy George at the public hearing? Do you now sanction the action of the com mission in sneaking in its decision

on the Labor Day weekend? And

this without advance notice to the City of Vancouver and other

interested parties, although it is. ‘apparent that the company must

have been informed. The BC: Electric Buzzer carrying the new

Recognize

T= new. ‘campaign of the Canadian ~

Peace Congress for the recognition

Canadians. ~ ete

As the Peace Congress points out, re- It has support even in government and parliamentary

- circles.

- But it will take a strong public cam-

ment into action. : rs What a changed situation would come about, for Canada and the world if

Canada

rightful place in the United Nations.

«

of China by Canada, is one that should “4 oie ine support of the majority of

‘paign to move the St. Laurent govern-.

ei

poly after its election.

fare schedules appeared on Sat- urday, which is at variance with Percy George’s contention that the commission reached no decis- ion until after three o'clock last Bridays. i ae ‘

This apparent collusion be- tween the company and the com- mission is further reinforced by the fact that the company only applied for its service reduction in Victoria last week, at which time it must have known it would not get its increase in Victoria.

Premier Bennett, you did not act nor did you even speak out against these things. This being ‘so, you must have sanctioned them. Yes, a new government, but the old commission. A new government that campaigned

‘against monopoly” before its elec-

tion, but the old policy of sup- ‘port for the B.C, Electric mono-

people have lost faith in promises, they want action now. They not only voted in a new government, they voted for new policies, and a new Public Utilities Commis sion. gs : The people can

ed, that public ownership is the answer: In the meantime, they want action now to rescind the

- fare increases, and to fire the com-

missioners.

nd China exchanged ambassad- — ors! If the Peking government took its

What do you say, Premier Bennett? —

China Now! What a vast market there is among

-China’s 600 million people for Cana-— dian products —.and all that means for

the employment of thousands of jobless

-workers and the reduction of huge grain —

surplus.

convention has called for the opening

of trade with the Far East — which~

would almost command recognition ‘of China. Other powerful voices have

been heard and will be heard in the

days to come.

We urge every reader to this campaign with time and dollars — for it takes money to finance such a major undertakjng across Canada.

- fruits.

But the

see now that the company’s rule must be end ~

The Trades and Labor Congress’s

get behind ——

Hal Griffin

N° one travelling around this province

can fail to be impressed by its growth in these past few years. Kamloops and Penticton in the Interior, Prince George in the north, Nanaimo and the Albernis on the Island, in particular have broken out of the stagnation imposed on them

’ during the depression years and become

cities in fact as well as in name.

Coming down the hill into Kamloops at night the city spreads itself below you in a multi-colored pattern of lights far across the flats where only a few years ago the lights straggled out into dark- ness. And all along the hill to the sum- mit new homes are perched high above the city and the sagebrush has given

place to gardens.

But in Kamloops, as in the other cities despite the new homes and stores under construction and all the other signs of ‘continuing growth, there is an atmo- sphere of. uncertainty. It is as though everyone were keeping his fingers cross- ed, hoping that the expansion will con- tinue and yet fearful that it is coming to an end:

In Penticton and Osoyoos it is reflect-— ed in the farmers’ concern over the ef- fects-of U.S. dumping of vegetables and In Vernon and Kelowna you sense it in the growers’ worry over markets. On the Island it is again this uncertainty over markets. And in the north — “‘Well, what’s going to happen when all this new construction ends?” is the way one trucker I talked to posed | a question which is nagging at a lot of people.

tie a oe sed

One part of the province which has not shared in the general growth to any- thing like the same extent is that whole great region north from Squamish to Clinton. Here, where the province had its beginnings, geography and politics have combined to hold back develop- ment.

_ It is one of the ironies of our history “that the first white man to cross what is — now British Columbia by land — Alex- ander Mackenzie in 1793 — came out to the sea at Bella Coola. Yet, until the residents of Bella Coola’ in desperation undertook construction of their own road to give them a link with the Inter- ior and were belatedly helped by the © provincial government, the settlement remained isolated except by water while — a network of roads svread throughout the southern Interior. —

At the junction of Keith and Lillooet roads in North Vancouver there is a monument bearing this inscription: _

“Lillooet Trail. Terminal site of a

_ trail from Lillooet country to ‘Burrard Inlet under construction from 1878 to

1877. Used in a cattle drive in 1877 — by Robert Carson and Richard Hoey. ~

The trail was abandoned because of

difficulties of travel over ithe moun-

tains from Howe Sound.”

Yet the need remains for a road north

_ from Vancouver to open up the country © _to development and provide an alterna-— tive to the Fraser Valley route.

Mem- € bers of the Carson family represented Lillooet, and Kamloops constituencies for years. But no road was built, al- though from time to time there was a lot of talk, as there still is, about link-

~ing up existing Toads . between North

Vancouver and Bralorne:. : The difficulties that defeated the pioneers were physical. But the difficul- ties that still deny a highway north from Vancouver are primarily political.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — SEPTEMBER 10, 1954 — PAGE 5

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