Commission under fire as new fare steal looms in Victoria —

By MARY MEZGER

Attitude of Ald. H. M. Diggon, chairman of the Greater

mittee, and other civic officials, as well as that

threatening the commuters of

BCElectric and Vancouver

new 20-year monopoly franchise in operation a

Oak Bay and Saanich. New fares sought are

weekly pass. Present fares are four tickets for 25 cents

ot the four municipalities here with

Island Coach Line~ are applying for fare increases vith | bare six months in Victoria, Esquimalt,

four tickets for 30 cents or 10 cents cash with abolition oi the and 7 cents cash, with a dollar

weekly pass that is used by thousands.

Blood for Israel

President Arthur Osman of

Local 65, Wholesale and Ware- house Workers (CIO), gives his blood for Israel at the Red Mogen David (Hebrew Red Cross) blood bank in New York.

George Bowes, pioneer in Sask. farm movement, dead

SASKATOON.

Co-worker of Gene Debs and Big Bill Haywood half a

century ago, staunch

fighter in

the farm movement of

Western Canada and colleague of the veteran farm leader, E. Partridge of Sintaluta, Sask., George Bowes, formerly of

Elbow, Sask., died in the Saska-

~ toon City Hospital on May 30. He is survived by his wife and daugh- ter Florence.

George Bowes was one of the pioneers who built the Farmers Union of Canada in the early twen- ties and one of the founders of the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool.

An American who learned his so- cialism in the hard school of Debs and Haywood, he brought to Can- ada the vigor of that experience, and although he farmed on a large seale, was never intimidated by the Tory-inspired bogey, that socialism or communism “would regiment ag- riculture” or “take everything away from the farmers.” George . Bowes knew too well that the CPR,

the mortgage, land and machine ~ sharks, had already “expropriated” the farmers to the greatest de- gree.

In the campaign against the CPR freight rate steal of 1912, led by Partridge, George Bowes was & tireless worker, mobilizing his neighbors and friends against the rail barons. In the post-war crisis

of the early twenties, when wheat |

prices didn’t even pay the thresh- ing bill, he strove for the creation of a powerful Farmers’ Union and

the idea of cooperative marketing through the medium of the Wheat Pool and other cooperatives.

Despite his “big farmer’ status, his early experiences in the Amer- ican labor and socialist movement kept him always close and sympa- thetic to the struggles of Canadian labor. When age and _ infirmity made it impossible for him to take an active part in progressive farm and labor movements, his generous financia] help expressed the consis- tent hope of his great heart,

To those who were privileged to know and work with him in the early days, to feel the warmth and drive of his dynamic personality, news of his death came as a shock, and his passing leaves a void in the ranks of the. oldtimers who pioneered in the fight for socialism.

In a tribute to his one-time close associate, Tom McEwen, editor of the Pacific Tribune, stated this week: “In expressing our deepest sympathy to his widow and daugh- ter in their great loss, and to those who shared his struggles and ideals, let us keep before us the example of George Bowes’ work and carry

, to suceess the fight against reaction

that was the essence of his life’s purpose.”

Public Utilities

——VICLORTA, B.C. Victoria Transportation Com- Commission, is increases, with their

drastic transit fare

The companies are keeping the

figures on which they base their ap- plication secret, and the Public Utilities Commission is in cahoots with the company in that it also is not releasing the figures. * Victoria Labor Council has gone on record as opposing fare boosts until public hearings have been held and a plebiscite has been taken.

Victoria Committee of the Labor- Progressive Party wrote to the Commission asking release to the public of the companies’ figures on number of passenger miles, cost per passenger mile and revenue.

In reply, it received this curt let- ter from A. B. Jackson, PUC sec- retary:

“phis will acknowledge receipt of your leiter of June 17.” .

An LPP letter to the four muni- cipal councils, seeking opposition to the fare boosts, drew fire at Es- quimalt council.

“J feel it is very improper of the LPP to demand this council to do anything,’ complained Councillor Wurtele. Reeve A. I. Thomas thought so too, because, he said, the LPP paid no taxes to the municipality. The letter was received and filed.

A letter from Greater Victoria Schooij Board Employees’ Associa- tion, urging council to reject the fare boost application, was receiv- ed and filed, Councillor J. A, Ellis observing, “Those people have no right to tell us what to do.”

Two petitions from residents on the inadequate B.C. Electric bus service in Esquimalt were turned over to Greater Victoria ‘Trans- portation Committee as councillors complained transit grievances should be discussed as little as possible at committee meetings.

Ominous sign of civic intentions in the fare application is the failure to ©6ccontest the B. CC. Elec- tric application for an 18 percent increase in gas rates at this week’s hearing before the Public Utilities Commission,

Victoria’s Alderman Diggon has said he expected the request for elimination of the weekly passes because “it was the under- standing at the time the present fare structure was approved that they would be done away with if costs were too high.”

This may have been Diggon’s understanding but it was not the understanding of citizens, who in a plebiscite taken in December 1945 rejected by an overwhelming majority a proposed company franchise that eliminated the dol- lar pass. The people only accepted the revised franchise a year ago because the dollar pass was in- cluded, with Greater Victoria Transportation Committee pledg- ing “lowest fares in Canada for a city of its size.”

The slick deal pulled at that» time was that in voting for the franchise the citizens were also voting for a little clause tucked away in the agreement that took away the people’s right to check fare boosts by plebiscite,

Paragraph 20 of the franchise reads, “From time to time either party shall be at liberty to suggest a change in the fares ... as may be mutually agreed upon between the parties subject to the approval of the Public Utilities Commission; and in the event of the parties’ failure to agree in respect thereof either party shall be at liberty to apply to the Public Utilities Com- ee under paragraph 44 here- of.

The LPP m Victoria is distrib- uting leaflets calling on the people to get in touch with their mayor,

CCF accusations proven untrue by election figures

By NIGEL MORGAN Recent federal byelections leave no doubt as to what can be done with the Coalition government in British Columbia’s next proviricial election with a united labor movement, and the selection of candidates around whom all anti-Caalition

voters can be rallied.

In a deceitfuliy untruthful ar- ticie, entitled, “How Center Voted”, in the CCF News. of June 17, in which he charges the LPP with having voted for the Tory, Colin Cameron moans that “the first thing to be noted is that nearly 20,0" didn’t vote in Vancouver venter.

Actually 11,747 less voted in Center in 1948 than in 1945, which stands out in sharp contrast to

the Yale byelection the week be- |

tore, where in spite of extreme flood difficulties, 2,573 more elec-

tors went to the polls than in the

1945 election,

By its choice of an unpopular eandidate with the disruptive Trot- skyite record of Rod Young (for which he was actually suspended by the CCF in 1937), the CCF gravely endangered the chances of defeating the candidates of reac- tion. The result, of which the CCF tannot be proud, shows only an in- crease of 2 percent in the CCF vote in Center, as against an over- all increase of 55 percent in its vote in the last eight federal byelections. This %3 little wonder in view of the well-known fact that even many CCF’ers refused to support an anti- unity, anti-working class candidate of the type of Young.

In Yale, where the LPP concen- trated its efforts to elect the CCF candidate; where it was able to sponsor meetings, issue leaflets, present broadcasts, and help to mobilize a united labor movement, the results were very different. In this traditionally Tory stronghold the CCF increased its yote by more than 59 percent, and 2,573 more people voted, while in Center, @ working-class constituency, the un- popular CCF choice only gained 2 percent.

It is tco bad that Cameron can- not stick to facts instead of flying off into the sort of nightmarish fan- tasies that cause him to deceitfully write that “rumors were abroad on election day that the hierarchy of the LPP had issued orders to the faithful to cast their ballots for

Mr. Jestley, the Conservative ... These rumors seemed at the time too fantastic for belief ... But an examination of the returns, poll by poll, reveals that many of them must have done just that,” Cam- eron concludes.

Such a charge is not only grossly untruthful and _ slander- ous. It is an example of literary prostitution of the worst kind. The facts are that while the CCF only showed an increase in yote of 2 percent, the Tories lost 45 percent of their 1945 vote, drop- ping, from 8,859 to 4,945.

In the east end of the riding, polls 91 to 125, where the LPP vote was strongest in 1945, the Tories dropped from 1,282 to 887, and the Liberals from 2,391: to 1,809 — or about a quarter of their 1945 strength. !

If Cameron’s statement were true, and every single one of the 8,750 LPP votes cast in 1945 had gone to the Tories, together with the 1,042 Social Credit votes of 1945 (the Social Credit Party officially endorsed Jestley), the Tories would have lost all their former support- ers except for 153. Ridiculous, of course, but that apparently is haw far Cameron and his anti-unity kind are prepared to go in order to find darts to hurl at the LPP and its popular proposals. to work for the election of a CCF government and reverse the tide of reactionary, depression-making, anti-labor pol- icies. ' ,

The sweeping defeats suffered by both the Tories and Liberals in the recent byelections provide full substantiation of the correctness of the LPP’s proposals. Recent election results show that the old- line parties can be ousted in B.C. in the next election, They will serve to spur On those who correctly be- lieve that united action is the only road to victory for the labor move- ment. They will intensify the popu- lar demand for unity against the enactors of anti-labor legislation, the sales tax, and evasion of re- sponsibility in the present tragic flood disaster. i

AND ASK

reeve, alderman or councillor to

oppose all fare boosts, particularly | the stealing of the dollar pass.

Two Years on

The Picket Line

June 6 will see the beginning of the third year of the I.T.U.- Southam Province dispute.

TO THOSE WHO SUPPORT OUR CAUSE, WE SAY

Thank You

CONTINUED SUPPORT

THE DAILY PROVINCE

is NOT PRODUCED with

[.T.U. PRINTERS |

Vancouver Typographical

_

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 25, 1948—PAGE 7

FOR YOUR

Union No. 226