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Page Six

Poh OP i Bas

ADVOCATE

ae me ta ena

June 4, 1937

The Peoples Advocate
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Vancouver, B.C., Friday, June 4, 1937

Bind the Wounds

EVER has the world witnessed such sav-

agery and cruelty as the mass murdering
of the civilian population of Spain, men,
women and chidren, by the Spanish rebels and
their Italian, German and Moorish allies who
have inyaded the country to strangle the demo-
eratic republic and make Spain a fascist
colony. :

For many months Madrid has been sub-
jected to continuous air raids by German and
Ttalian planes dropping death-dealing bombs
on peaceful inhabitants in order to terrorize
the defenders of democracy into submission
to the fascist yoke. Beaten on the yarious
fronts by the heroic Spanish people and the
Tnternational Brigade, the cowardly fascists
are bombing defenceless cities far from the
zones of fighting and mowing down with mia-
chine guns the fleeing inhabitants.

The ruthless slaughtering of women and
children in the holy city of the Basques,
Guernica, an atrocity never paralleled in his-
tory, was a example of Hitlerist ferocity and
sadism and a portent otf what will happen to
other democratic countries ‘should fascism
succeed in destroying the Spanish republic.
The bombardment ot Almeria, a seaport of
little or no strategic value, by a German squad-
ron is still another example.

Meanwhile the Spanish people are heroic-
ally defending their country from the foreign
‘nvaders and Spanish traitors. Tn their his-
toric struggle they are being supported by
volunteers {rom more than fifty countries.
Bravely playing their part in the struggle to
defend world democracy are some 500 Canadi-
ans of all shades of religious and political be-
liefs, who form the Mackenzie-Papineau com
pany which carries on the traditions of the
struggle in Canada one hundred years ago tor
representative government.

Latest reports inform us that eight of these
Ganadians have fallen and lie beneath the
blood-sodden soil of Spain.

Many more will give their lives in this great
cause. Many will be wounded by the shrapnel
and bullets of Franco, Hitler and Mussolini.
The Spanish government has not the facilities
with which to take adequate care of all those
wounded.

Tt is to meet this need that the Ambulance
Fund Committee has been organized by the
Communist Party of Canada, upon which non-
Communists sit. [ts purpose is to raise suffici-
ent funds to provide an ambulance, equipment
and supplies to take care of those Canadians
fighting with the Loyalist forces.

" Byery Canadian who believes in the preser-
vation of democracy against the fascist menace
to its existence should do all in his or her power
to build up this fund. Humanitarianism alone
calls out for such aid, for while many are un-
able to be members of the Mackenzie Papineau
battalion and engage im actual fighting, the
least that can be done is to assist in assuaging
pain and saying the lives and limbs of those
who are giving their all that democracy shall
not perish from the earth and that the scourge

of fascism shall not spread.

Tory Pressure
f Vase next B.C. House will have almost as

many Liberal members as the last one.
The government will be a Liberal party govern-
ment. But sitting in the House, most likely
as the oficial Opposition, will be a solid bloc
of dyed-in-the-wool reactionaries—the Tories, ~
headed by Dr. Patterson.

The last Pattullo government was by no
means a progressive government, even 1) the
liberal-bourgeois sense. Their actions 1n the
Corbin, longshore and relief camp strikes are
evidences of that. Also their passing of the
Special Powers Act.

But the danger of still further yielding to
the pressure of finance capital by the next Pat-
tullo government will be immeasurably greater
in the next four years because of the presence
in the House of the direct representatives of
big business as represented by the Tory bloe.

Undoubtedly, the big exploiters of labor
such as the Shipping Federation, the mining
magnates, the timber barons and the cannery
interests, will feel encouraged by the victory
of the pliant Pattullo government, particularly
when that government will be pressed further
along the road of reaction by the Tory oppo-
sition.

Working class and progressive representa-
tion in legislative bodies is of tremendous im-
portance and can render great assistance to the
workers throughout the province and country
where the battle for bread and the rights of
trade union organization rages.

And yet, parliamentary struggle is not the
only form of struggle open to the workers ;
there is the struggle on the job, in industry,
with the trade union as the form of organiza-
tion through which to carry it on. At the
present time there is a wave of desire for or-
ganization sweeping the North American con-
tinent, and in B.C. this desire is manifesting
itself on many occasions and in many localities.
And what is more, actual organization has been
effected (Cumberland and Nanaimo coal min-

ers, Bridge River and Cariboo metal miners,
etc. ).

The bosses are doing their utmost to stem
this organization drive. They are resorting
to the wildest charges, red-baiting and iois-
representation in order to alienate public sup-
port from organizing and organized workers.

In the Cariboo where the miners are on
strike the bosses through the capitalist press
are howling about interference by “outsiders”
and the “invasion” of B.C. by the ClO—al-
though the union in which the miners are or-
ganized was functioning in B.C. a half century
ago. That it is an affilate of the CIO is the
business of the members and not of the bosses.

The growing desire of the workers of B.C.
for union organization should be taken the
fullest advantage of. A powerful trade union:
movement should be built up without delay, a
movement so strong and militant and united
that it can withstand any attacks that may be
made against it by the government as agents
of the finance capitalist bosses.

Our Congratulations

HE Prorre’s Apvocate extends its con=
gratulations to the CCF on the election of
seven——and perhaps more—candidates in the
provincial elections last Tuesday. We wish
there had been more elected, for there is need
now, more than ever before, for a strong pro-
eressive group at Victoria.

The victory of Dr. Telford and Harold
Winch in Vancouver East was a notable one.
Tn this riding, perhaps the surest labor seat
in all Canada, almost any CCF candidate
could have won. But that in no way detracts
from the victory of Telford and Winch, for
the element of personal popularity played a
part.

To Don Maxwell and Trotter, although de-
feated, in Vancouver Burrard, must be given
eredit for an excellent showing. The campaign
of Maxwell in particular was a strenuous one
and well conducted. His personality, too, is
such as to appeal to the electorate, and this
accounts in considerable degree for the fine
vote he and his running mate received. :

In eyery ease where CCF candidates were
elected, they had Communist support. In tact
all CCE candidates with the exception of three
who were considered unworthy to carry the
banner of a working-class party, and the candi-
date who »pposed the Communist candidate,
Baker ,in New Westminster—all had the sup-
port of the Communist party, which assisted
materially in rolling up the huge majorities 1
Vancouver Bast and in electing CCF candi-
dates in ridings where the contest was close.

Tt is regrettable that the CCF did not elect
more than it elected in 1933 (the outcome in
Mackenzie riding may give one more). It is
as regrettable as it is alarming that while the
CGF failed to advance, the Tory party made
such notable gains. In our opinion this could
have been avoided had the people been pre-
sented with the strong alternative to the ib-
eral party of a powerful united people’s pro-
eressive front which would have created such
an enthusiasm and confidence as to make the
turning of so many to the Tory party as an
alternative impossible.

Tt is to be hoped that the lessons of the elec-
tion will be learned and utilized so that in the
future labor and progressive representation
in the House will not be confined to a handful
of members against a powerful array of repre-
sentatives of finance capital. Unification ot the
forces of progress will achieve this aim or, even
more, lead to the establishment of a progres-
sive government in this province.

a)

Splitters Repudiated

HE repudiation of Connell and his Con-
structive candidates at the polls should
serve as a warning to all splitters and other
disrupters in the labor movement. Connell
was elected in Victoria as a member of the
CCE as was Price, Bakewell and Swailes in
their respective constituencies.

Heads turned by success, they thought, ap-
parently, that it was for themselves personally
that the electors voted. Be that as it may, they
decided that the CCF should have no control
over their actions and policy in the House and
that they could flaunt the decisions of the party
convention, its highest and most authoritative
expression.

While it is true that the nonsense of “so-
cialized finance” was adopted by the CCF pro-
vineial convention last July (happily it was
dropped during the recent campaign) such an
aberration did not warrant the defection of the
Connellite group.

The main reason for the split was their un-
willingness to be guided and controlled in their
legislative activities by the party, without
which they would not have been elected. They
also felt that the pressure for unity from within
and without the CCF was driving the party to
the Left, while they wanted to go further to
the Right.

Their attitude regarding party eontrol as
expressed by Connell and Bakewell revealed
a petty bourgeois ideology. They. contended
that they were not responsible to the CCF or
the workers of the province, but to the electors
eapitalist and workers—in their respective

For a time the Connell splitters worried and
hampered —he activities of the CCF and con-
fused its membership and supporters. Their
opposition also drove the more timorous mMem-
bers of the Provincial Executive away trom.
unity with other progressive groups, especially
the Communist party.

The electorate condemned them, however.
Gonnell, Price and Swailes were overwhelm-
inely defeated for re-election, and the once
popular Pritchard polled 443 votes as against
11,621 for Dr. Telford. It is to be hoped that
as they pass into the political shadows their
fate will teach a lesson to potential splitters
everywhere.

LESSONS OF THE
ELECTI

By MALCOLM BRUCE

The return of the Pattullo gov-
ernment was no surprise to dis-
cerning people. Not many, how-—
ever, looked for such a come-
bacts as the Tories made. The
failure of the CCF to elect any
more candidates than in 1933
is a disappointment to all pro-
gressive people. Summed up
briefly the results were:

The Liberals were returned
with a slightly reduced majority.
The CCF just held its own. The
Gonnellite splitters proved a dud
as a political party. Social Credit
has been unable to establish
itself as a serious factor in B-C.
politics. The Tory party made a
come-back.

The strength of the Commu-
nist party, as expressed in par-
Jiamentary elections, is difficult
to judge inasmuch as there was
only one Communist candidate
in the whole province. The 550
votes cast for Baker, Communist
candidate, in New Westminster,
with a GCE candidate running
against him, and where the CP
is organizationally weak as com-
pared with other ‘constituen-
cies, is evidence that a growing
number of people outside of the
GP are losing their prejudices
against the party, and are ac-
cepting its leadership amd are
supporting it.

Reaction a Real Menace

The really disquieting feature
of the elections was the Tory
revival. Almost wiped out in
1933 (only four Tories, camou-
flaged as “Unionists,” “TInde-
pendents,” ete. being elected),
they have elected eight at least
(some outlying constitwencies
yet uncertain). But the extent
of the Tory revival can not be
measured by the number of
candidates elected, but in the
size of the popular vote cast for
jts candidates, a popular vote
which exceeds that cast for the
GCE.

In these circumstances it is
difficult to understand Dr. Tel-
ford’s statement that the gain
of the Tories at the expense of
the Liberals is “promising.” And
neither can we agree that it of-
fers an opportunity for the CCE
Members to “drive a wedge
through the two old-line par-
ties.”

On the contrary, the solid
block of eight or more Tories as
an opposition will enable the big
interests to exert greater press-
ure upon the government and
thereby drive it further to the
Right and in the service of re-
action; and when pressed hard
enough, instead of allowing the
insertion of Dr. Telford’s CCF
wedge, opens up the possi-
pilities of a coalition of the Tory
bloc with the reactionary wing
of the Liberal party.

Among the parties only the
Communist party foresaw the
danger of a Tory comebacix,
warned against it, and urged a
united front of progressive peo-
ple, parties and organizations
to prevent it.

The warning was not heeded,
and unlike 1933 when the CCF
received the second highest pop-
ular yote and constituted the
official opposition in the legis-
jJature, in the recent election the
Tories received second highest
popular vote and will constitute
the official opposition in both
respects, relegating the CCF to
third position.

In the Burrard Riding

The arch-reactionaries of BC
worked hard for the Tory come
back, preferring a Tory govern—
ment of unrelieved reaction. It
was evident that the greatest
effort was directed towards the
defeat of the progressive mem-=
bers of the government and
members of the legislature in
order, if and when necessary, to
form a coalition government of
reaction. This explains the near—
defeat of the propular and pro-
gressive Dr. Weir, Minister of
Education, who was headed in
the polling in Vancouver-Point
Grey by the ultra-reactionary
Maitland and by Paton.

The Tory victories in rural
ridings such as Dewdney and
Chilliwack which previously
were held by Liberals can be
attributed largely to the scan-
dalous administration of the
Marketing Act, through which
the farmers were outrageously
skinned by the Marketing Board
in collusion with the Wolves of
Water Street (notorious whole-
sale brokers like Snow & €o.).

The Connellite splitters who
broke away from the CCF re-
ceived their answer at the polls,
Connell and Swailes being
swamped, and Price and Pritch-
ard receiving but a few hundred
votes each. The crushing repu-
diation of the so-called Con-
structives will lixely eliminate
the treacherous gang of disrupt-
ers from labor politics.

United Front Brings Victory

In analysing the fortunes of
the CCF in the elections it is
Significant that the two seats
Mackenzie and Victoria, which
the CGF won in 1933 and lost in
this election, are constituencies
where little or no unity on im-
mediate issues has been achieved
—in Mackenzie the losing CCE
standard-bearer being the well-
known anti-united fronter Gar-
graves.

The loss of these two seats is
offset by the winning of two
seats on Vancouver (Island,
Gowichan-Newcastle and Comox
by two advocates of the United
Front, Sam Guthrie and Colin
Gameron, respectively.

The election of Cameron in
Comox, where Allan, CCF can-
didate was defeated by 500 votes
in 1933 provides an example and
a lesson to the CCF leadership.
In that constituency for the past
two years the CCH, the Commu-
nist party, and the Miners’ Un-
jon worked as a United Front
on questions of economic better-
ment and in the last municipal
election in which they achieved
marked success. Cameron is an
outspoken advocate of the
United Front, and openly de-
clared that he welcomed the
support of the Communist party
and could not be elected with-
out it.

GCE Leaders Defeat Stephen

Alberni-Nanaimo also furnish-
es an example and lesson—even
if A. M. Stephen missed election.
In that riding Stephen polled
some 700 votes more than Dr.
Telford received in 1933. And
the failure of Stephen to win
the seat for the CCF can be laid
at the door of the provincial
executive of the CCF which sabo-
taged his campaign in every
possible way.

Although Stephen was the un-
animous choice of the CCE clubs
in the riding, he was repudiated

by the provincial executive be-
cause it had suspended him for
his advocacy of a united front
against reaction.

This was stabbing him in the
back and objectively supporting
the reactionary Pearson, Minis-
ter of Labor and strikebreaker
extraordinary.

Moreover, they prevented any
of the big guns of the party such
as Woodsworth and provincial
Jeaders from speaking in his be-
half, even when they knew he
was confined to bed by ilness
during the latter part of the
campaign.

Wo one can deny that were it
not for the confusion created
py the repudiation of his candi-
dacy, and had they rendered even
the slightest assistance, he would
have been elected and the CCE
might again, as in 1933, have
been the official opposition.
Other constituencies which could
have been won for the CCF were
neglected so that an intensified
fight could be waged against
the Communist candidate in
Wew Westminster, against whom
the main CCE attack was di-
rected inStead of against the
capitalist parties’ candidates.

What Is To Be Done

That after four years of Pat-
tullo government misrule the
CCF has not increased its stand-
ing in the House nor jnereased
its popular vote, and permitted
the Tory party to supplant it as
the second party in the province
and the official opposition, is 2
grievous disappointment to all
progressive people which the
victories of Dr. Telford, Winch
and others cannot assuage. -

During those four years a
favorable situation for a CCE
electoral victory had developed.
But the GCF leadership failed to
measure up to its opportunities.
Instead of bringing about a
united front of all progressive
organization, through trans-
forming itself into 2 federation
(which its name implies), it
chose the road of “going it alone”
while making war on and Sus-
pending those in its own ranks
who advocated such a necessary
policy.

Despite the failure of the CCH
to make a better showing than
it did in 1933, and despite the
menacing advance of Tory re-
action, there is still an impos-
ine army of people in BC which
has supported the CCF. These
people not only must not be al-
lowed to drift back to the Tory
party—or to the Liberal party
either—but should be augment-
ed by new recruits.

The basic organizations of
labor, the trade unions, must be
strengthened through the acqui-
sition of new members and a
progressive leadershsip. The un-
organized workers must be or-
ganized. And the trade unions
must, asin Great Britain, France
and other politically advanced
countries, be drawn into the po-
litical life of the province and
the Dominion through federa-
tion together with ALL labor
political and progressive parties
in order that an unbreakable
front can be forged against re-
action.

In the attainment of this im-
peratively necessary stage of
growth and power the €CF, by
virtue of its influence, can play
a tremendous role.

98 Per

By FRANK L. PALMER
John D. Rockefeller, billionaire,

killer, philanthropist, libertine,
patron of the sciences, labor
hater, churchman, exploiter

- alike of workers and competitors,

lived almost 98 years of fantastic
life—really two lives—before he
abandoned his fight to live to be
100. As in all else, he was about
98 per cent successful.

John D. was born July 8, 1839,
son of a very religious mother
and a father who peddled a fake
cancer cure. Religion and graft
colored his life from the cradle.
At 8 he made his first money.
Tt is rumored he still had it
at 97.

At 22 he faced his first sreat
crisis, His country was engaged
in a great war to determine
whether a nation conceived in
liberty could long endure. He
was of war age. He went into
the oil business in 1861 and was
rich by 1864. His family, ultra-
patriotic, has made money on
every war since.

*

Then began ruthless growth.
In 1871 Standard Oi was found-
ed. Secret contracts were signed
by railroads under duress, by
which they gave rebates to John
D.’s concerns. Federal law made
that criminal in time; but the
profits were already working in
new ways. In 1879, John D., his
brother and six associates were
indicted. But they beat the rap-

His brother, Frank, incidental-
ly, broke with Fohn 2s On
Frank’s deathbed he made one
claim for eternal peace—he had,
he said, nothing to do with his
brother, John D-.

In 1907, Standard Oil was fined
$28,840,000 by Judge Kenesaw
Mountain Landis. He beat that,
too. But the federal government
finally caught up with him in
1911 and forced dissolution of the
Standard Oil trust. Before long,
John D. had his plans ready and

he made more millions in oil after
the dissolution than before.

Cent Successful .

His money-2rabbing ‘first life”

ended in April, 1914, when pro-
fessional imported strike-break-
ers, brought into Colorado by the
Rockefellers to smash a coal
Strike, burned 19 women and
children to death in an unpro-
tected tent colony.

The whole nation was aroused,
a federal probe scorched Rocke-
feller methods, and the very
name Rockefeller became a hiss-
ing and by-word for all that was

evil. Shocked by the thought
that his father, already aged,
might die bearing shis record of

business crime and human bru-
tality. wobn 0. Ji, called in
“Poison Ivy’ Lee, ace publicity
man, and contracted with him to
change America’s idea of his
father.

ee

Together they worked out the
picture they wanted the people
to have of the old man: a phil-
anthropist, religious, Kindly, de-
yoted to the church, the arts and
the sciences. Lee went to work.
His success was phenomenal. Lee
earefully recorded every dime
given away. Carefully kept every
girl nurse from telling the
papers she quit because the old
man chased her so lewdly. Care-
fully refrained from telling the
press why they finally furnished
him male nurses.

*

The next time Rockefeller gun-
men killed Colorado coal strikers
(November 21, 1927) it coincided
with the laying of the corner-
stone of Rockefellers beautiful
Riverside church in New York.
Harry —2merson Fosdick, ultra-
liberal minister of the church,
ecamouflages every killing so far
as liberals, churchmen and edu-
eators are concerned. At a mag-
nificent salary.

But the main move in Lee’s
attack was charity. Foundations
were planned by which the
Rockefellers seemed to give hun-
dreds of millions which they ac-
tually kept under their control.
These foundations were public-
ized throughout the world. John
D. passed out millions and dimes
—and it all made good publicity

for the papers which carried
plenty of Rockefeller advertising.
*

So when John D. finally died,
it was at the end of his second
lige—the life of the benevolent,
kindly, religious, charitable old
eentieman. Ivy Lee and John D.
Jr. had done their work. Ivy Lee
was already dead, but his firm in
New York announced the death
in’ Florida.

John DD: Jr. must have sighed
with relief at the end of his long
vigil. No, Ivy Lee’s office told
the press, John D. Jr. was NOT
going to Floridat

SHORT
JABS

CSOo

By
OL’ BILL

é The plans
First At Soviet workers to es-
The Pole tablish an air base

at the North Pole
may be a little too ambitious ever

of the

to be accomplished, but one
thing is surely established, 2
Soviet expedition has reached the
Pole, the first men of any nation-
ality to do so.

Local papers refer to the claim
of Peary, stating that “it has.
been disputed, but the US Con-
eress voted it undisputable and
the National Geographic Society
of the US recognized it.’ The
claim of Peary has not only been
disputed, but proved nonsensical
and impossible, no more substan-
tial than that of the mounte-
‘bank, Cook, who about the same
time claimed to have reached the
Pole, but was proved to be a
common swindler and finished up
in jail. -

There is nothing to support
Peary's claim, but his own un
supported word, the story of the
men who went with him, a
negro named Henson, being con-
tradictory. His instruments were
never inspected and he refused
to show his log-book to the Con-
. gress committee of investigation.
This notebook has never been
seen to this day. The shadows
on the photos he took at the
“Pole,’’ prove he was never there,
being about 23 degrees off what
they should have been at the
Pole on that day.

The US Congress is no more
competent to pass on the indis-
putability or otherwise of this
claim than it is to decide the
truth or falsity of the Book of
Genesis, and the National Geo-
graphic Society is not a scientific
organization, but 2 publishing
eoncern that had put up part of
the cost of Peary’s expedition to
advertize its magazine.

Before Arctic exploration hag
become a field for commercial
exploitation, the men who en-
gaged in it were scientists whose
object was to add to the sum ot
human knowledge and the ex-

penses were borne by scientific
bodies organized for the same
purpose. Ross, Franklin, Norden-
skjold, Nansen and Amundsen
were men of this calibre, physi-
cally heroic and sincere in their
purpose.
zg But since
Business business be-
eame inter

Administration
ested, such

expeditions have become merely
@ means for advertising breakfast
foods, toothpaste, rubber boots,
corm whisky, pseudo -scientific
papers and other saleable commo-
dities and with these things came
crooked explorers like Cook and
Peary. All the evidence produced
since proves one thing to be “un-
disputable’’ —that Peary was &
lar.

The Nobile Fascist propaganda.
expedition which dropped a flag
blessed by the Pope “over the
Pole” and afterwards disgraced
the tradition of the Arctic seas,
was also a “four-flush”’ that cost
the lives of Amundsen and sey-
eral other braye Scandinavians
before the expedition was rescued
by the Krassin.

Science is again freed from the
demands of business advertising:

by the workers of the Soviet

Union and history will place the
eredit for being the first at the
Pole where it rightfully belongs
—to the Soviet flyers, who have
just set up a radio station there.

Im sor he:

Breakfast With Federationist”

A Duchess of May 20, a

two-line
sneer tells us that “The Duchess
of Atholl had breakfast yester-
day with Willie Gallacher, the
Communist MP.” The story,
taken from the

icle,’ stops there, leaving the

reader to infer that some deep-

dyed plot against the workers is

“News Chron-

being hatched by the Communists
and the aristocracy.

It is unfortunate for “The Wed-
erationist” that it is not able to
inform its readers that Willie
Gallacher had breakfast yester-
day, or any other day, with some
slimy Trotskyist, some of the
gang of disruptionists who tried
to organize anti-Soviet demon~-
strations in Leningrad and Mos-
coy on November 7, 1927, and
who are attempting to sow dis-
cord in the ranks of the anti-
Fascist forces in Spain today,
even to the extent of armed re-
volt, and thus pave the way for
a victory of their masters,
Franco, Hitler and Mussolini.

The Duchess of Atholl yisitec
Spain recently and since her re-
turn has been working to stir up
the British people against the
Fascist brizands and murderers
who are soaking the Iberian
Peninsula in blood.

The National Joint Committee
for Spanish Relief willingly ac-
cepts the aid of individuals from
all ranks of society in defense
of the Spanish people in the Gol-
gotha through which they are
pow passing, irrespective of class,
politics or creed. On its platform
appear workers, capitalists and
aristocrats —all in opposition to
Fascism. Recently the Duchess
of Atholl spoke at Queen's Hall
in London with Ellen Wilkin-
son, the Dean of Chichester, and
one of the owners of the “Seven
Seas Spray.”