PROPLE Ss ADY OC4LEE

September 17. 1937

SCREEN

OW the New Film Alliance
sizes the new pictures up:

100 MEN AND A HORSE: The
hundred men are unemployed and
the girl is, of course, Deanna Dur-
bin, Universal’s much-heralded
songbird, who amazes by the tone
and quality of her voice and her
ability to act. Her part consists
in finding work for these 100 un-
employed musicains by bearding
the lion Leopold Stokowski, direc-
tor of the Philadelphia symphony
orchestra. and begging his as-
sistance. Stokowski conducts some
world-famous favorites. Alice
Brady and Adolphe Menjou con-
tribute their usual fine acting.

DOUGLLE OR NOTHING: Mar-
tha Raye’s mouth and legs appear
once more with Bing Crosby. Idea
behind the music and dancing is
that a rich man dies, leavine $5000
to four strangers, with the proviso
that whoever doubles his stake in
30 days receives the balance of
$1,000,000.

SOPHIE LANG GOES WEST:
One of those beyond-the-wildest-of-
dreams stories, which ranks about
Z% in the Sophie Lang series,

e

By JOHN R. CHAPLIN
Federated Press

OLLYWOOD. — Headed by
Robert Montgomery, Boris
Karloff, Edward Arnold. Lucille

Gleason and Chester Morris, board
members of the Sereen Actors
Guild, a handful of stars including
Lewis Stone, Lionel Stander, J.
Bdward Bromberg and John Car-
radine and about 3,000 extra play-
ers represented the screen in Los
Angeles’ Labor Day parade.

All the motion picture techni-
Cains’ unions also participated, but
the deepest impression was made
by 3.000 members of the Junior
Guild, who marched in groups ac-
cording to racial characteristics
they portray on the screen; with
Weeroes, Chinese, Hindu, Arabs
and others in the typical costumes
that they use for film work. This
was the finest demonstration of
actor participation in the labor
movement that Hollywood has yet
seen. ..-

Kenneth Thomson, guild secre-
tary, said a few words over the
microphone during the parade. as
did’ Lionel Stander, who broadcast:
“T am proud to be marching with
the Sereen Actors Guild in its sec-
ond Labor Day parade. American
Jabor is on the march. et us hope
that by this time next year Am-—
erican labor will be surging for-
ward in one unified effort toward
a better life for all the people.” - -

e

spe new steps have been taken
by Hollywood's liberals to aid
in the Spanish crisis: A group of
stars, directors and writers have
wired President Roosevelt, Secre-
tary of State Hull, the League of
Wations and General Franco re-
questing action to save the 2,000
government Officials and other
known Republicans of Santander
who, according to confidential des-
patches received here, are doomed
to the same slaughter as those of
Bilbao and other fallen cities,

Donald Ogden Stewart presided
over a preview showing of the
film. Heart of Spain, with which
Dr. Edward Barsky, head of the
American hospital unit in Spain, is
touring the US. Also shown were
three motion picture trailers, two
of them featuring Nancy Carroll
and the third Irving Pichel, which
have been made here. One of the
Wancy Carroll trailers is to be
used as advance advertising for
Dr. Barsky’s natonwide tour; the
other two explain how the money
raised at the meetings will be con-
verted into ambulances and medi-
cal aid for the Spanish wounded.

e

ERHAPS one of the reasons
for Tallulah Bankhead’s re-
cent marriage was that she wanted
the part of Searlett in Gone With
the Wind. She'll probably get iv.
Clara Bow (remember?) has re-
turned to Hollywood. She and
hubby Rex Bell have opened 2
restaurant called the It, reviving
the word which made her famous.
Joan Crawford and Claudette Col-
bert are among those who are
rumored intending to quit films
for the stage within a year. And
in Joan’s case there are those who
say she intends leaving the screen
for good. . - . The Fernand Gravet-
Carole Lombard-Hthel Merman

miuusical, Food For Seandal, will
be made by Mervyn LeRoy in
technicolor. It will he TLeRoy’s

first try at color. which he thinks
has now reached maturity. .-.-

e
S the Shirley Temple vogue
dropping off? On her recent

return from Honolulu, little Miss
Temple was almost overlooked by
the reporters, who seemed more
interested in another passenger on
the same boat, Bill Benton, the
radio executive who, aiter piling
up a quick fortune, retired from
pusiness in his early thirties to
pecome vice-president of the Uni-
versity of Chicago. - :

Mhe magic carpet used by Eddie
Cantor in his next film cost the
lives of two Hollywood laborers in
one of the worst accidents Holly-
wood studios haye seen in a long
time. = . =

That amazing and contradictory
union, the International Associa-
fion of Theatrical Stage Hm-
ployees, has signed a collective
bargaining agreement with the
Technicolor laboratories, gaining
as high as 35 per cent wage raises
for some of the workers. .- -

Unions

By COLIN CAMERON

ECENTLY I spent a

- week in the logging
camps of the Comox Logging
Company. I went there in
my capacity as an MLA to
ask for some instruction
from my constituents. J took
with me a copy of the “Trade
Union Bill’ which we propose tv
introduce in the legislature this
fall and a petition form addressed
to the provincial government ask-
ine for the passage of this lepisla-—
tion. The petition was signed by
an overwhelming majority of the
men contacted.

In conversation with many of

i
PROTECTIV
Ps
ASSOGIATION UE 5
0
TNAIMO;B

Nanaimo Miners’ Union
Badge, reverse.

them I found an eagerness for
union organization, coupled with
considerable fear of discrimination.

Wow, I imagine that most of
these men see in union organiza-
4ion 2 means whereby they can im-
prove their conditions of work,
And quite rightly so, for that is
the immediate and primary ob-

Japanese

#} bumped into one an-
other coming out of the
“Beacon” after seeing “The
Bombing of Shanghai’ and
both of us had our eyes glued
on the old Chinese woman

who was crying uUncon-
trollably.

K., an old Japanese friend of
mine, in business, grabbed my
hand in somewhat embarrassed

fashion and we were both think-
ing of the weeping old Chinese
for the next block that we walked
up Hastings street.

“Tt was. terrible,’ said I. in
his soft voice as we lay on the
erass at Victory Square in the
semi-darkness and was silent for
a while.

Presently he continued, “Do not
think that all the people in my
country would applaud such a
sight.”

Soon K., who is an ayid reader
of all his language publications.
was speaking freely of what he
knows of the internal Situation in
his country. After 15 years in
Canada his English is excellent.

“TJ do not expect very much
from the ordinary newspapers bur
many of my friends want the labor
press, at least, to discourage the
idea prevalent at the present time
that the whole nation is united be-
hind the invasion of China,”
said K.

“Up until a month ago I had
no Gifficulty in obtaining all kinds
of papers from Japan, especially
labor papers, but now the govern-
ment has prevented the mailing
of any kind, as far as I can find
out, and so the local colony is
pretty much in the danke

*

GG OW. did the last elections go
and what is the attitude of
progressive leaders toward the

Japanese invasion?” I asked.
“The progressive deputies in the
Diet are afraid to come out openly
against the war. You people in

Are Bulwarks of
Declare Th

jective of a union. But there is
another aspect to unionization, a
broader and at the same time more
fundamental purpose for trade
union organization—that is, to act
as a bulwark for our democratic
institution.

OW, there will be many who
will sneer at the idea that
we haye any democracy worth de-
fending. When we are confronted
with a particularly glaring piece of
administrative corruption or bung-
linge or inefficiency we are prone
to throw up our hands and say,
“There’s democracy for you!’ But
by such an attitude we convict not
democracy, but ourselves.

We demonstrate by this defeat-
ist attitude that we lack those
qualities of courage, honesty. and
patience, without which, democ-

racy cannot succeed. After making

all due allowance for the inevitable
failures of democracy under the
capitalist system—after facing the
fact that we have a political democ-
racy functioning, or attempting to
function, alongside an economic
autocracy, we are still faced with
the fact that the great democratic
jdeal of the 19th century has borne
fruit which we enjoy today.

Freedom of speech, the right to,
elect our administrators, free edu-
cation. equality before the law—
all these, however much they may
be honored in the breach rather
than the observance, all these are
the fruits of that political ideal of
the last century—our much de-
spised democracy. And these are
the thines which make life worth
living for millions of the world’s
inhabitants today—and it is pre-
cisely the lack of these things
which makes life almost unbear-
able for other millions.

To say that the democratic ideal
has borne no fruit, that our democ-

racy has given and is giving us
nothing; worth haying is te he
quite realistic.

4
RANTED that democracy is
worth saving, what part have

the trade unions to play?

As T see it, they have two func-
tions. In the first place, as I have
already said, they are the means
whereby the workers in an indus-
try can protect themsetves and

Colin
there is

Cameron . - - But

another aspect to
unionization, a broader and at
the same time more funda-
mental purpose for trade union
organizationn—that is. to act
as a bulwark for ow demo-
cratic institutions. . .—

their dependents from attacks on
their standard of living. Wor this
purpose a union is the only weapon
in the, workers hands. Neither
legislation nor courts of law can
do anything for him till he has
done something for himself
formed a union whereby he and
his fellows can speak with one
voice.

In the second place the union
forms a valuable training-ground
in the practical working of democ-
racy. It encourages each member
to play his part in the administra-
tion of his own business. It
teaches him the patience, the wis-
dom and the tolerance necessary
for the peaceful conduct of human
affairs. Without a plentiful supply
of such trained men and women,
then democracy is indeed doomed.

HEN we look at unions in
this light we see how vitally
interested in their formation and
preservation the whole community
should be. Should be, but unfor-
tunately seldom is. The attitude
of the professional class and store-
keepers is, as a rule, at best, one
of indifference to unions. At worst,
one of active or passive hostility.
And yet these people are also en-
joying the benefits of democratic
institutions. It is to such people
we should appeal for help and
support for the unions.

We can make that appeal on the
basis I have stated—the preseryva-
tion and enlargement of democ-
racy. With all its faults, failures
and disappointments. democracy is
still the only road to the only
worthwhile goal of humanity—the
brotherhood of man. And not least
among the vehicles which will
carry along that road “are our
trade unions.

By SAM GUTHRIE

N discussing the question

of unity one would think
that there should be no
lengthy argument required
today, to convince working-
men as to the need for or-
ganization.

The lumber and sawmill work-
ers of the province have been
shown on more than one occasion
that their employers are thorough-
ly organized. So too, are all the
large employers of labor in this
proyince. The professionals know
how to unite; and each profession
has its own organization.

So it seems that the workers in
the lumber industry have as much
need for organization as these
other groups just mentioned.

© those who at times may feel
discouraged, a brief review of
the efforts of the Vancouver Island
miners to organize, may be help-
ful. a
Since the strike of 1912 to 1914,
when hundreds of the ‘workers
were thrown into the jails of the
proyinee, many attempts have
been made to organize the men,
and only in the last month have
they been successful.

Democracy,
ese MLA’s

The miners have now gained the
closed Shop and the check-off. This
means that union dues in future,
will be collected through the
company office, and that only
union workers will be employed at
prevailing union wages. agreed
upon by the company and the
men. Men will also be able to re-
port upon dangerous conditions in
the mines without fear of discrimi-
nation. ><

HAT the miners have pained
can surely be gained by the
jumber workers if they have the
food sense to unite. Events today
are moving much more rapidly
than formerly.. What took the
miners years to attain may be ac-
complished much more quickly by
the lumber workers-

ATION OF BY

ee

Nanaimo Miners’ Union
Badge, 1889.

Insecurity and want can only
be banished from the land when
the common people make up their
minds to do so. ‘The individual
jumiber workers can give valuable
assistance by joining their unions.
At Victoria, the GCF members can
be relied upon to assist the lum-
ber and mill workers in obtaining
their objectives.

People Don’t Want War ... by Wm. Purvis

Canada have no idea of the meth-
ods used by the police and secret
agents against any who break the
discipline imposed by the law
against dangerous thoughts.”’

“ind of Japanese Section 98,”
T murmured.

“Yes, only much more yicious.
It is generally understood that
only the Communists continue to
issue leaflets in an underground
fashion because it means instant
and violent death to be caught
with such literature on you.

“However, 1 would say that
many thousands of working peo-
ple have been overcome by the
campaign of jingoism just the
same as in England and Germany
in 1914. The difference is that my
people have also learmed many
lessons about war and with the
strone trade union movement in
Japan which has led many militant
and important strikes I expect a
reaction to the war very soon, as
soon as the violent radio speeches
of the military clique become
somewhat stale.”

*

6é HAT is the particular line
used io inflame the people

to support the jnvasion?”I asked.

“Hirst, there is much talk about

“J crack like a machine-gun,
I’m so rheumatic!”

Up to the last moment fashion-
able!

The wind in dead trees.

the noisy falling

of dried bough and the rushing

of smali rivers—all these,

even to crack of bones, noise in
the ears—

machine-guns!

Up to the last, the last moment;

how nev, how new this age-old
threat of death

sounding in ears made heavy, in

Manchukuo being the life-line of
the Japanese empire and the need
for expansion in order to find jobs
for the unemployed. Then there

are the imaginary insults that
the Chinese nation has given
Japan: talk of prestige and that

other countries must be shown
that Japan cannot be played with.

“But the bigsgeest scare used by
the governmient is the red scare.
They tell the people that the Chi-
nese red army is really linked up
with Russia which is only wait-
ing a favorable moment to sweep
down and destroy Japanese cul
ture.

“Qn top of this, you must re-
member that Japanese youth has
been thoroughly militarized and
that an army of five million men
can be placed on the field. The
Militarists are working hard to
keep up a spirit of jingoism by
all these means and the intention
is to secure enough decisive vic-
tories to keep the people quiet.”

“Tooks as though they can’t
produce these victories,’ I said.

“Wor the moment that is true; ~

but I fear that the war will last
4 long time and sheer weight of
metal will work havoc with the

1937

bones
sick-weary, old. The muttering
threat of death.

Good! Let them have it.

“Ask, and ye shall receive,
ixnock, and it shall be opened.”
They have asked,

They have knocked,

They have knocked.

It opens shortly now-

ii
In your flesh and my flesh to-
gether met
where’s. the antithesis?
we get

Where do

man’s Diary

A= so school
What Future | is open
For Youth? again. All over

the province
fhousands of children are being
educated and trained—for what?

How much of what they learn to-
day will be of use to them when
they are through with school? How
many of them will go out into the
world; inspired with the desire to
build and create, only to find that
¢he commercial world has no place
for them? ‘
How many of them are pre-con-
demned to the long, fruitless
search for work? And how many
of them will eventually find them-
selves in the desperate plight of
hundreds of youn=s men in Van-
couver who have been foreed into

prison because
starve.

Or again, how many youngsters,
now in their first year high school,
will never return to complete
their education because they must
take whatever work they can get
at whatever wages are offered in
order to help feed the younger
members of their families?

Wow many ambitions will never
be realized because society offers
no encouragement for their de-
velopments.

they refuse to

These are questions which nearly
all mothers must face. Certainly,
mothers should encourase their
‘teen age boys and girls toe join
progressive youth organizations
and support the moyement which
is springing up everywhere to

champion the cause of the youth
of today.
e

: LL mothers in
Infantile

this province
Paralysis. are watching with
z anxious eyes’ the
reports of the infantile paralysis
epidemic in the Bast which has

already taken toll of many lives.
The

Clarion... Toronto progres-
Sive daily, last week published a
list of symptoms which, if rec-
ognized immediately, may mean
the saving of a stricken child’s
life, For this reason I will repeat
them: Risina temperature, head-
ache and listlessness, vomiting,
lack of desire for food, cold, or
sore throat; soreness in back

muscles. stiffness and pain in the

Chinese, although
sibly see my
China.

“As soon as the realization of
this impossibility is grasped by
the millions in Japan who are
poisoned by propaganda then Tf
expect to see things happen. Not
many Canadians remember the
incident in 1932 in the last in-
yasion of China. The Takata regi-
ment revolted against the butch-
ery at Chapei and when the regi-
ment was surrounded and impris-
oned. the government thought it
best because of public sentiment
to release the mutineers on prom-
ise of future good behayior.

*
(AA ELL me; do you want your
country to be defeated.”

‘tinder the circumstances I do,
and there are many thousands
thinking the same as I do.

“In the first place, practically
the whole of the democratic world
is against us; we are fighting a
losing war and the policies of suc-
cessive Japanese governments has
brought the workers, farmers and
the middle class to an unbeliev-
ably low standard of living, due
to the piling up of armaments

IT cannot pos-
country defeating

eross-movement here? Immeasur-
ably dear,

sweet as the bite of fruit, is here

yvehemence of force destined to
heave

the round world out of time! Be-
liev2

my bothering brain, then; newly.
learning

to think in terms of force, and
turning

smooth on its job as a grease-
axled wheel:

see weeded flesh transformed to
welded steel.

— Valentine Ackland.

a)

by

joints of arms and legs.

If there is the least suspicion,
a doctor should be called’ at once,
°
T certainly
was a pleas-

First Thought

For Spain. ure to hear
that a man
who really needed it, won the

$2,000 at the recent Exhibition. It
was still more encouraging to hear
that his wife’s first thought was
that they could now help the chil-
dren in Spain. Tf more people, who
can afford it, would realize, as
this couple did, that the war in
Spain much our war as if
it were here, how much suffering
might have been averted. how
many thousands of women and
children would haye been spared

ise as

The many stmkes for higher
wages that have been organized
by trade unions in the last few
years can also be organized again
gainst an unpopular war.”

“What is the general attitude of
Japanese people in Canada toward
the war?”

“The young people “hardly give
it a thought. They are interested
in making a living and having as
good a time as possible while they
can. The small busimess man is
too busy trying to make ends meet
to worry much about the war.
Only the old timers are agitated
and have been responsible for the
collection of a little money for war
purposes. We have no big organ-
ized collections as the Chinese
have. And there is no fear of a
mobilization order here. Of course,
there is a group which tries to be
war-like, but most of us state
that we are living in Canada now
and want to be left alone.

¢ Y the way,” said K., with

suspicious innocence, “Is
the labor moyement here doing
anything to hamper ,Japan in its
invasion of China? I notice that
our boats are loading scrap metal
at many Vancouver docks. I think
that the military clique would he
given a staggering blow if all serap
jron Shipments were immediately
stopped by the Canadian govern-
ment. There is a Japanese
cate scouring the prairies
old iron and it is piling
Wancouver.

“Perhaps it was a piece of BC
scrap iron that nearly finished the
British ambassador recently,” he
added in a gentle jibe.

KK. had scored his point.

That Canadian audience at the
“Beacon” savored somewhat of
self-righteousness as it shuddered
at the picture of violent death,
when a few blocks away 4 Japa-
nese freighter was then being
loaded with materials without
which Japan could not possibly
carry out her ruthless desecration
of China.

to get
up in

Victoria Post

the horrors of war, how many in-
nocent lives saved!
)
GOODidea,
when you

When Cooking

Vegetables. are cooking

vegetables and
have sufficient time, is to cook
double quantities, thus you haye

the makings of another meal all
prepared. In this way, for instance,
you could have carrots and pota-
toes done in the ordinary way,
for one day and carrot cakes, or
potato salad, with diced carrots
added. for the next.

Wearly all vegetables can be
utilized like this, and often save
a lot of time when yisitors drop
in unexpectedly.

BOOKS
WORTH
READING |

syndi- _

AN AMERICAN TESTA
MENT—by Joseph Free-
man — Farrarr and Rine-
hart.

Reviewed by BEL NEMETZ

ERE is a new type of

book dealing with the
growth of class conscious-
ness and the complete read-
justment to reality as ex-
perienced by one highly in-
telligent man.

An American Testament differs
from many other books having
the same theme in that all it
relevant detail is removed to show-
clearly the progressive influence
of the tremendous forees that
sweep a youth from one phase to
another until complete wunder—

_standing is finally reached.

Joseph Freeman recounts his
lifé—his birth in a small Ukrain-
ian village, the fears and super-
stitions of that period—the move
to New York—a hard new world of
struggle and poverty and so much
to learn of bourgeois culture—the
irreconcilability of this culture
with the realities of everyday life
—the slow, painful breaking until
finally revolutionary understand-
ing crystallizes after a visit to
Soviet Russia.

e

Apa are many high spots in

this narrative. The intensely
interesting story of a romantic
youngster in the miserable New
York slums is a section that no
reader will ever forget. Of equal
interest is his development
througheut school life and especi--
ally during the confused period of
the war.

The climax is reached, however,
when this American poet visits
the Soviet Union to find all his
doubts allayed and his confidence
and faith a thousand times
strengtaened,

He found the Soviet Union a
country where there was not only
constant progress in material
achievements but where there was
a full culture flourishing, a cul-
ture of the people themselves
Which entered deep into their
everyday lives.

A year’s sojourn in Russia pro-
vided him with the necessary stim-
ulation to perceive the last ves-
tiges of previously undetected
sham in what was left of the cul-
ture he had inherited.

c)

SPECIALLY timely is the vivid

picture he portrays of opposi-
tion tacties, those confused people
led by those who wished to seize
power for themselves. And yet
he makes it very clear that even
those who. were the unwitting
tools of unserupulous traitors re-
tained unshaken their deep faith
in Socialism.

If there can be any criticism of
An American Testament, it must
be directed at the slowness of
pace in the central section. Free-
man there describes many trends
in his development which, while
proving an almost unbelievable
erudition, leave the less enlight-
ened reader somewhat perplexed.

Perhaps there are few men who*

have amassed as much of bour-
geois culture as has Joseph Free-
man and therefore the break and
readjustment for the majority is
much less complex.

eS

EADERS will discern a re

markable coldness toward hu-
man contacts throughout Pree-
man’s story. Not many would re-
count their lives and leave their
friends as nothing warmer than
“influences.” Yet Freeman shows
this same impersonality toward
parents, lovers and friends alike.

Strangely in contrast to this
lack of warmth is his successful
sketching of the sailors aboard
the freighter taking him to the
USSR. Of all the people who pass
through his pages, this group
seems the most real.

An American Testament can be
placed as ranking high in the field
of vital. modern history. Free-
man’s objective, to explain how a2
man of extracrdinary talents ar
rives at Communism, is more than
achieved in his characteristically
clear and analytical style.

Se
THE TREE FALLS SOUTH
— By Wellington Roe —
G. P. Putnam’s Sons — $2.

Out in the Dust Bowl, in

America’s great flying des-*

ert, a life and death struggle
is taking place. Wellington
Roe’s story, The Tree Falls
South, tells of the tragic
plight of these farmers, fighting
desperately to raise crops and cat-
tle against tremendous odds, ever
returning to rebuild what the
sands have buried.

It is a story of terrible heat,
sand - storms, dried-up wells,
starved cattle, and the exhaustive
struggle for daily bread.

Tt is a story of hard working,
conservative Americans up against
a situation with which they can-
not cope individually; who decide,
therefore, ta hand together and
march upon the county court-
house to demand temporary relief.
Their demand is answered with
guns ana clubs by the gentlemen
representing peace and order.

Through Roe's simple, dramatic
presentation of his characters we
can see the temper of the South-
west slowly but surely rising
against an unjust system. This
is a novel ef purpose, a complete
human document by an author
who knows his subject thoroughly-

en ET ROE TTT pa REL vee