Page Two

THE PEOPLE’S

ADVOCATE

edit WA Manages toe Ad ms

July 29, 1938.

THE
PEOPLE’S ADVOCATE

Published Weekly by the Proletarian Publishing
Association, Room 10, 163 West Hastings Street,
Vancouver, B.C. Phone Trinity 2019.

: Three Months. _.__ $ .50
Half Year___.______...$1.00 Single Copy--......_..$ 05

Make Ali Cheques Payable to: The People’s Advocate

Vancouver, B.C., Friday, July 29, 1938

Progress or Reaction—Which Shall
Govern Vancouver Next Year?

OR years the people of Vancouver have

felt the heavy hand of a reactionary
regime at the city hall. The rabidly anti-labor
Gerry McGeer with his subservient city ecoun-
cil majority was succeeded by the labor-hating
Miller and his majority aldermanic support-
ers, stooges of Big Business all.

The struggle of the single unemployed men
this summer brought out sharply to the long-
suffering people of Vancouver the need for
friends of the common people on the city
council.

During that sreat struggle the voice of Al-
derman Gutteridge was the only one raised in
the council on behalf of the unemployed
workers in their struggle for work.

The big interests have been able to main-
tain control at the city hall not because of
their inherent strength, but because they were
united, because they put aside party con-
siderations in civic elections, while their vic-
tims, the people of Vancouver, were not
united. Custom and tradition have established
in Canadians an aversion to party politics in
municipal elections, and, keenly aware of this,
the big interests and their political tools bury
the party hatchets, discard for the occasion all
party labels, and appear before the voters as
non-partisan candidates.

When it suits their class interests to come
before the electorate as candidates of po-
litical parties they do so. When it serves their
class purposes better to eschew party politics
and present a united front of reaction they
do that.

Against this solid front of the enemies of
the people the progressive people have in the
past waged battle under several party and
other banners, all with candidates in the field,
thereby splitting the progressive vote in sey-
eral directions and making possible the vic-
tory of the reactionary candidates.

Already these sinister forces are preparing
for the next civic elections. Their motto is
still: “Divide and Rule.’ Again their forces
will be united under one non-partisan banner.

Will the progressive people play into their
hands by each going it alone with a fill, or
nearly full, slate of candidates? Or will the
political parties of labor, the trade union
movement and other labor organizations, to-
gether with progressive groups and individu-
als that cannot be said to be a part of the
labor movement, all combine to present a
single progressive slate of candidates to chal-
lenge the rule of reaction at the city hall?

By abandoning any narrow approach to the
problem the long nightmare of reactionary
rule in Vancouver can be ended. And the
time to begin preparations to achieve the pro-
gressive front in the next civic elections and
win them is now.

Who Are the Saboteurs?

TUNG by the tremendous resentment of
the people against its callous treatment
of single unemployed, an unscrupulous pro-
vincial government has endeavored to turn
the economic disaster of the great forest fire
on Vancouver Island to mean advantage by
inferring that the jobless men who volun-
teered to fight the fire were guilty of sabotage.
In the resultant uproar the government
hoped that its own great guilt, its refusal to
put teeth into forestry legislation, its failure
to enforce existing regulations, would escape
public wrath which rather would be diverted
against single unemployed.

These charges of sabotage have yet to be
proven and, if it does transpire that it was
sabotage and not the inefficiency of those
responsible for organizing the fight against
the fire, it still remains to be proven that the
single men were guilty. At the moment, the
entire thing assumes the shape of a clumsy
attempt to cover up.

The single men had nothing to gain by
sabotaging the fight against the fire. Rather,
they had everything to lose.

The big logging companies which, at first
sight, appear to have lost heavily, actually
have lost nothing. They had well nigh com-
pleted operations in the burned area and
were preparing to move to new territory
where the equipment they lost would have
been useless. In any event, it was insured.
Vast areas of slash which public opinion might
have forced them to clear at cost to.them-
selves have been obliterated. And yet these
companies were responsible for the conditions
which permitted the fire to spread so rapidly
in tinder-dry slash.

It is the general public, as usual, which is
the loser. The natural resources, the vacation
grounds of the people that a culpable gov-
ernment neglected to guard have been de-
stroyed. =

There must be an investigation into the
charges of sabotage—mnot a whitewash. And
there must be teeth put into forestry legisla-
tion to prevent a recurrence of the tragedy.
The CCF bloc, when it demands amendments
in the next legislature, will have a strong
hand. We must see to it that no lobby of the
big logging interests is allowed to dominate
as it did last year.

Housewives Declare:

Food Profiteering Must Be Fought

By Victoria Post

And Organize To Do it

Born of urgent need as Canadian women watched food prices soaring beyond reach of
their slender budgets, the Housewives’ Association of Canada gained immediate support
when it made its initial bow in Toronto last year.

When protests to the Board of
ontrol against the increased cost
of milk were of no avail, the
women took matters into their
own hands. Led by Mrs. Bertha
Lamb, they decided to boycott
milk until the price was reduced.
Investigation showed that distri-
bution was the main obstacle,
showed also that the farmer was
not receiving his fair share of the
price.

At the request of the House-
wives, T. iL. Church, MP, suggest-—
ed that food prices should be in-
vestigated under the Combines
Act, but Hon. Norman Rogers,
Minister of Labor, told him that
food prices were a matter of pro-
vVincial, not Dominion, control.

Undismayed, the women sub-
mitted a brief to the Rowell
Commission urging amendment to
the BINA Act to bring food prices
under Dominion jurisdiction and
setting forth rights of the con-
sumer.

They asked the right to buy
goods as advertised without false
or misleading statements as to
quality, the right of grade desig-
mations so as not to confuse the
consumer, the right to purchase

products free from harmful or

poisonous ingredients without
adulteration or the substitution of
cheaper or inferior goods, the
right to purchase simple products
according to the price of their
intrinsic value rather than an
exorbitant price because of a
brand or trade name, the right
to purchase products without de-
eceptive packages and containers
or short weight packages.

Their brief stated that “the
Housewives Association does not
believe that all these rights are
obtainable at the present time, but
it does believe that they should
be obtainable, and that an active
consumer organisation will ulti-
mately bring them about.’

@
IN FEBRUARY the price of but-
ter in Toronto went up to 40
cents a pound. Refusing to be-

lieve that there was a sShortage,.

the Housewives declared a boy-
eott and this time, after tussles
with members of the Ontario
Legislature including Premier
Hepburn himself, mass meetings,
parades, radio broadcasts, the
women were successful. The price
of butter was reduced.
Meanwhile, membership of the

Association grew by leaps and
bounds as every obstacle was
tackled and overcome.

Mistakes were made, but the

thousands of women -who now
look to it for guidance is proof
of how well the Association
learned from them.

The Association has now estab-
lished a research committee head-
ed by a McGill graduate to study
living costs and report findings.

eo

FEW months ago, a similar

movement sprang into being
in Vancouver, again around the
milk question. Meetings were
held at which the women dis-
cussed pasteurization—to be or
not to be—and opined that the
eonsumer had the right to buy
raw or pasteurized milk as she
pleased.

Delegations went to the city
council with proposals for muni-
cipal distribution to eliminate
private company charges, contend-
ing that the price could then be
lowered to 8 cents a quart, still
allowing the farmer a fair price.
‘The price of milk has been a2 con-
tentious question for some time,
but Vancouver Housewives are
determined to win a solution to
the problem.

Meat prices next engaged the
organisation’s attention. The wom-
en investigated the new Grading
Act, which will grade all meat
according to its quality. Consum-—
ers wall then know that they are
getting the best possible meat at
the price they can afford to pay,
instead of having to pay exorbi-
tant prices for low quality. How-
ever, the Housewives are not yet
satisfied with their findings and
are still delving into the business
of meat grading and packing.

UST recently a new threat to
J living standards arose. Bill
89 “respecting the sale of commo-
dities by retail” has been intro-
duced into the legislature. It
States that “a producer or whole-
saler may fix a retail price of an
article’ by “informing the retail-
er at the time of the sale of the
commodity” ... or “by publishing
the retail price in a catalogue, or
by notice in writing to the Retail
Merchants Association of Canada
Incorporated.”

Tt continues: “INo retailer shall
sell or offer for sale in the Proy-
ince any commodity which bears
the trade-mark, brand or name of
the producer or wholesaler, at a
price less than the price set by
the producer or wholesaler.”

All of this, in plain language,
means that the retail stores may
not sell goods at any other price
than that set on it by the whole-

- foods,

saler. It means no more “spe-
cials’’ on certain days, which are
the saving of many a family bud-
get. it means that consumers
will no longer be able to buy
drugs, cosmetics, or household ne-
ecessities at cut prices in certain
stores. Further, the Act states
that two articles, one without and
one with a set price, may not be
sold at a special cheap rate.

There will therefore be no more
“two-ftor-one” bargains, “one-cent
sales,” and special samples of
some new article thrown in with
another wellknown brand. Final
decision as to the price of articles
will be left to the sellers. The
consumer will have no say in the
matter at all. While it is under-
stood that the manufacturer
“must obtain full value for his
yet the consumer should
have something to say about the
amount of profit piled onte the
cost price.

=)

HE Vancouver Housewives’

Teague is fighting this Act.
It is planning a campaign among
housewives in the city ,explaining
what it will mean to their bud-
gets if it is allowed to go through-
Various other organisations in the
city wlil undoubtedly aid in the
campaign, but the women will be
the deciding factors. Theirs is the
difficulty of making both ends
meet and it is in their own in-
terest to defeat an Act which
can only result in increased cost
of living.

This and other important issues
are the main points upon which
the Vancouver Housewives are
concentrating their energy. Under
the able leadership of Mrs. R. A.
Prinn, president, and Mrs. J. D.
Worton, secretary, they are mak-—
ing great strides in combatting
high living costs. Their efforts
will not stop when they have
solved the problems of meat,
milk, and Bill 89.

An organisation such as the
Housewives’ Association of Can-
ada is an essential factor in the
consumer's fight against the high
prices fixed by big monopolies.
Every housewife, every mother
who finds it hard to obtain suffi-
cient food and milk for her chil-
dren on a small budget, should
join the Association. Fhe com-
bined strength of the women in
Canada can not only defeat the
combines and monopolies, but can
win, through organization, better
wages and better working eondi-
tions for the producers of our
necessities of life.

Readers View the News

Editor, People’s
Advocate:

Dear Sir,—Just a
few lines to whom it
may concern:

The writer is An-
tonio Ruiz. I am at
present in the Span-
ish government's
fighting forces. Ze
have never had the
opportunity to
travel abroad, being
only 19 years old,

and although I
would very much
like to see other
lands, the situation

will not permit me
to more than take
this method of mak-
ing contact with 1)
other lads of my

own age in Canada ‘>
who share my demo-
eratic ideas and

Under The British Flag

FE ——

LEE:
ty

WY

“T hope there aren’t

Patriotic Englishman, as he puts out flags for gala eccasion:
any of FEranco’s airmen around.”

again to stage box-
ing shows here. It
was my impression
that the commission
existed for the pro-
tection of both the

L- paying public and
AN | is the boxers.
Now, it is well

known that boxers
have had difficulty

= obtaining from
Sask Moore the amount
2a agreed upon for

boxing cards he has
promoted. Qne local
boy was foreed to
resort to legal action
for his purse and
ie after months of
= waiting ee alee
recess of cour

SZ Paaoer over, the case
was settled mutual
ly. The ease of
Chuck Wickason

mer
was

opinions.

The comrade who replies to this
little token of friendship need not
worry about brevity in his reply
or, for that matter, a lengthy let-
ter, as it is very comvenient for
me to have it translated and a
reply in English sent by return.

While things have not been any
too favorable to our side during
the past two months, they can be
expected to improve in the im-—
mediate future and, of course,
only those who desire the fascists
to conquer can think that the gov-
ernment will not win the last
battle.

With the aid of an International
comrade in our ranks this little
note has been made possible.

I will close now, patiently wait-
ing for a reply from one or more
Canadian comrades. Salud!

ANTONIO RUIZ.

(interested readers are urged
to reply to the writer of this
letter at S-R. 1, 5 E, Piaza dei
Altazona, Barcelona, Spain.
Editer).

Sports Editor, People’s Advocate:

Dear Sir—I note in the daily
press that the Boxing Commission
has granted Ted Moore the right

eries for justice.
Then again the public has had

foisted on “over-ripe”’
bouts, apparently under super-
vision of the commission. In this
manner boxing has been nearly
killed in Vancouver, and

opinion, the commission should
rescind its decision on Moore, or

it several

in my

quit and let someone else do 2
better job. Promoters and the
commission must enjoy the con-

fidence of the public if the game
is to flourish at all.

FATRPLAY.
Vancouver, BC.

Trumpet

HE cry of a child and the moaning
Of wind through a prisoner’s cell,

A bayonet gash in the darkness,

A flash from the red pits of hell—

Shall these, from the world in its anguish,
Stir not the faint pulse of our dream?

Sounding

Where now is the red star of morning
To rally our host for the fight?

The cross with the claws of an eagle

Is dipped in the bleod of the free;

Shall we hunger and then turn to slumber

As we float on the temporal stream,

While the Beast, from the jungle up rearing
Tis ravin of tooth and of claw,

The rod and the axe are uplifted
Where the banners of justice should be.

Till the last slave m triumph shall wander

Through halls where the master once trod,

Strikes down in its pitiless onslaught

The hesitant might of the law?

Sound tocsin and clamor of onset!
Where now are the legions of Light?

Till golden the harvest be garnered
From the stench of the war-torn sad,

Stand fast in your ranks, O my comrades!
Hold firm till the nations arise,

And the trumpets of liberty sounding
Peal forth to the jubilant sky!

—A. M. STEPHEN.

.

Sic thas ea eey

SHORT JABS

A
Weekly

Commentary

By Ol’ Bill

conte

The great forest fire on Vancouver
One Use Island has served at least two pur-
For Fire. poses. it. has exposed the lying
character of the capitalist newspapers and the
littleness, the meanness, of the political solons who
guide the BC ship of state.

INo more contemptible trickery to cover-up de-
feat was ever devised than that which the dis—
eredited ‘““Work and Wages’ government of BC is
using in this fire situation to “get back’” at the
project workers who have exposed them so patently
in the recent struggles for relief and compelled
them to change their boss-inspired cheese-paring
policies.

Lying by insinuation is worse than open, down-
right lying; and such insinuations have been pour-—
ing out in a filthy stream from Pattullo and his
henchmen, down to the lowest political heeier in
the service of the forest branch.

“Malign influences are at work
Sabotage! 5. Gur midst,” says Pattullo. With
the cowardly reticence of his tribe, he stops there,
leaving it to the “human interest’ seribblers of
the press lie factories to complete the job. Qne ct ~
these latter, by the way, was so qualified to write |
of the fire situation that he admitted the news- ‘ j
hawks had to learn a new language, since they |
imagined a “cold-deck” had something to do with |
a phoney poker game. '

Charges of sabotage may be justified, but not
against the single unemployed boys who lined up
less than five minutes after the appeal for fire-
fighters to save our forests (at two-bits an hour)
was put on the air (and Charlie McCarthy Miller
was not among them).

The saboteurs are most likely to be found among
the incompetent forestry officials whose jobs are
the reward, not of their knowledge of forestry, but
enthusiasm in plugging for Pattullo and his govern—
ment of pledge-breakers. 1a

}

Lawbreakers! Fven the good offices of the |

newspapermen could not
hide the fact that the organizing genius neces-
sary for handling, directing and feeding 3500
workers, willing to save the timber for Bloedel, ©
Stewart and Welsh, the IT, Comox Logging Com- |
pany and other exploiters, was lacking. The men
did not get fed, for one thing.

Pattullo says the government took “all safety
measures.” This is more guff for the people of BC
to swallow. Pattullo, who invoked the law against
the Post Office sit-downers, made not the slightest
gesture against his boss logger friends and masters
who broke the law by leaving the slashing behind
on every operation in the district since the Mer-
ville fire, about fifteen years ago.

The present fire started in slashing, and every
fresh hold it got was in slashing. According to
BE. CG. Manning, chief forester (Nanaimo, June 17)
91 percent of all forest fires in BC in the iast i5
years started in slashing. It could be burned at
a cost of 10 cents per thousand feet, but the in-
ordinate greed of the Jumber barons will not admit
of that expenditure. Yet Pattuilo speaks of the
Cigarettes, picnickers, and hunters. Bunk!

- There has been sabotage
Make the 2Oz= in the woods, but the sabo- —
Loggers Pay! teurs are the logging bosses |
and the government of British Columbia. :

Take note, too, that the alleged sabotage was only
discovered and the Vancouver volunteer fire-ficht-
ers fired after the fire had been checked and
brought practically under control. We are com-
pelled to believe that the accusations originated at
the top of the political refuse heap and were passed ~
down to the understrappers with the definite pur |
pose of breaking the bond of public sympathy and 4
support of the single unemployed that they have
won by the orderliness of their conduct, their will |
ingness to work at anything that does not involve
scabbing and the justice of their demands.

I personally am convinced of this since I saw 4
letter from a settler at Campbell River who has na
political axe to grind, which has nothing in it but
praise and admiration for the men Pattullo is trying

to victimize.

cé 2 99 IT have just read an ab-
Mein Krampf breviated edition of Hit-

ler’s book the Nazi bible, one for the consumption

of auslanders with his real objectives, the subjec-

tion of the Soviet Union, France and Britain and

Wazi world-rule, left out.

I had often wondered why the title “Mein
Kampf”? I have had my wonderment dispelled-
“Kampf” is the German word for “struggle.” “Mein
Kampf’ means “My Struggle.’ There is a similar
sounding German word, “Krampf’ meaning an
“epileptic fit.”

After I read the book I came to the conclusion
that Hitler’s original title must have been “Mem
Krampf,”’ and that through a typographical error
it became “‘Mein Kampf” when it left the hands of
the printer.

Alas, what crimes the printer commits!

“On our path lies no opponent assassi-
nated by us.~ Hitler, 1937.

February, 1933, to July, 1937

1,300,0000 persons arrested for racial, relig-
ious or political reasons.

335,000 persons condemned to a total of 990,
000 years of prison, penitentiary, or for-
ced labor.

220,000 persons in prison, July 1937.

140,000 Germans in exile abroad.

25,000 naturalised Germans deprived of na-
tionality.

10,000 persons assassinated or driven to sui-
cide.

400 famous Germans deprived of nationality
by decree.

92 death sentences carried out.

4 persons assassinated in prison while under
sentence of death.