October 6, 1939 THE AD VOCATE Page Five FORUM OF THE PEOPILE 1 STMT ONE EENN CIC ONG AT Alia xB oU Action To Combat Profiteering Urged To the Editor: This agitation | for the control of food prices should be more than sporadic out- burst of indigmation. More than anything else it needs coordina- tion. : Therefore, I think a real effort Should be made to link up every type of organisation in an endea- vor to make it a nationwide move- ment All sorts of things can be done by each of the various or- ganisations now in existence, such @s letters to Prime Minister Kine and to MP’s for every constitu- ency. Above all I would suggest that 2 carefully worded petition be drawn up and circulated through every organisation of whatever de- seription. A thorough house-to- house canvass for Signatures Should then be undertaken by members of each organisation in every locality throughout Canada. What about it, friends? A. Cheverton. White, Rock, BC. To the Editor: Resuming activi- ties after two months’ vacation, the Royal Oak Housewives’ Leasue held a well-attended meeting on September 20. We feel that our organisation is yery essential now that prices are=soaringe sky-hisn through profiteering and so we are issuing an invitation to every woman to attend our meetings to assist in the hard struggle to com- bat the rising cost of living. A “coming-out party” for our branch will be held October 12, in All Saints’ Church hall, 1700 block, Royal Qak avenue. There will be no admission fee but each person is asked to bring either cake or Sandwiches to aid refreshments. Suggestions or ideas for further- ine our activities will be welcomed at the rescular meetings, held first and third Thursdays of the month. More information can be obtained from President Mrs. Perdue, DEx- ter 0386 R, or Secretary Mrs. Buck- ley, 3321 Clinton. Mrs. DD. Rowland, Secretary, Publicity Committee. Vancouver, BC. ADVOCATE CLASSIFIED These merchants and professional men offer you their services at competitive prices. By advertising in these columns they support your paper. By patronizing them you ensure continuance of their support. Make it a point to deal with Advocate advertisers wherever possible. ADVERTISING BATES Classified, 3 lines 45c. Monthly con tract rates on application. BICYCLES AND REPATES BICYGLES, NEW AND USED — Baby Carriages, Sulkies, Doll Gar- Tiages, Joycycles. Repairing of all kinds. Saws filed, keys cut, etc. W. M. Ritchie, 1569 Commercial Drive. Highland 4123. BOATS ROWBOATS OF ALL KINDS, 330 and up. Wational Boat Works, 110 Dunlevy Ave., Vancouver. CAFES i THE ONLY FISH — ALT. KINDS of Fresh Sea Food. Union House. 20 Fast Hastings St. CHIMNEY SWEEPING NATUROPATHIC PHYSICIAN SEE DR. DOWNIE FOR RHEU- matism, Sciatica, Lumbazo. Room 7 — 163 West Hastings St. S Rules F OF Letters The Advocate invites its readers to send letters for publication on this page, sub- ject to the following rules: Letters should be written as concisely as possible, in view of space limitations, and should not exceed 500 words. Longer letters will only be published in full when they deal with ques- tions of considerable public interest. In all cases prefer- ence will be given to those letters having general in- terest. The editor reserves the right to edit all letters. When it is necessary to con- dense letters the original context will be followed as closely as possible. All letters must bear the name and address of the writer, although for publica- tion purposes initials or a nom-de-plume may be used. Anonymous letters will not be published. Opinions expressed on this page are solely those of con- tributors and not necessarily these of the Advocate. Opinions Expressed By Readers DR. H. GC. ANDERSON—ALL NAT- ural methods of treatment, such @s diet, massage manipulati ms, esteopathy and electrotherapy. Free consultation and examina- tion. 768 Granville St, SE y. 5336. PERSONAL DENTAL PLATES REPATRED, $i and up. Rebuilt $5 and up. New Method Dental Lab., 163 W. Hastings St. SEymour 6612. BIRTH CONTROL BUREAU OF B.C., Dept. PA, 441 Seymour Street, Vancouver, B.C. Informa- tion FREE. Write for Literature. $150 CLEANS MAIN FLUE Pipes, Furnace, Stove. Licensed. ERaser 13706. CHIROPRACTORS WM. BRATDWOOD, D.C., NERVE Specialist. 510 West Hastings St- SEymour 2677. Evenings, High- land 2240. DANCES EMBASSY BALTEROOM, DAVIE at Burrard. Old Time Dancing Tues., Thurs., and Sat.. Ambassa- dors Orch. Whist. $25.00 cash Admission to dance and prizes. whist, 25c. DENTISTS DR. A JS. SIPES, DENTIST — Plate Specialist. Lowest Prices. 680 Robson St. TRinity 5716. FUEL HONEST VALUE FUELS—FATR. 0469. Edginges No. 1, $3.25 per cord. Slebs, Heavy Fir, $3.75 per cord. EBUNERAL DIRECTORS ARMSTRONG & CO., FUNERAL BROOMS FOR RENT RICE BLOCK, 800 East Hastings. Hit gh. 0029. Furnished Suites and Rooms. Moderate rates. SAWDUST BURNERS ‘GENUINE “LEADER” BURNERS. 323 Alexander St, at Ray’s TRinity 0390. STATIONERY Ir YOU NEED STATIONERY for school, home or office use, get it at the New Age Bookshop. Anything in the line of stationery at moderate prices. Call at 50- East Hastings Street. TYPEWRITERS AND SUPPLIES GEO. DONOVAN Pypewriters, Adding Machines Cash Registers. SEymour 9393, 508 W. Pender St TATLORS M. DONG, _TATLORS, formerly Horseshoe Tailors now at 8 West Directors. 304 Dunievy. Phone Cordova St. TRinity 602 High 0141. inity 6024. MONUMENTAL WATCH REPATRING MAIN MONUMEWN TS— SAVE money here. Estimates for ceme tery lettering. 1920 Main Street. WATCH, CLOCK AND JEWEL ry repairs. Blackburn’s Market. SEymour 5592. BILLIARDS MT. PLEASANT BILLIARD HALL and BARBER SHOP Everything in Smokers’ Supplies Cigars — Cigarettes — Pipes Lighters — Etc. 2341 MAIN STREET DENTISTS —eEEGEGEEE——s———— DENTIST DR. W. J. CURRY 806 Birks Bidg. SEY 300) aAaains DENTIS LLEWELE 0° R-Dovcta ©SEY- 5577 | R.RICHARDS & HASTINGs= DRESSMABING Mrs. Y. Kato Dressmaking and Alterations BAy. 6180-L 2760 Alma Road PUBLICATIONS. XBVVVeGVSVeT TGV Sew ssw wae uausTs 6 SWEDISS PEOPLE in British % Columbia should read and sup-, 4 port their own newspaper . . 4 4 , Nya Svenska Pressen ; 4 Now Only $1.00 per Year 7 ¢ Office: 144 West Hastings Street , 4 6 SS SS SS SS ee Se ee ee Millworkers — Shinzgleweavers— Loggers ... Tune in — Green Gold Program, CJOR, every Tuesday, 7:45 p.m. “The B.C. Lumber Worker” Organ of the L.W.A. 16 &. Hastings St., Vancouver STEAM BATHS J Hastings Steam Baths Always Open Expert Masseurs in Attendance Hi ghiand 0240 7164 EB. Hastings “ —— PHOTOGRAPHERS Weddin «4 All Important PHOTOGRAPHS ON CREDI Wand Studio ee Old Soldier of South Westmin- ster asks about the government's election promise that men and women would be given work in production at union wages. “There is absolutely no excuse for bread lines,” he says. “If we Can afford another war, we can afford to feed our hungry.” Only fault that J. HW. Christie, Brackens, BC, has to find with the Advocate is that “it is too small for the work it is setting out to do.” “As time passes,” he declares, “and the clearer becomes the mountain of present day political Srait, greed and patronage, you Sain a better idea of the shoveling to be done by such papers as the Advocate to clear it away. Please renew my subscription, as —T find that there is more current news of interest to be found in every copy than in any other paper pub- lished in the province.” : A worker in one of the city sewer projects, A. Oltar, writes to remark that none of the ditch- diggers on these projects belong to a union, although the strawboss and a few handymen wear union buttons. “The whole set-up is a Gisgrace,” he writes, “and we badly need some kind of organisa- tion for the diggers.” The big industrialists in Bri- tain, E. M M., Quesnel, believes, were responsible for failure of the Anglo-Soviet talks entered into by Britain in response to popular pressure but with no intention of Signing -a-peace front. “The old Saying,’ E. M. M. remarks, “fits well here. ‘Convince a man against his will and he is of the same opinion still’.” Hi opfields Conditions Described To the Eiditor.—The remark, “Relief people don’t want work,” came many times to my mind while I was working in the hopfields recently. I won- dered if any of the people who Said that have ever worked in a hopfield? While teamsters, loaders, wire- men and slashers are covered by the minimum wage for agricultur- al workers, pickers are paid by the pound and if there is a bad season, well, it’s just too bad. We were paid 13-4 cents per pound for the best hops and, after some argu- ment, 2 cents for the poor ones. Most of us had to get up at 3:30 a.m. The bus provided grudgingly by the company when the field was some distance away, made four trips before 6 a.m. After picking for a short time we were almost paralyzed with cold and had to warm ourselves by lighting fires before we could continue picking. Unless you got out at daylight and picked until almost dark you could not earn enough to make it worth while. People with little children had to drag them out of bed far too early and keep them out all day in order to earn enough to keep them. By putting in from 111% to 12 hours a day I was able to make the princely sum of $1.75, provided I got into good hops. The average adult earned usually about $1 per day. At the headquarters where [I stayed there were more than 100 women and girls. We had only one sShower-bath for all with hot water only between 5 and 10 p.m. Five out-door type toilets without proper fastening on the doors were the only sanitary arrangements. The only ventilation in the small cabins housing four people was a 12-inch hole cut in the wall. WNo proper fire precautions were made and the water pressure was very low. One family had the whole of their bedding burned while they were in the field. A typical day in the hop fields starts by hurrying to light the fire, urging the children to get up, leave the breakfast dishes to wash while the fire is starting at supper time, pack the lunch for the family and away to the fields where you hurry — hurry to pick as many pounds as possible before lunch. Most people eat lunch right where they are picking to save time, then you 20 on picking until toa dark to see any more. Back to the cabin where you wash the breakfast dishes, pre- pare dinner and wash dishes after it. While you are “resting” in the evening you wash out a few clothes to keep the family respectable for another day! Tf it were true that people on relief don’t want work, I’m sure that mothers with four or five little children wouldn’t go into the fields to pick hops. Tf we were given a price at which an average picker could earn a fair days wage and the company was forced to provide proper sanitar yarrangements, it would be hard, but pleasant work. Some of those who think we don’t want to work should try it some time! HOP-PICKER. Vancouver, B.C. Satirical Re ader Asks Us To Pardon Outburst To the Editor,—Stalin is an imperialist, Chamberlain has renounced imperialism, Manion is an anti-fascist and I’m Napoleon. A non-ageression pact is a mili- tary alliance, the War Measures Act is the Magna Carta and an in- surance policy is a collective bar- gaining agreement. Rising food prices are caused by consumers’ hoarding, there will be no profits in war contracts and anyone saying otherwise is Don Quixote tilting at windmills. Really, I hope you will pardon this outburst Perhaps I’m not Wapoleon after all. @n second thoughts, maybe I’m Peter Pan and this is the land of Never-Nev- er where pro-fascistSs announce a war to end Hitlerism and commun- ism is only pan-slavian in dissuise (with reactionaries doing all the panning and slavering). Tve been this way ever since the war started. Political ‘experts have diagnosed my case as that of acute newspaper poisoning, scien- tifically known as speculationitus. Tt is due, I am told, to a too avid consumption of the commercial press which clogs the system with waste matter and leads to paraly- Sis of the higher centers of the brain. In acute cases like my own the disease works havoc in a short time ,causing hallucinations and rendering the sufferer easy prey for jingoists and chauvinists. The only cure, f am reliably in- formed, is to do one’s own think- ing. But, as no doubt you already know, this is not easy with a cen- sorship making access to other tnan officially approved sources inereasingely difficult. When my radio succumbed un- der the strain a few days ago I was at a loss. INow I feel much better. I gained the impression every time i heard a broadcast over a Cana- Gian station that a record prepar- ed in advance was being played because every station gave the same news in the same way. Serewy, wasn’t it? My best friends won’t tell me, of course, but I must be in a bad way. Perhaps I should seek political asylum in Essondale. _ MICHAEL O'MARA. Vancouver, B.C. GARFIELD A. KING BARRISTER, ETC. 553 Granville Street | | SEymour 1324Vancouver, B.C. | DRUM FURNACES: Sawdust or Wood All kinds of Welding and Stove Repairs City Welding 1527 Main Street SHORT JABS by OF Bill Press I was going into a hash-joint to mug-up the 5 other night, when I was stopped by a cocky- Drive. looking youngster who saluted me with these words, “I’m going to challenge you, Bill, to get your $100 before I get $25.” It was Bud Munro. What could I do but take him on. Maybe some other sprigs have the same idea in their heads. If so, we would like to hear from them. Another three like Bud would make it an even $100. Are you there, boys? as they say on the English telephones. There may be some who are well on the way to their $25, which would make it more exciting. But they will find the old-timer ain’t scared of them! The lies and distortions which fill the columns of the commercial press these days should be an encouragement to every supporter of the Advocate to take a lead from Bud and go all out for, at least, a couple of sawbucks of their own. At no time in history was it more necessary to know the truth, and at no time were there less avenues for spreading it. That is why it is so necessary to raise that $4000 asked for by the Advocate. So send your subs. and donations to this column, and if Bud Munro or any of the other challengers of Ol’ Bill come along give them a little boost also. A Line Is there such a thing as Soviet imperialism? Are the Soviets trying to advance to world From Marx. power by force of arms? Such questions are being asked by confused friends and avowed enemies of the Soviet Union as a result of the move of the Red army in crossing the western borders of Poland in defense of their own land and to save 11,000,000 of their own people from falling into Nazi slavery, 11,000,000 who have been victims of Polish imperialism for almost twenty years. To know that the internal and foreign policies of the Soviet Union are based on the teachings of Marx and Engels, is to know the answer to these questions. The works of Lenin and Stalin on imperialism and nationalism are Marxian throughout, and these are the guides which make the foreign policy of the Soviet Union, not an illusory policy of “non-intervention” as that which strangled Spanish de- mocracy, but a true non-intervention policy, a genuine peace policy. Writing on the Polish question in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, in 1848, with the experiences of a revolutionary struggle recently sup- pressed, Marx made the trenchant statement that “ .. nothing, not even benefactions imposed by force can compensate for the loss of national inependence.”” He was speaking to the Prussian bureaucrats of that day, but the Nazi imperialists and the Polish colonels, pome— schiks and capitalists of today are in the same position. And on Sept. 12, 1882, Engels stated his ‘position on the same subject, in a letter to Engels. Kautsky. “The victorious proletariat,” he wrote, “can force no blessings of any kind upon any foreign nation without undermining its own victory by doing so.” Soviet statesmen formulate their foreign policy and carry it into effect within the limitations of these conceptions of Marx and Engels. They know that Socialists are not made at the point of a sun, al- though the gun may be used to defend Socialist gains. They do not attempt to spread Soviet or Communist institutions through imposing them on hostile peoples by force of arms. They know that these insti tutions will be established by, will srow out of the internal struggles of these nations themselves. This makes it impossible for this foreign policy to be anything other than a peace policy as between their Soviet Union and its neighbors—even faraway neighbors like Britain and the US. > The crossing of the Polish border by the Red army differs in every respect from the invasion of Western Poland by the German war- machine. The Soviet army was not an invading force engaged in an act of agseression. It was an army defending its own borders and its own people, not against the Polish government, for there was no longer any de facto government of Poland, but against the fascist hordes of Hitler to whom the ex-government of Poland had surren-— dered the Polish people, including the suppressed minorities of Dk rainians, White Russians, Lithuanians and Jews. Later, 5 The Nazi army was an army of conquista- Conquistadores. dores. Its object in invading Poland was to Make the Poles into Nazis as it is already supposed to have done with the Bohemians, Moravians and Slovaks. But Hitler will find that it is impossible to make Nazis of these peoples by force and violence, rather he is more likely to discover the truth of the state ment made by a Polish deputy in 1848, which was quoted by Marx in the Neue Rheinisch Zeitung, “You have devoured the Poles, but, by God, you will never be able to digest them.” The Trotskyites, too, would like the world to believe that the foreign policy of the Soviet Union today is the policy advocated by Trotsky fifteen years ago and that the Red army has become an army of conquistadores trying to make socialists as the Nazis are trying to make Nazis. But-every days news adds further proof that the dis— credited theories of Trotsky conform more and more with Hitler’s Plans and tactics and have nothing in common with Soviet policies, with Leninism or with Marxism. Amother difference might be noted between Soviet policies in dealing with war situations and those of imperialists. The last time Red armies moved into Poland was in 1921 when they drove the in- vading Polish armies out of the Ukraine. One of the clauses the Reds endeavored to have incorporated in the peace treaty which followed the war was a demand that “Dependents of all Polish citizens ieilled, wounded or incapaciated in the war shall be given lands free.” Can you imagine an imperialist power demanding that the common soldiers of an enemy shall be provided for in such a treaty ? Peace ]We are never surprised to read of a “war Ss scare,”” but when we read of a “peace scare,” care. ‘we sit back and wonder what it means. Most Civilized and cultured people are scared of war. Few of them want war and continually make sacrifices to conventions of one kind or another to prevent the outbreakeof war. Recognition among all cul- tured people, that war brings only cultural stagnation to the race sets them against it as a means of settling international disputes. : But there is a section of the race which profits from war. They do not play any part in the actual fightine but they draw all the profits there is in it. So it is not surprising to fing a headline in the financial pages of the local press, as has happened twice in the last few days, which reads, “Peace Scare’’ Selling, Cuts Wall St. Mart. What kind of people are they who are afraid of peace? az BAKERY || apmy & NAVY 1670 High. 3244 is headquarters for 716 Hast Hastings Street - 4068 E. Hastings Street MEN’S WATER-PROOF CLOTHING 1709 Commercial Drive at the lowest prices in town! QUALITY PRODUCTS MODERATE PRICES 00% UNIONIZED = rims = a ei ee SPECIAL! WHILE YOU WAIT ace ae ee EH OG ee Ladies’ Half Soles - - G5@é — SC Empire Shoe Repairs 66 East Hastings Street