nths ago that the lack of

lding on Powell Street.

the toll of the fire included
_ person Killed and eleven
hers, including a fireman in-
2d, and three alarms ‘were
't in for fire-fighting equip-
it before the fire was brought
ter control.

he lesson to be taken from
-fire, however, was best seen
she eye-witness reports and
‘ements of tenants which in-
te@ that persons living in
_ apartment were subject to
_2cessary risk of life and limb
ito lack of fire-escape facili-
The construction of the
ding was also such as to
#e escape through the hall-
“3s, or down alternate stair-
"is impossible. The building,
tough nearly half a block
had only one _ staircase,
only. a single fire-escape,
- located in the center of the
ling.
* 1€ one man whose life was
- n, lost his life’ purely be-
> e he was forced to jump
'ie stories, a height of over
fisy feet, to the pavement.
'+y of the others who were in-
| d, suffered leg, foot and back
‘tries from the impact of
“joing from second and third
| y apartments. There were
> ever, no fire escape facili-
to persons living in indi-
' al suites, and because the
“ swept up the central stair-
and along the halls people
no alternative but to risk
| + lives plunging from upper-
-y apartments.

B:,

=

1e near catastrophe points
nm to the need for this city
-xamine its fire-laws and ord-
zes in the interests of pub-
safety. It appeared obvious
_. had proper fire-escope fa-
ies been provided to the peo-
-in the Powell Street fire, no
- would have been lost and
» injuries sustained. It ap-

Seere ager

ce fire-laws been rigidly en-
sed proper escape facilities
‘ud have been provided.

us this paper has pointed out
‘the past, the danger of fire

“ced obvious also that had the

iding

Lauses Loss Of Life

The warning sounded by the Pacific Advocate several

adequate fire-prevention pre-

itions, especially in the over-crowded housing conditions
: secs

_ Vancouver's tenement district, was strongly underlined

4 - 5

week by a near catastrophe which swept an apartment

in Vancouver is perhaps greater
than that in any other city,. due
to the nature of construction. A
overwhelming proportion of the
apartment buildings in Van-
couver are of wooden construc-
tion; which increases the fire
hazard greatly. An overwhelm-
ing proportion of the apartment
dwelings in Vancouver are aged
and tinder-dry providin& small
chamece for escape if fire-escape
facilities are not provided which
assure easy exit from crowded
buildings in the case of fire.

A complete review is neces-
sary of multiple dwellings and
apartments, assuring ‘that the
highest degree of safety is af-
forded people who. live in apart-
ment accommodation. The P.A.
demands that the city fire mar,
shall at once enforce : safety
regulations to assure that the
highly-dangerous situation, pre-
sented by slipshod fire escape
facilities in the crowded working
class apartment district, be im-
mediately rectified.

X-ray campaign.

George High School,

Dominion Bank Building,
without delay.

 Anti-T.B. Drive
Commences in City

The Anti-Tuberculosis Society prepared this week to
launch an all-out offensive against T.B. in the city of Van-
couver, as. plans were prepared to completely cover the
west end of the city, from Granville Street west, with an
The Society announced
ed that at least four months, from January 14 to May 31,
would be required to ensure that all citizens in the west
end were X-rayed and recorded.

An appeal is being made for volunteers held to dis-
tribute appointment cards, and arrange appointments. The
Mobile Unit of the Society will cover the majority of the
territory, but X-ray stations will be established at King
Dawson School,
Horse Show Building, YMCA, and clubrooms of the West
End Labor-Progressive Party Club. :

While the drive is on it is expected that seven thousand
persons will be K-rayed each week.

Persons wishing to volunteer their services during the
drive are requested to get in touch with Mr. M. O’Brien, 601
Hastings and Cambie Streets,

it was expect-

Gordon House, the

Production

Holdup

Causes Xmas Shortage

Fok Xmas: Washing machines?
Electric irons? Refrigerators?
Vacuum cleaners? Table radios?
Canadian and American con-
sumers looking for these long-
absent commodities during holi-

Local 1-71

Nels Madsen, one of the out-
standing leaders of the Queen
Charlotte Islands strike and for-
mer member of the Mackenzie
Papineau Battalion, was unani-
mously nominated President of
the local. Other nominations in-
cluded Charles Frazer, second
vice-president; FE. Litzenberger,
third vice president... John’ Mc-
Cuish, past president of th local,
one of the old-time organizers
of the union, who is known up and
down the coast as one of the first
mémbers of the ‘“Loggers’
Navy”, was nominated financial
secretary and business agent of
the union. Don Barbour, popu-
lar hiring-hall manager, was
nominated recording secretary of
the local. Also elected were dele-
gates to the Vancouver Labor
Council and the coming District
Convention of the TWA.

Commenting on the conven-
tion, Nigel Morgan, LPP pro-

DOOOVTOODSO® DOOOOHD OOOO OOD 9922928 228©®) IO OOOO OO OSS ©:

charge of 50 cents for eich insertion
“ive lines or less with 10 cents for each

tional line is made for motices appesmug

accepted
of

‘his column. No notices will be
-- than Tuesday

ication.
es

noon of the week

NOTICES

Soctals, Weddings.

Available for Dances,
Banquets, Meetings. Reasonable rates. 600
Campbell Avenue. HAst. 0087.
OK Hair Restored!— ;
By = scientific method. Free advice. Get

results with the first free treatment. Uz.
Antonuck, 671 Smythe.

| Oldtime Dancing &
To Alf. Carlson’s Orchestra

| Every “Wednesday and Saturday
Hastings Awditorium

: .828 East Hastings Street

Phone: HA 3248
Moderate rental rates for socials.
weddings, meetings, etc.

amce—Clinton Rali—
2605 East Pender. Dance every Saturday

night.. Modern and Old-Time; iking’s
Orchestra. Hall is available for Reat;

HA. 3277.

ACIFIC ADVOCATE — PAGE 3

Meetings—
Swedish Finnish Workers’ Club meets last

Friday every month, 7.30 p.m. Clinton
Hall.

WHAT’S DOING?

New -Year’s Frolic—
At Happy Land, Hastings Park, Decem-
ber 31., Dancing, refreshments, novelties.
Tickets, $1.50, on sale at 105 Shelly
Building and at 339 West Pender, Peo-
ple’s Co-op Bookstore. Auspices Labor- -
Progressive Party.

Continued

vineial leader and IWA_ Local
1-71 vice-presidential nominee,
told P.A.: “The discussions and
resolutions from the camps re-
flect a growing consciousness on
the part of union members of in-
ternational developments, and a
clear recognition of the threat
of disunity to the preservation of
peace”.

Over twenty-five resolutions
were pased by the convention
which included the following:
Protest at armed intervention in
China. Protest at British Policy
in Indonesia. Demand for inter-
national control of atomic en-
ergy. Support for World Feder-
ation of Trade Unions. Demand
for a Dominion Labor Code, and
pressure on the government for
immediate enactment.

the need for civic leadership in
the crisis. The need for strong
leadership from the city council
was further emphasized as ac-
tion was sought on the granting
of contracts to city businesses,
the immediate implementation
of a civic works program, and
the demand for the civic govern-
ment to prod Ottawa and Vic-
toria for plans to settle the un-
employment crisis.

The general sentiment of
members of the delegation and
of the marchers was summed up
in an address made by Bill
White to the crowd, after the
interview with Mayor Cornett.
White stated: “Everything is
nice and official now.”

“This is our first parade since
1988,” White said, “but I prom-
ise, Mayor. Cornett, there will

be bigger and better parades”.

day shopping found theirs
a*pretty hopeless task. Instead
of the deluge which manufactur-
ers promised there was only
the merest trickle.

In the United States, Albert
E. Fitzgerald, President of the
United Electrieal Workers, re-
vealed that the UE had docu-
mented proof of an industry-
wide conspiracy to keep these
goods off thesmarket.

Investigations covering Gent
eral Electric, Westinghouse, Gen-
eral Motors, and Radio Corpora-
tion of America prove that “tens
of thousands of electrical
appliances could have been placed
on the market prior to Christ-
mas,” he reported.

“The reason for the holding
back is the fact that for
every dollar of profit from pro-
ducts sold during 1945, manufac-
turers will make four times as
much in 1946 because of the re-
peal of the excess profits tax.”

What Fitzgerald’ says about
the United States is equally true
about Canada.

Westinghouse, General © Elec-
tric, Marconi, and Northern
Electric are very slow in resum-
ing civilian production.

But no doubt exists that Can-
adian electrical manufacturers
are on a sit-down strike of their
own until 1946 rolls around.

At that time the Wartime
Excess Profits Tax goes out of
existence and profits go up ac-
cordingly.

Meanwhile, with the govern-
ment. standing by ineptly, the
Canadian people are unable to
get vitally-needed home goods.

PARIS, Dec. 18 (ALN)—So-
cialist and Communist delegates
to the French Constituent As-
sembly promised full support to
civil service workers in their
demand for an overall wage in-
crease of 100 frances ($20) per
month. President de Gaulle’s cab-
inet offered a compromise con-
sidered unacceptable by the
workers.

Steel
Prepaies
For Action

The Wage Policy Committee of
the United Steelworkers of Am-
erica meeting in Pittsburgh is-
sued a call for the biggest strike
in the nations’ history, when it
set the Jan. 14 date. The action

came as a result of the biggest
strike poll ever taken, with a
vote of 411,401 to 88,589, for a
walkout involving steel mills,
fabricating plants, Alcoa’s vast
aluminum empire and iron ore
mines—800 plants in all.

After three months of effort to
negotiate the steel workers receiv-
ed not a penny from the steel
trust. The sugestion by the Presi-
dent for “fact-finding” and
“coolfoff,’ after all that, has
provoked anger among the steel
workers. Their Pittsburgh meet-
ing showed it.

They branded ‘the pending
“fact-finiding-cool-off” bill in
Congress as “the first step to-
wards industrial serfdom.”

“We therefore condemn Presi-
dent Truman’s proposed legisla-
tion as vicicusly anti-labor and
an attack upon our basic demo-
eratic liberties,” the resolution
said.

The- resolution of the Wage
Policy Committee further called
upon the government to “make
public the facts which it already
has and consistent with its pub-
lic pronouncements—address it-
self to the steel corporations,
rather than seek measures to re-
press labor.”

TRUST PROFITS

The resolution referred to the
report of the Office of War and
Reconversion Mobilization show-
ing that manufacturers could
give a 24 percent raise, maintain
present prices. and still make
twice prewar profits. This report
has not yet been released of-
ficially.

President Philip Muray, stee
union president, revealed that he
had received widespread support
for his hardhitting radio condem-
nation of the President Truman’s
proposal from AFL unions as
well as from many locals of the
United Mine Workers. John IL.
Lewis’ testimony in a Congress
committee holding that only by
scrapping price control could la-
bor receive a wage raise, was
characterized by Muray as th
opinion of America’s No. 1
blunderer,.”’

A further indication of senti-
ment in the steel areas, was the
action of the Pittsburgh area
Steel City CIO Council condemn-
ing the Truman proposal, and
demanding withdrawal of Am-
erica’s armed forces from China.
The workers are obviously real-
izing that the foes they face on
the domestic front are the very
foes that are prometing an im-
perialist policy abroad.

LONDON,Louis Saillant, gen-
eral secretary of the World Fed-
eration of Trade Unions, and V.
Feather, British Trades Union
Congress representative, have
arrived in Athens to inquire into
the Greek unions and to advise
on reorganization .

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1945