4 WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER Editorial Bigots of Victory Square” N a recent editorial, the Vancouver Province suggests h _that members and officers of the IWA do not read. Evidently, anyone who disagrees with the editorial policy of the Province is either an illiterate or a “red.” It now appears that any complaint about illiteracy should instead be levelled against the editorial writers of the province. - Quite obviously, they didn’t even read the news supplied by their own reporters. If so, they would have known that the proposal of a 32-hour week was one of a number of suggestions to be considered by the Union’s Wages and Contract Conference at a later date. Until finalized for purposes of negotiation not any of these proposals constitute Union policy. Once again, the Province has shown its readiness to play tricks with the truth, in order to distort trade union aims. It is little wonder that trade union members are heard in bitter denunciation of the brand of journalism now displayed by the Province. The Province editorial writers have apparently never read the history of industrial relations. More than a century ago the trade unions began the fight for a ten- hour day, and later the eight-hour, five-day week. Unless the trade unions had waged a bitter fight for reduced hours of work, the 12-hour day would prob- ably still be common. The Province writers have over- looked recorded facts, that the reduction in the hours of work helped to bridge the gap between increasing pro- ductive capacity and consumption, and that it was beneficial for the economy. Exactly the same arguments were used against the eight-hour day, when it was first proposed in the eighties, by interests with the same reactionary point of view as held today by the Province editorial writers. History has proven the old reactionaries wrong, as it will yet prove the Province wrong. Even the bigots of Victory Square cannot forever hold back the march toward social progress. It is most unfortunate for the readers of the Province, that its editorial writers do not seem to appreciate that there is a serious unemployment problem in Canada, and that a great deal of this unemployment is due to the failure to provide jobs for workers displaced by greater mechanization or automation. If they read, they would also know that organized labour, contrary to the Province statement, has welcomed the advent of automation. The unions are properly concerned that the consumer demand upon this vastly increased production shall be sufficient to keep the wheels of production turning at a rate that will provide jobs for all those able to work. Anyone who understands the A.B.C.’s of economics knows that unless we enable ourselves to consume more of this greatly expanded production, the inevitable result will be much less production, with still greater unemploy- ment. Automation may easily prove to be a curse, rather than a blessing, unless we make the necessary social adjustments. The reduction of the hours of work is one of several devices proposed to spread the available employment among more people. It is certainly preferable to the “do- nothing-about-unemployment” policies advocated by the Province. : We don’t ask the Province to accept our economic beliefs. We expect the Province editors to exercise their right to criticize trade union policies. All that we ask is that when it comes to attacking trade unions for views touching on problems that are distressing the whole com- munity, that they read all the evidence. ; It it asking too much that the editors of the Province should modernize their outlook by reading the evidence recently compiled by reputable economists, the conclu- sions of official bodies of enquiry, and the evidence sup- plied by the Dominion Bureau of Statistics? Publication date of the next issue of the WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER is November 3rd. Deadline for ad copy is October 20th and for news copy October 28th. ere i WLU Lat PUBLISHED TWICE MONTHLY ON THE FIRST <2 AND THIRD THURSDAYS BY International Woodworkers of America (AFL-CIO-CLC) Regional Council No. 1 REGIONAL OFFICERS: NRC Ist Vice-President ... 2nd Vice-President .. ~ 8rd Vice-President ....... _-- Bred Fieber Secretary-Treasurer ............... George H. Mitchell International Board Members. ............-.:r--0+ ... Walter F. Allen : S. M. Hodgson Address all communications to GEORGE H. MITCHELL, Secretary-Treasurer 2859 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, B.C. TR 4-5261-2 . Subscription Rates..__..___...§2.00 per annum Advertising Representative, G. .A. Spencer Authorized as Second Class Mail, Post Office Dept., Ottawa 27,500 COPIES PRINTED IN THIS ISSOH ~ Gov't Acts 2c FEDERATION Not even Province editors can boast of possessing a monopoly of the world’s store of economic facts. Tht IWA convention gave careful consideration to a resolution condemning the unethical journalistic prac- tices of the Province. It passed unanimously, and was fully justified. Recent months have seen editorial writing in the Province, which few journals in Canada tolerate. Few trade unionists are able to stomach the spate of bilious, vindictive anti-labour editorials, which disregard all considerations of fair-dealing and accuracy. This being so, trade union readers are quite naturally looking elsewhere for objective editorial comment. Pity The U.N. l’m contemplating speaking another 10 times, otherwise I es. — Nikita Khrushchev at the U.N. Too Late On Housing Less Than The federal government has moved to beef up the sagging construction industry through announced charges in lending regulations for housing pro- jects. However the general reaction among builders was—it’s too late. Listed Changes Public works minister David Walker made the announcement and lists the changes as: © extension of home improve- ment loan financing to rental properties including apartment buildings, © lifting until the end of the * year all income levels for di- rect CMHC loans to prospec- tive home owners and builders. Expenditures, It’s © extension to 30 years, the limit under NHA of the re- Your BEST BUY! payment period for all CMHC * loans. © increased limited - dividend loans for larger projects. Large Incomes -The lifting of income limits means that until the end of 1960 the government will not confine itself to helping provide housing for low or medium income families but will help large income families In All Your as well. The moves were taken in an effort to shore up the construction Ny business in the face of rising un- ( employment. Previous changes of government housing policy have failed to bring the expected results. No Effect John Caulfield Smith, vice-pres- The ident of the National House J Builders Association commented that Canadian builders did not see the elimination of housing ceil- ings having much effect on sell- ing houses. The move to lengthen the per- iod of repayment, while lowering monthly payments, will in the long-run mean higher total costs. The interest rate on CMHC loans remains at 634 per cent. won't justify my travel expens- ~ The World's Problems The most serious problems of today, as well as those of tomorrow, are not and will not be technological in nature. They are social problems, the problems of many people liv- ing together; they the economic problems and political prob- lems. A wise man at a meeting of the United Nations can pro- _ bably make a far greater con- tribution to society than can a genius in a laboratory. —K. F. Tupper, past president, Engineering Institute of Canada. a DAY... 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