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OL’ BILL

SHORT JABS

OW the British newspapers and the men who write for them

grasp at the most inconsequential incidents and things in order
to avoid dealing with the real, live issues affecting the lives of the
British people is to be seen in the latest “human-political interest”
story over there. Churchill, who, if we are to believe the Tories,
won the war single-handed, is the owner of a racehorse. This little
gray horse (or maybe it is an old grey mare?) has, according to
the newspaper Johnnies, plunged right into British politics.

According to them, the colt won’t bear to the left. He was a
favorite the other day. Anybody who wanted to make a little easy
money had to put up eleven depreciated pounds
to get two of the same kind back. The turns on
the course were to the left but the colt wouldn't
see it that way and kept going to the right. The
newspapermen, it appears, “fell all over themselves
to draw the parallel.” The parallel of course is that
Churchill won’t go to the left either; neither of
them being left-wingers. Z

In the eyes of the ink-coolies of the British
press, things like that necessarily take precedence
of the fact that Britain is bankrupt; that deprecia-
tion of the pound reduced the standard of life of
the British workers, froze their wages, increased
the price of their bread by 25 percent and tied them
hand and foot to the war chariots of Wall Street.

We might find another parallel, one that wil!
have more*meaning about this incident. Racetrack
people in this part of the world have a name for such an animal.
They don’t grace it by calling it a horse but refer to it as a dog.
Probably it is blind in one eye, which would give it the edge on
Churchill who seems to be blind in both eyes and for the newshacks
to say “it is no leftist” certainly will not endear it to the punters
who lost their money on it.

There is another parallel] that is not spoken of by the newspapers.
The colt is not an English horse but is from beyond the sea, being
French-bred, just as Churchill is not an Englishman, being ~half
American. If some common two by four Englishman were to engage
in half the antics that Churchill has been guilty of in his efforts to
set up a European government to supplant the existing governments
(including the British) against the expressed orders of the Labor
government, he might find himself accused of treason. But that was
ever the Tory way, as witness Sir, Edward Carson and other Tory
ministers of the time drilling their following in North Ireland to
‘prevent the British government, by law, handing Ireland over to the

Irish people. MS
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“To return to our moutons” as,»the French says. That is, to
the question of Vancouver City Council and the B.C. Collectric, which
we dealt with last week and a piece that got crowded out then.
The alleged report of an investigation by two so-called experts hired
by the council to investigate the B.C. Colectric’s claim for increased
fares and the PUC’s “interim” arrangement has led only to a snivell-
ing request from the Non-Partisan. council to the federal government
to excues/ the company from paying income tax, the alibi being that
the remission of the tax might induce the B.C. Collectric to forego
any increase in fares. What a hope!

In the Buzzard article referred to last week commenting on the
Chicago situation, it says the genera] manager of that system “should
call himself lucky if the Commies... can’t find a political mouthpiece
in the city government to head protest committees.” Nobody should
‘know better than the B.C. Collectric the advantage of having a spokes-
man in the city government. They not only have one spokesman in
this town but the whole council.

The recommendation of these two alleged experts who on, their
own showing did not make any investigation, is just another of these
incidents that have piled up through the years. In this case the
council probably got just what it wanted and the citizens will pay
for it. That may be the reason why the “investigators’ have not
taken up the challenge of Bert Marcuse and Emil Bjarnason of the
Trade Union Research Bureau.

In 1935 the council got a report of a real investigation but did
nothing about it. In August of that year the council's public utilities
committee submitted a report on the BCElectric, on the basis of a
very thorough investigation made by a highly qualified expert named
Allen Smith, with half of the alphabet tagged on to his name.

The gist of his report was that “the profits of the company were
excessive;” not one and three-quarters percent as alleged by the com-
pany but six and three-quarters percent on the company’s own valuation
and 879 on our expert’s calculation . . .°“the system of accounting
is called into question. ... The city has lost $21,000 a year on the
assumption the company was losing money. . .. The record of the
company cannot be accepted simply because they are prepared for
dividend purposes in the interest of the share-holders and not in
the interest of the ratepayers.”

The teport of the public utilities committee from which these
extracts are made must be in the minutes of the council. Why was
it not dug up and used instead of paying out more real money to
men who have made no investigation but will no doubt collect as
though they had? If you are interested in public ownership be at the
Pender Auditorium on Sunday night—Professor ‘Carrothers particularly

invited.

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While they were in Paris on their way to the recent

il ate bern BI nate nor eine haa SS

World Youth Festival members

ln en =

of ‘the Canadian 1949 Beaver Brigade saw these peace demonstrators outwit police.

‘Swords into plowshares’ -

Chinese give Canadians
vase made from U.S. shell

“While attending the World Youth Congress in Hungary the Canadian delegation received as @
present from the Chinese delegation a flower vase made from an American shell captured by the Chinese
Liberation army in the course of its victorious struggle against the forces of oppression and war which m
China as everywhere are sustained by one force and one alone, the wealth of Wall Street.

“When our Chinese comrades presented this vase to each delegation there was an Unforgettable —
ovation of singing, dancing and cheerimg—an ovation whcih lasted for 25 minutes and which signi
that every delegate understood how appropriate and symbolic this

the well known biblical quotation:
‘For they shall beat their swords
into plowshares’,

“It answers those wiseacres who
say, ‘Well, if you are for peace,
how come you support the war in
China?’—because it symbolizes the
main lesson of the Chinese fight,

NORMAN PENNER

simple gift was. It symborlized
- eueneneTee
namely, that peace is secure only|incident which illustrates thé

when the makers of war are de-
feated, and that though in every
country the form of struggle is
different, peace can only be de-
fended through active struggle by
all people who want peace.”

_ This simple but revealing inci-
dent, and scores of others equally
simple yet profound, held an audi-
ence of more than 500 for a grip-
ping 60 minutes at Pender Audi-
torium last Sunday night, as youth-
ful Norman Penner, national lead-
er of the National Federation of
Labor Youth, described the peace
journey to Europe of the 1949 Can-
adian Beaver Brigade.

Penner declared that the essence
of the great congress events can
be summed up in the phrase, “Mil-
lions of youth for peace.” ‘

“Some 63,000 youth are affiliate

| to the World Federation of Demo-

crati¢ Youth,” he said. “These
youth represent the youth of the
world, who want peace. But the
youth attending the congress real-
ized that the job is not to plead
or beg for peace, but to struggle to
impose peace on the would-be mak-
ers of war. This was the theme of
every speech, every song, every
dance.”

Penner told stories of life in‘ the
New Democracies. He related one

Penner young veteran
of war, labor movement

Young war veteran Norman Penner, national head of the National

Federation of Labor Youth, was,
progressive movement.”

~ A son of Ald. Jacob Penner
boast of “20 years experience in the
labon movement,” for he joined the
progressive “Young Pioneers” in
1929, at the age of eight. :

A leader of High School youth
in Winnipeg in his ’teens, Norman
was a delegate to the third Cana-
dian’ Youth Congress at Toronto in
1938. It was there that he met his
future wife, a Montreal high school
student named Norma Lipes. They
were married in 1942, shortly be-
fore Norman, who was in the army
at that time, was sent overseas.

Penner served in England,
France, Belgium, Holland and Ger-
many with an artillery brigade, at-
tached with the signal corps to a
British Brigade. :

Demobbed in 1946, Penner work-
ed in an electrical factory in Mon-

in his own words, “‘born into the

of Winnipeg, Norman at 28 can

treal until he was discharged for
organizing workers into the United
Electrical Union.

Elected national secretary of the
NFLY in 1947, Penner has held
that post since then, and this year
led the Beaver Brigade which at-
tended the World Youth Congress
in Budapest.

While in Vancouver Penner at-
tended the provincial convention of
the National Federation of Labor
Youth, held in Clinton Hall over
the weekend. Some 30 delegates
from the Lower Mainland and Van-
couver Island spent two days
planning future work of the organ-
ization. An eight-member B.C. ex-
ecutive was elected, headed by Elsie
Brandon, . chairman, and Glyn
Thomas, sécretary.

change in Hungary since the peo-
ple came to power:

“We attended -a reception at
the Grand Hotel on St. Marguer-
ite Island in the beautiful Dan-
ube. The Grand Hotel is one of
the most luxurious in Europ.
We were introduced to the man-
ager of the hotel—a middle-aged.
woman who for 30 years had
been scrubbing floors in the same
hotel! And from what we saw
and were told, she is a most caP-
able manager.” é

Describing the scope of the
youth festival and congress in
Budapest, Penner termed it “thé
greatest international gathering i?
history.”

“There were 10,000 participants

he said. “Here were gathered the

youth of the Soviet Union, victori-

ous in socialism, now marching re-

solutely toward a still higher order;

here were the quiet, confident Chi-

nese youth fresh from the great

successes of their struggle which

heralds the early liberation of 2)

Asia; youth from the Greek Pe

ple’s army; from Spain; from 30

colonial ‘countries; from 10 semi

colonial countries; from 18 depend-

ent- lands of Latin America; 500

from Scandinavia; 500 from Italy:

1,000 from France; 600 from Bri-

tain; 200 from the United States: .
40 from Canada; and of course —
large delegations from all the pe

‘ple’s democracies,”

Concluding his speech, Penner
said: “The Congress brought out
the war danger; laid bare the 4a!-
rogant methods of the agents of
American ' imperialism;  stressé
that the fight of youth in colonial,
Semi-colonial and dependent cou-
tries for freedom is inseparably
linked with the fight of youth i”
all countries for peace; recogniz
ed that’ the world camp of peace
and democracy is headed by thé
Soviet Union; recognized that #
new economic crisis is beginning
in the capitalist countries; conclud-
ed that unify at home and unity 0?
a@ world scale of all democratic
youth jis essential to ‘maintai?
the peace.”

Following Penner’s address, 2 fi-
anecial appeal by Homer Stevens
netted $202 to assist the peac®
campaign of the NFLY.

Doreen Thomas, an observer 4!
the Mexican Peace Congress, gav®
a short report on the congress i?
Mexico City. Glyn Thomas, B.C:
secretary of the NFLY, chaired the

meeting.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — OCTOBER 14, 1949 — PAGE ”

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from 84 countries at the festival.” |

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