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TUCEEOTUCOOOUCTOON LETTS

NOTE

WHAT DO YOU THINK ?

AAACN

O pinions contained in
these columns are strictly
those of the writers. We
welcome correspondence,
but ask that letters be held
to 300 words.

LT

TELESIS

Posters

J. E. Boyd, Vancouver, writes:
Judging from the heading on a
recent report, “Woman Goads
City Council to Action” one
would expect some beneficial in-
dustry such as a steel] mill, was
being planned for Vancouver. On
reading the report, however, we
learned that some woman had de-
manded that the councillors order
the police force to pull Commun-
ist posters from telephone poles.
Utterly disregarding the serious
increase in major crime, the city
fathers have concurred in the
woman's demand. As a result
many police officers who haye
sons overseas or in war industry
doing their bit to preserve our
democratic rights, are compelled
to tear down working class post-
ers in order to hold their jobs

Posters on telephone poles con-
stitute a medium of publicity re-
garded as an established right
by long custom. The Parks Board,
churches, Red Cross, Victory
Loan, Chinese War Relief and
many organizations which cannot
afford expensive advertising con-
stantly make make use of the
poles for publicity purposes. But
eur aldermen are evidently
among those who think this war
is being fought to make the world
safe for bondholders and that vet-
erans will return to sell shoe-
laces and razor blades like some
yeterans of the South African war
are doing in Vancouver right now.

They will soon have other polis
to worry about instead of tele-
phone poles.

Hollyburn Ridge

M.B.L., West Vancouver, writes:

I was surprised to learn through
items in Jocal papers that no
aitempt will be made by the pro-
vincial Department of Lands to
halt logging operations on Holly-
burn Ridge, and that, according
to the minister, Welles Gray, “the
matter was referred some time
ago to the municipality of West
Vancouver,” and, as far as he
knew. “the government has no
intention of taking any further
part in the controversy.”

Such a statement is only a fur-
ther indication that the present
provincial government is short-
sighted, without any real plans
for the future. and should be
replaced by a government that
esn protect the people's interests.

IT remember that the same ques-
fion came up in 1938. Vancouver
citizens at that time protested
strongly when it was announced
that the Los Angeles interests
which held the timber rights on
Tollyburn. Ridge intended to be-
fin logging operations. I was
among those who attended a
meeting called to save one of
“the finest potential winter sports
parks on the Pacifie Coast 2

The destruction of Hollyburn

THE PEOPLE

Published every Friday by The
People Publishing Co., Rm. 104,
Shelly Bldg., 119 West Pender St.,
Vancouver, B.C. Tele. MAr. 6929.

Editor ____._____—_ Hal Griffin
Associate Editor ___ Al Parkin
Business Mer. __. G. Greenwood

Six Months: $1.00 One Year: $2.00
Printed at Broadway Printers, Ltd..
151 East 8th Ave., Vancouver, B.C.

Ridge must not be permitted. Not
only is it a natural beauty spot
of Vancouver and a great tourist
attraction, but because of its
ready accessibility it provides a
weekend playground for thous-
ands of our citizens who are un-
able to take vacations. From the
standpoint of utility, too, it would
be a crime to denude this valu-
able watershed.

The people of Vancouver should
once again unite in demands that
the government act at once to
protect Hollyburn Ridge. Once
it is logged off it will be too late
to do anything about it. Kicking
out the Hart government—I am
all in favor of it—will not restore
a natural beauty spot.

Closed Shop

A Unionist, Vancouver, writes:

Is Myron Kuzych's attack on
Vancouver's largest union a part
of the expected anti-union offen-
sive by local industrialists? De-
spite Kuzych’s “eloquence” one
cannot miss the fact that he is
snisrepresenting the facts.

If only a few hundred of the
union’s members attend meetings,
that in itself proves that the
closed shop is vital to the wel-
fare of working men. Most union
rank-and-filers do not attend
meetings because they are con-
tent to let a minority of lead-
ers and active members carry
on the tasks of maintaining, ex-
panding and bettering the union
of the wealth-creating class.

If unien rank-and-file members
Gesire to increase the power of
their union, and thus to better
their own working conditions,
wages, hours, etc., each and every
one of them should—in fact,
must—attend as many meetings
as possible and take a real part
in carrying out union functions.

The closed shop is a necessity.
It prevents backward workers
from weakening the fight of the
majority to advance the interests
of all working men. The rank-
and-file is the fabric, the entire
power of any labor union. Only
if the rank-and-file members play
an active part can a labor union
have real strength and meaning!
And no one who saw the actions
ef the rank-and-file members of
the Boilermakers Union earlier
this year can have any doubts
about their interests in this union.

Theater Groups

War Worker, Vancouver, writes:

After attending several movies
during the last few weeks, and
finding that the mevie industry
has been producing a few war
pictures of merit, such as Hang-
man Also Die, Action in the
North Atlantic, Joan of Paris and
others, it was something of a
shock to find that Vancouver's
Little Theater Group was wasting
its time by giving its all to the
production of Dark Eyes, which
played at a local theater this
week.

This play, which pretends to be
nothing more than a light comedy,
is to my mind an insult to our
Russian allies now engaged in the
job of fighting the greater part
of the Nazi Army. The story of
Dark Eyes is of the type which
should have gone out of style
years ago—a story of the happy
Russian nobility, in which beard-
ed counts and princes stride dash-
ingly on and off the stage, to
the accompaniment of light wit
and laughter.

This city urgently needs a
working class theater group to
present worthwhile productions,
and in my opinion, organized la-
bor would do well to give united
support to the newly organized
Labor Theater which, I under-
stand, is urgently in need of funds
to carry on its present task of
producing a musical industrial
reyue.

NTT TT

LETTERS from
OUR READERS

Books and People

by Kay Gregory

to the subject.

See What I Mean?—The VTJon-
fessions of Clem Smullett, by
Lewis Browne, is a story of a
hypothetical anti-Semitic Crusade,
as told by the squealer of the
gang rounded up at police head-
quarters. Smullett joins the Crus-
ade for money and does his first
poison gas job for the same rea-
son. “As to the right or wrong
of the Crusade, thai naturally
was none of my business. I was
functionine as a press agent, not
a Bev Scout . .” he tells police

Describirg the build-up of the
Crusade to appeal to all kinds of
people, with the gradual intro-
duction of open fascist methods,
Smullett tells of the never-ending
theme:

“Week in and week out it was
the identical old melier about a
vile villain (Jewdom) who was
bent on ruining a fair maiden
(Aryan civilization) only to be
foilea by a brave posse (The
Crusade) . .

All the menace to democracy
hidden in such pro-fascist organ-
izations is shown up in this novel.
Some readers might regard it
merely as a detailed account of
America’s harmless fanatics and
misled intellectuals but, as the
New York Times reviewer re-
marked. “The Coughlins and
Gerald Smiths . are still at
werk and in a field hardly less
fallow than before (Pearl Har-
bor). Anti-Semites are not all
erackpots, weighing nothing in
the future of the country. They
are always the shrewd and pow-
erful ones, to wham anti-Scmit-
ism is only the handiest tool with
which to pry the first erack in

the structure of liberty and tol-
erance.”
e

ROOF that ‘medical security’

is one factor in cutting down
absenteeism and improving all-
round work is given conclusively
in Kaiser Wakes the Doctors by
Paul de Kruif.

In Kaiser plants, of cours, this :

aid is paid for by the seven cents
a day deducted from the work-
ers’ wages. This small amount
provides up-to-date, rully equip-
ped hospitals, skilled doctors and
nurses whose incomes are as-
sured and consequently whose
care is given impartially, unlim-
ited treatment without question
to all Kaiser workers and their
families, thus saving countless
manhours for war produetion.

No financial assistance is re-
ceived from the government or
welfare agencies or from the com-
pany beyond moral cooperation
which, of course, has paid full
divicends.

Such a plan for workers can

only succeed, de Kruif says, if
enthusiastic support is received
from the doctors, because only
in this way can the treatment
and equipment be kept up to the
last minute scientific advances.
With their support. de Kruif be-
lives the same quality of medical
service and security can now be
fiven everywhere for similar
small sums per capita.

In this, we should not wait for
the future, de Kruif remarks. Men
need not die from industrial ac-
eidents and diseases if they can
go to a doctor early enougn, once
there is not “the factor of medi-
cal cost to keep them away.”

- into partnership.

Short
Jabs

by OV Billi

—_————-

Minimum Way

AY argument in count)”
a few days ago, OF
ownership of a pie
brought out a new slant —
functions of the Minimurn -
Board. Those of us who in”
that the job of the M
Wage Board was to ensu
minimum wages Were | §@.
wage workers, were only 3
right. ‘
The man who owned
factory died. His widow k
business going, but she
that she could not pay th
mum wage to the salesm
sold the pies. -
Here the Minimum Wag @.
stepped in and solved th &
jem. Acting on the boarr
gestion, she took the sz
So, as &
owner, even if he got noth |
of it, there would be no
of the Minimum Wage A
Minimum Wage Act may 4
provision for cases such
ene, but it is a new one?é }
It reminds me of a 50) g
similar situation which ont #
under my own observatio §
wife of a friend of min
leaving two young childre
widower hired a houseke
eare for them as his wol
him out of town quite a I)
he was not a logger.)
Meeting him on the §
few months ‘after he ma
arrangement, I asked him |
was working out for the
was startled to get the iv
answer, “Well, Bill, it wor
fine, but I couldn’t afford.
her housekeepers wage
married her.”

Tax Sale

F I had‘any doubis ab
necessity for a change
sonnel in the city council
doubts would have been di
a week ago when I had
session with the tax colle
I was only a go-betwe
was another man’s taxe
were involved. He was the
of a house in the city whi
jreaded for the tax sale ¢
cer unless he paid up ai
of what he thought was ©
lar and sixty-two cents.
That is little enough of &
to cause the loss of thet
of houses, even if it was?
ger than a match-box. —
turned out, however, that
lar and a half of that W
faxes, but tax sale costs
were only to be charged
property went to a sale.
All the delinquent
amounted to was 12 cent
if that 12 cents had not bee
the house would have }
the property of the city. |
Two questions arise out
Who owns that house —
there any of the milk of
kindness in the make-ub
city council that practise
a policy.

Press Drive

ON’T forget OY Bill
there pitching for t
umn in the press drive. ¥
have time to help out |
the field. eee