Column One

by

Al
Parkin

ee government of the Rt. Hon.
W. LL. Mackenzie King will not
get my vote at the next general
election, I want to make that
quite clear in advance, just so
there will be no reproachful
glances thrown my way later on.
This has been no hasty decision
on my part. It was arrived at
some time ago. as a matter of
fact, but my determination to do
all I can to vote labor in and Mac-
kenzie King out was sealed irrev-
oeably this week by a sad experi-
ence I shared with what seemed
to be the entire population of
Vancouver fruitlessly seeking that
elusive extra dozen of beer prom-
ised us by W. F. Mackenzie of
the Liquor Control Board.
Now I’m not a drinking man.
But with Christmas so near, I
figured the extra refreshments

would come in handy. So T stood

for an hour and a half in Tine.
And TI didn’t get my beer. IT was
se close to success once that my
~nese was flattened against the
glass of the liquor store door.
Then an attendant on the inside
hung up a dreary little sign on
the window readings, “No beer,
ale or stout.” I walked back down
the street talking te myself.
There must be thousands of Van-
couver people who shared my
feelings this week And none of
us was consoled by the thought
that scmewhere in the city little
groups of people sometimes dis-
respectfully referred to as “blue
noses” (not the Nova Scotia vari-
ety) were probably ghoulishly
celebrating our discomfiture.
Se

For there is no doubt—in spite
of Kennedys none-too-brilliant
handling of the situation provin-
cially—that the basic cause of the
beer shortage stems from the fact
that Mackenzie King has sold our
beer down the river in return for
the votes supposedly controlled
by that tight little group of lob-
byists comprising the WCTU and
the Lord’s Day Aliiance.

None of us object to rationing
of war-restricted goods. But no
one, not even those peculiar peo-
ple who insist on looking after

our welfare until it hurts, has .

ever claimed a shortage in malt
and hops anu chlorinated water. —

Because of the misguided ac-
tions of this minority group of
chureh people, the beer shortage
has now become something of a
cause celebre: :

Thousands of Canadian, British,
American and- Russian soldiers
are dying daily on the battlefield
in the deadliest strugesle mankind
has known. Yet Vancouver and
other B.C. papers carry front-
page headlines every time W. F.
Kennedy changes his mind. War
news is relegated to a secondary
piace on the page.

Thousands: of Vancouver people
are without homes, other thous-
ands are living in rat-infested, po-
tentially disease-spreading slums.
Juvenile delinquency is on the in-
crease because these same “blue
noses” oppose Sunday sports and
supervised recreation. Yet these
queer people offer as the solu-
tion to all ills—past, present, and

future—less beer for the working

people!
I repeat—l’m- going to vote
against Mackenzie King. He’s

gone too far this time:

Royal City Labor Slate Gains Support

Big Business Group Alarmed

NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C.
and a seventh nominated this

ster by the United Trade

—With six candidates already in the field in the Royal City

week in the neighboring municipality of Coquitlam, labor is
making a strong bid for representation in civic and municipal office in this year’s elections.
While the campaign committee for the Labor slate recently nominated in New Westmin-

Union Conference is confident that it will elect at least one and

perhaps all three of its candidates for city council, aldermen standing for re-election are

concerned because of the strong
showing made by Jack Greenail,
popular leader of the Interna-
tional Woodworkers of America,
who last year came within an ace
of election in the aldermanie con-
test.

Indicative of the uneasiness

felt in opposition circles was the-

announcement made this week by
Ald. W. H. Courtenay that at the
request of friends he had recon-
sidered his Previously announced
decision not to seek re-election
and would again be a candidate.

This week New Westminster
citizens received the following
personal letter signed by Jack
Greenall, Hugh Clark and John
Anderson; Labor candidates for
city council; Mrs. Annie Nowosad,
candidate for school board; and
Richard Marshall, candidate for
police commission:

“AS you know, on Thursday,
December 16, you will be called
upon to yote for a mayor, three
aldermen, three school trustees, a
Parks commissioner and two pol-
ice commissioners.

: “The right to vote in an elec-
tion is a democratic liberty men
have struggled to win and are
fighting to preserve. Surely, then,
it is a right you should exercise.

“The issues of a Civie election
may seem relatively unimportant

hope, we shall have entered pbe-
fore another election falis due.

Y Part of these
Sreater issues. Anything

soldiers must return.

“The new Canada we al| hope

Coal Boost
Blasted

Authorization of coal price in-
creases up to 65 cents per ton
by Finance Minister J. L. Usley,
declared necessary as a result of
recent work stoppages at B.C. and
Alberta mines, was scored by.
members of the provincial LIP
Women’s Council here, Monday
evening. It was pointed out that
while Ulsley maintains that the
Royal Commission which investi-
gated the labor dispute “found
the companies could not continue
te produce coal and meet these
costs without assistance,” the ac-
tual wording of the Commission
report declared:

“We are not satisfied that these
(the company’s) claims are all
sound, but if established they
would appear to justify a price in-
crease of 40 cents a ton to the
selling price of coal.”

“While wage increases were
awarded employees against the
company,” states Council Chair-
man Effie Jones, “it now appears
that the public, not the company,
will have to dig’ down into its
pockets to pay the bill. We are
demanding that the financial
statements of the company be
made public.”

Announcing authorization of the

_inerease, Isley appealed to labor

leaders and to the ranks of labor
to “exercise self-restraint.”

He said that subsidies for the
coal industry were not advisable,
as‘this would put an “extra bur-
den’ on the tax payer.”

to see emerge from the War, how-
ever, will not come of its own
accord. It must ‘be built and it
is we who must build it. What
better place to begin, then, than
in our own city. And how better
to begin it than by electing to civic
. Office Labor candidates named “by
Organizations of the working peo-
ple themselves and supported by
all progressive citizens? 5
“Through the Joint Trade
Union Committee, the trade
unions of New Westminster have
nominated us to contest this elec.
. tion and their campaign to elect
us iS a part of the struggle to
_Mmake the yoice of the people
heard in ail governments, wheth-
er federal, provincial or civic, so
that it may have a decisive influ-
ence upon the future of our coun-
try.

“ec

We believe that our program

is your program because, as we.

think you will agree, it answers

Continued
ae ea 5
Cli

ies: at the Dnieper, and at the

Same time employ 20 divisions on

the most active non-Soviet front in
- Europe—against the People’s Lib-

eration Army of General Tito.

But these are all defensive
moves,.taken in desperation. And
that desperation is highlighted by.
the continuing drive westward of
the Red Army in the Zhiobin
area, and the confident declara-
tion of the Soviet press that the
complete liberation of Karelia,
the Baltic republics, Byelorussia
and the Ukraine is near.

Hitler’s desperation is under-
lined_ also by other political de-
velopments—the appeal by Mau-
rice Thorez, leader of the: French
Communist Party, for a million-
strong partisan army to battle oc-
cupation troops in France, and
Eduard Benes’ trip to Moscow to
Sign .a 20-year mutual assistance
Pact with the USSR.

The historic agreements

* Moscow deprived Hitler and his
~ Fifth Column of their last re-
maining political stratagem based
on. the hope of splitting the anti-
- Hitler coalition. :
~ The current broadsides of the
'defeatist, pro-fascist forces at
home on the so-called Polish and
Baltic questions is a frenzied at-
tempt to revive this stratagem
from within, this time aimed at
the “Big Three” conference,
which they recognize will put the
finishing touches upon the over-
whelming political disaster suf-
fered by the fascist world con-
spiracy. :

The popular expectation arising
from the Moscow conference that
the second front would finally be
opened has been strengthened
greatly by the Churchill-Roose-
velt-Stalin meeting.

Clearly, the war in Europe is
now approaching its climax. Fac-
tors which have Previously play-
ed a role in delaying the second
front—influence of defeatism, dis-
trust of Soviet policy, fear of the
popular democratic movements in
Europe, over-caution in western
Allied strategy—are either weak-
ened or subordinated to the un-
avoidable and ever more press-
ing needs of ending the war rap-
idly by joint coalition action.

The next few days should re-
veal events and decisions which
will shape history for some time
“to come, :

of

what you demand of a £ood civic ~

government. May we then earn-
estly solicit your Support in our
common fight for progressive

“policies that will make our city

a better place in which to worl
and live.

“This week, in Coquitlam,
where last year labor. elected
Councillor Percy Smith for a two-
year term, the United Trade
Union Conference, representing
a majority of trade unions in the
New Westminster area, nominat-
ed Rene Gamache of Maillardville
as its candidate for council,

“The popular choice of work-
ers at Fraser Mills, where he has
worked for the past 15 years, for
first vice-president of Loeal 1-357,
IWA, in the election last week-
end, Gamache is well-known: lo-
cally as a leader in community
activities. He is 4 physical in-
Structor for both the YMCA and
the Pro-Recs.” -

Continued - z

_ Arcand

connections with Nazi Germany
before the war.

Arecand was long editor of
Lillustration Nouvelle, the of-
ficial organ of Maurice Duplessis,
notorious anti-Semite and former
premier of Quebec.
cialized in anti-Semitic propagan-
da, and at one time Publicly an-
nounced plans to stage a march
on Ottawa and set up a fascist
regime.

Meanwhile protests against the

release of Mosley by the British -

government continue to come
fzem all sections of the Canad-
ian people. Bee
Following the stand taken hy
the British Trades Union Con-
gress, the Trades and Labor Con-
gress of Canada has made strong
representations to Herbert Mor=
rison against the British facist’s
release-in a cable which is sign-
ed by Percy Benough, Congress
president, and Pat Sullivan, sec-
retary, which declared “(we)
strongly support British labor in
protesting the release of fascist
Oswald Mosley.” : Sos :

The Toronto City Council unan-

imously decided to make repre- -_
_ Sentations to the Ganadian gov-

ernment concerning the case, and
“viewed with alarm” Mosley’s re-
lease.

Other leading figures lodging
protests include E. B. Joliffe, On-
tario CCE leader, and Charles
Sims, executive secretary of the
Labor-Progressive Party.

' Partisan. Association’
Arcand spe- -

_ tesenting only a minorit

Continued |

Principal issue facin ie
tors will be this—cho;.
couneil, school and
members who will :
of coping with the
problems that will ine
the city; jobs and Se-
citizens, civie and trar
improvements, an overt
education system) Tain
shipbuilding and othe ©
tered industries on ~
basis. 4
The candidates labor
ing to fight on these o

F;

next city council are
Pritchett, runner-up in
civie election, and Dea
president of the Interna
sociation of Machinisi
692: Both were endorse .
Trade Union Representz |
mittee, which is backeq |
jority of the big UNIO; |
city, and which at a fini |
ence last Sunday sound]
ated a previous condit
dorsement given Ald. Jz.

For the school board ¢.
is backing Mrs. Effie Jo:
ing labor figure in wo |
fairs; John Stanton, we
labor attorney: Mauric ;
member of the Aeronau |
chanics Union, Lodge
George Watson of the
Federation. ge (BY

Ald. Price’s position ir.
to the Trade Union Re
tion Committee was m:
clear at Sunday’s confere |
25 of the 26 delegates pre =
ed to repudiate his Cs
agreeing with Laurence , o.
of the Amalgamated ne
Workers that Price h-
“Kidding the public, |
around with labor, and —
use us to get votes for ©

Pritchett, representing ~
ternational Woodworkers
erica, laid full blame
early confusion in laby
over election issues on
leadership. 3s

“The CCE first reje; -
trade union’s request for
ed labor slate, then us: |
aS an excuse for not coor. |
he said. “The CGF, a pi

working class movement.
ally in the position of a
ing to wag the dog.”
The position of J. E |
and George Watson, wi.
somewhat obscured by a’
Statement issued over fi
natures by the CCF exec.
claring they did not wi |
names associated with th
so long as Jack Price
trade union endorsation, {
clarified early this week |
Laurence Anderson, TU."
Paign manager, announce
after (interviewing both
dates he had received ai
they would allow their n |
be placed on the trad:
slate. Both represent thei: |
ization as delegates on the y
‘haye endorsed the tradé
civic program, and Haye 7
not to issue further sta}
opposing the committee: |

TUNE IN

C

HAROLD PRITCHETT |

MRS. EFFIE JONES |

K
w
XxX

Saturday, Dee. 4, 7:15 p i

-LABOR-PROGRESSIVE BROADCA!}