A Page of Study for Socialism

SCIENCE OF SOCIE1Y

What Is Socialism ?

IX. The “Big Shots” Of

Finance =

‘Meet some of the boys:

ROSS HH. McMASTER, pres-
ident of Steel Co. of Canada,
Ltd.; vice-president, West Koo-
tenay Power & Light Co.; di-
rector of Bank of Montreal,
GPR, Consolidating Mining &
Smelting, Canadian Bronze, Ca-
nmadian Industries Lid. Sun
Life, Canadian Pratt & Whit-
ney Aircraft, Royal Trust, Con-
solidated Paper, Ogilvie Flour
Mills, Consolidated Bakeries,
Canadian Propellors Limited,
Seignory Club.

MORRIS W. WILSON, pres-
ident of Royal Bank; vice-presi-
dent, Montreal Trust; director
of CPR, Sun Life, Canada Ce-
ment, Canadian General Hlec-
tric, Shawinigan Water & Pow-
er, Beauharnois L.H. & P., Do-
minion. Engineering Works,
‘Consolidated Mining and Smelt-
ing, BjC. Power Corp., Ogilvie
Flour Mills, Consolidated Bak-
eries, Dominion Bridge; Chan-
eellor of McGill University.

SIR THOMAS WHITE,
chairman of board of Canadian
Bank of Commerce: vice-presi-
dent, National Trust Co.; direc-
tor, Brazilian Traction, Light
& Power, Rio de Janeiro Tram-
way, L. & P., Steel Co. of Can-
ada, Canada Life Assurance,
Dominion Realty.

G. BLAIR GORDON, presi-
dent, Dominion extile Co., Mon-
treal Cottons, Drummondville
Cotton; director, Bank of Mon-
treal, CPR, Penman’s, Paton
Mfg., Mutual Life, Industrial
Specialty, Federal Aircraft, Ca-
nadian Car & Foundry, Domin-
ion Oilcloth, Liverpool and Lon-
don & Globe Insurance Co.

E could continue the Iist
of tycoons with a couple of
dozen more, among whom would
be included D. CGC. Coleman, L.

J. Belnap, C. F. Sise, C. A.
Dunning, G. W. _ Spinney,
R. S. McLaughlin (all

directors, and the first six, di-
rectors of the Bank of Mon-
treal); W. F. Angus, J. S. Nor-
ris, G. H. Montgomery, V. M.
Drury (the first three, Royal
Bank directors, and the fourth
linked with the bank through
the Montreal Trust Co.; J. S.
MacLean, J. S. Duncan, E. G.
Burton, H. R. MacMillan, J.
Cc. Newman, Donat Raymond,
J. P. Bickell, all directors of
the Canadian Bank of Com-
merce in addition to numerous
industrial, commercial and fi-
nancial corporations ..:
We’ve seen how the concen-
tration of production leads to
monopoly. But monopoly de-
develops also in banking:
where there were 40 banks pre-
viously in Canada, there are

PACIFIC ADVOCATE—PAGE 2

Capital

now eleven. (The four biggest
—Montreal, Commerce, Royal,
Nova Scotia—get 75 percent of
all the net earnings of the Ca-
nadian banks.)

Particularly significant
though, is the way the banks
and industries have merged.
(Banking capital is now insepar-
ably interwoven with industrial
capital. The men who control
the banks are at the same time
the owners of the industrial
monopolies. Capital has become
finanece-capital — the fusion of
bank and industrial capital.
And its masters are the finan-
cial oligarchy—the “few who
rule,” the handful of multimil-
lionaire Big Shots.

Through the “holding sys-
tem,” whereby parent compan-
jes control subsidiary compan-
ies which control other subsidi-
aries, and through the system
of interlocking directorates, a
very-small group of a few doz-
en magnates of finance capital
have a stranglehold on all of
eur economic life.

This is what has developed
in every advanced, monopoly-
capitalist country.

THE BiG BUSINESS STATE

APITALIST governments
come and go, cabin-

and prime ministers
change; but the “Fifty Big
Shots” continue to exercise
their rule, “regardless”? — so
long as capitalism is in power.

What do we mean—“‘in pow-
er’?

On the basis of their private
ownership and control of the
banks and industries, the mon-
opolists control the State.

“A monopoly, once it is form-
ed and controls thousands of
millions, inevitably penetrates
into every sphere of public life
regardless of the form of gov-
ernment and all other “de-
tails’’.”_Lenin, Imperialism.)

The state, as a special ap-
paratus of power consisting of
special bodies of armed men
(standing army, police), is the
product of class division and
class rule. Under capitalist par-
liamentary democracy — bour-
geois democracy—Big Business
controls the state, “indirectly”
but nonetheless effectively. Un-
der Fascism, the domination of
the trusts is exercised openly,
directly, with unbridled violence
and terror.

The way the state machine
operates at the service of mon-
opoly was shown clearly enough
last November, when Blackwell
and Mitchell rushed the Pro-
vincials and RCMP into Wind-
sor. The way the workers can
make use of the “elbow room”

ets

for action that exists under
bourgeois democracy, was illus-
trated in the successful block-
ing of the attempt to smash
the srike.

EXPORT OF CAPITAL
ET’S return for a momént
to Sir Thomas White,
listed-above among “the boys”
(he’s 78, and lives in Toronto).
Not only does he live off the
exploitation of workers in the
Hamilton Steleo plant, and in
nine other plants in Ontario
and Quebec, and in Steleo’s sub-
Sidiary companies; he also ex-
ploits electrical power and
tramway workers in Rio de
Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Brazilian Traction, Light and
Power Co., of which Sir Thomas

s | National
STANLEY

White is a director, has as-
sets of $429 millions and con-
trols about a dozen subsidiar-
ies in that country. Its net
earnings for 1944: 31 millions.

(Note on Monopoly and Pol-
ities: Brazilian ‘Traction is
linked with the Bank of Com-
merce, and with the National
Trust Co., of which J. M. Mac-
donnell, leading Tory, is presi-
den; and G. Howard Ferguson
is likewise a director cf Bra-
zilian Traction .. .).

In search of increasing prof-
its, the monopolists export cap-
ital—invest it abroad. Canadian
capitalists have foreign invest-
ments totalling close to $2 bil-
lions. At the same time, Amer-
ican and British capital invest-
ed in Canada is in the neigh-
borhood of $6 billions.

Conducted by
Educational’ Di

This brings us
tion of monopoly.
an international, wo:
imperialism. We'll 4
aspect of it next

Lenin: Imperi
II-III; State and }
chap. I, pp. 7-15.

Engels: Origin of 7
Private Property and
chap. IX. z

QUESTION

1. What are the
“features of cap
its imperialist ¢
we have discus
now?

2. What is finane
3. What is the State
4. Is Canada an ;

FTER 350 years of

A.

World Empires

Dutch rule, three-quarters of

the total capital investments in the islands of In-

donesia belonged to the Dutch and not to the peo-

_ples of Indonesia.

“Each year 32,000,000 pounds profit flowed from

Indonesia to Holland. Sixty
port tonnage was to Holland.

-one percent of the total ex-

“According to the Huender Commission (a Dutch

government commission) in

the Indonesians was one penny per day...”

1933 the average income of
— (from

an appeal issued by the Committee of Indonesian Political

Exiles in Australia).

One and ‘one-quarter billion
people in Asia, Africa and La-
tin America pay tribute to the
Big Business empires of Britain,
France, the U.S.A, Holland and
Belgium. Half of these are in-
habitants of actual colonial
possessions of the imperialist
powers (India, Indo-China, In-

‘donesia, the African colonies) ;

the other half dwell in semi-
Colonial countries, technically
“independent” but economically
subjected to imperialist oppres-
sion (Latin America, Arabia,
Egypt, Siamwith China on the
way to emerging from this sta-
tus).

WO-THIRDS of the world’s
actual colonial peoples, num-
bering some 470 millions, are
under the rule of British im-
perialism. India, the main base
of the British colonial system,
pays an annual tribute to Eng-
lish capitalists of £150 millions
a sum greater than the total
budget of the government of
India), on an investment of £1
billion. (Figure of the Associa-
ted Chambers of Commerce of
India, 1933.)

In the British colonies of
Africa, 80 percent of the na-
tive children receive no school-
ing, two thirds of the popula-
tion suffer from malaria. A
Colonial Office report (1938)
states that “undernourishment
and disease” characterize condi-
tions in the native villages of
Northern Rhodesia. From this
colony, £12 million worth of
copper is exported annually;
dividends and royalties of Brit-
ish mine-owners total £5.5 mil-

lion; 1,700 Europeans receive
£800,000 in salaries, 17,000 Af-
rican workers receive £240,000
in wages....

British government leaders
—Attlee included—refer to the
empire as “a sacred trust.’

It’s a trust alright; but not in
the same sense that they mean.
As to its sacredness ... !

We've seen how, under free
competition among industrial
capilalists, the concentration of
capital grew, and finally led to
the formation of monopolies.

Alongside this change (which
took place in the last part of
the nineteenth century) there
occurred another. Export of
goods, which was the main fea-
ture of industrial capitalism, in
the period when it was opening
up the world market, now be-
came less important than the
export of capital.

In their feverish search for
increasing profits, the capital-
ists of England, France, Ger-
many, the U.S., began invest-
ing their capital in ever-larger
amounts in those areas of the
world where cheap raw materi-
als and the exploitation of na-
tive labor could bring in sur-
plus profits.

By 1899, the income of Brit-
ish capitalists from foreign in-
vestments reached £100 million,
while their income from foreign
trade was a mere £18 million.

In 1929, the figures were £378
million and £51 million; those
for the U.S., £241 million, re
spectively.

Hand in hand with
port of capital went the
up of the territories
globe among the hs
rich, imperialist gia ts.
11 percent of Afri
by the colonial empir
90 percent was in th ir

italist powers, and in
ternational monopolie
cartels extend their
world-capitalist econo:

Capitalism develops
spasmodically, in diff
dustries and in differ
tries. England, -by ge
head start, was able to
biggest colonial em
other capitalist countr
gan to catch up, and t#
lenge her monopoly
For example, this is whe }
pened to industrial prot |
in the leading countries
16-year periods in per.
inerease or decrease:

1897-1913

Great Britain +35
U.S.A. , 1
France + 59
Germany =
-As a result of the
velopment, there to

forcible attempts to
the world according +
—world wars— ‘the
which broke out in 1!

Imperialism means
the violent oppression
less exploitation of thi
peoples, who form
population of the
Big Business emp
means not only th
power of monopoly
vanced countries of ¢
imperialism means po
action and a ceaseless
wards war, on a scale
destructiveness nevel
known to mankind.

The struggle against
alism is the common +
the working class and
generally within the
countries and in the
peasant lands.

FRIDAY, FEBRUAR