W. G Murrin

im. G. Murrin;—president, B.C. Power Corporation Ltd.; president, B.C. Electric Ry.
>. Ltd.; Director—Dominion Bridge Co., Ltd.; London and Western Trusts Co.
© -d.; Mutual Life Assurance Co. of Canada Ltd.: Bank of Montreal; Union Steam-
fips Co.; Montreal Life Insurance Co.; On the lighter side, Mr. Murrin is also a
ember of—Vancouver Little Theatre Assoc.; Vancouver Art Gallery; Vancouver
Nmphony, and plays golf in his spare time as president of the posh Shaughnessy
Vights Golf Club. (From “Who’s Who,” 1945.)

ho Controls The B.C. Electric?

N THE March 29th issue of the Pacific Tribune, the

first of a series (Lhe Octopus) appeared, prepared
by the Trade Union Research Bureau of Vancouver. It was
a job well done and widely appreciated by large numbers
of people, who are manifesting a keen interest in the
monopoly control of the natural and physical resources
of British Columbia. “Give us more of The Octopus,” they
Say, it helps the common people to understand who owns

British Columbia.

The first “Octopus” dealt
entirely with the lumber mon-
oepoly, showing the domination
of the gigantic MacMillan con-
cern in B.C. logging and tim-
ber products.

“@ctopus” No. 2 (which is
also tied in with the- logging
octopus through interlocking di-
rectorates — CPR, International
Nickel C€o., ete—is a gigantic
monopoly in its “own right,”
with its tentacles sunk deep in
B.C. power resources, steel, the
packing trust, finance, etc., and
even penetrating, through its
Royal Bank connections, into
Brazilian Traction. The Braz-
ilian peon, like the British
Columbian, must pay his per
diem to the voracious stomach
of the B.C. power octopus.

Apologists' for the monopoly
octopus are loud in its defense.
“Private enterprise,” they
chant, with monotonous regu-
larity, ‘must be preserved.”
Private enterprise, indeed ?
Lenin had something to. say
ef private enterprise, which
still applies in our day.

“Monopoly is the direct op-
posite of free competition; but
we have seen the latter being
transformed into monopoly be-
fore our eyes, creating large-
seale production and squeezing
eut small-scale production—fi-

JESBITT & THOMPSON J. W. WOODYATT G. TF. Ww. G. MURRIN

CUNNINGHAM

Gordon & Belyea
Bank of Montreal

MacKinnon Struc-
tural Steel Co. Ltd.

lso directers of:

: Cunningham Drugs
-Ower Corpn. of Canada -

M. W. WiLSON

Royal Bank of Canada
Dom. Engineering Works
Can. General Electric

. Keotenay Power Co.
,orthern B.C. Power

i creigm Power Securities
vuthern Canada Power Co- =
P anada Nor. Power Corpn.
f orthern Qntaric Power Co.
Pan. Wire & Cable Co. Ltd.
(anadian Oil Companies Ltd.

B.C. POWER CORPORATION, LIVITED

B.C. Electric Railway
2 National Utilities Corporation
Vancouver & Fraser Valley & Southern Rly.
Columbia Estate Company
Victoria Electric Co.
B.C. Motor Transportation

BH. GUNDY

}

fe assey Harris
|ominion Steel & Coal
CC. Packers

HH. McDONALD Vancouver Power

Vancouver Island Power
Western Power Company of Canada

.. W. ARNOTT = :
Bridge River Power Co.

_'. ©. MAINWARING

EH. GRAUER Burrard Power
, tT. GOWARD

INGLEDOW

-IFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE i1

Can. Pacific Railway
Gon. Mining and Smelting

S. GODIN, JR.

Gan. Light and Power
Claude Neon Gen.
Advertising Ltd.

HE, LL. Ruddy Ltd.
JOHN DAVIDSON

Brazilian Traction
Canadian Western
Lumber Co. Ltd.

J. L. TRUMBULL

J. W. SPENCER

A. P. HOLT

lligh Prices —minus Low Wages =equals Big Profits

ELECTRIC RATES ANNUAL WAGES Wear Revenue Net Profit* Percent
Baverage Cost Per KWH Motormen, Conductors, 1943 (000s)
5 to Bomestic Consumers 1939 — $15,396 $5298) pe eee es 34
1 fe Montreal © = $2145 1940 — 16,911 G15 37
OD ae st ae 1941 — 18,702 Cele ee eee 36
ee ee 2

NitysS: ugks ie eS 1.00 IUDED NED 333322: 1942 — 21,652 SOV Ge go ee Ie 38
ee ee 1861 Boe a aay Sree See se

Reread ee os bot ee 2.93 VARCOUVER 1943 23,83 2
Wannipe 1729 1944 — 25,207 6302 25

*Before Reduction of Income Tax

8

nally leading to such a con-
centration of production and
capital that monopoly has been
and is the result; cartels, syn-
dicates and trusts, and, merg-
ing with them, the capital of
a dozen or so banks, manipu-
lating; thousands of millions.”

Free enterprise? The power
octopus exists for the express
Purpose of seeing that there
will be no free enterprise
which does not correspond to
the interests of the octopus.

And as Lenin succinctly puts
it: “Monopoly is the transition
from capitalism to a higher
order’’—the imperialist system,
which perpetuates itself upon
exploitation and fascist meth-
ods of class-rule. Thus in the
monopoly octopus, the people
face a powerful industrial and
financial oligarchy, which has
only one watchword, one aim—
the highest prices, low wages,
and big profits.

If The People
Owned The

| Power!

A system of public owner-

Ship of the power resources of ~

British Columbia would mean
that within a period of ten
years the people could have
(a) one million h-p. of hydro-
electric energy available for
sale at rates varying from $10
to $25 a hp. per year. It is
estimated by competent au-
thorities that this would give
the province a revenue of ap-
proximately $10,000,000 per
year.

(b) The development of our
power resources under public
ownership would make possible
the establishment of a high-
quality iron and steel industry
oh 2 sound economic basis.
Such an industry is impossible
under the “private enterprise”
grasping policies of the power
octopus.

(c) With power developed
under public ownership, B.C.
could have an aluminum in=

- dustry with an annual capacity

of 100,000 tons.

(d) The pulp industry of
B.C. at present no small item,
could be doubled with the de-
velopment of our power re-
sources. AS it is, the lack of
power is already curtailing
pulp production.

(e) A whole flock of new
metal and chemical industries
could be established in B.C.
were power available at other
than monopoly prices and wil-
ful curtailment; copper-refin-
ing; zine refining; chemicals;
magnesium, antimony -and
other metals could be pro-
cessed. But the “Octopus” says
“no.” Not in just that way
of course such crudeness
would expose the power rack-
ett, but in powerful wire-pull-
ing behind the scenes, plus an
avalanche of sauve propagan-
da, intended to lead the people
to believe that the octopus is
God’s gift to a harassed hu-
manity.

ERIDAY, APRIL 19, 1946