$50 Million For A Bottle Of Rum The Island Coal Octopus - From Material Compiled By Trade Union Research qT HE HISTORY of coal mining en Wancouver Island is a long saga of bitter exploitation and repression: extreme poverty and hardship for the miners and their families and extreme riches for the coal barons. The coal octopus in British Columbia made an auspicious start in 1850 with a capital investment of one bottle of HBC rum. The following outline of the “evolution” of the Canad- ian Collieries, prepared by the Trade Union Research Bur- eau, should be of value to the coal miners in their struggle for wage increases and against the vicious inflation, re- sulting from the lifting of price controls, which is cutting their dollar in half, while the Canadian Colleries demand more and more “subsidies” from the government ... sub- sidies which began in 1850 and have continued ever since. HEiconomists are fond of saying that “saving” or “waiting” is the source of capital (they used to call it “abstinence,” until the biting sarcasm of Karl Marx made them abandon this term); and that profits are necessary to reward capitalists for the sacrifice involyed in saving their excess millions instead of spending them ‘on ice-cream and lollipops. This historical review illustrates the amount of “sacrifice” involved in “saving” the money invested in the Vancouver Island ~coal industry, and in the ether interests of its principal owners. This is not to suggest that there was no sacrifice involved in creating the great coal industry. ‘The Indians who were digging coal for 4 shillings a ton in 1849 sacrificed plenty. So did the Chinese miners getting 75 cents a ton fifty years later.. And the white miners who got $3.00 a day. The struggles of these workers to gain a decent livelihood was a long and bitter one. In 1877, Robert Dunsmuir brought scabs from San Francisco; HM.S. Rocket from Eisquimait; and the militia from Victoria to evict the miners from their homes. In 1890 he called in the militia again. In 1891 he had i5 of his employees arrested and read the Riot Act to the rest of them, In 1902 he forced the entire community of Extension to move to Ladysmith, to get the men away from the bad influence of the -union at Nanaimo. : Later struggles included: 1903 Strike and Lockout over union recognition. 1905 Strike to enforce the new 8-hour Iaw.- 1912-14 Strike lasting two years for recognition of UMWA; higher wages and other conditions. No union was ever recognized by Robert Dunsmuir or his son James. In fact, collective bargaining in the Vancouver Island col- lieries became a fact only a few years prior to World War Ii. For their theft of the public domain, all sorts of honors were heaped on the Dunsmuirs. Apart entirely from huge profits, year after year, there were the royalties for timber rights on the E. and N. Land Grant, and quick profits from the sale of watered stock: to the public. For their interest in the E. & N. Railway they got a seat on the CPR. Board of Directors. And Jimmy got to be Lieutenant Governor. ; Old H.B.C. Fort at Nanaimo, B.C., erected to “protect” the H.B.C. “empire-builders.” PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 10 The Dunsmuir’s have gone and + the collieries are now in other hands. Their story remains a elassic of capitalist enterprise: the accumulation of capital, not through “saying,” “waiting” or even “risk’—but through: graft, ~ watered stock, and the explota- tion of human labor. Im 1849 at Wort Rupert, a doughty group of the “gentle men adventurers of England” of the Mudson’s Bay Go., seized a small coal mine which the In- dians had developed. The In- dians, as befits all decent hu- mans, whose homes and prop- erty are plundered, decided to fight. They staged a war dance with human heads mounted on stakes, but the “Gentlemen Ad- venturers,” haying superiority in technique, won the battle, and later abandoned the mine. Not profitable enough. . @ In 1850 the “Gentlemen Adventurers” . . . pioneers of “private enterprise,” bought the first coal mine in Nanaimo from the Indian Chief, for exactly one bottle of rum. When the Chief sob- ered up he found his people plenty mad at being skin- ned, not for. a skin, as the “Gentlemen Adventurers’ ” motto goes, but for a coal mine. They also decided to fight. The WHudson’s Bay mounted a flock of cannon around the mine to “protect” it from its original owners. In 1861 the Wancouwer Goal Mining and Land Go. bought the mine from the H.B. Co. for $200,000, and sold it to the pub- lic in the form of stocks and bonds for $500,000, promising 20 percent dividends. See how the value of that one bottle of rum increases when the fine art of “nrivate enterprise” is properly applied ? In 1869 Robert Dunsmuir, a worthy scion of the gentle- men adventurers, coming from the Scottish wing of the adventurers, was grant- ed 1,000 acres of land by the government in the Na- Naimo-Wellington area. He opened the Wellington mine. In 1884, Sir John A. Mc- Donald, the father of the “Fathers of Confederation,” granted to the Dunsmuir family 1,900,000 acres of “H. R. PLOMMER, Gen. Mer. Canadian Collieries (Dunsmuir) coal-bearing land and $750,- 000 in cold cash to build 78 miles of the H&N Railway. Timber rights on E&N land grants have brought $15,- 000,000 in royalties to date, to say nothing of the fabu- lous profits that have been taken from coal. And ail from the small beginning of one bottle of HBC rum?) to which, in our superior wis- dom, we now add a penalty upon any Indian for drink- ing! In 1903 the Western Fuel Go. (California) bought out the Van- couver Coal Mining and Land Co. -Im 1924 a _- reorganization takes place and the Western Fuel Corporation of Canada comes imto being, takes over the properties, and sells shares and bonds to the tune of $6,000,000. In 1910 the Dunsmuir Mines, then valued at $4,- 199,984 were sold to the Canadian Colleries muir Ltd.), for $11,000,000. New company’s stocks and ie ilaea Dunsmuir, British Columbia, and son (Hon.) James ex-Lt.-Gov. of of Robert Dunsmuir, early “pioneer” of Island coal at Wellington (1869) and di- rect beneficiary of the HBC “rum” deal. Both father and Son were vigorously anti- union and strong believers in the cult that the only way to deal with unions was to Smash them. (Duns- bonds were sold to the pub- lic for $25,000,000. Im 1928 the coal octopus is now in a position to establish complete supremacy in the em- pire of Island coal. Ganadian Colleries (Dunsmuir Ltd.) buys Western Fuel. Corp. for $3,730,- 000, thus acquiring a monopoly of the entire Vancouver Island Coal mining industry. Subsidi- aries of this coal octopus, which got its start in ‘life by depriv- ing the Indian people of their property for a bottle of rum, are Wancouver Island Coal Go.; Wellex Securities Ltd.; Wester Fuel Corp. of Canada Ltd.; Mc- Leod River Hard Goal Go. Ltd,, Wellington Collery Railway Co. The private enterpren- heurs who have prospered on the splendid deal of their ilustrious “pioneers” in gyp- Ping an Indian chief out of a coal mine for a bottle of Tum, plus their ability to ex- ploit the miners—with per- haps a little more finesse in a parrallel objective, are as follows: Directors of Can- adian Collieries: — H. R Plommer, general maneger; J. A. Boyd, president: R. W. Steele, Arthur Cross, CG. G. Cockshutt, George Kidd, He Ss. Gausby and Sve Isaacson. Add up the totals in the chronological “deals” in the evolution of the Wancouver Island coal octopus, and the staggering figure of $50,000,- 000, to say nothing of the millions paid out in divi- dends, and then call to mind that famous poem of La- bouchere’s, quoted by “Old Bil” in his “Builders of British Columbia: _ “Where is the flag of England? Go sail come. where rich galleons With shoddy and “loaded” cof- tons : And beer and bibles and rum. Go too, wkere brute force has triumphed, And hypocrasy makes its lair; And your question will find its answer— g For the flag there.” FRIDAY, MAY 17, 1946 of England is j :