“Kor ourselves, rest as-
sured, we are determined
mever te submit to the in-
tended ministerial - usurpa-
tion—never to live with the
world’s finger of derision
pointed at as a people who,
more ignorant than slaves
that are bought and sold,
permitted their birthright to
be wrested from them. . -”
(Louis Joseph Papineau,
leader of 1837 rebellion

OR years reactionary financial interests and racist groups

as well as

professional

hate-mongers have been

seeking to divide Canada .on the issue of French-English
Unity. Their propaganda is sometimes crude, sometimes

subtle. Too often
speaking -worker away from

The solution to this grave
problem lies in an understand-
ing of the economic history of
French Canada—a knowledge of-
fered within the pages of Stan-
ley Ryerson’s objective
of Quebec in his books 1837 and
French Canada.

However, the picture of Que
bec’s social and economic role
within the past decade can help
give us the key to this preblem.
First of all, let us look at
French Canada in the period
immediately prior to and early
in World War It.

Population and Distribution
of French Canadians

In 1941, the latest year for
which authentic figures are
available 3% million people or
approximately 30 percent of the
entire population of Canada was
French Canadian—2%, million
of them lived in Quebec along
with % million English speak-
ing Canadians. The high inci-
dence of French Canadians in
Quebec is emphasized when it
is considered that in 1941 there
were 30,000 more people of Brit-
ish origin in Vancouver than in
Montreal.

This so-called minority group
of French Canadians represent
approximately one person out of
every three throughout Canada
and five out of every six in the
Province of Quebec. With only
56 percent of the population of
Canada having English as the
mother tongue it is clear that
moe group has the right to refer
#o another as a “minority.” In-
deed, if we break down the term
“British” into English, Scotch
ahd Irish, we find that Canada
is made up exclusively of min-
ority groups,

In 1942, according to the Do-
Minion *Bureau of Statistics
these Quebec workers were prin-
cipally engaged in the following
industries: 3

Industry % Net Walue of
Quebec Production
Manufacturing .........- 54.0
Apriculture, 22.22... -5 -..- 14.0
IMO MSGR © Saggsassego55555 10.0
INET F Sp oss BAe oon Soo sso 8.5

Wages in Quebec Compared
With Rest of Canada
_ In the late 1930's and even
today it is not uncommon to
read ads in United States and
Canadian newspapers urging in-
dustry to move to Quebec where
such advantages as ‘cheap la-
bor” and “contented -workers’’
are offered them. The Financial
Post of February 16, 1946, car-
ries a full page advertisement
Stressing “opportunity” for in-
vestment in Quebec. The copy
is clever—designed to appeal to
big business. But underneath
the smooth phrasing is a vi-
eious undercurrent. Here, in
part, is how the ad reads:
“This oldest and largest
province of Canada moves
along its calm way undis-

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE

it succeeds

study -

in turning the English-
his French-Canadian brother.

turbed* by the storms of
troubled thoughts which are

agitating other parts of the ~

world. The people of Quebec
believe in the sober principles
which stand for progress
within well-established order,
for progress not of an ephe-
meral order but a progress
based on sound and lasting
rules. This spells in the prac-
tical things of every day life
respect for honest investment,
encouragement to private in-
itiative ...

Nowhere else in the world
will honest capital find a bet-
ter haven than in Quebec, nor
opportunity for reasonable re-
turn and adequate protection

in its honest task of serving
man. ...
é

Add to the advantages enum-

erated the primary ~ factor

—the sanity of the people and
their desire for progress in
order.” .

The Fellowship for a Chris-
tian Social Order cites the Ban-
que Canadienne Nationale—with
65 branches in Montreal which
in 1942 paid tellers with 10
years service an average of
$17.50 per week for a 50 to 60
hour week. In 1944 a Montreal
bank manager was arrested for
stealing a fev; hundred dollars
from his bank. At the trial it
was revealed that his salary was
$13.00 a week! No wonder he
stole! French school teachers in
1937 were paid as low as $135.00
@ year. Now, their minimum is
$400 a year. :

A comparison of Vancouver
and Montreal wage rates re-
veal significant differences. Here,
according to the 1945 Canada
Year Book are wages paid the
various proupings in these two

cities.

(Wages on an hourly basis
for Montreal and Vancouver.)

TABLE A

1843 Minimum Wages Paid
Occupation Mont. Wanc’r
Bricklayers .......- 1.05 1.34
Painters so -- ee .85 -97
Blacksmiths. ....... -65 1.00
Moulders .......... -69 1.00
Linemen (elec, rlwy) .68 1.06
Unskilled
factory labor ..... 35 .49
Aug. 15, 1944, Male Farm Help

Quebec, 2.73 per day with board
B.G., 3.53 per day with board.

TABLE B

Minimum Weekly Rates for Hx-
perienced Workers, Dec., 1944
(male and female)

Rate Per Hour

Ocupation Mont. Vane’r
MaACtOViIeS. = =o eee ale¢ 29
ibybbbekebatesy eS oso Ss 19 31
Hotel, Restaurant 20 29
SHOPS! S65 ae eee 17 27
QPicess] sae eee 25) 31

Wot only are there serious

wage differences between Que-

bec and British Columbia, but

as well between Qubeec and her
neighbor Ontario. Compare Que-

10

bec and Ontario in the matter
of annual earnings:

Average Earnings, June 1940-741

Que. Ont.

Meer eto eiceonnioes $922 $1119

Women =. 22.5... 429 OTT
These figures ,indicate that

male wage earners in . Ontario
received 21 percent more than
those in Quebec; and that On-
tario female wage earners re-
ceived 34 percent more than ‘her

Quebec counterpart, But the
cost of living increase in Que-
bec is no less than that of

Ontario. It costs as much for
a worker to live in Quebec as
in Ontario or any other prov-
ince. Is it surprising then, that
Hrench Canadians resent their
position of. enforced inferiority?
Any thinking person would! No
wonder then, that the French
Canadians flocked in their tens
of thousands into the trade
unions during the past few
years. No wonder then, that to-
Gay in textiles, manufacturing,
rubber and industry generally,
they are fighting a determined
battle to gain for themselves
equality with their fellow work-
ers in Ontario so that together
with workers throughout CGan-
ada they may progress towards
a Standard of livine sufficient to
provide the worker and his fam-
ily with more than* just a bare
existence.

Weekly Hours Worked
In Quebec
The Canada Year Book shows
that in 1942 in Quebec, during
the Week of Highest Employ-
ment, out of a total of 275,000
male wage earners— :
67,000 or 243 percent worked
56 to 64 hours.

33,000 or 12.0 percent worked
65 hours or over.
In British Columbia during

that same week:

2.4 percent worked 56 to 64
hours.

1.2 .percent worked 65 hours
or more.

This means that for every
1000 workers in B.C. and Que-
bee:

24 in B.C. worked a’ 56 to 64
hour week.

243 in Quebec worked a 56 to
64 hour week.

12 in B.C. worked a 65 or more
hour work week.

120 in Quebec worked a 65 or
more hour work week.

Housing in Quebec

The housing Census of Gan-
ada in 1941 had some startling
figures to show with regard to
housing in Quebec Province.
Here are some comparisons be-
tween the City of Vancouver
and the capital of the Province
of Quebec.

% of Womes, Vane’r Mont.

No bathing facilities 6 32
INO radio 423274 e5 5. 8 10
No telephone ....+.. 23 46

In Quebec city every third
house has no bathtub or shower.
In Vancouver, one home in 16
has no bathtub or shower. The
people of Quebec want baths as
much as we!

What About
Mademoisele From
Trois Rivyieres ?

Three Rivers is a typical Que-
bec town on the St. Lawrence
River between Montreal and
Quebec. It is one of the centres
ef Quebec’s vast Textile Indus-
try which was investigated by a
Royal Commission set up by
the Canadian Government in
1938. This commission was forc-
ed to condemn the Quebec wage
Situation in forthright fashion.
They cite two textile companies
in Quebec as having “particu-

Mademoiselle From Trois
Rivieres

By Bert Marcuse and Emil Bjarnason

Trade Union Research Bureau, Vancouver

larly bad records.’”? One of these,
controlled by a United States
company is the largest of the
broad silk mills. Records show
that this particular company,
which provided employment for
almost an entire town. in Quebec
in 1936 paid 6.8 percent of their
male employees and 10.4 per-
cent of the female employees

less than 12% cents an hour. In -

a two-week pay period in Feb-
ruary, 1936, one quarter of all
the female workers earned less
than $6.00 per week. In the
other company referred to by
the Royal Commission. 42.1 per-
cent of all the male employees
earned less than 12%2 cents per

hour. Since then, thanks to a
determined fight by organized
labor, wages have risen, but

conditions are still deplorable.

The Effect, of Such Condi-
tions Upon Her Family
It will be obvious to all that
Such conditions of economic ex-
Ploitation and such low stand-
ards of living arising therefrom
are not calculated to make the
People of Quebec happy about
their inferior economic position.
§ The shocking infant mortality
death rate, for example, stems
from such an economic enyir-
onment. In Mademoiselle
Trois Riviere’s home, her moth-
er may have had, say ten chil-
dren between 1929 and 1940. The
infant mortality rate in Three
Rivers during those years would
have condemned two of these
children to déath before the age
of one. Between 1931 and 1935
in Three Rivers, of every ten
ehildren born, two died before
the age of one, in Wancouver
during those same years, for
every sixty that were born, two
died before the age of one. The
situation has improved by 1943
but even then in the City of
Quebec there were i120 deaths
under the age of one, per 1000
live births compared to 30 per
1000 in Vancouver. There is
nothing peculiar about the clim-
ate or people of Quebec that
causeS so many infant deaths.
The answer can be found right
in the City of Montreal itself—
and every progressive Knows the
answer. In Outremont. a com-
fortable middle class suburb of
Montreal the 1943 death rates
for infants under one “year of

age was 13 per 1000 live births;

aa

from.

in Dachine, a working class,
slum-ridden suburb of Montreal,

“just five miles away from Out-

remont the rate was 52 per
1000—four times as high! So
clearly, low incomes mean high
death rates. - ;
In 1936 according to the Gan-
ada Year Book the Infant Mor-
tality rate per 1000 live births
in 58 cities throughout the world
showed the three worst as:

City infant Mortality
= Per 1000
Bombay, India ............. 250
Three Rivers, Que. He5o tS
Madras, ,India .........-.. 218
Malnutrition, poverty and ig-

norance killed these children, Is
it any wonder that the people
of French Canada are some-
times bitter? A French Canad-
jan mother in Three Fivers
wants her child aS much as ar
English Canadian mother does
in Vancouver. oe

Do You Speak Englsih,
Mademoiselle?

How often one hears some
racial chauvinist say, “Well, we
ought to make those French
people speak Einglish—then they
would become Canadians!”

The truth is that most French
Canadians do speak English —
most HEinglish-Canadians do not
speak French.

Out of every 27 Canadians
whose native tongue is English

only one speaks Einglish and
French. :
Out of every 27 CGanadians

whose native tongue is Hrenech,
15 speak Hinglish and French.

These figures may be verified
by reference to Page 124 of the
Canada Year Book for 1945. in
the Province of Quebec where
about 50 percent of the French
Canadians are bilingual, less
than ten percent of the English
Canadians are bilingual.

The above mentioned chauvin-
ists seem to forget that Canada
has two official languages, Eng-
lish and French.

Is Madamoiselle
Anti-Semitic 2

The answer is “No.” But
there are anti-Semites in Que-
bec. Leaders of Fascist and
Corporatist groups such as the
Order of Jacques Cartier, Blot

Populaire, LL.’ Union Gorpora-
tive, etc., must depend upon
rabble-rousing tactics to put

(Continued on Page 11)
See TROIS ERIVIERES

ie

-- no bathtubs .. no radios . . no phones”

FRIDAY, JUNE 28, 1946