Federal Minister of Justice St. Laurent said that the RCMP were in the CSU strike
area to guard the Welland Canal, but the above picture shows over 200 Ontario pro-
vincial , and federal police escorting a ship along the canal loaded with scabs. Cana-
dian taxpayers do not feel happy at being called upon to pay for this brand of “pro-
‘tection’ in the interests of big business. In spite of heavy ‘escort and terror, the CSU
won its strike for an 8-hour day.

lisley’s budget ‘gift’ to workers
cover for big monopoly handout

e

By ROBERT LAXER

OTTAWA.—“A handout of 300 millions to the big monopolies—a few crumbs to the
people.” This is how one observer described the latest federal budget. A single person
is to be exempted from income tax up to $750 imstead of $1200. This hardly goes a
third of the way towards meeting the modest demands of the whole labor movement.

Wrecking of U.S. price control
will have grave effect in Canada

Since the death of OPA (organization of price administration) last week at the hands
of the political spokesmen for American big busimess, prices have skyrocketed in a num-
ber of basic commodities. Food and rents shot upwards immediately QPA was pronouned

“A sop to cover the exemptions
for big business,” more than one
trade unionist has pointed out.

Mere is what the big shots get.
First, corporation tax goes down
from 40 to 30 percent. No HEin-
stien is needea here to discover
a $60 million dish of gravy to
the boys of Bay and St James
streets.

But there’s more to it than
that. A quick glance at Fin-
anee Minister Dsley’s forecast
for the coming year will reveal
an even juicier morsel for the
corporations which own most of
€anada’s wealth. No Iess than
150 millions are lopped off ex- —
cess profits tax for 194647. This
alone is enough to cover a 30-
cent hourly raise in wages for
almost half a million workers.

Then all “partnerships and sole
proprietorships” are to be entir-
ely exempt from excess profits
tax. Wot bad for the millionaire
families who run their business
this way-

But that isn’t all. A rapid cal-
culation based on Ilsley’s figures
will prove that the worthy min-
ister “of finance expects gross iIn-
come for the corporations to rise
by some $100. So the big shots
will be getting well over 300 miul-
lions more next year according
to the admissions of the govern-
ment.

And now back to the people.
For them the load of sales, cus-
toms, excise, cigarette, gasoline
and a host of other taxes remain.
In fact married women are to be
penalized for working. Previous
exemptions for them are to be
dropped. Glearly an added at-
tempt to drive them out of in-
dustry. _

Family allowance benefits are
obviously cut for those with in-
comes over $1500, because only
$100 exemption for a child is al-
lowed instead of the $300 for de-
pendents over 16.

In a statement, Ilsley said, “We
must revise our wartime tax sys-
tem to preserve essential fairness
and distribution of the burden.”
He added that this is how we
Will “avoid any serious deterrent
to hard work and efficiency.” You
see the “burden” of the war is to
be lifted from the corporations
who have made more money than

CSU wins wage increases
on Park line tankers

CSU headquarters at Toronto report that the swage dis-
pute with Park Steamship tankers has been settled. Wage
and overtime rates have been approved by the National Wat

Labor Board.

Wages have been made retro-
active to August 1945 and over-
time retroactive to Nov. 1945.
This represents a major gain for
the GSU men on tanker service.

Pacific Coast CSU negotiations
en wages and hours May open
this week in Wancouver. These
will cover deepsea shipping ‘only.

The CSU victory in the east in
winning an 8hour day, plus the
gains of US. seamen in recent

negotiations has given the strug—

gle for a shorter working day,
overtime pay, ‘and numerous
ether working improvements a

big impetus on the west coast.

Tribal spokesmen demand
a new deal for Indians

Last week a large delegation of native Indians, reinforced
by tribal representatives from the U.S. visited Ottawa to
place their grievances before a joint Senate-Commons com-

mittee.

Andy Pauli, Squamish Indian
leader from B.C. told the parlia-
mentary committee a few truths
about the deplorable social and
economic condition of the Canad-
ian Indians. Months ago the In-
dian people, through their tribal
spokesman, had demanded a
Royal Commission with Indian
representation to study the In-
dian Act ‘and bring it into line
with modern conditions. They got
neither.

“The Indian Act,’ said Paull,
‘is the most bureaucratic and
dictatorial system ever imposed
on any people.” Paull demanded
that the Indians be exempted
from taxation until their final
status is determined. During the
war years the responsibilities of
full citizenship were forced upon
the _Indian people taxation,
military service, etc., but their

treatment at the hands of the

government continued to be that
of pariahs.

During the war years some
6,000 Indians served in the armed
forces, and thousands were com-
pelled to pay income and other
taxes. In scores of reservations
across Canada the government al-
lowance for senior citizens of In-
dian extraction was $400 ner
month, -—Mducation of Indian chil-
dren has been totally neglected
or left to the uncertainties of
elerical supervision.

TOVAVQUOONEN EUAN

For A Successful Jubilee
Picnic, Sell Your Tickets

00000000000

This is no short term policy
the minister admits. “It will be
my pleasant duty to announce
that the reductions in taxes on
personal and corporate incomes
are based on the desire to in-
crease immediately, the incen-
tive to produce.” in other. words,
big business may go on strike if
it doesn’t get a bigger slice of
what labor produces. But labor’s
wages are still officially frozen
because it is apparently the cou-
pon clippers and not the workers
who have anything to do with
“hard work and efficiency”

disley reminds us that 436 mil-
lions are now paid out annually
in interest on Canada’s $13 bil-
lion debt Weedless to say, most
of this money goes to the same
monopolists who are gettme this
huge gift from the government
of at least $300 millions.

The $15 per capita grant to
these provinces which accept the
federal governments terms is
nothing but a financial “deal.” It
brings nothing to the people in
the way of health insurance, high-
er old age pensions, maternity
benefits, a federal iabor code,
federal grants to education. This
was what Canadians hoped for
in the Dominion-Provinciai Con-
ference. What they got imstead
was a “horse-trader’s agreement.”

Both labor congresses pre-
sented a plan to ‘tthe govern-
ment last April. Im their main
essentials they agreed on the
need to remove some of the
burden from the people and to
place it where it belongs. The
latest budget does exactly the
opposite,

In the seamen’s, woodworkers’
and now the textile, rubber, and
steel unions, iabor has shown
that it is prepared to battle for
its just demands. Prime Minister
King’s “walking out’ on a CCL
delegation last -April has not
frightened the trade union Move—
ment. Trade Unions still have
the opportunity, it is pointed out,
to let the government and the
MP’s know what they think of
this millionaire’s budget. Wires,
letters, resolutions, can still have
a powerful effect on the debate
and proceedings on Parliament

Hill!

ever and distributed “fairly” on-
to the backs of the people.
PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 3

Im some instances it is reported that real estate sharks clapped on rent increases

as high as five hundred percent. Pood also hit a new high in many large centres. In-

dead.

flation spread its wings and
soared up. Pay envelopes, veter-
ans egratuities, farm and other
moderate incomeS “were almost
chopped im half by immediate
rising living costs.

Some states were considering

emergency measures to halt the
devastating process by  establish-
ing state price controls in place
of the defunct OPA until Wash-
ingtor evolved other plans Gf
any?) te halt the price spiral.
Prime Minister King assured
the House in a 400-word state-
ment that “Canada intends to re-
tain her price, rent, and ration-
ing controls, regardless of US.
action in abandoning similar reg-

ulations in that country . ... De-
velopments affecting prices in
other countries,” said Mr. King,

“narticularly in the United States,
are of course not without their
affect upon Canada.”

Mr. King has already released
price controls upon a whole num-
ber of basic commodities; the
eeiling is still there, in principle,
but it has been lifted to an ex-
tent which has permitted big
business in Canada to effectively

BRITISH MOINERS WIN
EBIVE-DAY WEEK
- LONDON.—British miners will
work five days instead of six when
the government fakes over opera-
tion of the coal mines, Minister
of Fuel Emmanuel Shinwell an-
nounced this week. The govern-
ment rejected a mine union de-
mand that the present one week
vacation with pay be doubled.
Britain’s mines will be taken
over by the government on Jan.
1, 1947, if, as expected, the national-
jzation bill is passed by Parliament
in July. An Arbitration ‘Tribunal
is now assessing the amount of
compensation to be paid to coal
owners.

raid the living standards of the
Canadian people, and to roll up
a few more millions in profits on

the peoples’? milk, meat, clothing,
furniture, lumber, etc.

Regardless of Mr. King’s “as-
surances, inflation in the U.S.
will have an immediate and dis-
astrous effect upon Canadian
economy. Some sections of the

daily press, operating on the pre-
mise that “itS an ill wind that
doesn’t blow some good,’ see in
the U.S. inflation spiral a growth
ef tourist traffic to Canada?
They seem to forget thot those
who profit by depressing the
worker’s dollar have the means
to clip it this side of the border

as well. German inflation in the
years immediately following world
war one cut across all capitalist

frontiers and precipitated the
hungry “30’s in Canada and else—
where.

The few days’ experiment with
the lid off in the U.S. is enough
to show what happens when the
financial royalists are turned
loose on the people. It is an
experience which should serve +o
mobilize the Canadian people to
demand of Mr. King something
more than pious ‘assurances’;
that “something more” is a
elamping on tight of all price
ceilings, and releasing wage ceil-

ings .to correspond ~with~ prices.

yd

coer

Witt “4

“Operator—get me Humphrey Mitchell quick, our excess
profits tax reductions are being threatened.”

ERIDAY, JULY 5, 1946