t=

} Saskatchewan housewives urge
CCF gov't pay milk subsidy cost

“government to restore the

Saskatoon

Friday in connection with the recent boost in the
ping of the producer subsidy by the Federal

A joint brief presented by the
Regina and Moose Jaw dele
gates pointed out the place that
milk occupies! in the daily diet,
particularly of children, and the
quantity the family must con-
sume to maintain it in health.
Zt called upon the provincial
government to assume responsi-
bility for payment of the sub-
sidy temporarily until Such
time as a campaign coulq be
developed to bring increased
pressure to bear on~the Federal
sub-
sidy. The brief also asked that
the govrenment consider the
taling over of milk distribution
as a public utility, with a view
to eliminating wasteful compe-
ition and effecting a saving to
the consumer.

Ignoring the arguments of the
delegates that milk is a special
category and the curtailment. of
its consumption will jeopardize
the health of thousands of chil
dren in the province, the govern-
ment refused to take responsibil-

“ity for the subsidy on the sround

that it would establish a prece-
dent that would place the goy-
ernment in a vulnerable position
with regard to producers of other
commodities who would immedi-
ately demand subsidies for their
products.

This is a mere sidetracking of
the issue and will not satisfy
housewives .who feel that the
health of the people should be
ene of the first concerns of the
government.

Fhe only concession made by
the government was that it would
support a delegation to Ottawa
sheul@ the Housewives’ associa-
tions organize one, and that a
member of the provincial cab-|
inet would accompany, such a
delegation to Ottawa.

By FLORENCE THEODORE

gation of housewives from the Housewives’ Consumer Asso-

and_ Moose. Jaw, waited on the provincial government last

price of
government.

milk occasioned by the drep-

It is possible that the idea of
a national delegation, or at least
a delegation from the Western
Provinces going to Ottawa on the
milk question and other matters
will find favor with the organiza-
tions represented on the delega-

tion to. the provincial govern-

ment. While such a move is
doubtless important, pressure on
the provincial government should
be continued to have them ab-
sorb the subsidy pending action
by the federal government, so
that there may be no drop in the
consumption of this vital and
health-giving commodity—milk.

Farmers end ‘non-delivery’ strike
as Ottawa promises parity

By WILLIAM. TOUMI

prices

EDMONTON—The 29-day non-delivery strike of 50,000 Alberta and Saskatchewan
farmers terminated last Friday. A statement issued by President Carl Stimpfle of the Al-
berta Farmers’ Union declared that the non-delivery strike “has been suspended for an

indefinite period, effective midnight Sunday,

While this termingtion order
was being issued, a powerful farm-
ers’ delegation representing the
Alberta FEarmers’ Union and the

_ United Farmers of Canada (Sas-

katchewan Section) were in Ot-
tawa conferring with federal au-
thorities. Agricultural Minister
Gardiner, in a previous statement,
had declared that the farmers “can
get all and more than they are
asking. for from the Agricultural
Prices Support Board.” Suspension
of the non-delivery strike will give
federal authorities an opportunity
to make this latest ‘promise’ good.

Main demand of the striking
farmers was establishment of a
Government fact-finding board on
Barity prices. Advice received at

farm headquarters: in Edmonton

and Saskatoon on the progress of
their delepation at Ottawa, indi-
cated that some progress was be-
ing made.

While the farm delegation was
in Ottawa, increased violence and
2 Swiftly mounting total of arrests
marked the close of the fourth
week of Western Canada’s epic
nondelivery strike. The mass ar-
tests of farmer pickets by RCMP
during the last week of the strike
reached a total of 37. To meet
this new provocation farmers were
turning their attention to establish-
ment of & defense organization to
secure funds and provide the nec-
€ssary legal machinery against
these’ attacks.

A rani-and-file vote for con-
tinuance of the strike after the
30-day limit, taken just before
suspension, showed a growing
majority in many areas. In nu-
merous Alberta and Saskatche-

Wan districts, opposition to the
PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 3

October 4.”

Picketting suspended, but the fight for parity prices goes. on.

strike which had been evident
at its inception, had entirely dis-
appeared. An almost unanimous
yote was being rolled up for its
continuance. AFWU officials in
Edmonton also record that the

recent vote for continuance of —

the strike also indicates a tre-
mendous growth in AEU mem-
bership since the strike began.

Speaking to the province over
an Edmonton radio broadcast last
week, Premier Manning _ioudly
proclaimed his sympathy with the
farmers. His forwarding of two
telegrams to Ottawa protesting
the use of the RCMP in the farm
strike, is not impressing: Alberta
farmers, since his opposition to the
strike is too widely Known. His
protests of sympathy merely serve
to show something of the tremen-
dous impact of public support be-
hind the farmers’ strike.

During the strike a consider-
able degree of labor-farmer unity
was achieved, with many trade
unions and central labor bodies
across the Dominion pledging
their support to the farmers’
strike.

In Regina, the United Farmers
of Canada is already preparing for
what may well be one of the most
important conventions in its his—

tory. Developments in Ottawa are
being closely watched, and any
evasion or watering down of the
demands of the strike will un-
doubtedly be met promptly with di-
rect action. The strike has dem-
onstrated that the farmers of
Western Canada are in no mood
for a further run-around from the
federal government through Ag-
riculture Minister Gardiner.

was given the

Works Minister Hon.

Building of the road, a political
football for a generation, was
completed under the stimulus of
war, when Ottawa spent $13,000,-
000, to push construction from
Prince Bupert to Hazelton. .
The new highway was officially

| epened with lavish ceremony at

Terrace, Labor Day 1944, provin-
cial and federal dignities vying
with each other in heralding the
new day for the north that was
being ushered in.

The people of;,the north shortly
came to the conclusion that the
hew day had suffered a false dawn
when neither Victoria nor Ottawa
took over the peacetime mainten-
ance of the road, and the CNR
banned commercial traffic on the
portion that runs along its right-
of-way on the banks of the
Skeena.

Rupert citizens demand
use of Skeena highway

PRINCE RUPERT, B.C.—Ancther in a long string of
promises regarding the maintenance of the Skeena Highway
people of Northern B.C. by. provincial Public
E. ©. Carson
when he announced he was very “hopeful” that negotiations
between the provincial government and CNR for jurisdic-

here this week,

tion over a portion of the highway that runs along the CNR
right-of-way will be completed in the near future. ;

Two years of buck-passing en-
sued. While ex-federal member
Olaf Hanson, charged by local
business groups with pressing the
question at Ottawa, advised a Tri-
bune reporter this-spring not to
be “too critical,” his complacency
has not been shared by those di-
rectly affected, to whom the road
constitutes a lifeline.

Main stumbling block romains
the CN’s ban on commercial traf-
fic, with Victoria opining that if
it cannot collect license fees
from this traffic it cannot main-
tain the rosa. :

Memories of last winter's and
spring's placierlike slides, and the
ravines that northern weather
churns up in neglected portions of
the highway, impels residents to
demand swift settlement. -

Wool bonus urged to
aid B.C. sheep farmers

KAMLOOPS—While Frank Putnam, Liberal minister
of agriculture in the Coalition government, was criticizing
farmers in the B.C. Peace River Block for joining Alberta
farmers in their now-terminated non-delivery strike because
he could not see “what is to be gained,” farmers in this and

other parts cf the province last
week were expressing; sympathy
with the strike and condemning
governmental temporizing through
| beards: and commissions:
Members of the British Colum-
bia Sheep Breeders Association,
meeting here, declared their sup-
port of the Alberta Farmers’
Union’s aims. Although some
members held toe the view that
these aims could have been bet-
ter pursued through negotiations,
others were outspoken in their
denunciation of the “endless de—

East Indians to
seek franchise

Chinese and East Indians in
British Columbia will press
their demand for full fran-
chise rights when a_ special
all-party committee of the
legislature, headed by R: H. Gar-
son, MILA, holds public hearings
in Vancouver as part of its in-
quiry into the Provincial Elec-
tions Act.

Carson stated last week that
the committee was making ar-—
rangements to hear representa-
tions from the Bast Indian As-
sociation and the East-West As-
sociation.

HMarlier this year the commit-
tee sent out a questionnaire to
representative organizations in
the province seeking their views
on voting rights and procedures.
Returns from this questionnaire,
now being tabulated, show a ma-
jority opinion in favor of com-
pulsory voting.

The committee will hold its
first hearings in Kamloops some
time after October 20, it was
learned from the registrar of
voters office in Vancouver.

BERLIN — Over 250,000 Berlin
workers downed tools for half an
hour to protest the acquittal of
thres Nazi zifiwigs by the Interna-
tional War Crimes Tribunal at
Nuremberg Workers’ rallies
throughout the city demanded
the death penalty for all 22 defend-
ants, 12 of them were sentenced

lays and lack of results” produced
by negotiations,

Putnam’s own department came
under the fire of the association
for its failure to implement a
federal order designed -to assist
Sheepmen. Delegates pointed out
that the department had refused
to commit itself on an arrange
ment whereby the federal gov-
ernment would pay a bonus of
two cents for each pound of clean
wool delivered by sheepmen § if
the provincial government con-
tributed a like amount.

Such delays in policy making,
it was charged, left farmers “out

| on a limb.”

A delegation will go to Victoria
soon to press Putnam for action
on this” arrangement -which, in
the opinion of sheepmen, will lift
Standards of wool delivered to
grading stations and strengthen
Canadian wool in both domestic
and export markets.

The first casualty

Sates

PRINCE RUPERT Fluid
milk prices in this northern
¢ town have increased from i7¢
24 quart to 19c, and from 9°
2 to 10c a pint. “It was already
hard enough for mothers to $
§ see their children got tresh
milk, now it will be impossible

for many,’ Wos. J. Blakey,
president of the Prince Rupert
EPP Club, stated. “An addi-

tional hardship is Ottawa’s ‘in-
Crease in the price of canned
and powdered milk, extensively
used in Prince Rupert ang in
jogging, fishing and mining
Camps,”

to hanging and seven to Prison |
terms.

SALAS

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1946