G6 H, OH” jeered Mr. Hangers as I tramped down the ‘@) gangway onto the float the other afternoon, “What brings you back?” as “How do you mean, back?” I parried. “Ain’t seen yuh since yuh transcribed my corns an’ dispepsia into that last article of yours, an’ I though yuh musta get such a workin’ over yuh decided I was hotter’n ~ the devil in a Quaker meetin’ house,’ he said. Coray Camp- beil really spanked yer backside, didn’t he?” : “He spanked youts too, don’t forget,” I reminded him. “Coray missed the point in more ways than one. You are the guy he should have gat after. I’m just a reporter.” “So that’s what's making thuh’ mean smeli aroun’ here, eh? Just a reporter, huh? Well, where 7 yuh been that I haven’t seen yuh since July?” Zi explained that, first, first I’d been on a long vacation, secondly, had been sick, and lastly, had covered a iong out-of-town assignment. “Qh, yeah, coverin’ thuh Peace Conference, in and Ill break open "spose yuh want no doubt. Well, come on a bottle uf Demerara. I don’t anything else, anyway.” -The moment didn’t seem particularly auspicious for mentioning I also wanted to ask his opinion on a few points, so f said nothing as I followed him up to the loft. He had the windows batteneda tightly against the winter. and a new mackinaw was lying over a chair, but it was the same chair on which he used to fling the old one. The same smell of gas, paint, oiled tarpaulins, and fish, the same disorderly corners and mac— gins with a little Swept and gar- nished~ clearance around the same puffing steve in the center — the room ,haan‘t im- proved any more than his cantan- kerousness had. But the bottle was new. We had a couple of hot ones, with only casual and banal remarks occas- ionally punctuat- ing our enjoy— ment. That’s one of Mr. Hanger’s virtues; you- can drink- and smoke with him with- out wasting any breath on chatter. Eis hot rums don’t teave you much breath for either. After a while he worried a fresh quid off the plug and leaned back in his rocking chair for serious conversation. “You may quote me as saying it’s been a very well conducted strike, and that although the chances he takes would horrify other men, he takes them on grounds he has thoroughly surveyed be- forehand, and he is certainly going to win,” he Stated in a disgustingly “pontifical manner, and then he relaxed. “Ain’t that what yer readers wanta see?’’ : “What on earth are you talking about?” TI asked. “Harvey Murphy’s mine strike. Ain’t that what yuh wanted me tuh stick my neck out on? I hope it was, for I’m glad tuh give it my approval. They're goin’ tuh win.” “Well, maybe I had some such idea, but . .?” “But ye think I’d better keep offa strikes, eh? Well, in answer to yer second question, he’s liable tuh win, too!” “Who, for Pete’s sake?” “Gerald Gas-bomb McGeer. If it’s a three- cornered fight or a free-for-all, he’s gotta good chance uf makin’ it.” “You're erazy!” T told him, with more heat than conviction. “Gerry is an exploded myth, an atavistic hangover from the slime of the Hungry Thirties. Nobody takes -him seriously enough now to make him mayor again. Besides, the News- Werald is boosting him.” | ‘Sure, thuh morning paper is boosting him. it’s thuh organ uf Gyp Row, thuh CPR, an’ all thuh Alcoholics Anonymous in thuh Marine Build- ing. Those people all’ back Gerry, He’s Old Nick's gift tuh thuh labor-haters.” ; “But Wilson will ‘-have argued. “Webbe, but I doubt if many uf them have votes thuh way this franchise works. What with scarcity uf stoves an’ chairs, a lotta vets couldn’t qualify. Anyway, don’t yuh think for a minute thuh major’ll get all those votes: Gerry, thuh Man in thuh Iron Shimmy, will be thuh protest candidate, an’ unless thuh protest vote is other- wise directed, he’ll win’. ly Wp, My My Wigyy the vet’s votes,” I 3 ‘Wd. forgotten about that -chain-mail vest he bought when he had his wind up,” I admitted. -“And 2a lotta other people aroun’ here have forgotten, too; al- though they - paid for it. .I wonder now where that armour of Gerry's is? In his own. wardrobe, probably, for I never heard any fightin” over it like there was over his robes, or of his givin’ thuh suit tuh thuh city.” “Well, no mayor since Gerry has considereq he needed armour,” i remarked. “Qne of them may have needed a coffin, but either Telford and Cornett have more guts than Gerry, or else they were able to get. along without making murderous enemies.” “pp! That is, worth Swinging for. enemies uf Gerry MeGeer were mostly in his imagination. thuh sorta enemies that would figure the likes uf him ‘Thuh better thuh imagination, thuh more dangerous th’ enemies. Gerry can imagine a whole Flash Gordon interplanetary invasion of three-headed cannibals before breakfast, and leave his grapefruit in a panic when the first squirt hits his eye tuh call for thuh militia an’ thuh Canadian Cossacks tuh repel boarders. That’s Gerry,- an’ thuh trouble is, he gets others excited with him. Just like when he useta parade on every possible oc- PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 12 casion up and down thuh streets surrounded by armed guards. People thought no sane man would go to such lengths un- less there was something to his fear. They didn’t know they were just watchin’ a primitive man fearing what he couldn’t understand.” “Such love of display, and tie garish exhibitionism of his fountain-blot on Lost Lagoon is certainly the mark either of a primitive nature or of ar- rested adolescence,” I agreed. “Didn't he admit it once? He Saiqd he loved circuses an’ par- ades. So do African Savages; their medicine men rule by panderin’ tuh such instincts, an’ I’m just afraid there’s a lotta Vancouverites just undeveloped enough tuh submit tuh thuh same sorta rule?” “The vets won’t forget what he said in the Hotel Vancouver, when he was asked what he did in the Great War,” I told him. Mr. Hangers spat disdainfully through the open damper grates. “Sure, he said no McGeer hadda enlist tuh get offa thuh bread-line, but that was a long time ago in political history, an’ voters have short Memories. Be- sides, that was thuh war before thuh last one, now, an’ he talked lets -durin’ this fracas. But re- mind me some day tuh tell yuh about Gerry’s Great War record. TVll have my clippin’s out.” “Did he have a asked “Not thuh Sort yuh get any record?” I _appals me, but who can help it? kind of medals for, but he hadda record, all right. Not thubh sort soldiers would envy, but when did McGeer ever care for thuh Tespeck uf bread-line heroes?’’ Mr. Hangers poured another jigger and 2 ‘half into each glass, u added boiling water and a spoonful of brown sugar, and we re- lapsed into silence for a few minutes. Then he burst out again, but the mocking note was gone from his voice. ~ “Yuh know, thuh shortness uf memory uf thuh average voter Thuh bosses Keep him too busy rememberin® how tuh make a livin’ for him tuh think uf anything else. He looks at thuh City Hall, and says, ‘Oh, well, anyway Gerry got things done.’ They forget that a deal that has since made mil- lions for the CPR in increased property values was one reason for thuh City Hall being built in thuh sticks against a Ebr naect< choice.” “Any other reasons?” I prompted. “Well, there was some mean and irreverent cusses who said Gerry wanted a flock uf bridges with armouries alongside between = him and thuh unemployed he an’ Bennett was kickin’ around But th’ average voter forgets ajl that. They forget Ballantyne and his dirty work there, they forget his ruddy face gone thuh color of dead ashes as he read the Riot Act to a bunch of hungry boys in Victory Square, with all the armed police in thuh province supporting his quak- ing knees. They just remember thuh musty peace of thuh tomb that’s been vitiatin’ Upper CGambie air for the last three-four years, an’ they figure anything tuh get a little action. Hitler’s followers figured thuh same way, an’ there’s a lotta similar- ity in thuh situation.” His tone became more thoughtful and even slightly apprehensive, strange in a man whom DP’ye never known to show fear. : “Yuh see, all thuh Fascist moulded hoodlums, who had to be discreet an’ recognize labor during thuh war, they all want Gerry. All thubh labor ~ hating bosses, who sigh for thuh good old days when they could fire a man for straightening up to Stretch his back, want Gerry. All the white-collared little gentlemen who see gradual'inflation cuttin’ their salaries week by week, want Gerry. And they all want him for the Same reason . . they are afraid.” “The big shots, too?” “The big shots more than any. There’s no need to elaborate on that fear. It’s in every trade journal, in every business paper, in fascist-slanted magazines, like the Digest and Life. They are afraid because they can’t understang that the machine Capitalism has built cannot be controlled beyond a certain “point. It must funetion and expand, or it destroys itself. Right now, they can’t see it doing either for very long, and they are afraid because they can give no answers to the questions they are being asked.” *“They blame trade-unions, the government, for- eign countries, anything but the immutable laws of economics. That is the hys- teria of fear, but 2 with it is a con- Seiousness that Fascism will hold them in power, whether the peo- ple starve or note), ait) ase hysteria of the cornered rat, who will nevertheless fight, so they need a Gerry in Vancouver, just as during a sim- ilar crisis tncy needeq a Hitler in Germany.” “They need 2 Gerry ‘to pro- mote parades and circuses to Ny yy Uy distract atten- wligy tion from the ee growing econ- omic tension. They need a Gerry to infect the populace with his own hysteria against labor and labor sympathizers. They need a Gerry to stultify human reason and make hate-crazed beasts out of men. They need Gerrys everywhere, and un- less we fight theyll get one here.” “What can we dove I asked in a mood as seri- ous as his own. “We must unite all labor behind the candidate most acceptable to all, and that meanss the CCF. There now, my neck’s out again, so make the most of it!” \ “You don’t know that the CCE fight the mayoralty,” I pointed out. “Thuh CCE won’t fight,” he sneered, “Thuh CGE never fights. I don’t know how, an’ anyway thuh CCF thinks fightin’ is not respectable. But they'll run a candidate, because they, can’t help it. Thuh CCE reminds me of an old horse on one of those power-wheels in Quebec. There’s a poie fixed to a vertical axle on a big wheel, an’ thuh horse pushes thuh pole around and around tuh turn thuh wheel and supply power to thu whole farm. Thuh horse is allus lookin’ for a carrot, an’ once in a2 while it gets one. But put him out tuh pasture for a day, and he wears a rut around thuh nearest tree thinkin’ he’ll get a carrot for it, or mebbe just outa habit. That’s thuh CCF. They'll run a candi- date all right, because they can’t help wearin’ that rut deeper. They still hope for a carrot, too” “Well, what makes you think the CCF can win,” I asked. “Wilson can’t come near them in a three-corner fight Thuh CGF has at least 10,000 confirmed votes, and that’s a big Heads IDEs” “Didn’t Alsbury get around 18, 000 last time?” “At least 8,000 of those was in protest against senile somnolence at the City Hall. If we can hold that protest behind thuh GGE; and away from Gerry, whoever thuh CCH runs will get in. - Itll mean a fight, but labor can win. And it doesn’t mean whipping Gerry only. It means a Kick in the teeth for all the fascist so-and=- so’s behing him. We'll all have tuh sink a lotta prejudice tuh get thuh unity we'll need, but it’s gotta be done. The people must win the City Hall away from their enemies.” We had three more hot ones, but he wouldn’t talk any more about anything but the already historic 1946 World Series, and with all deference to Mr. Hangers he doesn’t know any more about base ball than he does about civic politics. That is—well, at any rate, he doesn’t know anything about baseball! FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1946 is going to