November 5, 1940
THE FISHERMAN
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It Need Not Happen Here
Editor, The Fisherman:
The new Canadian index on cost of living, recently announced caught my attention the other day. Of course, I know that fishermen don't come under Government notice as we are neither average people nor recognized as people at all. That is entirely up to us to remedy.
The figure of $1419 for the average family in B.C. is a little startling to me. It is so long since I have had any such sum to spend, and I know the average income among our members is below half of that sum. Then, how do we live at all? And by the way, who gets and spends the money that makes up those figures?
First, a commercial fisherman in B.C. cannot afford to be an average or in other words, normal man because he doesn't get a fair share of the wealth produced. He can't afford to have an average family and his only amusement is to watch such of his dependents as he had allowed himself, to suffer from every want.
We know that in an average year, B.C. fishermen produce as much wealth in the way of fish landed, as any three other provinces together. Well, who gets it? We can easily prove that the fishermen don't. Whether by analyzing the Bureau of Statistics figures one could get at the real fact is doubtful but anyhow it is hardly material. We needn't doubt the figures. Rather let us resolve here and now to get our names on the various" voters' lists and organize ourselves into active and useful unions with others of the forgotten race and over and above everything else, let us take full advantage of our educational opportunities while we are resting.
There is not much chance of getting much recreation out of the sixty-one dollars alloted to recreation and education, health and transportation in the B.C. figures, but we should all be able to get some education out of it.
Let us change the old saying that it can't happen here, to it need not happen here, and the only way to prevent it from happening is to take full advantage of our educational facilities. If we can't play at anything else, let us take up the game of politics and play it to the limi.t.
If the average farmer in Great Britain is in the front line then I reckon the average fishermen in B.C. is out in No Man's Land. Good luck, chums, you will need it!
—Ole Martin.
Tou Have The Floor7
This page Is open to all readers, organized and unorganized. The Editorial Board requests all letters be signed. Signatures will be published unless otherwise stated. Letters should not be more than 200 words in length.  Letters to the editor do not necessarily reflect the policy of
The Fisherman.
This advertisement is not published or displayed by the Liquor Control Board or by the Government . of British Columbia.
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Question On The Dues
Editor The Fisherman:
To all whom it may concern in the gillnetting of fish and who want a champion to do their business of getting the prices of fish to somewhere that we can make a decent living at the same.
At our last P.C.F.U. executive meeting at 164 Hastings St. E., the question of dues was discussed for quite a while and the decision arrived at was appointing a committee to get all the information from the rank and file as possible.
Now, fellow fishermen, this is quite a problem and we want you and your local to discuss and look at it seriously from all angles, as this means your living and mine. If you want to write your ideas to the paper, they will be published or the executive will put them on the board table and they will be seriously considered.
I, the writer of this letter, have teen at the game for some twenty years and I have seen the prices as low as 25 cents and lower for sockeye, 3 cents for dogs, 1 cent for humps and 5 cents for springs ranging from 15 lbs. to 60 lbs. Now, fellows, if you think or even have the least idea that you would like to see these prices come back, Just you forget the executive who goes to the operator and puts up the scrap for at least a normal existence for you and yours.
At our last convention we raised the dues from $5.00 to $9.00, which has been cheerfully paid by a great many of the fishermen who realize the value of collective bargaining and a great many of those same fellows have not made enough this season to keep them through the winter and have had to butt into some other line of employment.
Now, boys, again I make an appeal to you to view your opinion either in the form of a letter to the secretary of the P.C.F.U. and tell him why you do not think you should pay the sum quoted and then go out fishing and expect to get the benefit of the endeavors that have been taken on your behalf.
The U.F.F.U. and the S.P.S.U., who are now united, are paying S12.00 a year and I have talked to quite a number of them and they all tell me the same story, they are satisfied with what they are paying and consider it is not very much for the benefits they get from the union
As we have a convention dated for the second week in January, 1941, and this question will be one of the main ones which will be presented there, we want your ideas for we do not collect dues, etc., for nothing.
TO THOSE WHO HAVE NOT PAID UP FOR 1940-41, if you can possibly send in part of your dues it will be a great help to the executive to put over our convention program.
Here is hoping I get lots of replies and criticism.
A Fraser River Fisherman. (I am  not a paid official)
Reply To Question
In reply to Ole Martin's letter in the Oct. 22nd issue, I believe he had a good idea until he put it into the form of a letter to the Editor of The Fisherman and put her and the readers of the paper on the spot. While he was quite free to ask such a question, they were in nowise allowed to answer it. Such is the fallacy of our democracy.
As some of our readers have attempted to answer the letter in a manner that could only lead to controversy and the consequent banning of our paper, we will have to refuse letters of this nature in future.
J. Donaldson,
President, Fisherman Publishing Society
You'll Meet Old Friends At The Klondyke Nite, November 15th
When Klondyke Gooney meets Skidway Bill at the real old Klondyke Nite at the Canadian Legion Hall, New Westminster, November 15, this is what you may hear them say:
"Why, hello Bill, how the heck are you? It's been a long time since I seen yuh."
"I guess its nigh onto forty years.'
"Gee it's good to meet an old Sourdough."
"It sure is, Gooney, and look who's a-coming down the hall, it's two-gun Skinny Whitehouse, Fred and, say, will ya look if that ain't old Sourdough Jedge Sabin and there's Flapjack Yohnny Donaldson cashin' in the gold dust. He was bank clerk in Circle City when I was there, and if that ain't Bob Wulff, the gold merchant from Fairbanks. I'll eat your shirt. It sure is great to be here tonight. Boy! Believe me you!"
Appreciates WorU Of UFFU Officials
Editor, The Fisherman:
During the negotiations for the 1940-41 herring agreement which just concluded, the negotiation committee and the officials of the United Fishermen's Union, Local 44, have given unstintingly of their time and effort for the benefit of those members of the union who will be going herring fishing this season.
Although it is to be expected that officials of any trade union will do their best for the men they represent, too often there are those in the union who grumble and kick about what is not done and what could be done and so on, forgetting to give thanks and appreciation for the long hours of work put in by their representatives.
A union official has a thankless job it seems to me and that is why I am writing this letter just to say that I personally, and all the herring men appreciate what has been done during these negotiations and whatis done all through the year by our Secretary, Bill Burgess and Business . Agent, George Miller.
—Art Hessen.
The People Must Live
(Continued from Page Four)
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How About Your
Non-essential
Spending?
Editor, The Fisherman:
The following is part of an article by B. T. Richardson, appearing in a local newspaper a few days ago. After announcing that the Government is investigating non-essential spending and the importation from neutral countries of non-essential goods, he goes on to say: " Of equal importance is the curtailment of production in our own country of non-essential goods. Only in that way can greater production of war materials be achieved. Unless there were still unused surpluses of labor and industry. No such surpluses exist in Canada today. It io the crux of the problem and the inescapable reason why Canadians must now without delay begin to cut down on non-essential spending."
A few hours after reading the above, a young Canadian came to the door and begged for a cup of tea and piece of bread. He was 23 years old and not badly trained in some ways. He had been discharged from the army more on account of his political views than the heart ailment he undoubtedly suffers from and he claimed he has so far been unable to find work in either the essential or non-essential industries. •
Someone must be trying to spoof me. I know for a fact that quite a recognizable surplus of labor exists in the fishing industry on the Pacific Coast and no doubt in other parts of Canada. It can, however, be classed as a non-essential industry. Lots of people are engaged in it for the health-giving and recreational opportunity it offers—especially those engaged in gillnetting.
—Hook Reef.
ial to the soldiers who gave their lives in the last war. From an artistic point of view, it is a wonderful monument, which has impressed me greatly. It is a monument of stone, a monument to commemorate death and the dead.
In Saskatchewan we have living monuments to the last war. There I have seen returned men who, like driftwood cast up after the whirlwind and the whirlpool of the last war subsided, are now left on those desolate homesteads, un-cared for and unnoticed. Since I have been in this city I have thought that I should like to bring some of those men here, In all their rags and tatters, and stand them around your great monument, to form a living testimony to the ingratitude of Canada.
PEOPLE SUSPICIOUS.
This is undoubtedly a time of great crisis. Already the people of the west have realized that during this period they are going to be asked to make sacrifices, and they are beginning to ask themselves how they, who are so near the edge of destitution, can make yet another sacrifice.
In their minds they are beginning to doubt many things; suspicions are beginning to arise They believe, and I think rightly, that the last government failed to give them economic freedom; today they are beginning to realize that they no longer have civil liberties or freedom, and, as I say, this is raising great doubt in their minds.
We have been told that the Defence of Canada Regulations are to be enforced to defend the Canadian people from subversive elements. The people of the west are beginning to realize that thers is one subversive element in Canada for which those regulations do not provide. They know it to be the greatest of all subversive influences. It is poverty, and it has been at work among them for many years. Realizing these things the people of the west are beginning to question many things in their own minds.
In times of crisis, Mr. Speaker, as at all times, life must go on. Life is greater than death; it prevails and goes on into the future. Every day children are born. Every day people must eat. Every spring the seed must be sown, and every fall the harvest must be gathered in.
In a time of crisis such as this we are sometimes prone to forget that life continues and must continue, else there is nothing in the
Fishermen Sue Companies on Breach , Of Contract Charge
Action is being taken in the Supreme Court at the present time in two cases involving fishermen.
In one case, six men, namely, J. E. Meister, Magnus Strand, Olof Jacobson, Helge Skarpnes, Pete Seines, and Eriksen are suing the Nootka-Bamfield Company Ltd., 525 Seymour St., for damages suffered resulting from unlawful breach of a contract of employment entered into around July 15th, 1940, when the company employed these men for the whole season and then fired them allegedly because they were low boat.
The other case concerns four men who were employed by a Japanese company to go to Pender Island to fish. According to the terms of employment there were to be four white men and four Japanese employed on the boat and payment was to be made on the basis of %th share. Upon arriving at Pender Island the white men found they were only going to get paid on a l-14th share basis so they quit. They are suing the company for damages suffered from breach of contract of employment.
John Stanton, labor attorney, is representing the men in these cases.
A further report of the proceedings will appear in the next issue.
future toward which we may look. I would say most emphatically that the time to consider the life of the people of Canada is not when the war is finished but now.
Life must be protected now in this country. Although death stalks throughout the world and knocks at the door of every nation, life must go on.
In this time of crisis I feel that as a woman, and particularly as the only woman in this House, even though mine is the only voice raised—and I sincerely hope it will not be—yet I must raise it in defence of and for the protection of life, the life of the Canadian people, because the people of Canada must have life and they must have it more abundantly.
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