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THE FISHERMAN
November 6, 1959
THE FISHERMAN
10 cents per copy $3.50 per year
Published every Friday except the last Friday of each month by The Fisherman Publishing Society, 301 Powell Street, GEORGE NORTH, Editor      Vancouver 4, B.C.      Phone: MU. 3-1829
Authorised as Second-Class Mail by Post Office Department, Ottawa
What Really Bothers the Vancouver Sun
IN A supercilious editorial headed 'Justice and Martyrdom" in its October 24 issue, the Vancouver Sun comments on the conviction and subsequent imprisonment of George North editor of The Fisherman, for contempt of court.
Their lofty position in the Sun Tower may confer a geographical advantage on the Sun's editorial writers, but it can hardly be said to improve their political vision. They are not disturbed because the editor of a "relatively obscure publication" has been convicted of contempt in a case involving fundamental union rights. This they heartily applaud. They are disturbed because the severity of the sentence, unprecedented since Confederation, may create a situation in which "the punishment overshadows the crime."
Whether or not The Fisherman is a "relatively obscure publication" is unimportant. In the fishing industry, for which it is published, it is an important paper; the Vancouver Sun, which is an important paper in this province, is relatively obscure in comparison with the big dailies of New York and London, Moscow and Tokyo. In this issue, as in so many others, the Sun is confusing quality and quantity.
What is important is the principle for which North and the Fisherman Publishing Society were held to be in contempt.
That principle is the use of injunctions in labor disputes and the application of Bill 43 to deny trade unions their bitterly won and now brazenly challenged rights
The editorial for publishing which North was convicted of contempt was written because Mr. Justice A. M. Manson issued a court order instructing officers of Ironworkers Local 97 to return certain of their members to work on the Second Narrows Bridge after they had complied with all the procedures required for a legal strike. Now the Court of Appeal has quashed Mr. Justice Manson's conviction of the Ironworkers union and its officers for contempt. But North remains in jail.
What the Sun seeks to do, in an editorial which is a thinly veiled defence of Bill 43, is to overshadow the issue with the punishment.
How the labor movement feels was best expressed by the picket line of representatives of a score of unions outside the Social Credit provincial convention in Vancouver last weekend.
There is good reason to believe that their protest, which had as its aim remission of North's sentence, was not without effect on some Social Credit delegates who had to pass pickets carrying signs demanding "Repeal Bill 43." When a resolution to endorse open shop "right to work" legislation came before the convention, delegates were counselled by some of their leaders to be "cautious" and warned that such legislation might well lead to the government's defeat. Put to a vote, the resolution was rejected.
This, of course, will not deter the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and other big business organisations from their avowed intent of forcing such legislation on to the statute books.
And this it what really bothers the Vancouver Sun. Not the fear that the severity of the sentence will bestow 'a martyr's crown which, in certain circles, will long outshine the lesson," but that it will serve to marshal all honest trade unionists in a militant struggle against such anti-labor legislation.
WINJO WRITES
What's in a Smell?
Sometimes a Payroll
w1
Meeting in Toronto last month, the policy committee of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce approved a statement calling on federal and provincial governments to introduce open shop "right to work" laws.
ISEE that the October issue of Steel Labor, organ of the United Steelworkers of America, carries a bold red headline proclaiming: "Injunctions Won't Solve Issues in Steel Dispute.' Apparently the editor hasn't heard what happened to The Fishermen and its editor for publishing an editorial headed. "Injunctions Won't Catch Fish Nor Build Bridges."
In case you're wondering why the BC Pharmaceutical Association has decided it needs a better public relations program to "get across" to the public the reasons drugs cost so much, it's because disclosures made in the east have stirred up quite a storm.
Toronto Labor Council, for instance, is demanding a government investigation of the high cost of "wonder" drugs.
In the Toronto Star, Pierre Berton b.as revealed that drugs like Chloromycetin, which retails around 60 cents a capsule, costs three cents a capsule to manufacture. Hydrocortisone acetate tablets, used in arthritis, retail at $295 a thousand, although they can be delivered in Toronto at $40 a thousand.
I wonder what the BC Pharmaceutical Association wants to get across!
★    * *
None of this, of course, has
anything to do with fish and. ships, but it has a lot to do with civil liberties and profiteering and high living costs and those are reasons enough for commenting on it here.
And here are some items from the west coast. The first shipment of live crabs by truck over the new Tofino-Ucluelet-Alberni road has proven fully successful, according to Percy Howes, who plans to make more such shipments from Tofino this winter.
He recently shipped some 100 dozen of the justly famed Long Beach crabs from Ucluelet to Vancouver, with less than one percent spoilage recorded.
Lights are being installed on the new fishermen's float at Ucluelet, with the Village of Ucluelet undertaking to pay the monthly light bills.
★    ★ ★
When the Painter's union threw a picket line around Steve-ston beer parlor Wednesday morning this week to protest the use of non-union painters, Jim Ross, secretary of the Steveston Fishermen's Local of the UFAWU went down to see the pickets, assuring them of the fishermen's cooperation. At the last word, work on the beer parlor had been stopped and fishermen were respecting the picket line.
it all depends on the type of industry that creates it.
In Steveston there's no mistaking the product that is giving some of the local residents a headache.
I have alweys said this about the smell at Steveston, "Mo smell, no payroll."
When all four reduction plants »| are in operation, it requires some effort to appreciate the tremendous payroll that derives from this smell.
I could go right to the be-gining, the _ manufacture of" the different products that are necessary for an operation of this kind, but I will concern myself with the payroll that is made in Steveston and start with the making of the seine nets.
*    * *
First, there are the men who make the nets, then there are the men who use these nets to catch the fish. To run the boats they have to burn gasoline and diesel fuel. And the grub bill for the hundreds of men who are catching the fish must be a big one.
Then there are the packers and the men employed on these boats.
If the catches are good, the plants are operating 24 hours a day, which means more men and women on the payroll.
To come up with an accurate estimate of the number of people who in some way are making their living from that smell, would be a big job.
There have been attempts to eliminate the odour, and some day it may be done, but at the present time, as long as there is a smell in Steveston, there is prosperity.
I would say that the big problem in Richmond right now is the lack of industries. If there were more industries, the tax picture might be a lot different for the homeowner.
Steveston has been a fishing town since away before a lot of us were born and the reduction plants were operating long before there was any thought of the big housing developments. And there's no doubt that a lot of the people who live in the new sub-divisions near Steveston work or fish in this area.
There is an odor when the plants are operating, but the only time- there are complaints is when the wind is blowing in the wrong direction. Most of the people in Steveston don't complain. They know that if there was no smell, Steveston would be a pretty dead town.
I have talked to quite a number of gillnet fishermen, and they say the same thing, "It sure was a long fall season we had this year, all of five days!"
And they say that the years of conservation sure must be paying
oc for some one, for it's not doing us any good. First the Salmon Commission has a whack at confusing the fishermen, and when it gets through the fisheries department takes over and finishes the job. The only difference is the fisheries department does it with one clean swipe—shut the fishing down!
To those of you who invested in new nets, and who did not manage to pay for them, the waiting and hoping starts, will they or won't they open up the fishing again this year?
When there are no fish around, the only thing to do is to close the fishing down, but, when there are fish, the fishermen hope to cash in on a fair season. But what happens? The season is closed anyway! What kind of a sign are we waiting for?
It may be that the handwriting is on the wall, but the words are not inscribed deeply enough for us to read them. When the time comes and the gillnet fisherman knows just where he stands, and he is able to read what's written on the wall, by then it will be too late.
The years of conservation that the gillnet fisherman has had to put up with will not do him any good.
Far too many fishermen, and the greater depth of the seine nets, have taken the fish a long way away from their respective spawning streams. So when the time comes to fish outside of certain boundaries we hear the same old story, "Shut the fishing down, we have to conserve!"
There are fish in the Gulf, fish that have been seen by quite a number of fishermen. One fact that cannot be put aside is the number of chums that have been taken with herring seines.
Through the years a few salmon have always been taken with herring seines, but never anything like this year. And yet we sit, and we wait. What's the answer?
In the opinion of a large number of gillnet fishermen, test drifts should have started the next week after the closure. That way a better tab could be kept on the volume of fish migrating to the   spawning grounds.
We do ont want the same thing to happen with the chums that happened to the sockeye last year. If there is a large number of fish in the,Gulf area, and there is a good possibility of over-spawning, then we, who have been in the front lines of the conservation effort should have the chance to do some fishing!
Where do we go from here? Some fishermen are going Lo Satellite Channel, but, to travel all the way to Johnstone Straits at this time of the year is a bit hazardous so most will stay closer to home.
No doubt that kind of thinking is in the minds of at least a couple hundred fishermen, unless the Gulf area is opened at the same time as the Nimpkish and Satellite areas.
Some "say it couldn't be done. What do you think?
—Winjo
Inflation Scare Largely Anti-Labor Weapon
THE current inflation scare is to a very large extent an anti-labor weapon designed to make wage increases and improvements in working conditions more difficult,' says Labor Facts. It is thus the economic counterpart of the big business political offensive which has already resulted in anti-labor legislation in BC and Newfoudland as well as in the United States.
Insofar as inflationary tendencies may be present these are due to bank profiteering and the administered-price policies of big bus ness rather than to any tremendous increase in unit labor costs.
Big business benefits from the inflation scare in many ways: Aside from its effects on bargaining relationships, it leads to policies which favor really big business against small business, big business investment as against housing and socially beneficial public works, and big business expansion against expenditures on public welfare.
A VERY important study of inflation in this country was carried out this summer by the Senate Standing Committee on Finance. The Committee's final report indicates that the problem does not exist at the present time, except as a fear in some people's minds.
"There was virtually unanimous agreement among those who gave evidence to the Committee that there was not actual inflation at the present time . . ."
Furthermore the prospects for price stability for some months at least were very good. But "in •spite of this reassuring picture, there is a widespread fear of inflation. It has been described as inflationary psychosis'." The committee's cure? Restraint on everyone's part. "However, these restraints cannot work smoothly unless there is also restraint in the pressures which can be exert ed by labor, business and other groups."
While all (his is delightfully impartial, there is little doubt I hat the press and public off i-cials will put the stress on restraining labor's demands. Those always seem to attract more publicity than profiteering price increases that are simply announced by big business.
While  the  Committee begins
its report with the statement, "Inflation has replaced recession as the major topic of business concern on this continent," it seems to have difficulty pinning the blame on anyone. One expert, Professor Knox of Queen's University, specifically absolved labor in the following words:
"That the pressure for wage increases has become an independent and powerful inflationary factor has yet in my view to be demonstrated."
THE RAILWAY Brotherhoods appeared before the Committee and produced material from the annual reports of the Bank of Canada giving the cause of each postwar period of inflation. In no case was labor held responsible.
The 1946-1948 inflation was attributed by the Bank to "a large pent-up demand for goods backed by a high level of liquid assets." 11954 Report, page 3).
The 1950-1951 post-Korea price increases resulted when "Rapid expansion of the defence programs of the United States and Canada was accompanied by a wave of inventory accumulation and prices rose sharply, particularly in the case of primary commodities." 11954 Report, page 4>.
The 1955-1957 situation was described as follows: "Investment, outlays on projects associated with resource development rose by two-thirds in 1956 and continued to rise well into 1957 . . . Resource development was in fact the basic reason for the intensity of the 1955-57 boom in Canada—and for the degree oi inflation experienced.'' (1957 Report, page 6).
Clearly, labor' demands have had little to do with inflation in the past and there is very little inflation today. Thus, at the end of February—in his 1958 Report —the governor of the Bank of Canada referred to the current "inflation psychosis'' He said, "I believe that these fears of inflation will prove to have been exaggerated . . ."
THIS IS not In deny that we are liavinu inoiiolarv problems. Obviously, interest rales are rising and money, for consumer credit and small business as well as for housing, schools, hospitals and public works is harder to come by.
But this is not the same thing
as inflation. Quite clearly the Canadian banks aided by the Bank of Canada and government policy decided to make hay out of the economic upturn.
N. J. McKinnon, president of the Canadian Bank of Commerce, has made it very clear that the banks intend to take advantage \& the current business upturn to get their "cut":
"A  high   rentai  value for money is part of an economy bursting with investment, with rising   living   standards, more leisure and so on . . ." (Toronto Globe and Mail, May 26, 19S9). The   September  1959 Monthly Review of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York describes the process as follows:
1. ". . . the rapid expansion of the money supply in 1958 and the recent vigor of the Canadian boom led the Bank of Canada to restrain any further growth of the money supply. With the central bank keeping a tight rein on reserves, the chartered banks were forced early this year to run down their liquid assets.
2. ". . . Moreover, during April the banks also began selling government bonds in order to meet their loan commitments.
3. "In mid-May, the banks agreed among themselves that, until the money supply was permitted to expand further, there should be no significant increase in the over-all loan total.
4. "While total loan expansion slackened briefly following this announcement, primarily because of a sharp cutback in loans to finance companies, general business loans nevertheless continued to rise at an undiminished rate during June and July, with the entire expansion having to be financed by sales of government securities; by the end of July, business loans had risen 22 percent over the end of 1958.
5. "At the same time, money market rates advanced sharply, with the average tender rate on three months' Treasury bills rising from 5.01 percent on J v 2 to a record 6.16 percent on August 13.
6. "At that point, the banks —whose maximum lending rate is legally set at 6 percent—declared that this development had deprived them of the abil-
ity to grant new loans or permit increases in existing credit lines."
It should be noted that the "money market rates" referred to in (5) above are essentially set by the banks themselves and the financial community of which they are the most important part.
THUS, WE see that within the framework set by the Bank of Canada, the chartered banks have forced up interest rates and are in effect pressuring, if not blackmailing, the government to raise the interest rates they are allowed to charge. (This, incidentally has already been proposed by the US government).
Under the headline "Chartered Banks Indulging in Blackmail," the parliamentary correspondent of the Montreal Le Devoir recently wrote: "It appears that the chartered banks are trying to take advantage of a temporary situation to induce the government to raise the legal interest rate on bank loans from 6 to 7 percent."
WITHOUT going into all as-
FISHERMEN !
pects of the matter, it is clear that the cry of "inflation" is an ideal weapon for big business.
Its effect on collective bargaining relationships is of great concern to the labor movement. But its other effects are most serious as well.
The so-called "anti-inflationary'' steps taken so far 'high interest rates, tight money, etc.) lead to an unnecessary increase in the profits of banks and money lenders. Such money as is available is channelled into the expansion pf big business, which can in the first place finance most of its expansion from accumulated profits and depreciation allowances and can in the second place afford the righer interest rates.
All this leaves everyone else out in the cold. Small businesses have trouble getting bank loans and big business, as a result, strengthens its position. Federal, provincial and municipal governments have to pay higher interest rates for money with two results. First, taxes go up and second, necessary expenditures (es-' peeially those on useful public works and social   welfare) are
made difficult if not impossible The   brief   presented   by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce to the Senate Committee said: ". . . It may well be argued that certain welfare programs have been 'too large and too soon' . . .
"Any additions to the already extensive welfare programs should   be  carefully assessed, not only with regard to their initial cost, but also with regard to their foreseeable growth and inflationary effects." The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Report for August 1959 shows just how important the inflation scale is to big business in the sphere of collective bargaining. In discussing the factors affecting  wage  bargaining this year, the report states:
"Major industry has conducted a concerted campaign against wage increases. It has carried forward a huge propaganda program to sell the public, including unions, the notion that higher wages cause inflation. It is difficult to estimate the effectiveness of such industry publicity efforts to restrain wage advances."
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