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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1956-02-22, Page 3TINFAIM FRONT "What's all this talk about farmers not getting enough in- come, when we pay such high prices for food we buy at the grocery -store?" many citizens are asking. "Where does our money go?" These questioners become even more puzzled when they discover, 'for one thing, that out of 18 cents they may pay for a loaf of bread, the farmer gets something less than three cents. What happens to the other 15 cents? And what happens to what the farmer does. NOT get from the other food dollars spent M grocery store,:? To keep all these simmering qnestions from boiling over un- necessarily, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson, after conferring with President Eisenhower, recently ordered the United States Department of Agriculture to make a special study of what happens to the retail food dollar, writes. Helen Henley in The Christian Shience Monitor. * * Storm signals , already were flying on this issu e of food costs. Some partisan comments have blamed high foOd prices on labor, who se wages have steadily increased. Others blame industry, pointing to mounting prefits. And even the farmer comes in for a there of Manic, too, for many citizens belieVe that government price supports paid to the fatmer come out of what they pay the grocer. * Citizens do pay that bill for price supports, too-but not as consumers, and not with the GRAND OPENINGS =='A Pile- ated Woodpecker, a disappear- ing species, aims ifs needle- sharp bill at a riddled pine tree. The rare bird is looking for grubs and worms, and judging from the number and size of the holes that tree must be full of his favorite food. The bird has been around the area for months, riddling two trees full of holes. dollar's they spend in the groc- ery store, They foot the bill for price supports out of another pocket, in the form of taxes, a payment entirely separate from their retail fond costs. But if the farmer does not get the major portion of the consumer's retail f 00 d dollar, who does? • * The USDA reports shows that many hands, reach out 'to claim as theirs* a share of every one of these= dollars-and in no syl- lable does the report imply that any of th o se Who share the "take" are not fully entitled to what they get, What it discloses is that most Americans are liv- ing better and eating better- and paying the necessary costs for their improved situation. * * * Here't .the story, as presented in the USDA report "Marketing Costs for Food": Since 1945, the farmer's share of the consumer's retail food dollar hag declined steadily, dropping 'from A record high of 53 cent in 1945 to 41 cents in 1955. His share now is only slightly above the 1935-39 aver-' iige, while the rest of the American economy zooms along in unprecedented prosperity. 44 * This decline is attributed to an increase in the spread be- tween farm prices and retail prices of food-what is called the marketing margin, which in- cludes all charges for processing , and distributing farm prodUcts after they are sold by farmers. * * These charges cover wage rates, reported to have increased almost 100 per cent above 1945, other costs - such as freight rates, packaging material, con- tainers, fuel, equipment, rents, etc., which ,are up about two- thirds - and state and local Property taxes which have "in- Creased substantially" s in c e 1945. Some citizens have looked askance at labor costs, which have almost doubled and which sometimes "amount to more than ,half the gross margin "(dif- ference between raw material cost andVselling price.)" But the 'report points out also that "actual labor ,costs have not in- creased as fast as' wage rates because output per man-hour has increased. Compared with the 194'7 - 49 average, hourly earnings of food - marketing workers increased .43 per cent and labor costs per unit, of prod-. uct 26 per cent . . * * Total profits before 'taxes of some large food processors, wholesale distributors, and retail food chains have "grown sub- stantially-since 1945," the USDA finclt; but these profits "can be explained primarily by the in- creased volume of food sales handled by, these , firms." After all, there are more people to be fed now, American population having increased 25 per cent in the past 15 years, and incomes are larger. * * And, the'study discovered, "people on farms are buying More processed foods and buy ing a larger portion of their total food" rather than liVing in self-sufficiency on the, pred- uctt of their own acres as many have done in the past. 31 32 41' SALLY'S SALLIES "No, my dear, this Isn't a soap opera cook book!" flood appears between dawn and dusk but never at night' and never on Sundays.. Workmen' have dug up the • floors arid found no sign of damp. Plitinbers can find no leaking pipes. When experts as- serted that the .xater was not caused by condensation," the owner had the floor 'Cethented. But the, Mystery pool even ap- /feared On top of the cement. Everyone concerned with it finds it inexplicable. Whenever anyone is on watch the Water never appears. Arid the' moment they stop lboking-there it it! At 'a'farmhouse near Teeter', Northants, not so very long ago psychic investigators were baf- fled by a face that haunted a bueket, Glancing into the buck- et One January Morning; the fatmer't wife noticed the strange impression, of a face in the me- tal, She thought little abetit• it until she noticed that the feed wet still there a day Or two later-arid assuming an extra- ordinary resemblance to the face of a dead brother, For five months the illution haunted her, Experts scraped arid scrubbed the bucket but, if anything, the impression seemed more distinct. Then they photo- graphed it and found that the "ghost" evaded the camera, and gradually the face faded, Was it all a mass hallnciria, doh? In Oldhahi Seine Years, age :housewife, glanced in a Mirror in a shop. front arid saw the *reflection of ariether ah. Instinctively she .glanded trinhd but no dtie was hear. ;Ultimately the picture dltap- peered overnight, bfkoVering "the .pkplanatian a hairdrestet ClOwn the Street had :"removed from hit first-floor window the dummy head which, .according to the light, was reflected and tress-reflected in two Other windows until it fell at a tan- gent on to the Mirrored shcip, front. Free Speech seems to, be most practiced' by guestsho use' ,yoitr Ghostly Goings-on People Collect Almost Anything R, Barclay Warren OA. “-e- BEING TRUE DCA TRUST Luke 19;13-26 Memory SOOOlion that ill faithful hi that which is ;east faithful also in much:, and le" that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much- - Luke 16-.114 The parable Of the pounds, like that of the talents, present' that practical teaching that God expects us to make good use Olf whatever he has entrusted is us. If we do so there will be aid" ample reward, for faithful serv- ice will result in greater re- sponsibilities being conferred. Also both parable teach that the unfaithful servant will tape, It stern day of reckoning in which he will suffer loss. The parable differ in that in our lesson the servants start with equal op- portunities (each having one pound) and end with unequal rewards-one is ;given authority over ten cities and another over five, But in the parable of thie. talents the servants start with unequal opportunities (having five talents, two, and One), and the faithful ones, so far as the recorded words indicate, are given equal rewards. The 'par- able of the pounds suggests a gradation of future reward", in accordance With the degree of one's zeal and devotion to Christ. As a counterpart of this, a gradation of penalty is clearly taught (Luke 12 :47-48). The recognition of the stew- ardship of life presents daily problems. How should I use the money God gives me. Of course, I will give "the tenth to the Lord's work. In addition I wilt present offerings. But what about the remainder. Where shall I draw the line between. desirable living and extrava- gance. We are certain that God does not want us to live as the poorest of the poor in heathen lands, That is not the answer. But neither can we be reckless with what God has 'given 'us. John Wesley wrote many.books the sale of which brought him *. profit of $150,000. But he never spent more than $150 annually' on himself. When he died he left an estate valued at riot more than $50. A missionary to the Navajo Indians overheard a friend telling of a wedding. The bride had a friend who was a florist and she got all the flowers for $50. "Fifty dollars, just for flowers? And you call that a Christian wedding?" She was thinking of the needs of her Navajos for food and medicine -needs which a few cents woulit help to alleviate, Let us live simply and give all we can. 'WHAT'LL I DO WITH HIM?' - Human children aren't the only ones who make a monkey out of mama. Mother chimp at the London, England, 'zoo has been going round-and-round with baby. And sleepy-time is still hours away. What the Auto has Meant to Canada They call her locally "the old woman who lives for her shoes," and she's proud of the nickname. She's over seventy and has a unique collection of 700 pairs gf sheet, all, of historical inter- est, which are displayed in her Ohio home, Shoe - collecting has been her )10*Y for years. Every part of the world is re- presented by her collection, Says this ardent collector, to privileged callers who view the slides: "A collecting hobby like mine keeps you young," The queer crazes of collectors are constantly hitting the head- lines, Is there anything in the world that isn't collected by some enthusiast? Doctors agree with the Ohio woman that this magpie mania is good for us, but they might think a collection painstakingly made by a Kansas City man rather morbid, He goes about the United States and Europe col- lecting handcuffs, about 150 pairs of which now line the walls of his dining room. Some of them, he'll tell you, have been worn by men con- demned for murder. One was Worn by a murderer who, while fettered, to it, killed a warder. A Chatham man collected 700 bicycle lamps, some dating back to the hobby-horse, A Lowes- toft man has m or e than 100 varieties of beer mugs and 300 beer matt. An Australian mil- lionaire, Sir Edward Hallstrom, has a collection of 250 hats, but some years ago an American comedian, Ed Wynn, claimed to have• a collection of 800 hats of different styles. An ex-chef possesses 50,000 chickens' wish-bones and says his dearest wish is to double that number. But they're all in- tact - he's never broken one to make a wish! In 1927 more than 100,000 postal curios col- lected by Mr. A. Moreton, a re- tired post office official, were acquired by the Union of Post Office Workers to prevent them leaving Great Britain. A Surrey man made it his hobby to collect twigs which had grown into shapes resembl- ing prehistoric monsters, like* dinosaurs. He varnished the twigs, adding beads to repre- sent eyes and painting in scar- let mouths, and. then housed them in an inn of which he was the landlord. Fancy collecting tears shed by famous people! Mr. Alfred Gray, a former London piano' tuner, spent his retirement inducing celebrities to weep into tiny phials. He won't be happy un- til he has, filled at least 750. A phantom face on a televi. sion, screen flung a whole com- munity into a ferment recently. When the three Travers chil- dren complained to their Mother that the face'was spoiling their favourite Saturday morning programme, she switched the set OM But the ghost face remain- ed. It was the face of a staring woman, taking up two-thirds, of the TV screen. "We don't like her!" exclaimed the Travers hurried' back: to his Long Island home, •the set had been turned to the wall, Yet' the face was still lhe dealerthere 'who had soid-Mrs, Ttavers' -the set agitatedly 'phoned the 'local •TV Statical. They, cOuldnit explain the phe- nomenon, The manufacturers sent a„teChnician. "It can't hap- pen" he' said. The only possible explanation was „that freak electrons ,,had, burned the image into the lining of the, picture valve during a previons programme. But while the experts were trying to puz- zle it out, the face disappeared. inexplicable? Villagers of Crookhain ' Hampshire,, have been puzzled for seventy years by an equally strange manifes- tation-an , irremovable blood.. stain that appears on the bar- room wall fo the local Chequers Inn, One night in the year 1885 drinking cronies wagered a garnekeeper that he couldn't douse the bar, candle with a gunshot. With unsteady hand the gamekeeper cocked the gun . . . and missed. His besi friend, Jack Mackerel, fell wounded to the floor, his life blood spatter... ing the wall. Ever since then the stain has defied all attempts at erasute.. The wall has been painted and repainted, coated with sealer. The rusty red stain alWays re-. turns, At cine time the wall was stripped and replastered.. Even the brickwork behind the stain., was removed. But "Mackerel's memorial" still shows: Th'en* there is the baffling mystery of the water that "haunts" a little cottage near Trure-a pool of clear cool wa- ter that suddenly appears on the ,floor when the occupant's' backs are turned. The glicistly THE RIGHT WORD! "On the day on which my wedding occurred . ." "You'll pardon the correction, but affairs such as marriages, re- ceptions, dinners, and things of that sort 'take place,' It is only calamities which 'occur.' You See the distinction?" "Yes, I see. As I was saying, the day On which my wedding occurred . . ." Upmcl•clown to Preven' Peeking MUBBOO ' MEM OMO HOW ME000 0019 OMMOOBOOM 00013 ON000 0019000061 OMER MOO OEM MOW MOM= OMMOME 0m0 MOO MOO WOE0 00BOMOU0 UEOWE 01100 WOOMUMUOM 00E OUMOMI 000 20M OEOMO BOW arm cent of the milk in Canada, 74 percent of the cattle and 74 per- cent of the hogs. In Ontario they haul 95 percent of every- thing the farmer grows. -From an 'article by Jay Graham in The Imperial Oil Review. , Electridal 33, Large oil can CROSSWORD' . units 35. Fit one inside 9 B I d bt ed. another e n e 6 5 10 7 4 8 1 2 3 „ 12 3 14 16 IT ACROSS 1. Watering Place 4. Rent_ . . 7, Crill forth 12. Ottris. 13. Past , 14. Force 115. English letter ;10: Special right 18. Continent 20.. Cheese by tote 21, Strove against 25- Rind of bent 27. Three threflja 28. Cold and dathp 30, Tndiaii of Tierra. del Ftiegtk St l' riomtnid'ua failure , 34.,VObaliat 36. 81. )(Mink goat 59: Priteillitri.ebiti 4:0:Sttiiree 42. ''016,ficirth" gar 45. Ablatifriktint 43: weight" allowrinee 3. Annoying' i_ 5:1. Beverage 64. Once More 65. American general sr. Vinieh 57'. Sharp end' 55, StiPerlatiVe ending 19, Period,Of time: DOW' 1. Cut 20 • 2, 26 23 , 1 '2. 24" so 29 ' 33 , 37 str- 34 39 35 4f ,- 42 A ::7,-,:4;?...,:.,,:t:s. 4 ••'.:' `.6*... ... ',' . .%,t.,, ..it,. 1)A11CING' FtOlt THE QUEEN -- TheSe fantastic-looking "straw men" Were part of the dancing reception colmnittee Which greeted Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh' on their recent arrival at Kaduna, Nigeria. Top -photo 'shows a group. of natives in coStUineS of grass arid straw during one phase of the dance. LoWer photo shows' another group, of picturesque dancers, with their odd, "faceless," intricately designed straw c6i tuinel during another part of the dancei 45 44 43 PUZZLE 2. Out of date 19. Melodies 44. Scene of 22, Ill conflict 3. Helper 4. Fold over 'on 24. Thought 45. Prepared 5, Heron 2265:1317in)oir 47. Torn ii 49, Soft foOd hostilities e s. Self, 6, Laborer 29. Metal' thread 51, Kind of 7. Kind of at, SOdkt monkey poetry Anger;e • 52. Become 38. Easily 10. Small barrel managed 11. Before 41. Glossy sillt 17. Ancient Hindu 43. Natives of Scriptures Denmark 48. 47 a million a year. The motor ve- hicle industry, is Canada's second largest, topped only by pulp and paper. Like a new world in whirling motion, the auto industry has had a magnetic, effect on our economy, attracting a ring of satellites around it: finance companies which in 1953 loaned $725,545,000 to help Canadians buy, 640,512 new and used ve- hicles; and some 180 Canadian factories and shops, located in eight mainland provinces, which manufacture the 12,000 to 20,- 000 parts that go into autos and trucks. They absorb $308 million of the $588 million spent in 1953 by auto manufacturers for ma- terials. Other primary and secondary industries in Canada 'find the auto makers their biggest cus- tomers. Producers of petroleum, steel, glass, nickel, lead, r4ber and textiles benefit directly, Textile plants sell as much cot- ton cloth for car upholstery as they do for men's shirts. About half the rubber industry's out- put goes into automobile tires and tubes. In 1954 Canadians consumed nearly two and one-' half billion gallons of gasoline enough to send every Canadi- an than, woman and child on an individual 3,000-mile auto trip. As an employer, the automo- bile industry grew from small machine shops with a few hand' workers to plants with thou- sands working on mile-long as- sembly lines and in offices. It pays more than $130 million a year to the 33,000 Canadians in auto manufacturing plants. An- other 16,000 working in parts manufacturing plants in• 400 communities earn some $81 million a year. It is difficult to say precisely how many Canadians have found full and part-time jobs as a re- sult of the invention of the auto, but an estimate would be half a million - one in 12 of Can- ada's labor force - depend directly On the ante industry for their livelihood. In addition to auto p lant workers there are the wholesalers and retail- era of cars and trucks, of tires, tubes and other equipment, of gasoline, oil and grease. There are those that paint and repair autos; bus drivers, truck driv- ers, txi drivers and chauffeurs; motel and drive-in theatre em- ployees, and those who park, store, Ninth and polish cars, On the fringe are those 'who build highways, bridges and streets, the men who keep them hi. 'con- dition and those who tell the' material „to b n ild and repair highways. There are the high, way officials arid their staffs at the divic, provincial and nation- al levels - some 5,500 in On- tarid alone. Putting trucks On the toad and keeping them there is a Majet industry within the auto-. motiVe iiiduStry. Early in 1954 there were 825,176 commercial trucks in Canada worth a bill, sikui and a half dollar's. Some 150,060 Canadian§ listed theta= selves as truck drivers. Big highway trucks; tolling across the provinces like freight Cats, Were' trantperting one-fifth of the tonnage- carried by rail= WaYs, Fleet of smaller' vehicles carried everything froth Pattie to'_'tern ilaket, Mote than half. the PrOchiett of Canadian farms gO to' Market hi tracke. They deliver 1)6 Per- 49' 50' 51' "There was only one small cloud cal, the, ,horizon, a, cloud caused by the appearance on Ontario's dtitty roads of a strange, Contraption called the automobile." With those words, a grand -old man of Canada's automobile industry, R. S. Mc- Laughlin of Othawa, now in his 85th year, recalled recently the birth of the horseless carriage at the turn of the century. By 1905 when McLaughlin was gearing up the family car- riage company to produce the new. "contraption" there were Only 565 Cars in Canada and Motoring was considered an ad- venturous, ,sporty ;thing. In the U.S., the Ford and Cadillac com- panies were not .five years old and carriage-maket William Du- rant had 750 Buicks scheduled fOr production that year. R. E. Old's' one - cylinder Oldsmobile was commanding attention on the dirt and gravel highways. In England, Charles S. Rolls and Sir, Henry Royce were abciut ,te bring out their first RbIls-Royce, the "Silver Ghost." Toclaar.the- small cloud on the horse-and-buggy horizop has be- come an immense industry and the strange contraption on the dusty roads hat shaped itself into' mere' than two and a half million cars driven by Canadi- ans on asphalt roads and high- ways. With them are one mil- lion trucks, buses, motorcycles and tractors. Only 50 years af- ter' the car makers swung into production, one Canadian in six has an auto, and Canadians spend Mote each year -- two add one-half billion dollars - to buy and 'operate their cars than the country spends on na- tional defence, The immediate effect of the Motor Age ,in Canada was to link communities' with each other, blinging the country to city dwellers and the city to the country; to link provinces and regions by east-west travel and to Make all the United States a near-neighbor. Back in 1900 not one out of 100 urban people had a horse and buggy and families travelled by rail only on rate occasions. In 1956 they use an automobile to get to work, shop, visit, go to a show, take a. holiday or just to get out of the house and "motor" about. A continent has been laid at the feet -- or Wheels- of Canadians.• In the post-War world, the automobile has accelerated this revolutiOn in the Canadian way of life as half a million people Mind themselves mobile 'en, eotigh to Move , out to the sub- tilts from congested city areas. William A. Wecker, president' of General Motors, calls, it an "ex- plosion" in our cities, Out of the expresion's stroke has come a 066/let,. more eXparisive life in suburbia with its 'big shopping centres, playgrounds, gardens and varied community ties. In the 'Recess, the Ma, -Chine that Made it possible has &herded :trona the ltiktitY class to become a ilePestitY•. At the same thrie the auto- Motive industry hat loomed larger„and larger in Mir ecbrit inny. afes' of vehicles account for One-fifth of all retail bUsi- nett. thine in Canada. Vr6111 one Wageti.Watkt turning out a to every ihree days 50 Yeatt ago, there"are tie* 20 Inaintiadttiting plaids turning 'Out some 1,200 day close to halt v 53 52 55. 54 5*,. UPJr 4?„S ti 57 sa 1.4 iii tvei efsenititte On thls rl