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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1943-03-18, Page 6THE SEAFORTH NEWS THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 1943 A COUNTRY EDITOR SEES WRITTEN SPECIALLY FOR THE WEEKLY NEWSPAPERS OF CANADA 4 AN GRIENDLAT, Editor of the SUN 'WAFT CURRENT SASRATEN EWAN 1ri hardening training. The course was 'very wet and heavy, having a small creek running through it, with swamp ground, and it demanded strength, stamina, and determination, The three teams went over high barricades with pack and gun, helping each other as necossarY, crossed over the creek on swinging ropes, ploughed through swamp ground, crawled through tunnels in the ground, crossed heavy barbed wire entanglements, and went through several other equally diffi- cult barriers, THE ECONOMIC OUTLooK three alternatives ,because the Amer- As they made their way through ican market "ran away fast." They these entanglements and barricades, "Price ceiling, squeeze, control," could either hold rigidly to the price other officers and men hurled ex - That all sounded brackish and puzzl- ing to me. Most likely it (lees to yomIceiling', which meant that most of the plosives down among them. While cattle would go to the U.S.A.. with these explosives probably were not So I talked with Economist Kenneth , little left for the Canadian of sufficient power to maim the men W. Taylc,r, secretary of the Wartime ' housewife; the price eould be put up they were heavy enough to throw up Prices and Trade Board, seated in to the American level, which means clouds of water and mud over them, his ordinary looking office, and nae, the ceiling would break down; on-- and went off with very loud reports. gazing directly at the Peace Tower , an. o this they decided th do—hold This was to train the men' to become on Parliament Hill, (Since this art- the price in Canada and control ex- oblivious to shot and shell falling isle was first written, Mr. Taylorhas Ports. The price was put up a little, ' among them. been appointed Foods Administrator RS successor to Hon. j. G. Taggart,) I had learned the day before about the necessity of a check on strong inflationary forces which are inevit- able in warthne; that from Aug. 1, 1939, to April 1, 1941, our cost of living index had risen from 100 to 107,7 due to depreciation of the Ca- nadian dollar, higher taxation, in- crease in hitherto low farm prices; that Canada had put a ceiling on goods and services, on wage in- creases and introduced the cost of living bonus, and that, as a result, from Nov. 1, 1941, to Nov. 1, 1942, our index rose only 2.3 points, from 115.4 to 117.7, while in the same period in the United States it had jumped 9.7 points, And in the last war with only a quarter of the pres- ent resources devoted to production of war materials the Canadian index hopped up 20.1 points. Out of a maze of information give you merely these few meaty figures, because I, too, hate statis- tics; they sometimes frighten the ordinary man. Price Control in Brief "What can I tell them in a nut- shell, Mr. Taylor?" I asked, and he replied, "In our first year we main- tained stability of prices with a mini- figure for 1943." Some bacon, some German planes just off the coast mum of evasion and interference porkehops! ' I where we were. with nornial functioning of industry I got back to economics in asking 1 NewspaPer reports that night said and trade . . . but, remember the how the ceiling benefits the farmer. that an English plane had shot down battle agairist inflation isn't won yet. It does, he says, in a number of Itwe P.W. 190 German planes off the The supply of eivilian goads will be- ways. For instance the ceiling on south coast, and that the pilot of one come shorter operaiiii cost, will feeds and fertilizers is below Ameri- •had bailed out and was captured. rise as trained manpower for civilian can prices; on wire fencing, etc., Then followed a demonstration of industry becomes scarcer and turn- where available. "You know," he visual system of signals by lights, over of goods lower. This is all, of mused, "a short time ago I was out I and although it was a very bright course, a direct indication of our at the farm where rny son was work- day, messages were exchanged with country's war effort." Much simpler ing, and I was shown an old stack of / distant paints by means of flashing to understand, isn't it? So gather bills and I noticed that that farmer liehts. around in back of the drug store or paid $70 a ton for middlings back in - out in the barn and hear a little 1918-19. Today the same thing is The party moved onto a point on too, at the same time. I As soon as each man had coniplet- He admitted frankly there was ft ecl the course, he threw himself on difference of opinion "within" for a the ground/and fired his rifle at fig - while and it got a little out of hand, ure targets, his score being kept. but, 'remember this, the western This trains them to be able to hit the cattle growers will probably get in ' enemy after violent exertion. After seeing this course, there was 1920," a demonstration of 3 inch mortars, throwing both high explosive and smoke bombs against a bank some Generally the demand for food. is distance away. Standing beside these straining our resources, he pointed mortars it was possible to watch the out, There is a heavier demand over- course of these shells in their are seas; the U.S. is sending more to high in the sky until they exploded Russia, less to Britain; all our sal- on the distant bank. mon pack is going to the Mother I There was an interesting episode Country, besides milk products, 1 during this demonstration which was canned meats and what not. And on not on the proframme, A Spitfire was flying back and forth, going out of sight over the sea, and then re- turningas if to look us over. Each time this Spitfire came into view, the demonstration had to be halted to prevent damage to the plane. Finally after a longer absence than usual over the sea it returned, meat; wants it. The shortage on pork , but this time made a double roll supply is 'deliberate" and the result , over us before flying away home. is a greatly increased demand for This roll is a sign of jubilation fre- beef; much pork is going overseas, quently given when a pilot downs an but (and he interjectde) "if the De- enemy plane, and a short time later pertinent of Agriculture's progress we were told that this plane had in - is realized, 8 million hogs will be the tercepted and brought deivn two 1943 the best average price since Food Demands Strain Resources top of it all agriculture has a labor problem. We came back to meat for a min- ute add he explained thta our beef shortage in the east is relative—not basic—as compared to the west, The industrial eastern workingman is making More money, eating more more. Mr. Taylor explained that as man- ufacturers' and other costs creep up slowly, labor became restless and other maladjustments slipped in, civilian production had to be stream- lined to save metals, time, etc. Then the eniphasis shifted to problems of supply as Singapore and the Dutch East Indies fell and the submarine -warfare, he warned, will be seriously reflected in the supply of civilian goods for the summer of 1943. Ey urging of the board before- hand, coupled with the good sense of business men, quite a good supply of raw materials including wool and such commodities had been laid in, though we were caught short on rubber. Then we reached the point where, while not actually acute, we saw a shortage of limited supplies, with buoyant pressure, increased purchasing power, etc., and presto: first thing we knew we had rationing starting with sugar, tea and coffee. Sugar Shortage Explained Here's something will interest you. Out of a normal consumption annually of 500,000 tons of sugar we imported 400,000, growing the difference in Canada, half of it in Alberta. With shipping acute Canada agreed through British -American ar- rangement to forego enough sugar to save 100,000 tons of shipping yearly; later things became worse and we agreed to lop off another 50,000 tons of shipping space. That's why, folks, you're getting less sugar. Of course we could grow more in Alberta, say; it's a profitable crop, but remember freight rate costs and suppose you had to move it out to Winnipeg you would have to Meet a normally lower price structure. Could be done, naturally, hut only by use of heavy subsidies. Well, how about coffee? The diff- erence in consumption with us would be saving two shiploads only, but with the Americans, who use more of it, it would amount to 40 ship- loads saving, but then the board feels we cannot treat our consumers any better than the Americans. Then I hitched up my genuses, ers, started asking about agricultural Arriving at our destination, we prices and problems, and Mr. Taylor were shown the training of men who opined there was plenty of difficulty were qualifying as commandoS. in reconciling beef, butter, whole Three teams from different brigades milk products, etc. Well, how about went through the course that, morn - beef? They were faced, he said, with ing, a course -which is part of" the 531 a tom" Maldistribution Avoided in Goods Price ceiling, the Board holds as Preventing inequitable distribution coming from uncontrollable scarcity of goods. The fear that business can- not operate under rigidity of the set-up he thinks groundless. A lot of the trouble is not price control but in businesses such as those which handle automobiles, etc. That's easy to see through. Total war, he holds, is not achiev- ed until all resources not necessary to satisfy the minimum of essential needs of the civilian population is devoted to war production. He arg- ues that we must accept this all in the proper spirit, because strong in- flationary forces tend to produce stronger deflationary trends when the country's economy is reconvert- ed to peacetime production. It would bring mass unemployment, much less 'demand for farm products and low price levels. And, "The serious prob- lem of post-war will not all be elim- inated by prevention of inflation, but it will certainly facilitate the solutions and help stop any prolong- ed post-war depression." I hope you're not weary of pon- derous economics. There's something brighter coming next week, I hope. Commando Training Is Strenuous By Walter It. Legge. Of all the demonstrations which the Canadian Editors saw in Eng- land, probably none was more real- istic or thrilling than that given by the 3rd Canadian Division A.L.C. Training School. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day when we set out in our bus in the early morning for this demon- stration. One of the places through which we passed on our way was a port which before the war was the terminus of a ferry' service to France. As we went through this place, the sirens gave air raid warn- ing, but we saw nothing of the raid - the coast where there were high white cliffs, to see a commando raid- ing party in action.' In this demonstration it was sup- posed that a troop of the school had been ordered to destroy a radio dir- ection finder station on the French Coast, protected by a high cliff and lightly defended by the enemy. The time was supposed to be night. These two Canadian airmen wereCANADIANS CHASED ROM1VIEL ' Afrika Korps in retreat, The National Film Board's latest dim in the Canada Carries On series, "Pincers On Axis Part of a bomber crew which flew with the air forces, keeping Rommel's Europe," gives a full report of the North Africa operation, from the landing of the vast 'United Nations force to the race across the desert after Rommel's fleeing arm. lmno Hance of the move to the United Nations offensive, in its relationship to the struggle on the Russian front is dram atieally presented. • The Royal Navy lands the troops at the foot of the cliff and the party proceeds over the beach to make the raid, making as little noise as poss- ible. The men scale the cliffs and the raiding section goes inland to "des- troy the radio station. One party clears the building and seeks a pris- oner anti papers of value to our in- telligence. The noise awakes the en- emy defence, and the raiders with- draw under cover of smoke and the fire of their' own men. That is a brief outline of the dem- instration. First three boats which landed we were tad were some that took part in the Dieppe Raid. tie scaling of the cliff by ropes and the manner in which the ropes were tak- en to the top of the cliff were most interesting. Then some supposed casualties were brought down on these same ropes, and a prisoner who was inter- related on the shore. To show the detail in this manoeuvre, the men selected to act the parts of prisoner and interrigator, were, both able to talk German, and carried out that part of the show in that language. How the party makes the descent of the cliffs, even bringing away the ropes used, and the withdrawal to the boats while protected by rifle fire, were carried out in an admirable manner. The boats put out to sea to com- plete the demonstration, but were called back to shore to give the edi- tors a chance to mingle with the boys of the troop and to talk to them. After such an interesting and thrilling show, we were glad to have a chance to talk to the men, and soon groups in animated conversa- tion were formed on the shore. We found the men unusually keen, \ strong and enthusiastic about their work. Among those I talked to were Lloyd Backwell of Waterloo, Que., Lieut. J. St. Jacques, of Quebec City, Clarence Lynch of Moncton, N.B., Harvey Daley, of Bathurst, N.B., George Williamson, of Camp- belltown, N.B., and Francis Bryant of Dorchester, &IL The morning was brought to a conclusion with a delikhtful lunch, served in the open, on top of the cliffs, in a scene of overwhelming beanty. From this point a magnific- ent view of the sea, white cliffs and green country spread itself before us. I was assigned to a table presid- ed over by Brig. K. G. Blockader of Montreal, and also at that table was Col. V. M. Hugman, also of Mon- treal. We learned during the meal that the last time a lunch had been serv- ed at that spot, some Messerschmidts had come over and machine-gunned the gathering. We did not let that spoil our appetites, and Mr. Napier Moore, one of our party, remarked that if they came over this day, they would break a lot of dishes. We might not have been so care- free earlier that morning if we had 'kno'w'n then that the cliffs over which v7e were climbing were heav- ily mined, and that if we had stepp- ed on a hidden mine, we would have been blown to pieces. All we could think of was the wonderful demonstration we had witnessed, which Wowed the train- ing the embryo Commandos go through, and which can only be pro- perly understood by seeing it in. practice. Fewer Applications 1— Iiiiiiicationfi for old age petitions and mothers' allowances show a marked decrease for the &Eli two months of this year, es compared with the same period a year ago, ,it was. revealed at the March meeting 6f the Board held last Thursday. Only four applications were presented, bringing the total so far in 1943 to fifteen, as compared with thirty-eight last, year. Better times are given as the chief reason. Of the fifteen ap- plications dealt with at the January, February and March meetings only one was for mother's allowance. Two members of the hoard, John L. Me - Ewan of Turnberry and William Archibald of Tuckersmith, were un- able to be present last week owing to road conditions, Goderich Signal - Star. ounter Check Book We Fire Selling Quality Books Books are Well Made, Carbon is Clean and Copies Readily. All styles, Carbon Leaf and Black Back. Prices as Low as You Can Get Anywhere. Get our Quotation on Your Next Order. The Seaforth News SEAFORTH, ONTARIO. 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