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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1944-01-27, Page 21 eneileintealetatareenettereerlennineleeNtieeitatteeenenstainlannellteentellelletlelr In the Newsprint WV'o;i'Id Consolidated Paper Corporation Limited ranks, among the world's largest newsprintproducers and has had an outstanding financial record in recent years.. 1; Net current assets increased $13,833,957 in five years ended December 31st, 1942. 2. Corporation statements have shown no bank loans since 1939 compared with $19,403,625 on January 1st, 1932. 8. Net operating earnings in 1942 were equal to about three times bond interest require. menta. Consolidated Paper Corporation Limited 51/z55 First Mortgage Bonds due July 2nd, 1961 Payable in Canada, New York and Loudon, Eng. Denominations: $100, $500 and $1,000 Price: At the market, to yield about 6% Descriptive circular gladly forwarded upon request. 36 King Street rest �0 r Toronto ood, Gundy _e• Company Telephone: ELgin 4321 Limited THE WAR • WEEK -- Commentary on Current Events Land and Weather Against Allied Forces In March.. Toward Rome Two questions which for months hare intrigued, or frequently dis- turbed, the mind of the average American are why the Allies have been so slow in opening a Western trout, and why are we making such little progress against the Germans in the march toward Rome, says the Argonaut, San Fraustsco, The two famous reputable cor- respondents, Ernie Pyle in Italy, and William Philip Simms in Washington, have given the ans- wers to those questions. Shuns says that weather is hold- ing up the Invasion of France. "It is a known tact that from now un- til the end of March the weather in northern France and the Low Countries is abominable. When Marshal von leindenberg faced. the necessity of picking the open- ing- date for his final campaign in that region he chose Maroh 21, which was as early as that old gambler dared chance it. It may be, of courae, that General Eisen- hower will pick an earlier time to establish a bridgehead on the 'in- vasion coast,' but those who know the terrain best don't believe he will. Both ground and air are too full of water," invasion Time Set Nearly every military strategist agrees with this logic, and Simmo further says: "The Yanks and Bri- tish will first hare to cross the English C-hannel, They must carry tanks and gems and all the rest of their equipment with then. They must get ashore in the face of deadly resistance along the world's most powerfully fortified coast They must climb up on the beaches and hold them as they did at Salerno and Tarawa, but on a vastly larger scale and at far greater cost. And they must keep on ad'; arcing, and keep on by sea. To falter night be fatal. To bo defeated might cost us the war." That, the Argonaut believes, is why the Big Four --merles, Brit- ain, Russia and China—.agreed on e single program of strategy for the invasion, and selected General Eisenhower to execute it at a de- finite time. under definitely pre - agreed upon conditie^.s and cir- cumstances. War In Italy Tough Ernie Pyle, eapia ning :he slow- down in the Allied drive on Rome, bluntly says his: "The war In Italy is tough, The. laed erel the weather ars be:h s + It rains and i, ,tin; 5e _ . e. beg down and temperary heidges wash our. The co :ry s slot .salt' beautiful, ba ;ist as stock ugly hard to capture from the enemy. The hills rise to hieh ridges of al- most solid rock, 1 ou can't go around them ... so you hare to. go up and over. A mere nlateoh at Germans. well dug in on a high- roclesphed h13 tan hold out for a long time against :remeudous onslaught. 'Having come frees home so re- cently, I know you folks back there ars disappointed and petaled by the slow progress in Ealy. You wonder why we move forward so imperceptibly. You are inpatient for tis to get to .Rome. Well I ran tell you tele—tear troops are ens: as lmpa;tent far Roma as you. They al say su.h things as this: It was never this bad in Tunisia.' 'We ran into -a new brand of Krauts over here; 'Evers tray we :don't advance, la one day longer before we get home ` 'Our troops am living its a way almost inconceivable to you in the States. The fertil Meek valleys are knee deep in mud. Thansands at themen have not been dry for weft. Other thousands lie et night in the high mountains wi h the temperature below freezing and the thlu snow drifting over them. "They dig- into the stones and sleep in little chasms and behind rocks and in half caves. They live like men of prehistoric times, and a club would become them more than a machine gum. How they survive the winter misery at all is beyond us who have the oppor- tunity of drier beds in the warmer valleys. Path Is Tedious "It is not the tault of our troops, List Your Idle Equipment With Us THE ALISON MACHINERY COMPANY LIMITED 208 Simeon Street TORONTO 2 B. ONO c io hxtbtp= Value $788.0c, and cash awarde for original musical compost. Nona. Canadians of either sex under 33 years on March 1 1943, the closing date for entries. Junior Division opento coin. petitors under 16 who do not qualify for major prizes. For entry forms and full in- formation apply CANADIAN PERFORMING RIGHT SOC- IETY LIMITED, Royal Bath Building, Toronto. VOICE OF THE PRESS HUMAN PASTURAGE Parsley, spruce bark and lawn grass are hailed by a chemist as 'rateable sources of Vitamin 0. All right, we'll make the effort and eat that stuff they sprinkle on our boiled potatoes, but we'll he darned 11 we'll cut the lawn with our teeth or go out in the woods and gnaw trees. Windsor Star. NO JAP HUMANITY Japanese. airmen - aro not pro- vided with parachutes or other means for seeking safety, in the event of disaster is the air. The Sap is just as ruthless with his own fighters as he 4s with the enemy. Humanity as we know 1t finds no place in the Japanese heart, —Chatham Daily News, _o— VERBAL MONSTROSITY A newsreader on C.B.C. pro- nounced Christmas as "Xmas." Written out, Xmas has no :place in decent society. Pronounced as abridged it is a 'verbal monstrosity which comes oddly from an ag- ency intended to prousote, among other things, culture and good speech. —Ottawa Journal. FRANKLIN'S WAY Benjamin Franklin defended "yr' as a natural and perfectly understandable way of spelling "wife." Although Ben was yz in most things. he was yd of the mark on that one. —Fort Erie Times -Review). —0— FUTILE EFFORT Why should a man try to hide behind a woman's skirts when a woman herself cannot do it now- adays. nor of their direction, that the northward path is a tediots one. It is the weather and the terrain and the weather. "If there were no German fight- ing troops in Italy, if there were merely German engineers to blow up the bridges in the passes, if never a shot was fired at all, our northward march would still be slow. "No one who has not seen title mud, these dark skies, these forbidding ridges, and ghost -tike clouds that unveil and then quickly hide your killer, should have the right to be impatient with the pro- gress along the road to Rome.' Weather Will Break Soon And we do not believe that any- one who has not suffered that mud and squalor. which held up the great Allied drives to victory in World War I, should be too im- patient. either. Within a few weeks the weather will break in Italy, and with clear skies and drying terrain the Allies will move forward. tato Rome and ca to the Brenner Pass! F t,IAODS OLD COUGH ROMEO FOR ALL AGES r NO9r Gil SYR QUICK RELIEF' FOR COUGHS—COLDS BRONCHITIS -- ASTHMA WHOOPING: C:OUG�'i CATARRHAL ASTHMA''.,. SIMPLE SORE THROAT': DON'T DELAY - BUY A BOTTLE TODAY! 144 THE ROYAL BANK OF CANADA ANNUAL MEETING Morris W. Wilson, President, says any degree of political freedom- impossible under wholly planned economy. Challenges socialists to show how public would benefit by state monoply of banking. Sydney G. Dobson, Vice. President and General Manager, reports bank business at unprecedented levels. Assets reach new peak of over $1,500,000,000. The threat to the personal lib- erty of all Canadians, inherent in the plans of the socialists for the nationalization of Canadian Indu.e- try, was emphasized by Morris W. Wilson, President of The Royal Bank of Canada, at the bank's Annual Meetiug. Mr. Wilson reviewed the bre- mendous role Canada had played itt this . mightiest war of all time end the manner in which work- men, and enterprisers alike had co- operated in It. "Despite this fact," he said, "we are being told by all the publicity methods revolution- ary partisans can devise, that in order to win the peace we must change our entire economic sys- tem and launch out into new and untried paths, under new and in- experienced nexperienced leaders. The theor- ists and visionaries who preach these doctrines of an economic revolution may be thoroughly honest and sincere. But the fact remains that the principles they advocate can ouly lead, as a final and inevitable result, to a com- pletely regimented economy, and on this point I cannot do better than quote the Editor of the Lon- don Economist, a well-known writer of liberal views: . A wholly planned economy "is incompatible with any degree "of political freedom. The possibil- "ity of a _man's earning his. living "in his own way, without let or "hindrance, is the essential condi "tion of there being any freedom "of discussion, any freedom to op - "Pose. If more than a fraction of "the electorate come to depend for "their livelihood upon the tempor- ary masters of the mechanism of "the State—that is, upon the poll- "tit-tans—then oli"tit-tans—then democracy is at an ".end." "1 ani more convinced than ever that the menace of socialistic teaching is one which closely at- fects everyone in Canada in both his business and private life. "These advocates of a new order have an astounding scheme, which will result in nothing less than complete regimentation of Canada. As you know, one of their principal objectives, and the first plank in their platform, is to nationalize the banks. SOCIALIST MENACE "Naturally, we are interested in preserving our business, is which so many shareholders have invest- ed, and to which so many deposi- tors have entrusted their savings. But even more as citizens than as Tiny Atlantic Isle Is Strategic Spot A pinpoint of land in the South Atlantic, less - than 38 square miles in area, was disclosed by the Tanned States Army as one of the most vital spots in Allied strategy. It has served as a funnel dor shipping 5,000 planes to Africa. The War Department lifted the veil of secrecy from the role played by tiny Acension Island, a dot on the plane ferry route be- tween South America and Africa. Ascension is only one stop on One roue which the air transport command uses in its trans-Atlan- tic operations, but the depart- ment declared that probably no base has such strategic signific- nuce, Construction of Wideawake field on Ascension was started March 30, 1943, whet a detach- ment of Army engineers moved in and started working day and night on the pile of volcanic rock, cinders, dirt and one oasis Of vegetation on the mountainside. The work was completed in three months amid the greatest secrecy, Since war began, Great Britain has spent 50,660,000,000 in tate United States on supplies of all kinds. businessmen, we deplore the rise of this creed, because we firmly believe that implementation of the socialist plan would ruin this gen- eration and set Canada bank ten - furies, "It is as a citizen- as well as 9. banker that I put before you some further considerations to which I hope you will give your earnest thought. "The course of the socialist party In Canada has been charted for us in several books which make clear that nothing short of complete socialization of the means of pro- duction and finance will satisfy the party. That means domination of every phase of economic life, Including agriculture, labour and capital. Therefore, because we all fall into one or other of the classes, it means domination of every in- dividual. "What would the socialists achieve by nationalization of the banks? Their book on social plan. ring says that they will form one board of directors for the national back monopoly instead of the ten boards which now operate the com- Petlttva chartered banks. "Socialists literature suggests that access to the books of the bank and a consequent rupture of the confidential relationship that now exists between bank and de. positor, would be of inestimable value in determining taxation poli cies. But would this appeal to the depositor? "Furthermore, as we are organ- ized today, a prospective borrower may go from one bank to another if he fails to convince the first banker of his probity, ability and prospects; under the socialistic system, unless the prospective bor. rower could convince the state bank of the soundness of the project for which he sought to borrow money, and also that the transaction to be financed was in harmoay with soc- ialist party objectives, ho would be turned down and would have no other bank to look to for a loam Do you think that such a system would assure the borrower of as fair treatment as he now receives? "I believe the answer to these two questions, atteoting depositors and borrowers, is a positive 'No.' On the contrary, history and ex- perience lead us to expect that such a government monopoly of banking would lead to favouritism of party adherents. At the same time, we should witness a spread of that sterility of ideas and enter- prise which tends to accompany every human activity that nude it- self tself in a position of unchallenge- able power." PRIVATE BANKING BEST Mr. Wilson suggested that it was not simply due to chalice that banking the world over had con- tinued ontinued in private hands, but that the people and the Governments had considered it advisable from every point of view that banking should be free of political and par- tisan influences. He reminded his audience that Canadian banks wore already effectively controlled by the Bank of Canada and that fur- ther intervention by the Govern- ment in the banking business would, in his belief, be superfluous and would not be welcomed by the majority -who deal with the banks. Mr. Wilson again urged business to speak up on its own behalf. "Business will have only itself to Warne If, through inaction, it va- cates or fails to occupy fields of activity into which it later finds that public opinion has forced the Government to enter:" Mr, Wilson saw no reason for approaching the post-war era with any defeatist attitude and declar- ed that the same energy, initiative rind selflessness which had devel- oped in the war years, could be used for constructive purposes aft- er the peace, in all plans for the rehabilitation of devastated countries the United States and Canada would be looked to as leaders, he said. POST-WAR REHABILITATION I personally believe that large outright gifts of food, raw mate. teals, finished goods and machinery to backward and devastated coun- tries will in the long run, and even olroni the inoet selfish point of View, not only contribute most to human welfare, ,but both in :the short and long run be in the tett interests of those nations which ca afford to make the gifts. "If this Is too much to expect of human beings, in their present stage of development, the alterna- tive must be loans on a vett' large scale on long and easy terms, or probably a combination ofboth loans and gifts." GENERAL MANAGER'S ADDRESS. Sydney. G. Dobson, Vice Prose. dent and General Manager, in re- - viewing tite bank's Balauee Sheet said that the volume of business passing through the bank's books had been unprecedented during the past year. Total assets now ex- ceeded $1,500,000,000, an all-time high in the history of the bank. He reviewed at length the part played by the banks in assisting the country's war financing. "There appears to be a"Miscon- ception in the minds of some people that the banks purchase a sub- stantial portion of the Government public issues and increase their earnings in this manner. This is, not the case. During 1943 two Vic- tory Loans were issued, realizing $2,692,000,000. The 4th Victory Loan floated in May last was -pur- chased by 2,069,000 subscribers and the 6th Victory Loan in October, by over 3;900,000. in neither loan did the banks buy bonds for their own account. While there is natur- ally some change in the holdings of the original subscribers, rel- atively only au unimportant amount found its way into the banks. "In common with the other. banks, we have done everything possible to make these Victory Loans a success. Managers have • encouraged customers to subscribe or to increase their subscriptions. All depositors considered capable of subscribing for an amount of $50 or more have been written to and advertisements have been in- serted in the press urging deposi- tors to subscribe to the full extent of their ability" EARNINGS MODEST Despite the tremendous increase in the business of the bank, earn• ings were modest, said Mr. Dob- son. "I think that any fair-minded person will agree that the $2,100,- 000 paid to shareholders last year was a very modest amount to be paid to the proprietors of the bank, when we consider the size of the organization and the tre- mendous amount of business it is necessary to handle in order to earn that amount. Any other type of business working with assets of one and a half billion dollars would have been able to earn for shareholders a considerably larger return. If we consider this yield in relation to our two main earn- ing assets, loans and Investments, we find that the dividend paid to our shareholders was leas than 1/5th of one cent on the dollar on the total of these two items, a very trifling handling charge, to say the least. I have never heard the claim made that Canadian bauks are not efficientiy run, therefore the answer must be that the profit in banking la mann' Mr. Dobson reported that the progress made by the bank's - South American branches had beeu particularly gratifying and that its foreign branches Fere in a position to be of practical aid in promoting post-war trade. The General Manager remarked on the efficient manner is which the bank'a staff had dealt with tremendously increased business and provided new wartime services despite enlistments, and paid tri buts to the enthusiasm and ability of the many young women who have joined the bank eine° the war began. 2,123 ENLISTMENTS "The voluntary response of 'our staff to our country's call has been magnificent", said Mr. Dob- son, "and there are now 2,123 men in the armed forces. Of this num- ber 2,009 were employed in Can- ada, which is equivalent to 69% of our Canadian staff of military age at the outbreak of war. "2* these men the bank pays a portion of the dleference be- tween their bank salary and sera vice pay, They retain their mem- bership la the Pension Fund Society, and the bank pays their group iusnratice premiums. We shall welcome •tlteut ' when the time comes for them to return to their duties in the bank. "Unlsippily the number of Cas ualtius has doubled since I„last reported to you; 67 of our young men have now given their lives in the cense. Their names, which WE hold in honour, appear in the printed record of this meeting, and we extend aur heartfelt sym• malty to their families.” REG'LAR FELLERS—Attaboy aosi-vM BUSTED BJf 1 GA.4'1' SEE 514OVEIReSANOSb' J'ESI TO GeT A BANK ROLL TOGETHER, . By GENE BYRNES