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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1938-06-23, Page 6Commentary on the Highlights of the Week's News MAN OF THE HOUR—Captain An- thony Eden. who resigned Febru- ary 29 as British Foreign Secretary because he could not tolerate the Government's policy of negotiating at that time with the dictators, is looked upon by many as a knight- in-shining-armer-an-a-white-horse. A deliverer. The ideal Britisher in- va:•nate. For several months following his resignation Anthony Eden kept strictly in the background, leaving the field clear for his former Chief, Prime Minister Chamberlain, to put his theories into practice. But now, coincidental with a rise of popular feeling against the Govern- ment's policies (as they are work- ing out in Spain, for instance), he is emerging from his retirement, may step into the arena again. As a potential British leader, Eden has tremendous drawing -pow- er. Should he then once more take up the cudgels in defense of the League of Nations and collective security, he would carry a large percentage of the British popula- tion with hit DAY -AND -A -HALF WEEK -END — A progressive businessman in one of our more up-and-coming Western Ontario towns is suggesting to the local branch of the Retail Merch- ants' Association that shops and places of business close sharp at 12.30 Saturday noon of each week instead of keeping open till all hours Saturday night. He would have a national half -holiday pro- claimed for every Saturday after- noon and a day -and -a -half week -end for the whole population. Farmers in the surrounding area could do their week's shopping and visiting on Friday night instead. Tired clerks and business people would have a chance to rest up before Sunday and be able to come back refreshed to start their next week's work. \Ve believe that our progressive businessman has something. It is to be hoped that his suggestion will be noticed, taken up and acted up- on. WHAT ITALY WANTS—The au- thoritative Italian newspaper Gior- nale d'Italia setting forth Italy's stand in the Spanish embroglio de- clares: "No conflict of interests di- vides or can divide Italy and Spain, who by defending freedom in the Mediterranean are defending their independence as nations. Only com- By Elizabeth Eedy Pieta and full mastery of the Medi- terranean can permit one and the other to develop its social and eco- nomic energies." Which doesn't exactly fit in with Great Britain's program in the Modit?rranean, we would say. BACK TO THE WILDS•—History tells us that this country originally belonged to the Indians. Then the French took it away from them, and the English tools it away from the French. The Indians, once a fierce and powerful race, became to a certain extent a subject people, living in "reserve" areas. The Indian problem today in Canada is becoming increasingly hard to deal with. A kind of pseu- do -civilization has been imposed on the Indians by their close contact with white people; tuberculosis is taking a terrible toll of Indian lives; inroads by white trappers and hunters have almost destroyed their livelihood, the hunting and trapping by which Indians used to support themselves. Constructive suggestions for dealing with the Indian problem were advanced in the House at Ot- tawa ttawa last week by Superintendent - General of Indian Affairs Crerar. Plans, he said, are already under way in the Northwest Territories to set aside large areas where In- dians may pursue their ancient vo- cation of trapping and hunting un- disturbed ndisturbed by the white man. He would advocate also that efforts be made to train Indians as guides and forest workers, park attendants and to teach them woodcraft and beadwork. NEW PACT MOOTED—Under con- sideration at the present time is a pact of mutual assistance between France and Turkey. On the sur- face this may not appear to be very important, but should an agreement be reached, it would provide France with a contact with her powerful ally, Russia, through the Dardan- elles, should the north route be- tween France and the Soviet Union be blocked by Germany in the event of hostilities. The treaty would also serve to link France more strongly with the Little Entente (Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Roumania) and the Bal- kan. Entente (Turkey, Greece, Rou- mania and Yugoslavia), all of which countries Germany and Italy are trying to attach to the Rome-Ber- Iin axis. ad', s +F�•�.Vwre s Fall Wheat Only Slightly Below Year Ago Dominion Bureau of Statists Report Indicates. Spring Wheat and Coarse Grains Show Improvement. Condition figures for all field crops in Canada at the end of May were all close to normal and, with the exception of Fall wheat, were well above the condition figures at the same time last year, the Domi- nion Bureau of Statistics reports. Fall wheat prospects in Ontario are only slightly below those of a year ago, while Fall rye conditions in the Prairie Provinces are notab- ly better than in 1937. Spring wheat and coarse grains are showing a considerable improvement over their condition at this date a year ago, as a result of more normal moisture conditions in the Prairie Provinces, including the grass - plains area which last year was so markedly affected by drought. Pasturage Better Pastures and forage crops are greatly improved in the West, and are considerably better in Ontario and Quebec this year in the ab- sence of an open Winter which re- sulted in Winter -killing a year ago. In Ontario, the bulk of the Spring grain was planted from 10 days to two weeks earlier than last year, and is now in about average con- dition. Germination has been good and most fields show an even stand. Fall wheat has made excellent growth except in Western Ontario where quite a few fields are report- ed a little thin and patchy. Present prospects, however, indicate an al- most average yield. Old alfalfa fields were badly Winter -killed. Other hay and clover, and new seedings of alfalfa are generally making satisfactory growth. Pas- tures are good for this time of year, al High Death Rate From Pneumonia The slight decline in pneumonia mortality in tate last fifteen years is insignificant, compared with the decline in deaths from such commu- 0 Capsules Reduce Accident Hazard May One Day Be Used By Mo- torists to Guarantee Safe Driving --Improve Vision It may not be long before an au- tomobile driver will swallow a cap- sule to help keep huts out of motor- ing accidents at might. That procedure was hinted at in experiments reported in an Ohio Medical Journal article. The capsule is filled with caro- tenein-oil, a potent source of vita- min A. Vitamin A improves vision in the dark, reducing eye strain and fatigue, two big causes of motor smash-ups. Use of the capsule as "safe driv- ing medicine" was indicated indi- rectly by the experimenters: Dr. Ralph C. Wise, eye specialist of Mansfield, 0., and Dr, O. H. Shet- tier of the medical department of the Westinghouse Electric Com- pany. Relieves Eye Fatigue The Ohio Journal article on the Wise-Shettler work was devoted entirely to the primary concern of the experiments—relieving eye fa- tigue among certain types of in- dustrial workers and thus improv- ing the workers' general health and capacity for work. The article reported that by giv- ing the workers three carotene -in - oil capsules daily, vision was so improved that the efficiency of col- or -matching inspectors in a mer- chandising plant was increased more than 75 per cent. Improves the Health As a by-product of the tests, the article said, the ea,erimenters dis- covered an appreciable improve- ment in the workers' health. Another by-product, the doctors disclosed in connection with the ar- ticle, was the capsules' effect on night driving. A number of employees, he said, reported that whereas they had dreaded night driving prior to tak- ing the capsules, they found motor- ing no longer a strain after using the medicine. nicable diseases as tuberculosis and diphtheria, Dr. A. H. Sellers, Medi- cal Statistician of the Ontario De- partment of Health, told delegates to the Ontario Health Officers' As- sociation's 24th annual convention in Toronto last week. "The death records," he pcinted out, "make it quite clear that pneu- monia is quite prevalent through- out Ontario. As a.cause of invalid- ism and death, it far exceeds all the communicable diseases of child- hood, and very few acute conditions have such a high death rate." Pneumonia, he stated, ranked fourth among the chief causes of death in Ontr-io, with 60 per cent. of all pneumonia deaths occurring at home. Volcano Drives Native Insan Germans Suggest Economic Empire Papers Cite British Treaties As Example for Balkan Areas Two German newspapers are urging the campaign for Reich economic hegemony in the rich Balkans and Danubian Basin be furthered by according "domin-_ ion" status to those areas under a - system of accords similar to those evolved for the British Common- wealth of Nations by Imperial Conferences of the past. The Berliner Boersen Zeitung, criticizing the "incomprehension" of the democracies of "problems" facing Czechoslovakia's Sudeten Germans and other Southeastern European issues, said the Balkans and the Danubian Basin must be tied to the Reich just as the sev- eral Dominions are linked with Greta Britain. With Preferential Tariffs The newspaper Germania, in suggesting an economic plan in which the equivalent of a° colon- ial empire would be achieved by preferential tariffs modelled after the British Empire's economic agreements, contended that the Reich and Italy should play the central role. Enjoying primary links with them would be Hun- gary, Yugo -Slavin, Bulgaria, Greece, Albania, Spain and the Spanish colonies. On the border of the economic "commonwealth" would stand Poland, Rumania, Turkey and Japan. Another Dies of Fright When Six -Day Eruption in Philip- pines Reaches CIimax Smoke and flames shot from Ma- yon volcano in the Philippines with great violence last week, terroriz- ing the populace of Alhay Province and causing the death of one man through fright. The sixday eruption of the 7,000 - foot peak mounted in intensity, causing fear that the climax of the volcano's activity was yet to come. Reports from the village of Pawa said one man there died of fright while the sight of the flaming vol- cano, which had been quiet for 10 years, had driven another man in- sane. Earthquakes Accompanied After a night of close-up obser- vation, Rev, Miguel Selga, director of the Manila Weather Bureau, ex- pressed apprehension that the acti- vity of the crater might be graver than at first was indicated, Light earthquakes accompanied the rumb- lings from the crater. More than 10,000 villagers of the area 200 miles southeast of Manila have vacated their homes and have sought safety from the lava flow from the volcano which paused the death .of 1,200 people in an erup- tion in 1814, Plan Would Shift Half Population Within 72 Hours NEXT WEEK IN THIS PAPER A NEW FEATURE WILL START RE,psr ?U Li TEN1 GI? Snappy Microphone Gossip. About the Wee c's Radio Programs and Personalities . . . . By Freddie Tee WATCH FOR IT ! TI -IE WORLD AT LARGE CANADA THE EMPIRE of the CANADA Five Kinds of Wolves The Sault Star says there are three kinds of wolves in Algoma —the timber, the brush and the coyote. What about the other two —the human wolf and the wolf at the door? — St. Thomas Times - Journal. The British Government and the railway companies have worked out a plan under which 3,500,000 peo- ple could be moved at least 50 miles from London by rail in 72 hours, Geoffrey Lloyd, Under-Secre- tary to the home Office, told the House of Commons last week. A plan for reception of such re- fugees, in the event of an emer- gency, and their disposal in rural areas, also was drawn up, said Mr. Lloyd as be terminated tor the Gov- ernment a debate on air raid pre- caution,. Bomb -Proof Shelters Earlier Sir Samuel Hoare, 1-lonie Secretary, revealed details of other preparations to protect populations of large cities. He stated trench and dug -out air raid shelters accent- modating up to 1,500,000 people could be built hi London's open spaces. Itis personal opinion, formed af- ter consultation between Home Of- fice experts and observers of severe bombings in Barcelona and other Spanish Government cities, Sir Samuel said, was that it was better to disperse the population of a raid- ed city in numerous small shelters than to try to eonapntrate thein le vast underground consul,,* lova It Goes Often, Anyway An Ontario dean asserts that coining of the Canadian five -cent pieces "was a curse to the Church." Still, it may be said for the nickel that it goes to church oftener than the bigger coins or dollar bills.—Montreal Gazette. Not So Far From War The real point is that Canada is not so far away from war dan- gers as the more complacent Canadians imagine. Even in the Great War an attempt was made to blow up a factory in Windsor. That was just a taste of what might be expected in the way of incidents in these days of improv- ed ways of killing people—Wind- sor Daily Star. Why Not Cut Sales Tax? It has been pointed out that the Canadian. National Railways sys- tem pays about $5,000,000 annual- ly in sales tax. In other words, the amount may be reckoned as part of the deficit met through taxation. The sales tax is also a substantial item in the cost of goods purchased by school boards -'and other municipal bodies. if it cannot be abolished it ought at least to be reduced from the pres- - ent high level.—Woodstock Sen- tinel -Review. Hit -and -Run Cowards Six hit-and-run accidents, one death and four persons injured during the week -end: That is a pretty Monday morning reflection for any so-called civilized com- munity to get of itself. How long is Ontario going to allow it to go on? How many people have to die unattended in roadside ditches be- fore public opinion moves against this most contemptible of cow- ards? Where do we draw the line between a man who deliberately murders and one who, knowing he has injured another, sneaks off to let him die, so inhumanly, perhaps needlessly ?—Toronto Globe and Mail. haps to help General Franco in some demonstration against the French frontier. This • state of things is only to be ended if France admits Italy's right to in- tervene in Spain while forbidding herself the mildest of counter- measures. The logical and suffi- cient answer to this is obvious enough. If Signor • Mussolini con- siders that France is "intervening" dangerously in the Spanish war he has the remedy of declaring for genuine intervention on all sides. France, Britain, and all. the peaceable States of Europe would be overjoyed to see all "volun- teers" withdrawn from Spain, all supplies of war material stopped. There is not much doubt that the civil war would end quickly enough if its conduct were Ieft to the Spaniards themselves. But if Italy will not agree to non-in- tervention then she should have no right to complain even if the in- tervention of other Powers were on a scale to match her own. Our Canadian "Cities Another thing that might well be standardized throughout the Dominion is the population re- quired before a community may be incorporated as a city. For many years an Ontario town could become a city if it possessed a population in excess of 10,000, and it has been repeatedly sug- gested that Brockville should take advantage of that stipulation and get out of the ranks of the towns in which she has been situated since 1832. Within recent years, however, the provincial lawmakers have raised the standard, and 15,- 000 is the population now requir- ed of a community before it may legally attain. cltyhood. At that rate, it appears that Brockville will have to wait for some years before it joins the other cities of the Province. But in Manitoba a place may still become a city when it has 10,000 or over. In Alberta, a city means a community of 5,000 or more, and in British Columbia it is actually the law that any place with 100 male inhabitant s may become incorporated as a city. ---Brockville Recorder and ' Times. The EMPIRE "Sauce for the Goose . - . " If the Spanish war ends with a victory for the insurgents while the Czechoslovak question is still in the balance, Franco --will find herself faeed not only with the Getman menace to her ally but with an Italy able and willing to rai:,e all sorts of trouble in the `leclitcrrrmean, to cut the sea a.,61c4 to the F+'cnPh' colonies, per - Famous S'k: 11 Is Restored to Body VIENNA.—The skull of Franz Joseph Haydn, eighteenth century Austrian composer, is to be re- stored to the rest of the body, from which it was separated 129 years ago. Mayor Hermann Neu- bacher has ordered the skull, for years the property of the Vienna Men's Singing Society, returned to the resting place of the body in the Burgenland town of Eisen- stadt. Haydn died in 1809 at the age of 77. Two days after his funeral the skull was stolen from his coffin. According to an old Yorkshire superstition, cutting a child's nails during the first year of his life will cause him to grow up a thief. British Films Try Comeback $8,750,000 Will Be Spent In Effort to Win Markets— Filming Gilbert & Sul- livan in Colors Pinewood Studios (Iver, Bucks) has announced that £1,750,000 ($8,- 750,000) will be spent on films there in the next few months. This means work for 2,000 people until the end of October. Behind the announcement lies a "bigketspush" to establish British films firmly on the world's mar - Although Pinewood was only completed 18 mouths ago with cries that it would never be a suc- cess the company behind it may prove the real pioneers of a come- back in British films. The most expensive films will be a colored version of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Mikado" costing £200,- 000. Work will start on that within the next two months, and it will be followed by "Yeoman of the Guard," involving another £100,000. "There is a boom comiug, and we are ready for it. Our studios are capable of producing any film, no matter how ambitious it may be. "It is now the finest studio in the country and in many respects su- perior uperior to Hollywood." Chemist Serves As Caterpillar Now, instead of carefully guard- ing millions of caterpillars, pro- viding them with bushels of mul- berry leaves and waiting patient- ly for the preverse creatures to spin their silk -covered cocoons, the chemist takes a short-cut and turns plant material into "silk" without an intermediary. The mulberry leaf consumed by the silkworm contains cellulose, the principal raw material used in the manufacture of rayon. But the fibres of silk and rayon are quite different chemically. The chemist chooses the spruce tree and cotton plant as his source of highly purified cellulose. The silkworm is also a chemist, but it changes cellulose into a filament that is chemically a pro- tein compound, extruding through two organs called spinnerets. This makes several important differ- ences in the end products. One is that silk demands different dyes than rayon in order to achieve best results. Another im- • portant difference is that while nothing can be done to govern the size of fibres spun by the worm, rayon can be spun any de- sired size from filaments finer than silk to others more coarse than horsehair. Likewise, chemicals can be used to modify or control the degree of lustre or dulness of rayon yarn. THE NEWS _. .o....wti.r Epoch -Making Discovery In March of 1922, the discovery was announced to the world of an extract obtained from the "islands" (special little groups of tissue) of the pancreas of animals which when injected into a- human being with diabetes would overcome faul- ty oxidization in the body (inabil- ity inability to utilize starches and sugars) and cure the disease. Dr. Banting and his co-worker, C. H. Best, received tremendous ac -- claim throughout the world for their discovery. Dr. Bunting was awarded with the Nobel Prize the following year, the youngest man. to win it, He has since been hon- ored by many medical and scien- tific cientifie bodies of this and other lands. During the past few years while he has been Professor of Medical Research at the University of Tor- onto, Sir Frederick has interested himself in cardiac diseases, cancer research, prev" 1tion of silicosis, a specific to cure infantile paralysis; he has invest' aced the qualities of. the royal jelly of the giant bee, be- lieving it might contain properties capable of prolonging life. He has discovered -^ily uses for insulin; in a shock treatment for mental dis- eases; in cases of malnutrition; in • lessening the effects of infectious diseases. More and More Research' With regard to the search fora cure for cancer, Sir Frederick re. cently said: "The solution of the cancer problem probably will not come by chance, but by htrtiier re- search. What is needed in the treatment for cancer is a specific." Research and more research,. is what he calls for. • At present Dr. Denting is Chair- man et the Associate Committee en Medical Research of the National Research Council of Canada. This summer lie plans to tour the Dentin - ion from coast to coast, visiting each of the principal centras It turd to learn at first hand of the scleit tide work in progress here. SIR FREDERICK BANTING K.B.E. Recognized the world over as the scientist who made one of the most important discoveries of our times, the cure for diabetes, Sir Frederick Grant Batting, IK,B.L., has given Canada reason for taking great pride in such a native son, a bene- factor to humanity, and a truly remarkable in101. Born 47 years ago in Alliston, Ontario, Frederick Batting attend- ed the local public and high schools and passed on to the study of medi- cine ethcine at the 'University of Toronto. After graduation, he enlisted with the C. A. M. C. for service over- seas, was wounded at Catnbrai, de- corated with the Military Cross. Following the war he entered the Sick Children's hospital, Toronto, as resident surgeon, shortly going to London, Ontario, where he join- ed tate staff of the University of Western Ontario, working with the Physiology Department. In 1921 the young scientist came to Toronto, On May 16th of that year he began his epoch-making research into the internal secretion of the pancreas, experimenting with dogs and on himself.