HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1957-03-07, Page 3Going to Market
Chinese Fashion
Is Mrs, Wang, of Peking, or
Hankow, or Chengtu, interested
in buying vegetables out of sea-
son? Rare herbs? Wild fruits?
Tender fowl?
All she has to do is to go
down to the free market and in-
dulge in some good old-fashion-
ed capitalistic bargaining with
the vendor.
But if she wants a staple
meat like pork, chances are she
will have to queue up in front
of a state=run butcher shop, and
perhaps go home empty-handed.
And if she needs cotton cloth
or mosquito netting,' she will
have to take her ration coupons
with her - even if she is buy-
ing as little as 5 inches of mat-
erial.
Six months ago, after a three-
year whirl with rigid state con-
trol over both production and
sales of consumer goods, Com-
munist China's economic officials
.decided to reintroduce a free
market in certain specified
goods.
The change -over began, grad-
ually, in the second half of last
year. It was encouraged by such
top-ranking officials as Deputy
Premier Chen Yun, who told the
Eighth Congress of the Chinese
Communist Party last September
that "measures taken by the
economic departments of the
state in the past few years, par-
ticularly the past two years, to
restrict capitalist industry and
commerce have now become un-
necessary." .
Mr. Chen said that when
capitalist industries started pro-
ducing almost exclusively for
the state, they become less in-
terested in the quality of their
products. In turn, state - run
wholesale companies were so
large that they lost touch with
local requirements. Cert a i n
places were overstocked and
other places understocked.
Likewise farmers, after being
herded in cooperatives, lost in-
terest in "subsidiary rural pro-
ducts" because these no longer
enabled them to earn the extra
Income they needed. Prices offer-
ed for agricultural produce were
too low. In fact, Mr. Chen said,
"There is in our present price
policy something unfavorable to
production."
But the Communists were
caught in a dilemma, for they
had to hold both the price line
and the supply route so far as
major commodities were con-
cerned. The government had to
have an assured supply of grain
et fixed prices, , for instance.
Among Manufactured "goods, cot-
ton yam and cotton piece -goods
were in short supply and had to
be rationed.
As a compromise, therefore,
the concept of a limited free mar-
ket was evolved. The market
was to be free because prices
would be arrived at by the buy-
ers and sellers themselves, 'ex-
cept in cases of bulk purchasers
such as state shops and supply
and mar k et i n g cooperatives,
whieh were to buy goods through;
exchange houses.
Today, half a year after these
changes began to be introduced,
Communist officials claim that
"the planned change -over to the
free marketing of nonstaple
goods has been successful nation-
ally."
The amount and variety of
consumer goods on the market
have increased, and prices have
remained stable, a New China
News Agency dispatch Jan. 30
claimed. About one-third of all
China's agricultural commodities.
are now said to be bought and
sold on the free market.
The free market, it was claim-
ed, reduced intermediaries be-
tween the grower and the user.
In Shanghai, up to four proces-
ses were cut out of the handling
of vegetables and dried fruits.
The transit time between the sel-
ler and the buyer was reduced
from seven days to one, day -
which meant, in the case of ag-
ricultural produce, less spoilage.
The new dispensation has also
brought unwelcome trends. Some
peasants are trying to leave the
cooperatives and to become in-
dividual entrepreneurs • again.
There has been speculation on
the free market and "some de-
velopment of capitalist forms."
But the Communists claim
these are only temporary phen-
omena, and "measures are be-
ing taken by the state to cope
with them."
Meanwhile, Mrs. Wang picks
her way between the tight -pack-
ed stalls of an expanding, mar-
ket area, savoring the smoke - of
roasting peanuts, .poking at bas-
kets of querulous ducks, in de-
termined quest of that elusive
but ever -beckoning bargain.
Cosby SwaAiows
Careless parents put more
than one toddlerr, a day in hos-
pital with poisoning during the
past summer at the Transvaal
Memorial Home 'for Children at
Johannesburg, South Africa.
Because parents left harmful
chemicals lying within reach,
youngsters admitted to this
hospital swallowed these things
during the year:
Caustic soda, benzine, as-
pirins, disinfectant, ear -drops,
cigarettes, fly -spray, mothballs,
freckle cream, carbon tetra-
chloride (dry-cleaning fluid).
Of the 404 cases treated, eigh-
ty-five of the youngester under
three years became ill after
drinking household coal -oil, and
sixty-four got sick headaches
from taking overdoses of as-
pirin.
The. coal -oil. -figure was so
high, say hospital doctors, be-
cause so many people keep the
colourless liquid in lemonade
bottles, - and casually leave
the bottles where a child can
get at them.
"So you suffer from .i4diges-
tion," said a helpful friend:
"Well, what can be better than
drinking a pint of warm water
after every, meal"
"Indigestigrir''was the reply.
A PACK AT A PUFF -Here's the answer to any chain smoker
who wants to smoke up a pack of 20 cigarets at once, as dem-
onstrated by French comedian Robert Clary. He found the
gadget during a visit to an $250,000 antique pipe exhibit.
CROSSWORD
PUZZLE
ACROSS
1. Fly high
6. Remote
8. Apparel
12.---- Wheeler
Wilcox
18. Rather than
14. Spindle
15. Published
again
17. Poisonous
tree
18, Becotne
acquainted
20. Longstanding
21. Chooses
24, Puppets
27, Inquire
28. Porgy
29. Charles Lamb
30. Harvest
goddess.
81. Tear apart
82. High railways
33. Not in
34. Corns grass
35. Open
37. Fairy pueea►
3R. Infuriated
43. Not yours
45. Inferetlttai7
46. At any time
48. Engiibadeer
school
41, Snail ;,loin
growth
60. Sheep
51, Course of
eating
DOWN
1, Slave
:.8.OUyb rim
4. Genus of
allseed
5. Foul smelling
6, Bxtent
7. Reparation
8. Thin fabric
9. Awaited
10. Wing
11. Legal action
18. Misfortunes
19. Sort
22. Sharp taste
23. Lateral
boundary
24. Profound
25. Sp. Jug
26. One who
gives ear
27. Bright
30. exterior
31. Allowed as
discount
33. 'Tierra del
Fueguan
1r.,11at:
34. Gitl's name
38. Put forth
37. Fight
39. Turn up
ground
40. So. Amer.
.,m�ttonitey
M. -Bacchanalian
42. Hollow
43. Cat's cry
44 Yellow bugle
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MIMIN
Answer elsewhere 0t1 title page,
SWEET AND SOUR - One's a peach, the other's a lemon and
both are tops of their kind. The peach is Carolyn Stroupe,
aquamaid. She's holding a huge Ponderosa lemon.
In this colunui I have already
reprinted one or two articles
written for the Christian Science
Monitor - under the general
•heading "A Dispatch from the
Farm" - by John Gould. Now,
entitled "Our Cows Were Not
Neglected", comes another from
the same source. I cannot guar-
antee that any of you dairy
farmers will get anything of
vast scientific value from it -
bnt I can say that is is good for
a few real laughs. Read it and
see what I mean.
a 4
One of our professors recently
made harangue on a farm radio
program and said good milk is
37 per cent grain, 21 per cent
machinery, and 9 per cent hard
labor, Malcolm Mac?ormiek,°
vtteran radio farm:editq'r, there`;`
upon thanked him, and he . no
doubt returned to Ili§ experi-
mental station to discover fur-
ther mathematical relationships.
In view of many memories and
wide experience, as well as
close association with the old-
time ;production of what we mis-
takenly called milk, I can see
that• times have - changed. We
used to get 100 per cent milk,
composed of 98 per cent hard
labor and 2 per cent cut-up po-
tatoes, and grain was something
you gave bossy so she'd stand
still while you milked her.
This was pretty much so. We
had to keep two cows, so one
would be milking while the
other was dry, and when they
were both milking production
was more than ample. We never
sold any milk, since everybody
around about also had two cows,
at least, so an important adjunct
' of every two -cow family was
the big molasses puncheon into
which excess milk was dumped.
for -the pigs. Pigs went with
cows, and you might as well keep
two as one.
Our milk had .nothing added,
and was used in its native con-
dition. A gallon pitcher would
be filled, we had several such,
night and morning for family
use, and "stirring the milk" was
a pre -meal ritual along with
seating Grandmaw, grace, and
taking the napkins out of the
rings. I can remember that at.
times Mother would get seated,
and then would jump up with
an, "Oh, I forgot to stir the
milkl" She would bring the
long -handled fork used for fry-
ing doughnuts a n d turning
bacon, and whisk it around in
the milk jug until the risen
cream was again throughout the
whole and we could pour our
glasses full. If one of us pour-
ed
a glass without first stirring
the pitcher, we'd get a rich,
heavy, almost -curd result which
was a mite too thick for drinking.
Since such milk has been de-
clared unconstitutional, perhaps
I should explain that the cream
content then was considerably
more than the law now allows.
The milk we didn't use upstairs
was put in pans on the cool cel-
lar floor, and after about two
days the cream would be skim-
med off for butter. The skimmed
milk thus accumulated was used,
in our unenlightened fashion,
for feeding pigs, cottage cheese,
and occasionally painting a hen-
house. When modern chemists
discovered casein paint it cer-
tainly astonished a lot of old-
timers who had been using it
/or generations and didn't know
" it: I can't recall that we ever
referred to - this skimmed milk
at "nonfat," but that's what it
no doubt was.
But I wanted to speak about
the grain. If modern milk is 37
per cent grain, I can see why
we didn't get it in the olden
days. During the summer, when
a cow could get all the green
grass she wanted, and by breach-
ing could pick up a few carrot
tops, pea vines, and petunias,
we didn't feed any grain.' In the
winter, when the mows, gave
down field - cured sweetness,
packed away with about .005
per cent machinery, we used to
give them a little. When a cow
dried off, being about to freshen,
we did give her a couple of hand-
fuls of bran night and morning.
This was supposed .: to "make
bones,�' ` but probably research
has since exploded this. I think
we chose bran because it was
cheapest, and we usually had a
bin of it for the pigs anyway.
The other cow, still giving
milk, would get two boy's hand-
fuls of "dairy ration." This real-
ly cost money, sometimes as
much as a dollar and a quarter
a bag, and I think it was just
run-of-the-mill sweepings with
low-grade molasses added so the
cows would eat it. An adult
gave one handful, and the grain
had to be scattered well among
the orts of the manger so it
would take bossy quite a time to
find it and clean. it up. This is
when you milked her. Our grain
program must have gone to one
tenth of 1 per cent, conversion
factors and all.
But our cows were not ne-
glected. We were able to offer
numerous pamperings not pos-
sible in the assembly -line milk
factory of today. We would take
out a candy bucket (wooden) of
hot water from the stove, and
mix it with the cold .pump water
so bossy would have a warm
drink. Winter water a scant
notch above freezing would
make a cows teeth ache so she'd
stick her snout in the air and
turn her lips back, so we warm-
ed her water .and made her like
us.
Then, we'd cut up potatoes.
Only those who have done it
know what it's like to go into
the vegetable cellar in winter,
with a lantern, and sit on a box
while you cut up two pails of
potatoes. You have to cut them
up, as whole potatoes will choke
a cow. The banking boards and
the snow shut out all lighteand
sound, and the weather -tight
cellar had its own flavor and
climate. More than once the
oxygen burned low and my lan-
tern went out, leaving me to
grope my way up again with a
pail in each hand. Sometimes
we cut up turnips, but you could
only give a cow so many tur-
nips or the milk would taste.
Mother ran tests on this, and she
could taste turnips when nobody
else could. But cows like tur-
nips, and they were always glad
to see some coming. Of course,
they didn't produce any milk
which would pass our stringent
modern requirements, but we
didn't complain about that. We
didn't know any better.
WOMAN RULED WELL
Outstanding amongstthe early
rulers of Scotland, was Mar-
garet, who served as regent for
her son when King Malcolm
died in battle in 1093. She en-
couraged foreign trade, abolish-
ed many injustices and did all
she could to help the poor and
weak. Some say that she intro-
duced the clan plaids into Scot-
land.
SEA ANIMALS LARGEST
It is interesting to learn that
of all the different forms of ani-
mal life the largest creatures
dwell in the sea. Bulkiest of all
is the blue whale, which reaches
100 feet in length ande weighs
more than 100 tons.
Upsidedown to Prevent Peeking
UNDAYSCIIOOILE5
By Rev R. Barulay Warren
B.A., B.O.
Unlimited Forgiveness
Matthew 18; 21.35
Memory Selection: Lord, how
oft shall lny brother sin against
me, and I' forgive blot? till seven
times? Jesus saith unto him, 3
say not unto you, Until seven
times; but, Until seventy times
seven. Matthew 18: 21-22.
When Jesus said we should
forgive the offender 'u n t i l
seventy times seven' he took the
question out of the legal setting
and put it in the love setting.
He was saying, "There should
be forgiveness without limit tee -
ward those who truly repent."
Then Jesus told a story illustrat-
ing how utterly ridiculous it is
for man to refuse forgiveness to
his fellow. God has forgiven us
when we were hopelessly hs
debt. Why then shouldn't we for-
give our repentant brother who
owes us only a trifle? In fact
Jesus made it very clear that
God 'will not forgive us unles2
we from our heart forgive our
fellowmen.
Recently I listened again to my
friend Jacob DeShazer, one of
the Doolittle fliers who dropped
the first bombs on Tokyo. Jake
spent 40 months in a prison
camp, most of the time in soli-
tary confinement. As he saw his
companions die from malnutri-
tion his anger and hatred against
the Japanese mounted more and
more. Then one day the guard
gave him a Bible. As he read 1t
he saw his own sin and he saw
that Jesus Christ had died t6
save him. There in the prism
he was born anew. He becam6
,a Christian. Hate gave way til
love. As he prayed he determin-
ed that when the war was oyes
he would prepare himself to
come back to Japan to tell the
people of God's love. He ham
been doing this work. Mitsuo
Fuchida who led the attack of
Pearl Harbor is one of the thou-
sands who has been influenced
to surrender to Christ through
this miracle in Jake's life. Mitsuo
is now telling the message of
love in the U.S.A.
When we experience God's for-
giveness for our sins it is the
natural thing for us to forgive
those who have sinned against
u5.
PHILANTHROPIST AT 10 - Chalk up a second triumph for
Logan Dawson, 10, of Rix Mills. Five years ago he fought
through infantile paralysis without lasting defects. Now he's
going to repay the polio foundation for its aid with a generous
act. One of Logan's dreams is to have an entry in the county
fair as a 4-H Club project. After he started raising an Aberdeen -
Angus calf, he discovered he was too young to enter this year.
But he had an inspiration. Now, he'll sell the calf at maturity
and donate the proceeds to the polio fund. Appropriately, the
calf's name is "Poly."
REALLY SHOCKING ._ The shocks suffered by a container during shipment are duplicated on
this "hazard machine" of the forest Products Laboratories of Canada. Containers are tumbled
haphazardly within this 14 -foot diameter revolving drum to simulate the rough use they will
receive while being shipped. In this photo, a wooden crate of cans has broken apart in the
hazard machine and a technician records the details of how it broke up. The large crate in the
sling will be tested next. Such research by the Forest Products Laboratories helps provide Cana-
dian industry with strong and serviceable containers to move merchandise. The laboratories
are part of the Forestry Branch, Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources.