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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1952-01-10, Page 3Questions And. Answers About The The Old Age Security Act On Jantary,l the Old Age See- urity Act 1951 came into effect. Under it monthly payments are to be made without a means test to all eligible Canadians 70 years and over. The act will be administered wholly by the federal government through the Department of National Health and Welfare, using the staff and facilities of the family allow- ances'division at Ottawa and the regional capital's. There have been many queries from interested per - eons concerning the provisions of this far-reaching legislation, and the following questions and answers have been prepared to serve as a brief guide. Q. Who may apply ? ,,A. 1. Persons who are now 70 years of age or older and 'not re- ceiving old age pensions, pro-, vided they can prove age and meet the residence require- ments. 2. Persons who will be 70 years of age by January 1, 1952, provided they can prove age and meet th eresidence re- quirements. Q. Who should not apply ? A. 1. Persons who are already re- " ceiving old age pensions, whether at the full rate or at a reduced rate. These will be automatically transferred to payments under the Old Age Security Act. 2. Persons who are not yet aged • 69% years. Q. How can age be proved? A. 1. Birth • and 'baptismal certifi- cates are the best evidence. 2. Other documents that will be .given consideration ins elude records in fancily Bibles, church rolls or registers, mar- riage . records, communion ,certificates, military dis- charges, naturalization certi- ficates, passports, - acknow- ledgements of age by insur- ance companies. 3. Lacking evidence, of this kind, any documents supporting claim of age should be for- warded' with application. , 4. If there is no documentary evidence of any kind, the ap- plication should be forwarded anyway with the statement ,. that evidence of age is lack- ing. The applicant will then be told' what to do about proving age. Q. What are the residence require- • ments? A. 1. Applicants must have been resident in Canada for, the past 20 years. (since Decem- ber 31, 1931). 2. If during the past 30 years the applicant has been resi- dent outside of Canada, it is likely that the legislation will provide for eligibility if twice the period of time resident ,outside of Canada was spent in Canada prior to December 31, 1931 (For example, if the applicant has lived for five years outside the country during the past 20 years, he must have resided at least ten years in Canada prior to Dec- ember 31, 1931.) Q. How does one apply? A. 1. Obtain an application form from a post .office. 2. Fill it out and mail, along with documents igiving proof of age, to the Regional Direc- tor of Old Age Security, De- partment of National i-Iealth and Welfare, in the provincial capital. 3. Residents of the Yukon and • Northwest Territories only should send their applications directly to the Director of , Old Age. Security, Jackson Building, Ottawa. „',. To avoid delay in receipt of payments, those who consider themselves eligible should apply at once. GENERAL INFORMATION 1. Payments will not be made ex- cept to those already receiving `" old age pensions, unless an appli- cation is forwarded, 2, The first cheques will be issued at the end .of Jat'ruary, 1952, 3. Old age security payments .will 'be made without a means test. 4. As of Match 31, 1951, 302,173 persons were in receipt of old age pensions, These will be auto- matically transferred to payments under the Old Age Security Act. An additional 413,000 persons over 70 but not now receiving pensions will be eligible under the new programme. 5. It is estimated that the total cost of old age security payments will be in the neighborhood of $343,000,000 a year. 6. Indians and Eskimos will, for the first time, be eligible for old age assistance, blind pensions and old age security payments on the same basis as the white popula- tion. Some Queer Facts About Trade Early on in history, barter was the custom. A word which dates back to this time is fee. In its old form feoh, it. stood for wages, money, property., or cattle. Goods were, in fact, . the . equivalent of money in 'those days. - Capital, incidentally, is is mod- ernized version of capita, hyads (of cattle), a man's .wealth being judged by the amount of livestock he possessed. As money—in lieu of goods—be- came recognized currency, a new profession caste into being, that of the banker,' and among. the first of these were the Lombards, from Italy. It is they who ,have given us the term, lumber -room, for an attic filled with furniture and odds and ends. The lumber, or Lombard room, however, once served a far .more' important purpose, being the store- house in • which rich bankers and pawnbrokers kept their treasures. We are frequently using the lan- guage of shopkeepers. We talk of sending i.omeone about his busi- ness, of turning the scales; we say that a man is an ugly customer, or' that a certain request is a tall order. Men Of Stone—"Two Men" is the title of this sculpture which won the $3500 first prize for Minna f-iarkavy in a national contest sponsored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The figures are on display in the museum. When we make a thorough as- sessment of someone's character, we probably declare that we are taking stock of him. Such a, meta- phor is . very apt, for the proprie- tor of a shop, taking stock, makes an inventory of all his goods be- fore deciding just how profitable his business is. .Qne of the crafts from which we have inherited a good many pithy sayings is that of the smith. A horseshoe must be shaped while. the metal is glowing, and so we have the injunction, strike while the iron is hot. 01 We refer, too, to hammering out an argument, describe a person's temper as being at white heat, and say that a man who dabbles in many interests has too many irons . in the fire. All these phrases conte from the smith. .The baker has given us the term, baker's dozen, for thirteen. At one time the ratan who sold short weight was subject • to extremely heavy penalties. So in order to keep on the right side of the law, a baker selling a dozen loaves added an extra one, sometimes called "the vantage loaf.". THEFAAM J.6 With both home and community freezers increasing in popularity the following findings made in the. Government Fruit and Products Laboratory in 'British Columbia should be of interest. * * Improperly packaged food pro- ducts, especially meat, poultry, and fish, are subject to serious desicca- lion (drying -out) in the freezer. This lessens the food value and "fresh" appearance of the product. In ex- treme cases freezer -burn results, and the, product becomes brown in color and woody in texture. In meat and poultry products the f.,t under- neath the driedout areas becomes oxidized and"rancid. The protein be- comes permanently dehydrated and the tissue tough and dry. * * * They underlying cause of desicca- tion is the humidity of the air in the freezer -room. Air has a normal moisture holding capacity; that of warm air being greater than that of cold, The frozen product and the air in close proximity to it, is relatively warmer than the air in surface contact withe the freezing coils. Thus, the circulating air ab- sorbs moisture from the frozen pro - BY HAROLD ARNETT iLASH IGH ' IN A FRUIT JAR WEIGHTED WITH. ROC MAKES AN EXCELLENT LAMP FOR . LOCATING OBJECTS DROPPED INTO THE WATER , -no MAIC BE • RETRIEVED WIT rr• duct and deposits ii on the coils 'or plates, in the form of frost. This continuous cycle, over a period of months, can result in considerable Moisture loss. Proper packaging can do much to lessen desiccation. A poorly packaged product may lose weight. in excess of three per cent over a 12 -mouth storage period at zero. A heavy wax coating on the outer and inner surfaces of the container, ' or coated cellophane will control moisture loss to one per cent or • less. * i)esiccar'' n has a more marked effect on some foods than on others. In frozen fruits, especially syrup packs, it is negligible and does not seriously affect quality. Experiments indicate, however, that it is impor- tant to pack vegetables in moisture - vapor -proof containers and to fill the containers completely full. This *practice reduces moisture loss to a minimum, thus conserving quality and palatability. * * * The market -gardener wl.o is look- ing' for an early cabbage variety he can sell in quantity at pre -sea- sonal high" prices will have to wait until 1954 for such dreams to come true, although such a cabbage var- iety now exists. Named Canadian Acre, its development was brought to a successful conclusion in 1950 following' a 15 -year program of se- lection of suitable strains that had their origin in the Golden Acre, a popular Canadian cabbage variety. * * * Seed of the Canadian Acre should have become available for the 1952 planting season, but inclement wea they konditions in 1951 caused the destruction of the entire seed. crop planted in the Fraser Valley in 1950. The next seed -planting is scheduled for 1952 and, since it takes the . cabbage two growing seasons to cdine to seed, no commercial -scale planting of Canadian Acre will be possible until 1954. * * * Canadian Acre was developed by -W. Ferguson and L. H. Lyall in the Division of Horticulture of the Fe- deral Department of Agriculture. Tliis cabbage is noted .for its ex- eptional compactness and unifor- rtsity of size and time of maturity. About five inches in diameter and weighing about four pounds, it is marketable a week in advance of other early varieties. * * * At • the recent joint meeting of delegates from some 25 breeders' associations and officials of the Do- minion Dept. of Agriculture the main proposal was for a standard registration certificate applicable to all breeds of livestock with infor- mation reduced to barest essentials. The new arrangement, if endors- • ed by the associations at their re- -, spective annual meetings will result in a simpler and prompter livetock registration service on the part of ". the Canadian National Live Stock Records to all Canadian breeders. On the other hand, associations themselves will have a larger share of the 'responsibilities which have piled up with time, and for the last fort -five years,- have assumed in most cases by the Canadian Na- tional Live •Stock Records Office ,: Specific proposals adopted at •this ' Ottawa:meeting meeting and which again will have to be submitted to the breeders can be summarized as fol- lows: 1. The inclusion on registration certificates of the ntinintuni of in- formation required to establish iden- tification and ancestry. $r * * 2, The use of a standard certifi- cate of registration by all associa- tions. ssocia- tion. 3. Ti e discontinuance of the plac- ing of special deposits to the credit of an association by the Canadian National Live Stock Records office. * * * 4. The transfer front the Records Office of such duties and services as may be adequately conducted by association secretaries. Additional services now given include roller - tion of membership fee arrears; pre- paration of a membership list for tl-.e annual meetings: interpretation of inaccuracies in constitution and bylaws: settlement of disputes ancon; members, etc. The adoption of the above pro- posals would necessitate adoption of amendments to corresponding !rt- irks of aflrliation. In brief, the list of amendments approved at the meeting stipulates that the Records Office should cease to act as a banker and lawyer for associations; that its responsibilities should be limited ts) the issuance of short pe- digrees. Longer pedigrees would be provided by the association, the fee to be charged by them for such a service being in accordance with the amount of work involved in each case. No charges have been made to the article dealing with the conditions of w>itl drawal of an association from .the affiliation. Department and Records officials would continue to he at the disposal of associations and members fol advice on any problems related to new responsibilities assumed by as soeiations. Safe Deposit Vault To Protect Valuables From Atom Bombs By RICHARDAtLEINER The day after New York's mock air raid, an excited old man burst into the Manhattan offices. of, the Iron Mountain Atomic Storage" Corp. "I want to rent some'space that will be safe from bombsy" he said, "How isuch to rent, a storage vault?", ' Sales" manager Joseph T. Gar- land cahnly found out slow, much room the man would need; slid some quick reckoning and a:mid traced that the annual„xental would be $900. "I'm a nice gty," the old man whined. "I'm "afraid my clothes will blow up. 1)o it for inc for $50 will you:'" Except for an occasional crack- pot like that, the Iron 1MMountain Atomic Storage Corp, is doing a very quiet and profitable business. The company' owns Iron Mountain, near Germantown, • which it calls "a solid mass of magnetic iron rock that is impregnable to any force ever conceived by man or nature!" * * * Inside the formidable administra- tion building there is a 38 -ton vault door. Behind that, built in the cor- ridors of the abandoned mine, are an assortment of storage vaults. Some are only as big as an -out- size closet. Others range lip' to 12,000 cubic feet in area. In these vaults, some of America's largest corporations and banks are storing their vital papers and plans. • Other spaces have been resited to art galleries, for safekeeping price- less treasures; to libraries and uni- versities, for guarding valuable books; to department stores, for storing treasured accounts receiv- able. Under a new' plan, the company is ready to expand its bomb -proof facilities to the average citizen. They will store a sealed envelope, of a standard size they will pro- vide, in one of their vaults. In it, anyone can put documents that can- not be replaced--birtb certificate, deed to a house, and so on, * * The vaults are all at least 200 feet under a shielding of magnetic iron rock. The company says,rood- estlytsthe vaults offer 'complete pro- tection against "blast of atomic or other bomb,; atomic radiation; fire, theft; subnieesion by flooding, or natural catastrophe." The mountain was an operating iron urine. until 1898, when high costs of working forced its aban- donment. •Up until last year, the present oWner of the property, Her- man Knaust, used its cave -like cor- ridors to grow mushrooms. Knaust is the world`'s . largest mushroom producer, operating id caves in the eastern New York area. Among his employees are a group of DPs. They told him of the heart - t break they had been caused be- cause their irreplacable documents were lost in bombings. And they convinced him that conversion of Iron Mountain to a vast safe-deposit vault would he a profitable scheme. * .* So far Knaust has developed 185,000 cubic feet. He estimates that altimeters/ 4,000,000 cubic feet of the mountain's catacomb -like in- terior can he made into storage vaults. Garland, the sales manager, who is Knaust's son min -law, and a former college . and service football star, says that most people are interested in the mountain's facilities, hut he doesn't feel they are at all panicky. "Strange thing about this," says Garland. "Women seem to be more worried about atom bombing than men." A hen at Cartagena, Spain, laid an egg with three yolks and two hours later followed through with a similar triumph. In recognition of this feat, the town council has given the hen a new .coop with a silver lining. SasSITitsassIsss FORTRESS: Behind this formidable -looking administration build- ing.run the corridors of an abandoned iron mine, now lined with vaults to protect valuables in the atom age. Maybe You're Right Maybe You're Wrong Many people think lightning never strikes in tite same place twice, that green apples are indi- gestible. that a frightened ostrich buries its head in the sand, that one must feed a cold and starve a fever — and that's where they're wrong! Scientists, have been looking into these queer mistakes we all make. As far as the green apples myth goes, it's swallowing fruit in chunks that causes the discomforts -as for feeding colds, the familiar saying is a misquotation of the famous Dr. Abernethy, who declared: "If you feed a cold you shall have to starve a fever," meaning that stuffing a person laid up with a cold would soon bring on a fever. If you think your heart is on the left side, you're entertaining-anoth- er ntertaining-anoth- er fallacy. It happens? to be neither left nor right, lint one-third is right of dead centre: Shaving doesn't ntal.e hair grow faster. Experts have measured un- der a mlcr oscope that length of hair that grows, day by day, be- tween shaver, and have compared this rate w th the daily growth in people who don't shave. The aver- age is exactly the carne! Is night air had for you and sea air gored' Ise careful how you answer. Night air is only danger- ous in malarial districts where mosquitoes may anter an oven w'n• low and infect a sleeper. Seaside air contains more ozone, but the slight difference is of practically no value to health. Maybe you imagine that powder- ed glass, is a dangerous poison. Actually, it is not as bad as some sensational story writers .would have you believe. The great pow- dered glass delusion goes back to the days when.' arsenic, which really is a deadly poison, was manufactur- ed in a form that looked rather like glass. In America, a scientist declared that, thanks to sunspots, there would be no floods in the Middle West. An article from his pen ap- peared just as the worst floods in history were sweeping the Mid - West. Anyone ,there who managed to get his arms above water could read the reassuring news that he was safe front floods that year! Even policemen sometimes ima- gine that the faces of dishonest people are especially narrow be- tween the eyes. Actual photographs of swindlers and other criminals show no trace (IS such narrowness. Thousands of the weather-wise declare that lightning never strikes twice in the sante place --yet the Empire State Building. in New York, is struck (luring every severe storm, flow easily are you deluded? Do you imagine that rheumatic pains can forecast a damp spell ahead? No? Then you're wrong again, for changes in atmospheric pressure have a real effect on rheumatic joints. In proving; many "popular fal- lacies" wrong, the scient'sts have proved plenty of others right! By Arthur Pointer t