Zurich Herald, 1938-04-07, Page 6ICE
THE
WORLD
AT LARGE
CANADA
of the
Curl In the Pig's Tail
La@t Year Canada sold to Great
Britr}.1f 193 million pounds of bacon,
equivalent to 1,600,000 hogs. The curl
in the pig's tail appears to be assum-
ing the shape of the $ sign.—Kitch-
ener Record,
A S:trearn of Talk
The average man talks two hours
out of every twenty-four at the rate
of 100 words a minute. Ile utters some
4,500,400 words a year. The authority
doesn't say so, but we presume he is
talking of single men. -- Chatham
News,
What Chance Has It?
The latest scientific aid to safe
driving is a red light on the dash-
board which oa hwgrade crossings. ns otorists when
But
they app
if they won't heed tooting whistles,
ringing bells and wigwagging sig-
nals, what chance has a little red
lightf Windsor Daily Star.
Help to Farmers
Agriculture is at last to receive
greater recognition. The prosperity
of the province depends so muck up-
on 'the well-being of the farmer that
it would be nothing short of crim-
inal, now that the money is available,
not to recognize the demands of the
farming community for greater assist-
ance in placing agriculture in a bet-
ter position to play its full part in the
development and progress of the cown-
try.—St. Thomas Times -Journal.
Wants Less Provincial Power
We may not always agree with
Denton Massey, M.P., but we can see
some validity in his claim that Can-
ada Is in danger of becoming ',Balkan-
ized." He, like most of us, sees prov-
inces seeking to assert too much auth-
ority with a consequent danger to fed-
eralism. There is such a danger.
There is far too much emphasis laid
on "provincial rights," which usually
means a reaching out for federal pow-
ers. Probably what is needed is less
provincial power. There is a growing
body of public opinion, which even be-
lieves it might not be a bad idea to
abolish the provincial governments al-
together, with consequent saving In
taxes and trouble.—Niagara Falls Re-
view.
CANADA
THE EMPIRE
PRESS
THE EMPIRE
Rising (?) Sun
The core of the Chinese armies is
still intact; the Central Government,
with the whole -hearted support of a
united nation, has never been strong-
er; and Japan has been forced to en-
list the good offices of a European
Power
in order to
peace over-
ureswhich have been rejected with
the contempt they deserved. Turn
back the calendar, may be the wish
of most Japanese. Too late, their
awakening. Japan is caught in the
toils of a war, the outcome of which
is perfectly clear—all too clear to the
Japanese. She has antagonized the
Powers of the world by b. brutality.
Her troubles at home are increasing
daily. News of insurrections in the
territories she has torn from the main-
land in previous "raids" leaks out to
the world. The Land of the "Rising"
Sun. We wonder!—Hong Kong Press.
Tissues Outlive
Organism Growth
Animal And Plant Tissues 'Bath
Can Live On,Celebrated
Botanist Announces
Living tissues have the power to
survive long beyond the life of the
growing ot:ganism. This was demon-
strated in the case of animal tissues
by Dr, Alexis Carrel, who kept tis-
sues from an embryo chicken heart
alive longer than the greatest life
span of a chicken. The culture is
still alive at the Rockefeller insti-
tute after more than a quarter of a
century.
Blossoms Alive For Months,
Dr. Carl L. LaRue, of the depart-
ment of botany, University of Michi-
gan, has demonstrated that it *pos-
sible to keep planttissues alive 365
times as long as they would survive
in the plant. He took portions of
the blossoms of plants which have
but a short span of existence under
natural conditions and placed them
in a nutrient culture medium, simi-
lar to that in which germs and other
micro-organisms are cultivated.
After a given structure has fulfill-
ed its function in the plant, its nour-
ishment is withdrawn and it disin-
tegrates. The nourishment -available
is then ,diverted to the newly :devel-
oping structures. When the blossom
has finished its task it makes way for
the fruit,
Irish Living Costs
For a time Ministers were disposed
to deny that there was any increase
in the cost of living, but when they
could no longer persist in that atti-
tude they proceeded to make the case
that the increase in the cost of living
was a sign of greater prosperity. The
housekeeper in town and country has
to pay higher prices for all her re-
grirements. The citizens, as taxpay-
ers, are, for the same reason, called
upon to provide the funds needed by
the Exchequer to defray the addition-
al cost of living bonus. The citizens,
as ratepayers, are similarly affected
.. While the costs and charges to.
which we have referred have been
mounting, the income of the chief pro-
ducing class in the country—the agri-
cultural community—has been rela-
tively diminishing. For everything he
has to purchase the farmer has to pay
more, and as his income is much less
than it had been, obviously he is com-
pelled to limit his purchases to a bare
minimum. This decline in his pur-
chasing power is detrimental to the
manufacturer and trader.—Irish In-
dependent, Dublin.
A Changing Ontario
In Middlesex and Lambton coun-
ties rapid changes are taking place.
The sons of the old pioneer families
are not staying on the farms. They
are selling out in many cases to the
New Canadians of alien origins. In
Lambton County, particularly near
Alvinston, there is a large settlement
of Czechoslovakians who have bought
out old farms. They are making ex-
cellent
xoellent settlers. They are happy just
now that they are living in Canada
and not in Czechoslovakia. ,The ma-
jority of new settlers are anxious to
take out citizenship papers and to be-
come good Canadians. They are ready
to adopt our ways and our customs.
Possibly in the end it is not such a
bad thing to have an infusion of new
'blood, In any case, whether we like
It or not, the Western Ontario of a
few decades from now may be an en-
tirely different Western Ontario from
that of our day and generation.—Lon-
don
eneration.—London Free Press.
New Process Makes
Pictures 0 n Metal
Photographs Produced In This
Way Are Much More
Accurate
Scenes Recall
Klondike Days
Yellowknife, N.W.T., Now Pack-
ed With Seekers After
Gold
EDMONTON. — Scenes reminiscent
of Dawson City during the Klondike
rush, are being enacted at Yellow-
knife, N.W,T., centro of the gold field
on the north shore of Great Slave
Lake, Leonard E. Drummond, secre-
tary and manager of the Alberta and
Northwest Chamber of Mines, said,
He just returned from a 10 -day aerial
inspection trip of far north mineral
areas.
Airplanes Bring Men In
"Airplanes are bringing men in daily
who are seeking work and the work
hasn't started yet," he said. "The re-
sult is there is no hotel accommoda-
tion for the new arrivals. Men are
forced to undress and dress almost in
public. It's almost like the Dawson
says."
Mine managers in Yellowknife,. Gor-
don Lake and Goldfields, whom he vis-
ited during his tour, asked him to
issue a public warning to work -seek-
ers not to consider going into these
areas yet as it will only add to the
difficulties and work will not start un-
til the summer, Mr. Drummond said.
Commenting on the activity in the
north, Mr. Drummond said "there's no
question it will be a big year."
Indented Road
Reflects Light
New Type Surface -- Engineer
Offers Scheme to Aid
Night Drivers
.A new type of road surfaoe that
will "increase visibility very greatly"
was reported at the 17th annual Mass-
achusetts Safety Conference at Bos-
ton last week.
Need for some such surface was em-
phasized by a group of engineers dis-
cussing "highway lighting in relation
to night accidents."
They pointed to mounting automo-
bile fatalities atter dark, restrictions
on headlights, and experience "prov-
ing" the impracticability of enforcing
speeds within the limits set by head-
light visibility.
The Only Safe Speed
L. A. S. Wood, • lighting engineer,
said that "10 to 15 miles an hour -is
the only speed safe with present light-
ing equipment."
The problem, therefore, these en-
gineers agreed, was one of getting
enough light of the right kind in the
right place on the highway.
C. A. B. Halvorson, of Lynn, Mass.,
announced that the new type of road
surface was developed during an at-
tempt by the research exports to de-
sign a surface that would allow driv-
ers to see farther without glare.
Crux of the problem, he said, was to
get hold of a design that would do its i
job as well in wet weather as in dry.
Pitted At Intervals
The design he finally settled on
makes his miniature test road look
like one of those pans you put in the
oven for hot biscuits. Little "cups"
pit the road at intervals of an inch in
diameter. Mixed with this indented
surface is a substance, such as quartz-
ite, which gives a high reflectivity.
Longevity Of ana ns
Is Steadily kicreasing
Life Expectation In the Dominion
Is Shown By Latest Figures To
Be Higher Than In Either The
United States Or Great Britain.
Investigations into longevity tend to
reinforce the Biblical dictum that the
span of life is three score and 10, the
Dominion Bureau of Statistics an-
nounced this month as official life tab-
les for the general population of Can-
ada were issued for the first time.
"It seems that today, in, Canada
particularly, there are far more peo-
ple attaining the allotted span than
ever before in history but there are
not appreciably more centenarians
than there were 100 years ago," the
bureau said. "The decreasing mortal-
ity at younger ages is a token of the
vastly emaller amount of illness
among young people today.".
More Years In Prospect,
Based on the 1931 census, which was
the first to compare deaths with lir-'
ing population in order that prob-
abilities of dying could be reckoned,
the survey showed that the Canadian
boy of five can look forward to `62.30
years of life. An English boy has only
60.00 years, and the American boy
59,38 years.
As a person grows ,older the expec-
tation of life steadily decreases. When
a Canadian youth reaches his majority
he has in prospect 48 years to live on
the average. When he gets to 40 he
may anticipate living 32 years more.
When he retired at about 65, he may
expect to have a comfortable 13 years
of retirement and die at 78. If he
reaches 80 he should live six years
more and even when he arrives. at the
century mark his expectation of life
is two years.
Study of mortality in 15 countries,
show that only two have a lower male
mortality from ages 25 to 45 " than
Canada, these being Denmark and
Holland. Chance of an Italian boy of.
five dying is 39 per cent. greater than
that for a Canadian, of a Japanese
boy 169 per cent., and an East Indian
637 per cent.
The Aluminum Company of Amer-
ica disclosed last -week at Pittsburg
that it has perfected a method of
making pictures on metal which was
expected to be more enduring and
more aceurate than those taken on
paper,
It presented the first portrait made
by the new process to Dr. Paul D.
Merica, whose research work on the
;Precipitation hardening of alloys led
to a more diversified use of metals,
Do Not React To Changes
The pictures are made on a paten -
ied metal about one -sixteenth of an
nch thick, which contains an oxide
Coating, with the sensitive silver salts
That react to light. When exposed
So light sent through a negative an
image is produced on the metal.
A spokesman said the metal pic-
tures have proved more valuable for
,aerial surveys, where a surface, ab-
solutely accurate, was needed.
He explained that a slight change
in temperature causes contraction or
iiXpansion of paper pictures, and that
Birch slight distortion would bring
about a grave miscalculation of dis-
tances. The metal picturesdo not
react to Such changes, he said.
A—C
Spaghetti Shooting
"I went crazy because I was offer-
ed spaghetti instead of steak for my
supper." A man offered this explana-
tion recently to Chicago police after
shooting his 17 -year-old daughter
and wounding his 21 -year-old son.
He missed his wife.
Walking For Ten Years
The most energetic than in the
world has been walking for 10 years.
He started in 1927 to walk round
the world. Now he has completed
80,000 miles—more than three times
the earth's circumference,
Whales have been known to break
their! Jaws on the ocean bottom, after
a mile deep dive;
Healthy and Vigorous Elements
"In addition to our healthy climate,
advanced facilities in medicine and
public health and our standard of liv-
ing, all of which undoubtedly con-
tribute to our remarkably superior
longevity, there is the factor of selec-
tion through immigration," the report
continued.
"When large movements of popula-
tion take place there is a tendency for
the more healthy and energetic ele-
ments to move while the less healthy
stay at home. Hence it is that West-
ern Canada has the lightest mortality
as the three provinces have received
much of their population very recent -
News In Review
Commentary on the
Highlights of the Week's News
By Elizabeth Eedy
INSIDE PRESSURE—By taking over
Austria, Reichsfuehrer Adolf Hitler's
chief gain
has been
the increase of
his own prestige with the German
people at a time when their faith in
him badly needed bolstering. His
Austrian coup has served for the mo-
ment to distract German minds from
the army purge, mounting unem-
ployment, shortage of food essen-
tials, loss of personal freedom.
Observers say that the move is ac-
complishing little in the way of bet-
tering the desperate economic con-
ditions of the Reich. Austria, too,
is deficient in foodstu`s and raw ma-
terials, has to import between '700,-
000 and 900,000 tons of grain a year
to feed her people. Sole resources
present there in any sort of abund-
ance are iron ore and timber, which
Hitler and his financial advisers plan
immediately, to exploit, By selling
the iron ore and timber outside the
country, they will be able to hoard
more foreign capital and stave off
economic collapse for the present.
The seizure of Austria is then only
a stop -gap, a temporary measure, to
be followed by moves much more
drastic, infinitely more brutal. In-
side pressure drives Germany outside
herself, forcing the country on and
on to further and still further ag-
gression. There is no foundation for
the hope that Hitler will stop where
he is.
To Control High -Power Stations
OTTAWA. — It was the ultimate
policy of the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation to take control .of all high-
power broadcasting in Canada, L. W.
Brockington, chairman of the Board
of Governors, told the Parliamentary
Committee on Radio.
Some permits had been granted for
private -stations with power up to a
maximum of 1,000 watts, but no in-
creases would be permitted above that
maximum, to private stations, Mr.
Brockiugton said.
Eventually it was the intention to
restrict private stations to "purely
local functions."
The Heart of Europe
VIENNA.—"The political heart of
Europe no longer beats in. Paris, but
in Berlin," Propaganda Minister Goeb-
bels of Germany declared this week
in an Anschluss plebiscite campaign
speech.
"In ten years' time, it will be un-
derstood what that signifies," he said.
Appealing for a 100 per cent. vote
by Austrians in favor of union with
Germany in the April 10 plebiscite,
—0—
DOG EAT DOG—It won't be long
now before Poland, having won the
first round of a bloodless fight with
Lithuania, by forcing that country to
accept Polish terms in settlement of
a border dispute, will be malting new
demands of her neighbor. The truth
is that Poland would like to annex
Lithuania, thereby gaining more
outlets on the Baltic. It is pretty
generally agreed that Poland, sup-
posedly an ally of France, has been
backed up in the Lithuanian dispute
by Germany in return fur a promise
of Polish support for some other
moves Hitler has in mind . . one of
which might be a boycott of Czecho-
slovakia.
Professor Albert Bushnell Hart of
Harvard, dean of American histori-
ans, however, is of the belief that
Germany is actually planning to an-
nex Poland. Case of dog eat dog,
we opine.
vinces have failed to communicate
with him, giving their views on the
matter.
The draftof theproposed amend-
ment was submitted to all Provin-
cial Governments, January 20, New
Brunswick and Quebec had not up to
this week acknowledged receipt of
the draft.
—o—
NORMAL CROP—From the drought
areas of southwestern Saskatchewan
are coming reports of water flowing
in creek beds, rivulets and lakes,
storing up greatly -needed water. At
Regina it is said the country has re-
ceived the largest amount of moisture
in many years. Further, it has been
an open spring with a rapid thaw of
heavy snow in many parts. '
A "normal" crop is looked for by
the farmers of Saskatchewan. Pros-
pects long seen hopeless are bright-
ening again. It will be a wonderful
thing for Canada if the West really
is beginning to "come back."
—0—
HOLDING IT UP—It was admitted
by Prime Minister Mackenzie King
in the 'House last week that the rea-
son the present session has not dealt
with the proposed amendments to the
British North America Act (empow-
ering the Federal Government to en-
act unemployment insurance legisla-
tion) is that three of the nine Pro-
SCAPEGOAT—In
ro
SCAPEGOATIn primitive times,
high priests of religion were wont to
place all the blame for plagues, de-
feats in war, sins of the people, on
some innocent animal, for instance a
goat, which they put to death with
great ceremony. When the goat had
been killed, the cause of the evil was
supposed to have been removed and
expiation made. Hence the origin
of "scapegoat."
Though we are far from primitive
times today, we still have our scape-
goats. It looks as though Ex -Chan-
cellor, Dr. Kurt von Schuschnigg of
Austria is going to be one of them,
Branded now as a traitor by Adolf
Hitler, he will be tried for treason
against the German Reich, in Leipzig
this summer. The court proceedings,
it is reported, will be public and
widely publicized on purpose to prove
to the world that all the blame for
Austria's plight rests on Schusch-
nigg's shoulders. Germany hopes
that the death of Schuschnigg on the
chopping block will silence all criti-
cism of the Nazi annexation.
—o—
CHINESE HIT BACK — Counter -
thrusts by Chinese armies are result-
ing in victories over the Japanese
throughout the entire Central China
front. Reports last week had' it that
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek him-
self was at the central battle front
in personal charge of the drive. Cer-
tainly it is definite that the Chinese.
have met withstriking military suc-
cess in Shantung, Shansi and Anhwei
Provinces.
It is still too early, however, .to
predict that the tide is turning
against Japan.
Goebbels said that grave decisions
taken by Chancellor Hitler — leaving
the League of Nations, remilitarizing
the Rhineland and absorbing Austria
—were all full of risks.
Warns of Depression
OTTAWA.—Right Hon. R., B. Ben-
nett sounded a warning in the House
of Commons this week that Canada
was on the verge of a depression sim-
ilar to that of 1930.
The Opposition Leader charged
that "the danger signals are already
flying," and that the upward trend
of the past three years had suddenly
stopped. The signals to which he re-
ferred, he said, were that exports had
fallen off drastically, that unemploy-
ment was "growing by leaps and
bounds, 25,000 in one month," that
business men were refusing to invest
.money because they lacked confidence.
Trafalgar Square Sees Another Demonstration
•' ' � Trefalgt.r S<t'iare recently to protest against the Gelman anne::nl:'nn , "
Austria thousand mount lroiid f 5 ,�
t tch... t•,;Y•iirr!:,� a deputation seeking to take a letter of protect to the .
Austria, Here are mounted and foo 1 1 to pass and deliver the letter. The crowd was shouting • Ili r.
man >afitbassy. It?verttual?,y a few • ��.,^
off Czechoslovakia!"
The Arctic Teri'
Flies Very Far
Long -Distance Champion — In
Three Months One Globe -Trot-
ting Bird Flew From Labrador
to Nigeria. •
Now that the northern bird migra-
tion is getting under way, the vast
distances which these travellers cover
in flying to and from their nesting
grounds is a topic of current interest.
The powers of endurance displayed
by large numbers of North American
birds on thetr lengthy migratory jour-
neys is amazing, but there is one spe-
cies that out -rivals them all. This is
the Arctic tern, aptly referred to as
"the champion globe trotter and long-
distance flyer of the bird world."
Circumpolar Range
The species is well named, as its
range is circumpolar and it nests over
the Arctic land as far north as suit-
able conditions can be found. When
the young are well -grown the Cana-
dian and Greenland terns disappear
from their breeding grounds and a few
months later may be found even as
far away as Africa. in fact the long-
est flight on record for an individual
bird°was achieved by an Arctic tern
that in three months flew from ,the
coast of Labrador to the Niger River
in Southeast Africa.
Traverses Atlantic
The journey of the terms is be-
lieved to follow a route touching upon
the west coasts of Spain and Africa,
and on the rettrn trip northwards in-
dividuals are known to fly along the
east coast of South America.
The route indicated for this bird is
altogether unique, as no other species
is known to breed abundantly in North
America and to traverse the Atlantic
Ocean to or from the 01d World.
These globe-trotting birds travel many
thousands of miles and touch on four
continents in the course of a year.
Don't Skate On • Ice
When ieo skaters skint along over
a smooth stretch they are not actin
ally slid>ng on ice but on water. Tilt
ice melts under the skates, due, to thi
friction, and the skates move along
on a thin film of water. Increased
pressure, as all physicists know. alar
melt.; ice, and the weight of the per
eon on skates provides pressure whicl
on ?'" nes with the. friction to ehangr
''e ice to water.