Zurich Herald, 1952-01-24, Page 7Questions And Answers
About The The Old Age Security Act
On January 1 the Old Age Sec-
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 •wil;l 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 capitals.' There have been
many queries from interested per-
sons 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.
Who should not apply ?
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.
a' 2. Other documents that will
be given considerationclude records in family 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 giving proof
of age, to the Regional Direc-
tor
of Old Age Security, De-
partment of National Health
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. •
''al. 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
Q.
A
old age pensions, unless an appli-
cation is forwarded.
2. The first cheques will be issued
-at the end of January, 1952.
3.01d age security payments will
be made without a means test.
4. As of March 31, 19404173
persons were in receit0`5f 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 tune, 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, heads (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 came into being, that of
the banker, and amongthe 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 someone 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 Harkavy 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 6e -
fore deciding just how profitable
his business is.
One 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,
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 come
from the 'smith.
The baker has given us the term,
baker's dozen, for thirteen. At one
time the man 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."
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.
I: *
Improperly packaged food pro-
ducts, especially meat, poultry, and
fish, are subject to serious desicca-
tion (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.
* * *
The 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'y
.Thus, the circulating air' ab-
sorbs moisture from the frozen pro -
BY •
HAROLD
ARNETT
A LIT N A FRUIT JAR WEIGHTED
WITH ROCKS MAKES AN EXCELLENT LAMP FOR
LOCATING OBJECTS DROPPED INTO THE WATER . THEY
MAY BE RETRIEVED WIT
duct and• deposits it un 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 -month 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.
t: * *
I)esiccat' 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. Experhnents
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.
* * :r•
The market -gardener who 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 conte
true, although such a cabbage vat-.
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-
ther conditions 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
come 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.
This cabbage is noted for its ex-
ceptional compactness and unifor-
mity 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 tl.e recentjoint 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 Office
• * * *
Specific proposals adopted at this
Ottawa 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 minimum of in-
formation required to establish iden-
tification and ancestry.
* * *
2. The use of a standard certifi-
cate of registration by all associa-
tions.
* * *
3, The 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 from the Records
Office of such duties and services
as may he adequately conducted by
association secretaries. Additional
services now given include collec-
tion of membership fee arrears; pre-
paration of a membership list for
the annual meetings; interpretation
of inaccuracies in constitution and
bylaws; settlement of disputes
anon' members, etc.
* * *
The adoption of the above pro •
-
posals would necessitate adoption
of amendments to corresponding
ar isles of aliiiliation. 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 to 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 withdrawal of an
association from the affiliation.
Department and Records officials
would continue to be at the disposal
of associations and nteinfiers; SW -
advice on any problems related to
new responsibilities assumed by as-
sociations.
Safe Deposit Vault To Protect
Valuables From Atom Bombs
y RICHARD XLETNER
The day after New York's mock
air raid, an excited old man burst
into the Manhattan offices ofIke".
Iron Mountain Atomic Storage."'
Co
"'Irp,
want to rent some space that
will be safe from bombs," he said.
"How much to rent a storage
vault?„ Salesult?manager Joseph T. Gar-
land calmly found out how much
room the man would need, did some
quick reckoning and announced that
the annual rental would be $900.
"I'm a nice guy," the old man
whined. "I'm afraid my clothes
will.blow up. Do it for me for
$50 ill you?"
Except for an occasional crack-
pot like that, the Iron Mountain
Atomic forage 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 up 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 rented 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 birth 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, mod-
estl', the vaults offer complete pro.
tection against "blast of atomic or
• other bomb; atomic radiation; fire,
theft, submersion by flooding, or
natural catastrophe."
The mountain was an operating
iron mine until 1898, when high
cost; of working forced its abaft.:
donment. Up until last year, the
present owner of .the property, Her-
urian Knaust, used its cave -like cor-
ridors to grow mushrooms. Knaust
is the world's largest mushroom
producer, operating in caves in the
eastern New York area.
Among his employees are a group
of DPs. They told him of the heart-
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 be a profitable scheme.
* * *
Su far Knaust has developed
185,000 cubic feet. He estimates
that ultimately 4,090,000 cubic feet
of the mountain's catacomb -like in-
terior can be made into storage
vaults.
Garland, the 'sales manager,, who
is Knaust's son' -in-law, and a former
college . and service football star,
says that most people are interested
in the mountain's facilities, but 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.
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 the 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 discomfort; 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 th'uk your heart is on the
left side, you're entertaining anoth-
er fallacy. It happens to be neither
left nor right, hit one-third is right
of (lead centre.
Shaving doesn:t make hair grow --
faster. Experts have measured un-
dera microscope that length of
hair that grows. day by -clay, be-
tween shaves, and have compared
' this rate w th the daily growth in
people who don't shave. The aver-
age is exactly the same!
Is night air bad for you and
sea air gond? Be careful how you
answer.>Night air is only danger -
ons to ' malarial districts where
..mosquitoes may enter an open w'n-
clow 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 goesy,back to
the days when arsenic, which really
is a deadly poison, was manufactur-
ed in a form that looked rather
like glass,
En America, a scientist declared
that, thanks to sunspots, there
would he 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 from floods that year!
Even policemen sometimes ima-
gine that the faces of dishonest
people are especially narrow he-
tween the eyes. Aetna] photographs
of swindlers and other criminals
show no trace of such narrowness.
Thousands of the weather-wise
R
:declare that lightning never strikes
twice in the same !:dace ---yet the
Empire State Building. in New
York, is struck during every severe
storm.
How easily are you deluded? Do
you imagine that rheumatic pains
can forecast a damp spell ahead?
Na'Y '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 Arth'.ir Poin er