a ya Around the Slipways By Charles Saunders Cc IS a fact that the hospitals and medical services have been severely strained by exigencies of war and the added rate of industrial diseases and accidents. Doctors are overworked. Nurses, both overworked and underpaid, are leaving the pro- fession and finding better paid jobs with shorter hours in industry. All of these things aggravate the situation. Since there is little governmental control or responsibility for hospitals it may be necessary to ensure payment will be forthcoming; but the system which demands a down payment before admitting a patient to hospital causes a lot of grief and sometimes tragedy. A veteran of this war, working in the shipyards, took his baby daughter to a local hospital suffering from pneumonia. She was kept waiting for over half an hour while he tele- phoned all over town to get the necessary down payment. The girl died. The time she was kept waiting may or may not have been decisive. Nothing will ever convince that man that it Was not. One of the most outstanding needs of industrial workers, and indeed, all workers of average income, is a national health insurance scheme that will cover not only themselves but the whole family. This is not a project for post-war consideration; it is a matter for immediate attention. The health of a nation’s people is one of its major assets, and the medical returns from army examinations are an elo- quent witness to the shameful neglect of the past. . At present it is a major expense to even be born in Canada, and a substantial part of a man’s income is spent on preserving himself sufficiently to earn a living. Special requirements such as dental and optical care are often neglected through inability to pay, while any major repairs will leave a man’s income mortgaged for years to come. And if by some re- markable chance he reaches the end of his span with a few dollars stowed away, he or his relatives are swiftly introduced to another item not included in the cost-of-living index, ie., the high cost of dying. @ AX ARTICLE in The Province of Friday last, headed “Fealth Facts Unpalatable” stresses the seriousness of the facts revealed in the findings of the Haggerty Committee. The figures given are very revealing. . . . For instance, the bill for sickness in Canada amounts to $250,000,000 annually, and only $10,000,000 is being spent in disease prevention. Pointing to the shortage of doctors and medical facilities the report states that 12.1 percent of deaths occurred where no medical care had been given. A study of incapacitation through illness and accident re- veals that on a given day eight persons out of 100 are unable to work at their occupations. The brief of the Canadian Dental Association reveals the astounding fact that if all the dentists in Canada were fairly distributed they could only look after the teeth of the popu- lation under 16 years of age. They recommend a compulsory insurance plan for all children up to the age of 16 years as a measure of preventative rather than restorative dentistry. P= should be the idea governing a National Health In- surance scheme. One based on the recognition of good health as one of the major assets of a modern nation. While we hear so much talk of the post-war world, there are several concrete steps that can be taken immediately. A national health insurance scheme is one of them. An enormous load of care and anxiety could be lifted from the backs of the workers by this means. It would show immediate results in Transformation Of Adak Mute testimony to the efficiency o ers recruited to work under fire, comes from the navy’s own photographie files: - photo shows the airbase at Adak in the Aleutians, rutted and knee deep in mud, whe navy took over- Lower picture shows a Ventura bomber ready for the 255-mile to bomb Kiska on the new metal runway—work of the Seabees. 2 uilding and metal trades: f Navy Seabees, AFL b | Continued Wartime while base-metal mines and smelters are short both of man- power and miaterials. And out of the reports and dis- cussions was evolved “a democra- tice wartime labor policy necessary to avert a metal crisis in metal mining in Canada and necessary for sure and speedy victory over fascism.” Included in this policy statement was the paramount need of winning the war, the no-strike, full organi- zation of INCO and democratic labor relations, and proposals on wages, prices, taxes and economic stabilization, production and man- power. Copies of the policy program will be sent to Prime Minister King, Labor Minister Mitchell, Munitions _and _Supply Minister Howe, the Metals Board and every employer in the industry. An accompanying letter will state the union’s readiness to discuss its policy with all con- cerned, and _ the federal and provincial governments will be asked to hear deputations from the union to discuss adoption of the program in the industry. Carlin, who is also an interna- tional board member, summed up the proceedings with the statement: “We will look back on this confer- erence and find it was an epochal event in the history of Sudbury, morale. " You'll Enjoy Our HOME COOKING at the Shelly Coffee Shop 121 West Pender HAst. 0240 7166 E. Hastings Hastings Steam Baths Vancouver, B.C. Always Open — Expert Masseurs in Attendance 8 am. to 11 pm... . 40c and 50c . —E + w.. 3. CURRY DENTIST 207 West Hastings Street DR. Tel. PAc. 1526 an epochal event in the history of Canada.” Soviet Women in ae War Against Hitlerism 14 Stories, including one about Pavlichenko; 76 Pages — 40c WE CARRY ON 172 Pages — 75c THE HEROIC DEFENCE OF SEVASTOPOL 128 Pages — 65c UNIVERSAL NEWS 188 East Hastings = 4 SHIPYARD WORK! Bat at the Sugar Bowl ¢ | | NORTH VAN 7100% Union House PF | Meet Me at §& KING’S CA for a Square Mes. “THE BEST OF FO) Your Host .. GEORGE 4 a + : 212 Carrall Stree ‘ Lorna May Hamilton, who will Pp AIN $2.15 per 4 Kalso, 4 [ & take part in the United Nations Pienic pageant, Aug. 1, as Miss Scotland. Lorna May will compete with the ten other representatives of the United Nations for the title “Miss United Nations.” e z Mills 156 West Cordova - Buy now while buying THIS IS OUR LANE By RAYMOND ARTHUR DAVIES 75 Cents Ukrainian Canadians Against Hitler Of this book, the New Pathway, which expresses the opit of the fascist Ukrainians in Canada, says, “It is the foolish book in Canada.” Such a condemnation from sv source is the greatest compliment any book could ree THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO - - By KARL MARK and FREDERICH ENGELS The Basic Document of the Socialist Movement — The People Bookshe 105 Shelly Building 119 West Pender MA 6929 Vanco !