time

r beyond the indi

strokes of a pencil Canadian voters on Aug-

Ith will determine the policy which is to guide
s of this country for possibly the next four or

The significance of the “X’’ marked on a ballot goes
dual beside whose name it is placed.
the parliamentary system \followed in Canada,
rather than individual members, count. :

‘The party record is clear. It has been demonstrated .
and again in House of Commons’ votes on issues of
great importance to every Canadian worker.

_ Before you pick up a pencil in a polling booth.it is
your duty to know where the parties stand on such vital
matters as: Health insurance; housing; unemployment

insurance; taxation; children’s allowances; old age pen-

sions; a national labor code

economic aid to under-developed countries.

; planned immigration; and

Mortgage

Racket

Harms Workers

TORONTO — Second mortgages have always produced easy
pickings for mortgage money lenders, but the skinning process
was never more clearly illuminated than it has now been through

the working of the Mortgage

Exchange in Toronto. Similar

exchanges have been established in Montreal, Winnipeg and New

York.
Good Example

Here is an example of a sec-
ond mortgage transaction. A
house was priced by the. owner
to sell at $10,000. He wanted
$4,000 cash down, as the first
mortgage was $6,000. The pros-
pective buyer wanted the house
but had only $2,500 for the down
payment, He got the balance of
$1,500 by getting a second mort-
gage through the exchange. What
did it cost him?—$2,019.13. He
will have to pay interest of this
principal and pay off this amount
—just to get $1,500.

Just how luerative this busi-
ness can be is told in detail in
the June issue of Canadian Busi-
ness, organ of the Canadian
Chamber of Commerce. It points
out that second mortgage yields
of 12%4% to 45% compare with
first-mortgage yields at 5% to
8%

The above example covers a
Class A mortgage for which the
buyer got 77% of the principal.
Class B, C and D mortgages net
the buyer as low as 50%.

Second-mortgages hit hardest
at the small home-buyer with in-
come too small to have enabled
him to save enough for the down
payment in today’s high-priced
market, In fact he shouldn’t be
buying at all. He should be rent
ing at a cost which will leave
him enough money to keep his
family in health and decency,
and still give them adequate ac-
commodation.

Tn a reasonable world this
would mean low-rent public hous-
ing. In Canada it means second
mortgages with months and
years of substandard living to
pay them off,

‘The Exchange itself provides a
clearing house for second-mort-
gages, taking a fee of about 3%
to cover brokerage and costs.
But what really adds the glow
to the mortgage-lender’s heart is
the yield—from 12%% to 45%,
give or take a little.

SWEDEN
BACKS
CO-OPS

STOCKHOLM—For the first
time, membership in the Swe-
dish Co-operative Union and
Wholesale Society in 1952 ex-
ceeded the one million mark.
According to the annual re-
port, the total number of mem-
bers is now over 1,024,000, or
one out of every seven Swedes.

More than 32,000 persons jo
ed the 681 co-operative societies
of the Union last year, the lar-
gest increase on record since
1941. The combined turnover in
1952 of the 8,200 stores affiliated
with the Union amounted to
$447,800,000, an increase of 18.5
percent over the preceding year.

Foreign Exports

The report shows that of Swe-
den’s entire production of edible
oils, the factories of the Co-
operative Union produced 90 per-
cent. The corresponding figure
for household margarine was 30
percent, for oatmeal 25 percent,
for working clothes 20 percent
and for electrie light bulbs 50
percent.

Besides foodstuffs, Swedish co-
operative enterprises exported
household machinery, cash regis-
ters, scales, electric bulbs, ete. to
many foreign countries.

HIGH-COST

OTTAWA — Ottawa Chil-
dren’s Aid Society officials
have been asked to care for 19
children in-the last two weeks
because parents can find no-

__where for their families to live.

=:

Directors of the local Society
‘are concerned about the possi-
ity of their placement service
reaking down if they are called

to care for the children of.

ted families. The main func-
of the Society is to care for
children and it is-felt
local officials that if they
to provide accommodation
less children, decent

not be available for

HOUSING

The applications for care of the
19 children were made by the
heads of four evicted Ottawa fa-
milies. They had applied to the
city’s Social Service Department
but had been advised to appeal to
Children’s Aid after being told
by municipal officials that “the
Children’s Aid Society will have
to take them (the children) in
the end”,

An official of the Society, com-
menting on the high cost of car-
ing for children in the Society’s
charge—quoted as between $170
and $225 monthly for four chil-
dren — said that the taxpayers
might think this an expensive
way to subsidize housing,

B.C, LUMBER WORKER

Schools

Repeat
Success

OTTAWA — Over 180 mem.
bers of CCL affiliated unions
graduated from two one-week
schools held in the third and
fourth weeks of June at the
FDR-CIO Labor Centre near
Port Huron, Michigan. This
was the CCL’s sixth annual
summer school and was spon-
sored in co-operation with the
Michigan CIO Council.

Special sessions were held on
collective bargaining and politi-
cal action goals while other topics
included lahor’s role in interna-

tional affairs and the promotion
of racial tolerance.

Labor’s stake in the August 10
federal election was outlined at
the PAC general session by Joe
Noseworthy, CCF member for
York South in the last Parlia-
ment.

Fourteen courses were offered
during the CCL school. These in-
cluded union administration, re-
creation, leadership, accident pre-
vention, grievance procedure,
PAC techniques, labor journalism
and radio broadeasting. A special
course for wives of union mem.
bers covered highlights of labor
history and taught handicraft
skills.

Howard Conquergood, CCL
educational and welfare director,
was director of the school and
William MacDonald, UAW edu-
cation director, was co-director,

July 2, 1983

WEALTH NOT
SHARED HERE -

OTTAWA (CPA)—The average working Canadian is not get-
ting a fair share of the increased wealth of- this land, “Comment”,
official research publication of the CCF, points out in its latest

issue.

“,.. The majority of the work-
ers in this country are receiving
Tess wages than are necessary to
maintain a decent standard of
living; they find it necessary to
incur a large amount of consum-
er debt in the form of retail cre-
dit, bank loans, real estate mort-
gages and loans on life insurance
Policies; they are unable to set
aside adequate savings or to ob-
tain sufficient life insurance
coverage.”

Wages Down

The CCF researchers point out
that at the time of the 1951 Cen-
sus, more than 56 percent of all
Canadian wage and salary earn-
ers received less than $2,500 a
year while wage-earning farm
workers, receiving less than $2,-
500, totalled 88 percent.

Comparing the “prosperity” of
today with conditions in 1935,
“Comment” notes that whereas
in 1935, 92.5% of all savings ac-
counts held $1,000 or less and
they averaged $115 per account
(or $190 in terms of 1949 dol-
lars), in 1951, 88.6% of savings
accounts were in this category
and they averaged $159 per ac-
count (or only $136 in terms of
1949 dollars).

Increasing Indebtedness
The increasing indebtedness of

the mass of Canadian public is

emphasized by the tremendous
jump in consumer credit, which
stood at $297 million at the end
of 1945, but by the end of 1952
had reached $1,530 million.

Mortgages, in the same period,
increased from $533 million to
$1,700 million and loans against
insurance policies jumped from
$237 million at the end of 1949
to $283 million by the end of
1951.

“Comment” summarizes the
overall position as follows: Cor-
poration profits after taxation in
1951 were 176 percent greater
than they wete in 1935, corpora-
tion reserve surpluses were 117
percent greater and income
from all types of investments in-
creased by 328 percent. On the
other hand, per capita wages,
salaries and supplementary in-
come before taxation rose only’89
percent, personal savings rose 33
percent and life insurance in-
creased 19 percent. “The stati:
ties prove who is getting the big-
ger share of the pie,” says Com-
ment, z

“Mary, is that young man there
yet?”

“No ‘father, but he’s getting
there.”

In 1858, the steamboat “Surprise” became the first vessel to
carry passengers up the Fraser River to Hope.

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