| t | } g | B.C. LUMBER WORKER Z i 11 Cc Sek Houghton House Sister Alison Brown of the Local 1-217, IWA, visited the fol Jowing patients in the Houghton House Hospital, June 2, and June %, distributing candy, cigarett and copies of B.C. Lumber Worke: H. Heinzi, Prince George — Leg injury. 4 Biwery Williams Lake — Leg injury. * 8, Ireland, O'Brian, Camp “B” — ‘Leg injury. H, Jnckso1 —Leg injury B. Quinn, Cra AL H, Jackson Leg inju' Vancouver General Sisters Ivy Smith and Kay Wood of the LA Local 1-217, LWA visited the following patients in the Van- couver General Hospital June 30th and July 7th, distributing cand: cigarettes and copies of the B. Lumber Worker. Dave Harder, Lasquete Island — Looking well. Frank Luckhurst, Sproat Lake — Doing fine. Frank Popek, Englewood, Camp A —Looking well. Granite Bay Timber rook—Arm injury, Granite Bay Timber Lest D Vernon Nielson, Terrace, B.C.—Im- proving. M, P. Moskewee, Kelly Logging— Looking well. M. McBride, Canada Creosote — Feeling fine. &. Freeman, Kitimat — Coming Poff, Bay Lumber—Going home. mn Quaye, Creston — Cheerful. Weng Lin,’ Empire Box — Very cheerfu i Stan High, Larsons Logging—Back injury. F V. Dronbeck, Jeune Landing—Head injur: Kx. Vognild, Pacific Mills Co., Queen Charlottes. A Ken MeKay, Terrace—Back injury. Lloyd Syisdahl, Bella Coola—Back injury. Alex Yonchuk, Spring: Creek Log- ging—Looking well. G, Plotnikoff, Grand Forks—Com- ing along fine. = J. Burdulak, Powell River — Leg injur; J. MaeDonal Looking weil. i . Brennen, Canadian White Pine —Cheerful, ©, Ripley, Vancouver—Going out, Prince George — Nursing Proves Worth - Canadians who have had care by the Victorian Order of Nurses will find it difficult to believe the founding of this organization was widely opposed by certain factions in Canada, The VON did encounter op- position and grave difficulties from the very outset of its founding in 1897. The service was established by Lady Aberdeen, wife of the then “Canadian Governor General. Little Acclaim Lady Aberdeen’s proposals that a band of nurses should give care in the home and in small cottage hospitals were received with little acclaim except by a comparatively small group of men and women who saw the urgent need for this service. At that time in Canadian history, only 30 years after Conferation, the population was small and wide- ly spread. Lack of medical serv- ice in many communities resulted in a heavy death rate. This was particularly true in the case of new births with many babies and mothers being lost for lack of Proper care, the particular concern of Lady Aberdeen. With this in mind ,she called for formation of the home nursing service which was to become the Victorian Order of Nurses Plan Opposed A number of newspapers were highly critical of the proposal. Certain members of the medical profession opposed the plan, ap- parently feeling it was not prac- tical to have young women going into all sections of the community, administering to the sick. Dr. Alfred Worcester, who had done pioneer work in providing Order the benefit of home nursing nursing services in the United States, was invited by Lady Aber- deen to address members of the medical profession at meetings in Ottawa and Toronto. He was able to win the support of the Ottawa doctors. At the outset of the Toronto session, Dr. Worcester was asked how much he was being paid for working for the Aberdeens, but eventually won over his audience. Charter Granted With the backing of the Toronto and Ottawa medical men assured, the Victorian Order of Nurses had overcome what was perhaps its most serious challenge. In 1898 Queen Victoria granted the Order’s charter. The VON s work actually start- ed in 1897 with the admission of 12 nurses into the Order and the request of a number of Canadian communities for the nursing serv- ice. National Institution From these small beginnings, the VON has become a national institution with 117 branches across the country. Last year VON nurses made close to 1,000,000 visits to Canadian homes, treating some 130,000 patients, without regard to colour, creed or ability to pay. In the highest traditions of the nurs- ing profession, the Victorian Order of Nurses answers all calls for assistane. Equal Pay Bill Lost For A Dill to provide equal pay for equal work for women under federal jurisdiction was again defeated in the House However, 11 Liberal M.P.’s joined ion vote in favour of the measure introduced by Mrs. Ellen Fairclough, Progressive Conservative, Hamilton of Commons last month. the Opp West. At the previous session of Parlia ment, Labour Minister Gregg had replied that no request for equal pay had been made by the Nation al Council of Women. But this was no longer the case, Mrs, Fair- clough stated. Since then, “the National Council of Women have presented him with their request that this legislation should be sup- ported by the government.” .K, islation ‘Equal pay legislation, already in effect in Saskatchewan, Ontario British Columbia, had recent- approved by the British ic noted. The U.K, Women — will result in complete equality’ of pay for women, The number of women in the Canadian labour force was grow- ing, she said, and in the last year the proportion of women to men had increased to 23%. Single wo- men paying taxes last year totalled 651,130 compared with 736,020 single men, Similar Jobs These statistics made it appear odd that there should be any dif- ference at all between the wages paid to men and women for doing similar jobs, “We Cannot Stand | y With Our Hands Folded” By PEG STEWART During the late spring, and into June, I was working in the city—the big, big city of Toronto. Through a suc- cession of warm, sunny days I worked in an office. When- ever I had a few minutes to spare, I’d spend them gazing out the window, wishing I was outside, working in a gar- den, watching things grow, and enjoying the air and the sunshine and the green trees around. But in order to really enjoy feeling sorry for myself, I had to keep my mind off my daily trip to work. Because every morning on the way to the office I passed through avery beautiful piece of the city, where there were expanses of nice lawn, and flower beds, and trees— everything pleasant. The only sour note was the people I saw there—the groups of men setting out with scythes and pruning knives and lawn mowers, and hoes —all the gardener’s tools. It would have been a cheerful sight if those men had been gardeners —people who make a career of looking after grounds, and get well paid for it. The Unemployed But they weren’t. They were the Unemployed—the able-bodied men who couldn’t find any work to do. They were working for twenty dollars a week, tidying up the parks of Metropolitan Tor- onto, All around this huge city there are new industrial areas, You can drive mile after mile and see glis- tening new modern plants, with great big parking lots for workers’ cars, It would be a most pleasant and heartening sight — if you didn’t know that other plants are closed down—and still others on the way to closing. We have in this country a great expansion and a great contraction going on at the same time—and there are people who think that anyone who worries about it is just a pessi- mistic Old Meany. Like me. Unpaid Holidays I remember Jast year about this time, writing about summer holi- days, and about the people who had to take unpaid holidays they didn’t want, because they were out of work. That's a year ago. Since then, we’ve gone through a winter with swollen rolls of un- employed. And come out again in- to another summer, about the same. I don’t think that patience is going to get us anywhere. The situation is not going to right it- self. For the last fifty years or so, whenever things have got too tough we have had a war that got us off the economic look. But people are pretty tired of- that solution. In spite of what our war-like air-vice-marshals say, I don’t think we have any enthu- siasm for war at all. We don’t think much of the system of letting enough people starve to cut down the surplus working forc®, either. So what are we going to do? Uncertain Industries The most uncertain organized industries right now are textile and agricultural implements, The automobile industry has been a series of ups and downs, but it looks as if they’re on the track of stability through the guaranteed annual wage—or at least, on the lane ‘that leads to the path of stability. The others are not. And the more people who are out of work in an industry, the harder it is for their union to operate effec- tively. We have to think out sev- eral plans. There’s the guaranteed annual wage, which means a re- volution in the planning of produc- tion. There are tariffs — those mysterious, temperamental ar- rangements that don’t always work thé way you expect them to. There are forward prices for farmers, so they can plan ahead, and buy the implements that keep factories going. There are hours of work, and times of retirement. No one of these alone will do the job, but maybe there’s a combina- tion that will. Find A Solution The point is that union mem- bers, and their families “have to understand what’s going on, and use their brains to help find a solution. We've gone past the period when workers were expect-_ ed to stand with their hands fold- ed over empty stomachs, waiting for the bosses to make up their minds what to do next. he supported the principle of the Bill but felt that he must oppose it because “more exact informa- tion” on the subject of women’s pay was needed. The question of equal pay involved the larger sphere of women’s wages in gen- eral and the basic inequality of pay for men and.women due to the differential set between the rates for men and_women. He noted that equal pay prevails in the federal civil service. Stanley Knowles Speaking for the CCF, Stanley Knowles, Winnipeg North Centre, noted with pleasure the similarity between the bill proposed by Mrs. Fairclough and the Saskatchewan Equal Pay Law. Expressing the hope that the measure would not be shelved again, he urged that the principle of equal pay for equal work for women be approved by this House “which does consist of men and women who are all paid alike.” A Womens Bureau of the Lab- our Department had been estab- lished, the Minister noted, and it had done considerable study of the equal pay question. Mr. Gregg said that he felt, however, that “further investigation is desirable before final conclusions are reach- ed as to the kind of legislative action (to be taken) in the legis- lative field.” Women’s Bureau Mrs. Fairclough replied that $24,900 was allocated to the Wo- men’s Bureau but only $9,170 had been used. Most of this, she said had gone to pay the salaries of the three people who comprised the Bureau. MORE WOMEN IN INDUSTRY - OTTAWA (CPA) — Of every thousand persons em- ployed by Canadian industry at the start of February, 229 were women, the largest February proportion since 1950, according to DBS. This year’s figure compared with 227 per thousand last year, 224 in 1953, 215 in 1952, 225 in 1951, 231 in 1950, 223 in 1949 and 1948, 226 in 1947- and 241 in 1946. A ww FIAVOR* GENERAL | SANDWICH | WHITE BREAD l 74 eddy the Toaster says.-- FRESHNESS BAKERIES you can’t beat its LIMITED BALANCED | RATION | Sheed gicad | eed