2 B.C. LUMBER WORKER on ; UNIONISTS WARNED ABOUT THIS RACKET The persecution of a “client” by a finance company so that his job was threatened by a garnishee leading to dis- missal while his original debt multiplied was revealed in a recent issue of The Guardian. The Windsor, Ont., labor paper also analyzed the cost to the consumer of instalment buying, in which many companies favor profitable long- term credit. 2 Company Benefits Charles Douglas, 26, on proba- tion at the Windsor plant of Gen- eral Motors, started his ruinous dealings with then-named Per- sonal Finance Co. in July, 1954, when he bought a second-hand ear for $385. As the previous owner had owed $135 to Personal Finance for the car, it was agreed that financing would be arranged there. Personal had its name. changed to Beneficial Finance by a special act of Parliament a few months ago. CCF MPs protested the bill, which also permitted the Ameri- can-owned company to increase its capitalization, on’ grounds of gross misrepresentation. As Charles Douglas tells it, only the company benefits, the client pays and pays. Contract Payments His contract called for payment of $29 per month to Personal Fin- ance but he was laid off after the first payment. “Personal Finance seized the car but still kept after me for the full $385,” Douglas said. “While I was off work, without any kind of Windsor Medical and Hospital coverage, we ran up quite a few debts here and there. And when I started work at Du- plate, in February last year, I tried to tell everyone I owed that Yd do my best to pay them all off as soon as I could. “But I didn’t have a chance to pay anybody off. “Personal Finance put through a garnishee against me at Du- plate and took $70 off me at one crack. They put through another garnishee and took $33. That sec- ond garnishee finished me and Duplate let me go. That was last July. Chey. Sold “In the meantime, Personal sold my Chey for just $30. That’s what they told me, anyway. They said I still owed them some $300! “J couldn’t find a job around Windsor for a few.weeks so our family left for Guelph, the wife’s home town. I worked with Cana- dian Comstock there until the job yan out—in January —then we came back to Windsor. “J wasn’t hiding from anybody. All I wanted was a chance to work and pay off those debts. Even though T’d paid over $100 to Persénal and still owed them $300 for a car I didn’t have. Collection Agent “My father got a phone call from a Personal Finance collec- tion agent. Only, on the phone, he said he was an officer at Un- employment Insurance and that he had a job for me. He asked my father where I was living— and the next day, sure enough, there was a man from Personal Finance at the door. “He even told me he was the one who had made the phone call from Unemployment Insurance.” Count Action Shortly after he was hired by GM, Douglas received a trick “survey” questionnaire — from the Meridian Reserve Fund, Lis- bon, Ohio. Within a few days of mailing the reply, agents from Personal Finance called on Doug- las threatening court action un- less he agreed to pay $30 weekly. He believed the debt should have ben cancelled as he had already paid $100 and the company had sold the car. Charles Douglas owes about $800 in grocery, medical and hos- pital bills as a result of unem- ployment. All he wants is a chance to pay off his debts sys- tematically without depriving his wife and four children of basic necessities. With the co-operation of the Windsor Credit Bureau and the Family Service Bureau, enlisted by the UAW, in two years he should be freed from overwhelming pressure and debts. Credit Buying The interest rates for instal- ment credit vary widely, The Guardian’s investigation of this type of consumer credit showed. Moreover, with the economy geared to a large turnover, the job security of many workers de- pends on the continuing upward trend of instalment buying. MORE USE CREDIT Canadians are buying more things on credit, according to a report published by the Dominion Bureau of Statis- tics last month. In 1955, charge sales increased to $3,- 009,100,000 from $2,746,400,- 000 the previous year; instal- ment sales to $1,676,800,000 from $1,431,500,000 in 1954. Cash sales in 1955 totalled $8,188,100,000 against $7,- 887,900,000 for the previous year, Cash sales last year de- creased to 63.3 percent of all retail sales, down from 65.4 percent in 1954; charge sales increased to 23.4, from 22.7 percent; and instalment sales to 13 percent, from 11.9 per- cent the year previous. A booklet published by the Ca- Nanaimo, B.C. Phone 1515 NANAIMO BUSINESS GUIDE ' Now Available New 1.E.L. Model HM Power Saw with diaphragm carburetor. 5 H.P., weight 28 Ibs. $272.00 complete with 28” attachments. Cutting attachments available from 16” to 32’. IRA BECKER & SON Vancouver Island Distributor ~ LE.L. CHAIN SAWS Campbell River, B.C. Phone 309F CARDS - PRINTING 241 NORRIS-READ Printers & Stationers Ltd. A Full Stock of Stationery and Paper carried at all times, FILING SUPPLIES - PHONES RULED FORMS STATIONERY 186 PHONE 160 W. H. JONES & SON NANaiMo, B.C. Auto, Fire and Casualty — Dwellings a Speciality : Palace Hotel Building—Next to |.W.A: nadian Hardware Association quotes official figures on the tre- mendous stimulation of business by consumer credit: “Department stores do 15 percent of their total sales on credit, furniture stores do 47 percent, radio and appli- ance stores do 45 percent and more than 65 percent of all new motor vehicles are financed on in- stalments.” Financing Accounts One Windsor merchant said: “We handle our own accounts. We charge the lowest rate and, believe me, we can make as much money by financing accounts as we can in the actual sale of the merchandise.” His admission was the excep- tion. Many retailers advertise their “easy” credit terms as a favor to their customers — and they are partly right. Clothing, furniture and automobiles are just a few consumer needs which today are bought on time by most people. If any of these industries relied only on cash sales, heavy layoffs would result, PORT ALBERNI BUSINESS GUIDE MacGREGOR’S MEN’S WEAR We Can Afford For Everything A Man Wears + WORK, SPORT or DRESS *« To Sell The... BEST For LESS! WOODWARD STORES (PORT ALBERNI) LTD. “Your Family Shopping Centre” “Closed Wednesdays All Day” Phone 1600 Hours: 9 - 5:30 You should shop for the best television set likely has a bank! loan for his wholesale purchases. If his bank interest is 6 percent, your credit interest should not be higher than 10 percent. However, if you pay for the TV set in six months and still pay $30 interest and carrying charges, your inter- est rate is 20 percent. Hidden Costs The Niagara Finance Co.'s booklet on Consumer Instalment Loans analyzed the budget plan offered in the mail-order cata- logue of one of the largest retail- ers in Canada, which has a “justly earned” reputation for fair customer dealing. These are the particulars of their plan: you pay 10 percent down, then the balance in $5 | MERGER ASSUMES GIANT STATURE WASHINGTON—The recently formed AFL-CIO has nearly 61,000 locals in 139 national and international unions and direct- ly-chartered locals affiliated with it. There are six special trade and industrial departments in the 15,000,000-member body. best quality goods at fair prices. service charge.’ The service The retailer who sells you a $300! charge on a balance of $20 is $2.25. This in turn works out to a rate of about 60 percent when calculated as simple interest.” monthly payments, plus ‘a small Real Price Penalties can hike the real price you eventually pay. A few firms actually want you to be late in paying! A 25-cent lateness penalty, for say a three-day de- lay, can work out to fantastic heights of “interest”. And you still must pay the sales price plus other interest! When you buy on credit, ask about these “little” hidden de- tails The wise shopper might be able to spot a bargain on a new settee or a new kitchen table and lose in the end to lateness penal- ties and excessive carrying’ charges. Reprinted from CLC News Director of Organization for Mr. Millard, a vice-president of the Canadian Labor Congress and Canadian director of the power- ful United Steelworkers of Am- erica, will be responsible for global organizing activities among the ICFTU’s 54,000,000 members in 81 countries. The office of Organization Dir- lished at the Confederation’s con- gress in Vienna last year. No im- mediate appointment was made although there was considerable speculation that Pat Conroy, Ca- nada’s only labor attache (in Washington) and former Secre- tary-Treasurer of the Canadian Congress of Labor, had been of- fered the post. Keen Interest Both Mr. Millard, personally, brother trade unionists in other parts of the world. The Canadian Labor Congress, of which he is a senior officer, is the highest per capita contributor to the organ- izational activities of the ICFTU. The new Organization Director is aged 60. He is a cabinet maker by trade, but during the depres- sion, started work in the General Motors plant at Oshawa, Ont. He was the first president of the United Auto Workers local there. In 1940 he was appointed head of the Canadian section of the Steel Workers Organizing Committee — later to become the United Steelworkers. He was one of the credit plan just as you do for the founders of the Canadian Con- (Graham HANEY NEY BUSINESS GUIDE “ESQUIRE” MEN’S WEAR Mowatt) Complete Stock of Work and Dress Clothing “THE STORE WITH THE POPULAR BRANDS” BRITISH COLUMBIA Ladysmith, B.C. SMITH BUSINESS G CARLSON'S TAXI Phone 222 or 5 ector of the ICFTU was estab- |; and the United Steelworkers have | : a Bee taken a keen interest in assisting | Millard Named ICFTU Director BRUSSELS (CPA)—An indication of the growing im- portance of Canada in world trade union affairs is given by the recent appointment of C. H. Millard as the first the International Confedera- tion of Free Trade Unions. The appointment of Mr. Millard was approved by a unanimous vote of the Executive Board of the free world’s trade union movement which met here. C. H. MILLARD gress of Labor in 1940 and be- came a vice-president of that body. CCF Member Mr. Millard was a CCF mem- ber of the Ontario Legislature for York West from 1943-45 and 1948-51 and has been active in promote political action by la- or. His new appointment will leave a vacancy in the top office in his union in Canada. Possible succes- sors are William Mahoney, now Assistant Director of the Steel Union, and Larry Sefton, Direc- tor of District 6 (covering all Ca- nada west of Quebec). HOSPITALS COST MORE Hospitals of all types cost Can- adians about $22 per capita in 1958, the total amount spent ap- proaching a third of a billion dollars—$324,900,000. cluding chronic hospitals (for which fin- ancial data for previous years is not available), the 1953 per cap- ita cost was $21.45, which com- pared with $19.37 in 1952, $9.58 in 1946 and $4.17 in 1982. aid =< ema yetp Piao Ae