“WHY TAKE CANDY FROM KIDS?’ Abbott's “baby budget’ will be hard on children---and parents TO WOMEN, the defence of Canada is the defense of the fam- ily and the home, and particularly the defense of the children’s wel- fate and happiness. Mrs. Lois Gardner, the housewife who ask- ed “Why should candy be taken away from children?” when ap- proached by a Vancouver daily paper to comment on the govern- ment’s “baby budget”, spoke for all of us. A thirty per cent increase on candy, soft drinks and chewing gum, Hon. Douglas Abbott thinks is “fair and productive”. Abbott wants guns for Canada; he wants jet planes, | atom bombs, and heavens knows what other hid- eous weapons of destruction for Canadians to wield against other people; so he thinks the children are the logical persons to suffer first and sacrifice now for this war mania. The tax, he says, is “fair” and, he adds, callously (because he knows the apetite of kids for sweet things) it is “productive”. Few mothers, he knows, can re- sist the plea of children for “pop”, “a cone”, some bubble gum,” “please, Mom, can I, please”. The tax is “fair” Abbott argues, although he knows it will weigh much more heavily on the work- ing class than on any other sec- tion of our people, The families of the workers are larger and the likelihood of working class child- ren becoming: hungry between meals is greater than among the well-to-do whose children are fewer and whose tables more heavily laden with food. Such a sense of justice as Abbott shows can hardly be praised. What Abbott has done in his budget is to multiply the daily difficulties ‘of Canadian mothers, already harassed enough by high Prices, * * * +.BUT WHAT else does this bud- get do to the Canadian family, the Canadian mother and child? It makes it impossible for many families to get the clothes those heavy clothes are absolutely they must have for winter. Sure necessary, and they’re expected to last a long time, but they’re ex- Pensive. _ When a small down-payment Was possible the family could be clothed properly for winter — by -Pinching and scraping on lesser necessities, But when large down- ‘Payments are required — as Ab- bott’s budget proposes — these Purchases will not be merely harder to make, they will be im- _ Possible. When the wage envelope doesn’t produce the money, the housewife can’t put it out. Does Abbott really not know this? The same thing goes for the re- Strictions the budget proposes on loans for homes, urban and rural. The working father simply can- Rot put up a large initial pay- Ment; and, as we all know—no initial payment, no home. But, ap- Parently, a home is not a basic Necessity, in Abbott’s under- Standing, . : : Abbott says his budget is “in Mefense of Canada”. Its proposals however, deal body blows at the eS and health of the families Canada. This is not defense, it = attack. At the same time, the budget requires no single sacri- from business in Canada, no restrictions on profit-making, no Sacrifice of investment rights. ey x see Ie _, NO Excmss profits tax has Been imposed, Abbott says, be- fase it discourages thrift in in- dustry. In other words, the busi- ness man—the man of money in this country—asserts the right to refuse to sacrifice for Canada, but he’ expects every working class mother, yes, and every child — to suffer right away, to guarantee that the government will have the ~ money to pay him promptly, at the rate of profit he requires. This budget is as unfair to the Canadian mother and child, as the claim of the government that it is in defense of our country, is false. In spirit and in content, it is that of callous, profit-hungry warmongers, who see today ,an opportunity for greater profits in terrible military adventures, and who are as indifferent to the suffering their policies impose at home, as they are of the horrors of the atom bomb they propose to drop on peoples in other lands. Every Canadian mother, in the name of her family, her country, and humanity, should have some- thing to say, a protest to be made wherever she can make it, against the provisions of this budget, as- the budget of men who intend to betray us into war—in the name of defending peace. — ELIZA- BETH SCOTT. WELL, THE first exciting days of school have passed and life is once more back to normal for the youngsters. Poor mother is still trying to figure out how a few scribblers, could cost so much for Billy who ‘is only in grade six. A bottle of paste that once cost a nickle is now fifteen cents plus a nickle for for the brush. As for Mary who js now in high school, the bills run much higher. A loose-leaf notebook at seven-dol- lars, paper at least a dollar, rent- al of textbooks for the year another three and a half dollars and—I’m awfully sorry Mary, but you just can’t have that new skirt you were promised after all. We supposedly have free educa- tion. greater part of the taxes collected go toward educational costs. One third of the provincial sales tax collected is also turned over to the municipalities to help cover school costs. So actually the average family more than pays the expense of educating their children. * a * The youngsters a few streets over from us have the right idea. During the last war the majority of them never saw their daddies for three or four years and they pencils and crayons. The fact is that for the _ majority of municipalities the sure don’t like the idea of losing him altogether. One afternoon there was great activity in one of the back yards. Huge strips of cardboard were everywhere and youngsters pains- takingly printed on them their pleas for “No more war” with the black crayons. They were a proud bunch that finally paraded up and down the streets with their plac- ards waving, and there was more than one mother who applauded them. Yes, I'll wager if every child in our country were asked whether his daddy or brother should go and fight someone else’s daddy there would be a _ resounding chorus of protest that could not be ignored. , e 6 ee Ks ave 8 Ge THERE ARE housewives who could and \ be out with peace petitions if it weren’t for the problem of baby sitters. Three young mothers in Toronto were able to do a wonderful job of collecting signatwres by taking ‘turns looking after their four children while the other two went canvassing. By organizing their time in this way twice a week they have been able to obtain hundreds of signatures. I just goes to show that by working co-operatively house- wives can really do a job in their communities. +— BG. ‘SIN AGAINST HUMANITY’ Famous British women TWO WORLD-FAMOUS Brit- ish women, Leah Manning, for- mer MP, and Dame Sybil Thorn- dyke, have recently stated their support of the peace movement. Says Leah Manning: To ban the use, of atomic weapons, to end their manufacture and de- stroy existing piles, has now be-- come a matter ‘of supreme’ ur- gency. : ~~ But it is only a first step. War is no longer a great and heroic enterprise. dnecs sae “ty gloire’ has faded, leaving behind an obscene monstrosity of Gevastation, horror, , uncivilised cruelties, foreign armies trampl- ing down one’s own cherished countryside without pity or. mer- cy. f yk : : "the task of high statesmanship and of the common people should be to mark the second half of the ‘ 20th century by the abolition of urge ban on atom bomb war as an outmoded, barbarous. method of settling international disputes. — \ Dame Sybil Thorndyke writes: I believe atomic weapons shoqld be banned because it is using a great discovery for destructive instead of creative purposes, That, I believe, is a sin against humanity, and a sin against “humanity is a sin against God and shows a lack of faith in life. Without faith in is finished. paw I am a pacifist, and believe we should use every endeavor to find a way of understanding the diffi- culties and problems of other na- lions. nee : It is because I believe the atom bomb to be a symbol of profound disbelief in the good of humanity | that I feel we should all in Eng- land say: “Ban this ungodly thing, We believe in life.” life, mankind : 26 READERS PLEDGE 215 SUBS Encouraging evidence that the PACIFIC TRIBUNE’S 1950 subscription drive for 2,000 read- ers between September 15 and October 31 will go over the top, comes to us in the form of pledges for 215 subs from 26 readers on the opening day of tne campaign. i The job, of course is to transform pledged subs into actual subs — to sign up new readers and collect the cash. Here again the picture looks bright. On the first day the drive books were opened, 22 ‘subs came in, which shows that our supporters are on their toes and making a quick start. “The only thing wrong with our suggested sub target for | Nanaimo,” said a reader from that city, “is that it is far too low. You suggest we sign up 100 readers; I say we can get twice that number.”’ All right, chum, we'll be waiting to hear from you. And we hope you can make good your boast. Groups of PACIFIC TRI- BUNE readers in Vancouver and ‘throughout the province are making plans to top their quotas. But an enormous amount of help will also be given by individual readers in isolated communities How loyally these readers sup- port their paper is shown by fig- ures from our office files. In the past few months, 384 and enclosed $205.60 in vol- untary donations! The comments accompanying their subs were revealing. “‘Best paper I ever read, so here's an extra dollar _to carry on the good work.”’ “‘Re- new my sub and send one to a friend, address given below.” “Wouldn't have missed , your issues on Korea for anything. Here's an extra two-spot to show my appreciation.”” “‘Here’s three bucks. Renew my sub, keep the change and send me a sub book.” With such spirit shown on the part of our supporters, we are confident that the 2,000 sub tar- get can be reached, and over- fulfilled, before October 31. If you feel the same way, and want to give our morale a boost | in the coming week, please fill out the pledge form printed be- low and mail it to Fel Dorland, PACIFIC TRIBUNE, 650 Howe Street, Vancouver. _ : | PLEDGE TO GET A MINIMUM OF o5 Soceee ie ig tt) ae S subscriptions (new readers or I take this pledge our country. Special Offer ) wrensen 265 1.50 BOTH - FOR <2. $3.00 Both new readers and sub- seribers who renew their subs oe for a one-year period are eligible | to receive the Pacific Tribune’s _ special premium offer — a copy of Albert Kahn’s latest book, High Treason. Just pay an ex- tra 50 cents and the book is yours, until we run out of stock. Back in 1795, Thomas Paine | | wrote: “An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to stretch, to mis- interpret and to misapply even — renewals) PACIFIC TRIBUNE circulation drive, Sept. 15 to Oct. 31. because I believe that the winning of more PACIFIC TRIBUNE readers is an important step if the direction of preventing war and assuring a return to progress in r diene “the 1950