‘Where do we go from here?’ miners ask By SAM ENGLISH up MICHEL, B.C. With the coal mining industry facing the worst year in its history — production is down 50 percent from previous years —and miners hard hit by unemployment, the question “Where do we go from here?” is being asked in this community, he situation is grim. Miners have taken-a cut of from 46 to 80 percent in weekly earn- ings, and the days they. work are “ones, and prom- ises.” A few years back more than 10,000 miners were em- ployed in Western Canada Dis- trict 18. Today the number is between 3,000 and 3,500, with an additional 1,200 to 1,400 on welfare and retirement pen- sion. The welfare and retirement fund, which is based on tons produced (at 93 cents per ton) will pay out much more than it takes in this year. With lay- offs mounting and mines clos- ing down many miners who would otherwise continue working will be forced to draw from the fund. Can’t the miners pull out of the area and seek jobs else- where? It’s not as simple as that, for many of these men have spent a lifetime here, have built and bought homes with their savings over the years, and have now reached an age when it is no longer nones possible to get work in other industries. It was only through strikes and struggles that the United Mine Workers established the welfare and retirement fund. , Veteran miners with up to 50 years’ service have looked for- ward to being able to retire in comfort, after their life- time of toil in one of the most dangerous trades known. Despite the crisis in the coal industry, Canadian mines pro- duce somewhat less than half of the coal used in Canada. The balance is imported from the United States, which sup- Plies ‘the central Canadian market, Creation of a steel industry in B.C. would help the coal industry here, and_ provide’ jobs for coal miners. There are also some 20,000 byproducts of coal, and a pro- gram for manufacture and utilization of these byproducts on a large scale much to solve the present acute crisis in the industry. Wenner-Gren demonstrates new monorail in Sweden In Stockholm this week Swedish industrialist Dr. Axel Wenner-Gren, who plans to construct a monorail in the Rocky Mountain Trench area of B.C. in 1960 or 1961, unveiled a full- scale model of a monorail train to engineers in impressive fashion. The Altweg train, with two coaches, ran smoothly along its single rail for 1.1 miles at 50 miles per hour, and Wenner- Gren engineers said much -higher speeds would be pos- sible on a longer track. Wenner-Gren hopes to put the train into use in several South American cities, and al- ready has a contract to build OVALTINE : CAFE 251 EAST HASTINGS Vancouver, B.C. QUALITY SERVICE OPEN DAY and NIGHT Hastings Steam Baths Expert Masseurs in attend- ance TA. 0644, 766 E. Hastings St. Vancouver, B.C. . Se hg J Castle Jewelers = Watchmaker and Jewelers Special Dis- : count to all ; Tribune Read- Pit SE tT _ ers. Bring = this ad with § you. : a 752. Granville Street TTT DEE 62 ‘miles of monorail line in San Paulo, Brazil. Wenner-Gren engineers are currently surveying the Rocky Mountain Trench area and if results are encouraging, Cana- dian, British, Swedish and U.S. capital will be invited to take part in a billion dollar develop- ment scheme. Plans include building of a monorail line to service the area. The 75-year-old Swedish in- dustrialist says his train is “of world historical importance” because it will provide cheap, fast transportation for under- developed areas. He has spent nearly $5. million since 1951 developing it, and hopes that speeds. of 150 to 200 miles an hour will eventually become possible. “Everything in Flowers” FROM EARL SYKES 56 E. Hastings St., PA. 3855 Vancouver, B.C. would do- PATRONIZE CEDAR FUEL & TRANSFER Phone: 566-R-3 Cedar, B.C. . This photo shows a dairy farm in the rich Fraser Valley. Small units make up 75 percent of British Columbia’s 25, Government figures released here this w 24,748 farm units in 1956, accordin 000 farms % =) VICTORIA, B.C: eek state that British Columbia had a total of g to the census taken that year. For census purposes, a farm unit is defined as “a holding on which agricul tural operations are carried out and which is (1) three acres or more These B.C, farm units com- prised a total of slightly more than 4,500,000 acres, for an average of approximately 180 acres per farm. Such averages convey little however. Of more Significance is the fact that 27 percent of the farms in the province are less than 10 acres in size. Seventy-three percent are less than 70 acres. Included in the; latter group are most of the dairy farms of the prov- ince, and all but a handful of the fruit and poultry farms. At the other end of the acre- age scale are some 800 farm units of over 1,000 acres each. In the main, these are cattle ranches, located in the Cariboo and Nicola sections. The Lower Fraser Valley contains the heaviest concen- tration of farm units, with nearly 40 percent of fhe prov- incial total. Next is the Okana- gan fruit belt, with about 20 percent, followed by Vancou- ver Island .with 10 percent, Elsewhere in the province, the farm population is scattered from the Peace River District in the north to the Kootenays in the south-east. in size or (2) from one to three acres production valued at $250 or more per year.” _ With less than five percent of British Columbia’s total land area suited to agricultural pro- duction, farm lands are rela- tively high priced in compai- ison with similar lands else- where. The average acre of farm land in this province is now valued at $108, more than double the average for all Can- ada. Again, averages tell only a part of the story, since price tags in excess of $1,000 per acre are not uncommon today From this high-priced land, B.C. farmers in 1956 realized a total cash income of clcse to $110 millions or about $4,400 per farm. “Production and sales of agricultural products con- tinued at a high rate in the second quarter of 1957,” says the quarterly bulletin of econ- omic conditions issued by the Bureau of Economics and Sta- tistics this week. “This pattern is expected to continue into the third, quarter. “Expected increases in farm income due to increased pro- duction must be tempered by the factor of lower prices for fruit and, eggs. GREETINGS from LAKE COWICHAN Fix-It Shop Ltd. <= - LARS FURNSETH, Prop. ah in size, and with the agricultura “The increase in aggregate cash income must be modified by an increase of 8.6 percent in the price index of the com modities and services used bY farmers.” -HUB HUMOR “You know, ma, that junk sure helps at that” STETSON, G.W.G. STAN: FIELDS, ARROW. Just a few of the nationally reliable lin' sold by THE HUB LTD. Als? Suits, Jackets, Slacks a Furnishings all on FRE CREDIT TERMS. wth aie cS : j Wiss ae HE Hup THe: ; Ee Aca # 185 EAST HASTINGS -July 26,1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 6