E anti-vivisectionists are

at it again. They are telling
us horrifying stories about sci-
entists who “cut animals to
pieces while they are alive and
in agony.” All over this contin-
ent people are being asked to
sign petitions, to have laws
passed against biologists who
experiment with live dogs,
guinea-pigs, rats, monkeys and
so on.

Every decent human being
is fond of animals. We don’t
like to see even a rat or a
snake tortured. But the anti-
vivisectionist propaganda is
actually more vicious than the
torture’ it describes.

Suppose your pet dog is run
over by a truck. Or the fam-
ily Persian cat is crying with
pain, as something goes wrong
while its kittens are being
born. You call the veterinary.
He rushes the stricken animal
to his hospital. The chances are
that he will save its life.

Animal doctors are now able
to cure our sick and injured
pets only because they have
scientific knowledge. Such
knowledge has been obtained
very largely through experi-
ments with animals. We ask
the anti-vivisectionists a ques-
tion: Would you refuse to let
the doctor give your dying pet
a blood transfusion, because
this method of saving animal
life was worked out by ex-
perimenting on animals?

Of course human lives are
far more valuable than ani-
mals. If your wife or baby was
stricken with pneumonia, would
you stop the doctor from us-
ing penicillin because every
batch of this wonder drug is
tested on rabbits? But putting
this foolish question aside, the
fact of the matter is that nowa-
days animal doctors relieve
pain, cure sickness and save
the lives of countless animals

SCIENCE FEATURE
The anti-vivisectionists again

By DYSON CARTER

that would suffer and die if
it were not for certain neces*
sary tests.

e

OWEVER, the main argu-
ment against the anti-vivi-
sectionists is found in the plain
truth about animal experiment-
ing. Very rarely do scientists
make painful tests on conscious
animals. As a matter of fact
scientific experimenting really
started after the discovery of
anesthetics.

The reason is clear to any
one who has ever been in an
animal laboratory. Even | if
they were cruel enough to do
it, scientists could not  per-
form their delicate operations
on animals that were writhing
in pain.

The tremendous advances of
modern medical science have
been possible largely because
doctors and biologists are able
to perform experiments on ani-

mals that have been put to
sleep with anesthetics.

Finally, animals are expen-
sive. That is why scientists are
always seeking to avoid un-
necessary deaths. That is why
they have recently developed
the “egg embryo” method for
producing various serums and
for testing disease germs. In
this method, chicken embryos
are infected with germs or
viruses long before the un-
born chick has grown a ner-
vous system capable of feeling
any pain. !

e

e

Ww: will happen if the anti-

vivisectionists get their way?
Of course the progress of med-
ical . science will come to a
full stop. Millions of human be-
ings will continue to die of
cancer and heart disease if bi-
ologists are prevented from
continuing their experiments
on animals,

Not only that. Our public
health protection and our hos-
pitals would be paralyzed. If the
anti-vivisectionists did win out,
the price of saving a few ani-
mals would be paid in terms
of human life. Constant testing
of our foods and medicines de-
pends upon animal experiments.
There is no other way to safe-
guard modern civilization. Al-
though, as we must remember,
science is steadily working to-
ward tests that do not require
animals.

If the anti-vivisectionists were
sincere they would spend the
great sums of money they now
waste to finance more research
into the natural causes of ani-

mal sickness. This would really
benefit our pets ‘and our live-
stock and at the same time
advance the treatment of hu-
man_ sickness.

England. The company profess-
ed to know nothing of the agree-
ment and refused him even the
100 acres available to an ordin-
ary settler. At the company’s
store he was charged 300 per-
eent above London prices for
everything he bought.

Blanchard found his only sup-
port among the miners and the
settlers. He investigated condi-
tions among the coal miners at
Fort Rupert, reporting that
they were extremely discontent-
ed, their discontent at times
amounting to open revolt against
the conditions under which
they were obliged to work. Some
of them charged that the com-
pany had instigated the murder
of white men by Indians.

His decision to return to Eng-
land after two years of unequal
struggle alarmed the independ-
ent colonists. Fourteen of them
signed a petition to the British
government deploring his im-

pending departure and express-
ing fear of what would happen
if the colony were left under
the exclusive control of the
company.

Heading the petitioners was
Rev. Robert Staines, chaplain at
Fort Victoria, an outstanding
opponent of the company who
was later drowned in a _ ship-
wreck while on his way to Eng.
land with a petitior. protesting
“so tyrannical a rule.”

The colonists’ worvt fears were
realized when Douglas was ap-
pointed governor in November,
1851.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 1947

Yale cele

OUGLAS was an_ autocrat.

Like the monopolists of a
later day he was concerned with
the fortunes of his company
rather than the welfare of the
people under his authority whom
he could break financially if
they opposed him. Signing of
a petition protesting his rule was
a courageous and desperate ac-
tion in view of the company’s
power and its economic strangle-
hold.

Blanshard’s last act as govern-
or had been appoint a council
of three, James Douglas, John
Tod -and James Cooper. Both
Douglas and Tod were com-
pany officials and the seat rend-
ered vacant by Douglas’ appoint-
ment as governor was taken by
another company official, Roder-
ick Finlayson, afterward mayor
of Victoria. But Cooper, the only
opponent of Douglas’ policies
within the council, was him-
self a victim of the company’s
monopoly. He had left the com-
pany’s employment to engage in
private trading with the Indians
of the mainland. The company
drove him out by _ relentless
price-cutting.

Under Douglas’ rule coloniza-
tion was discouraged by the com-
pany’s simple action of reserv-
ing to itself all land within 10
miles of Victoria, forcing settlers
to go into remote districts away
from the protection of the fort
which was also the only source
of supplies: Land at a price of
£1 an acre, with the stip-
ulation that purchasers must
place five men or three settlers
on every 100 acres purchased,
placed impossible conditions on

Atomic energy works for health

Plants which produced the atomic bomb and
brought unprecedented wartime ‘destruction are now
making radioisotopes that may prolong the lives of

millions.

Radioactivated Carbon 14, used in medical

research, which formerly cost $1,000,000 a unit, now
costs $50 for the same amount manufactured in the
- uranium pile at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Top, the inside of a ‘hot cell’ is seen through 4
periscope. Bottom, workers check the radiation emit
ted through an opening with an instrument called 4

‘cutie pie’.

rates an anniversary |

the type of settlers likely to be
attracted by the new colony.
Consequently, owners of large
tracts of land were drawn en-
tirely from company officials
and a few wealthy colonists.

Even when Douglas was in-
formed by Lord Taunton, the
new secretary of state for the
colonies, that he could no long-
er assume that because of the
smallness of the population he
was entitled to govern with a
hand-picked council alone, he
set about subverting his instruc-
tion to establish an®elective as-
sembly.

His hand-picked council- decid-
ed that ownership of £300 worth

of freehold property or immov-.

able estate should qualify a per-
son to stand for assembly, while
ownership of 20 acres of land
should qualify an elector.

These stipulations barred the
majority of company employees,
miners and others from voting,
denied the universal franchise to
which Douglas declared himself
“utterly averse’ and made a
mockery of representative gov-
ernment.

OUGLAS was wrong, how-

ever, in assuming that the
lower orders, as he _ termed
them, were not vitally interest-
ed in having representative gov-
ernment, The form of represen-
tative government came by man-
date from the crown, but it
was the people who gave it
life, rescued it from the stulti-
fying influence of the Hudson’s
Bay Company and transformed
it by their agitation into a

broader institution designed to
register their will. Their peti-
tions and representations con-
tinued, forcing a select commit-
tee of the British parliament
to recommend drastic changes,
including revocation of the com-
pany’s charter on Vancouver Is-
land.

Into this. political ferment
streamed the gold miners of
Yale and the Cariboo, adding
their volume of agitation to the
colonists’ unrest and hastening
the democratic process.

The British government, in
Augusut 1858, bought Vancouver
Island from the Hudson’s Bay
Company for £57,500, permitting
the company, however, to re-
tain the fort property at Vic-
teria, several thousand acres of
land around it and many town
lots. This ended the company’s
absolute monopoly, but it did
not terminate Douglas’ autocratic
Sway over the two colonies of
Vancouver Island and British
Columbia. Instead, he resigned
from the company to become
the governor of both colonies.

His continued efforts to deny
representative government by
property restrictions and other
electoral devices brought him
into immediate conflict with the
miners and other new settlers.

Ba the Cariboo, the Sentinel
championed the miners’ rights
and fought for their political
demands. In Victoria, John

Alexander Smith, who called
himself Amor De Cosmos, es-
tablished his British Colonist
and became the sharpest of the

should honor next yea

many thorns in Douglas’ sidé-
Once Douglas tried to muzzle
him by ordering him to ceasé
publication until he could fur-
nish a bond for £1,000. De
Cosmos was forced to shut dow”:
but so strong was the popular
feeling against Douglas that
the people subscribed the amount
of the bond and De Cosmos tr
umphantly resumed publicatio-

The people of British Colum-
bia were not to win fully reP”
resentative government u2
British Columbia entered C0?
federation in 1871, ten years 9
ter Douglas had made his last
attempt to hold it back by °P”
posing a petition urging aboll-
tion of dual government by
executive council _ constantly
quashing the recommendations
of an elected assembly, and five

‘years after union of the two

colonies. But the tribute fF
having won it belongs to Am9
De Cosmos, one-time premier
of British Columbia and vic-
toria’s first member in the fed-
eral parliament, to men like
Staines whose names have bee?
buried by history, and th
known and unknown miners and
colonists who triumphed
Douglas to establish democt

traditions in a new land.

These are men Yale and HoP?
r wher
they look back over the ©
tury that separates them bea
the wilderness. These are
men to whom the labor mov?
ment should pay tribute, fob
they were of labor’s own §
in refusing to allow monoP
to destroy their rights.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE je

over
atic