Thad it

Dyson Carter upsefs
_ diet faddists’ ideas

DYSON CARTER, 102 Kendal
Avenue, Toronto 4, Ont.: In a re-
Cent issue of the Pacific Tribune,
Mr, E. J. Fridleifson writes a let-
ter critical of a letter of mine the
Pacific Tribune printed.

My original letter was not| in-

Personal letter, and I am rather
Surprised that the Pacific Tribune
ran it without writing to me first.
There is nothing in that letter I
Would retract. But, as you must
know, the phrasing of a personal

that of a public statement.

Mr. Fridleifson implies that I
Pose as a god or all-wise person.
I hardly think that is justified.
Further, I think my 15 years of
Study and reporting on medical
advances, including therapies and
nutrition,. qualify. me to make
Some statements, even though I

8m not an authority on “naturo-
Pathy.”
Mr. Fridleitson’s letter reveals a
Very widespread, and completely
false, unscientific belief in the
“tightness” of what is called “na-
ture.” This is a form of idealism
that causes untold misery, and has
held back the progress of science
_ for centuries. Unfortunately, many
People today are victims of this
idealistic thinking, especially with
Tegard to physical sickness, nutri-
tion, ete.

It’s a very big subject. Allow me
to comment only on ‘one aspect of
it. A lot of progressive people, in-
Cluding some I know well, have in
Tecent years taken up one or an-
Other dietry fad, in accordance
With one or another “naturo-
Pathic” theory. One central idea
is that somehow or other “na-

_ dinary foods, So we find our
friends eating nuts, root vege-
bles, soybeans, molasses, ete.
Nature had little to do with
these foods. They are all products
_ %f highly advanced plant-breeding
8nd modern agriculture. Some of
_ these foods have their place,
_ Others are absolutely unfit for hu-
_ ™an consumption.
‘ r example: “blackstrap mo-
lasses”, eaten by hundreds of
thousands on this continent, is
“anned as unfit for human con-
‘Sumption in most civilized coun-
_ tries. It is not a food but a waste
Product. Many scientists| have

- tritional values in jit, but it) ap-
Pears to be nothing more than the
Most impure product of a. sugar.

ie refinery, the color being due most-

s - to inedible residues and rust |

rom the machinery. You might

_ Wst as well drink the water from

‘8 cay radiator, as’a “source of

iron.” ; s

ynere is another, political aspect
are ti® question. The best foods
ae today nearly all very high-
eed. Hundreds of quack “nu-
. fonists” are again appearing,
tice” did in the “hungry thir-
_; > to extoll the wonders of eat-
min “nature’s” foods: grass, ‘dried

Sirga raw or boiled grains, cheap

Sau, BETS, etc. The soybean is

ma as “nature's super food.” _

et Ple f Course, this is pure and sim-
Apne ™onopolist politics. Get peo-

Heit ne that they will be

Chea er if they eat the crudest,

: mob foods, and they will ac-

: rich the grim reality that only the

A noe eat properly! Thus ridic-

ne est fads, having not the slight-

| Scientific basis, take hold of
aieahe Progressive people, They can
Newey the enemy when he
Ries Vicious anti-peace editorial

Mieco’ a slanderous moving pic-

ag) but they accept the same

tended for publication. It was a -

. letter is often quite different to-

ture's foods” are better than or-

Tried: their best to. determine. nus

of Dimes for crippled children if

enemy’s teaching when it is dish-
ed out in the shape of a “nature’s-
way-is-best” fad.

There are, of course, a great
many refined foods sold to us to-
day which should be sold in less
refined form. But the human
race could not exist on “nature’s
foods” any more.
grow enough food for us. The
foods nature grows (which are, of
course, the wild-growing foods)
fare too crude, too lacking in food
value, for human beings. One c?
the greatest advances made in all
man’s evolution was when -we
stopped eating nature’s food and
began growing and cooking our
own foods, developed by the hu-
man race, by the’ conquest of na-
ture. :

Mr. Fridleifson quotes that pro-
fascist enemy of science, Carrel.
If Mr. Fridleifson wants to see
tens of millions of people who are
using medical science, and who
are not suffering from any in-
crease in physical or mental dis-
ease, but who on the contrary are
rapidly lowering the incidence of
all diseases, he should study the
USSR. Socialism, and not a re-
_turn to munching nuts and eating
‘factory wastes, is the answer to
the disease problem in all capital-
ist countries. The fight against
the armament drive, and not a re-
turn to gulping bowls of coarse
cereals, is the answer to the high
cost of food in Canada today.

Progressives should think a lit-
tle about this fact: There are no
diet fads in the socialist world,
and the only people living on what
we call “diets’” are sick people,
eating diets prescribed by nutri-
tionists and physicians. The food
goal of the socialist world is more
milk and milk products, more
meat of all kinds, more whole-
grain products, a reasonable
amount of refined sugars, and an
increase in fruit consumption. And
the Chinese people are gladly ex-
changing their “super food”, soy-
beans, for the finest grain ever de-
veloped by man: wheat.

The Pacific Tribune printed
Dyson Carter’s first letter com-
menting on this subject in the
belief that it was intended for
publication. The letter was sent
in by a reader, Mrs. Cora Phil-
lips, who explained that she had
written to Dyson Carter suggest-
ing that he write an article
dealing with dietory fads, na-
turopathy and related questions
and had received the letter in
reply. ; ee ‘

Give local wrestlers
a chance, savs Bunka ©

GEORGE BUNKA, Vancouver, —
B.C.: On March 18 local papers
advertised a wrestling tournament
to be held in Vancouver on March —
21 with the winner meeting the
light heavyweight champion of the”
world at a later date.

I submitted my application to »
the city Athletic Commission but

Nature can’t.

ou Dopantinent
f ot Yio Dente.

lacks the color necessary to the
trade.” (See enclosed picture.)
Parker prefers to forget that
on June 20, 1944, I challenged Cliff
Parker and Bill\Kohnke to wrestle
me one after the other on the same
evening with my entire purse go-
ing to a suitable charity.” My
challenge was never accepted.
Parker prefers to forget that I
am holder of the Western Canada
middleweight championship won
by myself in a tournament held
here on March 28, 1945.
On-January 27, 1940, Jerry Math-
ison, provincial instructor of re-
creational and physical education,
stated: “He (Bunka) possesses a
comprehensive ,technical know-
ledge of this sport, his teaching

Ss

Not colorful enough?

‘ability is unsurpassed, whieh is
very obvious when one knows that
in a wrestling championship last

spring, he produced six winners”

in six different classes.”

Now, is Parker being quite hon-
est when he states that I haven’t
the necessary color? Would I
make the statements you read
here if I wasn’t certain “that I
could beat the world’s light heavy-
weight champion?

American boys come here week
after week to wrestle. Local boys
are being denied a chance to make
a living in their own country. I
challenge promoter Cliff Parker
and matchmaker Tex Porter to

give me a match with Andy Tre-

maine, with the world’s light

heavyweight championship at
stake, and no substitutes.
Wrestling fans, you are entitled
to see this, match. Insist that
this challenge be accepted. I
guarantee you a wrestling match
with no pulling of strings, and no
dictating from Cliff Parker, Tex
Porter or any other quarter.

Superior way of life.

is bound fo prevail
ROY REID, Rabbit Lake, Sas-

_katchewan: Conflicting ideas that

was, refused. I was further advis- arise and grow out of the conflict

ed by promoter Cliff Parker that
any attempt on my part to .step
into the ring and challenge any
wrestler in this tournament would
result in legal action against my-
self. FASE a.

On March 24 I announced
through the sport pages of the
Vancouver Sun that I would do-—
nate my entire purse to the March ©

allowed to participate in this show. |
The press failed to Announce, how- —
ever, that if I was beaten I would
forfeit an additional $50 to be
donated to the March of Dimes. —
In the same article, Parker was
quoted as saying that “Bunka

«

between two different social sys-
tems are not to be settled by war.
Whether there is a third world
war or not, in the end the conflict
‘of ideas arising out of the differ-
_ing property relations in the USSR
from property relations in the
United States will be decided in
peaceful competition on the basis
of their merits. If collective own-

ership proves in practice to be
“more in the interests of the ma-

jority of the people than private
property, then in the long run the
new social system will. displace
‘the old social system, as surely as
tractor power farming will super-
‘cede horse power farming, ©

»make them pay.

The autobiography ’
of a working woman

“Some seed fell on good ground and brought forth
fruit’—Matt XIII, 8

Edited by MARGARET FAIRLEY

fi

Beeinnne her story last week,
the author told of her child-
hood in the Lancashire town of
Wigan — born in a workhouse,
maltreated by foster parents, aban-
doned and then placed in a Dr.
' Barnado’s Home. When she was
10 years old she was shipped out
to a farm in Canada and event-
ually shipped back to England
again as “‘‘incorrigible.”’ For a few
years she was “‘in service” in Lon-
don and then she returned to
Wigan again, there to find a job
in a tailor’s sweat-shop and share
the life of a worker in that most
exploited of all trades—the needle
trades industry.

CHAPTER 3

ETWEEN 1910 and 1914 there

was a great movement of peo-
ple from England to Canada.
Widespread unemployment was
one reason why emigration was
encouraged. And the new railways
across Canada needed people to
I, knowing no-
thing of these reasons, joined the
throng of girls who came to Can-
ada under the system of ,bonding.
Our passage money was advanced
on the understanding that we had
to stay in our first job until it was
repaid. The system was well call-
ed bonding.

I was about twenty when I came
back to Canada. Like all the

emigrant girls of my age, I dream-

ed of a nice home of my own. I
have always dreamed of this, and
I think it is, in our time and
country at any rate, the most last-
ing dream of women young and
old. There are many, many wo-
men to whom it remains a dream
till they die. I try to persuade
myself that I have given up hop-
ing, and if you were to ask me I
should say that I have no hope,
but I do not think it would be
quite true.

I travelled steerage of course.
It was like all my life so far, the
‘crowding and smells and lack of
privacy and comfort which was
considered good enough for peo-
ple like me. I was so used to it.
that I hardly noticed it. We didn’t
actually see how comfortable the
‘second and first class passengers
were, but sometimes I caught the
eye of one of them as she looked
down over the railing of the up-

_ per deck at our semi-squalid con-

ditions, and I wondered what she
was thinking. I have talked with

|some of these luckier people since,

and I know that they were trou-
bled by doubts about the justice
of it all.

When we landed gat Quebec we
were. hired out, not unlike the
slaves of old. I was immédiately
taken by the wife of a Senator. As
soon as I entered her door, before

‘I was shown my room, I. was

shown where the broom was kept,
and told to begin to clean. I clean-
ed day after day, month after
month until my passage money

“was earned,

‘This was the first of a long line
of other women’s houses Which I
have cleaned and cleaned in Can-
ada. As soon as the terms of my

bond allowed, I left my Quebec

employer without warning, and
found my way to Montreal.

In Quebec I had no opportunity
to make friends, and I had no
books. Life in the Wigan sweat-
shop had been rich in compari-
son, and by now I knew the value
of companionship and reading. I
was hungry for both. But I have
never really learned how to make

friends; something has stood in
the way.

I think I have learned instead
how to pass a friendly word with
people I meet casually on the
street or in the stores, and I hope
this has helped them as much as
it has helped me. It has been a
sort of substitute for friendship.
But my hunger’ for the real things
has remained unsatisfied and is
with me still. As for books, that
has been a different story, which
I will tell something of later, a
story of hunger satisfied and re-
born again and again.

When I came to Montreal (it
must have been in about 1913) I
found it very difficult to get work.
I was appalled at the conditions
which lured so many girls like me
into prostitution. I found another
means of escape, but I take no
credit for that. It was not the
fault of the girls, but it came
through their poverty and unem-
ployment, their helplessness in the
face of people who could get
money out of their life, and the
complete indifference of society.
to their very existence. ; iy

When I read about countries of
the new world, the world of so-
cialism, what touches and ‘appeals
to me most is the picture of a so-

¢ cial life when every single indiy-

idual is needed and encouraged
,and wanted. And when I hear of
our “freedom of the individual”, I
see the waifs and strays of Wig-
an and Liverpool, the soldiers’
wives of England and America,
the prostitutes of Montreal,

In Montreal I lived for a time
with a kind employment official,
who gave me a roof over my head
in return for housework. But that
could not go on indefinitely; I
had sto find some means of sup-
‘port. There was no work to be
found, so I answered an advertise-
ment in the matrimonial column
of a paper. I was, in the only way
I could think of, reaching out for
lifent. 54 Fes

This was, for me, the only
answer I could think of to the
problem forced on me by the
emigration scheme which ‘had
brought me to Canada. When I
hear about fresh emigration plans
I think of lonely children and
young people tossed on’ to ships
and out of ships from shore to
‘shore, useful “hands” for farmers
or munition makers, to be per- _
haps in a few years unwanted and —
unvalued. And if I felt lonely, —
what must be the suffering of
those who come unable to speak
a word of English? :

So, through the columns of a _

newspaper, I found a husband. On-
this I will say no more. I was
desperate for life, and this was
my road, perhaps the only road I
could have taken. In my two sons
and one daughter I at last experi-
enced life; I gave and I received; :
they were unique in my life, and

I in theirs, “

(To be continued)

‘PACIFIC TRIBUNE — APRIL 20, 1951 — Page 11