Sisal

i

An ancient ‘ secret,” long lost by official medicine and re puted to have remarkable healing properties, has been
found in a natural state in the mountains of the Tadjik Re- public, USSR. Photo shows the first lot of the extract —
called “‘mummie”—at the Chemistry Institute in Dushanbe capital of the republic.

OPEN FORUM

and he (Oswald) didn’t like that’’.
It was not logical to take it out
on Kennedy, but neither is the
personality cult logical.

It is useless to study Marx-
ism without working out its psy-

Individuality

H. H. Johnson, Salmon Arm,
writes: There is confusion about
personality these days. Even Joe
Ivens, in the November 8 ‘PT’,
calls for more ‘individuality’,
I think he really means indepen-
dence of judgement, which is
fine if independent of individual-
ity.

Some German philosopher
wrote ‘‘There is no being, only
becoming’’, This may not betrue
of a lump of lead in outer space;
it is true of personality, which
does not really exist except asa
process, As such, itcanbe partly
individual and still be healthy, but
at best it is mainly socially re-
sponsive,

In the U.S.A. there is a wide-
Spread slogan, ‘‘sacredness of
the individual personality’. This
was also a favorite of Adolph
Hitler. A conservative society
is likely to treat personalities
as fixed points of reference, to
try to make rich or powerful
people feel proud and secure, and
make the poor and helpless blame
only themselves,

In practice however person-
ality worshippers are devoured
by envy and hatred, Any person-

. ality which regards itself as fixed

and final may easily develop fix-
ations, including homicidal man-
ia,

In an interview with a radio
Operator, W. Stuckey, Lee Os-
Wald complained that in the
USSR “‘they had succeeded in al-
tering human character ..

~ WORTH
__READING

The silence of the Good People.
Price 15c.

This pamphlet discusses the
interconnection of two documents
— the Yalta Agreement, which
Stated: ‘It is our inflexible pur-
bose to destroy German militar-
ism and Nazism and to ensure
that Germany will never be able to
disturb the peace of the world
: ” and the U.S. Constitu-
tion, which states: ‘*, . . make
no law abridging the freedom of
Speech; or of the press. . .”’

The author shows today’s world
where old Nazis play a growing
role in the government of West
Germany, and how the U.S.-spon-

Sored cold war helped reinstate
them,

chological and moral implica-
tions. It may even be worse
than useless.

Came Close

H. Vigor, Vancouver, writes:
In these days of medicare, med-
ical advice and high medical
costs I am reminded of the story
of a poor farmer who was badly
afflicted with chronic constipa-
tion. Eventually he drove into
town to consult a doctor.

After the Doc had made num-
erous inquiries about the farm-
er’s distance from home, dis-
tance from the main road to the
house, and from the house to the
**back-house”’ etc. the Doc gave
the farmer eight pills to take, with
instructions to ‘‘come in again
and see me in about three weeks’”’

time.(And ‘that will be $10-dol-
lars please’ ?)

Next time in town the farmer
met the Doc on the street. ‘*Well
how are you?”’ asked the medico,

Giving the Doc a hard look the
farmer replied; ‘* You should have
been a surveyor instead of a
doctor, I just missed that back-
house by about three feet.’’

Cut -- For Whom?

Joe Ivens, Okanagan Mission,
writes: TheSun edition of Decem-
ber 10 (page 33) headlined the
story, ‘‘Pensioners take $5.00 a
month cut’’, This did not come as
a surprise to me. In fact I said
it would happen,

Only a few days earlier the
Same paper was saying that the
old age pensioners could pos-
Sibly ‘‘get by’? in the country
on what they got, meaning, I
Suppose, the $75.00 and the sup-

' plementary allowance of $24.00to

those who got it,

Those OAP’ers living in the
city and paying rents, some of
them very high for the accommo-
dation they get, could not “eet
by’’ at all,

Now we haven’t forgotten the
pay hike the MP’s voted them-
selves not long ago. Clearly our
federal andprovincial legislators
aren't doing badly at all in the
way of incomes,

Seems to me the ‘PT’ should
come out much stronger against
this cut of $5.00 per month ofthe
OAP ‘‘income’’. It wasn’t enough

even as it was. I know, because
I and my wife are trying to live
on the old age pension and half
of Bennett’s ‘‘supplementary’’
allowance.

I think Premier Bennett should
be thoroughly ashamed of him-
self, especially with his own $20,-
000-per year or more for histwo
portfolio duties, plus his income
from several stores as a hard-
ware merchant, And blaming the
federal government because he
‘*had’’ to make this five - dollar
cut, is pure hogwash,

In conclusion, Mr. Editor, I
would suggest you use your paper
to expose Premier Bennett’s
‘‘Christmas Gift’? to us old
folks. I’ve heard of people swip-
ing pennies off dead men’s eyes
in undertaker parlors, but this
$5.00 grab has that skinned a
mile.

Example Needed

C. Power, Vancouver, writes:
What to give the children for
Christmas?

DC-8 Jets, ‘Canada’s own Tig-
er Tanks, and Exploding Road
Complete with soldiers to be
blown up.’’ Symbols of a de-
caying society with its roots in

war,
These are not toys, but simply

tools being used to corrupt and
mould our children’s pliable
minds to thoughts of war.

If we buy our children these
so-called toys, we are, inasense
allowing our children to also
become instruments of our soci-
ety.

Progressive perents would be
shirking their responsibilities by
letting their children have such
toys,

It is not so hard for children
to understand a simple explana-
tion of why they should not play
with such things. Even if they do
not thoroughly comprehend, at
least to themselves they have a
reason, Children need a guiding
light throughout their early
years,

It is wrong and confusing to hand
your child toys of destruction
on one hand while trying to ex-
plain these toys are really bad.
A main reason children growupto
be emotionally disturbed is be-
cause they cannot find a basic
principle to live by. This is very
important, especially throughout
the teen years,

(Ed. Note: While the theme of
the above latter is a little iate
for Christmas, it has a highly
moral appeal to parents.)

Culture like education

—no visible

Hove Bateman, writing in the
Vancouver Sun of December 7,

expressed opposition to the idea
of civic and other governments
providing subsidies for ahy type
of cultural endeavour. Said
Howie:

‘«" . . good productions of the
performing arts have made and
will continue to make money
without subsidies. ”’

Within a matter of days, his
Inquisition Coffee House closed
its doors — unable to keep the
proverbial wolf from the door
any longer,

We mention this ironical situ-
ation not to be facetious, but
merely to point out that even while
Bateman was arguing his case
that culture should be regarded as
any other business venture, life
itself was proving his arguments
wrong.

Ever since ‘‘The Milestones’’
opened up the Inquisition for How-
ie (and his two partners at the
time) in April, 1961, it has teet-
ered on the brink of bankruptcy.
When he was featuring local tal-
ent, Bateman charged $1.00 a
head admission. For imported
folksingers — and he brought in
some of the best, like Josh White,
The Weavers, Bonnie Dobson,
etc, — the price went upto $2.00.

Bateman could have made a
profit. He could have obtained a
liquor license and operated as a
nightclub. To his credit, he re-
fused to do this. He believed, and
rightly so, that young people in
Vancouver should have a place to
which they could go and listen to
“worthwhile entertainment without
having to guzzle Singapore Slings
or Rye on the Rocks all night.

We have never had access to
the Inquisition’s books, but we
would venture the guess that a
rental subsidy in the vicinity of
$100.00 a month would have kept
it in business. No such subsidy
was forthcoming,

Our city fathers, so adept at
selling airports, promoting
multi-million dollar real estate

profits

schemes, or paying fantastic
sums to the CPR for land which
rightfully belongs to the people
of Vancouver, wouldn’t think of
parting with $1,200 a year to
help keep a place like the In-
quisition going,

And, according to the Sun art-
icle, it is not in Bateman’s na-
ture to demand help for a worthy
cause. :

And yet, is it any more sensible
to regard the cultural life of a
city or a country as a profit
making business than it would be

to apply the same yardstick to,
say, education?

Apart from the above considera-
tions, and the fact that the In-
quisition will be missed by both
progressives and non-progres-
Sives alike, there is one other as-
pect to its closing which is wor-
thy of note.

The dramatic demise of Van-
couver’s leading coffee house
should provide a valuable lesson
to those misguided progressive
folk singers who tend to place
this area of singing at the top
of their lists,

While it is, generally speaking,
a good idea to sing to as many
people as possible, the progres-
Sive should never consciously
turn his back upon the labor
movement, the peace movement,
and other more stable elements,
in order to devote his talents
almost exclusively to a vehicle
which may be here today and gone
tomorrow,

—J. Shack

Polish dance company

PONSORED by Sol Hurok, the
magnificent ‘‘Mazowsze”
company of Poland will be ap-
pearing at the Queen Elizabeth
Theatre in Vancouver on Friday
and Saturday, January 10 and 11,
at 8:30 p.m. A Saturday matinee
is also scheduled for 2:30 p.m.
Mazowsze (Founder: Tadeusz
Sygietynski; Artistic Director:
Mira Ziminska-Sygietynska) is
a company of 100 dancers, sing-
ers and symphony orchestra,
Considered to be Poland’s
premier dance company, it elect-
rified America two seasons ago,
While here, it will perform the
repertory that has been applaud-
ed by audiences totalling some

six million persons from Moscow
to New York,

Along with its 100 performers,
Mazowsze brings with it from
Warsaw 1,000 elaborate cost-
umes for the dazzling show.

Tickets for performances are
on sale at the Hudson’s Bay
Box Office. Phone MU 1-3351,

The shouted taunts,

The rifle’s crack,

The President lying dead,
While all the world

A tremor felt—

Like Peace Herself were dead,

The mourners grim,

The casket draped,

The throngs along the way.
While all around :

The question flew—

Has Peace been killed today?

America

It’s time to build

A peaceful world;
Hateful ways must cease,
While round the world
The bells will sound

A Symphony For Peace!

The deed’s been done
And who’s to blame

For the horror of it all?
Our Way of Life,

The Comic Books

May bring about our fall,

Oh, brainwashed land
Of Ku Klux Klan

And gunmen in a row;
Steve Canyon thugs
On murder bent—

All of these must go.

—Al Rankin

January 3, 1964—PACIFIC TRIBUNF—Page 5