All letters and articles for this paye should be addressed to the Women’s Page Editor. ° Women must answer gov t By DORISE NIELSEN “Has your == child” = a “hors eaance?” So runs the heading on aaen leaflet issued under the me of the Hon. Paul Martin, er 0; i ; Welfare f national health and Under the headi eading appears the slowing statement: ih areful attention to the feed- a Of poultry, hogs or calves €s more money for farmers e » ton) where. And then the ques- n, “How do. you know when you're well fed ? “Tf you are interested in finding the an- swer to this question, if you want to be well fed, and want your -child to have not a hog’s chance, but a_ child’s chance, you should know, what. consti- tutes good feed- ; ing.” mie far so good. But here’s the Ban. lem: If these things are nec- Sena how do we get them for ildren and ourselves? On the one hand we are told Y No less an authority than our Doriso NeLSson onion Government, that we ol €at these things, and on © other hand, living today on ae average wage and facing the : agua Prices, we know from bit- he experience that we can’t eat is ae things. So what are mothers 0. one women of Canada are learn- Teh, hat they must fight for the ‘7 8ht of their children to eat well. thir, are learning that there are mee, ride to be done, which they have ing r done before. They: are join- grou Ousewives and consumer’s Rah Ps. They are picketing stores x demanding lower prices and essentj tatement of subsidies on mee lial foods. They are going to Ings to learn how they can do thes hi : 5 e ‘an- izeq e ings best in an oran Special Book Sale Problems of India By Palme Dutt Reg. $2, special $1 Marxism and Democratic Tra- dition, by A. Landy, reg. $2.75, Special, $1.95 Peace Key, by John Weather- Wax, reg. $1.35, special, $1.00 Stalin On Lenin, illustrated, Printed in Russia. Special} al $1.00 The Social Function of Science by J. p. Bernal, reg. $5.00, | slender mainly for W omen conducted by Winnie Williams Oui in the rain Wondering what to do next this man sits under an umbrella after being evicted from his Chicago apartment. The fact that he had no place to go didn’t bother the landlord, It never does in such cases. The placard tells the story. store. dren up. to six or seven years old; a good selection of the classics and a number of full-length story books for the 12-and-ups, and very little for the in-betweens. 1 The middle-aged child (8 to 12 |years old) is forgotten kid of the book world. This is a particularly serious omission, because it is just at this very age that the child be- gins to read for himself. Ags. he acquired this splendid new skill, he wants more and Fmore material on which to exer- cise it. And the material is very indeed. The reasons for this particular lack? Publishers feel that their big money-making standbys are mainly in the picture-book field. They believe that parents tend to buy either the ‘cute’ books for younger children or the standard classics of their own youth As a result, we have excellent 25 cent and 50 cent books for small children, ‘ranging from the Little Golden Books to the Encyclopedia Britannica photographic series, and fine editions of the classics, a few as inexpensive as 25 cents in the Pocket Books series and others for as low as a dollar in the Rainbow Classics. But there is nothing comparable with these series for the middle-aged child. Not only are the books for him fewer in number, but they are Parents should press for books for older children By ELIZABETH M. BACON There’s no question about it—the younger children have all the luck when it comes to books. take a look at the children’s counter in almost any book Chances are this is what you will see: stacks and stacks of beautiful, brightly colored picture-books for chil- If you doubt this, Etling, Garden City, 50 cents). Even the Golden Encyclopedia, big brother of Little Golden Books, sells for $2.50. Books for the middle-aged child are by far the most difficult to produce. Pictures must be both attractive and informative (a case in point are the lively illustrations by Herbert Kruckman in How the Automobile Learned to Run by M. Ilin and The Story of Your Coat by Clara Hollos. : “They must be well-written, com- bining a story that moves along with lots of events and preferably a contemporary flavor; episodes that carry the reader beyond the boundaries of his immediate world vet not too far to be thoroughly understandable; a style that is not too difficult, yet is not -babyish either, thors who combine these elements as skillfully as Dorothy Stall does in Chukchi Hunter (Morrow), Jer- fold and Lorraine Beim in S"0w Hill (Harcourt), or Eve Knox Evans in Key Corners (Coward- McCann). . Parents, too, must bear some of the responsibility, because they. have not been alert enough to the problem. Many have contended themselves to follow where the publishers led. Why should the eighit-to-twelves be stepchildren? Let's start clamoring for a good, Rare indeed are the au-. Talking things over The daily round Well, here it’s pay day again and I can sit down with my slide rule to figure out how our family of four is going to eat on $12 a week. And what with higher rent, the cost of clothing, shoes, even material to make the children’s things, that’s about all we can afford for food. There are, I know, thousands of families can ge together on our protest to make ouselves heard all the way to Ottawa. My housekeeping money always takes a beating when I come to the planning of our weekly meat ration. Usually I get a roast large enough for Sunday’s dinner which can be served cold on Mon- day and still leave enough to run through the mincer on Tues- day. To brighten up the ‘hash’ I add a cup of oxo and cover up with a biscuit dough. Try it some time, and the family will never know they’re eating the tag end of the roast. Sometimes I buy a pound of ground steak—it’s still hamburg- er by any other name—mix in a cah of tomato*soup and, with a few rashers of bacon on _ top, pop it the oven for half an hour. * * * At least I don’t have to worry about butter, for in our family the butter strike is continuing indefinitely. I asked my _store- keeper a few days ago if he were selling much butter these days and he admitted that there had been a decided drop in the demand. I did my stint on the picket line to remind prospective shop- pers of the butter strike, but the only ‘strikebreaker’ I saw was @ mere male. After hearing my little piece he muttered some- thing unintelligible and left hur- riedly with the butter in his pocket. But many of the women stopped to talk, and the Hon. J. L. Isley, as a practical politician, might be worrying about his fu- ture ff he could have heard some of their remarks. Each day as we trudge down to the stores little Katy reminds me solemnly, “And we mustn’t buy butter.” Then she adds hope- fully, “We mustn’t buy choco- late bars either. They cost too much.” But there is always a big hungry question mark in her voice that none of Willards’ or Rowntrees’ big advertisements can ever answer. So we com- promise occasionally by buying an ice cream cone. e * * * After balancing the budget to the umpteenth decimal place, I picked up a copy of New Masses. A title, ‘The Forgotten Sex,’ caught my eye, and knowing full well that it did not refer to males (any. woman can tell you that a man won't let you forget he’s around) I read it through. The author, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, pointed out that in the United States the - Republican Party and the National Associa- tion of Manufacturers are spend- ing lavishly in an organized at- tempt to win women around to like ours, enough of us if we their way of thinking. Radio, of course, is looked upon as an im- portant medium. Not long afterwards I switched on the radio just in time to hear a woman extolling the vir- tues of an 84-year-old man who “really knew the joy of hard work.” She commented that he was so unlike the ordinary work- ing man who is constantly clam- oring for shorter hours and more pay. Unfortunately, few of such pro- .grams are as blunt and outspoken. Most of them try to win the housewive’s support by far more subtle approaches to the all-im- — portant questions of prices and living conditions. But it seems as ifs we. are -in®: for’ 2a re- vival, of the old platitudes about hard work and thrift and honest poverty that R. B. Bennett and Arthur Meighen tried. to make popular in the last depression. It wouldn’t, of course, make much difference to the promoters of such programs, but I wish they could hear some of the old age pensioners who are among our neighbors—men and women who have worked hard and prac- ticed thrift all their lives be- cause they never had much choice and whose only share of the wealth they have made for others is a far from adequate pittance in their declining years. Well, it’s time to feed little John again. He decided he could drink his milk with one hand yesterday and was so _ pleased with the result that he couldn't resist waving his cup in the air, turning his triumphant shout into a dampish gurgle. I was glad he had on his little plastic bib with the pocket (or the gutter, as I call it) at the bottom to catch all the drips. They really fill the bill for teeth- ing tots who dribble unconcerned- ly over their hand-knit sweaters. And speaking of hand-knit woollies, I suggest you try the new powdered soap, Vel. It really soaks out the dirt and leaves gat- ments clean and fluffy.—B.G. Z GREETINGS to Pacific Tribune eee DR. W. J. CURRY JOHN STANTON Barrister Solicitor Notary Publie 502 Holden Bldg. — MAr. 5746 Night: ALma 2177-M We Sell Army and Navy For Less will never know- ingly be undersold. We will meet uly ° : Sneclalei. Gite coe ore $4.00 || more. expensive (a notable excep- : : . any competitor s price at any time, 1 Climbine o eat ae tion is Trucks At Work by Marly | low-priced series for cae ee not only ceiling price but floor price, See ee and we will gladly refund any differ- Rabo, reg. '$2.50, * HIGHEST PRICES PAID for WM. pace a E. LOUIE ence. Army and Navy prices are DOANE fe, So ee $2.00 DIAMONDS, OLD GOLD st. Suntabtesl oie rdibee aE bapetie Se Other Valuable Jewellery Real Estate, Insurance, rans eae ee ae , Special prices effective to end. STAR LOAN CO. Ltd. Notary : Income Tax Forms Prepared 525 MAIN STREET TAtlow 1036 oe aes ~~ People’s Cooperative WAND STUDIO . ELITE CAFE Book Store _ “Anything With a Camera” . Where You’re Always a sure of 387 W. Pender, yancouver, B.C. ||$ 8 & aes ater a Wt 71644 GOOD FOOD, GOOD SERVICE 950 Granville St. MA. 9522 EST. 1905 719 Robson St. — MAr. 2622 of May. Add 10c per book for Postage, Army & Navy DEPARTMENT STORES Vancouver and New Westminster _ FRIDAY, May 23, 1947 PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 7 i