The Helena
Gutteridge story

did monumental work in draw-
ing up the wording and inves-
tigating all the legal angles
of the proposed legislation, so
that the campaign was con-
ducted around precise demands
which had the support of a
large body of informed pub-
lic opinion.

Judge Helen Gregory Mc-
Gill was the fine mind behind
many of the bills in their fin-
ished form, but many other
women and many women’s or-
ganisations played apart in
the campaign. Among the
women’s organisations were
the University Women’s Club,
Women’s Canadian Club, Busi-
ness and Professional Wo-
men’s Club, Women’s Chris-
tian Temperance Union, the
Women’s Institutes, New Era
League and the League of
Women Voters.

And these were some of their
achievements: Minimum Wage
Act, Mothers’ Pensions, De-
serted Wives Maintenance Act,
Equal Guardianship of Infants
Act, Juvenile and Family Court
Act, Old Age Pensions ($20
a month with the means test),
Workmen’s Compensation and
Testator’s Family Maintenance
Act.

Much has been said over the
years in attempts to disparage
and minimise the importance
of the women’s franchise.

Manitoba was the first pro-
vince to give women the vote,
in 1916, followed by Saskatch-
ewan. Nova Scotia and British

Columbia both gave women
the vote in 1918 and New
Brunswick in 1919. It was

with an eye to the fact that
all provinces under Liberal
administrations had adopted
women’s suffrage that’ Prime
Minister Sir Robert Borden’s
Union government amended
the federal Elections Act in
1919 to give women the vote.
In Quebec women were not
given the vote until 1941.

Many anti-feminists pooh-
poohed the idea of women
voting or knowing anything

about politics. They claimed
that women would vote as
their men did, thus duplicat-
ing the vote, or that if they
didn’t, one vote would cancel
out the other. But you don’t
hear much of these arguments

today.
e

Another British Columbia
first and another victory for
the many fine women who
worked so hard for women’s
suffrage was the appointment
of Helen Gregory McGill as
judge of the new Juvenile
Court when it was established.
The purpose of the court was
to try juveniles who ran afoul
of the law and the women’s
groups saw to it that anti-
quated laws were amended
to give the young offenders
every chance for rehabilitation

rather than have them driv-
en further into lives of crime.

Judge McGill served from
her appointment in 1917 until
1929. She was reinstated as
the result of a long campaign
in 1932 and when she retired
in 1945 she left béhind her a
tremendous contribution to
penal reform and enlightened
legislation.

I joined the CCF when it
was formed in 1933 and I have
been a member of it ever since.

The Hungry Thirties were
a difficult and a busy time in
my life. In 1937 I stood for
Vancouver City Council and
I was elected to become the
city’s first woman alderman.

Time and again I raised in
the council the need for city-
assisted low-cost housing
schemes. Now the council is
finally getting around to it,
but at the time my proposals

were just brushed aside. I be-
came very interested in town
planning and I am still a mem-
ber of the Town: Planning
Commission.

I have always felt that wo-
men should take a keen inter-
est in civic affairs — I consid-
er it just as important as run-
ning a house.

Another of my long-stand-
ing interests is the Women’s
International League for Peace
and Freedom which was found-
ed by Jane Addams in Paris
in 1912.

A branch was formed in
Vancouver at the home of my
life-long friend, Fanny Cow-
per, in 1917, and although she
and many others are gone now
we continue our studies of
world affairs, keeping up with
all the trends.

The Women’s International
League for Peace and Free-
dom is officially recognized
by the United Nations, to
which it sends an observer,
and it has consultative status
on some UN agencies.

Nowadays I spend a great
deal of time reading. Every
Monday night I go to our Wo-
men’s School for Citizenship
at the Hotel Vancouver and
on March 18 I shall be chair-
man of a meeting on town
planning. I try always to fol-
low the advice I give to other
women: Take an interest in
public affairs. Keep yourself*
informed and express your
opinions. Above all, be active.

No matter how busy they
may be with their families and
homes, women are part. of
the larger community. They
owe it to themselves to de-
velop their abilities and to
work for a _ better, peaceful
world. There’s still a: lot to
be done!

coffee intoxicating

HERE’S a lot of romance,

history, geography, econ-
omics and science between the
coffee bean and that cup of
steaming brew so many con-
sider essential to the right
start of a bright new day.

Coffee has been so import-
ant in the affairs of the New
World that it has influenced
history. But it all began, so
historians believe, in -old-
world Arabia where it grew
wild. One of the first known

-cultivations was near Kaffa,

in south-west Ethiopia, and
from there it may have ob-
tained its name. It is thought
to have been discovered about
850 A.D.

At first it was surrounded
with medicinal, political and
religious taboos and mandates;
Mohammedans considered it
intoxicating. It took several
hundreds of years before cof-
fee gained great popularity in
the English coffee houses. John
Smith took it to Virginia col-
onies in 1607.

Today the largest supplies
of the world’s coffee come
from Central and South Am-
erica, though botanically it
carries the name of its country
of origin; Caffea Arabica.

Coffee trees are evergreens
which grow 30 feet high but
are kept pruned for easier
picking of the cherries which
are as bright red as their
fruit namesakes when ripe.

The higher the altitude, the
milder the product.

General plantations are from
1,000 to 6,000 feet high, warm
and humid and on hillsides so
the trees do not get too much
tropical sun. A tree is about
five years old before it starts
bearing and could yield for 50
years but most are “retired”
after 25 or so.

Trees are not stripped in
picking; only ripe cherries are
picked in each of three or
more pickings. A good day’s
pick for one man is 125 pounds
and it takes about five pounds
of cherries to make one pound
of beans (which are the cen-
tral portion of the pithy cher-
ries).

After picking, the beans are
hulled from the cherries, dried,
then sacked, In Europe, beans
are sold on the looks of the
beans but on this continent
bids for coffee are made on
the basis of tasters’ opinions of
samples taken from lots.

Some people can. tell with-
in 500 feet how high the alti-
tude of the originating planta-

» tion was and in what section

of what country it was locat-
ed... solely by tasting the
coffee.

After the coffee has keen
blended and shipped to area
roasting plants, tasters again
check the products of the
roasting ovens to make cer-
tain there has not been any
over-roasting or under-roast-
ing either of which would af-
fect the taste of the product.

Coffee pickers on a Brazil plantation

MARCH 8, 1957 —

It is the roasting which gives
the brown color and makes

. coffee taste like coffee. Green
“beans have little or no taste.

The beans lose about 16 per-
cent of their weight in the
roasting process.

Despite the huge consump-
tion in the U.S. and Canada,
neither country boasts the
largest per capita consump-
tion. That distinction goes to
Denmark and other Scandin-
avian countries which are also
great. coffee-topers.. Britain,
where coffee achieved its early
eminence, ranks quite low in
per capita consumption today.

_To blend and roast your cup
of coffee, roasters take as many
as ten types from such diverse
countries as Brazil (the larg-
est coffee-producer of ll),
Colombia and Africa, clean
them and, blend them propor-
tionately according to specifi-
cations set by a purchasing of-
fice on the basis of tests by
the professional tasters.

The green beans are then
usually shipped to regional
roasting plants because, once
roasted, coffee begins to lose
its aroma and, consequently,
its taste.

There are certain rules to
be observed in making a real-
ly outstanding cup of coffee:

The first and greatest rule
is: Don’t guess! Measure water
and coffee exactly. Only in
this manner will coffee taste
the same from time to time.
Next, time coffee brewing ac-
curately. Only experimenta-
tion can defermine the best
time for any particular appar-
atus. Third, keep the coffee-
maker scrupulously clean.

Coffee oils, which turn ran-
cid, cling to the container and
should be removed with mild
soap. Many advise boiling a
glass container at least every
two weeks with a soda solu-
tion. Metal containers should
be ‘scrubbed. with steel wool
and boiled with a vinegar so-
lution from time to time.

Coffee should never be boil-
ed, for that drives off the aro-
matic substance. Bring it up
to a boil but then stop, the ex-
perts advise. Then serve it
right away. Never, never re-
heat coffee. If it must stand,
keep it at serving tempera-
ture on a low heat.

If you use a vacuum-type
maker, never wash the cloth
filter with soap. Rinse it and
keep it immersed in a con-
tainer of water between uses
because the oils cannot be
easily washed out and if al-

-_ lowed to dry create a stale

flavor.

If you use instant coffee, it
is best prepared by using level
measurements to achieve uni-
formity since it is a concen-
trated form of coffee.

® Reprinted from the Bak-
ery and Confectionery
Workers Bulletin.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 12

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Once they thought