ee Pe ee

WEST END WOMEN TAKE THE LEAD

How orie-tenants’ league

is serving the community

IF YOU LIVE in Vancouver's
West End, once the finest and now
among the shabbiest of the city’s
residential areas, the chances are
you've heard of the West End
Tenants’ League. This organiza-
tion, since it was formed last
fall, has earned the support of
the 200 residents who now take
Part in its activities by the issues ‘
it takes up and the work it does
to get something done about them.

As a resident conscious of the
high rent I was already paying
for the privilege of living in this
“Overcrowded and under-serviced
area, I promptly joined the West

End Tenants’ League when it was

organized last fall to fight for re-

tention of rent control. ¢

I wasn’t surprised to find that
fully two-thirds of the members
were women. After all, it’s women, ~
Who generally have the problem
of stretching the pay_ or pension
cheque’ to cover rent, food and
any other bare necessities they.
can afford at ever-rising prices.
Women are forced to spend most

of their time in the home, how- | -

ever drab and crowded. it may be.
Women. must constantly worry
about the safety of their children,
forced to live in fire-traps and
Play in the streets.

So it’s little wonder that we
Women in the West End, seeing
the lifting of rent controls as the
last straw to an already over-
heavy burden, took the leading

part in organizing against this
8reatest single threat to our liy-
‘ing standards, and joined our
Voices with thousands across Can-
- ada. 2

Our efforts were rewarded when
rent controls, with some’ excep-
tions, were retained for another f
year, and we felt a real sense'of
_ accomplishment in knowing that
Our modest West End Tenants’
League had played its part in this
very real crisis, Then we asked
ourselves: should we disband?

* * *

‘

THROUGH MY work on the
grievance committee I realized
there was and still is a real need ©

for a tenants’ organization, to
which people could bring’ their -
many problems and get organized
assistance.

For example, 2 woman on social
assistance came to us in tears.
‘Her landlady was demanding $23
€@ month for rent (she had paid
$15 for the past nine years). This
‘Was, of course, out of the ques-
tion, and she was being threaten-
ed with eviction, She couldn’t find

* a room at a rent she could af-—

ford, and the social service
_ Wouldn't give her any proccess :
rent allowance.

That was six months ago. “The ‘3
woman is still in the same Place,
still paying $15 a month, and the’

_ Services which were withdrawn
have been restored. '

In another case, a working wom-

an had already been ordered by —

_ Judge Boyd to vacate, and court
charges of over $50 were being
demanded. The Tenants’ League
intervened and were able to show

' th&t the landlady had been most

inconsistent and unfair. As a Te-

sult, nothing more was heard

about the court charges.

This same landlady forced an-

other tenant to move by the sim-

ple process of having the electric
wiring torn out of the building,

in her haste to gain possession Of |

the premises, ostensibly for com-

mercial use. Rather ironically, she
_ Now has to abandon the project,

as the building has been con-,

demned and must be torn down.

It was unfit for commercial use,
yet pees had. been living there!
- *« Ke
DO. Soo remember the disas-
trous Hornby Street fire? More
than a dozen people lost all their
possessions. Six were seriously
injured in jumping from the sec-
ond and third floors, and two of
these are still in hospital more
than three months later.
The fire fighters gave wonderful
service, and the re" End Ten-

wtiss Krock, is kindergarten worth while? I'd hate to study all the
way up to college and then have the H-bomb bump us offi”

This cartoon by Galbraith actual-
ly appeared in the Toronto
Evening Telegram.

«

A

‘No immunization
against A-bombs‘

_ THE FOLLOWING _ notice
was tacked to her door by 2
London housewife:

_ “My> 9-months-old daughter
drinks pasteurized milk ag pro-

_ tection against tuberculosis. She —

has been vaccinated and im-
munized against diphtheria and
whooping cough, ;

“But there is no protection
against atom bombs. :
< “This afternoon I am going to
the House of Commons to see
my MP to enlist his help in’
‘stopping the fi gaiare of these.
horror bombs.

“J am going for the sake of
my child and yours.”

ants’ League was able to help
these people, but prevention is

- better than cure. The Tenants’

League, alarmed at the danger
of a serious fire in the rows of old
tinder-dry houses in the West
End, demanded that the city coun-
cil make a survey and asked for
changes in the present inadequate
fire regulations.
The council endorsed the Fire
and Police yCommittee’s report

which admitted that ‘the -divers-»

ity in construction and design of
these buildings (converted room-
ing houses over two storeys) along
with the crowded living conditions,
greatly increases the fire hazard,”
but still’callously concluded: “In
our opinion, our building and fire
regulations afford reasonable safe*
ty to our citizens, and» compare
very favorably with any city in
North America, as our records
would indicate.” We ate determin-
ed not to let the matter end here!

A delegation led by Vancouver
Housing Association, and repre-
senting many organizations, in-

League, interviewed the council
on’ the shortage of accommoda-
tion.

Five years ore the end of the
war, the council still refuses to
recognize the need for subsidized
low rent, low cost housing, and

at this late date, is “experiment-
ing” with a limited project of per-
haps 200 units, for ne as apa pen-
sioners.

Ald. George Miller siete this
quite clear when he said, “We
_don’t want the people to get the
mistaken idea that the ciy coun-
cil is going to play Santa Claus,
that they can get something for

nothing. The city council -has no-

intention of launching a subsi-
dized low rent project, and never

will as long as I am on the coun-
ei”

Certainly, the Tenants’ League
has not outlived its usefulness.
The West End needs bigger and
better schools, recreational cen-

ters, and playgrounds, Our or-
ganization needs many more mem-
“bers, especially women, to work

: together and make our commun-
ity a safer, better place to live.
—MAY PEN ECE ES. :

cluding the West End Tenants’.

THE OTHER DAY little oe raced in aeiely from .
school with the tremendous news that the following day was sports day
‘and that she simply had to have a pair of white shorts. This meant, of
course, that some of the girls would have white shorts and others navy, —
but our young daughter preferred white. Well, as usual, the cash was
ving a sewing machine, antiquated as
use from it, so after supper we rum-

short, and anyway it’s no good
it may be, without getting the f
maged round for some material and

some flour bags. Shades of depression, I thought, as we cut out the
shorts while Grandma recalled some of the uses she had sans for flour

bags twenty years ago.

Just as bread, beans and pota-
toes were the staff of life in the
thirties, so too the flour bag
emerged as the modern version of
the fig leaf. Civilization does in-
deed progress, for to hold up the
flour bag panties, Grandma made
full use. of the great technical
strides in the rubber industry by
cutting up thin strips of an inner
, tube as: a. substitute for elastic. ;
» Yes, those were the “good old

days” of hard work, honesty and ~

thrift that we are so often advised
—by people who have never stood
in a relief line—to return to.

It had its consolations, however,
although not for men like George
Drew, for out ofethe struggle for
survival Grandma obtained her
socialist convictions.

ide bo aS.

THERE’S BEEN a lot of talk
about juvenile delinquency in the
past few months, but precious lit-
tle has been done ‘about it. The so-
c&lled Youth Committee set up by
Mayor Thompson hasn’t a youth-
ful person on it, and when it was

suggested by members of the Na-,

tional Federation of Labor Youth
that a conference of all youth or-
ganizations be called they were
told they were there to listen, not
to make suggestions.

We know our boys and girls
have plenty of good ideas and
more than enough gumption to

_ carry them out. In Winnipeg the
young people set a striking ex-

ample of how well they could or-

ganize and work in time of crisis.

Thousands of boys and girls
worked on the dykes and in can-
teens for 24 hours at a stretch,
and they certainly proved that the
modern youngster can shoulder re-
sponsibility if given a chance.

When we talk of the need of.

_ youth activities for our sons and
daughters we don’t mean just the
a aah ee of a His gerd night

finally in Grandma’s trunk we found

ri)

Milk poured down

sewers in Paris

MILK FLOWED as freely as
water into Paris sewers recent-
ly. More than 20,000 quarts were >
poured down the drain during _
the Whitsuntide holidays by the .
Fermiers Reunis Company. One -
of the largest of the six com-
panies which form the milk

milk dumped, fearing it couldn’t
be sold at the current high ©

“Are they trying to force us te

drink Coca-Cola?” was one

woman writer’s bitter comment.”

Oy
dance. We need a much broader
outlook than that. There should

' be sports, camps and hiking trips,
for surely no other place has more
to offer in the way of outdoor ac-
tivity than our own province.

However, it’s not only recrea=

tional activities that are needed
but also the opportunity to de-
velop cultural talents. There’s nO
jack of musical and literary talent _
among our young people, as any
school teacher can tell you, but _
there’s a decided lack of facilities —
for expression and appreciation. _

» Young people need the oppor-
tunity to discuss and debate, te
embark on a project and see it
through. They need encouragement
and* commendation, but most of
all they need a chance to show
what they can do—and they'll do
it—B.G.

’

4 un

IDEAS | GALORE

Make Sati
own lamps __

DO YOU ‘WANT some extra
drawer space? Perhaps your
daughter needs .a new dressing
table? Or junior a play box? May-
be you want to make your old
furniture modexn or some garden
seats, or ideas for your new home.
And you surely ‘can use an extra
lamp or two. Well, with some
handy tools, old furniture, empty
bottles and ‘a ‘little ‘imagination

and work, you can get all ehere.
ona more at very little cost.

Let’s start with the lamps. With
a 32-0z, empty ink pottle, a cork,
a small switch ahd a little in-
genuity you have all you 3 need to
“make one. ‘

A pooklet \ebntaining all kinds
of ideas to help you in making
your home —, oF room —— more
cheerful at ‘little cost can be ob-
tained by writing Lena Lipsey at
Tribune. And if you’
‘wish to discuss any particular
problem, she'll ai her best to help

yOu ke SAE ee

~-

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“WHAT'S DOING? -

OPEN AIR, DANCING at! Swedish

- Park. ery Saturday night.
Dancing from 912. Arne John-
son’s Orchestra.

\

SOCIAL & DANCE, Saturday, June
17, 8 p.m. Russian People’s Home,

600 Campbell Ave., lower hall. Ad- |

mission 50c. Refreshments. Spon-
sored by Maritime Club, LPP.

‘PICNIC: at 1 p.m. siimday, June
18, at Lulu Island on No. 2 Road,
between Frances and Maple. Aus-
pices Lithuanian Literary Society.
Everybody welcome.

SWEDISH-FINNISH WORKERS’

CLUB meets last Friday every |

month at 7:30 p.m, in Clinton Hall.

BUSIN. ESS PERSONALS

% TRANSFER & MOVING, Corte-
ous, fast efficient. MA. 1527; CH.
8210—Nick.

ALTERATIONS DONE — pales
Cupboards, Repairs.
0975 M. :

Call HA.|

Tell them you fae it in
the Tribune e-

HALLS FOR RENT

SIMONSON’S WATCH Repairs —
‘We repair Ronson’s Jewellery, all

- types of watches and clocks. 711
East Hastings, Vancouver.

| CRYSTAL STEAM BATHS—Open

every day. New Modern Beauty
Salon—1763 E. Hastings. _HAs-
tings 0094.

DECORATING
PAINTING, GRAINING, PAPER

- HANGING. For free estimates, |.

call FAirmont 3129-M.

eS

CLINTON HALL, 2605 E. Pender,
Phone HAstings 3277. Hall is
available for rent.

RUSSIAN PEOPLE’S HOME —
Available for meetings, weddings,
and. banquets at reasonable rates,
600 Campbell Ave., HA. 6900.

NOTICES _

PLEASE NOTE: Office of Pacific.

SALLY BOWES INCOME TAX
PROBLEMS — Rm. 20, 9 East
Hastings. MA. 9965. A. Rollo, Mgr.

°

Tribune will close at 12 noon on
_ Saturdays. — :

‘BUYING WORK OR LOGGERS’
BOOTS—Don’t forget Johnson’s
Boots, 63 West Cordova, Vancou-
‘ver, Price & “Quality” right.

" PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 16, 1950 PAGE a

_IN THE TRIBUNE”

_ “TELL THEM YOU SAW IT ok

‘