40c dollar:
CCW seeks}!
food subsidies

THE “FOOD DOLLAR” has
shrunk to 40 cents in terms of
pre-war purchasing power, the
Congress of Canadian Women
said in a brief on the high cost
of living sent to the federal
government recently.

The CCW made positive pro-
posals to improve the standard
of living. These included:

@ Imposition of 100 percent
excess profits tax on corpora-
tion profits over a four per-
cent rate of profit.

@ Payment of subsidies on
éssential foods from the excess
profits tax. :

@ Increase in family allow-
ances of 50 percent.

@ Elimination of new sales
and excise taxes with the in-
crease in income taxes put into
effect last spring, as well as
those proposed for this year.

Presentation of the brief fol-
lowed the meeting of the CCW
national council, and climaxed
an extensive campaign on prices
with conferences, in Vancouver,

Edmonton, Saskatoon, Port Ar-:

thur, Toronto, Winnipeg, Ot-
tawa, London and Montreal; a
postcard campaign by _ several
CCW chapters to their local
MP’s, as well as personal Visits.

Effect of the campaign was
indicated by the remark of one
MP to a Congress delegation
when he said: “Oh, those post-
cards—they come in hundreds!”

*« * ae

THE EFFECT of the reduced
“food dollar’
ards was indicated by the fact
that in 1948 the per capita
‘eonsumption of beef was 57.5
pounds; in 1949 it was 56.5
pounds; in 1950 it was 50.5
pounds, although, consumers had
to spend $8,100,000 more in
1950 than in 1948 at the retail
level to buy the lower quantity.

In 1948 Dr. L. B, Pett, Do-
minion nutritionist, pointed out
the per capita milk consumption
was 40 percent to 50 pertent
below desirable health stand-
ards. During 1949 the total
retail sales of food across Can-
ada declined “by 12 percent as
eompared to the previous year.

The brief gave examples of
soaring corporation profits of
milling and grain interests and
dumber companies.

Blasting Finance Minister Ab-
‘bott’s' adyice to consumers to
‘go on a ‘‘thrift drive’ the CCw
brief said: ““To follow such ad-
‘vice is not in the interests of
‘the majority of the Canadian
‘people, but on the contrary, en-
‘dangers the health and lives of
Canadian families.”

on living stand--

}. NEW ADDRESS
9 EAST HASTINGS
i Corner Carrall

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TA. 5552
DR. R. LLEWELLYN
DOUGLAS

GEA

WOMEN'S

news and views

SCL

Telephone girls strike

Girl pickets in front of Cleveland, Ohio, Bell Telephone build-

ings are attracting plenty of attention.

The striker in cigarette-

vendor’s garb carries sign whcih ‘reads: “Cigarettes, Cigars, help

the needy, we go broke because they got greédy,” Girl in slacks.

holds card reading: “Easter outfits bought from Ohio Bell profits.”

(GUEST COLUMN)

: PRAGUE

WHEN I WENT to collect

our youngest at his nursery

school the other day, I found

the children sitting round one

of the heads of the State Pub-

lishing House for Children’s

Books, discussing the pictures
in a new book.

The book was called Nursery
School Brigade, and told with
delightful pictures how the chil-
dren at a nursery school dé&
cided to follow the example of
the grown-ups and help to beau-
tify their town.

The children set off to sweep
up the fallen leaves: gradually
the butcher, the baker; news-
paper reporters and other grown-
ups gather round to watch and
comment, until the news spreads
and soon other nursery schools
find other ways of helping to
tidy up the town,

The publisher had come to
discuss the book with a nursery
school. particularly because he
wanted to know how children
who couldn’t read reacted to
the pictures. :

* * ko

THAT IS typical of how things
are done for the children in
Czechoslovakia now: they are
encouraged to have a say. in
the kind of books they want,
and when new books come out
the publishers meet the children

and learn what they think of.

them. .

Many of the books produced
for children are educational and
factual. They tell them about
nature, industry, agriculture,
and such organizations as the
post office.

Of course, there are story
books, too, fairy tales, fables,
and modern stories, such as a
recent one about village chil-
dren who built a new school to
replace one destroyed by the
Germans during the war.

In 1950, 114 children’s books
totalling 1,798,000 million cop-
ies, were printed by the State.
Publishing House, Last year
they printed 2,731,000 copies. of
160 new books: By 1955 they
intend to publish five million
children’s books.

This is worth contrasting with
the ever-swelling flood of crime
comics being published in Amer-
ica: despite the protests of par-
ents and educators,

We have no ‘‘comics’’ to con-
tend with» here—though we have
plenty of grand comedy for
children, "

Superman, Dick Tracy and
their gruesome colleagues of
the underworld simply have no
counterparts in Czechoslovakia.

Instead, there is Materidous-
ka, a fortnightly paper for
young children, full of simple
stories and puzzles, with attrac-
tive coloured illustrations.

There is Pionyrske Noviny
(Pioneer News), which reports
the doings.of the Pioneer or-
ganization to which any child
of 10 to 15 may belong.

It carries news from the other
People’s Democracies, articles
from the children themselves,
and short, lively accounts of
how Czechoslovakia is building
socialism, the lives of outstand-
ing workers, and news of scien-
tific developments. :
HILDA LASS.

LIVING STANDARDS GOING UP

A new Soviet cookbook |
-and what it discloses

SOME ‘businessmen in Britain
and other countries were sur-
prised recently to learn that the
Soviet Union was ready to buy
clothes . and other consumer
goods from the West.

Perhaps the would understand
better why this is so if they,
could read a cookery book that
the Soviet Food Ministry has
just issued. oe

It has been put out in an
edition of half a million copies.
It is large, lavishly illustrated
and notable for the stress laid’
on new kinds of packed foods
and ‘new utensils for preparing
them.

The story behind the new
cookery book is a story of a
new flow of consumer goods—a
continuation of a flow that was-
begun in 1946. Moscow’s shops
already tell part of it.

* es

THERE IS ONE particularly
interesting shop on Gorky street
where factories put on sale rela-
tively small quantities of new
articles before they go into mass
production:

Here the first cheap house-
hold refrigerators appeared, and

since then Muscovites have
found pressure-cookers, new
types of fireproofware, coffee

grinders, and labor-saving gad-
gets for the kitchen.

And here we come to the
cookery book—the Russians are
conservative cooks and favor
traditional dishes. The cookery
book introduces them .to new
ideas, i

The gist of the introduction,
which is titled ‘‘Toward Abun-
dance”’ is:

Food of boundless variety and

the highest quality is now be-
coming available. Learn to use
it in the healthiest and tastiest
way. ;
One needs only to thumb
through this book to learn why
the Soviet foreign trade organi-
zations are so interested in im-
porting spices, cocoa beans, cit-
rus fruits, rice and tea from
Southeast Asia and elsewhere.
In, most parts of the world
rudimentary forms of planned
consumption are adopted only

in times of crises, shortages,
threats of famine, But the So-
viet Union plans methodically

for the age of abundance, as
it takes measured strides to-
wards communism.

This successful socialist , so-
ciety, advancing toward pros-

perity, is now in the market [0
the high-grade worsteds 4!
other suitings cotton cloth, 84
ments and underwear.

* x x

TODAY’S SOVIET prosperilY
is the continuation of a proces
that had been begun in 1946:
Then the Five-Year Plan had
been revised to allow for 4
increase of hale as many Cco™
sumer goods again over 4!
above the original plan.

Soon rationing was ended and
the rouble revalued.
footwear and household ute
sils flowed trhough trading
channels to the Soviet people:

From then on toward the &
of each winter their prices drop
ped, a sure sign of increasilé
output im this land of planne
consumption.

Between 1947 and 1950 ther
were three of these sweep?!
reductions, putting into peoples
pockets an extra purchasité
power equivalent to about 9%
000 million roubles a year. Th®
was considerably more than the
government allocated for @&
fense in those years.

Much of this extra money we i
spent on replacing househo!
goods, essential winter clothin®
building materials, and so 02:

Individual citizens, as well #
the authorities, were makins
good wartime losses;

In the countryside some thre?
million homes were rebuill
largely by their owners.

And much of the extra mor"
was spent on food, now av@
able in a much wider range:

- But by the end of 1950, i

ney

last year in the period ae
reconstruction, a noticed”
change was taking place

spending. ~<

During the past 18 months
the sales of textiles and cloth
turniture, books, bicycles, arty
goods, musical instrumen
china, radios, rose exceptional
fast.

A new planning perio
begun last year. About a YO"
after the. new plan had bee? ny
troduced the government Ps
steps to increase the output i
consumer goods above the Be
ginal plan, This applied to b0°”
and shoes. and textiles.

Two more price reduct
put a further 60,000 mill
troubles into people’s pocket®

What better market coul ‘
merehant or manufactut
want?—-RALPH PARKER.

was
d af

ions
jo?

STORY, POEM, DRAWING

Congress of Canadian Women
sponsors children’s contest

GIRLS AND boys across the
country will have the chance
this year of taking part in a
national competition to promote
friendship among children of
all countries. To honor Inter-
national Children’s Day, June
1, in Canada, the Congress of
Canadian Women is sponsoring
a~competition for children up

to.14 years of age who wish to

draw or write on the subject:
“Friendship among children
throughout the world.”

The best entries will be in-
corporated in an album to be
shown through the country, and
later sent to the Women’s In-
ternational Democratic Federa-

tion, to be shown in othet
countries. ue

Hach child may submit |
many entries as
wishes, in the form of @ ‘le:
ing, or a poem, story or aru’
Each entry should clearly 8°:
name, address, and age. oss

In localities where Cons!
of Canadian Women cha? of
wish to undertake collectin& al
entries for local display, “|.
announcements and arrant
ments will be made, but
entries will be forwarded
reach the national office of oD
Congress of Canadian W°? 08
by June 20, 1952. The adm
is 18 Grenville Street, TOP?
5.

to

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MAY 9, 1952 — PAGE 1°

clothes: P