+ A Pacific Tribune writing contest selection

F YOU have never attended a
] celebration of the “Lucia-
fest”, held at Chistmas, or the
Midsummer festival in June, or
eaten “spalt” or “potatis korv”,
for example, it is likely you
have never had the opportunity
to learn, of the traditions. and
habits of a good life contribut-

ed to us by our people of Scan-
dinavian birth or heritage.

They have settled in the lum-
bering centres. Here you can
turn in almost any direction
and find a logger who immi-
grated to Canada from one of
the Scandinavian countries in
the twenties or thirties—some-
one who experienced the lone-
liness and hardship of being 4
total stranger in a strange
‘country—many. of them lucky
to find a boxcar to sleep 1n,
let alone a job. Some were
married and had families. Few
cared who they were or what
they could contribute to our
country outside of cheap labor.
The single often joined the
ranks of Canada’s depression
“bums”.

Perhaps it was because of the
“bushel” or contract system
common in their own countries ©
that the contract falling and
bucking of Pacific coast timber

By IVOR YUGOV

TS an old saying, but there
i is a surprising amount of
truth in it: “Eat plenty of onions
and you'll keep healthy !”

For thousands of years onions
and garlic have been used as
medicines in many different
parts of the world.

The slaves who built the Pyr-
amids in Ancient Egypt, more
than 4,000 years ago, didn’t have
a very exciting diet. But their
meals always contained garlic
or onions.

The Egyptians, indeed, used
onions in the treatment of many
diseases — as did Chinese and
Hindu medicine, and the early
Slavs.

Onion and garlic were used
for curing warts, for stopping
hemorrhages, for anthrax and
certain other diseases.

So much for history. What
really, are the powers of Dr.
Onion? Has he any genuine
medicinal qualities? os

Before answering the question, -
let’s remember the sensation
we all experience when peeling
onions. Even when we try to
keep them at arms length, we
still just can’t help bursting in-
to tears.

The doctor explains this by
saying that the onion gives off
volatile substances which irri-,
tate the mucous membranes of
the eye — substances called
phytoncides. : pee
“Other plants have similar
qualities — some more, some.
less.

"A well-known Soviet biologist,
Professor B. P. Topkin, has

attracted many of them. Young
Scandinavians from the Cana-
dian prairie, too found their
way to the logging camps of

- the west coast.

In any case, whatever the
reason, in those days the ma-
jority of fallers and buckers
were Scandinaviah, and still
today each lumbering commu-
nity has its generous quota of
these same Scandinavians. :

Lake Cowichan .

Scandinavian
heritage

‘@ By MYRTLE BERGREN

The young women came too,
many to work as domestic help
at cheap wages. But few loggers
were fortunate enough to have

a wife. They were not settled,

and their culture as a people
went unrecognized in this
country for many years.

To become settled and begin
to sink their roots into the
communities there had to be at
least some kind of security, and

the beginning of building the

union gave a promise of more

stability in the logging industry

as far as jobs were concerned.
pee :

During the war years the
union became strong. Before
that a logger could be fired
and walk the streets jobless for
the next six years for all the
companies cared. Hard and
dangerous work, low wages,
poor conditions and wholesale
firings were the order of the
day. :

“You went to work in a camp
and you got $2.50 a day,” one
old-time Swede reminisced.
“You paid $1.50 a day for board.
By the time you paid your
Sunday board out of that it left
vou with 75c a day, and you had
to buy your clothes out of that!”

A wife indeed! A home, chil-
dren, cultural pursuits, the or-
Ginary things a man has the
right to enjoy? This was all
summed up in the periodic fling
a logger had with a few dollars

. in the heart of Vancouver Island’s forest industry.

versatile Dr. Onion

studied the effect of these on
micro-organisms.

He found that if they were
placed close to drops of water
teeming with microbes, all the
microbes perished within a
quarter of an hour.

When he used crushed clove
of garlic, he found that they
all died well within a minute.

‘@

In his laboratory the profes-
sor studied thousands of differ-
ent plants. His experiments
confirmed that garlic, onion,
pepper and several other plants
possessed the most powerful
enti-microbe properties.

He established, for instance,
that if you chew only a small
clove of garlic your mouth be-
comes completely sterile. For
all the microbes in the mouth
immediately die.

Onion ‘and garlic retain these
properties for a very long time.

So today, as they did in the
past, doctors are using the onion
in the battle against disease.

Garlic is used frequently with
success in the treatment of gas-
tric-intestinal diseases and fung-
oid and ulcerous diseases of the
skin.

It is used to treat pneumonia
in children, heart diseases, ul-
cerous stomatitis and other
complaints.

Many experiments have con-
firmed that garlic kills off the
micrebes of typhoid, dysentery
and cholera. It is effective in
treating purulent processes in
the lungs and purulent skin
wounds.

For a long time a Soviet medi-

cal researcher, Dr. F. Protopo-
pov, has been working on the
use of onion and garlic in the
treatment of tuberculosis.

“It has been established ir-
refutably,” he said, “that onion
and garlic phytoncides kill the

tubercular bacillus outside the

crganism.

“In the opinion of many scien-
tists one of the most effective
methods of combating tubercul-
osis is the administration of
phytoncides directly into the
trachea.”

By means of special tubes a
measure quantity of liquid phy-
toncide preparation is introduc-
ed into the patient’s windpipe,
so that all the tissues of the lung
are bathed with phytoncides.

Individual patients have been

~gured of tuberculosis by this

method by some doctors — in-
eluding Dr. Protopopov him-
self.

A vast amount of research
has been carried out, but, Dr.

‘Protopopov insists, it is “only
a beginning.”

Tuberculosis specialists, biolo-
gists and chemists have still to
carry out a great deal of basic
research and the practical de-
tails of the treatment have to be
worked out.

Wherever these “phytoncide”
plants grow — in field, in for-
est, in rivers, in ponds — every-
where they exude their volatile
substances into the atmosphere.

Investigations have shown,
for instance, that three acres of
juniper trees exude in a day as
much as 80 pounds of volatile
substances — enough to rid a
big town of bacteria !

This is another reason why
the planting of greenery in
populated areas is so import-
ant. Plants are our tireless and
reliable defenders against mic-
robes.

These plants are also of im-
portance for the food industry.

Onion and garlic added to
various foodstuffs make it pos-

~sible to preserve them for con-
siderably longer periods.

If fresh fish is surrounded
with grated horseradish, onion
or garlic — or, better still, with
mustard paste — the fish will
keep far longer than in ordin-
ary conditions.

Meat placed in the atmosphere
given off by  cherry-laurel
leaves and mustard keeps for
rnany months.

In a glass vessel in Professor

Yopkin’s - laboratory a hard-

boiled egg is suspended. At the
bottom of the vessel is a small
quantity of mustard.

The egg is quite fresh, there
are no signs of it spoiling. The
egg, however, was boiled about
five years ago!

Thousands of tons of fruit are
ruined every year by mould and
fungoid growths. Here, too, the
phytoncides can lend a hand.

Apples, before being boxed,
were sprayed with a solution
made from dried onion leaves.

Within a few weeks, the onion
smell had completely disappear-
ed, and the number of apples

lost by spoilage was cut by more .

than half.

Potatoes, carrots and other
vegetables*have also been pre-
served by means of onion and
garlic.

A versatile fellow, Dr. Onion.

in town! The people who ex-
perienced these trials fought

t> better their conditions of life, -

and the building of the union
in the woodworking industry
played an important part in
bringing about a better stan-
dard of living for everyone in
these communities.

The Scandinavian-Canadians
played a leading role in this big
step along the path of progress.
Look ‘at the names of some of
those who started out on the
road to organize the wood-
workers union: Arne Johnson,
Ted Gunrud, Andy Hogarth,
Eric Graf, Helge Halbom, Carl
and Martin Palmgren .. . the
Scandinavian blood of their
forefathers ran in their veins.

That union was built, and the
working people made’ progress
in other ways simultaneously.
The population of the area grew
with the establishment of large
sawmills. Many organizations

.eprang up to put into life the

varied interests of the people.
Not the least of these was the

‘women’s auxiliary to the union,

in which Scandinavian-Canadian
women participated, and helped
to win many modern advantages
for the community.

In contrast to the hard times
ef old, most loggers in the com-
munity now live in comfortable,
up-to-date homes with their
wives and families. Through
progress they have won more
leisure time, hours to spend in
rest and enjoyment of cultural
pursuits.

The rmhain organized cultural
outlet of .the Scandinavians
hereabouts is their club, an
crganization dedicated to the
benefit of themselves as a group,
and the community as a whole.
It consolidates the ancient Scan-
dinavian traditions and inte-
grates them into the new Cana-
Gian culture, and the community
has benefitted from it signifi-
cantly.

Nowadays, for instance, you
might see here a play enacted
by these same Scandinavian
loggers, their wives, or younger
members of their families. You
could see on many occasions
their rousing folk dances —

couples in their colorful native .

attire flashing by, delighting
audiences.

You could have attended
countless dances through the
years whose nostalgic music
was played by the Scandinavian
orchestra, second to none on
Vancouver Island, in the opin-
ion of their music-lovers. Or
you could have viewed and
perhaps enjoyed the rich and
toothsome food provided by
the Scandinavian women at their
many smorgasbords.

You could have heard their
mixed choir of men’s and
women’s untrained voices sing-
ing the songs of the old land in

’ the old tongue, and new songs of

Canada. “Dear land of home,
our hearts to thee are holden,
by loyal love for each familiar
scene...” Meaning Canada
now, and sung with the fervor
of people who have helped to
cut the forests, fish the waters
and plow the soil.

It can be said the culture of
Canada is born of the customs
and expressions of many peoples,
and is just beginning to grow.
The cultural constribution made
by her.communities of men and
women is dear to us all, and in
this brief while, the Scandin-
avians of British Columbia’s
logging communities have made
an admirable one.

Our future can be in no firm-
er hands than those of the work-
ing people who have made Can-
ada what she is. We will con-
tinue together, and progress will
grow. What more proof do we

need that socialism awaits us?
June 15, 1956 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 9

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