AN AMERICAN VIEW

Why foreign autos are better
than touted American makes

rT other day I was talking
to a man who,sells foreign
cars in San Francisco. He told
me of some of-the reasons im-
ported cars are catching on in
the U.S.

One of them is the unques-
tioned superiority of foreign
cars.

In 1955 the German Mer-
cedes copped five out of six
of the world’s top auto races
and took second place in all
five, too. Last year the Mer-
cedes was withdrawn from
racing — and Italian, French
and British cars ran away with
the prizes.

The Mercedes had fuel in-
jection a half a dozen years
before Chevrolet breathlessly
announced its appearance in
Detroit. European cars have
many other improvements
that make U.S. products look
hired out of a school for back-
ward boys.

This sort of perfection comes
from a different approach to
producing a car. Every part of
the more expensive European
ears is hand-worked and hand-
fitted; even the Jaguar, which
compares in price to U.S. cars
has a great deal more hand-
work than anything out of
Detroit.

* at 5° 3 xt

One of the results of these
painstaking production meth-

ods is that European cars havepower plants and whole fac-

a far smaller incidence of
breakdown than do U.S. cars,

The Jaguar manufacturers
put one of their stock cars on
a race track and ran it 24 hours
a day for a week at 100 miles
an hour with no strain at all.
And if you phoned a Rolls
Royce agency and told them
you had motor trouble in one
of their new cars, they would
not believe you.

A person buying a new U.S.
car has a little better than a
first sixi months driving in and
first six-months driving in and
out of the shop getting mis-
takes corrected. A foreign car
owner has better than a 90
percent chance of driving
away from a sales room with
a car in perfect running or-
der. *

The superior performance of

-European machines is a weigh-

ty argument to use along.Auto
Row in the U.S. It is an even
better argument for macnin-
ery salesmen to use in the for-
eign trade field generally, es-
pecially in such countries as
China, where both mechanics
and spare parts are in very
short supply.
xt at xt

European manufacturers
have been using this fact for
years while selling their autos,
refrigerators, hydro-electric

tories to the socialist nations.

More than 20 years ago Bri-
tish industrial leaders, fore-
seeing India’s freedom, were
discussing ways and means to
sew up the market for them-
selves.

They also realized that once
British machinery was install-
ed in a country, when it even-
tually did break down or parts
wore out, the buyers would
have to return to Britain for
the- replacements, giving Lon-

don a continuing edge in trade

relations.

While British businessmen
were carefully studying these
problems — and busily in-
creasing sales to _ socialist
countries — U.S. businessmen
and their spokesmen in Con-
gress were competing with
each other to see who could
drive the most rivets into the
iron curtain.

Today nearly all European
manufacturers are stepping up
sales to these same countries.
By the time U.S. Congress-
men open the barn ‘door they
may find the horse is gone.

These same Congerssmen
might profit from taking a
sample ride in a foreign car.
And doing some thinking while
they are about it.

“—MASON ROBERSON

OPEN FORUM.

Prizewinning letters

Each week the Paci-
fic Tribune will present
a book to the writer of
the most interesting, en-
tertaining and _ topical
letter published on this
page. Contributors: are
urged to keep their let-
ters to a_ reasonable
length.

The prize-winning let-
ter in our last issue was
written by Robert Clari-

hue, Nanaimo, B.C.

Right to pen-name-

ROY REID, Saskatoon,
Sask.: Some time ago I wrote
the press using a pen-name.
Several publishers replied tell-
ing me they only publish cor-
respondence over the name of
the writer. ‘

I feel that a truly democra-
tic free press should grant their
correspondents the right to
use a pen name. This as I see
it, is as necessary to our hav-
ing a free press as the secret
ballot is necessary to our demo-
cratic elections.

In both cases the need for

secrecy arises because em--

ployers, landlords and others
who possess economic power
over their fellow men, are ina
position to and exercise in-
fluence over the acts and ex-
pressed ideas of others!

Hal Griffin

READER in Sydney, Australia, of all

places, has sent me this poem — he
calls it “a classic of the English-speaking
working class movement.”
sent a few notes on Tom Maguire, who :
wrote it, and the history of the poem itself.

Maguire was a pioneer of modern socialism who began
his political career in the English city of Leeds in 1883,

With it he

For the good of the goose attending there;

And the sinful goose cried “Alas!” and “Alack!”
Whenever she heard the good duck quack.

For the duck would speak of the wicked ways
Of geese, beginning and ending their days

A thriftless, shiftless, lazy lot,

Who didn’t thank God for the worms they got-
He exhorted the goose to labor and lay

An extra golden egg per day,

To enable him to spread the light

Of his teaching and law in the lands of night
For heathen turkeys and heathen “chucks”
Might all be geese, though they couldn’t be ducks.

So the simple goose laid eggs galore,
And the artful duck still called for more,

when he was 18 years old, speaking to open air meetings.
He became one of the leading members of William Morris’
Socialist League, helped to found the Independent Labor
party, and took a prominent: part in organizing Leeds
workers in the struggles of the “new unionism.” His early
death in 1895 at the age of 29 was brought on by privation
and hardship.

The poem was first published in the Yorkshire Factory
Times in 1892 —- and its moral remains as sound as the
day it was written.

DEPRESSION IN DUCKLAND
A fable

A silly, self-sufficient goose

Laid golden eggs for an old duck’s use;

And the old duck lived on the golden eggs,

While the goose ate worms and the marsh-bank dregs.
But the duck had title deeds to show

That the marsh-bank dregs and the worms below
Were his sole, exclusive propertee,

On which the gogse might fatten free;

To yield a regular egg supply

Was the one condition he’ bound her by.

So the goose had plenty of worms and dregs,
And the duck had plenty of golden eggs;

And the duck waxed fat and round and sleek,
While the goose waned wiry, worn and meek.
But on Sunday. mornings the goose would hie
Regularly to the pond close by,

Where the duck- would hold a service of prayer

Till at length, so great was the egg supply,

That the duck complained of their quality.

“Supply” exceeding her sister, “Demand,”

The duck brought things to a sudden stand,

Declared a stop to the laying of eggs,

The killing of worms, or the drinking of dregs;
Saying out to the goose, “You must now make shift,
As I shall do, on the savings of thrift.”

“Alas!” the goose cried out in her woe,

“May I Jay for myself?” but the duck said, “No!”
“Then, oh!” she exclaimed in wild dismay,

“May I drink of the dregs!” but the duck said, “Nay!
The dregs are mine, and mine are the worms,

“And did you not agree to my terms?”

“But,” argued the goose, “I have changed your dregs,
By..labor and skill, into golden eggs!
What is the remedy for my lack?”
The duck’s laconic reply was “Quack!”

Puzzle

The puzzle, readers, to me and you,

Is to find a moral to fit hereto;

For fables are foolish vaporings,

Requiring morals, and such like things
Pertaining to the affairs of men,

And evident to the simplest pen;
Wherefore I freely apologize,

For geese are silly, but men are wise;
And so no moral is understood, \

For ducks are wicked, but men are good.

MAY 3, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE §

Election limericks

P. NUT, Whonnock, B.C:
am submitting some electid!
limericks which, I hope, .W4
find a point with my fello!
readers,

‘Upon my word and naa
Says A.G. Robert Bonner,
“Social Credit’s slow

As led by LOW; ay
Lét’s throw a saddle on hel!

Both Gaglardi and Hansell”
Know their ‘song-and-dant
well; ‘

In their pulpits stand,

They wave their hand,

And on the Great ,Romai%
dwell. :

In Alberta, Premier Manninf}
Adept at Social planning; —
Knows no Credits spoil
When soaked in oil, Gi
The flame then needs no a
ning. 5

~EF

At Lethbridge, John Black
more, as

Well versed in mystic lore; —

Knows that the money ;

Is never funny

He wangles from the grow”

Last, but not least is BennelH
Who clings upon the tenet: —
Once B.C. won, i)
Backed by THE SUN,

One gets into the Senate.
of

Offensive program

VIEWER, Powell Rive!
B.C.: I would like to call ¥™
attention to a TV progt®
now on the air, namely +”
Man Called X, ae

Upon listening to it, 1 P*
ceived that is was merely
vehicle for thé peddling |
hate, and I am fully aW%
that wars are brewed throvs
hatred, and that hatred com,
into being through fear ®
misunderstanding, and a
and misunderstanding
nourished by misreprese?
tions, half truths, lies and ©
uendos. uy

al’

I love my country, and 44
do not wish to see it sue i
into a war that will gain 2° 14
ing for anyone, but result 0")
in death and the destructio?

al] that we hold dear.

Where I live, the cha
carrying this program ii
nel 12) happens to be the he (
one coming in clearly. it
embarrassing to me when ©
pany comes to my hom? wy
have to tell them that, fF ")/
half - hour the TV must
turned off in the interes!
peace; and because we, 19 45
house, refuse to be part Oo
scheme to bear false wi?
against our neighbors.

I think -all «your read
should join me in dema?
that this. offensive preg re}
be taken from the. air a? of
placed with something Wh” |
some,