Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 05, 1950, Winnipeg, Manitoba Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights leg ins Winn inti free press company limited 300 Canton Street Winnipeg. Manitoba. Authorized Ai second class cow Post Oftle department Ottawa. Victor Sifton Grant Dexter. Publisher. Editor. We. Lord. Bruce Hutchison. General manager. Asso editor. Winnipeg Friday May 5, 1950 National railways capitalization in appearing before Turgeon commission to oppose president Donald Gordon s plan for a downward revision in the capital Structure of the Canadian National railways the Canadian Pacific is taking a stand that is entirely consistent. With its actions in the past. Ever since the establishment of the National railway the . And its friends have endeavoured to keep it burdened with debt. It was therefore to be expected that when the present plan was presented to the Turgeon Royal commission it would meet with vigorous objections. The . S counter submissions however do not represent the objective criticism of an unbiased third party. They represent the highly prejudiced views of a competitor. A Large and representative audience of Winnipeg business men heard or. Gordon refer to this problem in his address to the chamber of Commerce on thursday. This part of his address is reproduced on this Page. When the National system was formed in 1919, it was made up of a group of bankrupt private railways like the grand trunk and Canadian Northern and uneconomic developmental lines like the inter colonial which had been built by the government. All the valueless Stock and other capital obligations of the bankrupt privately owned roads were taken Over As liabilities of the new system. To illustrate. Millions in capital Stock of the. Grand trunk and Canadian Northern were included at face value in the liabilities of the National their real value j starting with Brighton and nor As set by arbitration boards was Only s18 millions. This original inflated capitalization was increased by the Large amounts of Money that had to be spent to place the railway in reasonable operating condition. In addition the National lost Money and these deficits plus interest were added to the Deb of Trie railway contrary to All accepted practice. All this of course was done by parliament. The attitude of the . Showed up Only when moves to remedy the in Justice were made. The . Has always resisted All measures to reduce the debt of the publicly owned system. In 1929, sir Henry Thornton president of the . Asked for a reduction in its inflated capitalization. The Duff Royal commission appointed by the Bennett government a few years later recommended a substantial reduction in the railway s capitalization. A similar recommendation was made in 1934 by the . Auditors George a. Touche and co. And also by or. Justice Fullerton then chairman of the . Board of trustees. With the exception of the dismissal by the Bennett government of the auditing firm nothing came of these recommendations until after the Liberal party was returned to Power in 1935. In 1937 the new government put through legislation off the accumulated deficits the interest on them and the worthless Stock that had been held As liabilities against the company. A further sum was made non interest bearing. The result was a reduction of millions in the . Capitalization achieved to the accompaniment of cries of anguish from the enemies of the railway. However the 1937 adjustment did not touch the millions of debt held by the Public. By 1949, a Large amount of this had been transferred to the government. According to the . Annual report for that year the funded debt held by the Public was Down to millions and the govern ment s holdings were s743.6 millions. The total fixed charges in 1949 on this debt were millions As against millions in fixed charges for the . Thus although part of the old discrimination was removed by the 1937 revision it has been by no Means All removed. Or. Gordon s plan under which the government would Exchange its interest bearing . Obligations for non interest Cap ital Stock would reduce the National railways fixed charges to a More reasonable figure. They would be about millions annually As against the . Charges of millions. In seeking fixed charges that would Bear a sensible rela Tion to revenues or. Gordon is attempting Only to follow the practice employed by Many private railways in the United states and by the . Itself. As Between 1939 and 1944 the National was Able to reduce its ratio of fixed charges to revenues from per cent to 11.44 per cent but the reduction in other roads brought their ratios Down much lower. Oti the new York Central it was from 14.1 to 6.4 per cent. The Pennsylvania from 18.47 to 7.4 per cent. The Southern Pacific from 13.79 to 3.93 and the Canadian Pacific from 16.76 to 6.50 per cent. Clearly the National system is entitled to the revision. There is nothing unfair about the plan to reduce fixed charges to reasonable proportions and the evidence of . Witnesses to the contrary should be ignored by. The Turgeon commission and the country. There were pans. Libraries 1s3 in England and Wales and 16 in Scotland by 1s49 created through the missionary efforts or. Thomas Bray and his disciples but intended chiefly for the poorer clergy. The real beginnings of purely Public libraries perhaps were those created by mechanics institutes Early in the 19th Cen Tury marking the Rise of intellectual activity among artisans As a result of the Industrial revolution. The first municipal libraries in the modern sense were those Cre ated in Warrington c1s4s and Salford 1s49 under the mus Eum s act of 1845. The Public libraries act i suited from recommendations of two special commons committees of 1s49-50, which called for set Ting up Public libraries to be sup ported by local rates. The original act allowed English and Welsh towns of More than to Levy a rate of up to a Halfpenny on the Pound for the purpose but oddly enough it did not permit any of the Money to be spent on books which it evidently was assumed would be donated by Public spirited citizens. Why you May even become another horse Wessel Brief challenged wich these institutions spread gradually until at the turn of the Century there were about Iso. When Andrew Carnegie began his Grants for Public libraries from 1s97 to 1913 he or his trustees ave to some 295 libraries in Britain growth Wos very greatly accelerated. In 1911 the Carnegie trustees also began financing county councils even before there was an enabling act to take Library Bene fits to Rural Britain. Though there is no Legal compulsion a total of 590 authorities different grades now have taken advantage of the libraries car and altogether own Al out 42 Mil lion books. The vast service ranges Alt the Way from great City libraries some of which have up wards of a million books to those radio policy and the . T Avo Farmers from the Niagara District of Ontario a ared before the Massey Royal commission on april 1-4 to Lenge the Brief on radio policy submitted earlier by or. H. H. Han Nam the president of the Cana Dian federation of agriculture. The e statements made by these a. Prentice and John j. Import ant for two reasons. First they attacked As demonstrably untrue the claim of or. Hannam and the . To speak for the Farmers of this country. Second they declared that the membership of the . Is powerless to control its officers and directors. . Membership or. Prentice and or. Pollock pointed on that the following practice obtains in Ontario membership in the . In Many counties of Ontario is not voluntary. In these counties one fifth of one Mill of the tax rate is paid by i he county to tile . Their Brief continues while it is True thai this arrangement is supposed to receive the ind Iviria approval of taxpayers concerned we know Hal Many of them Are completely unaware that they Are in this fashion contributing to and being placed on the member ship Rolls of tile Canadian federa Tion of similarly non voluntary levies Are made on shipments of produce and the proceeds turned aver to the .a., thus making All members of these co operative shipping organizations members of it. As members of the federation of agriculture we have Iever re of villages and travelling vans with Only a few Hundred each. Mrs. A. C. Robison mrs. A. C. Robison is designated As an accredited observer to the United nations and thursday she stopped off in Winnipeg took one look around the Beautiful Hall in the Shearey Zedek including the distinguished citizens posed in their Best clothes about her and turned on the Force of a personality com pounded of intelligence wit and lashing observation. The United nations was her theme. Mrs. Robison was the guest of he National Council of jewish women and the Council had in i feel five Hundred members of other women s organizations hear her. They were All there they were All listening As one and the hour flipped by. Left in is Wake was a clearly etched Pic Ture of in s councils assemblies and committees. It was built up without the help of statistics and without recourse to arguments. But there was the gathering of the 59 nations there was the Clatter of tongues there was the elongated address talk of or. Donald Gordon in first Public address in this City As president of the National railways Deall with a number of non railway topics. He spoke of for All of us to face up to the uncertainties that Are evident and prepare ourselves spiritually and physically to Nieset them if Ever they should become certainties in Valley floods whether there will be loss on flooded red River Valley cropland due to delayed seeding or need to Plant substitute crops in place of wheat is at this stage pure con Jecture. All depends on How fast the land dries. Fears of this Sorl in 194s proved unfounded. The water receded and the land dried remarkably quickly. And later floods he notes every wet year in red River is a crop year and Manj years after the High water the Soi is Salura led to its full another of the hard lessons Learned by the Sellers in those Early Days was thai it did not pay to and buildings on the flood Plain. Everything build Ings Fod Deit implements live Stock was swept away in 1s26, Alexander Ross observes about Farmers in this area do not like i the period following the flood to seed wheat much after May 24, although some Good crops have been harvested in years when wheat sowing ran Over into june. Once the land dries seed can be put Down quickly in these Days of tractor drilling and wide seed ing units. In the old Days 15 to 20 acres a Day with a 20 run Drill was considered pretty Good. In these limes a tractor with a 2s run Drill can sow 60 acres a Day and with tandem Hook ups even More. Whether or. Not the total dam age from the flood places it in the category of a National emergency damage to buildings and machinery will undoubtedly be substantial. Much fodder and feed Grain is ruined As. Well As Spring seed. One compensation Farmers can look Forward to is the Long established fact that Good crops in the red River Valley have Fol Lowed years when floods saturated the land and deposited Rich silts on the from soil. This was Early recorded by the chronicler of re d River Settle ment Days Alexander Ross. Writ Trig about crops in the years Fol swing the disastrous flood of 1826 in this Brief interval of two or three Busy years no less than 204 new houses had been built besides Many enclosures made and barns erected on Sites far More eligible and secure from any future Rise of the water than those which the flood had or. Donald cordon s address National railways debt problems his with in today s leading editorial circumstances the deficit.? Are he said i Large. Uninformed opinion Depres firstly since the railway is Public properly the Public is entitled to receive a repot1 on its the danger of War and the need annual operations in a form com of railway s employees and manage ment. He made no reference to women being Long winded opposition of the Canadian prehensile to All. Only by Means can the Public form an opinion the soundness of the railway s management and the of the properly. But because of the intricate nature of the i Lancial Structure and the complexities of the operating disabilities present circumstances make the preparation of such a report irn possible. Therefore the average uninformed citizen is merely con fused. He is unable to Analyse or understand the True picture. The result is that the magnitude of the deficit continues to Over Shadow All other considerations. Inescapable under the circumstances everywhere therefore the View is held that the railway is l unfair debt Burden on the clone that cannot be operated at a while informed opinion proposal to Turgeon commission. His references to the problems the National which there Are no of chief interest. Here or. Gordon dealt with his recent proposal to the Turgeon commission on transportation on the National railways capital Structure. Or. Gordon answered the ques Tion Why should the inheres a bearing debt of the National rail ways be reduced he avoided Fig ures emphasizing the effect 01 the the opinions expressed by the directors very frequently Are their in. Al the annual meeting of the Canadian federation of a0ricul lure at Niagara Falls last february the delegates had been surprised to learn that or. Hannam and the directors had consultation with the members appeared before the Massey Royal commission and declared in the name of the Farmers of Canada in favor of the present system of Public control of radio. A Resolution was introduced thai this convention commend the Canadian federation of agriculture for its a Richale ensued and or. Prentice with the object of encouraging Dis Cussion moved an amendment As follows thai this convention assembled pass a vote of thanks to the . For services rendered by them in the farm people of Canada and any suggestion for Public control of radio be the amendment was duly seconded hut it at once became apparent that the officers of the . Were not prepared to have a debate. Or. Hannam explained that the . Is not opposed to private radio stations but objects to private Actu works in Competition with Public radio. The amendment was rued out of order. Free Enterprise the Prentice Pollock Brief concludes we therefore contend that the Brief submitted to your commis Sion by or. Hannam cannot be taken As represent Ine the views of the Farmers of Canada and received notice of an annual meet no of that organization nor have be Ever had a statement of account from it nor have we seen spec fully suggest thai should there be any doubt about this Mai Constitution and do not know it it has one. We Are not aware of the manner in which its officers and directors Are elected or. One exception what their author Ity the enting mass of the thinking makes no allowances at All and lays the blame on management and not on the real causes. Injurious to i lie morale secondly it is inevitable tha these factors singly and in of hav Uler Nie members of an exception is Hal a Resolution passed by the annual meeting of the federation does not become policy until it has been approved tar you make funner in Vestiga ins. By and Large the Farmers Canada arc advocates of free Enterprise. We believe the Csc should be allowed to continue but the Csc should not be permitted to have the Pover of life or death which it has Over the private radio Slat ions today. Private radio should by the directors of the Canadian be encouraged not discouraged. We federation this As do not think it is right for the is the two Farmers Point out reversal of he Normal sound prac there was the soviet Delegate to Pacific railway toning to the chauffeur to go warm up the car which we Are paying that he might make an effective exit followed by a Cloud of photographers. There was the arabian Delegat e fascinating in an array of bed sheets and latin americans gaily voting away other Peoples Means. There were the whole 59 nations Rich and poor intelligent and stupid. But it was this conglomeration. Mrs. Robison paused to observe who had passed with unanimous voice the declaration of human rights. It was this March past of humanity which now endorsed an Extension of the plan to give tech Nical Aid to under developed coun tries. It was upon this assemblage that rested and not in vain Hope for humanity s better life. For Winnipeg s distinguished visitor righteousness and peace May not have kissed at the in but they Are tentatively Touchin hands. Understanding the situation makes due allowances it is uneasy when which is is inescapable under existing economic defence an address by or. B. Pearson Secretary of Sli Ile for external affairs before the Hamilton chamber of Commerce i the concept of a North Atlantic solve the economic and social t is of urgent and great importance that we should develop Manlic trealy can Only be fully realized if by our joint efforts we economic and social Community within the framework of the North Atlantic treaty. Up to the present we have considered the North a Antic pact As primarily a defensive military arrangement to increase our Power to resist we were right in giving this Side of it priority and we have made encouraging Progress in organizing and planning our defensive system. But it is now time to plan our economic defences. In the Long run our Hopes for the safety and Prosperity of the North Atlantic world will prove illusory Library Centenary the system of Public lending lib in Britain that inspired development of this great instrument of Public education in Many other ands is now. 100 years old. Tha first Public libraries act received Floyal assent in 1850. Libraries that in one sense or another could be called Public existed of course before then. There was thai British the Tarn Ous bodleian Library at Oxford University other University College and Cathedral libraries Many Back Well into the Middle Ages or further Bolh in Britain and Western Europe. In these were mainly at any rate intended for scholars and the clergy rather than the Ordinary citizen. Help paraplegics Winnipeg business firms notably ready at All times to get behind worthy causes will not want to turn a deaf ear to the plea of the paraplegic association. This organization needs to fill Trie Gap Between the income it now has in sight for this coming year and the total Cost of medical aids and vocational training facilities needed for these wheel chair cases who face such a tremendous Handicap compared with the rest of us. Though an Appeal is being directed specifically to business firms the donations of individuals who want to help will be welcomed and put to the same Good use. Birthdays w. S. Ronald c.a., Winnipeg born Toronto ont., May 5, 1s80. Problems which threaten the area that we have undertaken to de fend. We can i Hope make pro Gress on this front at the North a Antic Council meeting in Lon Don in May. Ii is time that we began because it will be a Long hard process. We now have1 to give effect to such agreeable and popu a phrases As of product slander Bizalion of Wear co ordination of Mutual sharing the Bur Elc., Elc. All these Are Fine ideas Essen Al Mal Erial Lor any Afler dinner speech they Are easy to accept in Prin Bina Tion should be injurious to the morale of those officers and employees alike who Are responsible for the company s administration and operation. That the personnel has been Able to withstand these debilitating influences and main a Tain a High morale is a tribute Lowheit intelligence and t h e i r Lowers of perseverance. Bui i. Cannot he denied that the effects Are being Felt. This is understand Able. It is impossible for men of spirit and Enterprise in any walk of life to endure a Slae of psychological servitude brought on by a fallacy without in the end being affected by it. The responsibilities of Railroad ing Are immense and they Are exacting. To be done properly the Job requires every Man s full at Tention his full thought raid his full Effort. It follows therefore Hal if in addition to shouldering the Normal Load of business the management and workers of the Canadian National must also shoulder the crushing weight of unrealistic financial results which they As Public servants Are con stantly called upon to explain or justify there will be a loss of efficiency which will be reflected in losses on the pages of the ledgers. Continuance of deficits which Are not of he management s making and which Are beyond the management s ability measurably to reduce will certainly result in destroying incentive. It is the nature of Man to desire to work with Ion because control its officers. The directors of the supreme have Power to Csc to compote against private radio and then Ivan a the Power to make rules and regulations which govern both. The Csc is a direct competitor with private radio and under the present set up has tremendous advantage by being t no. Insectivorous rings hard hit storms he unseasonable w e n t h e r withstand surprisingly 1 of Tom of tile few weeks May d the Deal ii of have cause Many thousands of insectivorous Birds if we Are to judge by what Lias happened to colonies in greater Winnipeg. Small Birds dying in the Bush Are Seldom found As their bodies Are quickly picked up by scavenging Mam Mals but purple Martins nest in the City in Community Bird houses and anything that goes wrong is quickly detected a watchful Berriman. Tiie first report of trouble came from Fred b. Furgeson. 4s3 Sprague. Street who hns hit d a successful Martin Colony in his Garden for the past ten years or More. This Spring of course the Birds arrived unusually late the first pair visiting the House on april 2 2, a second pair the next Day and about a dozen on Chr 12-Lth. In Spile of the cold and heavy snowfall on the 25th, or. Furgeson noticed nothing amiss without harm As Long As they have a i Eiful food Supply but As soon As hunger overtakes them they perish. The specimens have Beer Given to the Manitoba museum for preparation As exhibits for school classes in City and country. Redpoll Roost in does Snow Alfred Archer res ton Man., sends in a bit of nature lore which is entirely new to us and about which we would like to learn More from readers. In or. Archer s Garden which is in the Centre of Reston was a Flicker Box which has been occupied by flickers every year for about Len years. Of n e Winter i had five chickadees feeding on our window Sill and Large num Bers of Redpoll coming to Weed seeds spread on a Patch of Earth i kept Clear of Snow. I noticed a Chickadee had lost its fail and Laler. That some of the Redpoll also lacked tails. Then the Chicka Dees stopped coming to the feed until the 29lh, when a female was Jill n no found dead on the Lawn. The the o an old Birds were still around the House nov. About a foot but on May a three fully j no laced sol aged male purple marlins Snow and some ick cd up dead and the others Ike Wing in arks and i sus no laced Inlall holes in . J. R. Morion North Kildonan Pecl a into Ted that the dived the Snow for Hie night and unless we regard the North Allan-1 to in prac Jing but it throws a raise ight in treaty As being a great Deal i Nore than simply a military Alu Ince. Every Effort Tice. In no sphere of collective action will the difficulty be greater Ithan in the economic Field. In to Man., reports a similar experience that an owl had flown to the holes the first two Martins arrived on and pulled them out by the tails. April 23 and within the next one evening. I saw a screech and for a successful Enterprise. Rays about ten More were counted j owl s head looking out of the unwieldy and confusing the present financial Structure of the Canadian National railways Home found two dead is not Only unwieldy and confuse purple marlins and two moribund condition in the Vicinity of their Martin House. Miss Smith managed to revive one of the on april 30, miss k. Smith to was visiting h e r in Peg upon the operations of the system and obscures its True value to can Ada. This condition is greatly a sphere is it More Essen Al that Grava led by like losses attendant the terms of the treaty especially article ii specifically pledge to members to make every Effort o broaden the basis of their association and not restrict it to defence alone. This aspect of the treaty which holds out the prom be of economic cooperation has always seemed of particular importance to the Canadian people and their government because we believe that in the Long run our ability to stand fast against the attacks of International commune should succeed. Ism will rest in the Well being of our own people and in that of our friends and allies. We also know that this Wall being cannot be ensured by National action alone. We believe that the purpose which we have declared in sign Jig the North at from Hie Golden books from the Lake Isle of Inni free by William Butler Yeats and i shall have some peace there for peace comes drop Ping slow dropping from the veils of the morning to where the Cricket sings there Midnight s All a Glim Mer and noon a purple glow and evening full of the Linnet s wings. On the operation of the lines in the National of Why deficits occur have Small and dds Alful value. Explanations Are too readily interpreted As excuses and the Public is either suspicious or intolerant of them. It is necessary that the Public should understand that the Cana Dian National is not Only a today s scripture i have planted apollos wat ered but god gave the in crease. So then neither is he that Plant eth anything Nei ther he that water eth but god that Givel the increase. Corinthians Ness Enterprise but equally important an instrument of National policy in the execution of which it is expected to operate extensive mileage and other facilities hich Are nol and cannot be profitable by Ordinary standards of business. To this end clarification of its position to the Point where ils an Nual results will provide an understandable yardstick by which the up Julic can us. Operating efficiency is i around the Martin House. On May Flicker Box and i was then sure j 1, mrs. Morton found three dead what happening to my Chick Ion the Lawn and by the 3rd, the aedes and Redpoll. I examined i Martin House had been vacated. Talc and found on the floor two or three inches of Wing and Lail feathers a lot of which i expect would be sparrows this a a Nice piece of observation so far. We have found in the literature no reference to such Snow less for Small Birds. Out for strange Birds one result of the abnormal weather Down East according to Toronto Birdman is the appear Ance of rare Birds and some Birds on unusually Early arrival dates. Much the same thing happened ast Spring and we should be on the look out for similar events Ore. E. R. Hall Kenora. Ont., writes that on May 12, 1949, we. Fries chief Fieldman. For the of the Woods in the department of transport saw an american egret on the san Hills near the Mouth of the Rainy River ont it was about noon on a c i e r r warm Day and or. Jeffries go a a Good look at the snowy White stranger from a distance of about 50 Yards says or. Hall. The american egret is o n e of the Birds nearly exterminated by plumage Hunters that has responded magnificently to the efforts of conservationists. In late summer egrets regularly wander northwards into Ontario but their appearance in Spring is rare. The nearest Breeding Colony to Canada is on an Island in the Western end of Lake Etie Ohio Birds but the other died. Bluebirds also affected Eastern bluebirds Are classed As Hardy Birds and they generally ignore the cold spells that c o n front them . A pro longed period of bad w e a t h e a however can result in a calamity. Ill 1b95, a great Snow storm Al most wiped out Bluebird pop Lalion of the new England slates and it took ten Yearl for them to recover their former Abun dance. We Hope nothing like that has hit our hires hut from miss Coltart Melbourne two female Eastern Man., bluebirds that were found dead on May victims of last week s snowstorm the uneven struggle was too much for also from miss Jean s. Mcintyre Pratt Man., comes a male Ruby crowned Kinglet which we found nearly perished on april 28 in the show by the barn. I brought it in1 but in starvation or cold Lack of insect food probably caused the deaths of these Birds. From experiments that have been conducted on various species it Vias been shown that brads can ;