Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - April 28, 1972, Winnipeg, Manitoba Printed published daily except sunday by the Winnipeg free press company limited 300 Street Winnipeg. Manitoba. R. S. Malone publisher and editor in chief Peter Mclintock Maurice Western executive editor Ottawa editor r. H. Shelford general manager Winnipeg free press Western National newspaper Winnipeg Friday april 28, 1972 Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of cml rights change of heart the positions adopted by the opposition parties on the family allowances Bill now before parliament Are of considerable interest. Although the conservatives have criticized the measure in detail they will approve it in Prin Ciple on second Reading. But the nip having changed course in mid debate oppose income related allowances in principle arguing instead for the concept of Universal Ity. Their View is that family allowances were not introduced As part of the War on poverty and ought not to be refashioned now for that purpose. Somewhere along the line the new democrats have made a remarkable discovery the emergence in Canada of a thoroughly Dit affected Middle income group. Although the argument was foreshadowed by David Lewis it was stated most clearly by David Orlikov on tuesday. The nip is emphatically for the higher Bene fits which or. Lewis described As minimal. But the government is wrong because it proposes in or. Orlikov s words to take Money which has been Given to people who Are really poor people in the lower and Middle in come brackets and redistribute it to people who Are desperately in rejecting this the nip maintains that the Money ought to come from the Rich and from the corporations. The sense of alienation among persons in the Middle group is not difficult to explain. Inflation pushing up salaries and also costs of living has moved them into the heavily taxed categories. Obviously the government must have very Large revenues to support All the great welfare and income redistributive schemes implemented in recent years. The nip has always been an ardent Champion of such reforms and has indeed been prepared at every stage to go much farther than other parties. But a new situation has now developed because advancing wages have placed Many Trade unionists in the tax vulnerable Middle income group. Thus the shift of attitude is understandable. The argument is not. If the nip is now to be a Champion of the Middle group it must first decide what categories of tax payers it wishes to defend. Where do the working people in the Middle class group or. Orlikov s phrase end and the Rich begin this is very important because the plan outlined by David Lewis would Cost an additional million. The trouble with the very Rich is that they Are very few they simply do not dispose of taxable in come at All comparable to that claimed by groups in the ranges up to 520.000. This is Clear enough from the tables regularly published by the department of National reve nue. The nip attempts to escape the difficulty by focussing attention partly on Industry. Stop the giveaways argues or. Orlikov. In particular he Calls attention to Grants of the department of regional economic expansion Dree which he claims often go to affluent corporations. Certainly the Dree programs Are open to serious criticism. Experience May show that a Good Deal of pub Lic Money has been unwisely used to promote the develop ment of uneconomic industries. But at least the purpose is to create jobs which Are surely to be preferred to welfare handouts. Everyone is in agreement that Industry moment is not generating sufficient employment. How is it to generate More if it is to be saddled As the nip pro poses with a new and heavy Burden of taxation it May not be entirely coincidental that the nip s change of heart about the Middle income group occurs at the very time when or. Lewis has opened a heavy attack on or. Stanfield s party. According to numerous reports the conservatives rather than the new democrats have gained politically from the fall off in Liberal support. Evi Dently the Over taxed Middle class have not As yet sensed a Champion in the nip and voters in these groups will have to be converted if or. Lewis is to reverse the present trend or perhaps to retain the affections of Many Trade Union supporters. To do this however while continuing to press for his present program he will have to find Many More Rich people than have yet been located by National Revenue or else demonstrate that it is Possi ble to throttle the Industrial Goose without sacrificing the Golden eggs. A new Ball game Canada s population growth May be nearing the Zero Mark but the most recent figures released by statistics Canada indicate a different picture with regard to the number of will be eligible for the next Federal election. It May come As a Shock not Only to politicians but to canadians generally to know that Between the 1966 and 1971 censuses the voting age group increased by a whopping 23.2 per cent. The huge increase is explained partly in terms of those who would normally have come of age during this period but the figure is considerably enlarged by Ottawa s decision in 1970 to re Duce the voting age to 18. This alone accounts for new voters out of a 1971 total of regardless of when or. Trudeau Calls the next elec Tion it is obvious from these statistics that it is going to be a new Ball game. Much has been made of the discouraging returns from a Liberal standpoint recorded in recent polls. This is undoubtedly part of the prime minister s dilemma. At least equally disturbing must be the knowledge that there is this huge flock of new voters of whose political leanings Humphrey and Mcgovern Edward Kennedy for Ohio Tim Vul has been a steady of Kennedy for president in recent months. It will e n t i a 1 candidate will be pained. This was the getting louder in the j vivid demonstration to math of the contests this can be summed the groundswell of support culminated in the recent one word or. Wallace or protes ing in Massachusetts inner stresses established politics rent what for Northern states Long con politicians and the Public alike look at what has the majority political party have asserted bastions of liberalism. Opened thus far in the presid e n t i a 1 election year and then time and again raise the question can the democratic party do other than choose Edward Kennedy As its Leader in the fight against Richard Nixon the question arises by reflex a with a vengeance. Hubert Humphrey wins in Pennsylvania and sets the Seal on his position As the representative of the key elements of the democratic party of old organized labor and Middle of the Road Blacks. A Massachusetts win stirrings arc clearly in evidence Here in Ohio. But or. Wallace is no on the ballot and ohioans will be choosing Between senators Humphrey Mcgovern and Muskie. A Humphrey win Here would be looked on As simple which senator Kennedy is powerless to suppress with repeated assurances that he does not consider himself Mcgovern As a major challenger with a base among the left leaning elements of the party who broadening of his base o support in the Industrial mid West. The democratic party would find itself with sen potential oppose dominating a key of the american heart the one thing that and sen. Mcgovern do have stilled the key Northern states Buzz did not and now probably cannot happen. Is a pattern which por tends a brutal clash a was conceivable that Summ 1 1 1 in which sen one else would emerge from the Early preliminaries to the november election with a firm grip on the leadership of the democratic party. Remain More than a dozen important primary Battles. There will be balloting Here in Ohio and in would confront s left Wing hostile to the poin of All out rebellion. An alternative is a me would have happened if one candidate say Maine senator Edmund Muskie May 2. Both sen. Hum p h r e y and sen. Mcgovern will be striving for win Here in Ohio. I could have far reaching effects. Sen. Humphrey would registered convincing victories in the six major state primaries in which voters passed judgment on the declared candidates for the democratic party which will give them Clear dominance going into the convention. But there is Little likelihood of either Man succeeding. Leaving aside sen. Muskie who is now very much denied a neat midwestern bloc from which he could have campaigned As the strongest candidate in the area where presidential elections Are often won and lost sen. Mcgovern would have what has actually fringe of the struggle strength for the opened is very different. Is a formidable and would have Only has sen. Muskie to any sweep in the vote getting spectacularly but the support for George in the heartland As have thrown up several in two key states As isolated Northern ners. Each of four men and Michigan. As president Nixon thus been Given an looms larger than very Well aware no re but far from decisive the aftermath of the president has Ever political base in the form contest where elected without winning state delegates to the Wallace won an july National bloc of votes possibly an Ohio win where the democratic he had barely set sen. Mcgovern on race the great in the age of Tom and asked to resign Riveness where she had invited or. By everything goes there Shockley a Nobel still some areas subject they Are even More physicist t o Aboo. One is race. This of the White Man s on Campus about his Rue even of those bastions suggestion of of race. Or. Shock intellectual Freedom our strictly like professors Jensen verities. In our Halls to Home there is Eysenck believes that earning there is Freedom for maoists mar vests image of the red Man in Canada and the Black Man Are genetically tue Itic Rill hic 1c under the dome by Arlene Billinkoff embers of the Mani by and the right to raise Toba legislature seemed taxes. If his Side was exiled pleased thursday to Welcome from this area the oppose the Road to a series of Pri m a r y victories Over sen. Humphrey which would enable sen. Mcgovern to go to the convention in a clearly dominant position. More Likely is an in conclusive and increasingly bitter struggle Between sen. Humphrey and sen. Mcgovern. The farther the party moves Down that Road the More urgent will become the talk of drafting sen. Ken Nedy As the Only Man to straddle the warring party factions. Fittingly the Issue of the Cincinnati enquirer which told on its front Page of the election results in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania carried the following item elsewhere in the paper Atlantic City a frenzied cheering meeting of Dele Gates to the United Auto workers constitutional convention overwhelmingly expressed support for sen. Edward Kennedy to run Lor the Back the Bill to Mem the Revenue tax act. The Tubar co tax act and the amuse ments act. In order to get warmed up the Las took time out for the Columbia Forest prod nets Issue. As they did wednesday a few became overheated and or. Speaker was forced to Cool them Down. He was his usual re served self and ordered members to put their brains in gear before opening their Mouths. Since the argument had begun that was a rather civilized command. Several minutes later he urged we should try to work Harmoni o u s 1 y the message got through. Since the opposition could t get information they j moved on. I finance minister Saul Cherniack concluded the Sec j Ond Reading of the tax Bill and it progressed to the com Mittee of the whole House. Soon they reached the liquor tax. Opposition Leader Sid Ney Spivak Rose quickly. He did t believe the government would pay out As much Money As it had announced. We believe this is a he was t Overly thrilled. Or. Spivak urged that estimates be Cut to satisfy the majority. There was no Way he would support this Bih. That was t surprising. Mean while or. Cherniack was weary of hearing absolute he refused to speak. Lion has no function in this or. Cherniack did t agree. He admitted that he was equally guilty of break ing the Rule and apologized. However they could discuss policy at another time. Deafness seemed to have h i t the opposition Leader. Anyhow he refused to hear the message and continued along his own path. For a change he mentioned the liquor tax but then proceeded to the education tax program. Or. Jenkins had had enough. If or. Spivak wished to carry on in the same manner he would have to Challenge the chairman. The party Leader realized he could t win and sat Down. Jake Froese decided it was his turn and started to ask about a ten per cent tax. Or. Jenkins was still overcome with the Spivak Cherniack display and ordered or. Froese to stick to the subject. Perhaps he did t notice that the member was quoting the proper Section. Then Harry Graham tried to get further Aid for alcohol education and or. Jenkins could t take any More. Yet another member was silenced. Bud Sherman Learned the lesson and stuck to the liquor tax. It was too High. What was unusual about being presidency an informal Straw vote endorsing a draft of the Massachusetts senator at this summer s democratic National convention was nearly unanimous in support the opposition Leader was High with liquor Happy to use the time j the minister was pleased we re asked to pay and pay through the he noted there were no savings through aut Opac and predicted the 528 million would not be shifted. Or. Cherniack had not produced one fact to support the change and a massive shift is not the speech was beginning to sound familiar. The minister forgot his reluctance to speak. He was weary of the same old stuff out of the same old per turned to attack started with a son and when he topic. Chairman Bill Jenkins became perturbed. He thought speeches should be relevant to the Section of the Bill. Point of shouted or. Spivak. He thought he was entitled to Deal with poli to get some intelligent criticism and tried to answer. Or. Sherman was still opposed. Joe Borowski was opposed for another reason the tax was t High enough. When or. Froese then tried to Cut the tax he was declared out of order. Listen ing to the debate or. Spivak realized there was Only one thing to do have a recorded vote. At least that Way everyone knew that 30 people favored the liquor tax change and 19 were opposed opposed opposed. Or. Spivak did learn some thing. There were items he could oppose. What about the government s intention to tax International planes even m r. Cherniack was concerned. Perhaps intelligent debate would return. On the Way up reducing health care costs the pollsters doubt. May be in needed election Plank it is quite Clear that the Federal government intends to do nothing to try to halt the present upward inflationary spiral at least until the next election is Over. Whether it will do anything then remains to be seen. But one thing is certain. The next government of Canada is going to come into Power fac ing rising costs rising prices. The reason for the present inflation is easy to see. It was explained in John Turner s economic review tabled in the commons the other Day. The review stated that in 1971 Industrial wage settlements outside the construction Industry averaged about half a percentage Point lower than in 1970. But even so average wage increases amounted to 7.8 per cent. Increases of this size would be acceptable if there were a corresponding and proportionate increase in productivity. But the increase in productivity in 1971 was under three por cent far Short of 7.8 per cent. This can Only mean an increase in costs and a resulting increase in prices which in 1971 ran about 3.5 per cent. There is unfortunately no Assurance that this figure will not Rise sharply As the spiral gains momentum. All parties seeking re election would do Well to Tell the electorate just what if elected they will do to halt or at least slow Down inflation. They might be surprised at How Many voters would Lis ten. Lists socialists and every Shade of political and Ideo logical opinion but except for the outbursts by Black panthers and the like no on the subject of birthdays John Bremner Youngson Winnipeg born Banffshire Scotland april mrs. Lucy Ellen Hickling Winni Peg born Loughborou Gli England april 28, 1884. Today s scripture it is of the lord s mercies that we arc not consumed because h i s compassion fail not. Lamentations Freedom race. The Only racial state ment that has not aroused an Adverse emotional reaction in recent years is that of p. Snow who suggested that jews were genetically Superior to other Peoples and got away with it. It is another matter when someone suggests that negroes for exam ple Are genetically inferior to Whites. Race is a Touchy subject for a number of reasons. One dates Back to the revulsion against Hitler s Germany where the doctrine of the aryan master race led to the murder of six million jews. The enormity of this crime shocked humanity and still haunts the world s con science. Another has been the Rise in Asia and Africa of former subject Peoples. Kipling s lesser Breeds without the Law have gained or arc in the process of gaining their Independence and of being accepted As equals in the family of Man. In economic terms they May still be part of the White Man s the United states. All these developments have contributed to the great taboo. It is now virtually impossible to discuss race rationally. On the few occasions where it has been at tempted reason has Given Way to emotion and intellectual confrontation to charges of racism. Typical has been the response to findings tabulated by two professors Arthur Jensen in California and Hans Eysenck in England. Both have pointed out that the mean score in in tests of american negroes is about 15 Points lower than Ameri can Whites. The obvious Way to refute this is by examining their Sta t i s t i c s and discovering if there Are not some factors in the equation which they May have overlooked. In the charged up atmosphere o f our time however this is not what happens. Their argument is not met with counter argument reason with reason. Instead we have an emotional reaction and charges of racism. They have committed the unpardonable sin of breaking the taboo. More recently we have the Case of the professor of sociology at Sacramento state University who was repro rior is m Edical costs continue to escalate. The cause is not difficult to determine i open end programs with no Brake on expenditure have been introduced despite the warnings that unlimited Access to medical care could Only Lead to Ever rising costs. The obvious is now being faced by the politicians who produced the problem in the first place. In 1969 Canada s health expenditure ranked highest in the world at 5.2 per cent of the Gross National product followed by the United states at 4.7 per cent. One tenth of 1 per cent of the Gnu is Worth about s100 million a year. Hospital Beds Point up the same Story. Canada in 1968 had 5.5 general Hospital Beds per civilian population As compared to 4.1 Beds per i population in the United states. To make matters worse it would seem that by Ben Philip this Means according to a recent article by d. A. Gee Kie in the Canadian medical association journal that the major targets of the Federal government Are increased efficiency avoiding the High costs of building and operating Active treatment Hospital facilities and to put the physician and health workers in turn All on the path of lowering utilization and Cost but before the Federal government takes the taxpayer Down new paths what can be clone now to lower Hospital costs As Well As other costs something that can t be talked about today even in our universities so or. Shockley out of hand is branded a racist and the pro Fessor who sponsored him is in Clanger of losing her Job. It is not necessary to agree with or. Shockley or with professors Jensen and Eysenck to Point out that this is not the Way to refute what they have to say. If they Are wrong reason not emotion must be brought to Bear to defeat their arguments. An emotional reaction that de Nies them a hearing and brands them As racists savors not Only of a denial of Freedom but of the very Rac ism with which they Are charged. Racism is a two edged sword and we must be careful How we Wield it. To is particularly Munfor j thrust to reorganize Lunate that much of the unreason which has characterized these developments has centred in our universities. There if anywhere we should be free of the great taboo. On the other hand and Blacks As Well As whiles May need a reminder of this health expenditures Are in creasing at a faster rate than is the Gnu. The Federal government and provincial govern ment now realize that the present open end programs have to be reorganized. The previous program they imposed is now called a non the Federal govern ment now wants More eco nomic health services. It wishes to reduce the rate of escalation of health ser vice Cost with greater incentive to control costs to give the provinces greater flex Bil i t y in determining health priorities and in pursuing these priorities to make the Best use of All health re Hospital costs Are rising at about 15 per cent per year. Many people work in these hospitals nurses Ward what about Community clinics will they Cut costs if a Community clinic can be shown to save on acute Hospi Tal costs perhaps. Thinking people await proof. Certainly the Community clinic that adds Many extra services will not subtract from the tax Bill. What about doctors costs Are they too High in Mani Toba the average general practitioner earns per year less one third for expenses. The average internist earns per year minus expenses. There has been no raise in medical fees for four years. Allowing for inflation this is an effective reduction of costs of at least 20 per cent. This is even greater w h e n one allows for in creased expenses Over the last four years arid the in creased taxes Over these same years. Or. Gellman president elect of the Mani t o b a medical association who is now leaving the prov aids administrators doctors i Ince has pointed out that Laboratory personnel. Every one of these people can Point to needless expenditures. One physician states that lie could save at least per year in every Large Hospital in Winnipeg. The reason is obvious. Every administrator when he prepares the Hospital budget for the year is under pressure by each department to spend More. The administrative staff increases each year without any demonstrable saving. Nowhere in the Hospital staff is there any consideration Given to econ omy to save the taxpayer i of the health Dollar returns a doctors fees amount to 18 per cent of the total costs for medical care paid out by the Manitoba government. One third of this goes for expenses leaving a total of 12 per cent for doctors fees. Even if doctors reduced their income 15 per cent by reducing their work Load the total savings for the health Bill would be about 1 per cent of the total costs. It is unlikely that any significant savings will come from this area. One should remember too that the doctors 12 per cent Money. Large income tax to the gov sources to develop special two solutions Are readily Ern ment reducing this figure programs by what arc called and improve the efficiency of the system to simplify Finan rewards further. Cial arrangements Between administrative and one of the the Federal and provincial medical and nursing staff apparent. Financial should be Given to staff who remember also that of Point out How Hospital costs Tomc tric a n d chiropractic can be Cut. Then one of the care drugs glasses supplies governments to maintain existing standards of comprehensiveness accessibility should to their Job to look at and taxis for those who qualify for these services Are perhaps it is about time that both sides in this race Issue began to realize thai regardless of race people Are individuals and should be treated As such. Universality and portability of Basic Hospital and medical care services and to obtain agreement for the co opera Tive development of additional National standards in the Over All area of health should also be the taxpayer s quite costly. How will this uti acl Vocaty and defender. It be reduced the political pundits Are the budget in order to Cut now talking of Clent icare and costs. Such people would drug care. When these have to be Independent of the i free services arc offered administrator s retaliation. It j at some future election time would not be hard set up i remember the sad history of such a trial in one or two of Iho open ended medical hos tile larger Winnipeg Hospi i Pital. Optometric and Chiro tals. Practice care ;