)1

Z-t

<5 DC

Vol, 3, No. 12 MONTREAL, SATURDAY, MARCH 19, 1921 10 cents a copy, $3.00 a year

ROYAL TRAIN OF OLDEN DAYS

Back in the days when wood was used for fuel and railroads were still in the experimental
staged This is a photograph of the locomotive that hauled the royal train when the late King
Edward VII, then Prince of Wales, toured Canada, in 1860. No. 209 was built in the G. T. R.
shops, in 1859; the latest and best type of steam locomotive known to the expert workmen of that
time.

Official Organ, Fifth Sunday Meeting Aeeodation of Canada

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

March 19,

SHOE MACHINERY SHOE SUPPLIES

SHOE REPAIRING MACHINERY

United Shoe Machinery o( Canada Limited

TORONTO

MONTREAL

kitchener

QUEBEC

ESTABLISHED 183*

T«5«phone: Victoria 500

The PECK ROLLING MILLS, Limited

Manufacturers of

Bar Iron and Steel, Railway Spikes, Ship Spikes,
Horse Shoes, Wire Nails, Cut Nails,

Tacks and Washers

HEAD OFFICE AND WORKS : 63 MILL STREET

MONTREAL

Tanners and Manufacturers of
Leather Belting for 45 Years.

“gressr-

Princess Street and Bannatyne Ave

The Nichols Chemical Co., LM.

ACIDS AND HEAVY CHEMICALS

Agent* for Baker & Adamson'* Chemically Pure Acid*
and Chemicals.

Agent, for Canadian Salt Co.-'‘Windaor” Brand Ceurtic Soda and
Bleaching Powder.

Wttki; Capelton, Que., Sulphide, Ont., Barnet, B. C.
Warehouses: Montreal, Toronto.

22?. St. James Street MONTREAL

Taylor & Arnold Engineering Co.

• LIMITED

MANUFACTURERS OF

Railway, Marine and

Brass Specialties

MONTREAL WINNIPEG

Dominion Bridge Co., Limited

engineers, manufacturers
and erectors of

STEEL STRUCTURES

MONTREAL, P. 0.

Branches: Toronto, Ottawa and Winnipeg.

HUNT’S

The

DIAMOND FLOUR

Canadian Bridge Co.

Becomes a Habit

Limited

1 •

V *

Made in LONDON, Ont.

WALKREVILLE, Ont.

1 *

BY

'

HUNT BROS. LIMITED

Capacity: 1,200 bbles daily

March 19, 1921

Page 3

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

Get 7 he Fingers and Brain of Man to Work on

Natural Resources

Encourage Immigration, But Direct the Immigrant to
Supplying of Real Needs

By GEORGE PIERCE

T HE world is full of valuable machinery conceived by the minds of
men to perform the most extraordinary task of converting the
raw materials of the world into useful commodities for the benefit
of mankind. From the* smallest mechanical contrivance to the
gigantic mechanisms devised by the genius of skilful engineers in iron
and steel, all rests and depends upon the thumb and forefinger and the
forehead of man. It is interesting to know that among all the animals,
only the man and the man-like apes can place the end of the thumb m
contact with all of the fingers, and, therefore, no animal except man
can successfully use a tool.

We may look about us and review the vast conceptions, the delicate
V arrangements, the great beneficent changes that have come upon the
face of the earth and realize with startled intelligence that all is the
product of the fingers of the human hand. Carlyle said, speaking of
j the creative possibilities of man, that “Without tools he is nothing,

' and w ;th tools he is all.” In discussing this subject in the book called
“Poverty and Riches,” Scott Nearing, says: “This mechanical pos-
sibility, guided by the light and intelligence that burns in the frontal
lobe of the brain, organized and -created through man’s reason, has
built civilization.” Yesterday he fashioned the spear, today he rides
the clouds. In the dim past he hollowed a canoe, today he masters the
ocean wave. The dexterity and the adaptability of his fingers and his
thumb have been the fulcrum, and by the lever of his genius he has
lifted the world to modern civilization.

The mines retain their secrets locked in the slumbering bosom of
the mountains. Caverns of impenetrable forests, the leafy isles in
unexplored woodlands, live on in the silent murmuring of the forest
vastness. Rushing rivers tumble on without a meaning. Fields,
forests, the mines, the sea, the air, none yields a blessing until the
magic touch of the dexterous fingers that are adapted to wielding the
tool. If the forests yield comfort and shelter from the elements it is
because you can hear the axe ringing in the wilderness. If the rushing
rivers have given up warmth and light and power, it is because man
and his tocl-made canoe dived into the hollows of the waters and learned
their secrets. If we sit before the fire with comfort and contentment,
it is because man with his fingers delved into the earth and ripped up
its warmth for your hearth-stone and mine, and so it is with the
minerals, the irons, the steels and the precious metals which have
become the foundation of modern commerce. Before the fingers of
man came there was nothing.

And so it appears to me that it is a very serious thing to enact
rules and regulations which prohibit the fingers of man from performing
their functions. And this is wh^t the proposed immigration laws
intend doing.

To my way of thinking, we need to give earnest consideration
before we bandage the fingers 'of men and make them useless in the
development of the natural resources of Canada.

The main ground for the suspension of immigration at this time is
the acute unemployment situation, but this should not deter us fiom
laying down the general principle that immigration to Canada should

be consistently encouraged. It is obvious that it would be a great
folly to allow immigrants to come into the Dominion if the country
were unprepared to absorb them, tor the good of the country and the
perpetuation of the i<jeals which we cherish, politically, socially and
industrially, the immigrant should be selected with a view to his
fitness and adaptation to our mode of thought and work.

If we invite the immigrant to live with us we also owe him a duty.
In performing or obligation to him we will benefit ourselves tremen-
dously. We must be able, asTe leaves the steamer, to direct him where
work is to be done. We have vast mineral and timber resources.
We have great highways to be built. Work in the Dominion has only
just begun. Waterways are to be harnessed. Homes need to be
constructed by the thousands; yes, hundreds of thousands. If the
finger tips of the human animal have always been and ever will be the
most valuable producing machinery in the world — why not find work
for the human hand ? Why not subsidize the essential industries on a
vast scale ? Why not let the hands and the brain of man overcome the
artificial depressions of the hour.

Critics will say: “Well, why not give work to the unemployed who
are already here ?” The answer is this. Our industrial machinery is
so badly disorganized, not only by world problems, but by the very
peculiar difficulties arising out of the fact that a community of seven
or eight million people, scattered over vast areas, cut off by economic
conditions from foreign markets, are suddenly attempting to live within
themselves. We have thus incurred such prohibitive expenses in the"
intershipment of goods that the machinery of finance and commerce
has cracked under the strain. As an example: If our population were
greater, thousands of freight cars would be carrying freight two ways
with a consequent reduction in expenses for transportation; thou-
sands of freight cars billed to Tide Water during the winter loaded
with wheat and provisions for European export are returned empty.

The Western Provinces face the same problem which arises out
of the shipping of wheat to the Lake Ports, after which the empty
cars return again to Western terminals. The greater economy of the
larger community could be made practical in thousands of ways in this
Dominion. The real remedy for the present situation is to open up
our vast storehouses of wealth — the natural resources — by intelligent
subsidization so that the fingers of the human hand may perform their
functions in bringing food, clothing and shelter to the people. If we,
in the East, only had available a small part of the timber which is
consumed annually by avoidable forest fires, we could make thousands
of families happy and comfortable.

If the natural resources in this Dominion are developed with
energy and courage, there will be plenty of room for the intelligent
immigrant, and his coming will be a real blessing.

If, on the contrary, we pursue the present slip-shod tactics of
allowing the new comer to shift for himself, the whole matter is
“Love’s labor lost.” We will simply have been ^recruiting new slums
to add to the degradation of our cities.

Page 4

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

March 19, 1921

Suggested Health Provisions for
Provincial Legislation Re-
lating to Children

Are you troubled with constipation? If so

Take a glass of

GG

RIGA

right away

Best for you — Best for everybody

All leading Doctors perscribe Riga, and all leading Druggists sell it.
Aperient, purgative and laxative according to dose

RIGA PURGATIVE WATER

99

I T is especially desirable to call
attention at this time to the
need for Child Health provisions
in order that they may receive the
consideration they merit, and the
following resume of the report of
the National Child Health Council
on Health Provisions for Laws Re-
lating to Children is of value in the
connection:

1. — Prenatal Care.

(a) Children’s Code Commissions
should recommend the removal of all
legislative restrictions which pre-
vent proper and full measures for
prenatal and maternity care and the
granting of positive legislative au-
thority for undertaking and promot-
ing such measures. Facilities for
the education of expectant mothers;
for the establishment of prenatal
clinics; for the protection of ex-
pectant mothers in industry, and for
the health supervision of mothers,
should be definitely authorized by
law.

2. — Care at Birth.

(a) Midwives: Provincial laws
should require that all midwives be
licensed by the Provincial Health
Departments, for the purpose of per-
mitting only those who are properly
qualified to practise midwifery and
that supervision be established.

(b) Control of Ophthalmia neo-
natorum (“Babies’ sore eyes”):
Every Provincial Health Board
should require by law the immediate
reporting of all inflammatory con-
ditions of the eyes of the new born;
to require treatment of eyes of new
born at birth, and to provide pro-
phylactic treatment free to all
physicians in the prevention of
blindness.

(c) Vital Statistics: The law
should require the prompt report-
ing of births within 72 hours by the
professional attendant.

(d) Supervision of “Maternity
Homes”: All institutions, etc., where
mothers are given care during or
near confinement should be licensed,
and subject to the regular inspection
and approval of health officials.

3. — Infant and Preschool Care.

(a) Removal of legislative re-
strictions : Legislative restrictions
should be removed and definite legis-
lative authority granted so that ade-
quate facilities for protecting and
promoting the health of infants
from birth to the beginning of
school age can be provided by both
provincial and local authorities.

(b). Control of Milk and its pro-
ducts: There should be legislation
requiring general pasteurization of
uncertified milk; its supervision, and
such other regulation and super-
vision of the production, handling
and preservation of milk and its pro-
ducts as will insure a safe supply.

4. — Care of School Children.

(a) Health Education: There
should be legislation providing for

the instruction and training of school
children for the purpose of develop-
ing “health habits” through super-
vised physical activities; free play,
and practical instruction in personal
hygiene, nutrition and sanitation.
Provision should be made for the
instruction and training of all teach- ^
ers in the essentials of health educa-
tion. Rigid and uniform courses of
physical drill or of hygienic instruc-
tion should not be prescribed.

(b) . Physical examinations and
Health Supervision: Provincial legis-
lation should make it possible for
counties and communities to pro-
vide facilities for periodic physical
examinations and promotion of
School Child Health.

(c) Hygiene of Schools: School
buildings, school grounds and other
accessories should be regularly in-
spected and supervised as to sani-
tary conditions.

5. — Children in Industry.

(a) Physical Supervision: As long
as a child is of school age, he should
receive health education and super-
vision. Experience shows that the
“Continuation School” offers a good
medium of the above. Physical ex-
aminations should be given when he
leaves school to go to work, at each
change of occupation, and periodic-
ally thereafter while he is of school
age.

6. — General.

Each Province should have a Bu-
reau of Child Hygiene, who could
undertake the operation of the above
outlined duties. All public and pri-
vate institutions, agencies, courts
and boarding somes caring for de-
pendent, defective or delinquent chil-
dren should be required by law to
have adequate health supervision
over their work and wards.

MOST WORKMEN

ARE EFFICIENT

SAY EMPLOYERS
Department of Labor Conducts En-
quiry Into Decrease in Produc-
tion in Canadian Industry.

Ottawa.

- Certain representations having
been made to the Department of
Labor to the effect that employers
had to contend with a decrease in
production, due apparently to slack-
ened effort on the part of their em-
ployees, an inquiry was made by the
department last August for the pur-
pose of obtaining authentic informa-
tion on this subject. Questionnaires
were sent to about 6,200 employers,
and replies giving the infomration
desired were received from 4,106
firms employing about 455,000
workers.

Of this number, says the Labor
Gazette, 1,304 employers (about 33
per cent, of those answering) hav-
ing 172,100 workers (about 38 per
cent, of the workers covered in the
i answers) stated that there had been

a falling off in production on the
part of their labor force. On the
other hand, 2,802 employers who had
on their pay roll about 283,300 work-
ers, reported that their employees
had not shown any decline in pro-
duction.

Supplementary information re-
ceived showed that conditions were
improving in this respect and that
the workers were getting back to
their former normal output.

Back to Normal.

Among the causes most frequently
given for decreased production were
the following: So many men had
been engaged at other than their
regular jobs during the war, and on
resuming their occupations had
taken some time to get back to their
normal capacity; many skilled work-
ers had been killed at the war and
their substitutes had not had time
to become as efficient; many skilled
workers had had their capacity re-
duced by wounds, disease, etc.

Other causes of reduced produc-
tion were stated to be shortage of
labor and high wages in general;
market conditions, including increas-
ed costs, shortage of materials, lux-
ury tax, etc., reduction of hours of
labor, and general unrest.

Taken by provinces and industries,
the result of the questionnaire shows
little variation from the general re-
sult stated above, except that in Al-
berta the employees of firms report-
ing “Yes” to the question whether
there was any falling off in produc-
tion, numbered more than those of
firms reporting “No.”

This was attributed to the high
percentage of firms reporting “Yes”
in the mining industry, which was
the only industrial group in which
the firms reporting “Yes” exceeded
those reporting “No.”/

In two groups of industries, lumb-
ering and mining, the number of em-
ployees in the “Yes” column exceed-
ed those in the “No” column. In the
manufacturing group less than 33
per cent, of the firms reported
“Yes.”

RAILROAD OFFICIAL

HEADS ORGANIZATION OF
CANADIAN AUTHORS

A KEEN sense of the fitness of
things was displayed by the
newly formed Canadian auth-
ors’ Association when it elected J.
Murray Gibbon to be its first presi-
dent. To begin with Mr. Gibbon
has achieved success in the field
of fiction with books which are dis-
tinctively Canadian. He has also
perpetuated in brief but stirring vig-
nettes scenes from Canadian history
with which the fortunes of the Scot-
tish race are interwoven, and, as
General Publicity Agent for the Can-
adian Pacific Railway he has done
and is ‘doing more to make Canada
known than any other man. Mr.
Gibbon’s services in other directions
are better known amongst the pub-
lic-spirited people who organize
campaigns to raise funds for some
noble or worthy object than they are
to the every-day citizen. It is to
Mr. Gibbon that many of these cam-
paigns owe the inspiration and im-
petus given them by enthusiastic
and compelling publicity work — all
done for the love of the cause. There
can be no doubt that with Mr. Gib-
bon as its directing head the Cana-
dian Authors’ Association will not
be permitted to become a mere
mutual praise association. Achieve-
ments are ahead of it, and, it is al-
together likely that Mr. Gibbon fore-
sees the rapid growth of a truly
expressive Canadian literature.

RAISING THE PRICE.

Mother— “Johnny, will you be
quiet for a bit?”

Johnny— “I’ll do it for two bits.”
— Awywan.

WHEN WE KNOW.

Knicker — “How much does an in-
augural cost?”

Bocker — “We can’t tell until the
term is up.”

The Robert Mitchell Co.,

LIMITED

BRASS AND IRON FOUNDERS
Good Workmanship and Prompt
—Delivery— —

64 Belair Avenue, MONTREAL

March 19, 1921

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

Page 5

The Latest Way to Handle

Express

C AR-LOAD lots of express in
smaller quantities than a real
car-load are now 'handled by
the New York Central Railroad. By
this new plan nine or ten steel “con-
tainers,” each almost as large as a
small freight-car of olden time, and
of 6,000 pounds’ capacity, are loaded
on a big car, specially built for the
purpose. Each container may be
packed with express matter at its
source and unpacked at its destina-
tion, being hauled between ware-
house and railroad on a motor-truck.
This plan was devised and described
some time ago, but the New York
Central seems to be the first road to
put it into systematic practise on a
large scale. According to a con-
tributor to “The Railway Review”
(Chicago) the scheme has worked
out satisfactorily on the line between
New York and Chicago. He writes
in substance:

“The railway employee has noth-
ing to do with handling the contents
other than lifting it to and from the
car and the trucks while they are
sealed up in the container.

“The merchant receiving the con-
signment may open the container
and place the goods directly on his
shelves for sale with no intermediate
handling at terminals. While the
container-car is not a new idea, it
has not heretofore been in practical
use, but there is no reason why it
could not be used to great advant-
age after the shippers have hoists
installed to handle containers to and
from the trucks.

“New York Central car No. 5999,
built to hold nine steel containers, is
63 feet long inside, is of 80,000
pounds’ capacity, and is constructed
with solid steel underframe. It is
built for passenger-train service,
having blind vestibule buffers to
take the shock and passenger-trucks
and air-brake equipment. The low
sides are provided with guides that
fit the slides on the front and back
of the containers and hold the con-
tainers from moving in any direc-
tion but up.

“The roof of the blind end forms
a place to stand on when guiding
the first and last container to place.
There are four straps near the four
corners of the roof for attaching
hooks, when containers are to be
lifted.

“It requires only two minutes to
lift one of these containers out of
the car and place it on a truck and
about the same length of time to
load one of them on to the car. Less
than a full car can be loaded, but
the nine full containers should be
loaded if that can be done. It is im-
possible to open the doors of the
containers when they are loaded and
placed within these guides. Conse-
quently there is little or no chance
of pilfering while en route.

“These containers are nine in num-
ber and each weighs 2,800 pounds.

They are built of steel with wood
floors. They are 9 feet wide, 6 feet
long, with an inside clear height be-
tween floor and roof of 7 feet 4
inches and have door openings 3 feet
6 inches wide. A load of 6,000
pounds can be placed within one of
these steel vaults and be perfectly
secure against fire, storms, or theft.
The load would be less damaged in
a wrcek than when carried the ordin-
ary way in an express-car.”

While the test is for ascertaining
the benefits of handling express mat-
ter, the plan may be used for freight
also, and it may be found feasible to
build containers for hauling perish-
ables, requiring refrigeration; or
steam connections could be installed
suggested by the writer is for con-
tainers small enough to load through
to prevent freezing. Another use
the side doors of the regular box
car. These could be universally used
and would not require any special
car. We read further:

“These containers divide the load
into nine packages and reduce the
liability of becoming damaged nine
times.

“Something must be done to
strengthen the package in propor-
tion to the increased capacity of the
equipment, and this plan may solve
the problem.

“Certainly from the car-shortage
point of view this car can be loaded
and unloaded in much less time than
through the side doors, if proper
arrangements are at hand to lift
them to and from the car.”

MINISTER OF LABOR URGED
TO CALL YET ANOTHER

INDUSTRIAL CONFERENCE
National Joint Conference Board for
the Building Industry Unanimous
for Second Meeting — Apprentice-
ship Question Discussed.

Ottawa.

The Minister of Labor will short-
ly be asked to call a National Indus-
trial Conference similar to that held
in Ottawa in September, 1919. This
was decided at a meeting of the Na-
tional Joint Conference Board for
the building industry in Ottawa last
week, at which delegates from the
Association of Building and Con-
struction Industries and the Trades
and Labor Congress were present.

The success of the first conference
of employers and employees called
by the Dominion Government was
so marked that both sides consider
that it would be to its advantage to
have another similar meeting. A
committee was appointed to inter-
view the Minister of Labor and re-
quest his department to call the
conference. The second week in
May is suggested as a suitable time
for holding the meeting.

The question of a standard sys-
tem of apprenticeship for the build-
ing and construction industries was
also considered and a tentative

agreement form to be used in all
cases was drawn up.

At the recent Winnipeg conference
of the Association of Building and
Construction Industries it was decid-
ed that something must be done to
right the apprentice difficulty that
at present exists. Local trade
unions, trades and labor councils and
branches of the association will be
asked to take up the agreement and
report on it.

The new agreement takes up the
question of wages and training and
of the amount of schooling that a
boy is to receive while he is an ap-
prentice.

BRITISH LABOR PARTY
ATTACKS GERMAN PAYMENT
PLAN AS DETRIMENTAL

A MANIFESTO on the proposed
German indemnity has been
adopted at a joint meeting of
the Parliamentary Committee of the
Trades Union Congress and the ex-
ecutive committee of the Labor
party held in London recently. It
claims that the causes of the indus-
trail crisis lay for the most part
abroad. All Europe has been im-
poverished by war and part of it has
been ruined by peace.

“We are now faced in the indem-
nity terms,” says the manifesto,
“with a demand for an immense tri-
bute from German industry which
must reduce still further the capac-
ity of the German population to con-
sume our goods. We shipped direct-
ly last year to the German, Russian
and Austro-Hungarian ports less
than one-tenth of what we sent out
to them in 1913. That decrease
alone would suffice to account for
most of the present unemoployment.

Ruining the Custodiers.

“In this general impoverishment
which by ruining our customers has
thrown our workers idle, there is
something worse than the inevitable
waste of wealth caused by the war.
The blockade of Russia was a wan-
ton act of policy. In clause after
clause the peace treaties have com-
pleted the ruin which the war began.

“Germany was bidden (quite prop-
erly) to work in order that repara-
tions might be earned, but the treaty
which imposed this obligation took
her mercantile marine, deprived her
of three-fourths of her iron ore, di-
minished her supply of industrial
coal, and closed down the banks and
businesses by which alone she can
trade abroad.”

Swamping World’s Market.

It is argued that the indemnity
can be paid only in exports of goods
which will come here without call-
ing forth any answering goods by
way of payment. That means furth-
er disturbance of British industry.
Again, if Germany is to pay, she
must desist for forty-two years from
buying any but absolutely necessary
goods abroad.

That means the British market
cannot be recovered, and consequent-
ly unemployment. Swamping of the
world’s market with what are vir-

MASSON Dental Co. Ltd.

Dental Scientists

Teeth extracted without pain
— Novo-Codine

152 PEEL STREET

Uptown 5602

860 ST. DENIS STREET

St. Louis 4613
OPEN EVENINGS

I

tually prison-made goods will con-
front British workers with an un-
precedented form of competition.

The manifesto concludes by declar-
ing the present crisis of unemploy-
ment here is the direct outcome of a
•suicidal foreign policy, and a demand
is made not only for reconsideration
of the indemnity demands, but for
a reversal of the whole line of the
Allies’ conduct toward Central Eu-
rope and Russia.

LOOK OUT!

Mother: “Johnny, if you eat any
more, you’ll burst.”

Johnny: “Well, pass the cake,
motherland yet out of the way.”

THE APPLE COATS AND SUITS.

One clothing merchant uses the
apple as a trade-mark. He claims
there wouldn’t have been any cloth-
ing business if it hadn’t been for an
apple.

THE JUDGE SAYS TO THE WIT-
NESS “TELL US WHAT YOU
KNOW — NOT WHAT YOU BE-
LIEVE.” SO HERE IT IS: WE
KNOW THAT THE FROZEN
CREAM CREATIONS PREPARED
BY OUR SPECIALISTS ARE THE
RICHEST IN QUALITY. A BEAU-
TIFUL COMBINATION OF ICE
CREAMS HAVE BEEN FORMED
INTO A PINT MOULD LABELLED
“QUALITY” — IT’S (Vanilla,
Orange and Chocolate) ASK FOR
THE NEW “CITY DAILY QAULI-
TY” PACKAGE TO-NIGHT.

AGENCIES
ALL OVER

Page 6

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

March 19, 1921

GOOD THINGS ARE MADE TO BE EATEN

Montreal Dairy Company Limited

BUTTER SWEET CREAM ICE CREAM

The Railroad

( From The Literary Digest).

W HEN people are staying
home because it costs too
much to travel on the rail-
roads, and produce is not shipped
because the freight-rates are too
high, the suggestion that the roads
might be willing to cut rates if they
were allowed to cut labor costs na-
turally brings a favorable response
from a large number of the daily
papers. It is evident enough that
labor costs may be decreased by
eliminating inefficient and surplus
labor as well as by cutting wages.

The railroad executives are willing
to keep the wages of skilled work-
ers at present levels for a time at
least, if they can reduce the pay of
unskilled labor and can be rid of
the 182 uniform national working-
agreements and rules left behind as
a legacy by the United States Rail-
road Administration. The existence
of these rules is costing the roads, so
they say, $300,000,000 a year. Be-
fore the war, out of every dollar col-
lected by the roads, between 40 and
50 cents was paid out in wages;
now 60 cents is paid out in wages.

In 1917 the railroad pay-roll was
$1,704,000,000; recently it had reach-
ed the enormous figure of $3,700,-
000,000. Hoping to be able to re-
duce expenses at once, and so save
some of the weaker roads from bank-
ruptcy, the railroads recently asked
the Railroad Labor Board to abro-
gate the wage agreements and to
allow the executives of the respec-
„ tive railroads to make new rules by
agreement with their own employees
and to set the wages for unskilled
labor at the levels prevailing in oth-
er industry.

The Railroad Labor Board’s re-
fusal to grant this emergency re-
quest was made without any expres-
sion of opinion on the merits of the
case, but merely on a point of juris-
diction. It may eventually decide
that these agreements should be
abrogated, and in the meantime the
railroads are keeping up their cam-
\ paign to influence public opinion
against them.

The issue, says Frank Haigh Dix-
on, Professor of Economics in
Princeton University, as quoted in
the New York Tribune, is simply
this: “Shall the conditions . under
which work is performed in a speci-
fic craft be so standardized by a
national agreement tj^at there is no
opportunity by any individual road
for modification to meet local condi-
tions.” All the roads want, declares
The Railway Age, is “a reduction of
expenses through increased effici-
ency of labor.”

Items of Expense.

The only reason they wish to get
rid of the working rules is because
they have fostered inefficiency. Un-
doubtedly,

“Other and great increases in ef-
ficiency and economy must be ob-
tained. The cost of fuel has in-
creased from about $400,000,000 in
1917 to about $700,000,000 in 1920,

Pay Problem

It must be reduced. The cost of ma-
terials and supplies has increased
from about $700,000,000 in 1917 to
about $1,600,000,000 at the present
time. It must be reduced. The rail-
road pay-roll is the largest item of
all. In 1917 it was about $1,704,-

000. 000. It has increased until, ac-
cording to the latest estimates, it
was running, before the recent large
reductions of forces were made, at
the rate of more than $3,700,000,000
a year. It also must be reduced.

“All these items of expense must
be reduced, first, to enable the rail-
ways to earn the net return they
are entitled to, and which they must
earn to furnish the public good and
adequate service, and, secondly, to
enable them in due course to make
reductions in freight- and passenger-
rates

“In the long run working rules
and conditions which force the rail-
ways to employ 'an excessive num-
ber of men will reduce railway traf-
fic, prevent the railways from pros-
pering and being adequately de-
veloped, and, in consequence, injure
railway employees as well as the
railway companies and the public.”

A Piecework Basis.

The Pennsylvania Labor Herald
(Allentown), defends the national
agreements. If they “were set aside
and the companies could return to
the conditions existing on December

1, 1917,”

“It would mean that any railroad
company could revise the payment
of the shop employees and pay them
on a piecework basis instead of an
hourly rate. The hourly rate could
still be allowed each employee while
employed at work listed on ‘hourly’
work, but the companies would see
to it that all work now done by shop
employees was paid upon a piece-
work basis.

“In this manner the time on work
could be cut until the shop employees
would be doing twice as much work
in eight hours, if such a thing were
possible, and the difference in pay
would revert back to the coupon-
clippers and stockholders of the rail-
road companies.”

Railroad labor’s attitude is not so
much a defense of all the agree-
ments as a determination to retain
what was gained during the war as
respects wages, hours of labor, and
union recognition. The workers
may concede modifications here and
(there, but they do not propose to
have all nation-wide rules thrown
overboard at once. Moreover, they
insist that management itself is in-
efficient and that much of the wage-
reduction talk is merely part of a
campaign to break the power of
union labor in. the railroad field.

The accusation of hypocrisy is
openly made by the Cleveland Citi-
zen, a labor organ, in the following
editorial :

“After all of their boasts that pri-
vate operation of the railways is
more efficient and economical than
public control and operation, and af-

ter frittering away hundreds of mil-
lions of dollars granted as subsidies
by Congress, the railroad managers
are now standing before the nation
in naked hypocrisy and whining that
they are unable to run the trans-
portation business and guarantee
profits of 6 per cent, on the stock
(including 40 to 50 per cent, water),
except by reducing the wages of the
2,000,000 employees, which demand
is now being insistently made upon
the United States Railroad Board
and just as emphatically resisted by
those who do the work. Brotherhood
officials declare that the wages of
employees did not advance as rapidly
as living costs during the past six
years and do not balance such costs
to-day, and that under no circum-
stances will the railway operatives
accept reduction^ in order to gratify
the desires of the incompetent man-
agements or the stockholders.”

Series of Conferences.

Bearing in mind the statement of
some railroad labor-leaders that cer-
tain readjustments might be consid-
ered, the Cleveland Plain Dealer feels
that executives, and workers really
agree that this matter of wages and
work conditions “is hardly national
in character.” And the- Ohio daily
thinks that “a system of regional
agreements commensurate with the
rate-making districts would seem to
afford a fair basis of compromise.”

It is partly, perhaps, because of
a feeling that some such agreement
will eventually be reached that
spokesmen for both labor and capi-
tal agree in praising the decision of
the Railroad Labor Board not to
grant the immediate relief demanded
by General Atterbury, of the Pen-
nsylvania, on behalf of the roads.
Labor, the Washington organ of
sixteen labor organizations, and Mr.
B. M. Jewell, president of the Rail-
way Employees’ Department of the
American Federation of Labor, unite
in calling the Board’s decision a
triumph for the principle of collec-
tive bargaining, because they think
it means eventually a series of con-
ferences between railway executives
and the railway unions.

“Through their organizations,”
says Mr. Jewell, the railway work-
ers “are ready at all times to make
changes in wages, rules, working
agreements, etc., when such changes
are found to be justly reasonable.”
The decision, Labor believes,

“Will compel such autocrats as
may remain in the railroad world to
meet their men in conference. Add-
ed significance was given to the de-
cision by the fact that the Board act-
ed without waiting to hear from rep-
resentatives of the employees, and
that no dissenting opinion was filed.
The Board is made up of three rep-
resentatives of the public, three of
the managers, and three of the em-

ployees. That such a tribunal should
have decided against the contentions
of the railroad managers without
hearing the employees’ side is con-
vincing proof that Atterbury and
the interests he represents did not
have a leg to stand on.”

Financial Aspects.

In Wall Street, where the rail-
roads’ financial plight is keenly felt,
there is a feeling, according to the
New York Times, that the Board
made a wise decision. The Spring-
field Republican and the Manchester
Union agree with the Baltimore Am-
erican that “it is well to have a
Board that can not be stampeded.”
The Wall Street Journal concedes
that the Labor Board could hardly
have been expected to grant Gen-
eral Atterbury’s request without
giving the other side a full hearing.
“It doubtless is unfortunate that the
roads must bear for months longer
a burden of war-time wage-regula-
tion,” this newspaper is convinced,
“it is outrageously oppressive both '
to the carriers and the country at
large.”

But it would . be worse, “if the
whole national effort to solve the
railroad-labor problem embodied in
the wage provisions of the Trans-
portation Act had been brought
down irr disaster” by lack of faith
in the impartiality of the Railroad
Labor Board.

The Board, it will be remembered,
refused to consider the financial dif-
ficulties of the roads as a valid rea-
son for an immediate abrogation of
the labor agreements. Such a de-
cision would be encroaching on the
duties of the Interstate Commerce
Commission, which, under the Rail-
road Act, has jurisdiction over all
matters involving railroad finance.

The Board intends to take up the
matter of rules and working condi-
tions with “the utmost practicable
expedition” and will determine
whether any of them are unreason-
able. The Board declares that it
“is endeavoring to perform its obli-
gations and will be better able to
succeed in doing so if it is not furth-
er interrupted by the introduction of
unwarranted demands by either
patrty.”

COAL

GEO. HALL COAL CO.
of Canada, Ltd.

211 McGill Steet,
Montreal.

March 19, 1921

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

Page 7

Workers in Many European
Countries Nou) Enjoy the
Legal Eight-hour Day

Early in 1917 the Legal Maximum Eight-Hour Day of General Ap-
plication Existed Nowhere in Europe — Canada Lags
Behind in Forward March.

Canada Far Behind.

In a recent bulletin, issued by the

C ANADA, once the leaner in aa- International Labor Office at Gen-
vanced social and labor legis- eva, the fact stands out significantly

that Canada is fhr behind most of
the European countries. The bul-
letin states “that one of the most
remarkable results since the war
was the success of the workers in
almost all the European countries
in securing a legal eight-hour day.”

Early in 1917 a legal maximum
eight-hour day of general applica-
tion existed nowhere in Europ.e
Eight hour laws were not intro-
duced in Revolutionary Russia and
liberated Finland until the autumn
of that year. The hours of miners
were regulated by law in several
countries, but the eight-hour day
where it existed in other industries
was only a standard fixed by col-
lective agreement, chiefly for the
purpose of fixing a limit after which
a. higher rate of wages should be
paid (overtime rates). But the
, . - ,, n course of events as soon as revolu-

Cana a, s P ea or ^ .^,. e ^ ^°. 'Tion was accomplished in Germany

and Austria showed that this ques-

(By J.A.P. HA YDON, in the Canadian
Labor Press).

ANA DA, once the leader in ad-
vanced social and labor legis-
lation, is 'lagging very far be-
hind most of the European countries.
Many and varied are the reasons ad-
vanced for Canada’s tardiness in this
regard, but the fact remains, how-
ever, that Canada is amongst the
very few . countries, members of the
League of Nations, that has not yet
put into effect a legal eight-hour
day.

The Washington Conference of the
International Labor Organization
adopted a draft convention calling
for a legal workday of eight hours.
This was forwarded to the Canadian
Government and in due course was
sent to the various provincial Gov-
ernments for action, the Federal
authorities claiming that under the
British North America Act they
have no jurisdiction in the matter.

The Trades and Labor Congress%of

the Dominion, has notified the Cabi-
net that this action does not relieve
the Government from responsibility
and in laying their legislation pro-
gramme before the Cabinet, said:

“The Dominion Government, in
our opinion, has a much greater
duty to perform than merely
carrying out the letter of the law
by transmitting the findings of
these International Labor Confer-
ences to the several provincial
Governments who seem unwilling
to accept the responsibility for
action thrown upon them.”

When the Right Hon. Arthur
Meighen, P.C., Premier of Canada,
addressed the Windsor Convention
of the Trades and Labor Congress
of Canada, he emphasized that as
Canada was not a separate element
in the industrial world we must co-
operate with other countries in the
enactment of advanced social and
labor legislation. The following ex-
tracts from his address tell their
own story:

“Canada is not a single and
separate element in the industrial
world. We are one of the throng
of competing nations, and as such
we must take care that we do not
place upon ourselves a disability
that will hold back our progress.
The only way to make progress
is by working in co-operation with
other countries, to the end that
we may all march forward to-
gether to the lifting up of the
status of those who are needy. In
this respect, let me say that Can-
ada leads the way.”

tion of a legal eight-hour day, re-
garded hitherto as an almost un-
realizable dream, was the one of
all labor questions which touched
the workers most nearly.

In Germany the proclamation is-
sued by the Council of the People’s
Commissioners on the outbreak of
the Revolution mentioned specifical-
ly that a maximum eight-hour day
would be introduced not later than
the 1st January, 1919. Actually
this was done eleven days after the
issue of the proclamation, namely
by the regulations of the 23rd No-
vember, 1918, and by the special
order for bakeries of the same date
which prohibits night work and
Sunday work in that industry as
well as prescribing an eight-hour
day. Austria was not far behind.
The eight-hour laws of both Ger-
man-Austria and Czecho-Slovakia
are dated December 19, 1918, and
Poland also produced a provisional
eight-hour decree the same month.

The sentiment in favor of a legal
eight-hour day was not less potent
in countries which escaped revolu-
tion. Although the revolutionary
turmoil in the Central Powers led
to a more prompt adoption of this
reform than was possible in coun-
tries where there was no sudden
break in constitutional procedure,
the demand for similar legislation
was quickly felt all over Europe
as soon as the incubus of war con-
ditions was lifted.

Thus, whereas by the end of 1918
in Europe there existed a legal maxi-
mum eight-hour day only in Fin-

land, Germany, Austria, Poland,
Czecho-Slovakia, and Luxemburg
(and perhaps also in Russia), by the
end of 1919 there were laws on this
subject also in France, Holland,
Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden
and Switzerland, and a draft con-
vention had been adopted at Wash-
ington to make the rule of an eight-
hour day in industry universal in all
countries which are members of the
League of Nations.

Of the group of European coun-
tries without laws on this subject at
the time of the Washington Con-
ference, Greece has embodied the
Washington Convention in legisla-
tion, N and similar legislation is also
under consideration in Belgium.

Great Britain Behind.

The fact that Great Britain is still
behindhand is due to a variety of
causes. The power and status of
the trade union movement in that
country is such that the Government
necessarily confers with its repre-
sentatives before introducing bills on
labor questions.

The discussions preliminary to the
introduction of an eight-hour bill
revealed a difference of opinion on
the scope of that measure. Organ-
ized labor demanded the inclusion of
agriculture and commerce.

The Government, foreseeing the
difficulties in enforcing an eight-
hour day on so wide a basis, objected,
and no agreement has been come to
at the time of writing. It has also
to be borne in mind that the well
organized trades in Great Britain
have in some measure already se-
cured a standard working day of
eight hours or less by collective
agreement, and the coal industry has
already a legal seven-hour day.

Thus, the well-organized trades
were not so concerned to 'press for
the early passage of the bill, but,
if passed, it will of course strengthen
their position as well as extend the
benefit of the eight-hour day to
those trades which have not already
secured it.

The above facts demonstrate mote
clearly than anything else that Can-
ada is lagging behind other indus-
trial countries. We appreciate the
remarks of the Prime Minister at
Windsor w r hen he gaid: “The duty of
the Government of Canada, as well
as all other Governments, is to seek
to make practical progress towards
putting into effect its terms by co-
operating with other countries con-
cerned.”

Parliament is now in session and
as the Right Hon. Arthur Meighen
said at Windsor, “Canada abides not
merely by the letter to the conven-
tion, but in the spirit of that con-
vention and loyally will do so as
long as I can speak for the Gov-
ernment,” we submit that perform-
ance is better than promise and the
workers of this country demand that
a legal maximum work day be es-
tablished so that Canada may march
forward with other industrial coun-
tries to the lifting up of the status
of those who toil.

Cocoa Icing

4 teaspoons Cowan’s
Cocoa

2 cups icing sugar
Y teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons cold
water

3 tablespoons hot
water

Pinch of salt

Method Mix cocoa slowly
with cold water, add hot water
and boil for five minutes. Add
flavoring and salt. Add sugar
until mixture is of the right
consistency to spread.

Cocoa Frosting

3 tablespoons Cowan’s
Cocoa

3 tablespoons coffee
Yz teaspoon vanilla
1/i cups confectioner’s
sugar.

Method : — Mix cocoa and sugar,
add coffee slowly, add vanilla
and beat vigorously for five
minutes. This make9 a very
good frosting for gingerbread,
especially cocoa gingerbread.

G105

GOOD WORK.

All good work is especially done
without hesitation, without difficul-
ty without boasting. — Ruskin.

ONLY ONE GLANCE.

“Did you notice that woman who
just passed?” inquired he.

“The one,” responded she, “with
the gray hat, the white feather, the
red velvet roses, the mauve jacket,
the black skirt, the mink furs, and
the lavender spats?”

“Yes.”

. “Not particularly.”

ONE EXCEPTION.

Prof. — “Nobody ever heard of a
sentence without a predicate.”
Bright Soph.— “I have, prof.”
Prof. — “What is it?”

Bright Soph.— “Thirty days.”

TROPHIES.

Madge — “Did you send his pres-
ents back when you broke the en-
gagement?”

Marjorie — “Of course not. Did
you send back the silver cups you
had won when you resigned from the
golf club?”

Page 8

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

March 19, 1921

tEjje Canadian Batlroaber

WEEKLY

The Official Organ of

The Fifth Sunday Meeting Association of Canada

ORGANIZED SEPTEMBER 1916

Incorporated under Dominion Letters Patent.

April, 1919.

J. A. WOODWARD. President - C.P.R. Conductor

J. N. POTVIN, Vice-President - - C.P.R. Train Dispatcher

W. F. BERRY, Sec.-Treasurer - - G.T.R. Conductor

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE : — S. DALE, C. P. R. Engineer; D. TRINDALL,
G.T.R. Locomotive Engineer; J HOGAN, C.P.R. Asst. Roadmaster; ARCHIE DU-
FAULT, C.P.R. Conductor; E. McGILLY, C.P.R. Locomotive Fireman W. T.
DAVIS, General Yard Master; W. FARLEY, C.P.R. Locomotive Engineer; M.
JAMES C.P.R. Engineer; S. PUGH, G.T.R. Conductor; Wm. PARSONS, C.G.R.
Agent

The Canadian Railroader was founded by railroaders, is
largely supported by railroaders, and is issued in the interest
of railroaders and all other workers by hand or brain.

Yearly subscription: $3.00; Single Copies: 10 cents

Published weekly by

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER LIMITED

316 LAGAUCHETIERE ST. W„ Corner Beaver Hall Hill, MONTREAL
Telephone: MAIN 6222

GEORGE PIERCE, Editor KENNEDY CRONE, Managing Editor

Obligations of Government

S IR HENRY DRAYTON’S statement of the obligation of the
government, in respect to the national railways, appears to have
surprised the politicians and business men. And there has been
a disposition in some quarters to make the situation appear worse than
it really is, apparently for a purpose not without interest to the whole
body of wage workers.

It may, of course, be a mere co-incidence that Sir Henry’s apparent
discovery of the unsatisfactory situation of the railways was made at
that very time the railway companies in the United States w r ere inau-
gurating a drive to reduce the wages of railway workers. But in any
case it has served as a pretext for a bombardment of the position of the
railway workers, and for a general outcry that wages must be reduced
in order to permit a resumption of business. In fact the alleged high
wages of the railway workers are being held responsible for the present
business depression. This, at any rate, is an interesting discovery and
shows that politicians, bankers and business men who attributed the
depression to other causes did not know what they were talking about.

Whether the men of light and leading who are now telling us that
our railway development is twenty-five years ahead of the times, and
that a lot of lives ought to be scrapped, know what they are talking
about is another question.

Some people will remember that it is only a few years ago that the
bankers and business interests of the country were complaining about
the great loss from what they called the annual grain blockade, the
inability of the railways to move grain to the sea ports with sufficient
dispatch.

Moreover, it is hardly a year ago that there were complaints from
widely separated parts of the country that the railways were not able
to handle the business offering. The Halifax Board of Trade, for
instance, roundly condemned the National railways for not giving more
attention to the needs of the Maritimes provinces, declaring that in
Nova Scotia alone one thousand additional cars were needed to carry
on the business of the province, which was then suffering from the
shortage of cars.

And passing from Halifax to Prince Rupert we find that the far
west also has been, and still is, complaining about the inadequacy of
railway facilities. Prince Rupert has been trying to develop the
fishing industry; it is adjacent to splendid fishing grounds, and the
only problem that presents any difficulty is that of transporting its
fish catches to the markets. American and Canadian fishing vessels
make Prince Rupert a base of operation, but owing to transportation
disabilities they usually proceed to Vancouver or Seattle to land their
catches, turning over a good business to the railways out of those ports.
Last year the Prince Rupert Board of Trade repeatedly urged upon the

Minister of Railways and the Managing Board of the National rail-
ways the need of providing at least thirty refrigerator cars to enable the
development of the fish trade. Explicit promises were given on several
occasions that the cars would be built and placed at the service of the
fish trade, but month after month passed and the cars failed to ma-
terialize.

The Canadian Fisherman says, that when a representative of the
Canadian Fisheries Association visited the plant in Hamilton, where
the Government railway officials said the cars were being built, he
found that the plant had been closed down for months. This was on
Feb. 9 of this year, after about a year of promises. Commenting on
this fiasco the Canadian Fisherman under the title “Strangling an
jndustry,” says: “There is no certainty that those thirty cars will be
delivered in March, and the promises of the railway officials amount to
nothing but bluff and humbug. The whole matter reflects the
spinelessness of the present administration. There seems to be no
backbone to it and no definite policy appears to have been worked
out to pull the country up through the mire it has sunk into. One
would have thought that an opportunity to control the haulage of a
huge fishery would have been seized upon by the government in an
effort to make their railway pay. But the common axiom of plain
business is ignored by the present government who are really to blame
for the state of affairs existing on their own railway.”

The Canadian Fisherman is the official organ of the Canadian
Fisheries Association, composed of the employing interests in the
fishing industry — an organization which is even today urging the
Government railways to provide better facilities for the transport of
fish from the Maritime provinces to the interior of Canada.

— Colin McKay.

OLD GROUCH says: 44 On the
street car I heard a newsboy
shout "last edition' ' of one of
our wonderful newspapers.
He's wrongs There's no such
luck!"

“White Collar 99 Progress

T HE movement of journalists into the labor camp has, to outward
appearances, been almost at a standstill for some time, but as
a fact important work has been quietly done and is being done
in the matter of fixing the defects which the structure showed in its
early days and of meeting more adequately the various forms of opposi-
tion and other discouragement which the movement has had to
contend with continuously for the last two years.

The opposition of publishers was rather severe at times, and, of
course, there wasrno publicity for it. Some of our more or less great
newspapers preach about the safeguards afforded by the open forum
of the press, but although there is an open forum for many causes, fine,
faddy and fishy, journalists who dare to talk of unionism are usually
outlawed from it.

There was also apathy to the new movement within the ranks of
labor itself. When interest was taken at all, there was a good deal of
well-meant misunderstanding, a certain amount of suspicion and fear
of the “white-collar brigade” in councils hitherto largely restricted
to manual workers, and an occasional shrewd staging of labor politics
which jarred the souls of journalists who had had a notion (from their
kaleidoscopic experience of humanity, they really ought to have known
better) that “Play up, and play the game” was the universal code
amongst pledged brothers.

Another discouragement was the matter of administration,
journalists being, perforce, subject to a system which, however excellent
it might be for the workers for whom it was originally framed, was
unsuited to the organization and psychology of unions of journalists.
The details are many, but not of general interest.

Briefly it can be said with truth that journalist’s unions had to
face damaging blows both from within and without the labor move-
ment. It is not right to enlarge on these domestic things, because
all are surmountable, and, indeed, lengthening of acquaintanceship
and closer exchanges of points of view have already substantially
aided in surmounting them, but it is just as well to put them on the
record in some way.

Yet the record is a travesty if it does not also pay tribute to the
fine brotherly spirit, endless hope and enthusiasm, wise co-operation
and understanding, of those trade unionists in office and in rank and
file who stood by the journalists’ movement from the beginning and
were the prime moulders of the new period which seems to be quickly

March 19, 1921

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

Page 9

RAILROAD MEN ATTENTION !
Accident and Sickness

INSURANCE

Issued by

The Dominion of Canada

Guarantee s Accident insurance Co.

“Canada’s Oldest and Strongest Casualty Company”
LIBERAL POLICIES PROMPT SETTLEMENTS

CLAIMS PAID EXCEED $3,000,000.00

C. A. WITHERS, COL. A. E. GOODERHAM,

Managing Director. President.

SPECIAL AGENTS

H. C. Perry, 107 Botsford St., Moncton, N.B.

Begin & Berube, Box 200, Riviere De Loup, P.Q.

Thos. McGovern, 1107 Traders Bank Bldg., Toronto.

H. Coker, 1107 Traders Bank Bldg., Toronto.

J. E. Kent, 203 Lindsay Bldg., Winnipeg.

T. G. Iredale, Canada Life Bldg., Calgary.

A. E. Kincaid, Canada Life Bldg., Vancouver.

HEAD OFFICE - - TORONTO

BRANCH OFFICES: Montreal, Winnipeg, Calgary and
Vancouver. /

coming around ;'or if it does not pay tribute to those publishers, here
and there in the crowd, who were independent enough and decent
enough to deal frankly and fairly with unionism in journalism.

At present the few journalists’ unions that exist on the American
Continent are in better case than they have ever been so far as their
foundations are concerned. Time has brought closer alliance with
kindred trades. In Montreal, for example, the journalists’ union is in
partnership with six of the seven trades of the printing industry in the
matter of joint action on questions of wages and working conditions.
The International Typographical Union, with which the journalists’
unions are allied, is now trying to put a proper base under the whole
movement; only last week President McParland discussed the situation
at a meeting held specially for the purpose in this city. The official
announcement of changed and changing relations appear in the
President’s letter in the March issue of the Typographical Journal, as
follows: —

“The Albany convention remanded to the executive council
the question of whether the jurisdiction over the news writers
should be*relinquished or retained. It has been decided to retain
the jurisdiction, and in order that a working basis might be
arrived at a commission has been appointed to draw up a program
as to rules and procedure. This commission consists of W.
Yorke-Hardy, of London, Out.; John P. Whitman, of Boston,
Mass., and Joe M. Johnson, of Washington, D.C. The former
two gentlemen are journalists, Mr. Johnson being appointed as a
printer member, as it was deemed advisable to have one of the
main craft in the International Typographical Union added to the
commission. The commission met in Indianapolis on February
14, and the resu-t of its deliberations will later be communicated
to the membership. The commission will continue to function,
transacting most of its business by correspondence. Members of
the typographical unions are requested to forward the names and
addresses of such employes of the editorial rooms as they think
might be interested to John P. Whitman, secretary of the com-
mission, care Advertiser, Boston, Mass.”

— Kennedy Crone.

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER is a carrier and
interpreter of the news and views of
the common people.

LABOR ORGANIZATION

A S THERE is evidently a call for something of the sort, it has been
decided to reprint in pamphlet form the article in a recent issue,
entitled “Primary of Labor Organization in Canada.” The
pamphlet will be sold at five cents a single copy. Trade unions, wel-
fare organizations and other bodies requiring quantities for purposes of
distribution will be given a special rate of 3c. a copy 7 on orders of not
less than 10 copies, and 2c. a copy on orders of not less than 100 copies.
Deliveries will commence a week from this date.

GUMLESS “GUMMER.”

Small Brother — “Will you please
give me a stick of chewing-gum,
Mr. Blunderly?”

Mr. Blunderly — “I don’t chew
gum, Bobbie. What makes you
think I do?”

Small Brother — “Because I heard
my sister say that when you were
at the dance the other night you
gummed the whole party.”

THEN IT BEGAN.

Private Squib — “What’s bitin’ you,
anyway?” ✓

Private Squab — “Nothin’s bitin’
me.”

Private Squib.— “Well, you gave
me a nasty look.”

Private Squab — “I never gave it
to you; you were born with it.”

SUBSCRIBE TO

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Page 10

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

March 19, 1921

Our Ottawa Letter

( Front Our Own Correspondent).

Ottawa, March 12.

H ON. J. D. REID, Minister of
Railways and Canals, took
the opportunity, while speak-
ing on the St. Lawrence Waterway
Transportation resolution, of at-
tacking the railway employees of
Canada. He charged the railway
workers, and particularly those em-
ployed by the Canadian National
Railways, with retarding the pro-
gress and development of Canada.
The Minister of Railways and Can-
als went further. He said: “The
railway employees themselves should
endeavor to adjust matters in a way
that the future of this country will
not be hindered on account of the
enormous operation of railway as is
the case at the present time.” If
there is any doubt as to exactly
what the Minister of Railways and
Canals was driving at it might be
well to quote another extract from
his remarks: “The development of
this country and the United States,”
said Dr. Reid, “has been hindered
by what is called the McAdoo award
in fixing wages of railway em-
ployees.” The statement of the Min-
ister of Railways and Canals has
created a storm in Labor circles and
is the most important, so far as the
workers arfc concerned, that has
emanated from official circles since
the House of Commons opened on
February 14. The officials of the
Trades and Labor Congress of Can-
ada and the legislative representa-
tives of the Railway Brotherhoods
are united in demanding a investi-
gation into the cost of operating and
management of our national rail-
ways. While the Minister of Rail-
ways and Canals gave the House of
Commons a short statement on the
question of the great deficit of the
National Railways the last has not
been heard of it by any means. Hon.
T. A. Crerar, the leader of the
Agrarian Party, while addressing
the House on the Speech from the
Jhrone, mentioned the question of
Canada’s National Railways and
proposed that a re-valuation be made
at once with a view of reducing the
enormous annual deficits. The work-
ers of Canada are now demanding
that an investigation be conducted
into costs of operation and manage-
ment. The Government purposes re-
organizing the Board of Directors
and the Rt. Hon. Sir Robem Borden,
when he was Prime Minister, made
a solemn promise to the railway
workers that they would be given
representation on the Board. This
promise has since been reiterated by
the present Prime Minister.

During the past week the House
considered many questions including
the Cattle Embargo, placed against
our cattle by the British Govern-
ment; the St. Lawrence Waterway
Transportation; whether Ministers
of the Crown should resign all di-
rectorships upon entry into the Min-
istry; Gas and Meter Inspection; Ex-
chequer Court Act amendments;

V\

Excessive and Inadequate Punish-
ments; Pensions, Insurance and Re-
Establishment of Returned Soldiers;
Canadian Nationals Definition Act;
Oil in the Prairie Provinces; and
Political Patronage.

On two occasions, during the week,
the Government was unable to pro-
ceed with legislation. Opposition de-
veloped from the Liberal camp, not
against the legislation itself, but ow-
ing to a “new departure,” using Hon.
W. Mackenzie King’s expression, in
introducing amendments to the bills
much more substantial than the bills
themselves, without giving the Op-
position time to consider them.

Members as Directors.

Mr. A. R. McMaster’>s bill, which
would have made it compulsory fo^
members upon entering the Minis-
try, to resign all directorships in
companies met defeat. The debate

on the McMaster bill was very in-
teresting and the Statements of Hon.
C. C. Ballantyne are of particular in-
terest to the workers. The Minis-
ter of Marine and Fisheries said: “I
have no hesitation in stating that I
am a director of many large indus-
trial companies throughout Canada.
I am also a director of banks and
trust companies. When I entered
the Cabinet I had of course to drop
all my business connections as far
-as giving them any personal atten-
tion was concerned; I have not been
\able to attend to the duties of the
various boards to which I belong.
Secure as this government is at the
present time, governments come and
governments go, therefore a busi-
ness man would be most unwise to
dispose of all his holdings and re-
sign from all the boards on which he
sat as a director in order to accept
a passing honor in any particular
government that might last only for
a few years.”

The Tariff Policy.

“Should the tariff policy be dis-
cussed around the Council table if
the Minister of Marine is a director
of several companies, and if these
companies are interested in the
drafting of the tariff schedules, will
the minister think of the interest of
Canada first, or will he think of the
interest of his business associates?”
asked Mr. Lucien Cannon (Dorchest-
er), who followed the Minister of
Marine. Mr. Cannon concluded his
remarks by seating that “a minister
who is director of a dozen companies
and large corporations such as the
Minister of Marine mentioned places
himself in such a position that if he
remains human, runs the risk of be-
ing incompetent, and if he wishes to
be an angel he runs the risk of be-
ing misunderstood.”

A tariff board would overcome
the objections of the member for
Dorchester, but the question was not
raised. However, the bill was de-

feated on division and in the vote the
House divided in all ways, even the
Agrarians splitting on the question.
Hon. T. A. Crerar and Dr. Michael
Clark voted against its adoption.

During the debate on the St. Law-
rence Waterway Transportation the
Agrarians showed a disposition to
oppose this measure. In the lobby
your correspondent learned that the
Agrarians of Western Canada are
more anxious for the completion of
the Hudson Bay Railway than in the
deepening of the St. Lawrence. They
claim that when the Hudson Bay
Railway is completed to Port
Churchill a seaport will be 428 miles
nearer Regfna than Fort William is
at present.

The Question of Patronage.

Sir Sam Hughes, K.C.B., the
senior member of the House, who for
the past thirty-four years has been
a member of Parliament, introduced
a resolution asking for a return of
patronage and the question occupied

the attention of the House all Fri-
day afternoon and evening. The re-
ception given to Sir Sam was per-
haps the greatest ever accorded to
a member of the Canadian House of
Commons. Members in all parts of
the House joined in the reception
when the “Old Man” rose in pre-
senting his resolution. The House
while antagonistic to his proposal
listened with respect. It was not
the Sir Sam of old. His old erect,
alert, dominating, military figure is
no more. The effects of 70 sum-
mers and his thirty odd years of
public service have left their mark.
His voice at times was scarcely
above a whisper and his remarks
lacked their old-time snap and vigor.
However, when Sir Sam mentioned
his work in raising and equipping
350,000 men, the House broke into
appreciative cheers; cheers which
were renewed with even greater
vigor and earnestness when the vet-
eran, visibly moved, took his seat.

It is difficult to follow the poli-
ticians on this question. The two
Ottawa membesr, both members of
the Government, disagreed on the
question of patronage. Mr. A. E.
Fripp desired a return of patronage
and quoted an alleged statement of
Federal Union No. 66 in substantia-
tion of that claim. The Federal
Union have repudiated such state-
ment, but that did not deter the Ot-
tawa member. Dr. Chabot quoted
from the Qivil Service Association
against a return of patronage. The
Ottawa members followed the policy
of the Government in playing the
two eviil service organizations
against each other. The Federal
Union is a Labor organization and
follows the policies of the Trades
and Labor Congress of Canada while
the Civil Service Association follows
its independent course, which usual-
ly harmonizes with the Govern-
ments. However, the statements of
Mr. Fripp that the Federal Union de-

W — ^ —' v V- wr ^ f(

IN THE VAN OF PROGRESS.

-Locomotive Engineers’ Journal.

March 19, 1921

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

sire a return of patronage are with-
out foundation of fact. After dis-
cussing patronage for six houra^ the
resolution was withdrawn.

Pension Allowances,

Major C. G. Power, M.C., (Que-
bec South), introduced two resolu-
tions in regard to questions affect-
ing returned soldiers. One of them
called for the Pension Commission
to deduct payments for insurance
from pension allowance of the ex-
service man and the second one was
an amendment to the Pension Act to
provide that a widowed mother’s
pension shall not be reduced on ac-
count of her income. A lengthy dis-
cussion followed the introduction of
the second resolution and in with-
drawing it Major Powers said: “I
am willing to do my best for the
returned soldiers at any time, but I
will certainly not sit on -the commit-
tee (Pension Committee), another
year. I know that on several oc-
casions during the proceedings of the
committee last year, the soldier vote
was defeated by an almost entirely
civilian vote; and if that is to hap-
pen again — and it might very well
happen on this very question — I do
not see the necessity or any reason
why the committee should sit an-
other year. I am strongly desirous
of furthering the cause of the wid-
owed mothers, and if it were left to
my own feelings in this matter I
would say, ‘Let us come to a show-
down and see whether those who
have been telling lis so much about
their interest in the returned soldiers
and their dependents will prove
their interest by their votes on the
question when put to them in a fair
and straightforward manner.’ How-
ever, it seems to be the opinion of
those who^are better versed in par-
liamentary matters than I am, that
more good may perhaps be obtained
by referring this question again to
a committee. Therefore, I beg leave
to withdraw the motion.”

The Mounted Police.

The estimates were brought down
on Tuesday by Sir Henry Drayton,
Minister of Finance, and in many
departments there is a notable re-
duction.

One hundred and twenty-five re-
cruits were secured by Commission-
er Perry of the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police in Great Britain dur-
ing the /past year, ninety-nine of
whom are stationed at Regina and
twenty-six at Ottawa. Commission-
er Perry was sent to England on the
authority of the Prime Minister and
the President of the Privy Council.
He was accompanied by Rt, Hon.
Newton W. Rowell, ex-president of
the Privy Council, and the expense
of Commissioner Perry’s trip was
$1,146.48. Efforts were* made to se-
cure the recruits in Canada by print-
ed posters. The expenses of bring-
ing the recruits to Canada were nil.
The above information was given by
the Government in answer to ques-
tions asked by Mr. Frank S. Cahill
(Pontiac). These recruits are all
ex-service men, of the British army
and against their immigration the
Trades and Labor Congress very
strenuously objected.

Page 11

Walking Across the Cofitment

Mr. and Mrs. Frank J. Dill Tramp the Railroad Tracks En Route
From Halifax to Vancouver.

T ranscontinental trek-
king on the ties must have a
fascination all its own. What
that fascination is one must judge
from the experiences of the third
pair of Halifax hikers to strike
Montreal in the course of their west-
ward journey. Mr. and Mrs. Frank
J. Dill are the happy hikers. Some
one has called them “honeymoon
hikers,” because, although they have
been married two years, this is their
wedding trip. Frank Dill -is a rail-
roader — a brakeman, who used to
run out of Saskatoon and Moose
Jaw, and has a brother an engineer
in that section now. All his family
are railroaders, his father and two
uncles having been engineers. His
wife is known in Nova Scotia as a
champion skater.

They are a young couple, full of
vim and optimism, and they have
chosen this way of seeing Canada
because of its health-giving quali-
ties. Like the other hikers who pre-

but now that the snows are disap-
pearing they will have to accom-
modate themselves to the ties, or
walk alongside of them.

On their route from Halifax to
Montreal the Dills were treated w^th
great kindness everywhere they
stayed, and the railroaders along the
line were greatly interested from a
sporting standpoint in their long
walk. More than once temptation
was put in their way by offer of a
free ride, but the hikers had steeled
themselves against yielding to any
such amelioration of their hardships,
and were glad they had done so,
as they concluded from observation
that some of the offers made them
were for the purpose of testing the
genuineness of their hike.

Mrs. Dill, like her husband, wears
a costume consisting of a mackinaw
and riding breeches. The couple sup-
port themselves en route by selling
postcard photographs showing them
as they appeared at the commence-
ment of their adventurous journey,
which commenced on February 1st
and will terminate when they have
reached Vancouver.

It is not the oath that makes us
believe the man, but the man the
oath. — Aeschylus.

TAKING NO RISK

Fair Visitor — Why are you giving
Fido’s teeth such a thorough brush-
ing?

Fond Mistress — Oh! The poor
darling’s just bitten somediorrid per-
son, and, really, you know, one can’t
bg_.too careful. 9

Mr. and Mrs. Frank C. Dill

ceded them they are describing their
experiences in nightly wires to the
Halifax Herald, which is encourag-
ing them to go on and break records.
Mrs. Dill has already broken a re-
cord, for until her arrival here no
woman had ever walked from Hali-
fax toi Montreal, and possibly no wo-
man ever walked so far in one
straight hike, purely for the love of
the thing.

Immediately ahead of the pair are
a father and son named Behan, who,
instead of walking the ties walk the
rails, each holding an end of a long
stick to lualance himself on the rail.
The Dills tried that scheme too, and
walked 150 miles that way, but
found the lack of resilience in the
rails too much for them. While the
Behans said it had no effect on their
walking the Dills found it tiring, and
returned to the track. So far, ow-
ing to the snow lying between the
ties they have been able to walk
with whatever stride suited them,

Could Not Sleep

Mr. Earnest Clark, Police
Officer, 338 King SU, Kingston,
Ont., writes:

“For three years I suffered
from nervousness and sleep-
lessness. I believe my condi-
tion was brought about by \
overwork. I had frequent
headaches, neuralgic pains and
twitching of ® nerves and
muscles. I had indigestion,
was short of breath and easily
tired. I commenced a treat-
ment of Dr. Chase’s Nerve
Food, and seven bo^es of this
medicine cured me of all my
symptoms. I am now feeling
one hundred per cent, better
than I was, and have to thank
Dr. Chase’s Nerve Food for
the good health I am now en-
joying.”

Dp. Chase's Nerve Food, 50 cents a box,

5 for $2.75, all dealers, or Kdmanson,

Bates & Co., Ltd., Toronto.

•

DrChase's^^
Nerve Food v~- s '

^1

NO DEFENSE

Lawyer — I think I can get you a *
divorce, madam, for cruel and in-
human treatment — but do you think
your husband will fight the suit ?

Woman — Fight! Why, the little'
shrimp dasn’t even come into a room
where I am!

SURE SIGN.

She (tenderly) — “When did you
first know you loved me?”

He — “When I began to get mad
when people said you were brainless
and unattractive.” /

FIVE

TTvpT

FLOUR

FOR
PUDDINGS

-CAKES
PASTRIES

(Ut^LtRIRKIIflftitmillllllllllllllllgllllllllinHUgmBfllBlII&HlSMHSn

Page 12

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

March 19, 1921

Education and Class Barriers New York C. P. R. Building

{By TOM MYERS , Labor M.P . for
Spen Valley , in Reynold's News-
paper, London).

O NE of the most sinister move-
ments which has shown itself
during (the past few months
has been that which has for its ob-
ject the curtailment of expenditure
upon education. Not only do the
suggestions which come from this
agitation go back upon many lofty
wartime pronouncements, but they
ignore a firm and widely-recognized
acceptance that well-directed ex-
penditure upon education is a sound
national investment.

There are indications that much
of the criticism emanating from this
quarter is both misdirected and ill-
informed. Apart from urging that
the provisions of the Education Act,
1918, which are still inoperative,
should not be applied, there appears
to be little point in most of the ob-
pections put forward.

It is quite true that the annual
cost of elementary and secondary
education has doubled since 1914.
But that is not the result of a
greater volume of educational work '
being done. It is solely to the extra
cost of educational services, arising
out of the exigencies of the abnor-
mal conditions of the past five years.
But it does not constitute a reason
why a sound and progressive edu-
cational policy should not be follow-
ed. The suggestion that national
economy can be effected by and
through a slackening of educational
effort is a fallacy that needs to be
challenged.

National Need To-day.

The balancing and extension of
educational opportunity is one of the
pressing needs of our time. There
is nothing inside the national life
to-day which creates and sustains
class distinctions to the extent that
our educational system does. The
worst features of that class antagon-
ism which some sections of society
deplore are produced and perpetuat-
ed by the one-sided educational yss-
tem now prevailing, and it is being
fostered and sustained by those who
protest most strongly against the
class bias which sometimes prevails.

What is needed at the present
time is that our educational systepi
should be treated as a comprehensive
whole, one phase complementary and
not independent of the other. * It is
now in a series of water-tight com-
partments, conditioned to the re-
quirements of those who occupy
them.

This sectional aspect of education
is well understood by those who pro-
fit by the higher educational facili-
ties which are available. But it
creates that class outlook, and per-
petuates that exclusiveness which an
all-round educational opportunity
would break down. Education is one
of the most powerful factors in the
balancing of human relationship.

The equalization of educational
opportunity would wipe out a large
proportion of present-day snobbish-

ness, and a better understanding of
each other would be made possible
through all grades of society; while
the wider diffusion of educational
advantages which would come to a
larger number of people would be
a tangible gain to the country as a
whole.

Between Cradle and Factory.
There are, roughly, .some 6,000,-
000 children in the elementary
schools of England and Wales. Few
of these children will secure any oth-
er education. Under present condi-
tions it is absolutely inevitable that
these children will cut off their edu-
cation at a point when the real edu-
cation that counts should begin.

Our elementary school system is
not judged in the light of a proba-
tionary period of education, but
merely as the intermediary between
the cradle and the Factory Ages.
Instead of the elementary school be-
ing recognized as an educational pre-
paratory stage, it has become the
medium through which a set of in-
dustrial workers will come with a
. slightly sharper mentality than the
generation which preceded them.

And the teachers in our elemen-
tary schools chafe under the system
which imposes these limitations, and
denies to them that satisfaction
which the realization of a completed
work provides. And if the industrial
population come round to see the de-
fects of our educational system and
demand the wider opportunity to
which the children are entitled, the
facilities for such further education-
al progress are not available.

There are, roughly, 250,000 to
300,000 scholars in attendance at the
secondary sohools.vof England and
Wales. At present these schools are
being used as primary schools for
the children of middle class people.

Thousands of young children of
ten years and under are An attend-
ance at these schools to-day, who
have not seen inside an elementary
school, and who have had little or no
preparatory course education.

Yet for the year ending March 31,
1920, there were 11,134 applicants
for free places in the secondary
schools of England and Wales whom
the school authorities were unable to
admit, but would have been ready
to do so had the accommodation been
available. The secondary schools of
the country are only called upon to
provide 25 per cent, of their accom-
modation as free places for children
who come up from the elementary
schools after a stiff scholarship ex-
amination, often at the sacrifice of
necessary leisure and recreation.

The Bank Balance Passport.

The remaining 75 per cent, of the
scholasr in the secondary schools are
free-paying pupils. These walk right
in, and little or no preliminary test
is applied. The bank balance of their
parents is their passport. Children
who fail in the scholarship examina-
tion at the elementary school fre-
quently enter the secondary schools

- ii

Great interest is being taken by
New York transportation and real
estate men in the decision taken by
the Canadian Pacific Railway to
concentrate its various offices into
one building close to the Grand Cen-
tral Station.

The Canadian Pacific deal, which
has required an entire year to close
on account of its elaborate ramifica-
tions, involves a lease from the
Madison Avenue Offices, Inc., the
holding corporation for the Fifth
Church of Christ Scientist, of a
large store, basement and almost the
entire second floor of the 44th Street

E ortion of this twenty-one story
uilding; and also involves an in-
vestment of considerable proportions
by the Canadian Pacific Railway
Company in the building itself, in
consideration of which the name of
the building will be changed from
“Madison Avenue Offices,” or, as it
has sometimes been referred to, the
“Christian Science Building,” and
will be re-named the “Canadian
Pacific Building.”

The area of the plot on which the
building stands covers over 31,000
square feet, and is situated directly
opposite the Hotel Biltmore on the
east, Brooks Brothers' building to
the north and the old Hotel Man-
hattan to the south.

The Canadian Pacific Railway will
occupy in the store, basement and
second floor, all that part of the
building on which only a year ago
stood St. Bartholomews' Churcn.
demolished last April, to make wav

for the great uptown trend of busi-
ness.

. The negotiations just closed pro-
vide, in addition to the investment
mentioned above, a lease for 21
years at an aggregate rental of
something approaching $3,000,000.
It was said by F. R. Perry, General
Agent, Passenger Department, in
New York, for the Canadian Pacific,
that it will give up its railway offices
at Broadway and 30th Street and its
branch at Broadway and 33rd Street,
and will combine its railway, steam-
ship, and colonization departments
in its new home on Madison Avenue.
The plans of the Canadian Pacific
Company are oarticularly signifi-
cant in that they will provide the
largest consolidated ticket offices
in New York, for, in addition to their
own occupancy, it is said by the
agents of the new Canadian Pacific
Building, that negotiations are pend-
ing with several of the largest trans-
continental railroads for representa-
tion in the same store. This ar-
rangement is similar to the Rail-
road Administration during the war.

The stoi*e has a frontage of 81 ft.
6 in. on Maidson Avenue and 146 ft.
6 in. on 44th Street. The Canadian
Pacific Building will contain over
400,000 square feet of rental area
and will be the most up-to-date office
building in the Grand Central Dis-
trict. Many offices and much space
have already been leased to influ-
ential corporations, and it is said by
the agents that other important
leases are now pending.

as fee-paying pupils if ^hey have the
financial backing.

The average annual fees paid at
the secondary schools are about $40
per scholar. The annual cost of
their education is now from $140 to
$150 per scholar. The deficiency
is made up out of local rates and
Government grants.

The total estimated cost of sec-
ondary and higher education in Eng-
land and Wales for the current year

is nearly $50,000,000, of which sum
probably less than $7,500,000 is de-
rived from fees, a comparatively
small contribution, but which assists
to keep intact the class exclusiveness
of the system. The remedy is not
to be found in raising the fees. That
will only intensify the present posi-
tion. To abolish the fees would only
add a sum equal to about l-50th part
of our present educational expendi-
ture.

March 19, 1921

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

Page 13

Honored T rainman for His
Brave Action

Nearly one hundred citizens of
Three Rivers and Canadian Pacific
Railway employees assembled in the
city hall at Three Rivers the other
evening on the occasion of the pres-
entation of a parchment of the Royal
Canadian Humane Association to
Trainman Norbert Lafontaine, of
the Canadian Pacific Railway, for
life saving, at Three Rivers Station.
Pro-Mayor A. Gouin presided, and
was supported on the platform by
Mr. W. J. Uren, assistant general
superintendent of the Canadian Pa-
cific Railway, Montreal; Mr. 0. M.
Lavoie, divisional superintendent,
Montreal; Mr. A. H. Kendall, district
master mechanic, Montreal; Mr. Les-
lie, Three Rivers; F. W. Fox, press
bureau, Montreal; Chief of Police
Berthiaume, Mr. R. E. Keough, as-
sistant engineer maintenance of
way, Montreal; R. Walton, division
master mechanic; W. H. Harper,
resident engineer; G. Couture, C.
Murdoch, E. Lapointe, Alderman N.
Lamy, M. Faily, A. Bettez, Messrs.
J. 0. Lacousiere, V. Burrill, C. S.
Burrill, R. Ryan, L. N. Jourdain, C.
H. Moineau and Dr. Bellac.

Pro Mayor Gouin, in asking Mr.
Uren to make the presentation on
behalf of the society and the C. P.
R., paid a tribute to the railway
company for the manner in which

THEATRES

n n

MONTREAL

TORONTO

OTTAWA

HAMILTON

LONDON

WINDSOR

n n

POPULAR PRICES

Excellent Entertainment

it took care of the welfare of the
employees. There was no company,
he said, that did more for its men
and encouraged promotion to those
deserving, consequently it behooved
them all to remember and in return
for those good things to give effici-
ency and service.

Mr. Uren said: “We are met to-
gether to-night to do honor to a
fellow workman, an employee of the
Canadian Pacific Railway Company,
who has been awarded the much
coveted parchment of the Royal
Canadian Humane Association for
life saving. As you all know, it was

Two days out from Victoria, go-
ing north on the West Coast of Van-
couver Island! One travels most of
the way in the open sea with the
nearest land to the left, the islands
of Japan and the Siberian coast. But
now and then, according tq the
freight destination, the ship runs up
some of the loveliest waterways in
the world. These are the inland
passages which the Pacific has made
for itself in thousands of years in a
vain effort to bisect Vancouver Is-
land. At the last, in spite of the
many miles of inroads it has made,
the sea always falls back discom-
fited, for a great chain of mountains
runs down the centre of this island,
and taunts the might of the ocean
— “Thus far shalt thou come and no
farther/’

One of the most beautiful c*f these
groping arms of the sea enters in
at Nootka Sound, and curves around
a score of islands, and innumerable
islets, finding its winding way out
through Tashish Narrows, accom-
panied for all its journey by clouds
of gulls, cormorants, and Siwash
ducks, which circle about, and dip
and sway in colorful, rhythmic com-
panies, reflected, as is everything in
earth and sky, in the placid water
mirror through which the ship

by his promptitude, coolness and
courage that Trainman Norbert La-
fantaine saved the life of an un-
identified lumberman on September
15th last on the platform at Three
Rivers.

“It was when train No. 351 was
being switched that a man, while
attempting to jump on to one of the
cars, fell between the train and the
platform. Lafontaine saw the acci-
dent and immediately sprang for-
ward, pulled him out at great risk
to himself, and thereby saved him
from being badly injured if not
killed.

“It is these acts of bravery and
cool courage that the officials of the
company delight to see properly
acknowledged. It is interesting to
know that while the railway expects
efficiency from its employees, it is

cleaves noiselessly.

Nootka is the oldest settled dis-
trict on the West Coast of Van-
couver Island, and it remains almost
as it was in the beginning. In spite
or the fact that there is a large
modern cannery at the wharf, with
every labor saving device installed,
the Indians who work there live in
the same kind of rude little huts that
they had hundreds of years ago.
Narrow winding trails lead one
through dense woods, where the path
is often broken by a noisy waterfall,
which must be crossed on a fallen
log or rough boulders. Only an
hour’s journey from the cannery is
Friendly Cove, famous as the scene
of many a murder long ago, includ-
ing that of whole ships’ crews; and
the enslaving of white men by the
Indian king. Here are to be seen the
remains of ancient Spanish barri-
cades, and mounds of whitened
skulls, the latter gruesome remind-
ers of wholesale massacres.

Along the West Coast are dotted
missions and mission schools, but
Nootka scorns such* innovations, as
she does all things that go with
civilization. This may be deplorable,
but it makes for interest ana what is
picturesque. Barefooted and bare-
legged the old squaws greet one,
clad in colors as gay as they can
find, with their heads tied un in

also desirous of endeavoring to pro-
mote a kindly feeling amongst the
workers, and has always endeavored
to give honor where honor is due,
as in this particular case, immedi-
ately the attention of the higher of-
ficials was drawn to it an effort was
made to secure proper recognition,
and it is for this purpose that we
are met together.

“In conclusion, I hope that you
will all learn an object lesson from
the bravery performed by Mr. La-
fontaine, and it gives me very great
pleasure to present on behalf of the
Royal Canadian Humane Associa-
tion and the Canadian Pacific Rail-
way this parchment in recognition
of your noble deed, and trust that
you will live long and prosper.”

Mr. Lafontaine briefly acknow-
ledged the parchment.

brilliant kerchiefs. They chatter to
one in their own unintelligible jar-
gon, their beady eyes brightly con-
temptuous, their smile infinitely pa-
tronizing. Their daughters work in
the cannery. They wear the head-
dress of gaudy hue, but are clad
from head to foot in yellow mack-
intosh. Some of them are comely,
most of them are uncouth, but they
make a vividly colorful picture, as
they crowd to meet the boats.

The old women bring baskets and
mats — the former really beautiful
works of art, made of rushes or the
inner bark of the cedar, woven in
fine and intricate designs. They sell
them for a mere song, compared
with the price one is asked in the
cities’ shops.

The chief’s house stands at the
right of a great waterfall, and all
round it, drawn up but of reach of
the water, salt or fresh, lie a score
of war canoes, some in the em-
bryonic stage, some finished. They
are made from hollowed cedar logs,
and are ornamented lavishly, with
rows of pretty shells inlaid, and
grotesque head pieces of ravens or
ducks. They are burned on the out-
side and highly polished, and are
painted red within. Nothing can be
more quaintly beautiful, nor more
suggestive of the old dags of tragic
adventure.

Pictures From The West Coast of Vancouver Island

Totem Poles, Nootka Sound. Caves, Maqunea Point, Nootka Sound.

Page 14

March 19, 1921

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

,

Porridge and the Patriot

( From Our Own Correspondent ).

Glasgow.

T HERE is no doubt that Scot-
tish nationalism has lately
expressed itself dn many dif-
ferent ways. We have seen in, Glas-
gow the beginnings of a movement
to establish native drama on perma-
nent lines; we have heard what Pro-
fessor Craigie had to say about the
decay of the vernacular and what
the Burn’s orators had to say about
Professor Craigie, and we are about
to enter a busy Musical Festival sea-
son. But nobody, so far as we know,
has yet touched upon that aspect
of patriotism which is related to the
price of oatmeal.

Porridge — despite the artificial
popularity of the haggis at this sea-
son of the year — is pre-eminently
the characteristic item of northern
dietary. Figures
r e c ently pub-
lished move one
to ask whether
or not porridge
is just quite so
popular in Scot-
land as it used
to be.

During the
last two years
the price of the 280 lb. sack of Mid-
lothian oatmeal soared to no less
than 108s per sack, a figure at which
it remained for several months on
end. Meal, that is, was being re-
tailed at well over 5s a stone. Be-
fore the war the stone of oatmeal
cost about 2s. It is a legitimate
conclusion that when the price was
more than doubled the demand fell
off, and the plate of porridge dis-
appeared from many a Scottish
breakfast-table.

In making such an estimate, we
remember that very many Scotsmen
have not the same need of solid,
sustaining food as their grand-
fathers had. Industrialism has driven
into the cities and towns the bulk
of the population, and of these mil-
lions a very considerable proportion
is engaged on sedentary work.
Whether or not, these sedentary
workers actually need as much
strong feeding as their bucolic fore-
bears, it is a fact that the modern
semi-cloistered habit of ilife is not
conducive to heavy eating.

Simultaneously with that effect of
intensive industrialism, there has
come the tendency to adopt the
habits of long-settled communities.
Thus the blandishments of bacon
and eggs have not been displayed in
vain before the urban Scot. Alto-
gether, it seems reasonable to say
that the popularity of porridge has
inevitably declined, quite apart from
the unpopularity of its high price
during the last few years. It has
been seen that, when forced by eco-
nomic pressure to choose between
his porridge and his bacon, many a
Scotsman has turned his back, how-
ever regretfully, on the tradition of
his race.

A Bowl of Porridge.

There is undoubtedly a physical
aspect of the question, upon which
no layman can accurately lay down
the law. Perhaps the sedentary
worker is best furnished for his pe-
culiar tasks with the light breakfast
of bacon and eggs. Surely the man-
ual worker is most properly equip-
ped for his darg after a good bowl of
porridge. That is for medical auth-
ority to say. In the meantime, we
can only wonder what is it to be the
general effect of the recent marked
decline in the price of oatmeal.

It has been quoted in Glasgow this
week at from 59s to 64s per sack.
At the latter figure, the retail price
should be round about 4s per stone
— double the pre-war price, it is true,
but yet a considerable drop from the
famine rates lately ruling. And as
spring approaches milk is becoming
more plentiful. In other words, por-
ridge promises to become, compara-
tively, one of the cheapest forms of
food available.

The relief to the manual worker,
who has never forsworn his faith
in it, will be great. But will the in-
door worker come back to the por-
iridge-plate again and restore a na-
tional glory in all its perfection?
By thus defying general economic
evolution, he may set a-going that
other immediate economic factor
which will check the tendency of oat-
meal prices to fall. So we may have
to ask the Ministry of Health what
is best for the community as a
whole. Or perhaps we should just
let things work themselves out. That
is probably what we shall do.

— James Gibson.

MOTHERS’ PENSIONS IN
DEMAND.

T HE growing conviction among
social workers of this city
that the provincial govern-
ment should make some provision,
similar to that of certain other pro-
vinces, for the financial relief of
mothers with dependent children,
where the bread-winner has been re-
moved by death, or disabled in a
permanent way, found expression in
a public meeting convened by, and
held at the offices of the Charity
Organization Society, 70 Jeanne
Mance street, Montreal. The meet-
ing was representative of all charit-
able ehterprise of the' city, Catholic,
Protestant and Hebrew, and of labor,
and the expressions of opinion were
unanimously in favor of formulat-
ing some preliminary plans for ac-
tion. The meeting formally approv-
ed of the principle of mother’s pen-
sions and appointed a committee of
nine to investigate and prepare data
in backing up their case when it has
to be presented to the Government.

The meeting was presided over by
Senator Dandurand, with Mr. John
B. Dawson officiating as secretary,
among those present being Madame
H. Fortier, Lady Hingston, Mr. E..
Valentyne of the St. Vincent de Paul
Society; A. Mathieu, president of the

Trades & Labor Council; J. A. Wood-
ward, of the Fifth Sunday Meeting
Association; Mr. Jesse Perlman of
the Federation of Jewish Philan-
thropies; Madame Gerin Lajoie of
the Federation Nationale St. Jean
Baptiste; Mrs. Wellington Dixon of
the Children’s Bureau; Miss L. E. F.
Barry of the Catholic Social Service
Guild.

The committee mentioned was con-
stituted as follows: Dr. Grace
Ritchie, England; Miss Granville
Boissonnault, St. Jean Baptiste So^
ciety; Madame H. Fortier, Catholic
Women’s League; Mrs. J. B. Lear-
mont, Mrs. J. J. Louson, Charity
Organization Society; Miss L. E. F.
Barry, Catholic Social Service Guild;
Miss Frank, Federation of Jewish
Philanthropies; J. B. Dawson, Sec-
retary Charities Organization So-
ciety; Mrs. J. A. Henderson, Local
Council of Women.

Government Aid.

In the discussion which preceded
the action taken, it was pointed out
by Miss Barry, Mr. Perlman, Mr.
Valentyne, Mrs. Gerin Lajoie and
others associated with active phil-
anthropic work in the city, that
there were ever accumulating calls
on their resources and that there
was need for government interven-
tion in the matter if the work was
to be carried on as it should be.

’ The opinion was also voiced by
Mr. Woodward and Mr. Mathieu, rep-
resenting labor, that the welfare and
happiness of the people was the

greatest charge on the State and
that efforts to remove misery and
suffering should be directed from
that source.

Mr. Mathieu observed that the
Trades and Labor Council was al-
ready on record in approval of wid-
ows’ pensions, and Woodward

proposed a resolution calling for the
appointment of a commission looking
to the working out of a government
pension scheme.

This suggestion, however, was dis-
carded in favor of the suggestion
that a committee should prepare a
case, embodying all available data,
to be accompanied by the personal
representations of a delegation
which will wait upon the government
later on. It— was intimated that
the committee will report 4:o another
meeting to be held in the course of
the next three or four weeks.

It was stated by Mrs. Gerin Lajoie
that petitions are being signed in
a number of parishes, in which the
Vincent de Paul organizations are
working, asking for government leg-
islation along the lines suggested.

MACDONALD’S

CUT

BRIER

More Tobacco
For the Money

Packages

15c.

lb. Tins
85c.

March 19, 1921

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

Page 15

B. C. MINIMUM WAGE

BOARD'S ANNUAL REPORT.

Victoria.

Striking proof of the beneficial
effects of the minimum wage laws
in British Columbia is afforded in
the report of the minimum wage
board, which forms part of the an-
nual report of the Provincial De-
partment of Labor. Ever since the
law came into operation there has

been a constant movement toward
higher wages and shorter working
hours among women and girls in the
province. The lowest minimum set
by the board is $12.75, and the high-
est $15.50*

Until your mind and your body
are on fire with eagerness for the
thing you want to do, you will re-
main a common, ordinary man.

TRAOC HARK

Railroad Gauntlets

FIT WELL
LOOK WELL
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SOLD EVERYWHERE

The W. R. Brock company. Limited

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YOU* SLR COMMEND A ON OF FAIRBANKS- MORSK RAILWAY
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✓

Page 16

THE CANADIAN RAILROADER

March 19, 1921

Get all the Tire Mileage You Buy!

T HE average motorist is only getting
about 60 to 80 per cent, of the mileage
which is built into his tires at the factory.
This is the basic reason behind the
Goodyear Service Station policy and
Goodyear Tire Savers.

Many tires, are ruined by poor tubes and
lack of tube care.

Buy good tubes and give them the best
of care.

Clean the rust from rims when you
change a tire.

Be sure the inside of the casing is
clean before you insert the tube.

Learn to use a sprinkle of Good-
year French Talc to
prevent chafing and

friction.

Keep your valves clean a lui , with th ,

and air-tight, and the GtOyttrTuhKttairxu

air-pressure up.

Carry spare tubes inGoodyearTube
bags to prevent injury by loose tools
and from chafing.

Let your GoodyearService Station Dealer
show you the advantages of Goodyear
Heavy Tourist Tubes, and how to use
the Goodyear Tube Repair Kit.

He is glad to do this, and many other
things that save tires, to increase your
mileage. He knows that long mileage
tires bring customers to Him.

He is taught by Goodyear that low-cost-
per-mile has built for Goodyears the
largest sale of any tire in the world.

To supplement his work, we will gladly
send you, free, our Tire
Conservation Course.
Write us at Toronto for
this course.

Tke tube repaired and
ready for talcing