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PAGE FOUR

_T_i;':_i-:_ GUARDIAN,

sgiicnhoifsctowa

1 ___

THE GUARDIAN

Morning Dolly (Founded In 1881i. Authorized us Second Close Mlll. Pout Office Department. Ottawa. l The Island Guardian Publlshng Co.

I President, lon A. Burnett; Vice-President. Will- B»

Burnett; Seep-Trees, (i. M. Burnett; Editor and Managing Director. J. ti. Burnett; Associate Editor. r Frank Walker.

"The Strongest Memory is Weaker Than the Weakest fnk."

CIIARLOTTETOWN, THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 1948

B. B. Sales Tax

The intimation of the British Columbia gov- trnment that it is planning to levy o general sales tax is regarded by the Winnipeg Free Press as a disturbing augury not only to the British Columbia taxpayer, but to all those who hoped to avoid an increase in regressive taxation every- where in Canada.

One of the main evils in Canada's economy, as identified by the Rowell-Sirois Report, is the ‘heavy dependence of government on taxes which take no account of the citizen's ability to pay. The sales tax, of course, is the perfect example of this evil. lt bears equally on the rich and poor, regardless of their incomes. Moreover, in hard times, it discourages consumption and hence production. In boom times like the pres- ent it may not in itself seriously retard the pub- Iic demand for goods (which is excessive in rela- tion to production) but it odds to the cost of living and odds to it inequitably. The British Columbia government, if it proceeds to levy o soles tax on most articles of consumption, as seems probable, will simply increase the financial burden of every household in tho province.

British Columbia has arrived at the suppos- od necessity of a general sales tax by enormous expansion of its provincial budget. This yet". Premier Johnson intimates, tho budget may reach about $70,000,000, truly an amazing fig- uro. The province's collections from its basic in- dustries, from liquor, gasoline and other sources, combined with its grants from the Federal treas-

r

pect in the Province would bo the Government's only chance to survive, and Socialists can do so little about wheat prospects.

i i i fl

There is an ominous familiarity about Rus sia's charges that Norway and Sweden are back- ing British .and American expansion in Northern Europe. Especially in view of Finland's capitula- tion.

w i I fi

The rise and fall of the tide is sometimes a nuisance but we become accustomed to it. We are fortunate in not having large scale spring floods common to non-tidal areas.

* I i 1r

Tourist optimism. At least 22,000,000 tour- ists are expected to visit Canada in the coming holiday season, Fisheries Minister MacKinnon de- clares. This would be the greatest number of tourists on record.

I I I

Arie we" to have a railway, or freight union in the Maritimes to offset the apparent antagonism of Ontario and Quebec? Premier Jones's an?- nouncement would indicate that something of that sort is in the wind.

I i fl I Lighted schools have been instrumental in developing community interest in creative and cultural activity in rural Saskatchewan. Some 500 adults attend 40 lighted schools, learning crafts and taking part in group cultural activities.

o w w w

Ari unfortunate circumstance for the lslond is the tie in between rail and water freight rates which will result in higher costs in whichever way goods oro shipped. w i I I

The working of the children's mind is, not- withstanding psychology past finding out. "Wouldn't it be awful if God asked you to count all the grains of sugar in the bowl?" a little girl said, "but He never would! And if the Devil did, then maybe God would tell you how many there were on the sly. For He'll know!"

w w w w

Gaetaiio Donigetti, Italian composer, died this date I848, and this, his centenary, is being observed in his native land and in England. He was a very prolific and rapid opera writer; he pro-

uiy in lieu of its former income tax, will be in- duced We, m“, operas’ some of which funk

sufficient to finance the present scale of ox- penditures. _ These have been raised inevitably, as in all provinces, by the advancing price of public serv- ices since it costs every government more than formerly to pcy for o day's work or for any item

among the best of the Italian style; the most successful are Lucio di Lammermoor, The Daugh- ter of the Regiment, and La Favorite. I i i I Australian exports to all countries in the lost half of I947 were valued at $512,134,000

9f "PPIIPI- l" “ddlllwlr Ilwweli Bllflsl‘ c°l'l compared with the yearly totals of $988,428,000

umbia has embarked on gigantic road schemes and on social services which now lead the nation and will cost in the neighborhood of $20,000,000 this year.

One of the main purposes of the post-war financial settlement between the national gov- ernment and seven provincial governments was to base public finance, so for as possible, "l progressive taxes-taxes levied on income_ arid hence on ability to pay. Increased provincial

* sales taxes will undermine this purpose.

The clear fact emerging from most of the current provincial budgets is that the provinces generally are embarking on expenditures which they will find difficult to maintain except under boom conditions. For this, as has often happen- ed before, the penalty will be paid in due time.

Aluminum Schools

Aircraft and education they sound pole; apart, but in Britain the aircraft industry i; helping to provide new schools! A big air- plone company which has already contributed to Britain's housing drive by building thousand of aluminum houses is soon to start production of aluminum schools. The schools will be built in units, bolted together on the principle of air- plane constructian. Main aim is flexibility—- there's no rigid pattern to which the school must be built, and the units can be put together in any number of different ways to suit local conditions. They can also be used to add extra classrooms and offices to schools that are over- crowded-already the raising of the school-leov- ing age last year is taking effect, and iii a few years’ time it is estimated that there'll be a mil- lion more young Britons at school than there were in I946. Aluminum schools will be a bless- ing to Britain's teachers for several reasons. They're quick to erect, once the foundations are laid; and the actual time from the placing of the order to delivery at the site is 8 weeks. As the units are so light to handle, costs of transport and erection are small. The classrooms ore sunny and airy, and the deep eaves of the roof reduce glare. A touch of colour can be added by point- ing the insidc of the eaves, while maintenance of the outside surfaces is reduced to a minimum as they are oxydized, The heating arrange- ments are left to the school authorities, and pretty well any form of steam heating or elec- tric heoters can be used. Most important of all—the aluminum schools use one of the few row materials that are not in short supply in Britain today. They require no steel or timber, which is very scarce. Production on a large scale is due to start this Spring, and Britain's teachers and school children will appreciate the aircraft industry's contribution to education.

-- EDIIURIAL NOTES -

All Fool's Day.

i U

Tho R. A. F. founded this date I913.

A good morning to have one’: wits about

Olli- Q I I Q . I The Saskatchewan Government has enough troubles of 11s orm without hovlrrg to lie burden- ed with the puzzling quostlon- of whet tosov reboot o shits monopoly of wheat, which does not pay enough money to ootlsff ll" llrmm, ‘ Letter-Revlon. AgIoiILVIIINWHNI-

for the financial year l946-47, and $388,905,600 in l938-39. Acting Commonwealth Statistician, Stanley R. Carver reports that Australia's ex- ports to the United Kingdom have increased steadily in monetary value since the war. Most of the increase is in foods. Australian imports from the United Kingdom hglve also increased. At Chatham, N.B., the C. N. R. would like to substitute busses for a certain branch line. A conference between the Mayor and railway of- ficials did not result in approval. Many of the citizens present spoke on the matter and H. S. Murray, M.L.A., remarked, "lt gives one a feel- IP19 We fife shrinking up to lose the old steel rails

the history of Canada." Mayor Jones, in sum- ming up, said he did not feel that the Town of Chotham was in a position to state satisfaction with the proppsed changes without further study, and the matter was left open for further negotia- tions.

T ¥ More than 6,000 feacher; are attending the four-day convention, which started in Toronto Monday. "Canada is producing more educated persons than the country can provide educated incomes for on a scale comparable to that of educated persons in the United States," said Mr. Sandwell, Editor of Toronto Saturday Night, the guest speaker. "And the United States is pro- ducing fewer educated persons than it can pro- vide incomes for. Ono of the luxuries Canada cannot afford on the some scale as Americans— because of differential in national income-is the service of educated people. While the United States produces 30 times as many people with degrees as Canada, o considerable proportion of these degrees are not comparable with those of Canadians as qualifications for earning a living in an ‘educated’ occupation. Canada is produc- ing more educated men and women than our na- tional economy can afford." ‘If ‘A’ "k i

The Soviet's threat to block supplies to Irltlsh, French and American partitioned Germ- any is understandable. They did not seize Czechoslovakia out of sheer nastiness. They had a purpose. Ever since thc Cominform was set up last September, Czech Communists have been proposing a Five-Year Plan that would chan Czechaslovakio's whole economy, build up heavy industry and make it the armament work. shop of the Communist states of Eastern Europe‘. The Communists grabbed the government in Prague because Czech resistance to this plan was growing. The Allies cannot now undo the Red grab, but can do a lot to thwart the coup's purpose. Some items mentioned by a Times traveler: (l) The U. S. and Britain can cut off Czech imports of industrial raw materials through tho Western zones of Germany. (2) It can embargo shipments of machinery from tho West. (At present nine U.S.-made mechanical carlooders, presented to the Czechs by UNRRA. are loading uranium ore for Russia or Joachim- sthal.) (3) It con cut off food lmports,,espocial- ly fish and eggs from the Low Countries. These measures would be herd on Innocent Czechs. But more countries will yield to Communist pressure unless the U.S. makes it clsor that to do so wlll moon suffering. ll enough countries go Com- munist, we: will follow and tho Allies wlll have to drop bombs on friends lir Warsaw,‘ Prague and Dresden, just os they dropped bombs on Iiwrico Holland in World War ll.

r _ l ' a.‘ ‘ I- - I

Ilere In Alberto we ore sitting

on great cool beds. omens the greatest 1x1 the world. We have tapped tremendous supplies, of natural gus. And we may uncover one of these days one of the great- est untapped all fields of the world. With these resources we should be doing’ more than we are now doing to provide our own oil supplles. And 1n any event. we should be making sure of our po- sition 1n the future by loylng plans for bringing our o1]. our not.- ural gas and our coal, together to assure 011 requirements for hun- dreds of years to come. Gasoline can be made from natural gas near- ly as cheaply as 1t. can be refined from crude 011. That. is one thing we know now. Coal 1n powdered form can be mixed with low grade oil to make fuel ails of great po\v- er—collo1da1 fuel 1t 1s called. And synthetic all from coal can be class- ed es s. standby 1n case of emer- gency. - Lethbrfdge Herold.

There's no pence anywhere. You find a nice quiet part. of the world, settle down in it and prepare 1.0 enjoy life fer from the maddening crowd and the first. thing you know somebody else has found the place and settled down alongside you. Even the birds are not. immune. Who hasn't. wished once 1n a wh11e that he might be us free as a bird, free to move with the seasons. south for tho winter, north for the summer? The whooping crane has been doing 1t for years. He turns up 1n Texas at. the beginning of every winter end by that. 1n- fallleble almanac that. tells the blrds when to move on, leaves again with the first. breath of spring. But; nobody knows where he goes. They suspect. that. he goes ta the Canadian Arctic, 1n all conscience far enough sway for privacy and peace. But. now two American biologists are on their ivrry'to find out. just where the northern home is. Their intentions are good, The whooping crane ls on the \\'fl_\' to becoming extinct. Only 37 of t-ho species show up 1n Texas each year and the biologists think that 1f they can find out where they go in the summer time the young can be protected and the species saved. Bub 1f we were B ivhooping crane we should whoop 1n protest. We should want. to be left alone to enjoy the peace and quiet of the Arctic to, which neither the Communists nor the dreary debates of the United Nations have yet penetrated. — Montreal Star.

In 11s annual report the other day, the Bell Telephone 60., of Canada announced these truer-est- ing facts: Total number of share- holders 3-1339. Total number 11v- lng 1n Canada 33,013. Stock held by these Canadians 80.8 oer cent. At. a conservative estlmate, those 33,013 shareholders 1n this coun- try would. with their families, certainly represent well over 10f).- 000 Canadians. and they are not concentrated 1n one city or 1n one province but, scattered all over the country. There are doctors, plumb- ers, teachers. farmers, brlcklayers, civil servants, miners, wirioows,

by people that. would be dispossess- crl, 1f the socialists had their way. These are the real capitalists. - Financlal Post.

Pilots of Brltalrfs Royal Alr Force are now gathering material for the first. aerial panorama of East and Central Africa. ever made. Flying at high altitudes they ore photographing each day thousands of miles of tittherto unmupped jungle country. The obJect of this work 1s to provide n complete survey of the possibilities latent. ivitliin those tcnltorles. Suitable sites for new roads and railways v.'111 be revealed and much useful data about untapped mineral de- posits disclosed which could be gleaned in no other way. ~Monc- ton Transcript.

When Jan Masaryk whose mys- terlous death 1n Czechoslovakia has aroused the world was alive he spoke frequently "off the recotd" to newspupcrmcn. One statement, made 1n 19-13, 1_s now given by Hal Lchrmarr- representative of the NEA. It can now be taken as a warning from the grave: "Look. you felloivs (the Untied States) are Just beginning to realize your own strength. America is is giant. and Russia respects giants. 1f I were an American, I'd go ail out. for a tough policy toward Russia. That's the only way for you to keep herdn llne: get. tough." -st. Thomas Times-Journal.

Nova Scotlans In the Annapolis Volley and the Provincial Govern- ment: at Halifax are urging 0t- tawe to make rs national park an Cape Blomldon with u. scenic trail leading to 1t. Highest eminence 1n the region. Cape Blomldon offers views of the Bay of Fundy. Minus Basin and the dykod hey lends of the Evangeline Country, the orchards of the famous Volley, and the hills behind them. ft 1s the natural location for u scenic pork 1n a beautiful and hlstortq port of Canada. - From Ottawa U111- zen. ‘

Some people nro born with n

natural aptitude for writing end their readers huvo the impression that. writing ls so natural to W01 as breothlns- But. oven to o footie writer. creotlve work 1s o (Ill on the broln. and 1f ho concentrates intensely on his work 1t tokoo o lot out of him. It may not lhcrw outwardly 1n hls ptiyslool condi- tion. but lnwordl! the strum 1s felt It 1| on oeknowlodold foot mot

workers 1n s11‘

o. mofluol worker, or o plot ms mun doc. And that condi- tion out ho very sI-linsn- It. ‘Phorriss ‘limos-Journal.

PUBLIC FORUM

[lull column ls open i.- the dlnoullon by corro- spoisaents of questions nl lntorelt. The Charlottetow- Gisordlon does not nooeooor 11y endorse the oplnlon u uusffllflOlldflll‘

A TAXPAYER

Sun-Judging from the speech of the Hon. G. H. Barbour, Minister of one would think the farmers of this Province were u. class of peo- ple with strong backs and weak

thing except. farm chores and shovelliiig snow. This may have been true fifty or sixty years ago but; this generation has grown weaker and wiser. When their backs get sore from shovelllng and breaking roads they begin to won- dor what; the department has done with the thousands of dol- lars which were colleptcd. from those same farmers 1n gas tax, not on can alone, but also on tractors, which we don't hear anything about. 1n either the Minister's or the Premiers speeches»

The farmers of 1111s Province, were led to believe that the three cent. tux was for that purpose, not. for the benefit of the town people and s. few farmers living along the paved highway. Personally I don't think the rural farmers. would have any objections to breaking their own roads, which they have to do anyhow, if the amount. of the three cent gos tax which we pay on s11 our gas Into this so-culled snow removing fund was spent on secondary roads 1n the Summer and Fall. We have s. road running west. from the paved highway of. Nor-hora to North Be- deque, o. road about, eight miles long known as the North Free- town road. If. was 1n such e. con- dition last fall that. had the gov-

ernment; offered it beck to the

Indians they would have been 1n-

sulted end the P. W. D. told they

had safer trails through the for-

ests two hundred years ago. 1'.

has sunken culverts, broken bridges.

even trees across the road. It.

would also help a lot 1f the gov-

ernment maintainer, while buggy-

rlding from one highway to an-

other virlth their shear 1n the rstr.

would keep their shear down and

scrape the woy es they went.

Judging from the way some of

those maintainers were used last.

year they would be better named

"Revenue Destroyers.” Those sec-

ondary roads ere the roads the

mall hauler, and the cream haul-

er heve to travel over each day.

Most: of the farmer's produce has

to be hauled over them to market.

They ere seldom, 1f ever, seen by

the engineer and more or less 1g-

nored by the roadmuster-

This 1s the true condition of the

secondary roads 1n this district.

I am, Sir. etc,

TAX PAYER.

MARRIED TEACHERS SUGGESTED

Sir, - In B. recent. address Lleiit. Col. Leo MacDonald gave some sug- gestions for improvements 1n the administration (of our educational

which have played such an important part in and business men 1H5 these “my. system In this province. He rec-

ommended the larger unit. of od-

rnlnistratiori. Our schools are now

administered by about. 1400 school

trustees. If we could get along with

400 trustees 1t stands to reason we

could find a. larger percentage of trustees with special qualifications for the job.

Col. MacDonald suggested that

the areas looking forward to the

establishment of Regional High

Schools would make suitable start-

lng-places far “larger unit." ad-

ministration. These areas comprise

about. 20 school districts. Instr-ad of 60 school trustees p board of 5 or '7 would be enough.

The principle behind the larger school unit. ls the principle of co-

operation. By working together peo- ple can accomplish things tlirit

they could iicvrr drrrun of doing

individually. Some effort must, be put. forth lo ensure ihc smooth ivarklng of this larger co-operatlve educational movement. That the ctfnrt. will be well worthwhile ls Pvldcnt from the fact that all prov- lnccs and cough-fps “gm-e u“. 1s,-g- er unit 1s irscd are unanfirnous 1n affirming that decided advantages are achlevcil. simi- of these advant- HZES are: (1) Children svltrhln the larger unll. arch have opportunity equalized (opportunity and facil- lries vary mur-h_nc~,v fictive-en dls- tricts), (i!) Tax rates are equalized thus spreading costs of education more evenly (foxes and costs per Pupil now vary greatly between districts) (3) Larger unli admiri- lstratlan facilitates engaging and placement of teachers (best teach- ers can be placed where work 1s most. difficult and vlce verso). (4) Larger unit will facilitate the pro- vlslqn al’ High School education (so few pupils of High school age ex- ist 1n each school district - Grades IX and X) that Hlgrh School edu- cation will llhver command the st.- tentlori 1t deserves). This larger unit was recommended the Royal Commission on Elucat on un- der the ch-lrmanshlp of the Hon- ourable Dr. Cyrus MocMlllon o1- most twenty years ago. -

education be standardised 1n the three Morlttirae Provinces.