The Leader-Post from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada • 11

REGINA, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1941 Th l1r-Pnst la Dy Th Lerler-Pnl. Ltnrtt. 1RS3 Himil. ion Heguia. D.

HnKeni. Kriitor. J. K. Swmry, Buainew Manafer.

Momber of Tin Canadian Preo. eader-Post Editorials "Where Aii Think Alike, No One Thinks Very Much" Allies Talk Uh Huh Moving Towards Common Policy The Dollar Is O.K. Too Much By Col. Frederick Palmer, U.S. Military Expert WASHINGTON.

Adolf Hitler might well thank us, but he will not. Naturally he hopes that the two great democracies will make such breaks a habit for the duration of the war. The British announce there will be no landing of another B.E.F. to reopen the western front, relieving Hitler of any worry on that score. He will have to divert no troops from the Russian front except for police duty while his firing squads are subject to no casualties in shooting French hostages.

To keen un our end with Britain we herald our intention to send aid to Russia by way of Archangel. This Is real, "after you, gentlemen," chivalry of old when one side waited until the other was ready to begin the battle. We tell Hitler just where to send his submarines and planes to sink cargoes en route and when being unloaded and to cut the railroads for its transfer to the Russian front, The ice breakers which keep the port of Archangel open in winter would also be vital targets. in Washington is in marked contrast to the former doctrines of political and economic nationalism which did so much to wreck the post-war settlement and to aid the rise of revolutionary, anti-democratic and militarist regimes in Europe. If this world outlook continues into the peace, mankind should find it possible to avoid the economic blind alleys of the past and the sense of frustration and hopelessness that worked in all the peoples and did so much to produce catastrophe.

Another indication of the trend of ideas in the democratic states is to be seen in the address of Major Clement Attlee before the International Labor Conference in New York. He, too, stressed the need of "winning the peace." It is the expectation of the I.L.O. that its machinery will be called upon by the Allied governments when peace terms and reconstruction problems are up for consideration. An 11 point program, comprehensive in scope, has already been drawn up by Edward J. Phelan, acting director, and this will no doubt be carefully considered by the present conference.

Meanwhile the United States appears to be moving in another direction towards a closer partnership with the British Commonwealth. There are indications that, as part payment for lend-lease supplies, Washington will seek the right to use British naval bases wherever necessary. This sounds like a common sense arrangement. Originally such bases were more or less police posts of empire. Now they have assumed a world significance and since the United States has a common interest with Britain in preserving peace and keeping open the great, sea lanes, a pooling of resources should be on the cards.

American commentators have not always been particularly sympathetic in their treatment of British imperial problems. It will now probably occur to many of them that it was just as well that so many of these strategic little bits of real estate were acquired by a friendly naval power with a sense of world responsibility developed through the experience of centuries. Although the Fascist mind has been extremely fertile in military and propagandist ideas, it has been singularly barren of constructive thought on political, social and economic world reorganization. Morally it is utterly bankrupt. Socially It has nothing to offer beyond a caste system founded upon "race." Economically, the "New Order" means little more than the establishment of a new world imperium with an all-powerful German industry and the reduction of other countries to colonial status.

In other words what the Nazis have done is to seize upon the more baneful ideas of other peoples in other times and to carry them with ruthless Teutonic thoroughness to their logical conclusions. Just here is the chink in the Nazi armor. Ideas no less than arms can shake the world and ideas endure long after weapons have grown rusty and dull. There are many who feel that it is a waste, of time to talk of post-war reconstruction while the very existence free peoples is still threatened by the murdering hordes of the dictators. Realists like Roosevelt and Churchill fJo not think so.

They know that in the last great struggle the democratic peoples not only outfought but also out-thought the German militarists. They are convinced that the achievement of 1918 can be repeated in our day and that conviction is written into the Atlantic charter. It is encouraging to learn from Washington that the United States is not satisfied merely with an agreement on broad, fundamental objectives. Negotiations are reported to be under way with the object of arriving at a common view regarding such principles as the removal of excessive trade restrictions, non-discrimination in international commercial relations, nondiscriminatory use of raw materials, regulation of supplies of commodities to protect the interests of consumer nations and people and the employment of international finance in aid of essential enterprises and in the general development of all countries. The new concept of world economic interdependence which now holds sway Editor Out for Bargain What Price Elephants? By B.P.

So Winter Comes one had been asked, all available books had been scanned. But no! One man had been overlooked the provincial editor. Yes, the provincial editor was the man! Numerous have been the tales concerning this intrepid pioneer of the west. How he is able to give a thesis on any question from aabenraa to zygandenus without any prior notice, how he is able to tell without a pause, the middle name of the Indian who loaned Sitting Bull a half dollar to buy himself a drink on that rainy Tuesday just prior to Custer's demise and other such things that might baffle even tne brightest of the quiz kids. Quick-like we rushed up to him and said quote what does an elephant cost unquote.

Equally as quick he came right back at us "four years ago you could buy one for $400, that was before the war, though. Now you can pick one up for between $4,000 and $5,000. But there's a war on. The hay would cost quite a bit of money. Let's see now, a ton of hay last Saturday could be bought for We didn't wait for the rest of it.

We ran for the editor. He could judge for himself whether the figures were right or not. He could ask too, if there are any elephants in Canada. It is all very puzzling to such a case-hardened old hand at war as this writer, who had the tough task of being press censor on the A.E.F. for six months.

Hairline decisions had to be made about innocent-looking small items lest experts of the German intelligence service should find one to be the needed bit in filling out a picture puzzle. But judgment about certain big things which were positive "nots" was axiomatic. We did not tell the Germans where our line was weak and where it was strong; or how many divisions we had at a given point; or where we were going to make our next drive. Yet parallel breaks have been made both in London and Washington. In London there Is a censorship.

We have none except voluntary on the par-jof the press and discretion in the information given out to the press. An over-all British-Amelrfcan understanding about "security of and propaganda, too, might result in fewer slips and more ought to know as democracies in which public opinion has the final deciding voice. There are times when it is, a mistake not to publish what it is certain the enemy already knows, even If the news is bad. Such was the case when the French army censorship refused lo admit anything like the extent of the disaster to Nivelle's army in March, 1917. The truth might have stirred us out of the 4 "business as usual" attitude into more effort, and we should not have had such a close shave to losing the war in face of the German drives of the spring of 1918.

In the critical early summer of 1918 we announced that we had a million men France and a million more were coming. We dwejt on the enormous supply service we had built in France. This was great good news for the soldiers of our Allies. We managed to get it as propaganda across the trench line as bad news for the Germans, weakening their morale. But was it good British policy, looking toward Moscow, not only to announce no re-opening of the western front, but to express concern over invasion as a probability to be kept In mind? This was passing the word to Hitler that his invasion threat still kept the British army tied to Inaction.

It was not encouraging to Russia. Why not hold the threat over Hitler of actual preparations to re-open the western front to disturb his calculations at the same time it encourages Russia? North Amrnran Nrwspaprr Alliance. By B. T. RICHARDSON OTTAWA.

With the spotlight of national affairs in Canada centred on problems of economic stabilization, the question naturally comes up why do we need to stabilize? Why do prices tend to go up so the government needs to bring them under control? Why are wages acting the' same way as prices and need to be brought under control? The way to avoid argument would be to say that it is all on account of the war, and change the subject. But if that is as far as one can go in explaining what is happening in Canada at present, it will not explain much. Since Canada is taking extraordinary precautions against inflation at the present time, it is important to understand why inflation is possible and what kind of inflation it is. The experts have been writing books about money for years. If you turn in to Alcove A on the main floor of the parliamentary library you will find rows and rows of books on money and inflation and banking.

You could stop there and when you came up for air 10 years from now you might have all the answers. But you would be much too late for today's newspaper or next month's session of parliament. Inflation to most people means that the banks have been issuing too much money, and when there is too much currency around the value of each dollar drops, prices of everything else go up. This favorite theory about inflation is absolutely useless and meaningless as far as the present situation goes. This can be shown easily.

But if you examine the present economic situation in Canada, you would find that the threat of inflation arises from a number of causes all due to the war about each of which a book could be written. The Canadian people have much more money to spend than ever before in history. They have more money in the bank than ever There are more people who could write a cheque or lay the cash on the line for an automobile, a radio or a new refrigerator than ever before. The Canadian people in the aggregate never had three billion dollars in the bank before, and they have more than that right now. At the same time, instead of producing more goods for people to buy, Canadian industry is straining every nerve to make things for the armed forces, things the people cannot buy.

So there is a vast pool of purchasing power in Canada and relatively fewer things to buy. In the near future, as everyone knows, there will be still fewer things to buy. The government is cutting down consumer goods in order to have more war goods. If you add all these factors up, you have the answer why Canada must safeguard itself against inflation by controlling prices and wages and regulating the supply of goods. Many of these factors are worth studying much more closely and we expect to write a great deal more about them as time goes on.

We have reached the most fascinating period of economic change Canada has ever seen, and we would not miss it for worlds. Cut the first thins to do is In establish the fact that the currency system is not the cause of any trouble in our case. It is no use studying the famous inflations of the past as a guide to the economic side of this war. Mankind found out long ago that currencies could blow up under pressure, and everyone fighting in this war has pretty well put that danger under control. The famous rase of John Law's Bank Royal in Kranre in 171fi, which issued notes until they were worthless, was a crude note inflation.

Again, the notes issued hy the Continental Congress after 1776, until the Continental dollars were worth only five cents and corn was worth $150 a bushel in Boston, provide another example. The Lincoln government issued of greenbacks in the Civil War, to pay Its bills, and these, mingling in a swirl of state bank notes and counterfeits, brought an inflation which saw butter worth $15 a pound in Richmond. Virginia, boots worth $200 a pair. A press gallery colleague tells the story of buying dinner for three people in Berlin in 1923. The bill was 3 5 billion marks, and he offered a French note for 150 francs, which the waiter could not change.

So he paid the next day, got a billion marks in change, which he gave the waiter as a tip. If you catch your government printing money to pay off its war bills this time look out and run for cover' But there is not the chance of it happening a- Ions a- Canada sticks to its present policies There are more Canadian bank notes in circulation a', present than ever befoie, but this reflects merely the increase business being done. The amount of notes in circulation represents the demand for of this kmd in ordinary business. About 75 percent of business in this country is done by cheque, the remainder hy currency. Small retail purchases, small wage payments and of this kind 'e Hr.rr currency, nearly wv'k by cheque.

Bank-ins rxpe: rmr Canada shows that noT is about onr-len'h of 're of hank deposits: a erase ranking figures in Orphans of the Storm -By A.K.L.C. inishing coal pile in the cellar. There will be the odd blizzard, with the dry, brittle snow whipping across the prairies, stinging our faces and piling itself into hard-packed drifts that defy the unfortunate motorist. There will be the days of piercing cold, when temperatures plumb the depths to touch the 20, 30 and 40 below zero marks, when our noses feel as if someone were pinching them and the snow crunches crisply under foot. And there will be the days of clear, brilliant sunshine, when we breathe deeply of the invigorating prairie air, tingle down to our toes and feel that we could walk from here to Moose Jaw and back again.

When the blizzards blow and the bottom falls out of our thermometers, we will pity ourselves or think what brave chaps we are, depending on whether we are brave chaps or whether we have a cold or not. But when the days of clear, brilliant, intoxicating sunshine come, then we will stand up and wave our arms and think how fortunate we are not to be living in murky Vancouver, or bone-chilling Halifax, where fogs and mist and rain make life a dismal affair indeed for the free men of the prairies, who prefer their weather clear, not soupy. We knew that it was due to happen any day now. We read with shivering apprehension the headline about snow covering part of Alberta. Wc hardly dared look out of the window for the rest of the afternoon, and when we did pUck up courage to do so, sure enough, there they were, little snowflakcs drafting down one by one, little errant snowflakcs, things of beauty and a joy forever, beloved by poets, welcomed by children, but bringing for us, the workers of the world, long months of plunging through snow drifts, the pain of freezing fingers and frostbitten noses, struggles with obstinate furnaces and a host of other discomforts we could very well do without.

In short, winter is here, jolly old winter, who left us such a short time ago, it seems, and who has been peeking slyly around the corner at us ever since the first hard frost. He may blow hot and cold for a few weeks yet, tantalizing us with a few warm, sunshiny days before he pulls up his coat collar and goes to work on us in earnest. Then we can don our flannel-lined overcoats, our huge woollen mitts, our shapeless fur hats that cost 99 cents at last spring's sale, and settle down to keep an eye on that ever-dim Have you a baby elephant in your basement? Sound silly? But we mean it, Honest injun. If you've got a baby elephant we'd like to find out how much you paid for it. Or did somebody give it to you for a wedding present? By all means, though, don't stick a handful of stamps on the pachyderm's posterior and send it through the mail to The Leader-Post like you did with the leopard skins a while back.

Just let us know the price of it. There's really no great reason why we should bother ourselves about the price of an elephant, what with a war on and trying to figure out whether we're eligible for a cost of living bonus or not, but we'd like to find out anyway partly because we're curious, mostly because one of the editors wants to know and picked on us to find out. Maybe he's going to start a circus. Maybe he wants it for one of those army manoeuvres he takes part in every so often. Maybe he's going to start riding to work on it so he can save gas.

He didn't say. All he did was bear down on us and say: "How much does a baby elephant cost?" He didn't even say whether that included sales tax. It sounded easy at first. We hurried to our file of The Billboard the circusman's Bible and scanned back numbers. But no elephants.

Now, if it had been mice, lions, snakes, a five-legged cow, an odorless skunk, a free booklet on how to cure snake bite or a $1.98 book on how to start a carnival we could have obliged in a hurry. Nobody, it seemed, had an elephant thev wanted to sell. Queries around the office proved of no av ail. One fellow said he could provide a whole herd of pink elephants for the price of a mickey. Another said he had a lot of white elephants around the house and his wife would be glad to give them away.

The answers didn't help things in the least. The editor just commented on the ability of reporters to evade the issue at hand. All he wanted to know was the price of an elephant There followed another search, this time through encyclopedias, a medicine journal and even an old copy of Esquire that was found on one of the desks. The search was fruitless. But the magazine pictures were nice.

It looked like the neer-say-die reporter was about to crawl under a convenient desk and die. Every- showed bank deposits of $2,582 million, active note circulation of $216 million, giving a ratio of cash to deposits of 10.4. In 1940. average bank deposits were $2,722 million, active note was $287 million, giving a of 10 6. In June this year ban deposits were $3,031 mill, on.

circulation $378 million, a ratio of 105. The important feature nf these figures is that therr no inflation of note currenrt. The turn toUl of note in circulation larger, but (he ratio still utands where it was before the war. If (here i danger of inflation in Canada, the currency Is not to blame. Vote circulation is just sufficient to do the same proportion of business (hat it was doing before the war.

and that about as perfect a rurrrnrv ntrol ran be. New Chapter in "Reuters" History in the baby carriage and yet, with callous ease, they desert her to strange hands." Mrs. McLaughlin can tell actual 'cruelty cases which "make your hair stand on end." She tells of a farmer near the Refuge, whose barn, with 130 pigs trapped inside, caught fire. Twenty-one only were rescued but many of those destroyed had their ears burned off and their skins burned black and crisp. The farmer would do nothing to put them out.

of their misery and only after police and Mrs. McLaughlin's interference were the animals humanely destroyed. Another farmer kept his animals in such a rickety, drafty old barn that they contracted pneumonia, and they were not tended until pressure was brought to bear. Other "demons'' had been hi might to account for pouring inflammable liquid on horses and setting fire to ihem to make the horses pull harder. Another instance is told of the man who heat and kicked his dog because he was barking with joy al being freed from a closed house.

Mrs, McLaughlin and her coworkers urge parents to foster kindness and mercy in their children. Ton often are birds' nests marauded and animals tortured by children. Orphans of the Storm has had experience more than once with the child criminal who has dipped helpless pups and cats in pails of paint Paint cannot, be removed from the animals' coats and burns their eyes The hit-and-run drivers who leave animals to labor their last minutes in agony and owners who blithely gj off on a holiday trip and leave their dogs locked in their houses represent other classes of human brutality. Stamps are the hobby of some people, other collectors concentrate on china, weapons or coins, Franklin D. Roosevelt lends his support to benefits for crippled children, Madame Anna Pavlova was lady bountiful to hundreds of little slum children of her native Russia, and Irene Castle McLaughlin, former famous dancer, operates a refuge, "Orphans of the Storm," near her Chicago home for unwanted pets and stray animals.

In these times of so much cruelty and destruction of life it is a welcome relief to hear of kindness, generosity, aifd bounty. Mrs. McLaughlin operates her refuge just for the welfare of animals. She accepts any pets which otherwise would be un-cared for anrl maintains an organization which inves gales cruelty reports and takes Mops to correct neglect of animals and abusive conditions wherever they aie found. In the experience nf her refuge work Mrs.

McLaughlin still finds it. a never-ending source of distress to sec a family discard a devoted female dog and her puppies, having allowed them to grow to a fair size, and keep a male pup on' of the litter. "Three or four times an after-nrin at Orphans of the Storm. I set! this same little tragedy enacted" she writes, in a manual. A family comes carrying basket or cardboard box full of puppies, anywhere from three to eight weeks old' trotting along beside them, look.ng up with pride and confidence, their deviled mongrel mniher She begins to sense disaster, while they are signing the relinquish card, making her, and all but one of her family, ours.

She sees the puppies being placed in a compartment and rushes to the side of the family's small ciing.ng to her and whining p.e. If knows any tucks fhe yer.eially does them all. in a a Wi hnjreless: effort to bnr.g the f.imiiy to their sen-is and make hem rcali.e the tiu-tu-sMtig c.n e'luenies of their decision. "Dug', HlAays seem to know j. nen ihry are iieing abandoned.

T' ft er.zicd efforts to gain -uf-' i interest from their master, make them change their minri take them back home, is aribreiik'ns and makes one a-named (( human natuie. "The will tell you ''h at pa -en she pel feci nfirji-'ijinrvi. a wondirfu watch- voted 'o 'he rhiircn and r- en 'hem hanHV 'h pup-r resentment. She i th- baby when NIGHT OF REVELS Maddest night, of all the year, October moon with same old leer Looks down on gay fantastic throng As masqucradcrs jostle on. Powdered wigs on dashing beaus, Satin breeches, silken hose.

Little maid of Grandma's time In pantaloon and crinoline, Some grotesque, some up to dale. Striving, all to learn their tate At the magic stroke of twelve In witches cauldron seek to delve. Tensely waiting to discover Features of a future lover. Hallowe'en the wishing night When wits and fancies take to flight When ghouls and goblins put to rout All sober thought with eerie shout, And lads and lassies by the score Shout 1 Hallowe'en Apples," at the door. Jessie McDonald, Winnipeg.

connection with the government. The leading world news agency up to the turn of the century, it has since then declined in power in the face of keen competition by government-aided news agencies in European countries and the establishment of the famous American news agencies such as Associated Press and United Press, which practically cover the world on a co-operative and independent basis. During the Great War Reuters performed a splendid service to the British cause by using its vast facilities to lay Britain's case before the neutral peoples. Guided by "the principle of telling the truth," and with a minimum of interference from government officials, Reuters told the facts and helped create a feeling favorable to the British. Baron Julius de Reuter, founder of the news service which bears his name, was born at Cassel, Germany.

He went to Paris with the hope of starting up a news agency there, but when he found French restrictions too irksome, travelled to England in 1851. where he became a British citizen. The English papers of that time would not use his foreign news despatches until in 1858 The Times printed his telegraphed report of a speech by Napoleon III. After that it was plain sailing for Reuter, and up to 1900 his was the leading world news acency, bcir.g particularly strong in the Far East. In 1925 the British Press Association, with Sir Roderick Jones, became the owners of Reuters and kept control down to the present time.

Announcement that Reuters, famous British news agency, will in future be operated as a co-operative venture by the Press association and the Newspaper Proprietors' association, marks an important step bringing the old world news service more in line with the North American system of news gathering and dissemination. new arrangement for Reuters was made after Brendan Bracken, minister of information, had rejected a proposal to nationalize the news service. This decision, marking a definite trend away from that government control of news agencies which has been such a curse in Europe for decades, is a wise one. Backed by the combined strength of British newspapers, Reuters should gain a new lease of life. Freed of government supervision, it has the chance to build up a still greater reputation as an honest, impartial and reliable news source.

With news from all Axis and Axis-controlled countries directly under the thumb of their propaganda departments, and therefore totally unreliable, it is heartening news to learn that Reuters is to be operated by newspapermen, not by government officials. Both the Associated Press and The Canadian Press are run on a similar co-operative basis by the newspapers of their respective countries, and have built up an enviable reputation for accuracy and objective reporting. Reuters has been described as the news agency of the British empire." although it hss stoutly denied any Challenging Wartime Words "Victory depends on the exertions we all put forth and liiey must be far beyond anything wc have yet made." Dr. Hans Kohn, of Smith College. Northampton, Mass.

Addicts to the Canadian Institute Public Affairs "Thei nii-t he un.cii mutual and uniimit'ing product, ue 1 share in victory then Him 'he great task 'orld reconstruction." Krne' Ecv.n. British Minister ef Lo-w. Tlitic can be no doubt that the trim little craft christened over the weekend by Mrs. T. C.

Davis ill long reign as the queen of corvettes. The good wishes of citizens generally will go out with C.S Regma as she carries the city's name into the Battle of the Atlantic sealancs. May this gallant little ferret of the sea bring disaster to 'reachoroti? enemies and assist shepherd ing many a precious convoy safely lo port..