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SECOND SECTION Oakville- Trafalgar Journal Member Canadian Weekly Newspapers Association Published Every Thursday Morning in Oakville, Ont, by Oakville-Trafalgar Publishers, Ltd. 7 DUNN STREET NORTH s. Casey Wood, Jr, Managing Editor Bill Cotton, Editorial PHONE 1298 Vincent H. Barrey Advertising Manager Assistant Thursday, June 28th, 1951 Roll Out Tl he Barrel When is a country at war? How many of the citizens of a democracy such as Canada have to vol- unteer to fight before those who remain at home think of their country being on a war basis? It would seem reasonable to suppose that today, with the Canadian units that are presently in Korea, and those training, we are pretty well at war with the enemies of Democracy. In that case, it would also seem reasonable-to suppose that we who are safely at home, being protected, would be as interested as we were 'during World War I and World War II in doing something to make things better for the men who are fighting--with the sole difference in quan- tity required. Yet, to our knowledge, the campaign instituted last week to secure light reading matter for the men in Korea, is the first organized effort we've heard of. This came about because one woman, with a son in a Canadian Unit, responded to his plea for such as- sistance for the men. We would urge everyone to as- sist in this cause, not only by dropping their contribu- tions of reading material in the barrel in the post office, but=by sending a parcel now and then on their own to the units fighting in Korea. For anyone who wishes to. do so, the addresses are listed elsewhere on this page. You can pick your own unit for your personal parcels and you can roll out the barrel once again for all the boys through the post office barrel. A Ghost Town Goes This week Teen Town winds up its life for all time, with a final party on Friday night. The Town has functioned now for a number of years, with vary- ing fortunes as interest waxed and waned among its citizens. During the past year attendance has been low, you might almost say a ghost town population. With the addition of the auditorium and other facil- ities to the High School, Teen Town in Victoria Hall was, in many cases, in competition for attendance with the younger set . . . and. youth today is no dif- ferent than it has always been, it can't be in two places at the same time. Teen Town has been a credit to the town, and certainly has made contributions to the betterment of Oakville on several occasions. The painting of the slogans on the sidewalks for the hospital campaign; selling peanuts. for the Arena--turning out to help rake the hospital grounds . . . the list is a long one, and is a credit to the Town. There will be something gone from Oakville with the discontinuance of Teen Town, yet there can be no argument that the move Is a wise one. The Rotary club has provided chaper- ones, financial assistance and friendly guidance for the life of the town, and this has not been an easy task on a weekly basis. So, to Teen Town, we say goodbye, with regret, and with praise for its accomplishments--among Which not the least is the building of character, and the implanting 6f citizenship thoughts. Who knows, a future mayor of Oakville, may have been among the hard working Mayors of Teen Town. We Take Things Too Much For Granted The donation last week to the Matthews Fund of six dollars by a new Canadian of eleven, contains a lesson for all of us. This youngster, who came only five weeks ago from Germany, opened his piggy bani and handed over his entire savings to help the family, because he knew what suffering was like. He just read about the family's: plight in the Journal, and took positive action because of a background of per sonal suffering which told him he must do something. Here in Canada we have been most fortunate during two world wars, world-wide famines too num- erous to count, and frightful earthquakes, etc. With the exception of localized tragedies such as the Manitoba, floods, Fraser Valley floods, and the burn- Ing of Rimouski, Canadians as a whole have not known suffering personally which would condition Hem to be generous with regards to the suffering of Others. It is true that all campaigns for worthy causes receive support from nearly everyone . . . but we can't help wondering if they receive support on the same Wholehearted basis as this young lad's support was given. We don't believe they do, and we think it is Probably because, so far, we have been fortunate hough not to he directly affected by the terrible trag- edies of tyranny, pestilence, famine and rapine as have other peoples, In other words, we take our good Tortune too much for granted and do not, possibly, share our good fortune as readily with those less for- ourselves. lnate as we would had we known more suffering - Byssehs: IT SEEMS TO ME BY P. W. THOMPSON Each summer, year after year, certain big city newspapers un- dertake the very worthy project of sending poor city families to the country for a brief respite from the heat and squalor of their city homes. Frightful indeed are the conditions which these news- papers reveal in the course of their appeal to the public on be- half of this work. There are cases where large families of small children are jammed into two or three small, badly ventilated rooms which the heat of midsummer turnrs Into a veritable inferno. Multitudes of youngsters have nowhere to play but in filthy lanes or on hot pavements, swarming with death-dealing traffic. Soot, from factories and trains, noise, dirt, squalor, overcrowd- ing and always the sweltering, enervating heat--these make up the environment in which thous- ands of unfortunate. families must spend 'their summer, except for the short respite afforded them through the enterprise of the newspapers and a few other or- ganiZations, and the generosity of the public. Much credit belongs to the newspapers which conduct these annual campaigns to give mothers and children a short holiday from. city slums. But| one cannot help but think how, much better it would be if the appalling conditions which this enterprise seeks to alleviate could be permanently ended. Byer since the start of the in- dustrial era in England well over a century ago, slums have been a sore spot in our social struc- ture. In recent years, in certain parts of the world, notably in the more advanced countries of Burope, considerable - progress has been made in their. removal. Here in Canada, with its immense territory and tiny population, slums are still far too common, in spite of projects for their elim- ination The situation has been ag- gravated by the tremendous in- dustrial expansion which Is now going on, crowding our cities to the bursting point. All housing, however poor, Is at a premium, and many people are compelled to live and bring up children amid cramped, uncom- fortable 'wretched surroundings. It Is not surprising that we have such-problems as juvenile dellnquency. A favorite argument of a cer- tain not very progressive school of thought is that slums are in- evitable. Give poor people bath- tubs, they are fond of telling us, and they will keep coal in them. If this objection ever had any real validity, it has so no longer. Today there 1s no justification for slum districts, especially in such a huge and wealthy country as Canada. Federal and provincial govern- ments have great new housing projects under consideration. Let them seriously undertake-- not merely consider--the im- portant task of purging Can- ada's cities of thelr slum areas. That thousands of families, in- cluding large numbers of bab- ies and young children, should be compelled to drag out each summer In misery and discom- fort amid unsanitary, soul-des- troying surroundings is a dis BY BESSIE CAIRNS _ TRAFALGAR TALES VACATION TIME Just think after this week I shall be relieved of the daily chore of packing lunches; no more carrots to scrape, eggs to chop, peanut butter to spread and treats-to tuck into corners of little tin boxes. The long summer vacation lies ahead and with the readers' and I trust the editor's approval I intend to forget col- umns and dead-lines and devote the holidays to the children. If I am any criterion as a reader one's main interest in the sum- mer-time lies in' where one's friends and acquaintances are spending their holidays, so I much doubt if I shall even be missed. Summer is the time too when one plans to read all those books that have been accumulating dust since Christmas. Perhaps there is no dust in your house and no book waiting to be read. If such is the case I'd like to recommend a few that are ideal for casual reading. "Days with Bernard Shaw" by Stephen Winsten makes the great man human and believe it or not lovable and slightly for-. lorn . . . and it had G.B.S. appro- val. It portrays Shaw ag the friendly neighbour, the devoted husband and finally the aging lon- ely widower yet never underes- timates his sparkling wit. "The Best is Yet" by Morris Ernst contains short essays on sailing, red, problems of the press," nnd many other phases of love life and laughter by a New York lawyer who has retained through- out a busy career a deep zest for this business of living. To me however the most fascinating book of all is "Horse Racing" by Walter Steigleman. My husband, who was in New York for the Belmont Stakes, as usual came home like Santa Claus. My gifts included a pop-up-toaster and the final word on "Is racing honest?" and "can the races be beaten? To find the answers read the hook. If you are not interested in horse-racing you possibly are so in money. It may therefore sur- prise you, as it did me, to learn that nearly two billion dollars yearly pass through the pari-mu- tuel machines in United States and that three times that amount is placed with bookies. Canada though only an 'also ran in the game, on the basis of population doesn't lag far behind . . . and in the language of the horse that isn't hay! Where does the money. come from? Where does it go? Some of it may go out of your pocket yet a surprising amount comes back into public service through government taxes. It you never bet on a horse you are likely one of the few people who really benefit financially from horse-racing. I am making the book sound like a dull one of facts and figures when actually it is full of laughs, amazing char- acters, suspense, excitement and infinite variety. Good-bye for the summer . I am going to be eggs, spreading peanut butter and hiking off on picnics with the children to the many beauty spots around Rockwood. Happy holi- days! -- A JOURNAL CLASSIFIED RE- PRESENTS A MODEST |IN- VESTMENT THAT NEVER busy scraping carrots, chopping |- The other morning Bruce West, in his Globe & Mail column, was doing a bit of worrying about his too rapidly expanding midriff. Not, Bruce explained, because he felt he no longer presented a passably purty appearance when clad in his double-breasted wors- ted. But in swim trunks, he rue- fully admitted, his torso has un- dergone a complete transition from Tarzan to turgid, abdomin- ally speaking. Stacked Against You Most of you lads can fully sym- pathize with Mr. West. To begin with, there is never better than a 30-70 chance that a man, even in the lusty heydey of youth, will ever come within a country mile of resembling Apollo or Hercules as he flips off a diving board. And when the systematic changes of middle age begin to set in . . . brother, it can get gruesomely ghastly! With friend West, it's the battle of the bulge. With me, d's furry foliage and a chest that's as hollow as a coon tree. With you, it's knobby knees, or a skinny frame, or perhaps a slight shoulder list to windward. Now- adays, itis §wim attire rather than gossip- that reveals the family skeleton. Very Much So! With the gals, of course, it's different. In fact, it's refreshingly different. Very! Those men aquatic business, like Jantzen and Cole of California, go to such terrifically abbreviated lengths to glorify the feminine beach form divine that the gals just can't help appearing to advantage. And I do mean appearing! 'While mere males have been donning the same unimaginative swimming apparel for years, fem- Inine fashion is in a constant state of flux. And such lovely flux, too. The man who used to wear a belt and suspenders now has a daughter who wears noth- ing else and calls them her swim suit. And have you seen those delightful lastex creations that 2 PUFFS FROM THE COTTON GIN have more tucks, frills and floun- ces than the underside of a mush- room? I watched one of these numbers being modelled only last week, and it made me feel ten years younger, for the re- mainder of the day, at any rate. Happy Days And those handkerchief suits the gals are wearing are nothing to be smeezed at, either! Ah, yes, it's a wonderful world we live.in, now that it has gotten to the point where beach wear can best be described as something a girrl utilizes to: umphasize her curyes. Some men, of course, take a dim view of their wives adorning themselves in this minute type of raiment. They rant, and rave, and even 'become downright shirty about it: when the little lady decks herself out in a quar- ter yard of shorts and halter. One narrow-minded chap I know re- cently discovered his. wife sew- ing on tiny garments and exclaim- ed in horror: "My gosh! You aren't going to wear THAT on the beach!" This attitude, to my mind, is most reprehensible, and can- not be too sternly censured. There is little enough beauty in this troubled universe, so why be wet smacks, fellas? Brevity, now- adays, has become a great deal more than the soul of wit. Opportunity Knocks Instead of criticizing wifey's swimsuit, men, why not concen- trate on designing something that will make YOU look a bit better during suntan sessions? Mr. West will 'welcome any practical sug- gestions along this line, and there are a great many more lads like him who will cherish any cam- ouflage capers you come up with. Meantime, I'll just wear my flannels and T-shirt to the beach. As long as feminine swim fash- ions remain as of now, swim- ming for me is going to be strict- ly a spectator sport. Lazily Yours, BILL COTTON Don't Be A Chaser This subject seems year, but always responds When the fire siren down the streets, member they are fire, and so blocking not competently and their hoses. lowing is only one of the the street behind it and so fire department untis can ground, while the cars of tors kept the vital hoselin wouldn't you? Well, dx readers, which makes the e, started his Just Fishin' had more comment than colu as good as the column, fish. See tue . .. but Palermo residents background of the statue, ed tightener of the bolts on fastened. Good advice for we'd say, be pulling along side the curb he stops to shop, he'll leav we hope. But if he gets a p his nickel's worth, he won't towns use, to put on the Yank's ing out he's made himself liable grace in this day and age. FAILS TO EARN WIDESPREAD INTEREST Oakville's praise--we know. It stands to reason that thi you and about thirty other cars pile afi Everyone should remember. just one they'll stop 'this silly practice of attending fires. i It might be your home that was burning to the bear on the flames. If that was the plenty to say about drivers that follow the firereels, 1 raw the logical conclusion and stop attending the fires, the same w: telephoning to find out where it was, in this practice was pointed out to you. New columnists in the Journal ! Since Kent Garden r ever before, speckled trout from one enthusiast . help their less fortunate neighbors, anyone who can help Palermo get rid can help Re parking tickets: The much imposing one on a friendly visitor, to come up about once a to a plea for assistance, 'én goes, and the reels pound that's the time for all drivers to re more than seen a fire sometime. What h: recently is that drivers havi reels, parking on the streets ten years old, and have as been happening again e been piling after the around the scene of the the firemen so that they can rapidly handle the coupling of the fire reel you are fol- units going to the fire, If 'ter it, park on block the street, the other not reach their objective. thing . . . then sensation seeking specta- es from being brought to case you'd have ay you stopped after the danger always get praise from ditorial heart glad. But we 30 many folk who liked esident Frank Walker mn three weeks ago, we've We even had some - «and they were ms half the world likes to heir willingness to turn to and We'd guess there Isn't of its Red-blessed sta- by telling everyone tha Talking to a man the other day who Is now a confirm- his trailer hitch, Seems it let go when he was coming down from the north last weekend and could have kill ed them all when it broke © your trailer Is securely the summer-cottage trips, desfred American visitor will 8 of Oakville goon--iwe hope, It e much hard U.S, dollars behind-- arking ticket because he over-gtays be too mad--we hope. We gu council have printed a nice little card, ee like many American car instead of a ticket, point- to a fine, but the town wasn't 2 then he'd go away singing