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. C y $ C A?n\ -- 3 66 ) per cent. profit. A $62--a--month crerk y e Ps$ in the civil service needed glasses. She said she couldn't get them when an optometrist quoted a price of $30. ' There was no desire to abolish the & association's property rights; there , was no desire to stop their efforts tol 'tram the profession--"but I doubt if METR'STS f it is a profession," he said. George Fulford, Leeds M.P.P., ad-- i 'vanced the same thought. There T. & N.0O. Tie Purchases mesemeniaie 'were oculists, optometrists and op-- Revi ed * # * | ticians. '"The Optometry Act has ew Orgamzed s F leeclng in ,given the optometrists such a hold ceuemmtamncnatatzman Profession Charged that the whole Province is being _ A. J. Kennedy, former Conservative | fleeced by these men. It has devel-- per of th by Hepburn | oped into a racket," he said. memner of ie Oniario Legislature for |_ _ '"The optometrists and opticians are _ Timiskaming, received five cents a tie Km merchants pure and simple. They are m"rf"t;mwy _other congractor, and Organized fleecing of t 4 salesmen, and not. to my mind, to be given an allowance of many members o?' the 2:,@33:1{:33 classed as professional men." Dr. A. ?1-000 toward a $1,200 sales tax bill, profession in Ontario was charged in D. Roberts said. 9;1 which his company was respon-- the Legislature by Prime Minister Mit-- sible, by the Timiskaming & North-- chell Hepburn, when he secured second ;m 1Ont,auo Railway, the Legislature Ireading for his bill to repeal the Op-- y:st:ei:da";ocounts Committee learned tometrists Act i ' omm | tom Evidence at the c ittee's inves-- | Take the patient for all ; [stand," was Ihe Sslogan of & larr:é sce.c'! t.{gatto:;l mtgi tlte purchases by the rail-- | tion of the profession, Mr. Hepburn ":3" showed that during 1927 Ken-- v declared, adding that United States nedy was granted an allowance of $1,-- "experts" were being imported to teach 644, the amount of sales tax due on Canadian optometrists the art of "chis-- t,le_s1 sold t.{lde briaxlwa.y. Altogether the elling" and operating what amounted TA eviaence $2.644 in sales tax. to a racket. is evidence was brought out in | correspondence read into the record Would Repeal Act. s by Attorney--Gencral Rosbuck and by The bill would repeal the act und=«e ---- Croll Sees O n t a rio _ cxamination of G. B. Alford, purchas--. which the Optometrists' Board con-- ing agent. | | trols the standards, procedure and ; Parallel to Negro Questioned on the 1927 sales tax al-- ! practices of the members of the pro-- _ | Labo lowance, Mr. Alford said the Commis-- I fession, and so break up what the | a P sion '.'fel't it had driven too hard a | Prime Minister regards as a "closed | Neeb ns io omnaie is bargain with Mr. Kennedy and sub-- | corporation." | bequ'fntly decided to pay the sales | Other legislation, the House was | A story of men and women, work-- tax. 6 | assured, would be framed to take the | ing in their homes to turn out bed-- Correspondgnce for 1928 showed | piace of these sections of the existng spreads, to fashion baby bootees, to _ the Commission understood the sales i act which were of value. incit di;xz crochet jackets and made lace at tax was included in the prices sub-- : th;r s ectiOn v;'hich was' aimed «t | wages of two and three cents an mitted by the Kennedy & Gibson elimin;mna the travelling "spectacis ;poux'. was told in the Legislature yes-- firm. The committee was informed xlesman." onte & fa:miliar ('i " on | lerday by Hon. David Croll. the majority of business letters writ-- & » g gu -- _ The reports of almost record low _ ten by Kennedy were on Legislature the Canadian rural scene. i wages had been made to him as Labor _ stationery. Payment by the Commis-- I have in the past asked the Op-- Minister. He passed on the record _ sion was made to Kennedy and not position to assist me," began Mr. of the 2--cent--hn--hour wage condi-- the firm. Hepburn, '"in taking measures to curb tions to the M.P.P.'s whon he moved A statement showed that in 1928 any organization or prcofession that second reading of his new bill to the Commission contracted for 75,000 migh; be operating in rostraint of _ Clean up the "home--sweatshop." In _ ties, but took delivery of 104,275 at a' trade." He then launched into a dis-- and around the City of Toronto and _ total cost of $78,739. "After the rail--| cussicn of the profession of optometry. | , in Ontario, Mr. Croll said, wages were road got stuck for $1,000 in sales tax i Most of the mombers. he said. so.| [ baid to workers inside of the walls on the first order, they took jolly i cured thoir final qualifications by a} : Of their homes which revealed the good care they would not get stuck two weeks' cours>, and then set about| . famed low wages paid to negro . again." said Mr. Roebuck, i "to fle:ce the public® and to cperate| | Women in the Southern States. Asked whether the Commission paid | as a "closed corporation." he quotrd| ; The Minister intimated that the evil . the sales tax for any of the ot.her' ncwspaper commoent that the pro--| | Was increasing, and that his depart-- contractors, Allord replied. they paid S fession had taken on "many of th> _ ment had been, first, alarmed by a | their own tax. |___ j j characteristics of a racket." All mus: | triple increase in the permits which | Kennedy,'acoordlng to figures given take a membership in the controllin they are now empowered to give out. 'the committec, received 85 cents each ' an cath to subscribe to the rules. most of these workers were on relief, _ Contractors and settlers received 80 "Some of them," he alleged, "ar, while they were doing this work for lce_nt,s. except one contractor who Oob-- charging six and seven times the vain | what would have been otherwise star--, |tained 75 cents. P of the spectacles." | vation wages. Questioned about this, Alford said He read from the Canadian Op | _ 'Wwhen the NRA did away with' he did not know why Kennedy té-- * metrist ;'n.struc!iofis on . how to ' Georgia child labor, they moved up to ceived the extra gmount and co"m. jead Ub to the brice * I Abve this country. There has crept in & not make a definite statement. | Fai up to She Pritk qq?stmn, how to practice which is entirely new, and "Is there any evidence that the lnlf. 3e a pa.tlent s capacity to pay. and should be checked now." $1,644.84 paid Kennedy as a gratuity a oiscussion on the necessity of The Minister put the following in-- for the sales tax was ever paid to the charging $10 fo"r examin:tion alon>. _ stances of "home--sweatshop" exploi= / Dominion Government?" Mr. Roebuck | He meontioned one casos whcre $85 tation before the House: asked. was charge. Members. he said, were Two women worked for 5 cents an | '"No," the witness replied. sworn never to give free examinalions. hour making bedspreads. The spreads | "Then you have no documentary Rec:ntly a Toxin, he said, was cost $1.33. They woere sold for $2.98 evidence that the mconey paid by the * brought in to advise the members of and $3.95. T. & NO. ever reached the Federal| 4 the profession in Canada along these On Christie Street a man and his Government, although it was paid to lines. A personal friend. said Mr wife were making 30 cents a day for |Mr. Kennedy?" Hopburn, had beern unable to read the work of the two of them in mak-- '"No." for a» year b:cause ho couldn't ge ing bedspreads. Colonel W. H. Price (Cons., Toronto ° plasses for loss than $30--which 1 Another firm paid 45 cents for >| Parkdale) -- said the Government _ . coulda't afford--when the actual cost twelve pairs of babies' bootees. It took might have had such information, of the glasses was known to be $3.59. _ @bout four days for a "home--sweat-- |but the Attorney--General contended "Thev have eliminated competition shop" worker to fill the order, at & _' there was no evidence to that effect, entirely."* he said. "One optomstris® ;;'38? of between 2 and 3 cents an and suggestetildthat the tax, in fact, ' told me he could sell glasses at $7.50 our. _ h * ntuast . as was never paid. __ and nmfake 100 per cent. profit, but i woman on Jones Sitset WA | /; Ranvaan | he di¢n't dare or he'd lose his certifi-- crocheting baby jack;ts' at $1.65 for i | A a dozen jackets. She worked from 9 P f Gl $ . cate. in the morning to 11 at night. The alr 0 asse I Legislation Forecast. jackets wore finished in abcut ton mmurnnuruir Nn e Pred e ' F a half hours--each. "And." concluded the Premier, "this | an:nomilrl Woman was hget:mg 1--cent WILLIAM DUCKWORTH, good-- _ 1 :3;' t&e:}llew(l):jrlg pg;?:m;u'l"e;: 'fiffi'f-l wer yard for lace. Another was get-- natured Toronto M.P.P., snared _ , our scrutiny during the next year,| tiitrxgtog?( ogx::s ar,?r haqfipz:gdbzbyh:fiatxs 0 himself in the Legislature yesterday s because they are fleecing the Qubllc.! makcva cont. C and had to join in a good laugh | 'tl;'h:yg'::":eg:fn:fi" or they'll get| The Minister's remedy is in the with his fellow--M.P.P.'s. ; < shape of legislation which will require 6« i Attorney--General | Arthur Rocbuck | pm;'fiu Tor such work all over Jn« I got a pair of glasses in Toronto j revealed that he had already told the tario, and will giv Junction," he said while the.Optom-- f | » give the Government e Optometry Board that they would cer--| _ the right to cancel them for cause and etry Act was being debated, "and j tainly not be ;:t;ppoint.ed when they ' to move to guarantee decent wages. they practically drove me crazy." f had appeared before him. The House gave the bill a speedy sec-- i > One optometrist, he said, had feared | _ ord reading I presume the honorable member ' 'nis colleagues' rancor after he sold a' f us has changed his glasses," Premicr friend a pair of glasses at one--third. Mepburn said, while the House . * 'of the list price and still made 66 laughed. + s