PAGE FOUR

BARBADOS Sp ADVOCATE &. OR oo” ETO yy or 3

Printed by the Adverste Co., Ltd., Broad St., Bridgetown

Wednesday, January 9, 1952

CENTRAL MILK

WHEN the Governor expressed regret

during his speech to the Legislature on

December 18th that the proposed scheme

for a Central Milk Depot and Creamery

had met with so many difficulties the price

of milk had not yet gone up. Since, Decem-

ber 24th, 1951, the price of milk in bottles

has risen from 12 cents per pint to 15

cents per pint and in cans from 103 cents

to 134 cents per pint.

This rise in prices followed the increase

of locally produced balanced animal feed

from $6.12 per 100 lbs. to $8.00 per 100 Ibs.

With milk at the new price it is estimated

that a profit of between one and a half

cents and two cents per pint can be made

by dairy owners. An incentive exists

today for dairies to expand and improve

There is therefore reason for optimism

that after tomorrow’s meeting which has

been called by the Director of Agriculture,

to consider the possibility of the Govern-

ment establishing out of public funds a

Central Depot...for..ceceiving, processing

and delivering milk, the Governor's wish

that the milk depot scheme “cannot be

allowed to die” will have been fulfilled.

Because nothing is more likely to breed

confidence among the milk producers in

the proposed scheme than the knowledge

that milk production offers financial re-

ward and will offer greater financial re-

wurd when it is organised more efficiently

than ow. Both Houses of the Legisla-

ture have already approved expenditure

by the Government of £30,000 as a con-

tribution towards the capital cost of a

Central Milk Depot and Creamery. This

expenditure was approved on the under-

standing that private dairies would pro-

vide the remaining £30,000 required to

implement. the scheme which was subse-

quently rejected by individual dairy

owners.

The Government may have decided to

use the £30,000 already voted by the Leg-

islature to start a less ambitious project

or they may be contemplating seeking leg-

islative sanction for ircreasing the ex-

penditure already approved. In either

case they can rely on the support of the

milk consumers in the community for the

initiative” they are taking in prevénting

the death of the Central Milk Depot

Scheme,

The ‘advantages to be derived from a

Central Milk Depot are so great that it is

difficult to imagine anyone who would

oppose its formation. And more advan-

tages will accrue to the dairy owner than

to the general public. The public will be

satisfied to have a source of clean pasteur-

ised milk. At present several reputable

dairies provide clean milk but it is not

pasteurised. Dairy owners will benefit

from the enhanced reputation that local

milk will earn when it is pasteurised.

But this is an advantage they will share

with the consumer. Their main advantage

is that to be derived from more conveni-

ent hours of work, avoidance of waste and

improved methods of distribution,

At present private dairies find it increas-

ingly difficult to find workers prepared to begin milking in the wee hours of morn-

ing. The need for such early milk will

disappear when a Central Milk Depot

exists because there will be adequate re-

frigerated storage for milk pending its

pasteurisation and continuous delivery.

Centralised distribution of milk will inevi-

tably reduce the overheads now carried

by the private distributors, whose deliv-

ery areas now overlap with competing

dairies. The knowledge that no milk need

be wasted because of sudden cancellation of orders will also encourage private

owners to support the Central Depot, The

price now paid for milk will not be affect- ed by the existence of a central depot: it

is more likely that greater profit will

result to the milk producer as a result: of

more efficient handling and distribution of

milk.

The proposed Central Depot will un- deniably benefit the big dairy owners but not at the expense of the small. The scat- tered small owners should benefit propor- tionately more. Because whereas today the owner of one or more cows cannot hope to compete with the dairies of from 25 upwards to over 100 cows, the milk from their cows can be sold to the milk depot, be pasteurised and delivered along with

the big owners’ produce and not lose by comparison.

Today scattered and small owners can- not hope to compete against the large effi-

cient dairies. The public wants a Central

Milk Depot. The Government is wise to

spare no pains to meet the request. The

dairy owners have nothing to lose and everything to gain by co-operation with

the wishes of the Government and of the

consumers.

Soviet

The : Amer c

tot a total coercion

PRO-SOVIET and anti-Soviet

propagandist can both quote statis-

tics to prove the success or failure

of the Russian five-year plans.

Most data available are not objec- tive. They come from the Sovie: government. But by reading be- tween the dines, American econo- mic analysts are able to give us, at least partly and relatively, a pic- ture of what is going on.

Any such picture is tentative rather than definitive, owing to the controversial problems in- volved. American methods of measuring and correcting Soviet statistics include constant cross- references to detect inner incon- sistencies and include the first- hand reports of foreign techni- cians, captured German data, and Soviet deserters to the West.

Soviet Russia is now producing more goods than ever before. This

s because of its tremendous in- erease in industrial equipment and in population. It is not because of any increase in the efficiency of man-hour pro duction, in which the Soviet not only is far behind the West but is behind its own peak of 1937. In that peak year, just befor: World War If, Soviet man-hour production was 37 per cent higher than 1928 in mining and manu- facturing, 60 per cént higher in transport 35 per cent. higher in agriculture. This aoe effici- ency wes apparently not exceeded even by the great gains in output announced in 1951,

Equally interesting is the fact that in two particular industries, foyestry and fishing, the man-hbour production of 1937 was not above 1928 but 45 per cent. below. These two industries depend largely on forced convict labour, enormously expanded between those two dates. This shows that slave labour is simply less productive than labour which is even to a small extent free, such as the regimented but not totally enslaved workers of the urban factories.

3.

* *

SINCE 1928, there hag been a large increase in the Soviet popu- lation and a still larger increase in the Soviet armed forces. The 1928 population was an estimated 152 million, with 0.6 million in the armed forces. The 1940 population was 196 million by census; with 4.5 million armed. The 1946 popu- lation reduced by warfare, was an estimated 191 million, with an estimated 10 million armed, The 1950 population was an estimated 201 million, with 4.5 million armed. This was the same military figure as in that similar period of watchful waiting: the crisis year 1940,

* * *

The Soviet brand of industrial- ism differs economically from the American brand in three ways: ownership, planning, and coercion In the Soviet, that abstraction known as “the state” owns ail industry. In theory “the state” means the masses, means that small minority who compose the |Commainist Party, and within that minority the dozen oligarchs of the Politburo, and ultimatély oné man, R

The opposite extreme’ to such total government ownership would ve the total and uncontrolled private ownership known as lais- ez-faire capitalism, To

In practice it

some extent this existed and thrived during the expanding ‘domestic trade and free international trade

Our Readers

“Danger From Drivers” To The Editor, The Advocate— SIR,—Everyone must welcome

the publicity given in your re- cent leading article to the meas- ures necessary for reducing the number of road accidents in the Island, but I suspect that few of those who have studied the sub- ject will agree with the first of the remedies you suggest, name- ly that police action should be intensified towards enforcing speed limits, including the island- wide limit of 30 m.p.h. On the contrary I suggest that one of the first steps in a “safety on the roads” drive might well be to abolish that hopelessly unen- foreeable regulation and divert police energies into more produc- tive channels.

The case for a general speed limit is (1) that in general seri- ous accidents are likely to occur when vehicles are being driven fast, and (2) that Barbados roads are too narrow and built up to give scope for fast driving,

Taking first the second point, the length of public motor roads in the Island is about 750 miles and I should be much surprised if the length that could on the most conservative interpretation be described as “built up” were to exceed 100 miles. On the re- maining 650 miles any reasonable driver will from time to time find himself exceeding 30 m.p.h. and it would be an absurd waste of public time and money if the police were to set traps or cruise after “speeding” motorists. Speed limits have their use if applied selectively at appropriate places, but a general speed limit is vex- atious and useless,

On the first point, it is that virtually no accident ever occurs which would not have been avoided if the vehicle or vehicles involyed had been mov- ing much more slowly. But that has nothing «to do with speed limits: it is a matter of good or

by the drivers. If

true

bad judgment the authorities are to accept the argument that accidents would be reduced by enforcement of the speed limits, the first thing they must know is how many of pres- ent accidents occur in circum- stances where one of the vehicles was exceeding the speed limit. I suspect that out of the 1,072 acci-

dents quoted in your article bare- ly the odd 72 would answer this description, and that most even of those few would not have been avoided if the speed of the ve- hicle had been just within. the limit.

The fact is that before discuss- ing remedies the authorities must be provided with adequate 4gures and particulars to show where and how ecidents are 7eally

urring, Careful records over a period are needed, and it is to be hoped that the police are main- taining them. For example spots

t) the

BARBADOS

By PETER VIERECK

f Great Britain and the United States during the mid-Victorian

era. Ideally preached by Adam mith, this laissez-faire system

1ever existed, even in the nine enth century, in central and

astern Europe, In the 1950's it exists nowhere at all, not even in the se-called capitalist societies

{ Great Britain and the United States, This is owing to the growth of large-scale industry and mono- poly and owing to the contro!s imposed by the various New Deals, Fair Deals, and labour gove.nments of the West, There- tore, the true contrast is not be- tween total Soviet ownership and weste:n laissez-faire. T con- trast is between the coercive total ownership of the Soviet and the tree.y debated, freely voted mixed- economy of the West.

Our so-called capitalism, which is outproducing its more rigid Soviet rival, is actually neither capitalism nor socialism. It is a socialism, It is a flexible, ever- .djusting economy of an underly- ing capitalism tempered by humanitarian social reforms and by varying deg ee$ of indirect rovernment control a $i planning fiome industries, like the plpst office, are owned by the govern-

ment throughout the capitalist West. Very many industries, especially small-scale production end consumer goods, are totally tree, Some (like jailroads) are government-owned in some coun- tries of the capitalist West, privately-owned in others, and partly controlled in still others, Many ae partly or indirectly government-controlled without being owned. Many are govern- ment-subsidized by tariffs or gov- cernment-bled by high taxes, Some ere in a state of private or public mcnopoly; othe s are divided emong fierce competitors. In so complex and ares situa- tion, political power alter- tates between parties and tending toward capitalist free enterprise and parties tending toward greater ‘ocialization,

* *

SUPPOSE a housing plant is Per capita production of many key] * tate. buying its metal from a_ steel plant, In the Soviet economy both plants have the same owner: the Communist Party or the so-called “state”, Therefore, the amount and price of steel sold is determined not by free bargaining and the capitalist laws of supply and demand but by a prior and com- pulsory government plan. This requires not only the over-all ution toward equality, which 1.) oon; five-year plans but hundreds of thousands of short-run separate plans for each industry. This necessitates the most enormous bu. eaueracy in history, immeusur- ably greater than even the swollen bureaucracies of modern England and America,

This Soviet bureaucracy is the new ruling class, It cannot be re- sisted from below by strikes or by opposition parties, It pays itself disproportionate salaries and a larger percentage of worldly goods than western capitalists receive in oe The gap in standard of living and in political power belween a Soviet commissar

and his regimented labourers is far greater than between an American millionaire and _ his self-organised trade-union working men, The power of the com- missar, who can have strikers and free trade-unionists shot down as traitors, ressembles not the dream of the socialist idealist but the extreme fulfillment of the here.”

Say...

whieh look very dangerous are carely the site of accidents, Acci- dents do tend to occur at particular ppots, but usually at spots which do not appear to be dangerous. Accidents also tend to occur at a particular time and on particular days of the week at various places.

From the personal observations of an amateur I should guess that if a collision occurs in Barbados, as distinct from the running over of a pedestris@i, the odds are that it was due either (i) to bad park- ing (i.e., a vehicle parked too far into the road, or parked too near a corner, or parked opposite an- other car on a main road, or park- ed at nightewithout lights), or (ii) to bad signalling, especially when a driver moves off from standstill without gtving any indication, I should guess also that an undue number of accidents occur outside rum-shops and other “places of public resort” which abut onto main road at an unsuitable site and which should never in an age of motor traffic be licensed to op- erate at that site. That is a matter for legislation, not for police action.

Generally speaking, experience has shown that nearly all accidents are .oceasioned by ignorant driv- ing or by faulty mechanism (brakes) or by “jay-walking”. If that is agreed, the main objects of police supervision should be not to fuss about outmoded speed limits, but to keep. drivers and vehicles under examination (not Jugt routine examinations, but also spot examinations on the road) and to educate the public, particularly through the schools.

Before concluding I feel it right to .say that, considering the in- herent dangers, particularly of the main roads’ leading into Bridgetown, the police may well be congratulated. that serious accidents are not more numerous,

Yours faithfully, CENTIPEDE

“Back Home And Broke” To the Editor, the Advocate, SIR,—Two days ago 56 Barba-

dians who had been working in Panama during the building of the Canal returned to this island. They were mere human wrecks, dying, diseased and demented.

This means that they will add to the numbers in the almshouses ahd those who can move around will have to be given Old Age Pen- sions.

The incident raises one or two important points which should be settled now that we have organi- sations like the Caribbean Com- mission’ and Colonial Development and Welfare whose officers have rendered valuable assistance in matters not strictly within the pur- view of their work,

ADVOCATE

wildest dreams of an omnipotent monopoly-capitalist.

Communist p contrasts this system the alleged chaos of an allegedly “unplanned capitalism, Capitalism, even of the ex.unct laissez-faire variety, equa!- ly depends planning. But plan- uing in the West, even in a partly controlled on mixed economy, de- pends upon the free choice and partly free-en' of thousands of individual rs. Though sac- iificing some degree of security ‘to free initiative, this flexibic system has so far outproduced th. Soviet labourers, who have neithe treedom nor even real security.

Capitalist planning—for exam- ple, by an auto manufacturer—is mainly determined by the consum- er, although during a war crisis the government will certainiy step in to contro] excessive use 6 Vilal raw materials. Soviet pian- ning is determined entirely by gov- ernment needs, These are often in complete variance with consume needs and preferences, Consumers in any country want shoes, clotn- ing, housing, and food. The Sovie sc vernment instead wants heavy indusiry, machine:y, and arma- rents—and plans accordingly, No wonder even the poorest countries of the consumer-minded West nave a far higher standard of liv- ing than the Soviet Union. For example, Soviet, housing averages one family per room, with the floor space in each room divided between its several sleeping occu- pants.

* ~ %

THE coercive industrial plannir: of the five-year plans began in’ ~* 1928. Significantly that year still] emains the peak of individual rospe:ity under the Soviet regime,

Never again has that peak been equalled, What made it a peak wus the preceding “New Economic Policy”. This Nep interlude, to which Soviet survivors still look back with nostalgia, partly resem- bled the western economy in giv- ing more attention to consume: demands, Since 1928, the Soviet gain in industrial goods has been enormous (although ever behind American industrial gains), But

consumer goods went dewn afte 1928 to pay for these gains.

The National Bureau of Eco- nomic Research reported on Ma 28, 1951 that in 1920 a mere per cent. of the population ha 34 per cent, of America’s weait, while by 1951 that rich 5 per cent had only 18 per cent. of the] wealth, This peaceful social revo-)

achieving more than any violen‘ anti-capitalist revolution, is in-

creasing annyally, In 1929, 1 per cent, of the population had 19.1 per cent, of the wealth, By 195. this dropped to 7.7 per cent., about two-thirds of the way to financia: equality, Or to take a longer view

Industrialism | BUY BRITISH ?—

ITS TOUGH From NEWELL ROGERS

5 NEW YORK.

Britain’s “bold new drive” for more exports

to America faces a new danger to-night.

Some United States buyers are dissatis-

ied. In part their complaints are old. We

ast heard them nearly five years ago.

E. E. Proctor, head of a firm of buyers for

300 stores, says: “The British lack adaptabil-

ty. They refuse to study the needs of the \merican market. For instance, they insist

on sending dinnerware in willow baskets

nstead of cardboard boxes. Baskets mean xtra labour here and higher costs.”

A department store buying manager says: Next year will be difficult for British goods. *rices are too high.”

Fair or not the+prospect is considerable smerican resistance to the British way of \oing business.

GLOOM NO MERRY CHRISTMAS for shops. In

ne gloomy New York department store, ules are down 24 per cent. from a year ago. teasons given: “There are no shortages—

xcept customers. No one is afraid of being hort any more. Many people have to spend x0 much money for food and housing to

nave much left for gifts.

CONTROL

GENERAL MacARTHUR wants tighter

civilian control over the armed services. He

fear America may be turned into a military

The general, you remember, was re-

called by President Truman from his com-

mand in Japan on the ground that he was

howing too much disregard of control from

/ashington.

HUNTERS SCORE in New Jersey’s deer-hunting sea-

3,799 deer and eight hunters dead of gun- hot wounds; three hunters dead of heart at-

tack while hunting.

DOGS EVERY DOG HAS HIS DAY.—No. 1:

between 1850 and 1950, the stana-| Nach,day Harold Trowbridge hires a taxi to

go to his cigar shop in Montclair, New Jersey.

and price-rises) rose 350 per cen. | \Vith him goes Mat, a 13-year-old shepherd

ard of living in real wages (mak- ing due allowance for inflation,

for the American worker. And this for just about half as many hours of work per week!

In contrast, in Soviet Russi class lines are steadily tightening An ever greater share of the na- tional income and power is goin2 to that tiny, neo-‘eudal oligarch, (only 6 per cent of the population ) known as the Communist Party Hence, the naively wise reply it the old, simple Soviet peasant whea asked if his village contain- ed many Communists: “Good heavens, no; we are all poor down

As far back as 1928 or 1930 it was announced that West Indians who had been working in Panama would be given United States citi- zenship. That announcement came ut a time when it was announcec that there were 50,000 West In- dians in Panama and they would soon be returned to their homes. ‘This granting of citizenship was the answer to what was regarded as an unnecessary hardship, Fur- ther it was announced that the children born to West Indian pa- rents would be entitled to Ameri- can citizenship. A few children who were then in Barbados and who had been so born are now in the United States as a result.

It must be admitted that the fin- ancial condition of these people must be put down to their own careless way of life. But they had served the Panama Government during the best years of their lives and now they are “Back home and Broke,”

I recollect that the late Sir Harold Austin raised the matter publicly and that some reference was made to the Colonial Office but the result no one seems_ to know. It might be that with La- bour Governments all over the West Indies it would be profitable to raise the issues at meetings of the Caribbean Commission and the Barbados Government might ask Sir George Seel to use his good offices and ask the Panama Gov- ernment for a pronouncement and the Colonial Office might think it worth while to intervene also.

At least these people have a strong moral claim on the Panama Government for shelter. and pro- tection during the rest of their lives because they had served that country faithfully and well.

I write this because a few months ago it was announced in Panama that there was some sug- gestion of lengthening the Canal It sounded good to Barbadians who are always willing to travel where there is work to be done. But if those who are likely to emi- grate now if the Canal is to be lengthened think of the treatment meted out to those who have now returne@ and some who returned recently only to die, there is little likelihood of anyone wanting to go to Panama.

This is a matter which should be handled at a higher level than that offered by the soap box.

BARBADIAN.

Poppy Raffle Books SIR,—Would you through the

medium of your papers allow mc

to ask those people who ave

Poppy Raffle Books to return them

without further delay to the heads

of their parishes. It is impossible to have the raffle

drawn until all the books are returned.

S. E. ARTHUR, Yorkshire,

Christ Church,

EE RIE

Rte

ES

oe a

A

NS

out of office.

dishonest tax collectors.

Attorney’s office.

an appeal.

sioner, and drove out officers who took bribes

from gamblers. | ! Now Murphy has moved on to the national stage.

log who is going blind.

Mat is being retired.

dlace him.”

Aat was his “seeing eye’ ’ dog.

Says Trowbridge : I couldn’t bear to re-

Mr. Trowbridge is blind, too.

No, 2: King, a white spaniel, had his in

-ourt. His master, Robert Vrozza, sued Frea ost for £700 for shooting King. In a 3,000- vord opinion, Judge C. C. McDonald award-

-d Vrozza £175. His ruling: Dogs may noi Je killed for such simple offences as tipping {ustbins and walking on fresh cement.

ESCAPE AT THE SAME TIME that one airline:

crashed in Elizabeth, New Jersey, killing 56, another made an emergency landing in ¢ yasture near Amarillo, Texas, with exactly che same number of passengers. The pilot’s nstrument board showed fire in the plane. “he Texas plane missed some cows and stop- ved 50 feet from a railway track along which a goods train was speeding. Nobody was aurt. No fire was found. 2

THEFT WHILE Roy Albin attended a lecture at

Jallas, Texas, on how to prevent car thefts,

lis car was stolen outside,

LISTENERS TALKING OF THEFT, eight crooks kept

the radio of their stolen car tuned in to the oolice broadcasts and held six people prison- xs for four hours in Chicago to-day while they methodically broke open a safe and ascaped with £2,850 in cash.

ICE COLLEGE STADIUMS for football teams

are called bowls—like Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Cotton Bowl. Most of them are in the

South where the sun shines warmly all win- ter. Now icy Alaska has an Ice Bowl. Uni- versity of Alaska will play an Air Force team on December 31 if the weather is not

colder than 53 degrees of frost. Another rule: There must be four inches of snow or the field to protect the players from the iron-

hard frozen earth.

PROSECUTOR PRESIDENT TRUMAN’S answer to cor-

ruption in his Administration is a 6ft. 4 ins.

man with a bowler hat and handlebar mous-

tache—Thomas F. Murphy.

The President is giving one of the most

famous prosecutors in America all-our pow-

ers to drive bribestakers or favour-givers

Murphy’s chief target will be Six of 64 collectors

of internal revenue already have been sack- ed or have resigned.

For eight years he headed the criminal prosecution section in the New York District

He never lost a case, or

Then he became Police Commis-

i

| \

———

Prosperous New Year

TO ALL

Advocate Stationery

“FLUNG SPRAY

—BLOWN SPUME”

The opening of the new

Racing Season calls for

perfection of boat and

gear. When overhauling

standing and running rig-

ging you can rely on

Pitcher’s ROPE and WIRE,

CANVAS and FITTINGS,

to ensure maximum effi-

ciency on all points of

Sailing.

Phone 4472

C. S. Pitcher & Co.

AND STANCHEON

FACTORY OWNERS

When repainting the insides of

your molasses tanks, you cannot do bet-

ter than to specify . .

*“EINTERNATIONAL”

MOLASSES

TANK PAINT

This is a paint specially prepared for

the purpose. It is anti-corrosive, and

when completely dry will impart no

flavour or odour to molasses, drinking

water or foodstuffs .

It is, incidentally, also waterproof

and is, therefore, ideal for use in drink-

ing water tanks, food storage cham-

bers, refrigerators, etc.

Obtainable in 1 gallon tins at $8.73.

TRY A TIN AND BE CONVINCED.

Da Costa & Co., Ltd. AGENTS. FOR

INTERNATIONAL PAIN

FOUR CEREALS

. Ltd.

with PROTEINS

MEATS Save Time... . Turkeys.

Save Fuel. Chickens. Shredded Wheat. Ducks. Weetabix. Rabbits... Puffed Wheat. Liver. Grape Nuts.. Kidneys. Bran Flakes. Fresh Sausages. Corn Flakes... Beef Fillets. Oat Flakes. Leg Hams.

Leg Hams—Cut.. | Large Tin Hams.

Ox Tongues in Tins. Brisket of Beef in tins. Luncheon Meat. Vienna Sausages.

FISH Smokea Kippers.. Smoked Haddock .

SPECIALS Italian Ketchup, 7! oz, at

46c. per bot. Italian Chili Sauce, 74, 0z.,

at 74¢. per bottle. Prepared Mustard,

25e. per bot. A.1 Sauce, 48c. per bot.

Fillet Sole.

J & R RREAD Cod Roes. Rolls, Butter Bread, Anolis.

French F Bread | Tes

Cakes. MEAT DEPT. PHONE FOR YOUR | Cabbage. CARR CREAM | Cauliflower.

CRACKERS Beets. TO-DAY. Carrots.

Phone GODDARDS — we metiver