------ A OICE THE WORLD AT LARGE of the CANADA 'THE EMPIRE PRESS CANADA Curl In the Pig's Tail Last year Canada sold to Great Britain 193 million pounds of bacon, equivalent to 1,600,000 hogs. The curl in the pig's tail appears to be assum- ing the shape of the $ sign.--Kitch- ener Record. A Stream of Talk The average man talks two hours out of every twenty-four at the rate of 10D words a minute. He utters some 4,500,000 words a year. The authority doesn't say so, but we presume he is talking of single men. -- Chatham News: What Chance Has It? The latest scientific aid to safe driving is a red light on the dash- board which warns motorists when they approach grade crossings. But it they won't heed" tooting whistles, ringing bells and wig-wagging sig- nals, what chance has a little red light ?--Windsor Daily Star. Help to Farmers Agriculture is at last to receive greater recognition. The prosperity of the province depends so much up- on the well-being of the farmer that it would be nothing short of crim- inal, now that the money is available, not to recognize the demands of the farming community for greater assist- ance in placing agriculture in a bet- ter position to play its full part in the development and progress of the coun- try.--St. Thomas Times-Journal. Wants Less Provincial Power We may not always agree with Denton Massey, M.P., but we can see some validity in his claim that Can- ada is in danger of becoming "Balkan- ized." He, like most of us, sees prov- inces seeking to assert too much auth- ority with a consequent danger to fed- eralism. There is such a danger. There is far too much emphasis laid on 'provincial rights," which usually means a reaching out for federal pow- ers. Probably what is needed is less provincial power. There is a growing body of public opinion, which even be- lieves it might not be a bad idea to abolish the provincial governments al- together, with consequent saving in taxes and trouble.--Niagara Falls Re- view. A Changing Ontario In Middlesex and Lambton coun- ties rapid changes are taking place. The sons of the old pioneer families are not staying on the farms. They are selling out in many cases to the New Canadians of alien origins. In Lambton County, particularly near Alvinston, there is a large settlement of Czechoslovakians who have bought out old farms. They are making ex- cellent settlers. They are happy just now that they are living in Canada and not in Czechoslovakia. The ma- Jority of new settlers are anxious to take out citizenship papers and to be- come good Canadians. They are ready to adopt our ways and our customs. Possibly in the end it is not such a bad thing to have an infusion of new blood. In any case, whether we like ft or not, the Western Ontario of a few decades from now may be an en- tirely different Western Ontario from that of our day and generation.--Lon- don Free Press. New Process Makes Pictures On Metal Photographs Produced In This Way Are Much More Accurate The Aluminum Company of Amer- ica disclosed last week at Pittsburg that it has perfected a method of making pictures on metal which was expected to be more enduring and more accurate than those taken on paper. It presented the first portrait made by the new process to Dr. Paul D. Merica, whose research work on the precipitation hardening of alloys led to a more diversified use of metals. Do Not React To Changes The pictures are made on a paten- ted metal about one-sixteenth of an "inch thick, which contains an oxide coating, with the sensitive silver salts that react to light. When exposed light sent through a negative an mage is produced on the metal. A spokesman said the metal pic- tures have proved more valuable for aerial surveys, where a surface, ab- solutely accurate, was needed. He explained that a slight change in temperature causes contraction or expansion of paper pictures, and that such slight distortion would bring about a grave miscalculation of dis- tances. The metal pictures do not react to such changes, he said. A--C THE EMPIRE Rising (?) Sun The core of the Chinese armies is still intact; the Central Government, with the whole-hearted support of a united nation, has never been strong- er; and Japan has been forced to en- list the good offices of a European Power in order to make peate over- tures which have been rejected with the contempt they deserved. Turn back the calendar, may be the wish of most Japanese. Too late, their awzkening. Japan is caught in the toils of a war, the outcome of which is perfectly clear--all too clear to the Japanese. She has antagonized the Powers of the world by h brutality. Her troubles at home are increasing daily. News of insurrections in the territories she has torn from the main- land in previous "raids" leaks out to the world. The Land of the "Rising" Sun. We wonder!--Hong Kong Press. Irish Living Costs For a time Ministers were disposed to deny that there was any increase in the cost of living, but when they could no longer persist in that atti- tude they proceeded to make the case that the increase in the cost of living was a sign of greater prosperity. The housekeeper in town and country has to pay higher prices for all her re- quirements. The citizens, as taxpay- ers, are, for the same reason, called upon to provide the funds needed by the Exchequer to defray the addition- al cost of living bonus. The citizens, as ratepayers, are similarly affected .... While the costs and charges to which we have referred have been mounting, the income -{ the chief pro- ducing class in the country--the agri- cultural' community--has been rela- tively diminishing. For everything he has to purchase the farmer has to pay more, and as his income is much less than it had been, obviously he is com- pelled to limit his purchases to a bare minimum. This decline in hig pur- chasing power is detrimental to the manufacturer and trader.--Irish In- dependent, Dublin. Indented Road Reflects Light New Type Surface ----- Engineer Offers Scheme to Aid Night Drivers A new type of road surface that will "increase visibility very greatly" was reported at the 17th annual Mass- achusetts Safety Conference at Bos- ton last week. Need for some such surface was em- phasized by a group of engineers dis- cussing 'highway lighting in relation to night accidents." They pointed to mounting automo- bile fatalities after dark, restrictions on headlights, and experience "prov- ing" the impracticability of enforcing speeds within the limits set by head- light visibility. The Only Safe Speed L. A. S. Wood, lighting engineer, said that "10 to 16 miles an hour is the only speed safe with present light- ing equipment." The problem, therefore, these en- gineers agreed, was one of getting enough light of the right kind in the right place on the highway. C. A. B..Halvorson, of Lynn, Mass., announced that the new type of road surface was developed during an at- tempt by the research experts to de- sign a surface that would allow driv- ers to see farther without glare. Crux of the problem, he said, was to get hold of a design that would do its job as well in wet weather as in dry. Pitted At Intervals The design he finally settled on makes his miniature test road look like one of those pans you put in the oven for hot biscuits. Little "cups" pit the road at intervals of an inch in diameter. Mixed with this indented surface is a substance, such as quartz- ite, which gives a high reflectivity. Spaghetti Shooting "I went crazy because I was offer- ed spaghetti instead of steak for my supper." A man offered this explana- tion recently to Chicago police after shooting his 17-year-old daughter and wounding his 21-year-old son. He missed his wife. Walking For Ten Years The most energetic man in the world has been walking for 10 years. He started in 1927 to walk round the world. Now he has completed 80,000 miles--more than three times the earth's circumference. Whales have been known to break their jaws on the ocean bottom, after a mile deep dive, Tissues Outlive Organism Growth Animal And Plant Tissues Both Can Live On, Celebrated Botanist Announces Living tissues have the power to survive long beyond the life of the growing organism. This was demon- strated in the case of animal tissues by Dr. Alexis Carrel, who kept tis- sues from an embryo chicken heart alive longer than the greatest life span of a chicken. The culture is still alive at the Rockefeller Insti- tute after more than a quarter of a century, Blossoms Alive For Months Dr. Carl L. LaRue, of the depart- ment of botany, University of Michi- gan, has demonstrated that it is pos- sible to keep plant tissues alive 865 times as long as they would survive in the plant. He took portions of the blossoms of plants which have but a short span of existence under natural conditions and placed them in a nutrient culture medium, simi- lar to that in which germs and other micro-organisms are cultivated. After a given structure has fulfill- ed its function in the plant, its nour- ishment is withdrawn and it disin- tegrates. The nourishment available is then diverted to the newly devel- oping structures. When the blossom has finished its task it makes way for the fruit. Scenes Recall Klondike Days Yellowknife, N.W.T., Now Pack- ed With Seekers After Gold EDMONTON. -- Scenes reminiscent of Dawson City during the Klondike rush, are being enacted at Yellow- knife, N.W.T., centre of the gold field on the north shore of Great Slave Lake, Leonard E. Drummond, secre- tary and manager of the Alberta and Northwest Chamber of Mines, said. He just returned from a 10-day aerial inspection trip of far north mineral areas. ; Airplanes Bring Men In ¢Airplanes are bringing men in daily who are seeking work and the work hasn't started yet," he said. "The re- sult is there is no hotel accommoda- tion for the new arrivals. Men are forced to undress and dress almost in publie. It's almost like the Dawson says." Mine managers in Yellowknife, Gor- don Lake and Goldfields, whom he vis- ited during his tour, asked him to issue a public warning to work-seek- ers not to consider going into these areas yet as it will only add to the difficulties~and work will not start un- til the summer, Mr. Drummond said. Commenting on the activity in the north, Mr. Drummond said "there's no question it will be a big year." Life Expectation In the Dominion Is Shown By Latest Figures To Be Higher Than In Either The United States Or Great Britain. Investigations into longevity tend to reinforce the Biblical dictum that the span of life is three score and 10, the Dominion Bureau of Statistics an- nounced this month as official Tife tab- les for the geheral population of Can- ada were issued for the first time. "It seems that today, in Canada particularly, there are far more peo- ple attaining the allotted span than ever before in history but there are not appreciably more centenarians than there were 100 years ago," the bureau said. "The decreasing mortal- ity at younger ages is a token of the vastly smaller amount of illness among young people today." More Years In Prospect Based on the 1931 census, which was the first to compare deaths with liv- ing population in order that- preb- abilities of dying could be reckoned, the survey showed that the Canadian boy of five can look forward to 62.30 years of life. An English boy has only 60.00 years, and the American boy 59,38 years. As a person grows older the expec- tation of life steadily decreases. When a Canadian youth reaches his majority he has in prospect 48 years to live on the average. When he gets to 40 he may anticipate living 32 years more. 'When he retired at about 65, he may expect to have a comfortable 13 years of retirement and die at 78. If he reaches 80 he should live six years more and even when he arrives at the century mark his expectation of life is two years. Study of mortality in 15 countries, show that only two have a lower male mortality from ages 25 to 45 than Canada, these being Denmark and Holland. Chance of an Italian boy of five dying is 39 per cent. greater than that for a Canadian, of a Japanese boy 169 per cent., and an East Indian 637 per cent. Longevity Of Canadians Is Steadily Increasing 8 Healthy and Vigorous Elements "In addition to our healthy climate, advanced facilities in medicine and public health and our standard of liv- ing, all of which undoubtedly con- tribute to our remarkably = superior longevity, there is the factor of selec- tion through immigration," the report continued. "When large movements of popula- tion take place there is a tendency for the more healthy and energetic ele- ments to move while the less healthy stay at home. Hence it is that West- ern Canada has the lightest mortality as the three provinces have received much of their population very recent- ly." News In Review | »>oaga an a on To Control High-Power Stations OTTAWA. -- It was the ultimate policy of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to take control of all high- power broadcasting in Canada, L. W. Brockington, chairman of the Board of Governors, told the Parliamentary Committee on Radio. Some permits had been granted for private stations with power up to a maximum of 1,000 watts, but mo in- creases would be permitted above that maximum, to private stations, Mr. Brockington said. Eventually it was the intention to restrict private stations to 'purely local functions." The Heart of Europe VIENNA.--"The political heart of Europe no longer beats in Paris, but in Berlin," Propaganda Minister Goeb- bels of Germany declared this week in an Anschluss plebiscite campaign speech. "In ten years' time, it will be un- derstood what that signifies," he said. Appealing for a 100 per cent. vote by Austrians in favor of union with Germany in the April 10 plebiscite, Yes Horse Commentary on the = Highlights of the Week's News . . . By Elizabeth Eedy INSIDE PRESSURE--BYy taking over Austria, Reichsfuehrer Adolf Hitler's chief gain has been the increase of his own prestige with the German people at a time when their faith in him badly needed bolstering. His Austrian coup has served for the mo- ment to distract German minds from the army purge, mounting unem- ployment, shortage of food essen- tials, loss of personal freedom. Observers say that the move is ac- complishing little in the way of bet- tering the desperate economic con- ditions of the Reich. Austria, too, is deficient in foodstuis and raw ma- terials, has to import between 700,- 000 and 900,000 tons of grain a year to feed her people. Sole resources present there in any sort of abund- ance are iron ore and timber, which Hitler and his financial advisers plan immediately to exploit. By selling the iron ore and timber outside the country, they will be able to hoard more foreign capital and stave off economic collapse for the present. The seizure of Austria is then only a stop-gap, a temporary measure, to be followed by moves much more drastic, infinitely more brutal. In- side pressure drives Germany outside herself, forcing the country on and on to further and still further ag- gression. There is no foundation for the hope that Hitler will stop where he is. --_---- DOG EAT DOG--It won't be long now before Poland, having won the first round of a bloodless fight with Lithuania, by forcing that country to accept Polish terms in settlement of a border dispute, will be making new demands of her neighbor. The truth is that Poland would like to annex Lithuania, thereby gaining more outlets on the Baltic. It is pretty generally agreed that Poland, sup- posedly an ally of France, has been backed up in the Lithuanian dispute by Germany in return ivr a promise of Polish support for some other moves Hitler has in mind . . . one of which might be a boycott of Czecho- slovakia. Professor Albert Bushnell Hart of Harvard, dean of American histori- ans, however, is of the belief that Germany is actually planning to an- nex Poland. Case of dog eat dog, we opine, a HOLDING IT UP--It was admitted by Prime Minister Mackenzie King in the House last week that the rea- son the present session has not dealt with the proposed amendments to the British North America Act (empow- ering the Federal Government to en- act unemployment insurance legisla- tion) is that three of the nine Pro- vinces have failed to communicate with him, giving their views on the matter. The draft of the proposed amend- ment was submitted to all Provin- cial Governments, January 20, New Brunswick and Quebec had not up to this week acknowledged receipt of the draft. ---- NORMAL CROP--From the drought areas of southwestern Saskatchewan are coming reports of water flowing in creek beds, rivulets and lakes, storing up greatly-needed water. At Regina it is said the country has re- ceived the largest amount of moisture in many years. Further, it has been an open spring with & rapid thaw of heavy snow in many parts. A "normal" crop is looked for by the farmers of Saskatchewan. Pros- pects long seen hopeless are bright- ening again. It will be a wonderful thing for Canada if the West really is beginning to "come back." ne ( SCAPEGOAT--In primitive times, high priests of religion were wont to place all the blame for plagues, de- feats in war, sins of thg people, on some innocent animal, for instance a goat, which they put to death with great ceremony. When the goat had been killed, the cause of the evil was supposed to have been removed and expiation made. Hence the origin of "scapegoat." Though we are far from primitive times today, we still have our scape- goats. It looks as though Ex-Chan- cellor, Dr. Kurt von Schuschnigg of Austria is going to be one of them, Branded now as a traitor by Adolf Hitler, he will be tried for treason against the German Reich, in Leipzig this summer. The court proceedings, it is reported, will be public and widely publicized on purpose to prove to the world that all the blame for Austria's plight rests on Schusch- nigg's shoulders. Germany hopes that the death of Schuschnigg on the chopping block will silence all criti- cism of the Nazi annexation, --O-- CHINESE HIT BACK -- Counter- thrusts by Chinese armies are result- ing in victories over the Japanese throughout the entire Central China front. Reports last week had it that Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek him- self was at the central battle front in personal charge of the drive. Cer- tainly it is definite that the Chinese have met with striking military suc- cess in Shantung, Shansi and Anhwei Provinces. It is still too early, however, to predict that the tide is turning against Japan. Goebbels said that grave decisions taken by Chancellor Hitler -- leaving the League of Nations, remilitarizing the Rhineland and absorbing Austria --were all full of risks. Warns of Depression OTTAWA.--Right Hon. R. B. Beén- nett sounded a warning in the House of Commons this week that Canada was on the verge of a depression sim- ilar to that of 1930. The Opposition Leader charged that "the danger signals are already flying," and that the upward trend of the past three years had suddenly stopped. The signals to which he re- ferred, he said, were that exports had fallen off drastically, that unemploy- ment was "growing by leaps and bounds, 25,000 in one month," that business men were refusing to invest money because they lacked confidence. off Czechoslovakia!' tina bien ed to pass and deliver the letter. Trafalgar Square Sees Another Demonstration Twenty thousand jammed Lon'on's Trafalger Square recently to protest against the German annerstion cf Austria. Here are mounted and foot police trc!ling a deputation seeking: to take a letter of protest to t' man Embassy. Eventually a few = ¢ The crowd was shouting * Hen The Arctic Tern Flies Very Far Long-Distance Champion -- In Three Months One Globe-Trot- ting Bird Flew From Labrador to Nigeria. : Now that the northern bird migra- tion is getting under way, the vast distances which these travellers cover in flying to and from their nesting grounds is a topic of current interest. The powers of endurance displayed by large numbers of North American birds on their lengthy migratory jour- neys is amazing, but there is one spe- cies that out-rivals them all. This is the Arctic tern, aptly referred to as "the champion globe trotter and long- distance flyer of the bird world." Circumpolar Range The species is well named, as its range is circumpolar and it nests over the Arctic land as far north as suit- able conditions can be found. When the young are well-grown the Cana- dian and Greenland terns disappear from their breeding grounds and a few months later may be found even as far away as Africa. In fact the long- est flight on record for an individual bird was achieved by an Arctic tern that in three months flew from the coast of Labrador to the Niger River in Southeast Africa. Traverses Atlantic The journey of the terms ig be- lieved to follow a route touching upon the west coasts of Spain and Africa, and on the.return trip northwards in- dividuals are known to fly along the east coast of South America. : The route indicated for this bird is altogether unique, as no other species is known to breed abundantly in North America and to traverse the Atlantic Ocean to or from the Old World. These globe-trotting birds travel many thousands of miles and touch on four continents in the course of a year, Don't Skate On Ice When ice skaters skim along over a smooth stretch they are not actu- ally sliding on ice but on water. The ice melts under the skates, due to the friction, and the skates move along on a thin film of water. Increased pressure, as all physicists know, als¢ melts ice, and the weight of the per son on skates provides pressure whic] comb'nes with the friction to changy "2 ice to water,