‘The Illegals’

These Polish orplkans, who

trekked through Europe and
across the Alps to make their way to Palestine, were “shot” by
Producer Meyer Levin for his documentary film, The Illegals.

YOU PROBABLY DON’T READ the Financial Post

and more than I do.

The other day, however, passing a

Newsstand, the headline, “What Did We Learn from the

Tices Probe?” caught my eye.
Me me finally. What could the
“arned from the prices probe
that it did not already know in
®dvance, that the government had
found a new way of evading our
demand for action against the
Profiteers? So I bought a copy,
€nd I don’t know which I grudged
More, the 15 cents for the paper
or the oné cent sales tax to Fin-
ance Minister Anscomb.

Did you know that “prices have
heen rising because of the enor-
mous purchasing power of the

dian people. . .”?

What the Financial Post means,
°f course, is that we're all out on
® grand and glorious spending

.

e
‘Pree, bidding up the price of

S00ds because we've all got too
Much money in our purses. The
Teason the price of a loaf of bread
“88 jumped from five to eleven
ents has nothing to do with the
Million dollars profit the Maple
Lea Milling Company made last
hie Oh dear, no. The price of
bud rose because we were all
Wing so much that the big mill-

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My curiosity got the better
Financial Post possibly have

ing companies just couldn’t keep
up with the demand. That’s also
the reason the prices of milk, beef
and other staples have soared
beyond our “enormous purchasing
power”.

. And that’s not all. The Financial
Post chides the parliamentary
prices committee for having fos-
tered the dangerous idea that
profits are being made, It states:
“Both in its hearings and in its
report, the committee apPears to
believe that our economy is based
on a profit system. That, of course,
is not true. Ours is a profit and
loss system.” The profits go to the
big monopolies and the _ losses
come out of our living standards.

The Financial Post, however,
has “the complete and total an-
swer to rising prices.” The public
“can refuse to buy, as was visibly
illustrated in the price of beef.”
This should encourage the 70 per-
cent of us who, last year, earned
less than $2,000. Being unable to
buy, we should refuse to buy.

Buyers’ strikes can be mest ef-
fective at times in bringing prices
down, But a decent living stand-
ard can only be maintained by
placing within our means far
meat, milk, vegetables,
and fruit than we can afford at
present prices. The government
can, if it wants, place these staples
within our reach by reimposing
price controls—the very thing the
Financial Post fears most. It’s up
to us, by keeping the heat on our
reluctant government, to force it
to take this action.

There’s one thing we can all do,
and that is to sit down and write
a letter to Professor C. A. Curtis,
chairman of the Royal Commis-
sion on Prices, recently appointed
by the government, at Ottawa. Or
peter still, sign and clip the item
you'll find on another page. If
enough letters and protests reach
the commission, the government
may find it expedient to ‘cut short
its elaborate evasion and do some-
thing now, What are we waiting
for?—B.G.

YOUR CHILD'S 1Q — RICH OR POOR?

Basis of tests fraudulent

HOW DOES YOUR CHILD
measure up against sons and
daughters of the rich? For a long

, time, psychologists have had one

answer. Children from families of
workers and farmers are, on the
average, less intelligent than
youngsters born to rich parents.
Boys and girls from well-to-do
parents are as a rule much bright-
er.

Maybe you think this is out-
rageous. But millions of children
have had their minds rated by
schools tests. Kids from across
the tracks got lower intelligence
ratings than their school mates
from the best homes.

Most of our _ psychologists ac-
cepted these facts, They believed
that children from “better” -fam-
ilies are better fitted to succeed
in life, smarter than children
from the “lower” classes,

After all, isn’t it natural? Are-
n't capitalists smarter than work-
ers and farmers? Working-class
youngsters are doomed to poverty
because they are stupid!
because they are stupid! These
ideas are now being exposed.

Doctors W. J. Davis and R. J.
Havighurst, well known. American
psychologists, have raised the
central question. Do our “intelli-
gence -tests” really measure a
child’s mental capacity?

Years ago famous scientists like
Ralph Tyler, test director of the
U.S. Armed Forces Institute dur-
ing the war, criticized these tests.
Tyler said they “cause our com-
munities and industries a tremen-
dous loss” because they, do not
measure “the true learning-poten-
tial of the millions of children in
our lowest socio - economic
groups.”

* * *

THE SCIENTISTS who drew
up the tests weren’t consciously
trying to give the rich children a

break. But psychologists live in a.
- middle-class, prosperous world. So

their questions and problems are
those facing prosperous people.
They usually do not know how
the vast majority of people live,
work, think. ‘
. Shocking facts are reported by
Davis and Havighurst. For ex-
ample, take an average worker's
kid and one from a rich family.
Each one, in his Own group, is
definitely bright. Now give them
the regular “intelligence” test.

The rich kid quickly grasps all
the questions. But 70 to 90 per-
cent of the questions will be about
things the worker’s kid is not
familiar with.

Take a question using the musi-
cal term “sonata.” Because middle
class and rich children have infin-

itely more chances to hear classi-—

cal music, nearly all know what
a sonata is. But few workers’ and
farmers’ families ever use the
word. So they get a lower “intel-
ligence” rating.

The general conclusions drawn
by Davis and Havighurst are very
important. They say ‘mental
tests” are based on problem solvy-
ing. What problems a child is ac-
customed to solving depends on
how he or she lives.

Workers may rightly ask why
it has taken scientists so long to
grasp one of life’s plainest truths.
The answer is clear. Scientists,
the same as all other people in
society, are strongly influenced
and prejudiced by the level of
society in which they live. Most
scientists deny this, and say that
“science is above society.” But
this doesn’t stop them from mak-
ing terrible blunders.

“As * *

HERE IS WHAT Doctors Davy-
is and Havighurst say about the
scientist who draws up the “in-
telligence” tests: “They continual-
ly make the error of regarding

middle-class culture as ‘true’ cul-
ture, or the ‘best’ culture,”

Again: “Most schools do not
teach pupils how to explore eyen
the simplest real-life problems,
and how to proceed to solve
them.” Much of the academic
stuff taught in schoo] “destroys
the real aim of education, which
is to learn how to think so as to
solve life problems.”

How were the mental tests de- .

veloped? By testi great num-
bers of school children, who rated
from very low to very high in
their school work. But school
work is not a scientific measure
of “a child’s intelligence. Hence
the very basis of “intelligence”
tests-is ridiculous, unscientific.
Professors of psycnology have
long argued why is it that boys
differ so-much from girls in cer-
tain tests. There is a clear ex-
planation, In our society, men
and women are subject to “differ-
entiations.’ Doctors Davis and

‘WOMAN’S PLACE’

Havighurst see this now, but
Marx and Engels saw it 100 years
ago. Today, our women are gross-
ly subjugated, exploited, segre-
gated. Give a girl a test based on
problems that girls have to face
in our society, and she will rate
much more intelligent than boys.
But our schoo! tests heavily favor
boys, just as our s6ciety does.

“Intelligence” tests have little
meaning for the people and their
children. Such tests give highest
scores to “upper” class families.
In that class the main problem is.
to live off the labor of others. The
best motive is lust for personal
gain. The strongest emotions to-
day are hatred of progress ming-
led with terror at the victories of
socialism. :

At last some scientists are see-
ing through the disgraceful fraud
of “mental tests.” But it will be a

‘long hard fight to change these

ratings.—DYSON CARTER.

Exposing a slogan

WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION in production and all
the various phases of economic and social life is an historic

sign of progress.

The work of women means the addition
of new hands and new brains.

Work offers. women the per-

spective of economic independence, of earning their own

living on an equal basis with
men; it makes possible the free
choice of a husband and a life of
dignity.

By her work woman is trans-
formed into a more intelligent,
more complete human being. She
gains the ability to see beyond
her personal problems, and to in-
terest herself in the lot of others,
in the fate of her country. Wom-
en’s increasing participation in
social production adds numbers
and strength and solidity to the
union of the people in the battle
against the enemy. :

These facts, the most decisive of
all, prove that the slogan “wom-

an’s place is in the home” is noth-

ing but a slogan intended to be-
cioud the real demands of the
workers,

To many women, overwhelmed
with worries, this slogan may
seem attractive. Yet suppose that
tomorrow thousands of dressmak-
ers stayed home. What would be-
come of us with no more clothes?

If our school teachers stopped’

work, what would we do with our
school children?

The same question can be ap-
Plied to every industry. What
would we do if the women stopped
working? ®

And then of course there would
be the question of how these mil-
lions of women could live without
working.

The reactionaries purposely
“forget” the millions of women—
workers, teachers, intellectuals,
artists — who are both workers
and mcthers. They purposely talk
about women’s place being in the
home, so as not to grant women
equal rights with men in order to
divide the workers.

The reactionaries would like to
keep women in darkness, to thrust
the family back into tribal rela-
tionships, Their conception of the
family is not based on the woman
who works, on the mutual] respect
of husband and wife, on respect
between parents and children, on
equality between husband and
wife, on affection, They want to
put across a conception of the
family, based on the fear of God,
on the fear of the father, fear of
the devil, resignation before God,
before the father, and above all
before the capitalist masters,

At all costs the reactionaries
want to slow down the struggle
of men and women for socialist
emancipation, ©

‘

We Always Sell for Less

Army and Navy will never know-
ingly be undersold. We will meet
any competitor’s price at any time,
not only ceiling price but floor price,
and we will gladly refund any differ-
ence. Army and Navy prices are
guaranteed to be the lowest in Van-
couver at all times.

Army & Navy

DEPARTMENT STORES
Vancouver and New Westminster

| PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JULY 30, 1948—Page 11