tery cael 2 a CITY HALL School Problems Demand Action -By ELGIN RUDDELL ON SHPTEMBER 5, Mister and Mistress Vancouver, up bright and early, sent 3409 young hopefuls to take their first step in formal learning. It’s a big day in amyone’s life and marks a transition point of considerable importance. So much of our hopes, ambitions and plans for social betterment are -associated with our children, it is of great public concern to. see that the best is available in the conditions and approach to molding their physical and mental lives. The school buildings and schooling facilities are entirely in- adequate to meet the needs of our city. Every school is badly overcrowded and every teacher is responsible for from ten to fifteen pupils more than any teacher is expected to handle’ under good teaching standards. I can certainly agree with Mrs. CG. W. Mellish, president of the Parent-Teacher Association, that the most urgent need is for MORE: schools! There are other needs too. More schools méan more teaching staffs, more desks, more books and more equipment for technical studies, art and culture. There is too, and equally important, the weifare of the children in such matters as hot lunches, dental, optical and medical care. ‘ One of our daily contemporaries has been lately devoting con- siderable editorial space to the question of extending hot lunch facilities to additional schools. The figure of $40,000.00 is placed as the sum required to carry through this project. It is a modest enough sum and should certainly be found for next year’s budget appropriation. What I would like and I think should expect from the edi- torial pen of our contemporary, is to suggest and call for a new financial deal for our school system. This is the big need of the city school board. They have just completed the annttal pilgrimage to the City Hall, cap in hand fashion, to coax, wheedle, and beg for a larger share of the pro- posed money bylaw. They started out asking for three and a half million dollars, and settled for one and a half millions. The one and a half million dollars, if it gets the voters’ O.K., will be spent mainly for three new school buildings, alterations and additions to existing schools and, of course, for the necessary equipment for the enlarged space. No one can question the urgent need for this limited program. Even the three and a half million origin- ally requested would barely begin to cover the backlog of school board requirements. The compromise plan, for instance, doesn’t touch the wretched madequacy of school facilities in the West Hind because the need in other districts is even greater. EN I said that I agreed with Mrs. ©. W. Mellish that school accommodation is the most urgent need; I did not mean that one could let it go at that. The thing that I see as the main weakness of the Parent-Teacher Association, the School Board, and our daily contempory, is that they have not as yet grasped the idea of carrying the needs of schooling before the public as part and parcel of the expanding and rising standard of living possible in the postwar. Taxation bases must be revised and as in other civic needs, the extra revenue must come out of the productive activity of our community. - The Federal Government, many months ago, asked all cities and municipalities to prepare plans and proposals for postwar public expenditure. If the school board has made any proposals for inclusion in the Federal postwar plan, it is high time the public were so informed. S In a way the school board has done its duty. It has trod the path of tradition and pre-war concepts, wrestled with the sums allowed by the city council with a good fight in the orthodox way for a larger appropriation. The school board needs new fighting blood to grapple boldly in new ways with the new possibilities and the new needs. The Parent-Teacher Association has an excellent program that includes nearly all of the things required to give our schools and schooling the rounded out, developed character that we should expect. ~ Here are their aims and objects: @ ‘To promote the welfare of children and youth. @® To raise the standard of home life. @® To secure adequate laws for the protection of children and youth. @ To enable parents and teachers to cooperate for the wel- fare of the child. ® ‘To understand and aid the schools and interpret them to the public. @ To obtain the best for each child according to his physical, mental, social, and spiritual needs. This organization welcomes parents to join and help put the program into life. The annual membership fee is but 25c. Join up! : Many hands are needed to put the ginger into the P.T.A. LPP Campaign Manager Addresses Well Attended Kelowna Meeting KELOWNA, B.C.—Continuing his teur of interior points, John McPeake, L provincial campaign manager, spoke at a public meeting in Kelowna last week. Ow to pressure of the fall harvesting work, Angus Campbell, | PP federal candidate in Y constituency, was unable to attend as originally planned. The meeting was well attenc despite the outbreak of fire in one of the two local sawmills just prior to the open time. The audience included the secretary cf the Kelowna CCF club. McPeake dealt extensively. with the problems of achieving a democratic progressive coali- tion and its effect on the feder- al elections and on subsequent governmental policies. “We have witnessed coalition on a number of occasions in the past, Financial Campaign Total to date: $12,345.19 25% of quota The coal miners of the Crow’s Nest came through with $200.00 this week, first payment on their quota from the Michel-Natal Club of the Labor Progressive Party. In the mines at Michel and Natal are leaders like Sam English, Jim Sloan, George Gaseoff and many other staunch fighters for labor and the nation. They get their money the hard “way but they give it will ingly for the building of the party they accept as their own and for the policies that party fights for. Not to be outdone by the miners, Gunnar Carlson has sent in $103.50, bringing to 5162.90 contributions from the loggers of Jeune Land- ing. The miners of the Grow and the loggers of Jeune Landing have done grand work, and work which can be duplicated in hundreds of towns and camps through- out British Columbia. For there are great num- bers of loggers and miners, farmers, shipyard workers and stenographers, demo- erati¢ men and women in every town, city and district of B.C. who know the name of Tim Buck and have warm regard for the party which he leads. Today Tim Buck and the Labor-Progressive Party advance the slogan of democratic coalition. We combat the influence of ir- responsible politicians who ignore both the opportuni- ties and dangers of our time and falsely reduce the rea] alignments to the slogan, “ Workers Vs. Bosses.” Such a slogan car- ried into life would have lost the war, and could now lose the peace. The interests of labor and the nation require a combina- tion of lj; democratic forces to isolate and fin- ally destroy the anti-pro- £ress, pro-fascist elements still dangerously strong in this country. Our own experience -with the Blaylocks of B.G. and the unfolding history in On- tario and Quebec demon- strates in life that reaction is on the offensive and the democratic coalition is the only bulwark of social pro- gress in the postwar. Our message is of vital import- ance to Canada’s future, the next few months decisive in determining our direction in the postwar. and at present our own prov- ince is governed by a coalition of the right,” he said. ““We must endeavor to change this into a coalition of progressive forces =which could put B.C. on the road to progress in the post- war.” The serious effects of not achieving coalition of the forces of progress was illustrated in the serious situations in Que- bee and Ontario, and was pri- marily attributable to the mis- taken policy of the CCE in re- tarding unity. In Quebec, the speaker pointed out, the €CE had concentrated all their fire against the Liberal Godbout SSeS = A charge of 50 cents for each insertion of five lines or less with 10 cents for each additional line is made for notices appear- ing in this column. No netices will be accepted later than Wed- nesday midnight of the week of publication. ‘ Branch Meetings : Burrard East LPP Branch meets every second and fourth Wednesday each month, 8 p.m., at 1302 East 12th. East End LPP Branch meets every second Wednesday at 8 p.m. and every fourth Sunday at 1:30 p.m. each month at 875 East Hastings. Fairview LPP Branch meets every second and fourth Wednesday each month, 8 p.m., in Heather Hall, Heather at Broadway. Grandview LPP Branch meets every second and fourth Friday each month 8 p m., at 875 East Hastings St. 7 Hastings East LPP Branch meets every second and fourth Friday each month, 8 p.m., at Club rooms, 2443 East Hastings St. Kitsilano LPP Branch meets every second and fourth Wednesday each month, 8 p.m., in Pine Hall, Pine St. between 7th and 8th. North Vancouver LPP Branch meets every second and fourth Wednesday each month, 8 p.m., corner Lonsdale and Eighth St. South Hill LPP Branch meets every second and fourth Wednesday each month, 8 p.m., in Horticultural Hall, 41st Avenue and Fraser. lik South Vancouver LPP Branch meets every second and fourth Wednesday of each month at Nerquay Hall, Kings- way at Slecan. — DIREC Swing Shift Meeting . Room 401, government, knowing full that it would result in the e tion of the pro-tascist Duple: and his Union Nationale: “The provincial elections k in Canada recently showed ¢ fusion and bewilderment on part of the general elector that may find itself expres in such a manner that it mi well lead to the election o: minority fovernment -at tawa akin to the regimes Qntario and Quebec. T would be dangerous not only the prospects of progressive mestie policy, but also to © continuance of United Natio unity.” TORY SSS a =