Prince George Citizen Thursday, May 5, Prince George Citizen (Established 1910) ------------ Member of iht Audit Bureau of Circulation* ----------- Published every Thursday at Prince George, B.C. by The Citizen Publishers and Printers. Editor: Harry Gregson. An independent Class "A" weekly newspaper devoted to the upbuilding o Prince George and all communities comprising northern and central B.C Largest circulation off any weekly newspaper in Central and Northern � British Columbia. Subscription-; per year - - $3.00 Outside Canada - - - - $4.00 Authorized as second class mail by Post Office Department, Ottawa. Clean Up, Plant, Paint Up This week is clean up, plant and paint up week, not only in Prince George, but throughout Canada. There is no lack of objects for our energy here. Our town is not blessed with spacious squares, tree-lined boulevards and impressive monuments. It is however blessed with natural surroundings which would be the envy of any capital city. It is up to us to make Prince George worthy of those suroundings. A gem is worthy of its setting. We have the setting, but the gem is in many corners of the City, rather corroded. .Fortunately, the polishing of our gem does not call for skilled labor. For once in the year�in some places they do it 52 weeks in a year as matter of course�we are asked to clean up our backyards and lanes, remove piles of lumber and logs which give the impression that pack rats abound, cut the grass in front of and behind our houses, if it has survived the winter, plant our flowers and vegetable seeds and paintup those front steps and weatherworn patches on our homes. Good citizens won't even have to be asked. They will do so as a matter of personal pride and because spring, with its summons to fresh effort is here. The appearance of your home and garden reflects your charater just as purely as does personal appearance. It also reflects on the City just" as a soldier with dirty boots on parade reflects on the whole unit. So let's get cracking with a will in this cledn up week. If we must have dust, let's have clean dust. If we must still endure shacks, let them be tidy shacks. Let's give the women a treat. We deprive them of flowers and green grass in this more northerly clime for a much longer period than their sisters in the south. Let us see that spring and summer brightness make up for the longer winter. Socialists who maintain that labor is the source of all productivity here have a chance to correct what labor hasn't done to the appearance of Prince George and to vindicate their beliefs. Conservatives have a first class change to conserve beauty. Liberals can indulge liberally in health-giving beautifying exercise. To clean up, plant and paint up next week is a matter of national and civic pride. Nice Footwork Around f(, with Town ROVING Ted Knibb is about his own wit. a chuckle. Out CITIZEN OF THE WEEK: Closing In On Cancer Time after time we have heard someone say, "If the otomic bomb could he built in a couple of years with a couple of billion dollars�why can't we buy a cure for cancer?" A cure for cancer would be cheap at any price. Unfortunately, however, it can't be bought. It will come, in all 'CHUCK' THOMAS LEARNED LIFE THE HARD WAY likelihood, as a result of research. And�barring accidental discoveries�the end results of research are attained by the patient building of fact upon fact. The physical principles of nuclear fission were well established long before we started constructing the first great industrial plant required to tear the atom asunder. The problem lay essentially in the field of physics, and the whole situation probably could be expressed in a page of equations. Not so with cancer, however. Cancer is believed to have come to the world before the first man. The Peking and Pilt-down Man and the Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal Man may have noticed the ugly tumors on plants, fish, birds, land ani-'jtkiIs�and, possibly, on themselves. And for uncounted centuries little was done but to observe in fear and awe the grotesque growths that spread and killed. Today we are still seeking some of the basic facts about cancer. These are obscured in the deepest secrets of Science �in the chemical interplay of enzymes and hormones and vitamins, in the physics of cellular heat and the dynamics of metabolism, in the delicate biological balances of blood production and content. At an increasing pace the myriad mysteries of cancer are being attacked. At the turn of the century x-ray and radiumwhich with surgery now constitutes the only standard cures for cancer-�were harnessed. The tragic gap. between the curable and the cured can be laid primarily to the need for more public and professional education. The Canadian Cancer Society has undertaken a widespread program to teach the public to heed the "seven danger signals of cancer"�the unhealing sore, persistent indigestion, unusual discharge or bleeding, wart and mole changes, lump in the breast, continuing horseness, and bowel habit changes. An intensive educational program for doctors too is gathering momentum. Complete cancer control still is unforeseeable. It is evident, however, that progress is being made. Lives are being saved. More lives can be salvaged with reasonable precautions. And it seems that the day must come when cancer mortality figures will have reached the vanishing point. That day will be speeded by continuing popular support of the Canadian Cancer Society. 'We were blown out, frozen out, draughted out, grasshoppered out and hailed out, all in 10 years," says Charles "Chuck" Thomas ofjiis early home in Saskatchewan where he and his family net great hardships and where he first took notice of socialist politics when his brother was defeated in a provincial election as candidate for the Farmers Progressive Party. Chuck was born in. Victoria, B.C., in 1903 and attended elementary school there, until . his family moved to Saskatchewan in 1915. They settled in Assiniboia where young Chuck took in high school and formed a desire to be a teacher. TEACHER Applying for entrance to a Saskatchewan,, normal school he found he was too young for provincial requirements and so, with his ambitions to teach still burning within, he travelled to Alberta where age standards were lower. He graduated as a licensed teacher when three months under the age of 17 years. Chuck moved into a teaching job there a"nd in summer months toured the province as second baseman for the semi-professional Calgary White Sox. Teaching jobs took him through southern Alberta and baseball contributed greatly to his travels. At various times he played for Calgary, Lethbride and the Cars-lond Wonders when, they won the provincial championships In 1923. As a teacher he moved up swiftly in the ranks of the teachers organization and eventually became a charter member of the Alberta Teachers Alliance. RAILROADER His first affiliation with a political party was in 1924 when he joined the Independent Labor party in Alberta. Summer months found him jobless and teachers' salaries were low. He overcame this by becoming a railroad man during the summer when huge shipments of Alberta wheat demanded larger railroad staffs and provided seasonal employment. He taught and railroaded alternately until 1924,when he dropped the teaching profession altogether and railroaded steadily until th first year of the depression, 1930 when he came back to British Co lumbia. POLICEMAN In 1932 Chuck became a mem ber of the B.C. Police Force and served as a constable in Kelowna Kamloops, Salmon Arm, Mission Lytton and Prince George. With the advent of war Chuck purchased his discharge from the police force, and attempted to en list in the RCAF but found his age ruled him out after he had reached a manning pool in Van couver. � CARPENTER Undaunted, he returned to Prince George and acquired another trade, as a carpenter, and went to work on the Prince George Army Camp buildings. While working on the camp he became secretary to the A.F.L. affiliated carpenters union in Prince George. In 1942 Chuck retuijfied to. railroading, this time to the C.N.R., where he has worked ever since as a trainman and conductor. He is proud of holding 22 years continuous membership in the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen. A length of time exceeded by few railroad men in this area he says. CCP His membership in the CCF party commenced In 1933 but not openly, he adds, due to his job with the police, then operating under a Liberal government. Chuck's brother, Dr. J. Morris Thomas, the one who ran In Saskatchewan on the Farmers Progressive ticket, is now a teacher in Victoria and was defeated as CCF candidate in the last Federal election when he ran for Nanal-mo. Chuck has run in two previous provincial elections, one in 1945 and again in the 1948 by-election, in the Cariboo riding and was in each case defeated by coaliition candidates. SOCIAL WORKER During his 11 years in Prince George Chuck has been prominent in civic affairs being a member of the Junior Chamber and the founder of its Junior Athletic Club. He is a member of the Uni- Kamloops CCF. Candidate ted Church and the John Howard Society and Parent-Teachers' Association. Two children have been born to Chuck and his wife Effie during their stay in this city, the eldest child, Chuck Jr,, being born in Kelowna during Chuck's days as a policeman. In 1947-48 he was an executive member of the CCF party and this year was named first vice-president. Hazelton Gets Diesel Mant From Power Com. The B.C. Power Commission has been authorized by the Lieu-enant-Governor-in-Council to en-er into an agreement with Wrinch Memorial Hospital at Hazelton for the operating and maintenance of a diesel generat-ng plant and distribution system or the Hazelton area. A suitable alternating current enerating plant will be installed t the estimated cost of $61,250. distribution system also will be onstructed at an estimated cost f $.42,000 making a total expenditure of over $103,000. The Power Commission also has been authorized to acquire the distribution facilities of any electri- cal utility operating within the area so as to coordinate the whole system. horns protruding from hole. Closer Investiga ed the object to be of a motorcycle. So..... he was approached by,,, CTmnrr�fthemf)^?ei I must have taken tho J road," said the motorcv, veying ruefully his Sl machine. "I was looking Cariboo road but i must h struck the Cariboo trail" "It wouldn't have helped" -wered Ted. "The only tlirrere between the Cariboo road and Cariboo trail is that the trail 1 one rut while the road has ta ?�.'* ��'?�? We're builders around ,heJ parts, we certainly are Terrv Hammond, "Citizen" \QVo^\ who hasnt used his attic beil room all winter because it was toJ cold, decided to give it a try the advent of spring. To erne s the attic, he placed a ladder out! side the cabin and climbed up Hel was followed up the ladder by a| stray dog. Terry didn't notjcethel dog until he was in bed. His wife! Maxine, objected to a dog in bedroom. Terry rather than out of bed again and put the uuS out, told the dog to Ho down anil patted it firmly on the head t3 reinforce the order. Suddenly J gaping hole appeared in the fioo-L and the dog disappeared in a| cloud of shavings used for insulal tion purposes. It's one way oil getting downstairs rapidly. Terry, spent a busy week-end repairing the ceiling of the livind room. ? * One of the unknown factors iij this election is the Indian with Indians voting for the firsl time. Kenneth Kape!.-Regional Director of the C.B.C. for British Columbia, who was in town ovea the -week-end, heard Haro'i Winch talking in Yanderhoof and Harold was certainly all out fo< the Indian vote. Our coalition, at time of writ! ing, is Btill without a candidate to replace Harry Perry. All of names have been mention The latest I hear is that of Bowman. *. ? � � John Mclnnis will certainly d serve his title "Honest John" he doesn't get in on some of tr claims Harold Winch is makii for the CCF. One of those claim is that under private enterprise no one can do a darned thin without a license. Nobody minded him that in Britain, when a Socialist Government is in po* er, a hen can't even lay an eg without a license. You can't tf chicken feed until y : a ration card. The following poem neaflj Frustration," taken from ta London "Recorder" is very apn pos: The simplest things v- " do'U Come up against some m Rule. . On. every side the s starr And shriek contempt - Thoroughfare." No .roundabout! You musj back Along official cul-de-sac YoU'll soon be dead or ew spiv If you've no licences to "" Kind earth may not crease yield Unless War Ag. sees field. . Initiative in shops ana Is quickly taxed t Cripps. , Attempts to shake more free Are squelched.at birth �> Attlee. ,h; "You'll not do thi> do that." lnirf Bays wooden-neacH crat; .^ While Regulation So-ana^ Moans mulish MoloW*j� | Form-fodder we- slaves. Through acts of ful knaves. her �oe-ful the (1 a! John Mclnnis � CCF meeting here to two opposing politicai.ca who mounted the nu set forth their Pp^^ the meeting, one of-tne . asked a member of |�e ^J what he thought of the candidates. 'After hearing reply. "I am glad .for (See REPORTER tho >i:j Page'