The Union of Electors is demanding that the government of Mr. John Diefenbaker increase the family allowance rates to $15 a month for each child. So great is the poverty in a vast multitude of families across the land, that this source of revenue is the sole means of nourishing the children and keeping the family alive.
If Mr. Diefenbaker is as solicitous for the welfare of each and every Canadian as he made himself out to be during his campaign for election to the premiership, then he most certainly cannot turn a deaf ear to the groans of the poor. If he does, then he can hardly expect those Canadians who are sympathetic to the condition of want existing in our country, to lend a ready ear to his demand for support in the elections which he proposes this year.
Let Mr. Diefenbaker and those of his colleagues responsible for the material welfare of Canadians read the cases listed below and then ponder the text from the Epistle of St. James the Apostle:
"And if a brother or sister be naked and want daily food, and one of you say to them: Go in peace, be ye warmed, yet give them not those things that are necessary for the body, what shall it profit ?" (St. James, II - 15 / 16 )
5 children from 16 years to 14 months. Another on the way. The father is 45 years old and has been unemployed for 3 years, sick since 1960; ulcers of the stomach and defective leg. Their only revenue: family allowances amounting to $26 a month. They owe $1,000 and the father has been in prison from time to time because of his debts, Paying $2.00 a month rent.
2 children, a year and a month. The father, 47 years old, sick for 3 years, hasn't worked. He must pay taxes each year: $11. on a house measuring 24 x 20 feet. Revenue: family allowances amounting to $12.00 a month.
6 children. Father, 53 years old, worked for a month, was hurt in an accident at work, has not received any compensation. Only revenue: $38.00 in family allowances. Debts: $500 to the doctor. The house, 28 x 23 feet. He is not eligible for help from the Welfare Committee because it is the Accident Commission which is concerning itself with his case. This Commission has done nothing to relieve this distress so far, and while waiting he and his family go hungry.
. 2 children, 8 and 10 years. Father, 55 years old, unemployed for 7 years. Revenue: family allowances of $14 a month plus $20. Annual taxes on his house, $103. The house is 16 x 25 feet. He owes one year of taxes.
5 children, Father 60 years old, unemployed for 6 years, sick for 4 years. The mother likewise is sick. Family allowances, $32. No other revenue.
5 children from 13 years down. The father is an invalid, not having recovered fully from an operation on his spine 7 years ago. Mother anemic and very thin. Only revenue: $30 family allowances. Last July they received $130 from the Welfare Committee but have received nothing further since, despite promises. Debts: $643.79 to the hospital. A certain Mrs. Edouarda Lezinskua, an official of the Welfare Bureau, went to visit them; among other insulting remarks, she told the mother not to waste so much!
5 children, from 10 years to 4 months. The little girls have only one dress each. $26 a year in taxes on their little home of 14 x 24½ feet. Owe $115 in back taxes. Family allowances, $32 a month. The children and the mother are perpetually ill. The doctor says that they are simply undernourished. They have no wood for heating purposes.
The mother wrote us as follows: "I am writing you a few words to ask your help. I am a poor mother with 10 children. My husband is always sick and unable to work. We have no potatoes, no wood for the winter and no clothing. I don't know where to turn for help. Everyone around here is poor. If only you could send me a bit of clothing for the children who go to school. Even if it is somewhat worn, I can remake it for I have an old sewing machine. I have a daughter who will soon be 16 years and who goes to school. Another is 14, another, 13 in February, another 11, others at 9, 7, 6 and 4; 2 boys, one 18, the other 16. Both without work, it takes a lot to feed and clothe such a big family. If you could see your way to helping me I would be very happy for my little children, because in all this it is they who suffer the most.
6 children from 17 to 2 years of age, Father; 52 years old, a fisherman, is ill with heart trouble and asthma, expects to be forced to enter the hospital almost any time now. The mother is suffering a nervous depression. They live in a shanty. No electricity. No beds. The children sleep on the floor on blankets. They owe a hundred dollars in taxes and owe for their stove. The government has so far refused them the invalids pension or the allowance for needy mothers.
Here is a letter he wrote us last October 1: "Quite some time ago I wrote to Cabano asking for Social Assistance. I was refused. The excuse they gave was that since I was a farmer I could not be considered as a needy person, I have 5 children. A farmer who has 4 cows which don't give a great deal, is not in a very good position to feed a family of 7. I have no unemployment insurance stamps and no work near my place which would permit me to keep an eye on things at home. I don't earn a cent, and believe me, this doesn't help to make life any easier. I have been obliged to sell one of my cows in order to feed the family."
Here is her letter: "My husband is without work and we haven't a cent to our name. We are going to lose our house. It is not a big house only 18 x 16. We have 6 children who are undernourished and soon will not have a house to shelter them from the weather. Can you understand what pain it causes a father and a mother to be in such a position? I am writing you all this in the hope that you will be able to help us keep our little home. We can't buy food from any of the stores because of what we owe them. We can't pay for medicine and food.
6 children, of whom one has had an accident, another is sick. The father is ill with stomach ulcers, almost unable to work at all. They have no aid, no revenue other than that which they get from the family allowance cheque.
with sto They which the
2 children. The father is laid up from an accident. He receives $ 12 a month compensation, which along with family allowance brings his monthly revenue to $24. Four people have to live off of this. They live in black misery. They have been unable to get any social assistance.
2 children in the house. Father sick. No pension.
14 children. The father without work, without unemployment insurance, without unemployment assistance. He has received from the Social Welfare office $55 all told, in spite of the fact that this office promised regular assistance.
The following is from his letter of October 7: "I have been looking for work and have been unable to find any. No unemployment insurance stamps. I am married and my wife is pregnant. This is very hard on a husband. I have a house to keep up and payments to meet each month. I am in the greatest need. Please help me.
8 children. The father is unemployed, suffering dreadfully from eczema. The family is very poor. The house is practically uninhabitable. The Welfare office is unwilling to give them any aid. According to the law they should be receiving $150 a month.
2 children to look after. Husband sick. They have been refused unemployment assistance. They should get $100 a month.
4 children to care for. Unemployed, no revenue. Asked for unemployment assistance in April; was refused. Should get $120 a month.
8 children. Unemployed. No income. Receives no unemployment assistance. Should get $160 a month.
Writes as follows: "We are unable to give our children the medicine, the clothing, the shoes which they need. As for food we can supply them with only the bare essentials. We have 7 children ranging from 1 year to 11. What little revenue we have must go on payments we have to make.
Writes us as follows: "I am writing to you with regard to social aid. I filled all the necessary formulas at the beginning of August — which means that I have sent quite a few cards to the Selective Office, all without any reply. I am the father of 7 children and it is now 3 months that I have not earned a cent. Please help me to obtain the social aid which I need..."
7 children, ranging from 13 years to 7 months. The monthly income: $44 in family allowance. They live in a shanty 15 x 16 feet. You can see daylight through the cracks in the wall. They must pass the winter there. Taxes: $20 a year. Arrears in taxes: $75. Owing to the stores: $125. They are desperately in need of clothing.
? taxes: 59 Taxes: $20 must pass the
9 children from 16 to 3 years. The father...is: sick and without work. Their income $56 in family allowances, $40 in food, a month from social aid. Their little cabin is: 15 x 16 feet. Yearly taxes amount to $23.40. They are $125 in arrears. They owe $203 to the various stores, They also need clothing.
Has been an invalid since the age of one. He is now 35.... He is obliged to walk with a crutch. He does not receive the any invalid pension. The doctor at Fredericton said he wasn't sufficiently invalided. He receives $20 a month in social aid.
4 children. An invalided daughter of 27 who has never received the invalid pension. Income : family allowance, $16 a month plus $52 in provisions. School taxes, $40, county taxes, $5, owe $200 to the grocer. They have no money with which to pay. The father and the children are in desperate need of clothing.
6 children, from 11 year to 1. All girls. The father is an invalid with a defective arm. He has been refused the invalid's pension. Aid from the social welfare was cut off in the month of August. Before August he had the privilege of ordering at the stores on the account of the Social Welfare bureau. But he could order only food. He could not buy thread or soap. Family allowance comes to $38 a month. He should be paying $26 a month on his house. He already owes $466 on it. The children have no shoes.
8 children, from 15 to 2 years. The father is sick. He manages to work in the summer for $1 an hour. In the winter he is unemployed. Their house has been sold for taxes amounting to $46.
He wrote us on October 10: "I am writing to ask you for information about unemployment insurance, for I have been without work since December, 1960, and I have looked everywhere and have been unable to get any. Since last May I have been trying to get unemployment assistance but without too much success. I had help for only 2 months and since then I haven't received anything. I have 7 children."
6 children, all at home, from 5 years to 3 months. The father is 43 years old, a veteran of six years, he has been in the military hospital at Lancaster, and has also received a hospital bill to pay. He has not been able to pay for his land and house.
She writes as follows: "I have 17 children and I am expecting another in November (1961). My husband cannot work. He has ulcers of the stomach and intestines. He does not receive any invalid pension. We have only our family allowance off which to live. We cannot manage 3 meals a day; it's hard enough to manage 2. Myself, I am having trouble with my heart. I have asked for assistance under the aid for needy mothers, and the invalid's pensions for my husband and myself. I got nothing. We are living in the woods in an old house. It is heartbreaking when our children ask us for food and we have nothing to give them. I don't know how we are going to get through the winter. We have never been in a worse position. We are treated here like animals, not like other human beings. How tragic it is when we ask for help and no one will help us, I would certainly, like to see my husband working, but he is too sick. If only I could work! But there is no work. I have 17 children to care for and a sick husband."
A widow, 55 years old. 4 children from 26 to 16 years. A daughter of 20 is an invalid. She receives absolutely no money. No family allowance. She has to pay $85 a year in taxes.
* * *
So, Mr. Diefenbaker, here are the poor! What are you going to do about them? These examples we have given above are not just so many figures in the files of the Dominion Bureau of Statistics. No, Mr. Diefenbaker, these are human individuals — men and women with their children, Canadians who do not know where to turn for their next meal, or whether or not they will have a roof over their heads tomorrow.
Mr Diefenbaker, these are Canadian citizens, citizens you promised would not go hungry or in want under your regime.
What are you going to do about them, Mr. Diefenbaker?
Those of our readers who may have been touched by the account of these sad cases might satisfy a desire to help these people by sending them packages of clothing or food. Even a letter of sympathy would be deeply appreciated by these poor folks. How much more satisfying is this close personal type of charity; how much more it is real charity in comparison with the big business charity campaigns organized and staffed year-round by full-time professional charity organisers! Such a practical way of showing our real sympathy for the lot of these poor ones will not only fulfill, in the true sense, the divine precept to feed the hungry and clothe the naked; it will also provoke us to join with others in helping to correct the nefarious system which makes such conditions possible.