Tillsonburg District High School - Tatler Yearbook (Tillsonburg, Ontario Canada)

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adults. In my estimation, something of this sort is much needed, for a majority of our citizens are well intentioned, but cannot be called good citizens when they do not use their votes. Now let us turn to Communism. Com- munism is often called the Iron Curtain or the Black Curtain. This is because life behind the Iron Curtain is hard and cruel, and the people lose their civil liberties, and become slaves for the state. In a communist country the people exist for the benefit of the state, instead of the state for the benefit of the people. As soon as I mentioned the word Communism, I can well imagine each one of your thoughts turned to Russia, the greatest upholder of Communism. I would like to describe briefly for you the life in Russia. Scarcely anyone in this country owns his own business or property. It is nearly all government-owned. The people are not paid in cash as we know it, but in credit notes. It is almost compulsory for a farmer to sell his goods to government- owned stations. Here he is paid in credit notes which are valid only at government- owned stores. These stores may buy their goods only from the Government and not from individual citizens. Scarcely anyone born in Russia is al- lowed to leave the country. Those sent out on government assignments, it is made sure, have at least one parent alive in the Soviet. You will probably all remember the heart-stirring stories of G. I.'s who in this last war married Russian girls, and then, because their brides could not leave the country, had to return home without them. The main reason for all this is that the Stalin Government is afraid that these people, upon seeing the freedom allowed to everyone in a demo- cratic country, will voice aloud their dis- approval of the Stalin Government, and spill the story of the common life led behind the Iron Curtain. There are today at least fourteen million slaves in the forced-labour empire of the Soviet Union. They live in corrals surrounded by stockades topped with barbed wire, watched night and day by ritlemen in turrets with powerful search- lights and pack-dogs to pursue runaways. They do the heaviest, roughest, most gruelling labour -- mining, lumbering, 64 forest clearing, construction of roads, rail- roads, canals, airdromes and factories. Their labour-power is cheap, constant, controllable, indifferent to climate. The slaves can be transported in freight cars in unresisting droves like cattle, and can be used without worry over capital in- vested. These Soviet slaves cost nothing to their owner, the state, whose agents simply pick them up from the streets or drag them from their beds at night. When a person reaches the age of seventy, his rations are immediately cut. This is because the Soviet government believes that when a person reaches the age of seventy he is no longer of any value to the country. Need I say more? Really there isn't much more to tell because not much in- formation about the ordinary life is al- lowed from behind the Iron Curtain. Thus, life in a Communist country can be summed up in one short sentence, The State owns you body and soul. If you do not believe my words, perhaps you will believe the words of a Russian, who, after a year in Canada and after seeing the freedom we are all allowed, turned against his country. I would like to quote you a paragraph written by him in his book, pertaining to the big break, Yes, fate has been kind beyond all expectations. If I had to do it all over again, with no hope of financial benefit or even security for my family, I would make the break again. The greatest gain is deep down inside, that I have done my duty toward millions enslaved and voice- less in Russia today. You all know him as Igor Gouzenko. I would like to ask each one of you here, if you have not already done so, to read his book, This Was My Choice. It is obtain- able by the students at the school library or by the adults at the local public library. If you know the harm, and not the good Communism can bring to Canada, there will be no need for the barring of Com- munism from Canadian shores. Thus, I ask you, the citizens of Canada and the future citizens of Canada, to remember, when voting, to cast a ballot that will make you and me proud to be supporters of Democracy and not of Communism. THE TATLER

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ON CHANGING CLASSES - Ruth West, XIA. 157 .1 All . kai 4 .. ' A-lr . : Lula 1 , -W H ll ll l . 'l 'N l il :Milli ill! ll I XIX llflbx WQIT X 1 ' rv 5 6 by J BEFORE AFTER AN IN-BETWEEN-PERIOD DRINK OF INTEREST TO STUDENTS All through a period of Latin And a period of French, A high school boy sits waiting, His mortal thirst to quench. There goes the bell! The pupils leap, All through the doors they go, And when the fountain he has reached There's a large crowd there, and so He stands in line to wait his turn, Now he's feeling pretty gay. He bemls to wet his whistle, When out bellows Mr. Hay: Tanner, get away from there, You crazy little fool! If everyone should do THAT, We'd have QUITE a school! He moves on then, his head hung low, And again he sits downhearted. He realizes then that he's As thirsty as when he started. . Jack Tanner, XIB. 66 A new item of interest has recently graced the ancient walls of our local high school. This interest has been aroused by a significant new addition that has been made to our extra-curricular facilities. In short, the school has been loaned some radio equipment by the Department of Defence as an addition to our Cadet Corps. With this equipment we will be able to contact other schools equipped with radios and to practice signalling. Last December a number of boxes appeared in the base- ment and during the winter term Mr. Mansfield and some of the senior boys have set up the equipment they contained, making the library our station , Also, a telephone system has been set up about tial? school with the switchboard in the o ce. - During the year, a number of boys have been learning the Morse code in the hope of being able to use our radio. The telephone system has proved useful in helping to learn the code. Donald Lee, XII. T H E T A T I. E R