INVITATION TO NORTH AMERICA

GEOFFREY L. RUDD
(Secretary: The Vegetarian Society [UK])
[Mr Rudd was also General Secretary of IVU at this time and his trip appears to have been undetaken in both capacities. ]

The kestrel having a non-vegetarian breakfast beside the runway at Manchester Airport was unconcerned as our Boeing 707 rolled piercingly to the great surge of power which thrust us sky-borne for Toronto on 6th June, 1968.

The stewardess said Bobby Kennedy had died as we set out over the Atlantic. Somewhere beneath the solid mat of shining cloud the little fleet of yachtsmen was beginning its lonely month-long race to America. In sharp contrast, we should be in North America a few hours later, after enjoying a nice vegetarian lunch - the airlines go to a lot of trouble to please vegetarians - 3l,000 feet above the sea at 600 m.p.h.

Looking up towards the control cabin halfway over I found that my wife was sitting with the pilot, and was rifling through his maps as she talked about vegetarianism. I filmed the phenomenon, and later was privileged to take her place and watch the St. Lawrence River unfolding in clear detail on the radar screen as we completed the crossing, without the slightest suggestion of speed. Solid as could be.

They are very civilized in Canada. At Montreal the Health Officer simply asked me to sign a form on requesting surveillance - not having our blood running with smallpox vaccine. (Fourteen days later we were to report to our nearest Medical Officer. In Calgary, as it happened. After a friendly chat with an immigrant Scot doctor we were cleared. Before and after, we moved freely between Canada and America, and returned home to Wilmslow, without further mention of vaccination. No problem at all.

We arrived at Toronto's vast Airport, set in a maze of terrifying motorways with vehicles hurtling on the wrong side of the road. Electric pylons instead of trees. Thousands. We were met by Mrs. Barbara Jackson, President of the Toronto Vegetarian Society, and a colleague, who conveyed us to our hotel, perspiration stream-ing from every over-clothed pore. It was the hottest June day in living memory, and the humidity was around 100%.

It was midnight by our time. We were feeling that way, too, after being astir by 6 a.m. But it was brilliantly sunny and only 7 p.m. in Toronto. At 1 a.m. (the next day, our time) we were eating a hot meal with Mr. and Mrs. Jackson at 28 Walker Avenue, the address to which we had written so many times over the years. With us was Miss Eva Budd (Mrs. Jackson's sister), the bright and lively 91-year-old Secretary of Toronto Vegetarian Society.

"You'll like to get to bed early," they said considerately at about 10.30 p.m. (their time). "Yes, please," we said (3.30 a.m. our time). A week or so later, when we had more or less overcome the crippling loss of five hours, we arrived in Vancouver and jettisoned three more.

The next day our built-in wakeners went off at the usual time of 6 a.m. Too bad it was only 1 a.m. Canadian time.

Miss Ruth Playle, whom many will remember from inter-national congresses, and who had decorated our hotel room with fruit, took us by the immaculate Metro to see the sights from the top of Dominion Bank Tower, a new 54-storied skyscraper, high above the ultra modern Civic Centre with its mushroom-shaped structure and lines of fountains. It was almost home from home a pathetic line of demonstrators walked round the fountains with placards protesting against Toronto's "Scab Press." It seemed the city had three such papers and the number was unbearable. There were Sandy Shaw bare-footed, mini-skirted popsies, who we later found held the North American record for brevity.

The police were armed, American fashion.

We went on an expedition to Centre Island, Lake Ontario was flecked, as far as the eye could see, with dead fish - millions - no doubt the result of detergents and industrial effluents. A notice had the refreshing request of "please walk on the Grass," which we did with many ethnic groups: black, yellow, brown, white mostly transistorized, mini-skirted, skin-tight-shorted, bare-footed and perspiring. It was hot. We abandoned our vegetarian decorum and sucked up heavily chlorinated water from the ornamental jets provided. The fluorine was tasteless - it was one of those Provinces.

An evening meal in Northern Toronto with Professor Schneid, the artist and writer, his wife and family. Home at 4.30 a.m. our time - those five hours weighed heavily still. We thought nosta-gically of friends abed in Wilmslow.

A little more freedom in High Park. Bird and chipmunk watch-ing, to say nothing of jet-black squirrels and robins the size of blackibirds (which they were, with pink breasts). Then a meeting with the Executive Committee of Toronto Vegetarian Society; then an outing by coach to Niagra Falls with members on another.-blazingly hot day, 100 in the shade - stepping out of the coach was like stepping into a furnace. Moistly we did everything good sightseers should do, and more besides, up and down the escarpment behind with its tall mushroom, like London's GPO Tower threading a way among the colourful bare-footed Sandy Shaws, glad when a cooling waft of spray came from the white spume of mist which hung over the bowl of the Rainbow Falls.

The Society had arranged a dinner at the Sheraton-Brock Hotel. splendid and air-conditioned, so that your shirt suddenly became cold and clammy and you had wild thoughts about pneumonia. However, the hot meal warmed me up and I gave my first lecture. I could see Niagara through the windows - never in my wildest dreams had I ever imagined I should be speaking in such a place.

On 10th June I was led to the C.F.P. Radio Station for a twenty-minute radio interview with Peggy Kennedy, a well-known Canadian personality, who soon put me at my ease. Then followed a fifteen-minute live television interview with Elwood Glover on his Lunch Hour Programme - this went out in colour, as well a being received in black and white, and both interviews were re-broadcast on successive days across Canada.

In the evening our coloured cookery film provided the core of a hard two-hour session with a record audience for the Toronto Society. The audience asked so many questions that there was no time for the additional lecture I had prepared.

It had been hard work, but the Canadian air and town had been bristling with vegetarianism, as never before. We found it difficult to adapt to the lack of fresh air in hotels, restaurants, and homes - they liked a higher temperature and the windows shut, and even if they were opened there were wire-mesh screens to deter mosquitoes. We found ourselves having to dive out into the garden for a supply of oxygen! Immigrants said it took about two years to get used to this.

Before we left Toronto the next day I was rushed to the C.B.C radio studios for a sort of encore, and did two more long interviews with Ruth Fremes. These were aimed at the country listeners and dealt largely with the economic aspects, farming, horticulture, as well as everyday vegetarianism. These, too, were relayed over wide areas, right over to Vancouver. When a waiter on the train from Calgary, over a week later, recognized me in the dining car, I thought, "This is fame, indeed."

We touched down at Buffalo on the way to Washington. Oven -hot. It was dull at Philadelphia. For some reason we circled round and round Washington with frequent views of the same stretch the bulging Potomac River. We saw why later. A plane was landing and taking off practically every minute.

Washington Airport was large and modern. Gave you a fun feeling to hear your name echoing from every corner as the blower -demanded that Geoffrey Rudd please go to the Information Desk. Mr. Stephen Curtis was there; our host. He drove us over the Potomac to the Lincoln Memorial, which is situated beside Resu-rection City, which had cops guarding the approaches with fat holsters at their hips and long truncheons ready for action. There was not, at that time, much activity among the bedraggled huddle of caravans, tents and sheds, but it was an interesting start of a comprehensive tour of what must be one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

A frightful thunderstorm and torrential rain did little to cool the atmosphere. We went up 10th Avenue, which looked like London in the blitz, with every third building a heap of rubble. Shop windows with "Soul Brother" hadn't always escaped the rioting.

"I don't expect any trouble tonight," said our host as he showed us to our room. "But there are a couple of loaded revolvers in that drawer." There were, too, and he had a loaded rifle in his room. (Revolvers, automatics and rifles were displayed in shop windows and you could just walk in and buy one.)

We were up at 6 a.m. the next day and, well smeared with mos-quito repellent, were taken out to a strawberry farm, where you could pick until your back ached, and pay by weight. We filled several baskets for the deep freeze. Gave us quite an appetite for breakfast, and thus fortified plunged into Washington's "Pano-rama" television programme and went out in glorious colour again - a good grilling with three questioners.

Washington is a Seventh Day Adventist stronghold. Lots of vegetarians. We went to a fine vegetarian restaurant run by the S.D.A. during our continued tour. Mr. Curtis was a firm believer in a visitor seeing everything - the half-built Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul, which makes you take another think about Americans - it is so beautiful; the palatial British Embassy in an area of fabulous embassies; the National Geographical Society's hall (had to see that as I have been a Life Member for about twenty-five years); protest marchers protesting about the Rifle Association's campaign that everyone should retain the right to be armed to the teeth; the White House; the Library of Congress (which always has The British Vegetarian, and has a nice dossier on our publications) - lovely interior ; the Supreme Court; the place where America's large matrons have their being as Daughters of the Revolution ; the House of Representatives in which we saw their "Parliament" at work, voting on we knew not what, speakers talking members talking and walking. All very chaotic. We went in the Senate, too, and outside more protesters were gathering with banners, herded by police dogged with T.V. cameras. I had always wanted to see a riot, so joined them with mine.

The next day it was the turn of W.T.O.P. to give the long-suffering natives a dissertation on vegetarianism in colour - fifteen -minutes with the glamorous Miss Carol Clarke on "Cadence." Marvellous how T.V. and radio will latch onto a foreigner! Again, all friendly and anxious to draw out the full story of vegetarianism ranging from cruelty, slaughterhouses, to health economics and ethics. Made me feel the visit was worthwhile. Most interviewers -were amazed that in my forty years as a vegetarian I had never had to take vitamin supplements - most meateaters, I gathered, simply rattled with them.

We took in Arlington Cemetery and saw Bobby Kennedy's lonely little cross and fading wreaths on the hillside above end1ess thousands of white-crossed military graves - they were shipped home the dead from Vietnam all the time. We did Mount Vernon -and Washington's country home beside the Potomac. Waffles and coffee to sustain us.

With everyone frightened to go out in the evenings, even people with cars, not many members were expected at our Reception Dinner the next evening. (A friend of our host had recently been -slashed through the half-open window of his car.) But about seventy braved the circumstances, saw the cookery film and heard all about vegetarianism in Britain.

Dr Jesse Gehman, with a fine Hippy hairstyle, and his wife Agy, whose mountain retreat near Harrisburg is the editorial home of "The American Vegetarian-Hygienist".

We then had a few days' rest at the mountainside retreat of Dr Jesse Gehman and his wife, Agy - at Duncannon in Pennsylvania - an idyllic spot with large floppy swallowtail butterflies, strange flowers and birds. Of course, my film camera had been busy whenever possible, not only recording the country and its inhabitants but the exotic flora, fauna and avifauna - Red Cardinals, Eagles, Chipmunks, Woodchucks, Mandrake, Indian's Paint Brush, and, believe it or not, Humming Birds.

I had met Jesse at the first American Vegetarian Convention, near Milwaukee in 1949 - James Hough was there, too - and we had corresponded ever since. I had never expected to see him again, and there we were, idling in his garden overlooking the Susquehanna River, once a stamping ground of the Indians. His home was Kahagon - Indian for "at the foot of mountains." It was hard to believe ; and always the nagging thought, "Had our offer for Parkdale been accepted?" I had made the Society's bid for the new premises just before I left.

A yard-long black snake slid by my wife's feet and made for the rockery. Wild tortoises ate the strawberries if you didn't watch out. Tilly, a little Sheltie bitch, followed us everywhere and chased racoons until they turned and bared their sharp teeth ; deer barked in the forest. A nice break, full of interest, and Agy knew all about cooking, even understood the English need for a cuppa. Chatted with farmers and delved for information as in England. Corn cobs were stacked high in wire-mesh cylinders for cattle and pig feed. Milk production was no longer profitable for small farmers, so they fattened beeves instead. A.I. was not successful, they said, and preferred their own Hereford bulls - nice to see other Eng1ishmen in the fields. Cherry trees were loaded with fruit by the roadsides and we ate as we walked.

Then by Trailways Bus to New York, through delightful wooded country. The bus was air-conditioned until a lady told the driver it was too cold. He turned it off and turned on the hot air. My wife opened a window as a survival measure. "Ma'am, ma'arr ma'am," came from "behind, "Shet that winda, ma'am." My wife shet the window and the man promptly blew clouds of tobacco smoke over us. "I'm going to be sick," said my wife. I went the driver and had the air-conditioning switched on again and got some dirty looks. Fortunately we arrived among the skyscrapers before the cycle began again.

Mr. Louis Warter met us in. We were led to the Americano, luxurious hotel at £11 per night (not including breakfast). We had our own bathroom, telly, radio, refrigerator, free biros, and other embellishments. There was a fine view of the Empire State Building from the windows. We saw it sunlit, at night with flicker-ing office lights, sometimes in the mornings with its head well above the clouds.

Coffee under the yellow umbrellas of the Rockefeller Center (Dr Shelton wouldn't have approved, but, as I told my audiences, it was what you ate every day which counted, not the odd dietetic sin). Refreshed at Duncannon, we did the Empire State Building the United Nations Building complex, Broadway, Wall Street (whereas most New York streets were straight, this was a bit crooked), the Statue of Liberty by ferry, with hundreds of little Negro schoolchildren, visited Mr. Leonard Lasky over on Long Island, chatted with cops in Central Park - they questioned keenly on how our police dealt with rioters. "Charge them with horses," I said, and they agreed this was a good idea. Full admiration for our boys going about unarmed and regretted their own pistols.

Mind you, we dared not eat breakfast in the Americano. Not with a steak at 36!-, coffee and rolls 16/-, cereals 7/6d. extra, and one egg more 7/6d. We dodged out to a nearby eatery or drug store counter and ate with the proletariat. Even that was dear with our rate of exchange. Toast, tea, marmalade, 15/- for two of us.

It was nice meeting Mr. Neil Emhke again, another old friend from the Convention days. He presided at a dinner party in our honour, and then at the Wilkie Memorial Hall I spoke to audience of 200. It was, in a way, an historical occasion. The Hygiensts and Vegetarians, who normally keep on opposite sides of the road, had joined in unison to sponsor our visit. However a hygienist took me aside before the meeting to put me on my guard. "Rotten lot, these vegetarians," he said. "They eat cake."

I told them how we were amalgamating in Britain and how we all worked together and had things pretty well organized. I also stressed the need for being unified and strong, for as our move-ment grows we shall constitute a serious threat to many commercial interests, which will commission scientists and medical men to put up a case for flesh-eating and other practices.

Off to Kennedy Airport and by Air Canada to Calgary, where everyone was buying cowboy gear for the coming Stampede and Rodeo. Full-blooded Indians were often seen, and we learned that they were well subsidized by the Government (having robbed them of their country), and that many drank most of their subsidy.

We wallowed in luxury again at the Pallisser - you got used to it. It was cooler in Calgary, being 3,200 feet higher, as we nipped out to a caff for breakfast. The lady in the Information Bureau knew Wilmslow very well, having just been there! Small world. Glad to see protesters protesting about de Gaulle outside the Town Hall.

Then we were in a Canadian Pacific observation train, still bourgeoisie with our own private room and armchairs, and climbing into the foothills of the Rockies. So much to see. We rushed from one side of the train to the other. Snowcapped mountains, tumbling rivers, forests against a blue sky. The train crept painfully slowly over the 1,200 miles of track, rarely achieving more than 20 m.p.h. as landslides were frequent and the line snake-like with no forward view. Dinner was lavish, and as the rails were welded there was no clackety-clack, no noise, no vibration at all. Made you think of British Rail. You might have been in a Hilton.

At the Great Divide, the Bow River reversed its direction and flowed towards the Pacific as the Kicking Horse, and kick it did with the gorge squeezing it into fearsome rapids. Elks by the track. Masses of wild syringa. Then Banff, Louise, Field and Golden. Our bunks were made up and we awoke to more scenery. Breakfast with sun-dew melon and a lavish menu from which to choose. The waiter said, "I like my steak," patting his paunch, "and I had paid $200 for a new television set, and there was my wife sitting listening to you talking about vegetarianism." He shook his head sadly.

A group of vegetarians in Vancouver with Mr H.Trumpler and Mrs Trumpler (left) in their garden)

We were met in Vancouver by Mr. and Mrs. Herman Trumpler - this was a Theosophist camp - and taken to the Devonshire Hotel (A quick look round assured us that the Camay, eau-de-Cologne tissues, luxurious bath-towels, telly, etc., were all in place ; we even had our own private hall.)

Totem poles in Stanley Park, lilies, beautiful panoramas, first sight of the Pacific quite a thrill ; tea parties, dinners, the lovely campus of the New Columbian University, the zoo, a vegetarian restaurant run by an adherent of Sat Sangh, another lecture.

It was not every day that you celebrated your birthday, as did my wife, 30,000 feet above the Rockies (57° below freezing outside flying between Vancouver and Montreal, where public notices were in French first and English second. Everyone delighted that Trudeau had been elected Prime Minister - heard he was vegetarian.

Somehow or other we had not been booked in at an hotel, so we asked the taxi man to take us to the Laurentian Hotel, where we knew my lecture was to be held. It turned out to be one of the kind to which we had been accustomed, and rapidly auditing our dollars decided why not? Mr. Lloyd Newton was on the telephone so he came round to organize things and offered hospitality at his home in Verdun from the next day.

The 24th June was the Fête de St. Jean. It was a Catholic area. Everything stopped. We heard of the B.O.A.C. pilot strike London. T.V. and radio stations were putting out taped pro-grammes, but the following day I fell (willingly) in the hands of Ed Stocks, a sort of fierce Robin Day interviewer, who agreed give me a few minutes; but he found vegetarianism so interesting that he continued to grill me for one and a-half hours - a fantastic piece of propaganda, with people ringing up the station to chip in and ask questions. One doctor rang up and agreed with my statements. Housewives, healthy-lifers asked me questions by telephone. Fruit juices and coffee kept me going during the brief commercials! "Now those of you who have just tuned in - I have an interesting chap here, a vegetarian from England. . . . " It was quite fun.

My lecture was at the Laurentian. Here, too, there were different camps, and the hygienists seemed to be split down the middle, with some following Dr. Shelton and some Dr. Jensen.

Everyone avoiding combinations of this and that - eating by fixed rules would drive me up the wall, so I was happy to leave behind a few converts to the good old English way of being happy and enjoying your food, without worrying about combinations. After all, an apple or a grain of wheat has starch, acid, alkali, protein and goodness knows what all ready-mixed. I got the feeling that the hygienist philosophy was based on ill-health, the effort to cure and to become healthy. Our system, of course, is for the happy and care-free - joyous to be living without killing - keeping an eye on the scientific side of nutrition, but not being cranky and hide-bound.

We flew via Boston, which was fiercely hot when you stepped out of the air-conditioned taxi, but with a nice golden-domed State House and many Negroes. " Oh, yes," a lady said, " the church is very old. It goes way back to the Revolution " - to Bangor in Maine, where our friends Helen and Scott Nearing gave us a holiday at their secluded 147-acre retreat on Cape Rosier. Scott was as craggy as ever, and at eighty-three still did the work of a man half his age, a very fit man at that. There is plenty to be done in the short North-Eastern American summer, so we were soon working, gate-making, mending the blueberry nets, filming eagles - saw an osprey carry a screaming rabbit across the bay. There were black bears in the forests and nasty men hunted them, and the deer. Trigger-happy all over America. They had problems in America and Canada. It was compulsory for your child to be vaccinated and shot with polio vaccine before it could go to school. If you objected, all you could do was migrate to a Province where things were not so bad. Naturopaths could find themselves in jail. Gian Cursio is one at present languishing. An orthodox doctor giving naturopathic advice, as do some of our distinguished vegetarian doctors, are immediately struck off the register and not allowed to practise. In Los Angeles they had about fourteen cases of polio a year, but after compulsory shots for schoolchildren they had 1,400. It is certainly not as easy for vegetarians there as it is for us in England.

It was a 27-hour trip back with four different planes, the strike taking us to London instead of Manchester. It had been a wonder-ful trip. Our hosts and hostesses had been so very generous. The stock phrase on that side of the Atlantic, when saying "Goodbye" is "Have a nice trip." We had indeed.

HISTORY OF VEGETARIANISM IN NORTH AMERICA

In Canada

A small organisation was formed in Toronto in 1911 called the Food Reform League. Meetings were held at the home of Miss E. M. Budd. Nearby was the Studio Inn, kept by an artist. where a good salad lunch could be had for 25 cents and a cooked meal for 35 cents. Her name was Miss Grace Goodall. When the war began, meetings of the League were given up in favour of war work.

In July, 1945, Professor Arthur Stevenson invited a few whom he knew to be interested in vegetarianism to his home to discuss the forming of a society. A picnic meeting was held after this at the home of Miss Phyllis Knapman, at Scarborough Bluffs, with about eight present. Rules and constitution for society were discussed. Officers elected : - Prof. A. Stevenson, President ; Miss E. M. Budd, Secretary; Mr. A. T. Wild, Treasurer; Executive Mr. F. Belcher, Miss P. Knapman, Miss O. Latimer, Mr. Don Scott.

The fee was $2.00 a year, which included a subscription to The American Vegetarian. The name - Toronto Vegetarian Association.

For a time a weekly meeting was held at a cafeteria where a vegetarian meal was obtained and talks given by different speakers. There were three Presidents during the years from 1945 to 1952: Mr. F. Mathews, Mr. Don Scott, Mr. Lee Pritzker. Mr. Hugh B. Jackson served as Treasurer till about 1956. The membership began at 140 and gradually rose to about 600.

Mr. F. Belcher carried on a vegetarian restaurant for a few years. Later, Miss Budd, with the help of Mrs. Flora MacDonald Dennison, a famous suffragist, opened a lunch room called The Vegetarian Inn. The High Park Sanitarium was open from 1907 to 1922, where diet reform and natural living was practised, and the name of Dr. W. J. McCormick became famous for his research into the use of Vitamin C in treating disease.

Officers elected in 1952:- President, Mrs. E. W. Jackson ; Vice-President, Mr. Lee Pritzker ; Second Vice-President, Miss R. Playle Recording Secretary, Mr. K. Long ; Correspondence Secretary, Miss E. M. Budd; Treasurer, Mr. H. B. Jackson; Editor, Newsletter Mr. C. Pratt.

The first Newsletter was brought out in 1954, edited by Mr. C. Pratt. An official emblem, designed by Mr. Graham H. Jackson, was adopted and used on our stationery.

Monthly public meetings were held all these years in the Lyceum Club, Shaw Hall, the University, and supper meetings in different restaurants.

An official charter was taken out about 1955 in the name of the Toronto Vegetarian Association.

In 1949, a Vegetarian Convention was held at Lake Geneva, N.Y., U.S.A., attended by several Canadians, Miss R. Playle, Miss Budd, Miss June Kimball, and after this the Canadian Vegetarian Union was formed.

A Unit was founded in Calgary under the guidance of several workers, Mrs. Dorothy Anderson, Miss J. Kimball, Mrs. J. C. Whit-man, and Mrs. R. Daant. This was carried on for fourteen years, under presidents, the last one being Mr. A. Turner. The Unit was ended in 1957. Another Unit was formed in Ottawa under Miss Helanie Johnstone and carried on for some years.

An attempt was made also in Hamilton and a group formed. This was disbanded after a time. A second one has been formed during the year 1968.

The Executive of the Canadian Vegetarian Union : - President, Mr. Lee Pritzker ; First Vice-President, Miss June Kimball (Calgary); Second Vice-President, Prof. A. Stevenson; Secretary, Miss R. Playle; Treasurer, Mrs. J. C. Whitman (Calgary) Executive, Miss E. M. Budd, Mrs. R. Dant (Calgary), Mr. H. Jack-son (Toronto), Mrs. H. Johnstone (Ottawa), Mr. Jas. Rogers (Calgary), Editor of Newsletter, Miss J. Kimball.

Miss R. Playle was able to represent Canada at most of the meetings in different countries of the International Vegetarian Congress.

Owing to the generosity of some of the Toronto members, Mrs. E. W. Jackson was able to join Miss Playle at the Congress held in England in 1965.

Rooms were rented at the Antique Tea Room in 1958, and for some time vegetarian meals were served there three times a week by Mrs. Jackson and Miss Budd, with the help of Mrs. C. Weaver, Mrs. Jeynes, and a few others. This had to be closed after a year's trial.

In America

Following the formation of The Vegetarian Society in Man-chester, England, in 1847, the Rev. William Metcalf was inspired to do the same for America and held an exploratory meeting in New York in 1850. He had emigrated to Philadelphia in 1817 with forty-one fellow members of the Bible Christian Church, which had been founded in England in 1809 by the Rev. W. Cowherd and Mr. Joseph Brotherton, M.P., and among its conditions of member-ship was the abstinence from flesh foods and alcohol.

Among the early American exponents of the vegetarian idea were Sylvester Graham, Dr. James C. Jackson, Horace Greeley, R. T. Trail and Dr. John H. Kellogg.

One of the longest operating Societies still in being is the Washington Vegetarian Society, which was organized in 1927. It is an independent, non-sectarian society, governed by an elected Board of Directors and is Incorporated under the laws of the District of Columbia as a non-profit-making educational organization.

The American movement is not large, but is well served by its devoted members. The following addresses may be helpful, from the Handbook, which also lists other facilities -

The American Vegetarian Union, Inc. President: Dr. Jesse Mercer Gehman, P.O. Box 68, Duncannon, Penn. 17020. Tel.: 717-834-4504.
Periodicals include: American Vegetarian-Hygienists, published by American Better Health Publications. Editor: Dr. J. M. Gehman. Monthly. An. sub. U.S. $4.50, abroad $5.50. Single copy, 35 cents. P.O. Box 68, Duncannon, Pa 17020.

American Natural Hygiene Society (L.A. Chapter). 4064 Asbourne Road, Los Angeles, California 90008. Tel.: 636-4739.

Vegetarian Society, Inc., do Dr. Pietro Rotondi (President. 1916 Vista Del Mar, Hollywood, California 90028.

Vegetarian Youth Movement (V.Y.M.), c/o Dr. William A. Harris, 662-7363, 6 to 7 p.m. 11481 Alexandra Avenue, Los Angeles California 90027.

There are local Societies as Follows :-

Boyes Hot Springs. Mr. E. G. Perkins, P.O. Box 265, Boyes Hot Springs, California.

Chicago. Mrs. Nora Polsz, 1225 N. Harding Avenue, Chicago 51

Erie. Mrs. Ruby Butts, 1446 Jefferson Avenue, Buffalo 8, N.Y.

Los Angeles. Mr. A. Abramowitz, P.O. Box 6047, Metro Stn., Los Angeles 55.

Malaga. American Vegan Society, Mr. H. Jay Dinshah, Dinshah Drive, Malaga, N.J.

Michigan. Mrs. A. O. Coleman, 5102 Kendall, Dearborn, Mich.

Minnesota. Mr. Joe M. Engfer, 178 Summit Avenue, St. Paul 2, Minn.

New York. Mrs. A. Kroll, 1133 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10010.

San Francisco. Mr. D. Murphy, 658 Rockdale Drive, San Fran-cisco 27, California.

Washington. Vegetarian Society of D.C., P.O. Box 4328 Washington 5.