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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1972-05-18, Page 4THE CLINTON NEW ERA Amalgamated THE HURON NEWS-RECORD Established 1865 1924 Established 1891 Clinton News-Record A member of the Canadian Weekly Newspaper Association, Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association and the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) second crass mail registration nUinber — 0817 :SUBSCRIPTION RATES: On advance) "Canada, $8.00 per year U.S.A., $9.50 KEITH W, ROULSTON — Editor J. HOWARD AITKEN — General Manager Published every Thursday at the heart of Huron County' 4 Clinton, Ontario Population 3,4/5 THE HOME OP RADAR IN CANADA It is one of the harmless vanities of the male to profess that he can never understand the mind of woman. M'any men, having been out- witted or out-manoeuvered by a wife or daughter, shrug and say. "I will never understand women," hoping in that way to salvage their illusion of superiority. As a man who has lived without illusions, constantly surrounded by the female species—even the animals we've owned have invariably been female—Hike to believe that I've accumulated at least a working knowledge of how they operate, probably the most bewitching gthdy mailable :to mankind, I do, that is, until there's an auction sale. Then my reason quakes before the eternal mystery of what goes on in the female dome. A country auction, in particular, has an almost irresistible appeal to women. offering not only the possibility of an amazing bargain—and to women every purchase at an auction is just exactly that—but also appeasing their insatiable curiosity about the insides of other people's homes and the junk that they've collected. 10 YEARS AGO MAY 17, 1962 J. Carl Hemingway received a unanimous nomination ' last Friday night in McKay Hall, Goderich, at a small though interested gathering, as standard bearer for the New Democratic Party. This is the first time that Huron riding has had a third candidate running, since 1949, when a CCF candidate was in the field. In the Church of the Redeemer, London, on Sunday, May 13, the Rt. Rev, W.A. Townshend, DD, LLD, suffragan bishop of Huron, ordained his youngest son, Charles Robert Townshend, B.A., a Deacon in the Church of God. Plans for the Clinton Spring Show on June 2 are proceeding normally with the addition this year of a fireworks display following the evening horse show. A forest fire at Bowlands Bay, north of Sudbury last week, completely wiped out 18 homes, including that of Mr. and Mrs, Robert Riehl and family. Mr, Riehl is a son of Mrs. George Riehl Clinton. Christopher Lynch, tenor star of radio, records and television will appear in person it the Legion Hall, on Friday, thne 1972. William G. Mehl, until now employed with the CNR, hits been accepted by the Ontario Provincial Police, and reports to Taranto next Tuesday for posting, 25 YEARS AGO MAY 15, 1947 J. E. Hovey recently received notice of his appointment to the The country auction is also a semi-social affair and it is a pretty sight to see the ladies united in such solidarity, pleased en masse to find that Mrs. Crudney's furniture was just as shabby as they'd heard or linked in the companionship of envy before the magnificence of the late Mrs. Twitchell's genuine Turkish carpets. My wife has been attending auctions for so many years that I long ago became reconciled to her arriving home with incredible brick-a-brat dredged from somebody's basement—and ending up inevitably in our basement. 'my wife cautious and well-disciplined shopper. It is thus beyond my dull. masculine comprehension to observe her, eyes shining and with an air of triumph, unloading from the car a 100-pound candelabra, a three-legged garden table (fourth leg amputated), a battered escritoire and a hundred feet of porous garden hose, It wasn't until this week, in fact. when I attended my first auction to bid on a post-hole digger, that I had an inkling of the curious change of personality, the mental illness known as Auction-itis, position of postmaster at Bayfield. Howard Brunsdon is starting to build a new business block on Rattenbury Street, on the site of the wrecked former Jackson factory. Ideal weather prevailed for the cadet inspection at CCI and several hundred interested citizens were on hand. Corps officers included cadet captain Bill Hanley as Company Commander, cadet captain, Margaret Colquhoun as company second-in-command. '40 YEARS AGO MAY 19, 1932 Wilson MacDonald, a Canadian poet, addressed the students and staff of CCI on Wednesday. Reeve Elliott, Councillor Paisley, Crich, Livermore and Churchill and Chief Strong, street superintendent, took a little jaunt up to Auburn and Ripley yesterday to inspect road building. Provincial Secretary Chafes of Toronto visited the county of m yesterday and inspected jail. We understand that he was very impressed with the way things were run around that institution, The bathing season opened here 'Sunday afternoon with the Mercury standing at 80 degrees in the shade. The water was warm enough to be enjoyable and yet cool enough to be refreshing. 55 YEARS AGO MAY 17, 1917 "Cap" Cook is home for a few days and will look after any which causes women to go just a tiny bit mad in the role of the highest bidder, Here in the grounds of a summer house, littered with the kind of weird odds and ends that accumulate as surely as dust, a half a hundred ladies stood expectantly about the auctioneer, "We have here an assortment of cutlery, each piece different," announced the auctioner, holding up what appeared to be several tin spoons, knives and forks. —Two bits," said a woman in a voice as business-like as a grain exchange broker , buying an elevator of No. 1 Hard. "'Thirty!° carne another' and, with sinking heart, I recognized that most familiar voice. The affair of the rocking chair perhaps best illustrates the temporary insanity of Auction- itis, I had by this time skulked to the outskirts of the crowd, hoping that nobody would recognize me as kin to "the little lady in blue" who had bought--so help me—two rolls of pre-war linoleum in addition to the fist-fulls of cutlery, but when I heard the bidding on the rocking chair I moved closer to look. The rocking chair was of that unhappy vintage when it just recruits that want to enlist in the new Forestry battalion which will go overseas in June or earlier. "Cap" will go along as an officer's cook. The store house used by Cantelon Bros. toppled over and as luck would have it no lives were lost. Mr. Wm. Cantelon had been in the building a minute or two before. The firm lost a large quantity of eggs and glassware. We question if the Town would not have been responsible for accident or death. Town Clerk Coats is a great horticultural fancier. He has 848 tulips. 75 YEARS AGO May 14, 1897 On Thursday evening the tandem bicycle, ridden by a of young men, and Mr. Jacob Taylor, on his bicycle, came into collision on Albert Street. It looked as if all parties were to be misses being a valuable antique and becomes, instead, a worthless relic. As the bidding mounted relentlessly it suddenly dawned on me that the ladies had completely lost sight of the object itself and were in competition on a more mystic level. With each 25-cent hop in price the sweet faces of the ladies became more frigid. It wouldn't have mattered, I was convinced, if it had been the Hope Diamond or a pail of ashes, The idea was to top the opponent. At $8.50, which I estimated to be about four times the rocking aldir's true value, my wife and another equally determined woman were left battling it out alone in the centre of the ring, I remember thinking wanly to myself, "If this other woman doesn't desist I may find myself writing a worthless cheque for $80,000." As it was, I paid the cashier an even ten. As I bore the poor old chair through the crowd my wife led the way proudly in a victory march and with each man I passed there was that quick exchange of glances, the I'll-Never- Understand-Women Look which makes all men kin. seriously hurt, but very fortunately the chief injury was to the wheels. If the people of this town would unitedly determine to work for the interests of Clinton — and for it alone — they would soon place it in such a position that it would outstrip all others. Its central location and natural advantages give it a prestige of considerable importance and it only needs more determined effort to make it move forward commercially and numerically. Mrs, 11,B. Combe has rented part of the Perrin Block, which will be fitted up as an Office and Laboratory for the manufacture of 13romo-Saline, which is a perfumed sanitary sea-salt, possessing a number of medical properties. This preparation will be very popular with ladies, bicycle riders and all those engaged in athletic exercise and is highly recommended for those desiring a Sea bath, Sugar and Spice I'm sure you are sick ofteading about my daughter'S wedding, but hang on, She's the only one I have, and it will be all over this Saturday. (The last typewritten with crossed fingers.) If she ever does want to get Married again, she'll get exactly three words from her old man, "Beat it, kid", However, there's something to be learned by every experience, and both the kid and I are learning. Fast, For several weeks, she has been floating around aimlessly, telling her mother, who is a fuss- budget of the first water, "Stop worrying, Mom. There's not that Much to do. It's a simple wedding, and I'll be here to help you get ready". Typical of today's youth. Naturally, she wasn't here most of the time, and she didn't help at all, though her intentions were impeccable, Then fate stepped in. A week before the wedding, just when the throttle was going to be opened wide for the final drive, her mother went into hospital. For the kid, it was like having a malicious goose snatch from under you the magic carpet on which you are flying, For me, it was like picking a bouquet of wild flowers for the wedding, and discovering that what I had picked was'poison ivy, This is Tuesday, and the bride still hasn't got her wedding dress. This is Tuesday, and the estate looks, much as the world must have 'when old Noah finally found some dry land. The house was to be spicked and spanned. The house is a shambles. The yard was to have been immaculate. The yard is a melee of last fall's leaves, broken picnic table and lawn chairs, fallen limbs and cat dirt. Don't worry. We'll cope. We'd better, or Kim and I will be taken away, about 3 p.m. on Saturday, by the chaps in the white coats. Today I came home and found my baby wringing her hands and head and feet. She'd been going like a whirlwind, doing all those "little things" she kept insisting her mum not worry about. Like clean shirts and socks for dad, shopping, cooking, washing dishes. Ordering flowers. 'Prying to get shoes to match the non- existent wedding dress. Feeding and throwing out two cats, one of them pregnant; visiting her mum, Same for me. Trying to get a gang of boys to rake the yard, and it rains all day. Trying to cope with people who want to know whether the wedding is on or off. It's on. I think. Butthere are going to he some short-cuts, in which I am a firm believer, and of which I have tried to convince my wife for years. The windows will not he washed. Who looks out the windows during a wedding ceremony, anyway? Anyone who does should be ejected. The furniture will be dusted. But only in the livingroom, where the event will take place, I don't intend to have a lot of people running around our bedrooms and wiping their fingers across the ledges. In fact, I don't intend to have a lot of people running around our bedrooms at all. If they want to look at something, they can go outside and look at my two dead elms. The cups and saucers will not all be washed. They will be dusted. The silver will not be polished, It, too, will be wiped with a dry cloth, and if there's an egg-stain on a spoon, tough toe- nails, Everything bulky, ugly, or out of place, will be stuffed smartly into the basement or the attic, and the doors thereto locked. I've found that Kim and I, without her mother around to heckle us, have a similar basic philosophy: "What's it all going to matter ten years from now?" Oh, we're not complete nudniks. I will shine my shoes and she has promised me she won't get married in a T-shirt, even though she has to wear her brand- new peach-coloured nightie over jeans. There'll be solemn vows, and candles and food and drink and children of all ages. What more could you want for a happy wedding? There's only one thing that Please turn to Page 5 "Now we can save up for that roast you've always wanted!" xAMWOM.-g4e -va4woguIPN Clinton—The Jack Scott Column Sales Happy 4—Clinton News:Record, Thursday, May 18, 1972 Editor ial contrite,' t Reality is unreal It's been the kind of week that makes rational people want tefind a log cabin in the northern bush and spend the rest of their life there. Truth, this week, has definitely been stranger than fiction. One nut (Arthur Bremer) shoots another nut from Alabama (George Wallace) and the United States submerges again in the mucky world of gunpoint politics. The result of the shooting is that now a sympathetic U.S, public seems on the verge of giving Wallace, one of the strongest racist fanatics ever to reach a high political office in that country, the Democratic nomination for the Presidency, If he gets the nomination, who will bet against him beating Nixon? After the events of the past week, very few• would risk their money. In our own country, three men go to This is police week in Canada and perhaps its time to give a pat on the back to our much-maligned local force. Nearly every CI intonian seems to have some beef or other about the state of policing in their town. Maybe it's just a case of taking the police force for granted. In Clintonwehavepolicing. In many other smaller communities such as Bayfield and Hensall, the citizens have the hopeless feeling of being on their. own, the feeling that if they desperately needed help, the Ontario Provincial Police probably couldn't get there in less than 15 minutes. CI inton is a tough town to po I ice. It sprawls over a large area and occupies the centre of the county, making it an inviting target for everyone from hot-rodding teenagers to break-in artists. There are five liquor outlets, all of which do a roaring business every weekend, There are miles of streets to be patrolled, many of them without proper street lighting, the kind of situation which encourages crime. There are more than a hundred businesses to be checked at night and three banking institutions. There are A viewpoint from the Toronto How going to jail The general strike which has swept the province for. the past week appears to have peaked, although it may be weeks before things return to normal. Walkouts continued across the province yesterday, but thousands of workers were returning to work and thousands of others were deciding against strike action. Ina sense, things wi II never return to normal after this strike. The Quebec labor movement has been radicalized to an extent unknown since the 1957 Murdochville and 1949 Asbestos strikes. From the minimum-security cells they occupy at Orsainvi I le Jail on the outskirts of Quebec City, Quebec's three major union leaders can relax in the assurance that they have achieved what they set out to do. In the minds of thousands of Quebec union workers; the Government is seen as being in league with big business and the courts, conspiring against the workers. The Government is also seen as being anti-union, intent on breaking the unions and jailing its leaders. This was the whole purpose of the strike exercise—to radicalize the labor movement and force a confrontation with the Government, another step toward achieving the union leaders' avowed aim of overthrowing the capitalist system and implanting a socialist democracy in Quebec. The union leaders succeeded in achieving their immediate objective by going to jail, They had between 100,000 and 150,000 workers in Quebec off the job this week for no other reason than to protest against their imprisonment. That is a far cry from the days when labor unions went on strike merely to get better salaries and working conditions, It is a major step forward in the battle for socialism. This is what gave the general strike a historical significance that will be remembered long after the inconveniences and disruptions of the • jail forflaunting the law and pout that there is no justice so there is no use appealing their sentences. The result is a strike in nearly every segment of the Quebec Economy, crippling the province and bringing separation from the rest of Canada closer than ever before. The battle is not now between English and French, but between capitalist and socialist, and the socialists seem to have the pat hand. Meanwhile, a supposedly .. responsible politician and lawyer to boot, (David Lewis) jumps in on the side of the socialists and attacks the courts as being unjust (it is also helpful to remember that Mr. Lewis is a socialist). And one begins to wonder, will this socialist vs. capitalist fight stop at the Quebec border? In these strange times, who can guess what will' happen next? events such as the weekly horseraces which require traffic directing and crowd controling. Most of all, there are 168 hours in every week. If every policeman worked 40 hours a week and no more, there would be, eight hours the town would be left undefended. In addition, there are times when more than one policeman is needed, such as when prisioners have to be escorted to jail in Stratford or Walkerton, taking precious hours out of a tight schedule. There are court appearances which take more time. There are school crosswalks to check. And besides looking after people, the police must answer complaints about dogs and take proper action to make sure they aren't bothering people while running at large. For all this, our police get a moderately good salary, many, headaches, and plenty of complaints. ' Give th:em' break this 'Week and maybe even give them a word of thanks for the efforts they have made on your behalf, the long hours they've worked, and the danger they have gone th rough. achieved a goal past week are forgotten. Until last week, the labor leaders had been fighting a losing battle against the Government. Premier Robert Bourassa had beaten the union leaders last month during the public employees' strike, which turned the bulk of the non-unionized Quebec population against the labor movement and even caused splits in union ranks. But by going to jail and refusing to appeal their one-year sentences for contempt of court, the union • leaders reversed the tide. Union rank and file in every vi liege and city in Quebec felt compelled to stage a strike to protest against the jailing. Premier Bourassa's exasperation and anger was evident at a news conference in Quebec City last week. He said the union leaders were "provoking" the strike, and he held them responsible "for what happens." The union leaders claimed the only reason they were staying in jail is because to appeal the sentences would be to lend credence to the notion that there is justice in Quebec. "Everybody knows there is no justice in Quebec," said the peppery Louis Laberge, president of the Quebec Federation of Labor. Mr. Bourassa was caught in the trap. He couldn't release the union leaders because that would mean repudiating the decision of a superior COurt judge. The only action left was to let the strike take its course, hoping it would not be very destructive or last very long. That's what he did. He sat it out, and he is still sitting it out, relying on police forces to maintain law and order ac best they can without provoking the labor movement, for the duration of the strike. Police have co-operated, and across the province there is little evidence of the sometimes violent police counteraction that occurred during other strikes in the past. A pat on the back Globe and Mail