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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1973-08-09, Page 4"Well, our financial worries are finally over — we're out of money." There's a sucker... Matador, Canadian Community Newspaper Alaoctetion ailantber, beanie *SO stoplair Asocial*, TIlE CLINTON NEW EM Established /865 Amalgamated 1924 THE HURON NEWS-RECO/i Established 1881 Published every Thurisday at Clinton, Ontario Editor w Janie* E. Fitzgerald °noel Manager, J. Howard Aitken Second Class Mall registration tidd ,1,1t)8 qt MURON coutaly 115 atWIE of liAtiAir IN CANADA" It is an increasingly saddening 4MP,, tacle -to watch the Watergate scandal as it unfolds week by week. For it demon- strates that many men in high places people in public pesitions of trust — are gradually forgetting the meaning of plain honesty. The Watergate is so much more than a series of monstrous mistakes and serious crimes emanating from the White House. The Watergate is a symbol of our times. Certain men are prepared to go to extremes to gain either wealth or power — and indeed both, for power equals money, and money usually can buy power, The fact that Watergate and the sex scandals in Britain -- as well as the monumental money frauds now coming to light in different nations -- capture the headlines is significant, For it indicates a yearning among the ordinary people The U.S. gas supply is still the second largest in the world, yet consumption of natural gas has risen so dramatically over the past decade Americans won't have any gas in their own country unless they halt the spiral. Gas will run out by 1988 if present trends continue. The United States and Canada have oil reserves totalling 45 billion barrels, only about one eighth the reserves of the oil-rich Middle Eastern nations. If the present worship of the automobile continues, by the year 2,000 there will be 300 million cars on U.S. roads -- three times as many as today. Isolated facts? Not at all: Dangerously relevant signals that should be lessons for Canada. The United States has begun using energy at a much faster rate than It is finding either oil or natural gas. Admittedly, there is enough coal in the United States to last five centuries, but Americans don't like coal for social, health and ,,environreental ,reaspns., Canadiaristannot afford tdignore the' U,S. energy crisis. But it would be foolhardy for Canada to adopt a short- term view, and let the United States drain our oil and gas supplies for the sake of profit. Nobody denies either that capital is required to recover gas and oil trapped beneath Canadian soil and waters, or that we don't have some responsibility to our mighty southern neighbour. But in an energy-hungry world, Canadians must make provisions for future generations, • Today's grandchildren and yet unborn for good and true men to lead them, An honest man is the noblest work of creation. And there are countless millions of honest men around the world. But too often they are deprived, by lack of educational opportunities, by mere circumstance, of the chance to at- tain positions of leadership. Then there are others, so disgusted by the fact that men who are but common criminals can gain such power and wealth, that they keep away from public life and politics altogether. No amount of modern technology can replace the basic ethic that has been established by Mankind over the cen- turies. The morality that guides good men along right paths has many names. It is to be hoped that the tragedy that is Watergate , will throw forward men with vision -- not just south of the border -- but in various lands and regions where honest government today is lacking. Tale of woe If you think you have troubles, pity the poor Editor. If he attends a ineetinifie's t he doesn't lie„ inteieefolki, If ,he writes an indepth story, it's too long. if he condenses one, it's incomplete. If he takes sides on an issue, he is prejudiced. If he doesn't he is a coward. If he asks for advice, he's incompetent; If he doesn't he is a know-it-all. If he expresses an opinion, he wants to run the show; If he doesn't he lacks guts. If he Misspells your name, you never forget it; If he doesn't, you didn't read that story, Once and sometimes twice a year over a period of a dozen years my father would decide to get a new car or, rather, a DIFFERENT car, since ,he never got closer than a decade to a new model. My boyhood memories are cluttered with used-car lots and the spavined jalopies in which my father so often came clanking home, shaken but proud, , Sometimes the whole family would join him in these ex- peditions and we were always astounded at the attitude my father would take. His was a purely emotional approach to the motoring age, and I remem- ber distinctly him buying the yteckage of a 1935 Chrysler ,Tudor because it had a musical horn. He was always buying 1927 or '28 Chevrolets because they had a triangular marking on the rear right fender which indicated four-wheel brakes. That, and kicking the tires, were two concessions to in- vestigating the condition of the hot-rod of his choice. Used.car salesmen, a shifty bunch in those days, must have loved him. He was so eager to be pleased, When I think of them now, those salesmen all seem to have been the same fellow, a man named Al or Artie---wide- brimmed Stetson, the cold stub of a cigar in one corner of a gold-toothed smile, the faint outline of a black-jack in the rear hip pocket, sawdust still on their hands from stuffing crank-cases. Any normal man would have called instantly for the cops. My father was like a delighted child being offered a free lollipop. We never had a car that hadn't been driven by an elderly couple. After my father had looked at the rear right fender and kicked the tires, Al or Artie would invite him to sit behind the wheel. My father would be , grinning self-consciously. "See, the man would say, pointing at the milage meter, "she's just got 3500 miles on her." My father would stare at the doctored meter hypnotically, ignoring the worn floor-mats and the posterior imprint in the seats which starkly revealed the true milage. "Clean as a whistle," the man would say and my father would look up into his face with shining trust. I fell to thinking about all this the other day on reading a series of articles from the magazine Consumer Reports on how to buy a used car. The wise car-buyer here was pictured as a man prodding with a pencil at the body joints searching for over rust, standing on the bum- per and bouncing the car to test the shock absorbers, looking narrowly at the oil stick (the more enterprising lots use a super-heavy oil to quiet a protesting motor), racing the engine and goodness knows what else. One suggestion was that the prospective buyer should take out the rear seat cushion_ ask the salesman to drive, and then crouch back there listening to the differential. For the life of me, I couldn't see my father going that far. That would surety have hurt the sensitive feelings of' AI or Artie, for one thing, and, for another, my father wasn't con- cerned with differentials. He'N, was more interested in the dashboard and the ornament on the radiator cap, (He always admired Dodges because of the ram's-head figure up front.) I laughed aloud when I read Consumer Reports' advice-- "don't succumb to the easy- going, we're-all-gentlemen-here approach." It was precisely what my father always Dill succumb to, chuckling eagerly at the witticisms of Al or .Artie and hanging on each word as they described the history of the car in terms of pure fiction. For a time, I recall, he was interested in valves and would ask,,, "Has she had a valve grind?" He didn't know what valves are any more than I do, but it gave him an air of being informed and the question seemed to please the salesmen. "I see you know cars," they'd say. "Well, this little beauty... These experiences gave me a lifelong and doubtless unfair suspicion of used-car salesmen. When I began my own pilgrimage to the lots it was with the air of a man turning into• a dark alley noted for axe murders. But, of course, I know now that my father had the right idea on used cars as he had the right idea on nearly everything. It was a foolish, but touching faith in humanity and it was rewarded, He, taken by the bandits, would roll away with supreme confidence, I, equally taken, would roll away with the glum conviction that disaster would strike at any moment, So I missed all the fun that was his, The increased demand agricultural produce has Ma it necessory, for many farm, to increase their acreage, So flutters work _several fields different locations, wh means that machinery hail to moved on roads and highw to get to the fields. Regulations governing tr sport of farm machinery roads and highways set exact limitations. In order comply with these regulatio a farmer may have to lo some pieces of equipment o trailer or truck for trans Slow-moving vehicle signs mandatory, as are ,permits transporting equipment ove feet, 6 inches in wick Maximum width permitted 14 feet. Accidents on rural roads a highways cause death a serious injury, says Don Bros; Coordinator of public relatio with the Farm Safe Association. Using comm sense and following the rules the road are the keys to safe especially during the sultan vacation period when there many more cars on the road, cars begin to line up behi your machinery, pull off to t shoulder of the road to let th by. Be cautious when enterin road from a laneway or fi exit. When leaving the ro signal your intention to t well ahead of time. Follow the rules of the ro You could save a life. Since July, 1971, informat on seat belt use has been rec ded on motor vehicle collie reports in Ontario. Accid reports for 1972 show that o 40 of the 827 drivers, killed this province were wearing s belts, says the Ontario Saf League. Of the 43,910 driv injured in traffic accidents I year, only 10.5 percent w known to be wearing seat bel * * * "If you Drink, Don't Driv has long been the slogan of safety minded. The Onta Safety League now adds, You Drink, Don't Walk." T latest Ministry of Transp tation figures reveal that 1 ' percent of the drivers involv in fatal collisions last year w impaired. The same percenta of pedestrians killed in Onta had been drinking. Of the 3 pedestrians killed' in 1972, had been drinking...71 to point of Impairment. Op us 1011S • • in order tha News—Record readers mig express their opinions on an topic of public intere Letters To The Editor always welcome f publication. But the writers of su letters, as well as all reads are reminded that opinions expressed in lette published are not necessaril the opinions held by Th News—Record. 4—C1,11000N NEWS--RECPRD, THURSDAY, AUGUST 9, 1973 ditorial comment An honest man caution Canada must be cautious great-grandchildren will never under- 'stand the excuses being put forward now — the need to make profits, the usefulness of accommodating U.S. businesses and political leaders -- if Canada's supplies run low within 20 to 30 years. Let us help the troubled American's by all means. But let us not jeopardize the well-being of Canada later this century. (contributed) We're stupid once 'There's no place like home, as some Wise Man or woman once said, I think most likely it Was a man. For a woman, home means washing clothes and dishes eternally, scrubbing dirt, making beds, and all those other rotten jobs that make "home-making'" a dirty word, Fora man, it means a good, hot cup of tea instead of lukewarm coffee, a meal that tastes like food instead of wet kleenot, clean sheets smelling of sun, and going around in his underwear and bare feet if he jolly well feels like it, 'That's exactly what I'm en- joying today, after four days in The Cit', I've just had a 'decent cup of tea, a great, slurpy bacon and tomato sandwich, and I'm in my shorts and bare tea. We've just had our annual splurge in The City, and even my wife gave a groan of pure pleasure as we pulled into our driveway last night and the cat came running to greet us, flinging herself on her back and rolling her belly ecstatically. There the cat, not my wife. I haven't the slightest idea why, but every summer, *hen sensible people are fleeing like lemmings from The City, the old girl and I take off from -our sylvan retreat in the heart of tourist land and head for the concrete canyons of that saute City. There's no ini-ellige-ea, let atone common sense, in it. We ten't Afford it. 'We don't even like it. But we go, Don't ask me for a logical ex, a year planation. It would be like asking a caribou why he runs back and forth, with wolves snapping at his heels. And the wolves are there. In The City. Just waiting for us caribou. Unfortunately', they don't look like wolves,so you don't know what's happening to you until you're hamstrung. ' They look like cabdrivers and waiters and bartenders. But one can't blame the wolves, can one? That's what they are for: to weed out the cripples. Well, I can tell you that if you are not crippled, at least financially, after a few days in The City, you've been staying with your relatives. For some reason, we always stay in the best hotel. After all, it costs only about three days pay for each night in the swank joint- This IS part of the whole midsummer madness. And, what the heck, it's only three dollara each to see a movie. And what the shoot, room service charges only $1.50 for a pot of coffee, and a meagre $1.50 for a sandwich. And, of course, you can't take it with you, so spread it around a little. • And then rileteg the switn- rnirig. The big hotels have a swimming pool. Of course, only the common people swim in the pool. That's what we tell our- eaves every time we retnember we've forgotten our swim suits. This is about the point where I start to pound'ray head, thinking of the Mile-long stretch of clean white sand and clean blue water back home. But there's one thing say about The City in summer. It's cool. Oh, not out with the rabble on the streets, They,I under• stand, sweat just like the rest of us. But in the big hotels and the bars and the restaurattts,air- conditioning has worked a miracle. Or something. You can altriost go into tome of them without an overcoat. Some of the bars are so tin-cool the waiters dowt even have blue lips.But in most of them, the customers are sitting around racked with 'pneumonia and arthritis. ' I don't know why comet plaining. Nobody forced me to go to The City. And if anyone tried, it would be like attemp- ting to force a mule to walk backward. I wouldn't go there if you paid me. Especially in the summer. But I Went, I guess it Was for my wife's sake. She loves a few days in a big hotel. No laundry. No Meals to cook. No brains. However, the annual stupidity is over again, and as t said, it's great to be home. No more of that ridiculous Wasting of Money on things priced seven times too high, No problems like that at hoine. Nothing here but the old cat and the new woodpiles. Let's open the mail. Might be a nice fan letter. Yikel Town tsites, $484.00 Fuel bill from last winter, $130,00 Bank manager Wants to see Me, guess it's back to The City, 10 YEARS AGO August 15, Ms Paul Bateman of Clinton has received top marks in this years graduating class. He received an overall percentage of 78.2. Not only was he- at the head of his class there, he also won the W.D. Pair scholarship for mathematics. Bill Vodden, Pat Harland and lion Levett were tied for second with an average of 75.7 percent. Stanley Township has ap- proved the installation of three new drains. A municipal drain is to be built on the west branch of the Black Creek. Several fanners have asked for loans from the government so they may build drains on their own property. A few of these have already been accepted. The Kitchener-Waterloo Flying Dutchman Drum and Bugle Corps will be in Clinton on Friday August 23 and Satur'. day, August 24. Appearing with them will be pipe bands from Clinton, Goderich, Forest, Exeter, Brussels and St. Marys. The show is sponsored by the Clinton Legion and the Clinton Marching and Concert Sand. Despite a heavy shower of rain the Lions Club realized over $800, Alf Scotehtner, riding Adam Flower's palomino led a large parade from the New Ritz Hotel to the Agricultural Park. Besides bingo and other booths pony rides were given for the children. 25 YEARS AM, , August 12, 1948 St. Laurent was voted in as Prime Minister on Saturday, He defeated J.C. Gardiner and C,G. Powers, He will succeed Prime Minister Mackenzie Xing in Novernber or, Decent- her, The government is giving a grant of $75 to each county towards the "Clean Farm Con- test" sponsored by the Junior Farmers. It is based on the greatest improvement in the home farm over a 12 month period. County and district weed inspectors have agreed to help in making the necessary inspections and judging the farm free of weeds. With Newfoundland joining Canada this will make Canada larger than Europe. It will raise its population to nearly 13 million and give it another new City. The Huron County Council picnic held in Harbor Park, Guderith on July 28 was favored by ideal weather. Most of the county councillors took time off to spend the day at the lakeside with their families although the harvesting season interfered somewhat in the at- tendance. Boating, bathing and a little fishing were enjoyed With a full program of sports for those who wished to par- ticipate, The crops in Huron County are considered to be quite promising for this year in con- trast to the poor season in 1.941. A dry spell during the middle of June created a bit of worry but later in the month and during July frequent, rains quickly dispelled this worry. The production of field crops are expected to be above nor- mal. Russell Jervis of Clinton was one of 94 hatcherymen, druggists and feed dealers completing a course in Dealer Training School Course in Poultry Diseasea and Management. The school was held through July 26 to July 30 in Charles City, Iowa, He received 'a certificate at the con- elusion of the course. 50 YEARS Ado August 9, 1923 Doherty Pianos received an order for 32 pianos from Australia and a cable order from Japan. Doherty is becoming well known around the world and the staff is very busy trying to keep up with all the orders. The Canadian Post Office is amaking the minimum size of postcards four inches by six in- ches. It wilt soon be possible for the tourist to send more of a message than the usual "Everything lovely, having a good time." Clinton citizens saw a new way of moving race horses to the track. Instead of using railway cars or jogging along they were transported in the back of two ford trucks. They say that the horses enjoyed the ride much more than the other ways. Monday proved another good day for Clinton's celebration and it got off to a good start with a parade in the morning. The morning baseball game between Exeter and Clinton juniors was rather unexciting as Clinton won 10 to 1, It seems Exeter got stage fright as they were not playing as well as usual. The afternoon game was much more interesting with Goderich beating Wingliam by two runs. The evening was filled by a musical program with the Xiltie Band and a street carnival was held at the end of the concert, /S YEARS AGO August 12, 1898 The first car load of organs from the new Doherty factory was shipped on Wednesday a the second today, Men being added daily. At noon one day last wee citizen's hat was blown off. ter it had gone a considers distance, another citizen st ted after it. As he grasped i own hat was blown off and his attempts to catch it knocked into a third p whose .hat was also blown After 'a lengthy chase the hats were caught and the ca of the trouble was returned its owner, The other evening a w known merchant Went do into the cellar of his stO taking with him a lighted I At about 2:30 aan. he receiv a call from the night watchm stating that there was a light the cellar. When he gat to tl store he found he had left t lamp when he had gone dow the previous evening.