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Clinton News-Record, 1974-05-23, Page 4,+--,4PLINTQN nws-RIPQRP, Tfitlfk$DAY, MAY, 23, 1974 Editorial Commeat On Iloilo misquoted Recently, acOording to the Wingham AdvandeMmes, the council of the Town of. Fergus got itself into quite a snit, Seems. that the councillors were discussing their 0001 police department and one of them made the .remark that the police should be equipped with tanks instead of cruisers._ This, because the cruiser .had been Involved in more than one traffic mishap, Quite naturally the representatives of the three news media present included the remark in their stories. The councillors got so worked up that they called a special meeting with the reporters to. set out "guidelines" on just what sort of thing could be reported to the public. There's nothing new in this event. It happens all the time and in the leading role is the councillor who hasbeen elec- ted by the public on the promise that he will act in the best interests of the elec- tors in the conduct of their. business, Af- ter he has taken the oath of office he suddenly forgets the fact that his first obligation is to his townspeople. In no time at all he gets the notion that he has "joined the club" and there's no need. to tell the public any • more than the bare facts. If a councillor or a board member has the courage to express his opinion. before his felloW council •merribers, why is he so lacking in real grit' that he doesn't want his words to go beyond the council chamber? Orithe other hand, if he is so fearful of what the public will know,..why • doesn't he keep his mouth shut? There are, of course, some limited topics which must be discussed privately, and for this reason any council or board has the right to go into commit- tee and the reporter then is limited to publishing only the committee's report We get letters to open council. But any council or board which reverts to committee decision too often can be quite properly suspected of a considered intention to let the electors know as little as possible about its actions—and certainly makes clear the intention of protecting in- , dividual councillors frOm an), personal blame for poor decisions. Another ancient dodge, of course, is claiming to be misquoted when a story appears in print or on the air that puts any member of the board in a bad light. Over the years we have always found that we published a "good" newspaper as long as the stories were favourable to council members. The newspaper sud- denly becomes a "bad" one when we report any of their shortComings. Although there is one tool which can guarantee that no councillor is ever mis- quoted, most of them scream to heaven . when a tape recorder is brought into the chamber. Despite the fact that a recor- der performs exactly the same function as a ball-point pen, few council or board members are prepared to give up their cherished loophole—the claim that they were misquoted. A news reporter who sits in at a board' meeting or a council session has no special privileges. He is nothing more or less than a member of the general public--those people who elect the bbard members and who have every legal and moral right to, listen to the deliberations of • the people they have elected to office. When a reporter is asked to leave a meeting, or when the council goes into committee of the whole, their action not only bars the reporter, it equally bars the voting public from access to its discussions. Such ac- tion is necessary on occasions—but those occasions should be rare in the extreme. The Jack Scott Column al MB VII WIBELItVABLE SAVINGS! YMTERPAY$ PRICES 01 MANY ITEM "It's nothing serious — he found an item on which the price had actually been reduced" Sugar and, Spice/By Bill Smiley Town engineers, who needs them From our early files . • • • • I • Dear Editor: This past week, the Theatre Passe Muraille staged their current production "1837" at the Clinton Sales Barn. Because of the timeliness of this play, it is indeed unfor- tunate that there was not a bet- ter turnout. Although the play was based on the causes and events of the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837, many of the ills affecting Upper Canada at that time still have their close parallels today. All one has to do is change the dates and names. For instance, in the play William L. MacKenzie is ad- dressing an assemble of dissatisfied Upper Canadians and describes their Tory Gover- nment (then called the Family Compact) as a "collection of rouges, thieves, villains and scoundrels." MacKenzie then proceeds to wonder aloud, "How do these rouges stay in power?" Certainly the length of I 'can understand why a president or a king is assassinated. What I fail to un- derstand is why town coun- cillors are not assassinated fairly frequently. In the first case it is usually done by a crank, nut, or fanatic. In the second case it would be done by a group of irate citizens. What is done in many small towns these days in the name of "progress" is so difficult to believe that the mind reels at the prospect. You've all seen it. In a desperate attempt to get bigger and more progressive, towns across Canada have assaulted the eye, the ear, the nose, and plain common sense. I believe the definition of rape is, "Carnal knowledge without consent." If this is so, there is a lot of rape going on in Canada these days, in villages, towns and cities. Again, you've all seen it. Turn the fertile farmlands on the edge of town into new "developments". Cut down all the trees. Pave everything that isn't paved. All in the name of those great modern gods, "the car", and "business". And all with the benign approval of misguided town councillors, who actually believe, in the dim . little recesses of their minds, that they 'are con- tributing to "progress." "Progress" is usually just a sytionytt for 'what the town's businessmen want, And What they want is More business, so they can Make More money. That's fine, That's their bag, But very often they can apply pressure and exert influence time the present Ontario . Government has been in power, the actions of at least one cabinet minister (the Hon. D'Arcy .McKeough) and the dealings of Ontario Hydro, would prompt MacKenzie to ask those same questions today!,,v, In the play, a young Upper Canadian named Robert Davies journeys to the United States and from his trip con- cludes that "We have the land, the resources and the people, ,everything the United States has. All we have to do (to get the economy of Canada rolling) "is throw out the (explicative) Ontario Government." Here, Here, Robert! One of the reasons that Canada did not develop faster in, 1837 was the Colonial policies of England. Canada was then and to a very large ex- tent still is a Johnny Stump; that is a hewer of wood and drawer of water. The difference with results that cynically bulldoze the desires of the average citizen, who is not cognizant of their wheeling and dealing until it's too late. Don't get me wrong. I'm not just an old grump, who thinks any, change is going to be disastrous. I've served on the other side of the fence, and I am aware of the abuse a councillor receives, the long hours he spends on other people's business, and the lack of appreciation for what he does, But on the other hand, as a councillor, a reporter, and a citizen, I have seen some of the dimmest characters in town elected to council because no one else wanted the job. And I have seen, what they can, do to reduce a beautiful small town to an ugly, noisy, stinking mess. Bigger isn't necessarily bet- ter. In fact, it's usually worser. But many a municipal coun- cillor thinks he's going to get into the Canadian history books or something if he helps make his town bigger. Too few of them stop to think farther than five years ahead. As I suggested, strongest in- ,fluence on the councillors comes from businessmen. But the latter's closest ally is nearly always' the "town engineer", More councillors have been bamboozled by town engineers than there are flies on a dead dog. Your average Councillor doesn't have much technidal knowledge. Consequently, he is mystified and awed by such terms as "access road" and "drainage" and "hardtopping" and "right of Way". between 1837 and 1974 is that in 1837 John Bull had his hand in our pockets and in 1974, the culprit' is our friendly neigh- bour, Uncle Sam. The play also involve's a good deal of early Huron County history, due largely to the in- volvement of Colonel A. Van Egmond and "Tiger" Dunlop. Both of these local pioneers were largely responsible for the opening, early development and settlement of much of Huron County. Because of the topical nature , of the play, the relation of the play to the local area, and the professional and humorous way in which the play is presented, I would recommend highly that as. many people as possible get out to see it when the play is in this area•again. "1837" should certainly help dispell the myth that Canada has a dull history. Don Nicholson, Clinton. Quite wrong is the councillor. He should question and find out what the hell is going on. Engineers, in my opinion, are not superior beings. They are people who like to build things, and tear things down. And the latter often precludes the for- mer. Show an engineer a tree and he'll hand you a chain saw. Show an engineer a curve and he wants to straighten it. Show an engineer a garden and he wants to pave it, Show him a hill and he wants to flatten it. Show him a beautiful rushing river and he wants to dam it. It's the engineers who should be damned in this country. We need trees and curves and gar- dens and hills and rivers. We don't need stumps and straight lines for speeding and more parking lots and bulldozed flats, and dams that flood thousands of acres. We need fewer, many fewer, engineers. Show me a town engineer who has ever looked at a 100- year-old maple without lust in his heart, who has ever looked at a space more than 25' x 25' without Wanting to asphalt it, or who sees any running water, even from the kitchen sink, without wanting to divert it, and I'll show you a freak who will be kicked out of the Professional Engineers' Association at its next meeting, Oh, welly 'all is not lost. My neighbour brought the two huge platesfuil of cleaned'smelt last, week, There's still hope for the human race. Ed not for dumb councillors and rapacious engineers, They Will all go to hell. I hope, 10 YEARS AGO May 21, 1964 John Roorda won a $3,000 special scholarship for 1964-65 awarded by the National Research Council and is one of 16 awards for students studying in the United Kingdom. This scholarship will now finance further research toward a PhD degree in Struc- tural Engineering. Bob. Mann won several public speaking trophies at the District I Kinsmen convention in Sarnia last week. Miss Sandra Middleton, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. Ross Middleton was successful in winning a second and third prize in the Kiwanis Music Festival held in Stratford.. The fruit growers report a very heavy apple blossom" this year. Thomas J. Flood for ten years industrial commissioner for the city of Stratford and manager of the Stratford Chamber of Commerce, has been appointed Business Development Manager of British Mortgage and Trust Company. Dr. and Mrs. Paul Brady were at their home on Lakeshore Road this weekend. Mrs. Frank MacFaddin visited her uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Thurman in Detroit from Friday to Mon- day. Mr. and Mrs. George Millian, Auburn celebrated their golden anniversary on May 16. Open house was' held during the af- ternoon and evening and many friends and relatives called to,. extend congratulations to this popular couple. 25 YEARS' AGO May 26, 1949 Local milk plants report that they were receiving more milk than ever before during last week. This is due to ideal pasture conditions, The crops sides by opposing cultures, it is something of a miracle that Canadians should retain the slightest personality of their own. Those df us who live with it every day of our lives are prone to forget the enormous in- fluence of the United States of America. Here is "brain- washing" brought to its highest degree. From the cradle to the grave we are buffeted by American influences. We read their magazines, listen to their radio, look at their television, absorb their interpretation of world events, react to their economies, accept their modes and fashions, sing their songs, laugh at their jokes, eat their food, buy their wares, cheer their heroes, hiss their bums, crave and sometimes get their possessions. Yet no one who seriously assays the Canadian character could believe for a moment that we are merely second-class Americans. The very fact that Truth's writer should find us dull is testimony to our in- dividuality and the astonishing are growing very well but more rain could do a lot of good. Clayton 0. Martin, Kitchener has been engaged as assistant principal of the Clinton Public School for the school year com- mencing in September. The rain fell in quantities ,last night as if it never would stop. It came at the right time to save many young garden plants which had been withering through lack of moisture. Miss Norma Streets has joined the staff of Ball and Mutch as bookkeeper and stenographer. Louis Durand, 63, who resides on the Blue Water Highway, one mile north of Drysdale, soon will be fitted with artificial limbs through the kindness of Zurich Lions Club and personal friends. Miss Marjorie Hays, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R.C. Hays, was 'given a rousing welcome in her home town when she presented a recital. Dr. Walter A. Oakes, Clinton was second in the approaching and putting competition at the season's opening of Maitland Golf Club, Goderich, Monday afternoon. 50 YEARS AGO May 29, 1924 W. Jenkins and Son have purchased the Cottle greenhouse and intend going extensively into the business. Miss Bessie Morrish acted as court stenographer yesterday when the inquest into the death of the late Thomas Churchill *as held. The jury decided that Mr. Churchill's death Was purely an accident and no blame was laid on any person. John Johnston has purchased J.C. Johnston's cottage oti Issae Street. Plurnsteel Eros. have put up a new aWning, Miss Etta Hardy was home from London for the holiday, "Mr, and Mrs, Ray Rum- fact that, like the Dutch, we are a breed in our own right. There are, of course, a great many Canadians who do not care one way or the other, but most of us are as reluctant to be mistaken for an American as we would be to be mistaken for a Briton. We have this character of our own not because of the American influence, but in spite of it. It may seem dull to the outsider, but then virtue is dull, too. We are not a tribe given to flamboyance. It is often said that we worship only mediocrity. But this is merely a reaction to the impermanence of the American way' in which the god-1ike figure of yesterday is tomorrow's has-beeiV, iri which Watergate seems to represent a method of living. True, this is dullness. Even our genius is often suspected as being merely eccentricity. But our sense of values often seems strangely mature in comparison with our neighbors. It was a Canadian named Thomas D'Arcy McGee—a man of some greatness and con: ball and Jack spent the holiday with the former's mother Mrs. Clara Rumball. Those in charge of the C.C.I. cadet corps when the boys made a splendid showing at the inspection were: Robt. Mid- dleton, Harry Cochrane, F. Cantelon, G.R. Thompson. Charles Thompson has been moved to the Richmond St. ticket office in London of the L. and P.S. railway. Movings include: the Kiltie Band is moving its rooms from over Aikens to over Brown's restaurant; the Stevenson- Harris Knitting Co. is moving from the Midway to the rooms vacated by the band. Mrs. J.J. Zapfe and Mrs. T. Herman were recent visitors in Stratford, 75 YEARS AGO May 25, 1899 The stockyards were crowded on Monday and Big Chief Wheatley who manages the scales was kept busy from early morning until afternoon. He weighed five-hundred hogs for Charles Wallis, eighty-seven for rim CLINTON NEW ERA Established 1865 *CNA Member, Canadian Cominurilty Nowapipa! Association sequently unknown to nine out of ten Canadians—who best ex- pressed the condition of mental self-reliance which is singularly our own, a character, as he put it, "distinguished by a manly modesty as much as by mental independence; by the conscien- tious exercise of the critical faculties, as well as by the zeal of the inquirer." • And it seems to many, more than a hundred years of ter those words were spoken, that this is still the proudest claim of Canada. Whether we maintain it in the face of the growing pressure from America—and, regrettably, in the growing lassitude of many Canadians-r-only time will tell. At this moment in our history, however, we seem to be doing pretty well in resisting the germs of conformity and hysteria which plague us from the south in such varying forms. Dull? Dull, my foot! So long as we continue that struggle for independence Canadians will never be dull. R. Fitzsimons twenty-six head of cattle for Mr. Stanbury as well as some other stock. The strike of Grand Trunk Trackmen which has been threatened for some time, took place Monday when almost the entire staff from Sarnia to Por- tland turned over their tools. All the Trackmen in Huron are out and are unanimous in saying they will fight it out to the bitter end. Mr. Guy Hick's side were winners at Mr. James Graham's barn raising. He has won eight such races out of nine. Mr. Nixon Sturdy is the only one who ever bested Guy at a raising, but they have had one test and no more. The weather in McKillop was so cold the last week that many a person saw a novel sight. The farmers were sowing mangold seeds and were arrayed with overcoats and mitts. Sparks from brake shoes of- ten cause fires along railroads. The beaver is the largest North American rodent. Amalgutnated 1924 Closed Dear 'Editor: With amusement, and dismay, I read in your paper where the Deputy-Reeve thinks hiring behind closed doors is undemocratic. Was this not one of the issues I brought out to the Council last fall? Was the Deputy- Reeve one of the culprits then? When I was bringing a few facts to the attention of the public, some of these same councillors wanted to send me a lawyer's letter to keep me quiet. Instead, they sent me a registered letter to appear at the December council meeting so they could answer a few of my questions. This they failed to do, Some of the council became very arrogant when the subject came up regarding political ap- pointments. The appointment, I was told, was on a part time basis, yet the man involved had worked three full months. Two weeks after the December meeting. the appointment was made per- manent. Was someone lying? I also see by the paper, an outside business has been hired to paint the cross walks, and the parking lanes in Clinton, yet the Publip Works can send men and equipment to the cemetery to do the work. Yet the cemetery board works on a budget as does the Public Works Dept. The mess these machines have made is a public disgrace. Tractor and backhoe stuck in graves of less than two weeks, truck loads of dirt driven up the rows of graves. I am enclosing pictures to verify my statements, one of these graves is less than two weeks old. Where also is the chairman of the Cemetery Board to allow. this kind of a mess to be made? By bringing these subjects up, I'll likely be informed once again by some councillors that I'ml.not,„much of a ,man for doing so. Yours, James Edward Clinton Trains Dear Editor, The National Transportation Act of 1967 gave the C.N. and the C.P.R, the questionable right to apply to the Canadian Transport Commission for discontinuance of, rail passenger services (due to losing money) and if ordered to continue, these would be sub- sidized up to 80 percent by the Federal Government. In Nov. 1970, the entire area from Goderich through Kincar- dine, Southampton, and Owen Sound, down through Palmer- ston, West to Stratford, and South to Guelph, was totally deprived of rail passenger ser- vice. After the initial shock, thousands of letters of protest were directed to the Prime Minister, the Minister of Tran- sport, and M.P.'s urgently requesting resumption of this basic form of public transpor- tation, These protests kept up, until in May 1972, the Federal (continued on page 8) Nows4l000rd readers are en- couraged to express their opinions In letters to the editor, however, such opinions do not necessarily represent the opinions or the News-R000rd. Pesudonyms may be used by letter writers, but no latter wiN be published unless it can be VerMed by phone. NIR11111.111, THE HURON NEWS-RECORD Established 1881 Who's dull? I have before me the article of a recent issue of Truth, a popular British magazine, in which an anonymous staff writer refers to Canadians as "the dullest people in what we used to know as the British Commonwealth." It seems to me to be only half the truth. For some years now—indeed since Confederation—Canadian writers, with the notable excep- tion of Pierre Berton, have con- sidered it their duty and bir- thright to describe their fellow- citizens in precisely the same terms as Truth's correspon- dent, There are few Canadian writers, dead or alive, who haven't commented, for exam- ple, o ,,ont "inferiority com- plex. ' n .But when such criticism ;, comes from 'abroad we're' in- clined to buckle our armor and close ranks. More than that, we're encouraged to take a longer look in our mirror. What we see is not entirely bad. Many world travellers have compared the Canadian character and outlook with that of the Netherlander. Like the Dutch, pressed in from all Publishad every Thursday at Clinton, Ontario Minor Jainoi E. Fitzgerald Clanaral J. liOward Aitken Mond Class Mail 1.emot,ligiiitgliniesimingitittratiOrmameilgioirdtit Clinton News-Record -.tsar, Oman, Mealy Aiesaiaden