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The Exeter Times-Advocate, 1966-02-10, Page 4Behind the scenes erage from the complete district. The people who take the trouble to give us a telephone call assist us in giving better picture coverage and the sub- scribers who purchase the paper en- courage us to keep trying to do our best. When people think of a newspaper they associate it with possibly one or two people they know, whether it be the publisher or editor. At this time we would like to pay tribute to the people behind the scenes who con- tribute so much and yet seldom re- ceive recognition for their efforts, We are referring to our production staff, the girls who take that little extra time to make sure material is displayed in the best possible manner; to the camera man, and the people who set the type and the heads and make the plates and run the press and the multi- tude of jobs which are part of pro- ducing a good newspaper. These are your neighbors and they all deserve a share of the honor which has come our way, A newspaper is pro- duced by many, many people. Judges for the Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association, Better News- papers. Competition, gave The Times- Advocate a pat on the back last week when they chose this newspaper as the best in Ontario for towns under 3,500 population. The award is a simple wall plaque but it represents a great deal Of work and effort by a great number of people and it will have a place of honor with many similar awards won by this newspaper over the years. It would be difficult to try and estimate the number of people who con- tribute to the overall excellence of a newspaper as the judging takes into ac- count local news, editorial page, pic- tures, advertising, typography, front page, makeup and the general impres- sion. A newspaper is an example of teamwork which would be hard to match in any other line of work and when an award is won we must pass on our thanks to all those who assisted. Our many country correspondents are the backbone of the newspaper for it is only through them that we can present a broad range of news cov- Community spirit Community spirit is a term which is difficult to define and often diffi- cult to know whether it exists and to what degree. And yet it does exist, in Exeter at least, as was proven last week when over 100 motorists were stranded in town over night. Members of the Royal Canadian Legion are to be commended for rec- ognizing the need of a reception cen- tre for these people and opening their doors. Members of the branch arranged for many homes for victims until the number grew too large. It was at this time that residents showed they have `community spirit'. At approximately 10:45 there were over 30 people waiting to get some place to stay. The need was broadcast radio news report and within J5 minutes all victims had a place to stay. More than this, many other residents offered their homes in case others should be stranded. We have mentioned the Legion but there were many other people who contributed greatly in this time of emer- gency. Unfortunately there can be no way of learning all the names. We have been asked by some who were stranded in town to pass on their thanks, not only to the people who as- sisted them, but to the many other peo- ple who offered their homes if needed, It is spontaneous action such as this which makes people remember a town as a good place to visit. It has done much to boost the image of the town and we are more than pleased to pass on these thanks to the people respon- sible. By Val Baltkolns 70:areit 6104400t4 There has beep a lot of pub- licity in the past few weeks about the crisis in adoptions that is the title of an article in the Feb- ruary 1st United Church Observ- er, Shortly after this appeared a London Children's Aid worker estimated that there were 500 neglected children in London and Middlesex county who should be placed elsewhere than where they are. About a week ago Allan Sass Of the London Society said, "There is a critical shortage of foster homes, There are many cases where children's needs are pot adequately met but the children remain at home because the CAS has nothing better to offer them", The February 5 issue of Mac- leans followed up with this: "Can- ada is facing a sudden crisis on the adoptionfront. There is a sur- plus of homeless babies, es- pecially in the cities and a short- age of couples applying to adopt them. The reason is a 50% in- crease in illegitimate births dur- ing the last decade (to 26,556 in 1964) without a corresponding increase in adopting parents". Mary Taylor of the University of Michigan School of Social Work says, "It is perfectly clear that if illegitimacy continues at any- thing like the present rate we will not have an adequate number of homes available for the child- ren". Patricia Clarke who wrote the Observer article says we have to face the problem head on: "As long as babies were in de- mand adoption was a satisfying way to sweep the whole problem under the rug. Now we have to face the social implications: fighting illegitimacy on the one hand and for those for whom it is too late, remembering with corn- passion that our society is partly responsible". Inspite of the evidence, how- ever, I see no reason to push the panic button. For example, in London right after the story broke the Children's Aid Society im- mediately received more than 25 offers of Foster homes. Mr. Sass said that this is as many offers as are received in some months, The writer of the Macleans editorial implies, correctly I be- lieve, that this sort of response will be forthcoming everywhere if the need is known. He says, "Because the situation threatens to grow worse some child wel- fare workers have become a bit desperate. They suggest that un- married mothers should keep their babies and that teenagers should be taught birth control methodS. Surely we are not that desperate," He goes on: "Most potential adopting parents haven't even heard that there is a shortage of homes . . would be parents are told that they're tqo old or temperamentally unsuitable, that their home is too small or their religion not right. Usually they just have to wait . We should attack the practical difficulties that still deny homes to the homeless and children to the childless". Then he makes what I believe is the key point; "The first steps are to publicize the need and to work out Methods of getting the babies to where the prospective parents are". It is interesting to note that this editorial was entitled, "Get the Babies to Those Who Want Them". The implica- ation is that there are more than enough people who will care. The editor of the United Church Observer concludes in the same tone; "We don't feel nearly as panicky about it as some of the professionals do. For up until recently many ministers have been impatiently pestering Child- ren's Aid officials for babies one day and counselling would be foster parents to be patient the next. We have a little advice for the adoption agencies; 'Advertise the situation in the religious press of Canada and let the people of the churches know that there are more babies than homes. They will empty your institutions and provide the waiting lists again'. . . In a country of good homes and a falling birth rate we certainly don't need to have homeless babies". One social worker suggests that Protestant churches could have an Adoption Year as did Roman Catholics. One social worker said point blank: "The homes are there. We just have to work harder to find them", I, too, am hopeful enough to believe that if the need is pre- sented the response will be one of compassion and concern —and the problem and the crisis will be made less difficult. I am not naive enough to think the prob- lem will go away —none of our complex problems are so simple — but this one we can face in hope rather than frantic fear. The will of the voters usually strong convictions, most of which are fallacies. The most contentious issue seems to be whether the growers should have been notified to hold their beans. The Board says you can't be sure what the buyers will do, and only have to go back to last August to prove their point, when the price of beans fell flat for no apparent reason. I, too, believe the Board should have sent out a news letter but this does not say they have miserably failed the farmer. You say profits of $3 to $4 cwt were made by dealers. If this is true then I am glad that our com- pany at least had some of it and wish we farmers sold and handled all the beans. you say that the Bean Board has the whole in- dustry in a turmoil — what an imagination you have! You blame the Board for bad feelings between the growers, dealers and the Board which is not true. However, we all know, as farmers, what it takes to keep dealers happy — big profits. You claim poor management because of a carry over of beans. The Board usually cleans up all the beans at the end of the season, and they started to do this again this year. The mar- ket was flat and they had to use some of the 7'70. This didn't seem right and so many were held and later sold at a nice profit. These beans were processed and in bags at the time of this year's harvest, so in no way did they impede this year's crop as you have suggested. In fact, I'm told all the silos at London have been filled, processed and filled again by December. I call this good Management. As you predict, the vote may fail but let we farmers decide that. Winston Shapton What has happened to the Ex- eter Times-Advocate? In recent months it has become a paper of regression. The change seems to have stemmed from the recent change in editors. First of all, the editor started right at home in criticizing his good wife's cooking ability. This drivel seemed to be designed for filling up space, rather than promoting aggressive thinking. Next came the attack on studded snow tires, right at the time when some of Exeter's tire dealers were paying good money to promote an ad- vancement in safety. Now, the most vicious attack to date is directed to the Ontario Bean Board. This, again, came right at a time when it would appear to be a strong possibility of Exeter getting a $400,000 ele- vator doing a two million dollar business. True, this depends upon the vote and the decision of the Bean Board, But I would think that an editor should be interested in doing what he could to get this industry for his town. More con- demning was the severity of his attack. A man who had no axe to grind literally stabbed the Bean Board in the back. I say this be- cause this attack was left to the last issue before the vote so as not to get a rebuttal. One who admits he is not a bean grower or an expert certainly has un- _ . A do. There is one consolation and that is they seem more humor- ous when talking of them a year later than they do when you are trying to apologize to an angry advertiser or subscriber who is firmly convinced you made the error intentionally. Unfortunately people are quick to condemn and slow to praise which probably accounts for the seeming imbalance of letters to the editor. Letters of praise seem few and far between while the other type come in fairly regularly. The only alternative would be to run a blank editorial page and I suppose even this would bring complaints. I doubt if I manage to struggle through the pile of mail, notes, messages and exchange news- papers before this paper gets to press. The flow of 'publicity re- leases' from people seeking free publicity is amazing but it is necessary to glance at most of this in case it does deal with a subject of importance. Some- times we are tempted to throw it all in the wastebasket but al- ways resist, just in case. Two other editors have ideas on this subject. I was talking to one fellow who has reduced his flow of mail considerably simply by sending back all 'news releases' he doesn't want. When companies have to start paying the postage due they tend to cut down their mailing list. The oth- er idea is of course to save all this material and use it each week to wrap papers in before mailing. I rather like this idea as it reminds me of a man who discovered a use for the lengthy flag debates as printed in Han- sard. The Port Elgin paper used all these debates as wrappers for their newspapers and it was pro- bably the only good which came from the debates. say I was impressed. Controller Dennison did the honors for the tour. It can be argued that the hall will spark similar type de- velopment of the core area but it would seem to be a slightly ex- pensive way of getting this start- ed. The modern trend may be fine but when it takes 15 minutes for 50 newspaper editors to figure out that a certain area of the building is a memorial to those who served in the world wars, then perhaps they should have spent an extra few dollars for signs to state what each area is for. I hope they get the ele- vator repaired soon as well. The stairs in the new building only go to the third floor and beyond this you have no choice but to use the elevator. It is discon- certing to stand in an elevator for five minutes before discover- ing it is out of order and have to start looking for one that will work. I probably should have taken my wife with me but after talk- ing to some of the fellows who did I might have been one of the luckier fellows. There wasn't any program for the women and they were free to go shopping every day while we were working. I can imagine what the cost of this would have been if June had been let loose down there for a couple of days. There was humor as well and I am glad to be reassured that other newspapers make just as many 'bloopers' as we do. It is sometimes hard to understand how an error can be missed de- spite being checked by three or four different people but they After three days in the capital of Ontario I am fully convinced that city life isn't for me. Not that there aren't a few advant- ages in the city, but the merits of life in a small town far out weigh these. My normal working day leaves me little enough time to sleep but I got even less in Toronto. It will probably take me two weeks to make up for the sleep I lost while attending the OWNA convention. I didn't lose the sleep enjoying myself either, it was just a case there were too many people to see and who I wanted to talk to to fit into a crowded three day visit. It has been said that a weekly newspaper editor or publisher is a lonely man, in that he is the only person in the community with that particular vocation and he has no one he can sit down and talk to about problems or ideas. This is essentially true and probably one of the main reasons why, when they gather at a convention from across On- tario, they will sit up until 6:30 in the morning talking shop. Not only this, many delegates were friends and we may not meet for another year. I met former T-A editor, Bill Batten who dropped down to say hello to a few of his friends in the newspaper trade Friday even- ing. Bill and his wife are now settled in the big city and en- joying life there and Bill likes his new job. He is an excellent newspaper editor but he doesn't like the hours. I can't say that I blame him too much sometimes. We had a look at the new city hall Saturday and I can't really as that margin is, it means that the voters have made the Liberals the gov- ernment. And that is the way it should stay until the government has a chance to implement its legislative program. As to the matter of $100 pensions for the aged, it was the Diefenbaker platform, not that of the Liberals. By what right does the leader of the Op- position think to jam his rejected poli- cies down the throats of any govern- ment members? Whatever they may decide to do in the future, it must be the oddest thing in history to have a vote of non-confidence in a government taken on an Opposition policy! All of which tends to show that the Conservatives who tried to get a change of leadership were right. The party has much to offer, but not under the erratic policies of a man whose only desire seems to be to have power at any cost. To prevent further troubles, the Social Credit members have taken it upon themselves to keep the govern- ment in office until it has a chance to do something. We must all hope that the Liberal party will be sufficiently grateful that it will give us constructive policies, with the rights of the individual safe- guarded, and the welfare of the coun- try in mind. —The Trentonian Canadians generally must surely thank the five Social Credit members of the House of Commons for behav- ing in a responsible manner when mo- tions of non-confidence are before the House. No one wants another election quickly. This is something the leader of the Opposition seems unable to grasp. He is still watching for the mo- ment when he can upset the govern- ment, and grasp the power for which he is so hungry. Mr. Diefenbaker has not learned that the voters of Canada are not again willing to trust him with power. No delusions about how much more support he commanded during the last election should blind him to that truth. But since Mr. Diefenbaker is hard to convince, the Social Credit mem- bers are doing the next best thing. Without sacrificing their own right to state their own views when occasion arises, they have acted on behalf of the people of Canada to thwart efforts to overthrow the government. For this some of the members of the House are castigating them. It can only be that those who criticize have also not learned the lessons of the elec- tion. Imperfect as it is, the Pearson government did command a majority of the seats in the House, and slight Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Anialgamated 1924 50 YEARS AGO The Opera House was filled Tuesday evening to listen to re- cruiting addresses by Dr. J. L. Hughes of Toronto and Miss Nee -lands of Seaforth, a returned nurse. Mr. Thos. Laing has sold his farm on the London Road North to Mr. A. J. Ford of town and gets in exchange Mr. Ford's fine brick residence on Andrew St. Rev. D. W. Collins, rector of Trivitt Memorial Church for the past ten years, has accepted a call to Windsor. He will take up his duties the first Sunday in April. VteexeferZintes-Usecafe 15 YEARS AGO Tom Collingwood, who has been ringing the bell at the Exeter Public School for 32 years, will retire at the end of this term. Demonstrating they still pro- test against the price paid for hydro pole erection across their farms 50 farmers in the Staffa area held up HEPC crews for three hours. provincial police came to the Scene and restored operations. Mrs. E. J. Spackman, whose husband conducted a general store in the building where Jones & May carry on, died in Toronto and Was buried in Exeter Cem. etery. Hydro in the South Huron (As- trid will be converted to 60 cycle this summer, SERVING CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND Member: C.W.N.A., 0.W.N.A., CLASS A and ABC Publishers: .1. M. Southcott, R. M. Southcoft Editor: Kenneth Kerr Advertising Manager: Val BaltkaIris Phone 23S-1331 Published Each Thursday Morning at Exeter, Ont. Ottawa, Aufharited as Second Class Mail, Post Office Dept, and for Payment of Postage in Cash 25 YEARS AGO Mr. Robert Borland, who is in charge of Centralia Creatnery, has been successful in passing his military examinations and has been commissioned first lieut. enant of the Exeter platoon of the Middlesex-Hurons. Mr. W. J. Beer, who has been in business in Exeter for many years, has sold out to Mr. Earl Russell who has taken over the radio and electrieal departments, Mr. E. M. 01:mice will still be in charge Of the harness business, Mr. Sydney West, who learned his trade as a printer with the Times - Advocate, has left for North l3ay where he has Secured a position. On. W. E. Weekes, of town has been called tO active Service with the Royal Canadian Attny Medical Corps. Paid in Advance Circulation, September JO, 1965, 4,208 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $4.00 Per Year; USA 0.00 10 YEARS AGO Margaret Woodburn of leR 3 Parkhill, was crowned queen for 1956 by SHDS students at the formal dance Friday night. Tenders are being called for the $50,000 addition to Exeter post Office. Twelve best spellers in South Huron public schools have been picked to cOmpete fer district hemOrS at the inspectorate finals of the Ontario Spelling Bee in Exeter Public School Wednesday, February 20. Huron County Soil and Crop News distributed this week to 7,000 farmers is believed tO be the first county newspaper to be printed in two colors. .;re : "It's not the cough wot carries you off. It's the coffin they carry yOu off in." That old English folk saying pretty well Sums up my attitude toward life this week. It isn't the work that's killing me; it's the after-hours stuff, in a typical week. Lest Monday, after work, I Wrote my column, then spent five hours studying an essay by C. S. Lewis, cOncieely called "Right and Wrong as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe," T r y selling that one to a girl whose chief worry is her hair- do, Or to a boy who can hardly wait for the last bell to ring, so that he can streak for the pool- room. Tuesday night I went curling. First time this year. Next Morn- ing, I felt 112 years old when I crawled out of the sack. My muscles woked only in fits and starts. Wednesday afternoon, rushed to matinee to see movie of Mac- beth. Sat with doe-eyed female English teacher. Later told my daughter I'd held hands with her throughout the show. Daughter furious. Wednesday night, a two- hour meeting Of our staff's Gen- eral Futility Committee. Thursday afternoon, a two- hour drive to the city, through a swirling snow-storm with Kim, her last (halleluiah!) visit to the Orthodontist. Five years and 700 dollars after it all began the kid has straight teeth. two more hOurs home, the transport trucks giving us a Mud- bath about every two Miles. But We had a jolly conversation, in the cozy car, in the black night, in the white wilderness. Talked Please turn to page 7 Dear Sir: My congratulations to you, on ah excellent editorial in your Feb. 3, 1966, issue relating to the White bean situation and the forthcoming vote. We are not white bean dealers, so might also be considered im- partial, but are very interested in this matter because of the principles involved, and all the serious implications to private enterprise, especially in the field of Agriculture. On Feb. 2, I wrote a letter Of protest to the 110n. Charles S. MacNaughton who is a personal friend of Many years) standing and also my member of Parlia- ment, as I reside in Oakwood Park just north Of Grand Bend, in Stephen township. 'ou can Imagine the satisfac- Moro letters Please turn to page Crisis in adoption? How the days go