HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1966-05-26, Page 4Reactionaries
Different thoughts
It was not tor] many years ago
when the community of Aylmer lost an
RCAF establishment and went through
the work and worry of first attempting
to stop this action and secondly to find
some 'industry as a replacement factor,
Aylmer was a very concerned commu-
nity in those days and suddenly be-
came very conscious of the value of
their key industry, the RCAF.
That community is now looking to-
wards Exeter and the effect the closing
of CFB Centralia could have on the
community and points out some inter-
esting facts which bear repeating. In
an editorial entitled, "Judy should con-
sult the taxpayers" some government
proposals are outlined.
"It would be stimulating if occa-
sionally from Ottawa we would see
some indication of a genuine desire to
reduce taxation by curbing unnecessary
expenditures. Instead, all we get are
examples of utter confusion in the mat-
ter of economy.
During the past few days, for in-
stance, we learn that the government
is considering the closing of the Canad-
ian Forces Base at Centralia. The ex-
planation is that this would mean a
saving of $1,000,000 a year in operat-
ing costs. It would also disrupt the
lives of 500 service personnel and 275
civilian employees on the station, to say
nothing of the impact on the commer-
cial and social life of the nearby town
of Exeter whose population is consid-
erably less than 4,000.
Almost simultaneously with this
revelation, State Secretary Judy La-
Marsh announced that she was trying
to persuade the government to buy an
oil painting for the National Gallery at
Ottawa for the stupefying sum of
$6,000,000. She didn't go into any de-
tail except that this masterpiece was
the work of an Italian artist and it
hadn't been exhibited for 200 years.
We should like to suggest to her
that if the world has been able to get
along without this artistic creation for
200 years, we feel quite certain that
the Canadian taxpayer would be quite
willing to forego this luxury for an-
other century or two.
Regardless of the cost, we can't
think of any reason why the Canadian
government should be in the market
for old European paintings. It would
be far better to concentrate on Canad-
ian paintings at a fraction of the cost.
Such a policy would at least encourage
Canadian artists and have the addition-
al merit of saving on foreign exchange."
There are certainly many different
thought patterns in the government at
the federal level. While we agree that
it is necessary for the Department of
National Defence to save money by
consolidation and removing areas of
duplication and triplication we also
think serious thought must be given to
the economic implications which these
changes can have on an area. We
doubt very much whether there is an
area in Canada which would feel the
impact of the closing of a Canadian
Farces Base more than the highly de-
pendent area within 10 miles of Cen-
tralia.
By Val Baltkalns
Forege, 4a/ex quftiapt
Ruth-Anne Salmon of Dashwood at Pinery Beach
Call back yesterday
Today the Church must experi-
ment with new forms. It must
be prepared for the abuse which
inevitably follows.
As Dr. Sam Shoemaker once
put it, " Commitment is the
willingness to take the plunge
in life-- it is to take the risk
of seeming ridiculous. It is to
take the risk of living and ma-
king mistakes". This is why I
have always liked the old plati-
tude,"better to have tried and
lost than not to have tried at all'.
Yet most people would rather
act like the clam. He encases
himself in bone. He builds an
external skeleton and for his
protection he still digs him-
self deeper into the ocean ooze.
That is no way to live but many
persist.
One famous counsellor has
said, "Maturity is measured by
one's capacity to discharge his
obligations without having to be
threatened, nagged, hounded,or
hit over the head". Wherever
the reactionary exists you have
to do all these things to go a-
head with anything.
The reactionary is basically
a cynic or a pessimist who can
see no good ahead—the golden
age is always in the past. He
stays outside the Church be-
cause he sees all its faults.
He thinks Christ's demands are
too great, His standards are too
high, His way of life is too exac-
ting or disturbing. He doesn't
want his old pattern of living
to be disturbed. He wants to
preserve the status quo spiri-
tually too-to do otherwise would
be to take risks.
But like all pessimists he
overplays the difficulties. He is
a bit like the woman in this sto-
ry Charles Spurgeon once told,
There was a poor woman in his
parish who was having difficulty
paying her rent. He went with
the money in his pocket to her
home to see her. He knocked
at the door--no answer. He
knocked again and again--still
no answer and at last he turned
away. Long afterwards he
learned that she had been there
all the time but she had thought
that it must be someone coming
to collect the rent. She never
thought it could be someone
coming to pay it.
To overemphasize the diffi-
culties and forget the possibili-
ties is to become a reactionary.
We need to be open to the future.
We need to he prepared to launch
out. We need to be prepared to
take risks. This is a dynamic
changing world. Everything that
is alive will grow, adapt and
change.
The word reactionary has
fallen in to disrepute in the
western world because Commu-
nists use it loosely to describe
everybody who doesn't follow
the party line. But the word can
still be used if it is employed
with care.
The Oxford dictionary defines
the word reactionary as "con-
noting a retrograde movement,
especially in politics' and re-
trograde means literally, (di-
rected backwards, retreating,
reverting to an inferior state',
There is no doubt that the
field of politics has had and still
has a superabundance of reac-
tionaries--people who want to
go backwards and not forward.
Every reform on record has
been resisted by multitudes--'
the abolition of slavery, the
improvement of prisons, the
reduction of child labour, better
pensions, universal medical co-
verage and so on. There have
always been many who want to
keep things the way they are
rather than move out intelli-
gently and co-operatively.
Democracy itself was long
despised and still is. John
Adams the first vice-president
of the U.S. once wrote, ((Demo-
cracy never has been and never
can be so desirable as aristo-
cracy. Remember democracy
never lasts long. It soon wastes,
exhausts and murders itself".
Yet we now believe that if hum-
anity Is to go forward we must
not slip backward into any form
of totalitarian government.
Thus I believe we can hoist the
Communists on their own
petard.
But the reactionary Is not
confined to politics. Every fa-
mily usually has at least one
vocal member who opposes any
change in the accustomed way
of doing things. Most companies
have at least one person who
prides himself on his refusal
to adopt the new and the untried.
But companies conduct re-
search. They develop untried
and unproved processes. In
short they take costly risks
every day over the warnings of
the reactionary.
The reactionary gains control
of a political party or a company
or a community whenever peo-
ple want to dig in like the clam
and play dead to the call to go
forward.
Churches are always prone
to play the reactionary role. As
one writer put it: "All our fa-
thers have been churchmen,
nineteen hundred years or so,
And to every new suggestion,
they have always answered no!'
It is perhaps too bad that there
are so many cars on the high-
ways today. If it were not so it
would be possible to control the
traffic flow as well as keep track
of the speed of all vehicles from
central control points. In this
computer age it is not outside the
realm of possibility that a sys-
tem of control could be used for
automobiles much the same as
check points and central stations
track aircraft and channel them
into paths where traffic is lighter
and force them to avoid areas of
congested traffic.
It may well be that this is the
solution to many of our traffic
problems, especially during the
busy summer months when thous-
ands of tourists jam the highways
causing congestion and delay. We
all like the tourist dollars but
we are also concerned over the
traffic problem these extra ve-
hicles create.
Highway 115 from Highway 401
to the Kawartha Lakes area is a
prime example of a road which is
becoming inadequate to handle
the cottage traffic during the
summer months but which, dur-
ing the fall and winter, can easily
accommodate all the local traffic.
Highway 83 to Grand Bend is an-
other example. On holiday week-
ends this road is jammed bumper
to bumper for miles and tempers
get short and accidents occur as
people attempt to pass when it is
unsafe in an effort to make a little
better time.
There are other roads leading
into the area which are not as
heavily travelled or which might
take a driver a little longer to
reach his destination and con-
sequently are not used as much.
The time could come when driv-
He went on: Capital goes to those
places where it will feel most at home,
where it can live and prosper in peace
and harmony with its neighbors.
It is a little like a man who lives
in a rented room. If he moves in with
a happy congenial family he will stay
on, even if the wallpaper is faded, the
rug is threadbare and bed is hard. But
if the atmosphere in the house is cold
and hostile, and the roomer is disturbed
by the landlady's quarrels with her
husband and the ill-tempered yammer-
ing of the children, he simply moves
out.
"Capital, like the roomer, is sen-
sitive to its surroundings. It thrives in
an atmosphere of warmth and stability
and co-operation. It shrinks in a cli-
mate of indifference, of petty bicker-
ing, of proprietory attitudes, and out-
right hostility. It will do more than its
share to improve its own climate, but
should its efforts prove in vain, it may
move elsewhere."
Mr. Jackson makes a lot of sense.
Contrary to the opinion of many, capi-
tal is not chained forever to any one
place by mere bricks and steel and in-
vestments in land and facilities. Build-
ings and facilities may serve as tempo-
rary restraints, but never as permanent
bonds.
In Canada, this is as true provin-
cially as locally. If the climate in one
place gets too unhealthy, capital if
necessary will flow to a more attrac-
tive place and recover any lost invest-
ment in plants from the increased ef-
ficiencies that are possible in a benign
climate.
This is an enduring truth which
needs to be continually borne in mind
by provincial and local lawmakers, or-
ganized labour and others in a position
to create or withhold the climate which
industry must have if it is to thrive.
It is time to think of thoughts
such as these.
The perfect
high school
ers would be forced to check with
a central office stating what their
destination is, what highways they
propose to use, what their time of
departure is and all other pertin-
ent information. In this way a
central check point could limit
the number of cars per hour using
the highways and direct travel-
lers to alternate roads when maj-
or arteries became overloaded.
Failing this a traveller could
delay his starting time until he
had clearance for the roads he
wished to use.
A plan such as this would
allow a central officer to check
the time of departure, time of
arrival at each check point and
would cut down on the speedsters
who attempt to force a hole
through traffic simply because
they wish to gain an extra hour
or so at the cottage or who left
for home a little late and want to
try and make up this time on the
highway.
I have always been against a
lot of compulsory controls but
there are occasions when the
average human being shows he
cannot control himself and so
needs someone to direct him and
tell him what to do and set out
penalties if the rules are not
followed. This is the case with
highway driving today. Every
time I reach an accident scene
and learn that a few more peo-
ple have killed themselves or
have been innocent and been kill-
ed I realize the need of controls.
And speed limits and stop signs
are not the answer.
It is possible to drive at 100
miles an hour and do it safely.
Racing drivers do this with many
other cars on the same track and
their accident rate is probably
The following editorial first ap-
peared in the May, 1952, issue of In-
dustry under the caption "Wanted: A
Healthy Climate":
For any community, a new indus-
try is a valuable acquisition. Every
,tawn.sor city depends far its livelihood
'upbfr its industries. They are the basic
`source of employment, its revenue, its
prosperity. And, of course, an industry
in turn depends on the community for
a number of things essential to its op-
erations.
In choosing a site for a new plant,
manufacturers have many factors to
consider: an adequate source of employ-
able people, good rail and road facili-
ties, nearness to markets and supply
centres, electric power, water, type of
soil, elbow room for future expansion,
and so on.
There is another important factor,
too, and to quote Mr. George H. Jack-
son, vice president for sales and adver-
tising of the Fard Motor Company of
Canada, it's the most important single
factor of all: a healthy industrial cli-
mate.
Speaking in Toronto recently, Mr.
Jackson cited his own company's deci-
sion to erect a new $30 million plant
near Oakville, Ontario. In selecting this
location, he said, Ford of Canada felt
it was entering "an industrial climate
ideally suited for a healthy and pro-
gressive future."
"There is nothing more important,
in the eyes of the businessman than
such a climate", he added. "We rate it
above almost everything else."
Mr. Jackson was addressing the
third Ontario Industrial Promotion Con-
ference. To the 200 mayors, reeves, in-
dustrial commissioners and others who
made up his audience, he suggested
that municipalities should regularly test
their climate if they wanted to attract
new industries and hold existing ones.
Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924
50 YEARS AGO
Privates Birney, Harvey,
West, Cudmore, Gambriel and
Harness spent the weekend at
their homes here.
A company composed of
Messrs. F.B. Medd of Clinton,
W.G. Medd and George Jaques
of Winchelsea have purchased
the Exeter Creamery from J.
H. Scott of town, possession
to be given July 1. The Exeter
business will be entirely sepa-
rate from Mr. Medd's busi-
ness at Winchelsea..
Messrs. S.Martin, Thomas
Harvey and B.W.P. Beavers of
town and Mr. J.W. Skinner of
Winchelsea are at Kingsville
this week attending London Con-
ference.
25 YEARS AGO
Published Each Thursday Morning at Exeter, Ont.
Authorized as Second Class Mail, Post Office Dep't, Ottawa,
and for Payment of Postage in Cash
Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Cann of
Dunnville recently moved to
Exeter. Mr. Cann is engaged
With his father at the Exeter
Mill,
Jones & May have commenced
alterations to their rear en-
trance and are equipping to
qualify as an egg grading sta-
tion for the purchase of eggs.
Construction work on Huron
County's third airport has al-
ready been started on a farm
purchased from Norman Tyn-
dall On the highway a mile
south of Clinton and adjoining
the Huron County Herne proper-
ty,
Paid in Advance Circulation, September 30, 1965, 4,208
as low as it is on some of our
highways where the speed is
limited to 50 or 60 miles per
hour. The answer is, lack of
training, lack of skill, lack of
practice and lack of common
sense.
I do not claim to be an ex-
cellent driver myself but I have
little respect for the average
driver and whenever possible
I stay off the roads at peak
periods when I know the once a
week, or once a month drivers
will be out in full force. The
reactions of many drivers are
much too slow when faced with
a critical problem at 60 miles
per hour. At that speed you don't
have time to have a private de-
bate as to whether to hit the
brakes, step on the accelerator,
swerve to the left or to the
right. A decision of this type must
be made immediately and it can
only be made properly by a
semi-professional or pro-
fessional driver.
I often wonder whether we are
using the correct word when we
class all highway deaths as "traf-
fic accidents". The majority of
these are not accidents but damn-
ed foolishness and the sooner we
stop calling them accidents the
better chance we will have of
getting people concerned about
the senseless carnage on the
roads, I like to travel and be-
cause of the nature of my business
I drive up to 25,000 miles a year
either on business or pleasure.
I also want to live and because
of this I take all the precautions
I can. I not only wear a safety
belt but on longer trips I wear
a safety hat.
It may seem foolish to do this
but I started it because of the
many darned fools I see on the
road every day. I doubt whether
a good system of control will ever
be devised and so the answer
must come back to training and
education. If we could find some
way to make people listen to
advice and be honest enough to
admit the advice was aimed at
them rather than at their next
door neighbor, then some of our
highway deaths would end.
Until this happens I will be
one of the cautious travellers.
I will drive the secondary roads
rather than the main highways
and take all the precautions I
Can. I'll leave the better high-
ways to those in a hurry and who
believe an "accident" is some-
thing that happens to someone
else. And after every holiday
weekend I will have pictures of
death and damage and I will
write the obituaries of people
who got behind the wheel of a
car Without realizing the respon-
sibility they were undertaking.
There will also be the obituaries
of the people who were innocent,
I make money by taking pic-
tures of accidents, of the dam-
age Caused and writing of the
people who died. i am getting
slightly cynical after covering
well over 200 "accident deaths",
I don't like to make money that
way. It Is the hardest way to
earn a dollar a man Mild find.
If you don't believe it, just try it
and see how your stomach feels.
SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $5.00 Per Year; USA $7.00
15 YEARS AGO
Last eve ning after choir
practice, members of the Hu-
ronia Male Chorus had a chi-
varee for Mr. and Mrs. Jim
Rowcliffe (nee Brock).
Councillors Andy Snelgrove,
William McKenzie and Roy
Campbell and Clerk C.V. Pick-
ard, were in Goderich Tuesday
attending a meeting of Huron
Council Municipal Association.
Six old tavern chairs made of
cherry and sold to a man from
Oregon were some of the many
items sold at the auction sale
of the century-old Carling house
Wednesday.
10 YEARS AGO
Mrs. Reg Armstrong has pur-
chased the restaurant equip-
ment and business formerly
owned by Monetta. Menard at the
corner of No, 4 and 83 highways.
General Coach Works of Ca-
nada, Hensall, expects to be
using its new $80,000 addition
inside of two weeks.
Keith Coates, Irvin Ford and
David Morrissey were among
the 45 students who were pre-
sented with diplomas at the
graduation exercises at West-
ern Ontario Agricultural School
Ridgetown.
Importance of the Morrison
tarn water supply project is
greater than ever now that a
large Ameridan company has
purchased Canadian Canners
Ltd., council agreed Monday
night. NIN.:::'S:P.ZZIEIEZQ'If.,.7ane.MV:MirNggra%16MEtWS
Virtually everybody these
days is upset about our educa-
tional system. The public
schools are not teaching the ur-
chins to read, write and figger.
The high schools are massive,
seething factories turning out
illiterates. The c o 11 e ge s are
septic tanks of sex, marijuana
and LSD.
Most of this is pure poppy-
cock, of course, but a critical
society is a healthy one, accord-
ing to Hugh Dunnit, that great
Welsh bard and beatnik of the
eleventeenth century. This
makes Canadians about the
healthiest critters in the hemi-
sphere.
Columnists aver that high
schools are run like military
camps, producing lock-step
conformists who haven't
learned to think. This is patent
baloney. They think one helluva
lot more than did these same
columnists, when they came out
of Hayfork Centre with not much
more than a burning desire to
get away from said centre, a
lousy basic education, and a
shiny blue serge suit.
Lots of parents, and some
teachers, are of the opposite
opinion: that there is far too
much freedom of speech, dress
and action, too many frills, not
enough good hard work and
good hard punishment. These
comments come from parents
who worked one-quarter as hard
in school as their kids do, and
teachers who atrophied some
years ago.
The kids themselves, depend-
ing on home-background, their
own personalities, and their
talent or lack of it, look on
school as a jail or a ball.
Some think of it rather like
having a ball in a jail.
School boards beef about the
cost of everything, and the ad-
ministration beefs about the
shortage of everything and the
teachers beef about the paper
jungle and the custodians beef
about the salaries and the hours
and the teachers and the ad-
ministration and the school
board.
You might think, from all this
nagging, that there are some
slight imperfections in our high
schOOls. And you might be right,
but it's not as bad as it sounds,
What I can't understand is
that I haven't been approached
for a definition of the perfect
high school. It's probably just
an oversight, and because I'm
not a pushy type. But who is
better qualified? I've been to
high school myself, I work in
the blasted factory every day,
and I have a daughter who comes
home every day and moans,
"Do I ever hate school!"
Well, here goes. Don't panic,
now. The changes would be
slight and inexpensive. I think
we'd all enjoy life more, stud-
ents, parents and teachers,
First of all, let's cut out the
muttered, mumbled morning
prayer. I believe in prayer and
practise it quite often (usually
when I'm in a jam), But it's
almost sacrilege in the way
it's delivered. The R.C.'s whizz
through it and leave out the
last part, The Jews and atheists
are silent. The teacher winds
up leading three or four dogged
Protestants who aren't always
sure of the words.
Next, out goes The Queen.
While I am a royalist, and have
the utmost respect for Queen
Elizabeth, I see no reason 30-
odd teen-agers should be sub-
mitted every morning to a pom-
pous and bad piece of music,
the words of which have no more
relation to their world than does
the horse and buggy.
How would you like to go to
the factory, or the office, and
stand at attention while a tape-
recorded band blares out one
of these awful tunes, before
you got down to serious busi-
ness like waiting for the coffee
break?
In place of these, I would
suggest a warm -up period.
We're all pretty clang doggy
first thing in the morning. The
class cut-up would be master
of ceremonies. Witty sayings,
announcements, brief weather
report. Some Beatles and Bob
Dylan and the Rolling StoneS.
An original poem or song from
the students. If a girl has Go-
Go boots, let her demonstrate
a new dance, probably on the
teacher's desk.
By this time everybody is
friendly, warmed-up, The real
learning atmosphere has been
created, But unfortunately, I
have run out of space, Read
next Week's column for a fur-
ther thrilling instalment on The
Perfect High School.
txeferZines-Akworafe
SERVING CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND
Member: C.W.N.A., O.W.N.A., C.C.N.R. and ABC
Publishers: J. M. Southcott, R. M. Southcott
Editor: Kenneth Kerr
Advertising Manager; Val Baltkalns
Phone 235-1331
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