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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1978-08-10, Page 4Page 4 Times-Advocate, August 10, 1978 .................A opinION _ .. . -......................... i\j\x^ Public pawns CP Air flight 60 was due to arrive at Toronto International Airport at 3:10 p.m., Friday. Due to mechanical dif­ ficulties, the flight was delayed and finally arrived in” Toronto at ap­ proximately 11:20 p.m. While most passengers and those awaiting their arrival may have been able to understand the fact that air­ planes can experience problems, few were prepared for the delay they were to encounter at Toronto due to a work slow-down by ground staff. Luggage from Flight 60 was delayed for about one hour and 30 minutes, as the ground staff perpetrated their delaying tactics and kept the passengers fuming on a day that had started almost 20 hours earlier for those who had arrived at the Van­ couver airport to catch their flight. The employees who were supposed to unload the luggage were getting full pay for their time. They were protesting the fact that a recent wage offer was apparently too low, although the counting of the ballots on a ratifica­ tion vote had not yet been completed. It was another example of the type of anarchy used by organized labor to bring pressure on their employers by using the public as pawns in their degrading games. Can be a problem In the middle of one of the hottest, dryest summers on record. St. John Ambulance reminds you that heat can be a menace. It causes a loss of body fluids and salt that can lead to heat ex­ haustion. Elderly and obese people are most susceptible, but it can catch anyone, even children. Normally over exertion will cause it, but on a very hot day. you’ll lose energy just sitting around. On days like that, make the kids sit down and cool off occasionally, and be sure everyone drinks lots of water. Water’s part of the treatment if heat exhaustion does strike. It shows as a shock-like condition, with dizziness, muscle cramps, cold, clammy skin and sometimes nausea and diarrhea. Get the victim into a cool place. If he is conscious, give him cold water to drink. If he’s vomiting or has diarrhea, add a half a teaspoon of salt to a pint of water Or give him a salted broth. If he's unconscious, don’t try to give him anything by mouth. Put him in what’s called the recovery position, ly­ ing down, on his side with the head back so that if he is sick, he will not choke. BATT’N AROUND • « « »* «. with the editor When the heart stops. .. An ugly bead Polio, the dreaded crippier of a past era, has shown its ugly head fn Ox­ ford County and should prompt area residents to consider their own protec­ tion. - The disease has been well con­ trolled through immunization, but booster shots are required to continue that protection. While there appears to be no need for panic in this area, it would be foolhardy for people to assume there is no need for extending their protection through a booster shot. 'A check with your family doctor will provide the necessary advice on whether you require that course of ac­ tion. In tlic woods TLe Ontario Federation of Labour has rejected the notion of voluntary wage restraint in exchange for a com­ mitment by government to a program of economic stimulus. A Toronto newspaper last week proposed that Canada initiate an economic arrangement similar to that reached between government and un­ ions in Britain. But the OFL’s Cliff Pilkey was quick to dismiss any such idea. There's a “vastly different political climate’’ in Canada that precludes such a scheme, he says. Only because workers elected a socialist government that enjoyed labor’s full confidence was the British social contract possible. “The working men and women of this province have no faith in the Trudeau government’s ability to organize a Cabinet, far less an economy,’’ the outspoken OFL presi­ dent chided. “The last federal budget and the Prime Minister’s continued fascination with constitutional rather t-han economic matters make this clear.’’ Pilkey may have a point in his last remark, but we hope he doesn’t com­ pletely rule out discussions about social contract-type solutions to the country’s economic woes until a “socialist'' government is elected. Otherwise, he’ll be sitting in the woods for a long time. Peterborough Review When most people see the initials CPR, they identify them with the Cana­ dian Pacific Railway, but for some lucky people they are better known for Coronary Pulmonary Rescuscitation. That’s quite a mouthful and the lucky people referred to are those whose lives have been saved by the fact that someone knew how to administer CPR. Last week, yours truly acted as a bus driver for the local swim pool staff and members of the bronze medallion class who attended a course on CPR at Oakwood Inn. London fireman ePaul McPherson, head of the (department’s rescue unit and a highly trained and skilled water safety expert, provided those in attendance with a brief in­ troduction to CPR in the hope that some would be prompted to enrol in the short courses provided. While a one-hour film and demonstration do not an expert make, we gained enough knowledge to realize that it is a course which everyone should take. The ability to revive a per­ son suffering from cardiac arrest is Something one may never need, but ob­ viously having that ability will never go amiss. When cardiac arrest takes place, death is not always immediate. The heart is often in a state where it is still quivering, much like a shaking bowl of jelly, and if it can be coaxed back to its normal pumping operation, the life can be saved. However, that assistance must be almost immediate, because in less than five minutes, the brain has suf­ fered damage to the point where a vic­ tim would end up being little more than a vegetable even if that person was brought back to life. ★ ★ ★ As demonstrated by Paul, CPR is a combination of mouth-to-mouth rescuscitation and applying pressure on the sternum (the breastbone) by pressing in with one’s hands. It can be administered by one per­ son, although it is best done by two peo­ ple, one applying the mouth-to-mouth and the other working on the sternum. The basic idea is to jolt the heart back into action or to at least stimulate its action until professional help arrives. The success of CPR is well documented. It is credited with saving lives in 30 percent of the cases where it (is practiced and obviously that is a ' sizeable percentage. It is used for heart attack victims, electrical shock, drownings, or where cardiac arrest has been brought about through drug over­ dose, choking and asphyxia. The case of a Wallaceburg minister and his ailing wife illustrates dramatically the follies inherent in burgeoning bureaucracy. The woman's illness requires that she have a con­ tinual supply of oxygen, at a cost of $500 a month — which her husband simply cannot pay. He has asked for assistance from the ministry of health, but has learned that the only answer is to keep his wife in hospital where the oxygen would be supplied at no cost as part of her insured care. Ward rates at Wallaceburg are not likely to be less than $100 per day. perhaps more, so the alternative to $500 a month for oxygen at home is $3000 a month for hospital bed and ser­ vices. Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? Now that is an extremely simplistic explanation, and no doubt doctors and ministry officials would find reasons to justify what appears to be obvious stupidity. The real reason, of course, is that nobody had the foresight to allow for such a situation when the rule book was being written. The ministry of health has un­ derwritten home nursing care and several other means of reducing ex­ cessive use of expensive hospital beds, but not the supply of oxygen outside*the hospital. Of course this case is only one of thousands which could be found every day of the week where mindless adherence to written regulations creates personal suffering and higher costs for public services. Lack of ade­ quate nursing home accommodation across the province adds to the need for hospital beds when older people have no one at home to care for them. Bureaucracy is a necessary part of any government, but as it expands into every phase of public life one cannot but wish that human intelligence and good judgment have to be discarded along the way. Wingham Advance Times Times Established 1 873 Advocate Established 1881 aimes - Advocate SERVING CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND C.W.N.A., O.W.N.A. CLASS 'A' and ABC Published by J, W. Eedy Publications Limited LORNE EEDY, PUBLISHER Editor — Bill Batten Assistant Editor — Ross Haugh Advertising Manager — Jim Beckett Composition Manager — Harry DeVries Business Manager — Dick Jongkind ____Phone 235-1331 frCNA SUBSC Amalgamated 1924 Published Each Thursday Morning at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386 Paid in Advance Circulation September 30, 1975 5,409 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $11.00 Per Year; USA $22.00 ,/ -■/. i. • .. / z ■: -tw oi * "pa" i % U Think small by Jim Smith Tyranny by any Other Name The CPR training is spreading rapid­ ly through the United States. In Seat­ tle, for instance, one in every five has been trained and it is now known as the best place in the world to go if you have any fears of experiencing cardiac arrest. Personnel from emergency departments in many communities have been trained as well as a large number of laymen. Unfortunately, CPR has not spread across Canada as quickly as officials would like. So people such as Paul are providing the stimulus through classes- similar to the one we attended last week in an effort to get people in­ terested in taking the full course that would enable them to have the con­ fidence and knowledge to perform CPR adequately. The course involves about six hours and people are expected to attend refresher courses each year to keep their abilities current. Courses are now provided at Fanshawe College in London, but where interest is sufficient, instructors can be dispatched to teach groups in any community to alleviate the necessity of them travelling to more distant points. * * * With heart disease being the nation’s number one killer, it is rather obvious that every adult would -benefit from CPR training, enabling them to provide assistance in emergency situations until professional help arrives on the scene. While success is not guaranteed by any sense of the imagination, people who have stood helplessly by while lov- ■ ed ones have died will be among the first to agree that they would have given anything to be able to attempt a life-sustaining procedure which can be learned so easily by those of average physical capabilities. Procrastinators that they are, people too often fail to avail themselves of such training until it is too late and that gnawing guilt is something with which they must live. What is needed, is some group to take the bull by the horns and show the leadership required to arrange for CPR courses in area communities. Lit­ tle expense or time is involved. The members of such groups will, of course, benefit two-fold themselves. They will not only be able todearn the CPR system for their use in assisting someone if the need arises, but on a more selfish theme, may also benefit from being the recipient of that assistance should they require iL That in itself should be enough to spur someone into action I in the beginning, there were the Haves and the Have- Nots. The Haves lived in com­ fort from the proceeds of their investments, including the factories where the Have- Nots sweated for starvation wages. The labourers figured that this was unjust and de­ manded an honest day’s pay for an honest day's work. This eventually led to labour winning the right to form unions and unions gave la­ bour power. Well, power is a dangerous thing. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts ab­ solutely. So, the closer the labour movement came to acquiring absolute power, the farther it strayed from the original aim of achieving equity between workers and employers. An indication of how dan­ gerously off-track unions can get is found in the Cliche Commission Report on crime in Quebec. According to Mr. Justice Cliche, a Quebec Fed­ eration of Labour leader named Yvon Duhamel be­ came enraged that a handful of workers from a rival union were permitted to work at the James Bay Hydro Project. Cliche reports that Duhamel led a riot on March 21,1974, resulting in a S33 millign cost to Quebec taxpayers and de­ laying this important project. Local 791 of.the QFL, accor­ ding to Cliche, subsequently praised the “excellent work” carried out by Duhamel “for the local and all its members.” In Southwestern Ontario this year, the UAW struck against Fleck Manufacturing, a smallish company which re­ fused to conduct a compul­ sory dues check-off for the union. Some workers decid­ ed to continue working. The union.strengthened by mem­ bers imported from a nearby Ford plant, threw up picket lines which on occasion forci­ bly prevented workers from entering the plant. Unfortu­ nately, Fleck shares space in an industrial complex with several other firms and work­ ers for these firms were also caught in the gction. The legal status of vio­ lence originating from union acts is interesting. Except in a handful of provinces, includ­ ing British Columbia, there is no such legal entity as a union. Consequently, unions enjoy privileges such as the right to grind a company to a halt but operate under very few restrictions or obli­ gations. Unlike corporations or individuals - who maybe sued for the same types of acts that unions commit with impunity unions cannot be sued in most provinces. Even for those provinces which do allow unions to be sued for irresponsible actions by their members, there is a cost imposed by those pro­ vinces with more liberal regu­ lations. Every illegal act car­ ries a dollar cost which, ulti­ mately, is passed along to the consumers — who, generally, are found in all parts of the country. There's a role for unions, even if that role is no longer as important as in years gone by. Just as it demands rights, however, organized labour should face social responsi­ bilities specified by law. It isn’t good enough to trade the tyranny of capitalism for the tyranny of organized labour. Think small" is an editorial message from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- noxwn memory lane Sugar and Spice Dispensed by Smiley Sneaky, seductive, sinister summer There’s only one thing wrong with this country — aside from too many politicians, too much winter, too much inflation, too little employment — and that is its summer. A Canadian summer is sneaky, seductive, and even sinister. That may sound like a paradox, when the sky is as blue as John Turner’s eyes, day after day, and the sun is as hot as Rene Levesques’ tongue, day after day. But it’s a fact. Canada’s summer is deteriorating, debilitating and even­ tually destroying our normally sturdy national character. At least it is mine. And as I look about me, I know I’m not alone. During the other seasons, we know where we are — or are not — going. We know where we are at. Through our magnificent autumns, our basic pessimism prevails. We greet with lit­ tle harsh barks of sardonic laughter, and a knowing wagging of heads, every doomsday prophet, from ancient In­ dian sages to the Farmers’ Almanac, who tells us that it’s going to be a long, tough winter. When the first snow flies in November, we are as delighted as a Bible-thumping, soul-saving minister dumped into a community of arant sinners. We start building up our personal library of short stories and novels, en­ titled such as: “Snow" and “To Build a Fire” and “Lost in the Barrens’’ and “Christmas Eve at Eighty Relow’’, each designed to make us chuckle as we sit there with the oil furnace waf­ ting up the tropic temperatures from below. For the next four or five months, we spin our wheels on the ice and snuffle through the snow, happy as pigs in poop, complimenting each other on the facts that “There’s a turrible lotta “flu around" and that “She’s a long ways from over yet’’, even though it’s the end of February and it hasn’t snowed for three weeks. From the first of March to the mid­ dle of May, regardless of the mist of green sprouting everywhere, the ice gone out of the bay, and the ther­ mometer rising to the gasping point, the boys in the coffee shop and the girls ’ at the hair-dresser’s keep reminding each other merrily of the year we had eighteen inches on April 12th, and the time we had a killing frost on the 24th of May. Suddenly it’s June. Lilac scent. Strawberries. Flowers popping. Mos­ quitoes humming. Temperatures soar­ ing. But we don’t give up. We still know the score. “We’ll likely have a cold wet summer’’, or “The dam’ grass is growin’ too fast. Hadda cut her twice this week’’, or “Too many squirrels. That means a long, hard winter.’’ And then, without our even realizing it, we’ve slid into the miracle of July and August, and our dour national natures are completely fragmented, alienated. We don’t know who We are, where we are going, or where we are at. We go to pieces. We forget all about our ten-month love affair with Survival and begin ac­ ting as human and normal as those despised Mediterraneans we want to keep out of the country. Elderly gentlemen with legs like grasshoppers and guts like a member of the Hell’s Angels, go sauntering along the beach in shorts and shades, shameless. Grandmothers, who the rest of the year preach probity, purity and good posture, slither into bikinis, grease themselves all over, and lie around like starlets at the Riviera, soaking up the sun and any glances that come their way. Young executives, normally suited, wander about aban- and tied.shirted backyard barbecues, corsets doned, bare bellies hanging over slovenly shorts, downing gin and tonic as though it were the medicine to end all ailments. Male teenagers suddenly emerge with more macho than a Mexican, chests bared, shorts cut right back to the pubic hair line, swaggering, bare­ footed, constantly brushing or combing their other well-shaped hair, saying in effect, “Here I am, girls. Ain’t I gorgeous? Better grab before someone else does.’’ Young ladies who would not be caught dead in anything but jeans the other ten months of the year, stroll down main street in outfits that would have been considered scandalous a cou­ ple of decades ago in a hootchikootchi show. (If you don’t know what that is, ask your dad.) And tiny children are probably the worst, because they don’t know or care anything about that Other Ten Months. They go ape, pointing at birds, plucking leaves, chasing squirrels, splashing, running in the sun, and tearing off their clothes the moment no one is looking, I guess we’re a bit like the Swedes. They’re the most sensual, sun-loving, sexy people in the world when they get south of the Straits of Saggerack. The rest of the year, they’re too busy com­ mitting suicide, We’re not much for the latter, we Canadians, At least, not physically. We do it mentally and emotionally. But just the other day, I noticed the acorns falling in great quantities. We all know what that means. All together, now, and let’s have some har­ mony. “It’s going to be a LONG, TOUGH WINTER.’’ 55 Years Ago A rink of bowlers from town won the first prize at the Blyth bowling tour­ nament on Wednesday of last week. The prizes were silver cake dishes. The rink was composed of E.J. Wethey, .George Snell, Dr. Roulston and C.B. Snell, skip. Miss. Alice Handford and Miss May Jones have returned home after a delightful trip up the lakes on the SS Noronic. They went as far as Duluth. Messrs. J.G. Stanbury, R.M. Creech, Charles Pilon, Kenneth Stanbury and Tom Pryde motored to the Bigwin Hotel, Muskoka, where the latter two joined the Boy Scout camp there and will act as caddies on the golf course. Mr. S.A. Kahler, of Stratford, has purchased Bett’s Bakery business and has already taken possessibn. The bursting of the new Dunlop Extra Heavy tube by Mr. W.J. Beer infront of his store Saturday evening attracted a large crowd. The bursting of the tube was the result of a guessing contest on how many strokes of a hew pump it would take to burst it. The tube was placed on a truck and H. Bagshaw and A. Easton took turns in pumping, it took 761 strokes and was blown to con­ siderable size before it burst. The winner was Theodore Wai per. 30 Years Ago Messrs. Ross Tuckey and Eldrid Simmons were successful in passing their final exams from the Ontario School of Embalming at Toronto. They are!' now licensed embalmers and funeral directors. Almost 600 attended the reunion of former pupils and teachers at Winchelsea school. Messrs. William Sweitzer, Sam Sweitzer and Tuckey Transport left for Toronto for the runways and equipment for the new bowling alley being built by William Sweitzer. Three Exeterites motored to the West, sold the car and returned individually bv train. They wore Glen McTavish, Eldrid Simmons and Donald Traquair. Around ,2,000 people at­ tended the Legion Frolic at the Exeter arena Friday night and $1,800 was realized for the building fund. 20 Years Ago A new body and paint shop was opened this week by Har Brintnell; Exeter, who has 12 years experience in the business. The new building is located just off Waterloo Street at the south end of town. Billy Gossman, Dashwood, has just returned from a month and a half trip’ to the west coast which cost him less than $25. His scissor sharpener helped him meet expenses. The Exeter Bowling Lanes will be operated under new proprietors, Mayor R.E. Pooley and “Red” Scott of Exeter. The building was recently purchased-from Len McKnight. At St. James Church, Clandeboye, the cemetery chapel is nearing com­ pletion. 15 Years Ago A crystal-controlled transmitter-receiver radio system was installed in the town police cruisers. The radio, operated through Harvey’s telephone an­ swering service has a range of 10 to 15 miles depending on weather conditions. Gail Farqu har, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Aubrey Farquhar, Exeter, has won the UWO board of governors admission scholarship for South Huron District Iligli School. She was second highest in this year’s graduating class. The livery stable behind the Commercial Hotel in Hensail was torn down to make room for parking. The livery, which boasted in­ dividual box stalls was torn down in preparation for anticipated licenced operation of (he hotel. Exeter’s oldest resident, Mrs. John Fletcher celebrated her 98th birthday. Although she’s given up her knitting recently, she enjoys reading and visits from’her friends.