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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1981-07-29, Page 2EST,ft*.\. Post BRUSSELS P ost Established 1872 519-887-6641 Serving Brussels and the surrounding community Published at BRUSSELS, ONTARIO every Wednesday morning by McLean Bros. Publishers Limited Box 50, Brussels, Ontarfo NOG 1H0 eiA Andrew Y, McLean, Publisher Evelyn Kennedy, Editor Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association, Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association and The Audit Bureau of Circulation. WEDNESDAY. JULY 29, 1981 Authorized as second class mail by Canada Post Office. Registration Number 0562. Congratulations Morris! Happy Birthday Morris Township! It's been going strong for 125years now and it's time for the big celebrations. Lots of former Morris residents current res idents and visitors will be here to celebrate the occasion. With barbecues, a parade, dances and various contests, it seems as through the township has left nothing undone. It will be a look into that 125 years. It will be a time for renewing old acquaintances, but it will especially be a time for fun. The birthday party should provide a ,weekend of enjoyable entertainment. Behind the scenes by Keith Roulston Salute to pioneers Morris Township. Past to Present by Jeanne Kirkby. Publishers - Morris Town- ship Council. Copyright 1981 WHEN THE WORLD CHANGED "But they are all gone now, those old-fashioned Irish gentlemen whom we remember as a little lad to have seen pouring our gen- erous libations to the gods of laughter and good fortune on those distant New Year's Days.. Light lie the turf above them, and may their graves be green with mint! This is a much more sensible and decorous age, but it is also much duller. People eat and drink and kill one another with a sort of coldly scientific precision. Personally, we liked the old times best... There are no more New Year's calls, no more punch bowls...Instead people sit sedately in the bosoms of their families, and drink tea, and discuss the news from the Italian front. .....As General Sherman said, war is certainly hell, well, so is prohibition." A New Year's Day reflection by the editor THE HURON EXPOSITOR, 1918 THE GREAT WAR There were other people in Morris Township with mein- Ories of battlefields besides James Russell and R. Gri- tnOldby, the griizled old Veterans of the Fenian Raids in 1866. Indeed The Boer War of 1899-1900 had drawn a Canadian contingent to fight for Britain in faraway Africa. John Barnhill, of Morris Township was de- corated by the King for standing under fire when all else fled. In March, 1900, the relief of Ladysmith was joy- ously celebrated with the local party held in Wingham while the Bluevale youths held their own celebration. Before the night was through, Bluevale saw three guns fired, a bonfire in the streets, a tin pan parade and many hi-jinks. But the war seemed far away then and did not affect the residents of Morris much as they were busy with the building of their economy. Just before the First World War was announced, there was very little notice paid to the world situation. People were busy with concerts and social evenings. Farms were demanding as they grew larger and more productive. Most of the focus in a political sense was on the temperance struggle, and the federal reaction to the different lobby groups. AUGUST 7TH' 1914 THE HURON EXPOSITOR "War has been declared between Great Britain and Germany. This is the ail nouncement Which astonish, ed the world on Wednesday last. About 9 o'clock Tuesday night, the Governor General at Ottawa received a dispatch from the British Colonial Secretary of State, officially informing him that war had been declared against Ger- many by Great Britain. A meeting of the cabinet was at once called, and it was decided to call a meeting of Parliament for Aug. 18 to consider the course of action to be taken by Canada, and to vote the necessary sup- plies for the military forces to be called out." There was no hesitation on the part of the country to spring to the defence of Britain. Most Canadians of that time either considered their nationality to be Scot- tish, Irish or English, never Canadian. They were still singing "Rule Britannia" in their schools and there was no question of their patriot- ism. By September 17th, the Belgrave Women's Institute formed themselves into a Patriotic League and began to canvass for donations and golids. In response to the Provincial Government's ap- peal, this group sponsored the earliest Patriotic Concert in the Forester's Hall. By the end of that month, 85 ladies met regularly during the day in the Hall over the hum Of 12 Please turn to page 3 Summer is traditionally the time when we "get away from it all" in Canada by going on vacation by either retreating to a• peaceful haven somewhere in the backwoods or seeing some other part of the world. This summer you don't even have to go away to get away from it all because what with various strikes, "it all" is being taken away from us. You don't have to worry about getting bad news by mail these days thanks to the postal strike and you won't get it on C.B.C. thanks to the technicians strike. But, of course, if the strike business gets on your nerves and you want to escape by going to a ball game you'll be out of luck because the ball players are on strike too. For a huge chunk of the Canadian population, "getting away from it all" in the last few years seems to mean getting away from the job and out on the picket line. Canada has developed one of the worst strike records in the world. We are paying the price once again for an adversary system that dominates this coun- try in everything from politics to labour relations. We have a system that pits one side against another in a tug o' war to see who will prevail instead of pulling together to make the country better. The adversary system in labour relations grew naturally enough. It became such a bitter battle because a good many business- men were quite happy to make employees suffer any danger, for as many long hours for as little money as possible so that owners could make a lot of money. Faced with a complete lack of morality from the bosses (many of whom hid behind a veil of Christian self-righteousness all the time) the workers had to use what power they could to try to even the balance of power. Every increase in pay, every improvement in making the workplace safer, every concession to the dignity of the workers had to be fought for by the workers, often to the point of violence and bloodshed, too often at the cost of lives. When you hear those union songs sung, at rallies, there is a lot of history and feeling behind them. Unionists have been caught up in the rhetoric of those early struggles, however, to the point of the ridiculous. Today any fight with management, no matter how trivial, is spoken of in the same terms as those early fights for the fundamental human necessi- ties in the work place. We hear the idiocy in one of the leaders of the baseball strike talking about the baseball players in term 's of the "workers" struggle. Some workers. Many make more than the president of General Motors. A majority more than the president of the United States. Nearly all more than the prime minister of Canada, for six month's work. Would that we all were downtrodden workers like those. We have gotten to the point that in the misuse of power, the immorality is often as much on the side of the union as on management. We have even seen cases where the manage- ment has warned that increased demands would mean bankruptcy, but the union, conditioned never to believe management, strikes anyway, wins the pay increase but loses the jobs of everyone because within months the company goes under. How much longer can we go stupidly along the course we are on? Any kid watching Sesame Street can tell you there has to be a better way. They teach childen that people working together can do a lot better than people working for themselves. The kids then grow up, go to work for management on one side and the union on the other and forget the lesson. Some countries have made large steps toward industrial democracy and are reaping the dividends. Instead of turning workers against management they co-operate for the good of all. Managment, instead of thinking that only the men in the business suits can run the company, have been involving the workers in decision making. The men doing the actual work often have a better way of getting the job done than the textbook planners. The workers feel that it's their company too. On the other hand, with worker representatives on boards and invol- ving them in decision-making know the true financial workings of the company, and don't build in their own minds false mountains of profits. They then aren't so apt to ask for unreasonable pay increases and if their input increases the efficiency of the company, they deserve more reward which they often get through profit-sharing. It's not a perfect answer of course. People are still people and they'll find a way to foul things up even in the best of systems. But over the years, at work in various employee and mangement positions, I for one have always found things work best when as much trust and honesty are built into the system as possible. Involve the people in decision making who will Most be affected by the decision. Then, at least if something goes wrong, they'll feel they had their say. Keep them informed as much as possible about the true financial picture and they'll feel they're not just being used. It sure beats fighting all the time. Past to present Morris Township celebrates