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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1989-10-04, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1989. PAGE 5. Swllt | r Environmentally clean Larry Bolger, Area Distributor of Rainbow Air Purifiers shows the separator that makes the Rainbow system unique from other cleaners that use bags and filters. According to Mr. Bolger, two quarts of water will clean everything in your home without any dust or other particles re-entering the air. Mr. Bolger will be holding an Open House Thursday at his new location on Hamilton St. in Blyth. Growing Blyth business gets new headquarters office The 50 years makes a difference BY RAYMOND CANON It is fifty years ago this fall that the Second World War broke out. As a very young boy 1 recall sitting on a beach when the news came that the Germans had invaded Poland. It was difficult to grow up anywhere without being fully aware of the conflict which eventu­ ally developed into a global war much more than the one in 1914-18 ever had. Before the guns fell silent in 1945 some 50 million people, many of them innocent victims, had been killed and countless millions more wounded either in spirit or in body. There is no point going over the details of the war; they have been recited ad nauseum. I was subject­ ed to the usual propaganda during the 5 plus years in which the fighting took place but what it was like for a defeated nation came home to me vividly when I went to study in Germany in the aftermath of the war. The country was divided into zones of occupation; shortages were the order of the day and damaged and destroyed buildings were everywhere iu evidence. The school I attended was located in part of what had been the Siegfried line, a scries of fortifications along the French border and I frequently passed by destroyed bunkers. While I never went hungry, I recall that we only had enough hot water to take a shower twice a week; there was only enough coal to heat our room for about half an hour twice a week. In spite of this life went on and the Germans, who to lead to Ger- myself could never been accused of lazi­ ness, went about the work of rebuilding their country under the guidance of Konrad Adenauer, the former may or of Cologne, who had come out of retirement Western Germany. Today when I fly back many, I have to pinch sometimes to remember that this is the same defeated country in which I lived for a while. The Germans displayed a confidence, some would call it arrogance, that was almost totally missing during my first stay there. The rebirth and growth of the country’s economy has been frequently dubbed an economic miracle and rightly so for few nations could show such rapid and sustainable growth as has Western Germany in the post-war period. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons for this. First of all, when the industries of your country are almost totally destroyed, there is no question of making do with the old as was so much the case in Gt. Britain. You have to start right at the ground level and rebuild. Thus the Ger­ mans managed to install new factories, new production methods, new everything and not surprising­ ly over the long term this turned out to be the best thing that could have happened. In addition, unlike the aftermath of World War I, when a defeated Germany was left to pick up its own pieces, the Americans, through the Marshall Plan, poured billions of dollars into Western Europe, in­ cluding Germany and thus econo­ mic activity increased much more quickly and earlier than would normally have been the case. This A Blyth business officially gets a new home this week with the opening of the distribution office for Rainbow Air Purifiers. Larry Bolger took over the form­ er Bowes Electronics building and after carrying out renovations, will hold an open house on Thursday. Mr. Bolger is a distributor of Rainbow Air Purifiers, having star­ ted with the company a year and a half ago and working his way up to his own office. Rainbow is based on the premise of using water as a filter and is the only cleaning system to use this concept. Mr. Bolger explains that with no bags or filters, the dust, Short term gain hurts communities Continued from page 4 in their own store back home. If you point out they couldn’t possibly save enough to pay for the high cost of gas to get there, they’ll tell you that it wasn’t just the money, it was the “fun” of the shopping trip that counted. The problem is that every time people take shopping dollars out of their community, they are export­ ing a little bit of the future of that community. The smaller the com­ munity, the more it hurts every time one of those dollars goes down the road. With the declining population in the farming townships around, it becomes harder and harder to have the kind of shopping variety we’d all like to see on our main streets. To make the kind of living from running a business that most truck created a demand for German products that allowed them to put their new machinery to good use. Hitler may not have been every­ body’s favourite leader but the dislike of what he stood for did not stand in the way of Germans being accepted back into the mainstream of western political, economic and military activity. The country join­ ed NATO, exported much of its production and was in on the ground floor of what is today known as the European Economic Com­ munity. Finally, one cannot overlook the German inclination for hard work. Even Eastern Germany, which has had to suffer under a stultifying Marxist system, has become the leading economic power of eastern Europe to the point where one wonders just what the combined activities of the two Germanies would create today. The Germans did not sit around bewailing their fate; they got to work to pick up the pieces. They also did one of the best jobs on record of developing good union-management relations so that labour unrest has not been nearly the disturbing factor there that it has been in, say, Canada. All this is not to say that the country is without its problems; no nation is. However, it goes without saying that Western Germany along with Japan, the two defeated nations in the 1939-45 conflict, are the leaders in the world today when it comes to economic growth and stability. Next time 1 will take a look at Japan which in 1945 was even more of a basket case than was Western Germany and which has made an even more remarkable recovery. pollen and animal hair does not work its way back into the house­ hold as it would with an ordinary vacuum. “To us vacuum cleaner is a dirty word. They’re not cleaners, they’re polluters,” he says. “We prefer to use the words home purification system when speaking of Rainbow, because while we are certainly still a vacuum, we not only clean your home but clean the environment as well.” The company has been in busi­ ness for over 50 years, having sold the first Rainbow that used water as a filter in 1936. Mr. Bolger stated that everyone has the chance to advance themselves in the company and work at their own drivers, let alone most teachers or other professionals would consider adequate, a merchant has to sell a heck of a lot of goods. The less he sells, the more he must try to get out of each item he sells or face the inevitable and close the door forever. Getting that kind of vol­ ume to be able to offer low prices is hard in a small centre. The more people who go out of town, the smaller the volume, the higher the prices, the more people who go out of town seeking bargains and so on until the snowball crashes at the bottom of the economic hill and the business closes, leaving one more empty building on main street. When we shop out of town or we buy through the catalogue (and how many millions do we send to Sears each year from our communi­ ties) we are pumping the lifeblood of our towns into the bigger centres. Most of us, however, are more concerned with the short term savings rather than the long term effects. Ironically, local business people are not immune from the same “greener pastures” syndrome. While some local businesses aren’t aggressive at all and just sort of float along until the day declining business forces them to close, some business people are very aggres- Letter to the editor Historic book republished THE EDITOR, The name Gavin Green will rekindle memories for many of your readers about the late, local histor­ ian who wrote two, now out of print, volumes “The Old Log House” and “The Old Log School”. These two books, as important parts of Huron County history and nostalgia, are actively sought out by history buffs and others looking for a candid review of local history. An effort is underway to re-print these books. The Huron County Historical Society has agreed to provide a grant in the amount of $5,000 to support a re-publication venture to be undertaken by Natur­ al Heritage/History Inc. under the guidance of Barry Penhale, the well-known heritage publisher. The purpose of this letter is to encourage your readers to consider supporting this venture. Additional funds are required to supplement the grant made available by the Historical Society. I have under­ taken, as a personal task, to solicit an additional $5,000 to make this venture possible. History buffs or organizations wishing to make a contribution can do so, in trust, to the Huron County Historical Socie­ ty, Clinton, specifically for this purpose. I would be pleased to provide additional information for anyone who wishes to contact me at my home in Seaforth (527-1860). Paul Carroll Seaforth, Ont. Goderich forms dist. Chamber of Commerce The formation of a Goderich and District Chamber of Commerce will be discussed at a Wednesday, October 18 meeting - 7:30 p.m., downstairs in the Assessment Of­ fice in Goderich. Enter from the Family & Children’s Services Park­ ing Lot on Gloucester Terrace. In addition to Goderich, busi­ nesses in Bayfield, Benmiller, Blyth and the rural community in this area will have the opportunity to join the District Chamber. As a combined body, a more progressive and unified approach can be ap­ plied in various areas including business related issues and area promotion. The guest speaker for the even­ ing is Mr. James G. Carnegie, executive director of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce. His pre­ sentation will focus on the benefits of a Chamber. For more information contact John Alexander at 524-2177 or Judy Crawford at 524-7335. speed. “You can be part-time or full-time, it is entirely up to the individual as to how hard they want to work,” he said. Mr. Bolger, himself has won several awards, including an inter­ national sales award. He has a staff of eight people working for him at this time, but states they are always looking for more. He ex­ plains that Rainbow offers a variety of incentives, such as trips, for their staff. He hopes that Thursday’s Open House will answer questions for the public about the system and help people understand Rainbow and the clean air concept behind it. sive. They want to bring money into their business from other communities around, to reverse the flow of dollars. It’s a trend to be welcomed except that some of these business people are so busy looking at the dollars to be gained in far off towns, they ignore the local cus­ tomers feeling they’ll come to them by some sort of divine right. We have some local businesses, for instance, that spend a lot of money advertising on radio and television or out-of-town newspapers while claiming they don’t have money left to advertise in their own community newspaper (in some cases in which they are a share­ holder). It’s like we have a death wish in our small communities. We all talk about how important it is to keep our communities strong but we usually ease the blame onto the shoulders of our town councillors for not attracting new industry. When it comes to a simple self-help process like keeping as many of our dollars at home where they can recirculate and maybe find their way back into our own pockets, we don’t want to make the small sacrifices it takes. If we can’t even do these little things ourselves, what hope do our communities have?