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The Wingham Advance-Times, 1964-01-23, Page 9EclitiJhui• • Budding Speakers To Be Heard Next Saturday afternoon, January 25, you will have an oportunity to hear students from many district schools give their addresses in the Wingham Legion's second annual public speaking contest. It is hoped that there will be a full auditor- ium for the event as an indication of encouragement for the speakers. A fine array of prizes and trophies awaits the winners in the top three places in each of four divisions, junior elemen- tary, senior elementary, junior high school and senior high school. First place winners will receive World Book Year Books in three of the divisions and the top prize in the fourth section is a World Book Encyclopedia Dictionary. Second and third place winners will receive wallets and pen and pencil sets. In addition there is a handsome trophy for each division which will be held in the winner's school for a year. This is a commendable enterprise on the part of the Legon. The great value in preparing for such contests, of course, lies in the background material which the speakers must study as they prepare their talks. Since many hundreds of pupils have given speeches in the preliminary trials in their own school, the aggregate of learning is great. Public speaking develops much more than an ability to express one's thoughts from the platform. The student who has delivered addresses before larger aud- iences has gained a measure of self- confidence which can be achieved in no other way. The contest opens at 1:30 on Satur- day, thus affording country folk a better chance to attend than would be the case in the evening. It is hoped that there will be a good representation from each school with speakers entered. The young speak- ers cannot do their best before a sparse audience. A Very Nasty Word In all the current discussions and com- ments about impending pension schemes and health care plans one word keeps re- ✓ curring—"compulsory." Many speakers and writers express the view that in order to succeed these social welfare plans must be compulsory—that is that the law must enforce the participation of all citizens. If such is actually the case, there is room to wonder whether we can afford to forge any more chains than we now have draped about us. The very reason North America was settled by Europeans in the first place was because the set- tlers were free men and women who loathed the compulsory aspects of their lives under despotic monarchies in the • older lands. They suffered untold hard- ships and privations to make homes for themselves and their children in a coun- try where no one had the right to order them around. In the short space of one century their offspring have lost all know- ledge of the worthiness and value of that free spirit. Now we sell ourselves right back into bondage. There is an interesting case in point in the United States at the present time. A Mennonite farmer in Pennsylvania has quietly defied the power of the federal government. He has refused to pay that portion of his taxes which is required for the highly -touted social security plan. Like all his brethren, he does not believe in a government welfare plan. From the re- ligious standpoint it is abhorrent to him. Therefore he will not accept social security payments if they are offered to him and he rightly feels that he should not be compelled to contribute to the scheme. The last time we read about this case the federal authorities had seized his fine team of horses and were making prepa- rations to take him to court. This same thing will occur in Canada if we persist in passing laws which en- force more compulsion. Not too many years ago the provincial government re- fused to enact a law which would make it compulsory for a car owner to carry public liability insurance. The reason given was that the laws of the land should not compel a man to act against his own judgment, even though he might prove a costly menace to his fellows. Today, how- ever, the mood has changed. There is no denying that all pensions schemes will function much more satis- factorily with 100 percent participation —but this is still Canada—or is it? Should Widen Scope Ontario, it seems certain, will have a law instituting health care. A commission of inquiry, headed by Dr. Hagey, of Lon- don, has been holding hearings in various parts of the province. it looks as if the medical doctors, under a draft bill, will have things more their way than should be the fact. There is still time for change in the legislation even if, according to the • rumor from Queen's Park, Premier Ro- barts wants the plan to become law in the 1964 session. Normally a session of the Legislature ends before Easter, which this year means by the end of March. The Hagey Committee is reported to have been drafting the revisions in Bill 163, which died with the previous pro- vincial parliament. But if there is final drafting, it is curious that the committee is still hearing representations in formal sessions. One of the difficulties of a health ser- vice as envisioned in Ontario is that a number of professions other than the medical profession are excluded from the provisions of the proposed law. For instance, a parent paying an orth- odontist for a number of years for straightening a child's teeth would not recover the cost of this service, although • teeth -straightening is an important phys- ical improvement and indeed teeth that are not properly taken care of can be a health hazard. Dentistry and optometry are two of the professions which hardly can be ex- cluded from the area of insurance. But i there are others, some of whom have scientific qualifications of a high order. Osteopaths and chiropractors are highly regarded by a large'number of patients and their professional qualifications seem to be authentic, even if they are often frowned upon by the medical man. A podiatrist, who used to be called a chiropodist, has often special qualifica- tion for dealing with the feet and yet he is not given even a nod under the act as proposed. People who have used and have some regard for these other professions may note, with a degree of cynicism, that the minister of health in Ontario is a medical doctor and, or course, his deputy and other officials of his department also are medical men. That is as it should be, but it should not exclude from consideration of the act other qualified professions that are performing a health service to the public. For the sake of the public, there should be no curtailment of any profes- sions for the benefit of another. There are relatively few ophthalmolo- gists or oculists in Ontario and these are concentrated mainly in hospital centres, such as Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa. There are nearly 600 optometrists in Ontario perfectly competent to take care of the ordinary eye troubles of the people who consult them. And, as a professional man, the optometrist is obligated to refer to a medical man, an ophthalmologist or oc- ulist, any disease of the eye that requires pathological treatment. It may be that many people in On- tario have to spend more on dentistry than they spend in employing a doctor of medicine. And certainly there are hundreds of thousands of people who wear glasses who never needed the more concentrated attention of the ophthal- mologist.—The Bolton Enterprise. THE WINGHAM ADVANCE - TIMES Published at Wingham, Ontario, by Wenger Bros. Limited W. Barry Wenger, President - Robert O. Wenger, Secretary -Treasurer Member Audit Bureau of Circulation; Member Canadian Weekly Newspapers Associ- ation; Member Canadian Community Newspapers Representatives Authorized by the Post Office Department as Second Class Mail and • for payment of postage in cash Subscription Rate: One Year, $4.00; Six Months, $2.25, in advance U.S.A., $5.00 per year; Foreign rate, $5.00 per year Advertising Rates on application REMINISCING JANUARY 1914 M the last meeting of Camp Caledonia, Sons of Scotland, the following officers were elected: Chief, J. W. Mc- Kibbon; Chieftian, Fred Hardie; Rec. Fin. Secy., H. B. Elliott; Treas., Win. Holmes; Chap- lain, Alex. Campbell; Mar- shal, Jas. Fowler; S, B., Robt. Currie; S.G., W. J. Hender- son; J.G. , Arch. Campbell; auditors, W. A. Campbell and J. W. McKibbon, There passed away at the home of his brother-in-law, Mr. George Hartley, 17 Athol Ave., Winnipeg, on Monday, Dec. 29th, Mr. William EdwardDaw- son, son of Mrs. Alex. Dawson formerly of Wingham, in his 34th year. Mr. A. McDougall, of Chi- cago, soliciting freight agent for the New York Central Lines, visited at his old home in Turn - berry last week. His mother, Mrs. McDougall, accompanied her son to Chicago on Saturday and will spendthe winter there. On Wednesday, Dec., 31st, the home of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Montgomery, Fordwich was the scene of a pretty wedding, when their eldest daughter, Ida Oc- tave, became the bride of Mr. W. J. Roberts, also of this vill- age. 0--0--0 JANUARY 1928 Bluevale is again to have a creamery, Gordon Mackay hav- ing started operations to have a building put in shape to receive machinery. Gordon is a White- church boy and is a graduate of the 0. A, C. and has had three years experience in creamery work. W. E. Elliott, a Goderich boy, who has been on the Lon- don Free Press staff for 18 years, has joined the Mail and Empire, Toronto. Last week Mr. D. E. Mc- Donald received confirmation of a report that he had been ap- pointed issuer of motor licenses for Wingham and vicinity, as successor to Mr. A. G. Smith. Herb McKay threw a real surprise into the business cir- cles of the town on Tuesday, when it became known he had disposed of his confectionery and ice cream business to 0. Habkirk. Mr. McKay's future intentions are not known. Mr. Habkirk will place the business under rhe management of Foster Bennett, who is now in charge. The deed will make no change in Mr. Habkirk's other business affairs. 0--0--0 JANUARY 1939 The stove pipes at Mrs. E. J. Haines' apartment, over the former office of the Advance - Times, took fire on Wednesday afternoon of last week. The firemen were quickly on the job and no damage resulted from the blaze. It has often been pointed out that Huron boys or sons of Hur- on boys quite often make their mark in the town or city to which they go. At Niagara Falls, Ont., this is the case as three such are on the Board of Education. Wendell M. Mus- grove, K.C., is the son of Dr. Geo. G. Musgrove, a Turn - berry boy. Dr. Eldridge T. Kellam is a Seaforth boy. His father, Rev. Henry Kellam was stationed at Wingham and died while here. Rev. William Fing- land is from Londesboro. Last week the pupils of the local Public School adopted, so to speak, two schools in the dried -out area of the Canadian West. The pupils donatedcloth- ing, books, etc. which were shipped to these schools whose pupils are destitute or nearly so. That the efforts of the pupils and of Mr, Kidd and his staff were appreciated is voiced in letters received recently by Mr. Kidd . 0--o--o JANUARY 1949 Wroxeter business section suffered the most destructive fire in its history on Tuesday evening of last week when an egg grading station owned and operated by Dobson Brothers, a residence owned by Mrs. B. Martin of Hamilton and in %lot llotIN Week in Canada DON'T SEND — TAKE YOUR BOY TO THE RINK A p.�v.* oc11,� - (,- •1:-.40‘0 0 ingijain thti -moat Wingham, Ontario, Thursday, Jan. 23, 1964 SECOND SECTION SUGAR & SPICE On The Smoke Wagon By BILL SMILEY Well, I guess I'm going to have to quit. That last report on cigarette smok- ing, the big brutal one from the U.S., has finally broken my nerve. Bill Smiley T h e re- port says d e f i nitely that the d e a th rate among smokers, as compared to no n - smok- ers, is ten times as high fro m lung cancer, 60 per cent higher from coronary disease, and six times higher from pulmon- ary emphysema. I had no objection to passing away from a per- fectly normal, respectable disease of the 20th century, like lung cancer or a coron- ary, but that pulmonary emphysema has me scared. It sounds nasty. 1 started smoking when I was about nine, in the old sandpit in my home town, A group of us urchins used to gather there and puff a dry weed known as "mon- key tobacco," rolled in toi- let paper. By the time we were twelve we were well into "makings": tobacco and papers pinched from some- body's old man. My dad didn't smoke, so I was always bumming, and soon became persona non grata, as we used to say in the gang. which Mr. and Mrs. John Col- wil were tenants were complete- ly destroyed, while the pool room operated by Mr. Mel Beattie, the double store and living apartment above the store owned by Mrs. W. E. Van- velsor and Miss Rona Vanvelsor, were damaged by fire and wat- er. Great praise is due Mrs. 11. 1. Durst, the telephone opera- tor, who remained on duty call- ing help and answering calls through it all and with the as- sistant operator, Mrs. Reg New- ton, carried on far into the night. Five fire brigades res- ponded to the call for help, Then I made a glorious discovery. My father had a shoe store. In those days, the shoe manufacturers put long rounded strips of a bamboo -like dried reed in ladies' shoes, to help them keep their shape. This stuff, when ignited, burned steadily, could be drawn through, and produced vol- umes of a blue, searing smoke that peeled the skin off your tongue like acid. I was a social success un- til my old man discovered that all the toes in his la- dies' shoes were beginning to point to heaven. In high school I worried about my wind, for track and rugby, and smoked only a pipe. At college, I didn't smoke at all. Couldn't afford it. In the Air Force, I had the odd cigarette, but had no prob- lem with smoking. In prison camp, I took the monkey on my back, and he's been using the spurs and lash ever since. Why? Food was scarce, but cigarettes, thanks to the Red Cross and relatives at home, were fairly plentiful. My fellow -inmates told me smoking cut the appetite. I tried it. It did. Since them I have been a happy deck -a -day man. The smoking scares have come and gone, and I went right on blowing rings. But no more. Not with that pul- monary emphysema around. In a way, I'm glad it's all over. No more hacking and horking in the morning. No more of that wild belly - wrenching lust for a drag on the job, at the movies, in church. No more of that frantic scrabbling through all the suit, jacket, pants, pyjama s, and overcoat pockets, looking for a butt, on a Sunday morning. And they tell me you can be quite comfortable in one of these straight -jackets, after you get used to it! Holy Smokes: I've gone through half a pack while writing this column. Say, what is pulmonary emphy- sema, anyway? BOX 390 January 17, 1964 Dear Mr. Editor: I see by the papers that On- tario is likely to have a health services program. But the plan suggested doesn't seem to be as comprehensive as it should be. Under Bill 163 it looks as if the only health services insured would be the bills of medical doctors. Even the dentists are excluded according to news re- ports of the committee studying the proposed plan. I noticed that ophthalmologists are in- cluded because they are medi- cal doctors but optometrists, who take a four-year course at the optometric college, are left out, and yet an optometrist is qualified to do many of the things that an ophthalmologist can do. The papers reported that there are four or five times as many optometrists practising in Ontario as there are ophthal- mologists or oculists. People who do not live close to the larger cities can't go to an ocu- list, but in most towns of only a few thousand people there are optometrists practising their profession. I think you will agree, Mr. Editor, that insured health ser- vices should be as broad as pos- sible and not set up for the benefit of any one profession. The benefit should be to the public. Yours truly, A. J. Ockwell. A Mighty Meat Pie How about this for supper? One meat pie — weighing 6 tons, measuring 18' long by 6' wide by 18" deep, containing the meat from 5 steers, and large enough to feed 2o, 000 people. Preparations for this monstrous concoction are being made in the little Yorkshire village of Denby Dale in Eng- land. Organizers haven't yet figur- ed out what tile pie will cele- brate. They just thought it was a good idea to have onc, ac- cording to a report in the Winni- peg Free Press Weekly. All the flour, lard, spices, and gravy browning for the pie have been offered free of charge. Local villagers hope it will he ttie biggest meat pie of all time. It should be.