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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1966-07-21, Page 9Next week has been designated as Farm Safety Week — and surely there is no occupation in which attention to safety practices should be more fruitful, The number of serious injuries incurred yearly by persons who are hurt in farm accidents is staggering. Of course this does not mean that farm people are necessarily more careless than the average citizen. It simply indi- cates that a farmer engages in a great many types of work which are hazardous, and since he does not work in an, organ- ized industry under full-time safety super- visors, he has to take more chances than his city brother, The only way in which the toll in death and injury can be reduced is through increased education and aware- ness on the part of farm workers them- selves. Admittedly, the financial impli- cations of serious injury are not quite as grave since the introduction of work- men's compensation for farmers, but the physicial pain is just as real as it ever was. Coupled with the National Safety League's drive for attention to farm acci- dent hazards the Canadian Highway Safe- ty Council will concurrently promote a campaign for safety on rural roads, par- ticularly where the use of tractors is concerned. It seems ironic that at the very time of year when tractor safety is being em- phasized hundreds of farmers are plan- ning to take part in another tractor "demonstration" on the highways of the Defence Minister Paul Hellyer has fi- nally run into some stiff opposition to his program of integrating the armed forces. Three senior officers of the Royal Cana- dian Navy have bucked the changes so hard that they either have been or soon will be fired. They contend that a single, integrated service will be no more effi- cient than three separate ones. Mr. Hellyer hits the nail squarely on the head when he says, "it's simply a question of who is boss." In fact, that question must be the basic one in a democratic system which employs military force in any way. In this country we firmly believe in the prin- ciple that the military establishment is to remain at the command of the voting public, to be enlarged or reduced as need dictates. Few of us in Canada would relish a situation of the opposite sort such as we see in so many Central and South American lands, where the public is buffeted back and forth as clashing "The Emergency Measures Organiza- tion," says the St. Marys Journal-Argus, "still floundering to find its footing, has one great asset to recommend it. It is government-sponsored, and to a great ex- tent government-endowed. The avowed purpose of the oraanization is to provide a rescue service in time of war or peace- ful disaster, but it would appear that it cannot find the forest for the trees when it comes to the term 'rescue.' "If there is anything this country and province in particular needs, and needs desperately, it is 'rescue,' not for war or major disasters to any great extent but rather for the individual disasters along our highways and in our swimming areas. "Recently a drowning tragedy in the area sent police, ambulance, a doctor and a scuba diver scurrying to the scene. Here are four separate and different in- dividuals and agencies, all doing a tre- mendous job, but of necessity not acting Safety Is the Watchword • 4 p province to draw attention to their de mend for higher milk prices. Tractors on the public highways, since they are usually slow moving vehicles, are a hazard at the best of times, and when they are called out in great num- bers with the avowed purpose of slowing traffic, they are a planned hazard with which the general public is fast losing patience. Up to the present the average citizen and car driver has had a lot of sympathy for the need of farmers to realize better prices for their produce, but that sym- pathy will wear painfully thin if the nuisance tactics are continued. After all, many persons besides farmers believe that their own incomes are below the national average, but they have never contemplated a nuisance demonstration to correct the imbalance, It looks very much as though the main purpose of the tractor demonstra- tion is to call attention to the Farmers' Union, rather than to the low price of milk, The Union has seized on the milk dispute as a method of proving how much more vocal it can be than the Fed- eration of Agriculture which has tradi- tionally sought to correct the farmers' ills by co-operation with government rather than by harrassment, Let's hope that Farm Safety Week will be marked by truly intelligent approaches to a serious problem, both on the farms themselves and on the public roads and highways. military juntas seize and lose power. Adolf Hitler provided the world with its finest example of what can happen when military control is used as a lever to subvert democratic processes. Students of history are familiar with the fate of the Roman Empire after control of its armies passed from the democratic will of the people into the hands of a head- strong group of generals. Though the technicalities of unified command versus separate forces are be- yond most of us, Sir Winston Churchill's personal account of the difficulties faced and the blunders perpetrated by the Bri- tish early in the Second World War be- cause of inter-force jealousies should be enough to convince even a stubborn ad- miral that change is long overdue. One of the great benefits of integra- tion of the forces will be the saving of tax money on a very big scale. We are solidly behind any minister who comes up with the novel idea of easing the tug on our pocketbooks. as an organized unit. "We all know that injured persons lie along our highways for altogether too long a period, without aid in many in- stances. The average citizen ... is timid to aid in such cases because of the very real danger of lawsuit should he make a mis-move. It is a situation which cries aloud for a remedy. E.M.O. could pro- vide this remedy if it would 'stir its stumps,' forget about major disasters for the time being, and organize the rescue service which the country needs. "While the E.M.O. cries bitter tears over the lack of public interest and, sup- port, a move such as this, bringing sbrne semblance of order out of the present chaos on highway and stream, would make them a popular outfit indeed. , . . "We note that E.M.O. supports 'casu- alty simulation groups.' Why simulate when the roadsides are littered with genuine cases practically every week- end?" The Democratic Test A Role for E.M.O. THE WINGHAM ADVANCE - TIMES Published at Wingham, Ontario, by Wenger Bros. Limited. W. Barry Wenger, President Robert 0. Wenger, Secretary-Treasuret Member Audit Bureau of Circulation Member Canadian Weekly Newspapers Association. Authorized by the Post Office Department as Second Class Mail and for payment of postage in cash. Subscription Rate: 1 year, $5.00; 6 months, $2.75 in advance; U.S.A., $7.00 per yr.; Foreign rate, $7.00 per Yr. Advertising Rates on application. All agony, no ecstasy 4t1 ran Abbancoante Thursday, July 21, 1966 SECOND SECTION Ontario, ANN BALSER watches as Marlene Jamieson guides the tiny hand of three-year-old Ruth Taylor through the intricacies of drawing a flower. The children are registered in the summer program at Scout House. —Advance-Times Photo, REMINISCING W ingham, rNeiat.reyntAennetn-; Successful Candidates from JULY 1917 ranee examinations were; J. ;11.); Archie itri* James AHenry A iii•L eCribi(STOitol derson; Evelyn Ati NsLiMi1131Qdarci. Bennett; Wm. Currie; Jack mBeal n1;; Eldavim David- son; Ella Dobie; Doris Fells, (Hon.); Alba Galbraith; Harry Gannett (Hon.); 011ie Hamilton, James Hardie; Vietta Hill; Gav- in Holmes; Sydney Holmes; Os- wald Hutton; Alice Imlay; Gor- don Irwin; Mabel Johnson; Vel- ma Johnson; Aileen. Kennedy, (Hon.); Edith Kew; Jervis nut- ton; Irene McDowell; Annie Mcilwain; Edwin Martin; liar- old Mills; liaretJirt Mundy; Al- lan Munro; Mary Nethery; Mc- Intyre Peirson(lton, ); David Perrie; Clarence Pocock; men, tie Reid; Eulalia Revert Marg- aret Robertson, Mary Robertson; Stanley Robinson; Thelma San- derson (Hon.); Aggie Stone.- house; Lauretta Sturdy; Rettie Turbey; Jean Vaiwone (lion.); Madeline Walker; Kathleen Wilkinson; Agnes Williamson, (Hon,); Clayton Zurbrigg, Miss Elizabeth Ferguson has been re-engaged as teacher for S. S. No. 5, Morris at a salary of $650. JULY 1931 At Wingham, ,liss Doris Bu- chanan stood highest in the Wingham P.S. entrance exams and Margaret Mundell, S. S. No. 3, Turnberry, among the rural candidates The home of Mr. Edwin Armstrong of the 5th line of Morris was destroyed by fire late Saturday night. A. M, Bishop wishes to an- nounce the opening of an of- fice in the Wingtiarn Club Buildings where he will trans- act a general investment busi- ness, The produce and storage building owned by the Whyte Packing Company of Stratford, at one time was one of the busiest places in town and was formerly owned by the Armour Bros. About ten years ago it was purchased by the Whyte Packing Co. and for the past few years has been unoccupied. Last week it was purchased by A. C. Adams, who intends us- ing it as a storage plant in con- nection with his flour and feed business, JULY 1941 The official scores were re- ceived this week of the Domin- ion Small Bore Sporting Rifle Match held at Toronto in May, in which the team from Wing- ham won the championship. The individual score of mem- bers of the team arc Norman Rintoul 100.6, William Young 100.5, George Mason 100.5, Frank Sturdy 100.4 and Elwell Webster 99.4. George ("Mike") Robertson, son of Mr. and Mrs. Alex Ro- bertson, left on Wednesday of last week for London where he joined the RCAF. He is now stationed at Manning Pool, Tor- onto. Mr. George E. Wright, of Chesley, moved to town last week. Mr. Wright was a for- mer Bandmaster in Wingham, leaving here about twenty years ago, About fifty friends of Miss Helen Miller were entertained on Monday in honor of her ap- proaching marriage at a kit- chen shower of ivory and black enamelware at the home of Miss Yvonne McPherson. JULY 1952 Nancy Tuck of Glenannan and Annie McNaughton of Wroxeter were the Queens for a Day, during the running of the Shooting Stars show on Friday and Saturday nights, sponsored by the L.O.L. 794. The win- ners of the Baby Popularity Con- test were announced Saturday night and they were: first, Ricky Sangster and Frances Jane Campbell; second, Terry Gard- ner and Brenda Jane Wallace; third, Neil Edgar and Ruth Anne Hamilton. Norma Josephine Brydges, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. Brydges, Beigrave and Charles Kenneth Downie, son of Mr. and Mrs, R. A. Downie, Wing- ham, were wed recently in Trinity Anglican Church, Bel- grave. My wife keeps asking me why my hands shake. It would not be polite to respond, "Baby, living with you would make anyone's hands shake." So I blame it on the war. Some fellows have burned faces, aluminum legs, sleeves pinned up, glass eye. Some have great shrapnel wounds on abdomen or buttocks, which they will happi- ly show you at the Saturday night party. My hands shake. She doesn't believe the war bit anymore, so I blame it or booze, the tension of teaching, or the pills I take for my bursi- tis. But the real reason is that liv- ing with her would make any- body's hands shake. What bring this to mind is that I've just gone through about 48 hours of domestic pur- gatory. Cowardly husbands go quietly off to mental institu- tions, or have heart attacks. My hands shake. The occasion was the recep- tion of our son's marks at the end of first year university and about $1,700. Plus tax. When the paper arrived with the first-year results, I threw it on the table, ran to the bath- room, locked myself in, and started flushing the toilet at twelve-second intervals. As I suspected, it was futile. The alternative sobs of grief and shrieks of rage penetrated ray refuge. I had to come out and be a father. I know you won't believe it, but that kid's name was not at the head of the first-class hon- ors list. Nor the second-class honors list. Nor the third, (Be had told me, just before leaving for the west coast job, to start looking for his name from the bottom of the page up.) At least it was there. I tried to console the Old Lady with stuff like, "Rome wasn't built in a day, you know," and "You can't grow roses without thorns, you know," and "What the hell, we'll all be dead in fifty years. you know", and similar bits of homespun comfort. It was as useless as trying to hum Flow Gently. Sweet Afton with a Bea- tles, record going full bore. Kim was a big help, though. She sat there tossing, "What a lazy bum! Why weren't you tougher with him? How could he he so stupid?", and other bits of oil on the fire. Frankly, I was relieved that he'd passed. My wife was infuri- ated alternatively with the Lord, who hadn't caused a miracle to pass, his professors, who had barely allowed the kid to pass, and the kid, who had allowed a year to pass as though he'd been on another planet, But she couldn't just keep on sobbing and uttering maledic- tions. We had arranged to go on a picnic with another family and their four little kids. So we went. And the results proved to me once again that stupid old platitude that "life goes on." It was a wonderful combination: sun and sand: their baby eating algae and ants; their little boys burning themselves as they roasted marshmallows; and a most pecu- liarly potent potion of Gordon's lemonade I'd mixed. Under this prescription, my old girl was so relaxed that she burst into tears of shame anti rage only four times during the picnic. Next day she was definitely on the mend. She cried until noon, brooded on her bed until four p.m., but got up .and put the chicken legs in the oven for some people we'd invited for dinner. By great good luck, their kid had failed his year outright and dismally. That cheered thines up a hit. Later in the evening, an old friend, a professor of English, dropped in with his wife. They were on holidays. Their daugh- ter, an extremely brilliant stu- dent in high school, had also just completed first-year univer- sity. They hadn't yet seen her results. We had the extreme pleasure of telling them that she, like erafge4SivarCeMir LETTERS TO EDITOR man gragmear, REV. J. 1.. CRAWFORD SEES OPPORTUNITY FOR BETTER UNDERSTANDING Cape Croke', Ont„ July 13, 1966. Dear Mr. Wenger: Thank you for the editorial "We Are Guilty Too". The In- dian people do need education. White people need it too -- of a different kind. They need to know more about and to under- stand more fully the Indian peo- ple. Tire press, radio and tele- vision, government, social ser- vice agencies and the churches are trying to bring about a bet- ter relationship between Indian and white people. During Cen- tennial Year there could be a genuine attempt on the part of white communities to become better acquainted with the In- dian communities not too far from. them. The town of Wing- ham is less than a two hours drive from a number of Indian communities, Perhaps sonic kind of tour and exchange pro- gram could be planned through- out this part of Ontario next year. Yours sincerely, John Crawford. 0-0-4? Residents of Wingtram: I wonder if we realize how much the passing moterrizs ap- preciate the business street of this town. A few Sundays ago some friends from Galt visited me, and they expressed a desire to walk down the street to see the stores and to look at the flowers along the street. They told me that the stores looked clean and attractive, and that the flowers were just like the flowers in Vic- totia. There is an excellent assort- ment of flowers in the hanging baskets, and, in spite. of the very dry season, they have re- ceived very good care. Marguerite Chopin Hugh, had barely staggered through. They left, looking sick. We went to bed, the boss almost buoyant. And she wonders why my hands shake. r} 4, 11 It • 0