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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1981-01-07, Page 4Page 4 • Mmes htabt shed 1873 Times -Advocate, January 7, 1981 Advocate Established 1 881 Imes-Odvocatei r."tivti.% .W-. • *w. v. W) ecwa+w )40.rases 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 Published Each Wednesday Morning Phone 235-1331 at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Moil Registration Number 0386 Amalgamated 1924 4PCNA SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $14.00 Per Year; USA $35.00 ex:v;.` 1t. V:�``''aVW,I ` .. ��,`.\alb `gAesM i� '. .`3`\..'t`>�<X a°e�:: .:' Follow example Terry Fox. That's the name that comes to everyone's mind when the highlights of the past year are con- sidered, and hopefully in some way it will be the. example of this young man that will provide Canadians with the hope and courage that will be necessary for them to face 1981. The nation's and individual problems pale in comparison to the cross Terry Fox has been asked to bear. and yet he proved that with deter- mination and a positive goal, it is possi- ble to achieve. While politicians across the nation were quarreling and placing Canada's unity in jeopardy through their jealousy and greed, Terry Fox was the lone un- iting force as he stirred the imagination and generosity of people who renewed those very attributes that were in- herited from their forefathers who founded this great country. While many Canadians were worried and concerned about their economic situation, Terry Fox showed them that their problems were small in comparison to his and that in general, their needs were over -stated. Terry Fox became a hero and gave Canadians something in which to believe during 1980. Let us all enter 1981 with his deter- mination, concern for others and the knowledge that dreams can be fulfilled. Won't take pill it's typical of human nature that while many Canadians believe we could make a significant contribution to meeting Canada's future energy needs by cutting back 10 per cent in its use, they feel it should be the other fellow who does it. In other words, many Canadians won't take the energy pill. A recent poll conducted for the federal Department of Energy, Mines and Resources revealed that most Canadians are firmly opposed to big in- creases in energy prices. And most of them felt that cutting back in its use would help the energy situation. Surprisingly, though, 90% of respondents felt it would be easier for others to cut back than themselves. Ap- parently, people are reluctant to do their part because they don't think others will. Small get clobbered Canada's small and medium-sized businesses are being clobbered by high interest rates. The evidence: bankruptcies and receiverships are at the highest level in years and that's only the tip of the iceberg. Most small firms that fail never show up in the statistics. Many entrepreneurs simply pay off the bills and quietly go out of business. In addition, the smaller firms that have been creating a majority of the country's new jobs, have, in most cases. simply pigeon -holed expansion plans while interest rates are in the 20 percent range. While the impact of high interest rates is felt by businesses big and small. the independents tend to be hit harder because most of them borrow on a short-term basis. It's true, consumers are also pay- ing the high rates. but at least they can negotiate deals with lenders that fix in- terest rates for a two. three or four year term. By SYD FLETCHER My introductionto the brass band came about 25 years ago in the town of Georgetown. I had an all boys' band. Th v found a battered 'alto hor which I manfully blew thro' h but never truly mastered. Then we moved to the 'States' and 1 sat in the front row of -the junior band tooting away on a French horn. The thing I remember most about that band was learning how to duck quickly so that I wouldn't get hit with the baton that the angry bandmaster would fire at the saxophones for blowing wrong notes. Perhaps their errors intrigued me for not long after f acquired my own saxophone and took a few For independent businesses, though the situation is somewhat different. Most entrepreneurs have what are called demand loans, and the rate in- creases immediately with every rise in the bank's prime rate. That's the rate the banks charge their most credit worthy customers. Because of the horrendous rate in- creases during the last few months, smaller retailers have been placed in a real bind. With inventories at the highest level of the year during the holiday season, their high cost loans are also at a peak. If the retailers don't sell the merchandise and pay off the loans, they are forced to contiyue paying the high interest m the new year. In many cases, this may be good news for consumers. Smaller retailers are slashing prices to sell their goods, perhaps even losing money on some items. Goderich Signal -Star Perspectives lessons on It. Now, the band I most enjoy, next to Lawrence Welk's Saturday night special is the Forest Excelsior Band. What? You've never heard of it? The oldest band in con- tinuous existence in Canada? My goodness, your education has surely been lacking. Only a few years ago the Excelsior Band fell on hard times. It seemed as if it too would go the way of so many small town bands. Interest had faded to about the same place as the uniforms and instruments, both of which were in dire need of replacement or extensive repair. Members were few and far between. Then some public-spirited local citizens, not all of them musicians, took up the cause of bringing new life to the band. They applied for, and got, a Wintario grant, and raised additional funds themselves. New in- struments and uniforms were bought, and with them came new members from as far away as Port Franks, Watford and Petrolia. Now the band has as many as twenty-five or twenty-six musicians at its concerts and is able to put on a fine shoyv.* Comtemporary scores are being purchased to keep up with present trends in music. We are presently trying to recruit even more members to the band so that when the band's centennial comes along in 1984 we will once again be the first class band that won first place at the Canadian National Exhibition several times back in the 1930's. If you are a musician and have got away from it for a while, come out and join us. I know you won't regret it. • BAt t 'N AROUND . The year with 53 weeks Readers may have noticed that last week's final issue of 1980 was devoid of any editorial page and that Mary Alder- son was the only one of the three members of the journalism staff to come up with a column. That's not a trend that will be follow- ed through the course of the new year and there are a couple of logical ex- planations why the editor and the assis- tant editor failed to file their usual words of wisdom for the edification of the readers. The first reason was strictly.a matter of timing. Or more correctly, a lack of -timing. The early publication date just didn't allow time for columns in addi- tion to enjoying part of the Christmas holiday period without work. However. the main reason for our decision was a protest over the 1980 calendar. It was one that was obviously designed by the advertising depart- ment and there's still a lot of head scratching going on here as to how the advertising manager managed to succeed in creating an extra week in the year to pad his sales figures. It may come as a surprise to many of our readers, but last week's issue was not the 52nd paper thay received in 1980.- It was, in fact, number 53! Now. you can explain to me how a newspaper which comes out only once a week can end up with 53 issues in any given year. It's beyond my comprehen- sion! No doubt some reader will quickly 'suggest that the extra issue was just one of those quirks that will be cor- rected. by this year's calendar which will result in us having only 51 issues. Not so' The journalism department has already checked that matter 'out and our calendars all indicate quite clearly that there will be 52 weeks in 1981 and we will have to produce 52 issues. Come on, Jim, explain how you managed to get 53 issues of a weekly newspaper crammed into the 52 weeks on 1980 Your advertising department cohorts around the world are anxiously awaiting the answer to your magic.. • To start off the new year, the T -A will have a staff change. Tom Creech. who has been editor of our sister publication in Zurich and general reporter for this newspaper as well, is beading to Mitchell to become editor of 'the :tdvotate. Just to make him feel good, his place here will actually be filled with two people. A couple of Conestoga College journalism students, Rob Chester and Mark Hough, will be joining the staff as part of an internship program at Con- estoga. Both are in their final year and will graduate this spring. We trust you'll join with us in welcoming these two youths to our community. The best wishes of the T -A staff go with Tom in his new position and no doubt local sport fans will be seeing him as the two teams of Hawks move towards the end of their regular schedule and into the playoffs. • Looking for a slogan on which to base your efforts for the new year? Well, one of the best to come along for those who enjoy some rhythm in their words is "Get it done in '81". Most of us have numerous projects sitting on the back burner awaiting Sugar and Spice Dispensed by Smiley Cheering up on a bad day Been one of those weeks. The first snow. School buses going into the ditch. A great screaming of summer tires just outside our door. A stately elderly gentleman with a cigar walked past me as I was warming up the car. Went flat on his keester at the corner, but retain- ed his cigar. • Before I could get out and help him somebody else was there. Got him to his feet. and off he went, probably to get his morning paper, badly shaken, but completely unshaken, cigar still go- ing. Went to work around the sage way, no hills. de§pite the iniquitour lie of the car salesman that with radial belted tires you didn't need Snow tires. Pop- pycock. This ain't Florida. Tried to climb a tiny hill, did a 180 degree turn. and went the long, long way around, arriving at work ten minutes late, sweating, scrambled, and me with the 'flu that's lasted only six weeks. There's nothing like a 'flu fever, along with a fear sweat, to make you have to change all your clothes every fifth day. instead of every two weeks. Oh. well. We dang near got the lawn- mower away last weekend. And we'll get it into the tool shed one of these days, as soon as I can find somebody who realizes how valuable those twelve twelve -foot windows (storm) are, for the glass in them. Must be fifty bucks worth of glass there, and a good Satur- day night's worth of firewood, once the glass is removed. Yep. We went for the aluminum jobs this year. My wife thinks we could cut the glass out ourselves. She bought "genuine" glass -cutter from one of those televi- sion shows. I can just see the two of us in the tool shed, leaking blood from every limb, framed in fine old Georgian wooden window -frames. And the lawn -mower still out in the snow. But it wasn't all bad. We had our own South American guru home for a few days. and he fixed me up with a potion called Devil's Claw, supposed to cure arthritis. You drink about two pints a Clay for three weeks, and it tastes like boiled lumberjack socks. I had one treatment, and my pains vanished. He was quite annoyed. He'd got a special on it. only $2.99 for a six -dollar bottle of the blank. Despite a' week of supervising ex- aminations, and realizing that only peo- ple dumber than kids are teachers, I kept my spirits up. Spiritually. With spirits. And along came a few more items to make me refuse to hope that the --ski resort operators all go broke this year because there won't be any snow. I couldn't do this. I hope there's just enough snow so they can stay alive, and go broke next year. What ultimately kept my spirits as buoyantas an anvil in a swamp was the news and the pictures of our revered leader and Sacha freaking about in an Arab tent, mounting the Sphinx and climbing a camel. I'm sure it, or they, warmed the cockles of every Canadian heart. In another incarnation, that man would be a Rain -Maker. Have you ever observed his *echnique? It's one that every husband in the land would love to emulate. some appropriate time to be under- taken. There's no time like the present, they say. go get cracking. The sluggards among us, a fairly Large group, have been enjoined by the Bible to achieve wisdom by going to the ant. The Scriptures should have been' more specific, because it seems many people have been going to the wrong kind of ant. It appears that there is one class call- ed "bastard ants", offspring of a queen ant that has not received proper care or feeding. While these bastards resemble workers. they do nothing constructive. ' Studies have shown that while worker . ants were making more than 500 grain -carrying trips, ...their gold- bricking brothers were performing about 30 such trips. Even worse is the fact that while they were doing so lit- tle.'the goof-offs pretended to be busy and kept hustling around as if they were working. The- frightening aspect is that when one looks at what is happening in the world. there is considerable evidence that the human equivalent of bastard ants is in charge. They're making it tougher for the workers to make ends meet too. Just last week the University of Guelph released a study showing that the average cost of maintaining a home worth $70.000 is $1,150 a month. Prior to that• we read that the costs incurred by the average car owner were 83,300 a year. Obviously, it's going to be a lot tougher to "Get it done in '81", es- pecially if you were planning to pay your bills. When there's a lot of heat in the kitchen, he tosses a few fragments of fat on the already burning oil and takes off for far places, there to don outlan- dish garb, and participate in exotic rites. and leave his sergeants at home to fight the .war. It's fool -proof. He gets a lot of headlines; distracts the country's attention from such trivialities as un- employment and inflation, and comes up with some stuff about Canada being the thirty-third best -loved country in the third world. I wish I could get away with it. If I went to Yemen, they's probably be ser- ving me up instead of sheep's eyes. And if I even tried to go to Egypt or Saudi Arabia. my wife would complain about the lack of air-conditioning, and .I'd be sent home, slit open, filled with oil, and sewed up again. One half -barrel of oil for Canada. On the other hand, he has Margaret. There's always something to cheer one up, of course, in the daily press. Just this morning, I read that Ronald Reagan had had two children by his first wife, and two children by his se- cond wife. Not with. By. Zero in, you feminist head (or other parts) -hunters. In the same edition, I learned from someone called Peregrine that. "We are the only couple in Canada who have done it." Out of context, of course, but it struck me fanny. Bone. And in yet the same issue of Canada's "leading newspaper" (leading what I do not know) I discovered in an adver- tisement that for 819.95 I could purchase the latest copy of a book by 1.1.1ifainstream Canada A New System is Needed By W. Roger Worth The threatened strike by Air Canada flight attendants was- averted, but now 19,000 letter carriers and drivers are gelling set to tie up mail ser- vice once again. Hardly a month goes by without one union or another holding the country to ransom over wage demands, as they threaten to shut down essen- tial public services. It's now dear that unions representing government workers at all levels, as well as those providing basic services, have altogether too much power. Two recent events under- score (hal simple fact. • In the case of Air Canada flight attendants, negotiators for the government-owned airline were forced lo offer what many people believe was an excessive settlement. If the' Roger Worth is Director, Public Affairs, Canadian Federation of Independent Business.- cost cannot be passed on to the traveling public through higher fares, Air Canada could lose money. But the public still pays becau;;e tax- payers (through the federal government) would have to cover the loss. Things are a little different in the real world where com- panies have to slay competi- tive to survive. Troubled Chrysler Corp. is 'a prime example of what can happen when a private sector firm is on the skids. Chrysler workers in Canada have already been forced to give up one wage in- crease and they are -now being asked to make further conces- sions. Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca bluntly warned the firm's labor force that they either accept a wage freeze or Ilse their jobs. While governments in Canada and U.S. have provid- ed some financial support for Chrysler, the workers under- stand only loo well that the handouts will not go on for - 0 ever. As a result, there is little question they will vote to save their jobs. That's not the case with public sector unions. To them, the public purse is seen as a bottomless pit. They be- lieve governments can't go broke. The time has arrived to eli- minate theirighl to strike in the public service. By replac- ing the strike weapon with a form of arbitration that lies salaries to those paid by pri- vate sector businesses, we would all be winners. 1>OIIAR fEAfE Winter may be season for homebuyer bargains. By Alan C. Gunn, CA Is it easier to find a home bargain in winter, or in summer? When the garden is alive with flowers, or when it's covered with snow? It may be easier in the winter, and here's why. First, it is apparent that anyone who puts a house up for sale in the winter really wants to sell it. In the spring and summer, some people list their properties just to see if they can get a high offer. In the fall, a lot of for -sale signs come down as the storm windows go up. So a seller who puts the sign up in the off-season is serious about selling and he probably expects to negot- iate over price. Second, while house - hunting in winter might not Dollar Sense offers general financial advice by members of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario. be your idea of fun, you will be in competition with fewer buyers. And because you are willing to brave the snow and ice to inspect a house, the seller willknow you are a serious buyer. He will be less willing to let you walk away than if he thinks you are just looking, and with fewer serious buyers around, your chances of getting a break on price are even better. Third, winter conditions often show a house in its true light -- pointing up faults that can result in expensive repairs after you buy. Cracks in the masonry • for example, arenot as likely to be concealed by trees and shrubbery, and any problems with the heat- ing system will be more readily apparent. Walking from room to room you'll be able to tell whether there are cold spots or drafts -- and when you go outside, look and see how much snow is on the roof compar- ed with other houses in the area. If there is consider- ably less snow, it could mean that the insulation is poor. It is also to your advant- age that builders and other contractors are usually less busy in winter and may charge less for their services, should you require repairs or remodell- ing. Remember, too, ;hat each new shortcoming you find in the place can serve as a bargaining point in your price negotiations with the seller. And if you can't persuade him to give much ground on actual selling price, you might be able to obtain some extras like appliances, drapes or carpeting. In summary, winter house -hunting can lead you to a bargain. If there was a house you saw last summer that was just slightly out of your price range, why not go back and see if it's still listed. The price might have come down a little, and you'll be glad you waited. Alan Gunn is with Deloitte Haskins & Sells, Chartered Accountants, Toronto. Canada's "leading author" (leading what I again do not know, unless self -glorification and the ability to chew his cabbage twice, or thrice.) So. All these things cheer me up on a bad day. And then I read a few students' essays and I plunge once more into the pits. One guy says Hugh Garner is Canada's greatest writer, because he could understand his prose, and there was none of this symbolism andunk to cloud the meaning. Another tells me that Sylvia Fraser has remarkable in- sight into human character, and repeats it eight times, Oh, well, 1981's on the way. U-g-g-g-gh! help your Heart Fund help your heart