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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1975-02-20, Page 11ot very. convincing Recently the federal Uovernrnent an. nounced a plan to cut the use of energy by its employees,. Government owned cars in future. will besub-compacts to `save gaso- line; consumption of electricity lin govern- ment buildings Is to be curtailed by turning off More Lights and reducing interior temperatures in the cold months. Air condi- tioners will be similarly treated during the summer. Ontario "Hydro is so concerned about conserving energy that one of their radio commercials; typical of several others, ad- vocates a switch to fluorescent lights In the kitchen because they require less electricity than incandescent lamps. These are great ideas but official spon- sorship of energy-saving programs is not likely to achieve any startling results unless and until some of the really whopping energy wasters are brought into line. If all the kit- chens in Canada were converted to fluores- cent lighting the energy saved would scarce- ly equal the waste in one or two city office towers where the lights burn 24 hours a day. We cannot believe these people are serious as long as millions of kilowat hours are consumed by the forest of electrically -illu- minated signs in every major centre in the nation. The most obvious place to save gasoline would be total prohibition of snowmobiles and boats used for pleasure only. But that potato would be too politically hot for any government to ° handle, short of the emer- gency conditions of war. If governments want to save energy, and money as well, they might start with a thorough housecleaning of their own minis- tries, Concentrating en.the thousands of tons of valuable paper wastedin press releases whichare seldom of any value. Every news- paper office in the land sorts through hun- dreds of pounds of this useless material each year. Not only is the paper itself wasted but so are the man hours paid for by the tax- payer to those who write the stuff in the first place, the office space they require, the ma- chines they must use to type and reproduce their articles, the post office employees who must be paid tb move this mountain of hog- wash. Some government publications are valuable, of course, but the worthwhile'ones are all but buried in the piles of junk by which they are accompanied. Obviously one central information branch should clear all such mailings and before doing so should compile a list of the various sorts of in- formation available and send it out to pub- lishers and others who might be interested. The recipients could then check the compa- ratively few releases they want to receive on a regular basis. The mailing lists could be trimmed to a sliver of their present size. Most people are intelligent enough to realize the need to economize on the• use of energy sources whichare threatened, but they are not greatly impressed by token ges- 'tures on the part of the government, the prime example of which would have to be a five percent cut in provincial cabinet minis- ters' salaries. Left hand never knows The conduct of affairs in our educational system is, at times, weird and wonderful. We feel very sad for the generation of young people who have been the victims of endless experimenting at the hands of both teachers and politicians. One of the concepts developed over the past few years has been that the teacher should be free to develop his or her own methods of getting the message across to the students. There are guidelines and there are courses of study but the latitude permitted teachers in their application is so broad that some children reach grade semen, or eight - without having learned the addition and mul- tiplication tables; the universities find they have to provide first year courses in basic English so their incoming students can write an intelligible test paper. What we find particularly mystifying is the lack of communication between institutions of learning 'within the province. For example, Mohawk Community College at Hamilton has developed a course for young people who want to enter the field of journalism, and it is a good course. The young students are taught not only the basics of newspaper reporting and writing, but thy"" course includes instruction in the elements of advertising layout and copy preparation. As a result the graduates are well -fitted for the majority of jobs open—in the community newspapers of the nation. To make the course wholly practical the students are trained on a "co-op" basis, under which they spend four months working on newspapers in the field and four months back in the class- room, and so on until their -three-year course is completed. The system has been triedand proven at Mohawk, but as far as we know it is not used in any of the other colleges, where journalism is taught. Conestoga at Kitchener has adopted a modified version of the plan, allowing its students to get out into the'field of practical work for one-month terms. As far as we can find out, each com- munity college is autonomous as far as course structures are concerned. If the board of governors decides on three years within the classroom, that's the way if is. No one at the top seems to tell these boards there is a better way. Surely the purpose of a ministry of edu- cation or a ministry of collegespand universi- ties is to co-ordinate student training throughout the province sothat every young person will have access to the best possible programs. Yet it seems that the right hand and the left are totally ignorant of what goes on at the other side of the institutional body. We don't need it here Have you ever heard of BYM's? Those initials have been commonly applied in the United States to the Bright Young Men with whom highly placed executives and politi- cians surround themselves, supposedly to bring efficiency into the affairs of corpora- tions and governments. The BYM's reached their ultimate place in society when they usurped most of the power of the American 'j cabinet and a considerable part of the au- thority of the president of the United States himself. Their names were Ehrlichman, Haldeman, Dean—you know them well. In a recent article, William C. Heine, editor of the London Free Press, says that our own prime minister, Mr. Trudeau, has surrounded himself with a staff of more than 100 bright young men who mise him on everything from finance to public reaction of minimum wage laws. Mr. Heine's deepest concern is for the status of cabinet ministers whose advice may be over-ridden or made redundant by r the expert opin)ons of the BYM's. He points out that everT though the cabinet minister, who first must be elected to parliament by his voters, may lack the ex- pert knowledge of the paid prime minister's employee, it is the minister on whom the PM should rely. In our opinion there is a great danger Inherent ' in the presence of these powerful dvisers, and that is the influence wielded by en who are not responsible to the electors. is Anyone who has read the details of the Watergate hearings must realize that the unforgivable crime was not the "bugging" of a political party's secret meetings it was the disclosure that a nation's business was being conducted by a ruthless and dishonest group of hirelings who had only one ambition, — to retain their high posts and secure the re-election of the man who guaranteed their ,employment. . . During Mr. Trudeau's first term of office it was fairly common knowledge in Ottawa that if you really wanted something from government you could forget about contact- ing the appropriate cabinet minister. The road to success lay in getting the ear of one of the PM's numerous secretaries. Yes, he had bright young men in those days too. After the election in which he was returned to power with a majority of only two seats, he openly admitted that accepting the guid- ance of his personal assistants was a mis- take and that in future he would rely upon first-hand opinions from his electors and his elected ministers. However, now that Mr. Trudeau has another safe majority he seems to have forgotten his words. If Watergate taught no other lesson, it did make clear the Message that in a demo- cratic system of government it is the people who hold the power—not any single man or his group of experts. If Mr. Trudeau failed to profit by that lesson, he is less intelligent than we have always believed him to be. THE WINGHAM ADVANCE -TIMES Published at Windham, Ontario, by Wenger Bros. Limited Barry Wenger, President Robert O. Wenger, Secretary -Treasurer Member Audit Bureau of Circulations ember — Canadian Community Newspapers Assoc. ubscription $10.00 per year. Six months $5.25 Ontario Weekly Newspapers Assoc. To United States $12.50 Second Class Mail Registration No. 0821 Return postage guaranteed In answer to "Why all the guns?" The Editor: Dear Sir: Your question, "Why ;al Guns?" seems to imply that 1 motives of those who own fire arms are suspect — .howeye ' the right to have firearms is just as legitimate under our dem0004e system as it is to own $ car, The crime reports of 'the Chi- cago Police Dept., MA, listed among other weapons used .itt criminal •homicides, se Verale strangulations with nylon storks Ings and brassieres, fatal, stab- bings, fatal injuries from base- ball aseball bats and pool cues anti, even one murder with a toilet ,tank lid* So, Mr. Editor, according to yoRrr rationale you may have many deadly weapons around your home. Are you going to get rid of them? Putting all jokes aside itis false to say that any of the instruments with which crines of violence have been committed are deadly in themselves. "Guns don't . kill people — people kill people" is a much - abused expression. It cannot be denied that people with gums kill people —nor can it' be denied that people without guns kill people. A firearm is an inanimate lump of metal and wood, incapable of intent, and cannot function with- out some outside agency. A gun is a tool, and like most other tools, it can be used — and abused. Its Lloyd would rather read than eat. This 14-yearold is what his foster parents call a voracious reader and on a great variety of subjects. He likes adult company better than that of children, and grown-ups enjoy being with him because he is an in- teresting, lively conversationalist. Lloyd is considered high average in intelligence;•tut is not reaching that standard in Grade eight. He has a slight per- ceptual proble and is not_always conscientious .about his school work. Llotd is fond of, musc. He has had 'plan and guitar lessons and hopes to start soononthe organ. Anglo-Saxon in descent, Lloyd has dark eyes -this glasses are for near-sightedness) brown hair and fair skin. He is healthy and sturdily built. He needs a home where he will be the only child or the youngest and where he will receive love, stimulation and firm- ness. 4' To inquire about adopting Lloyd, please write to Today's Child, Ministry of • Community and Social Services, Box 888, Station K, Toronto M4P 2H2. For general adoption information consult your local Children''s Aid Society. • • HE LOVES TO READ proper uses are two -fold: defenc and recreation. In rural areas this could mean protection o livestock and crops, obtaining food, etc. True; firearms were originally designed to kill, but so was the bow and arrow -- that has beefs adapted to archery and the adaptations do not stop there. The most common and popular sports are derived from earlier forms of combat and Weaponry. Among them are the fencing sword, javelin, tennis racquet, baseball bat and golf club--- even the atomic bomb has been dom- esticated, not for sport Of course, but for' an energy source to re- place the rapidly diminishing supply of fossil fuels. Re your statement that pro -gun groups have blocked effective gun legislation in the USA. There are upwards of 20,000 Federal, state and local • laws, against those who misuse . guns. In no known instance have they pre- vented crime. New York City's Sulivan law is the strictest anti -gun law any- where: in America. It is ridgidly enforced to the point that.it is al- most impossible for a civilian to own a hand -gun legally within the city. `So how does New York City compare with cities.with less re- stictive — even lenient gun laws? According to the official FBI compilation of crime statics across the nation of the 229 Metropolitan statistical areas studied New York City reported in 1972, 1,357 violent crimes per each 100,000 of its population, the highest in the nation. Violent;crimes are murder, non negligent manslaughter, rob- bery, aggravated assault — the crimes in which guns are most often associated yet New York City, where hand guy are out- lawed, not only suffered the high- est per capita incidence of such crimes in the nation but its per- centage...oL, :rims committed with liaitcgiiris was as high as any in the nation. It is a matter of record that criminals even travel to New York to buy handguns 'on the black market. The answer to vio- lent crimes (if one exists) is a change in the attitude of the pop- ulation, the elimination or the sublimation of the desire in any man to injure or kill another. - England and Switzerland are two examples. England has a long history of firearms control legislation that makes the private ownership of any firearm ex- tremely difficult for the average citizen. England also had so low a crime rate it was the envy of ' most other nations. With the ad- vent of sociological change and unrest in the 1950' e incidence of violent crimes in England has steadily and rapidly increased — and despite the stringent restric- tions on firearms, the use of such weapons in the commission of crimes has increased. (Consider the recent attack on the Royal Family). Switzerland, on the o.ther hand makes every male citizen above the age of to a member of the militia and requires that each one keep a firearm and ammunition in his home. Yet the incidence of the commission of crimes in that country Is almost nil. The dif- ference is not the .availability of weapons' but the general soci- ological attitude toward cringe. To attempt to reduce crime by focusing on one of the many in- struments which may be used to commit one, is merely. to treat the symptom not thecause. It's easier to do but it solves nothing. This is not to say that firearms - related legislation is bad, but only to insist, that proposed fire- arms legislation has some rea- sonable relationship to the evils it seeks to correct. The anti -gun propagandists have been using the Big lie tech- nique in the United States and have been getting top billing from much of the news media, who ar- bitrarily refuse to publish pro - gun rebuttals, and I hope you, Mr. Editor, do not do the same. M. Ross Smith RR 4, W ngham• Not -a Wingiam,Obt. The Editor, February 1975. Advance Times, Wiugham, Ont. Dear Sir. From my fitteat years' Pe rtenco as a Fire Chief, 1 can form you thatWinghamfirefithe inthe third g� as repel column ,"A paragraph g�' ' eh roary 13, IS not firefighters thr out - I would alga ke tto a citizens of `W ii report is true, itShould lnno theeffect ghtiqg ,abiilit%s the Fire Departni JI Past President On Association of Eire Did yoji know that . . Federal government operate expenses . during the 50 years after Confederation were mostly through 'tut taxes. Personal income' not come into effect until' and, at the time, was intent a temporaiy measure to the costs of the WAR. Goderich to honor lost lives in 1913 Great -St. Sunday, February 23, will mark the 61st ,annual Mariners' Service to be held in Knox Presbyterian Church, Goderich-, in memory of those sailors who lost their lives during the great- est marine • disaster ever re- corded in the history of the Great Lakes. It was op Sunday,. Noveml?er 9th, 1913, that 71 ships ,and 254 sailors ere cost du -the- raging storm. In Lake Huron 24 ships were lost. Eight of them went down in the Goderich area. They were the Wexford, 17 lost; the Regina, 15 lost; the John A. McGean, 23 lost; the James A. Carruthers, 19 lost; 28 seamen were lost when the Issac M. Scott sank; the Hydros lost 24 seamen; the Charles S. Prince lost 28 and the Argus went down with 24 men Iost. A memorial service was held at Knox Presbyterian Church on Sunday, November 16, 1913 at 4:15 p.m. Dr. George Ross con- ducted the service. A choir of 100 persons took part in this mem- orial service and more than 1,500 persons attended. So far as is known the first service was conducted by Dr. James 'Anderson in the spring of 1903, the service at that time being known as the Fishermen's and Sailors' Service. Irf the spring of 1914, Dr. George Ross, who had officiated at the burial of. Now 'MAT T Ts OVER, cOu10 WE INTEREST sou mous IN TME trona STiITE SUILPIN(ad... P*{OOKLYN 61iIP6E, fRpAPS? GJ " WOMPtik it i y'P Allow bib CLAIM 5'INC ` DE A5 l 'DEPENDENT'?,. 23 seamen who lost tbei r,liven` the Great Storm, suggested that, the service be named ` the Makiners' Service which wo ld;'Y` include everyone associated" the marine trade. The Wiest appal* tribute :'ta the GreatStorm's power was toll in human life —;254 men:, women lost their lives; :181' 254 whose liver Creat Storm were' los rugged Lake Huron- in the Goderich area. Probably One of the strangest ;. facts of the Great Storm is that apparently all ships which sank in Lake Huron went down at the same time. Many sailors from different ships whose bodies were washed ashore at widely separated points carried watches and when notes were compared, it was declared that all watches had stopped at the same time — 1:25. The Rev. G. L. Royal, moderator of Knox Presbyterian Church, will conduct 'the Mariners' Service. The Harbouraires, the ever popular" and well known all-male choir which has presented many programs throughout Western Ontario, will take part in the` service of worship. The choir has taken part in the annual Mariners' Service on 20 occa- sions. It will be under the direc- tion of George Buchanan. Time of service is 7:30 p.m. Ont. grant awarded�for Falls Area A provincial grant of $13,100 was recently announced for the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority. Leo Bernier, Minister of Natural Resources, announced the grant approval to the Authority for the Falls Reserve Conservation Area. This area comprises some 229 acres of land in the Township of Colborne, County of Huron. Development work carried out since the area was purchased in 1964 included the provision of camping, picnicking and fishing facilities and development of nature trails. During 1975 the Authority pro- poses to expand the camping area to meet increased demand, equip the recently constructed maintenance building, develop an interpretive facility and un- dertake general development such as tree planting, games field development and various other improvements. A pre - engineering study of possible swimming facilities and other planning services will be carried out. All member municiiities will bear the Authority's share of the cost;