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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Citizens News, 1972-11-23, Page 4PAG'E 4 1! fi ZURICH CITIZENS NEWS THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1972 But it wasn't over. I finally got to bed, whimpering with relief. My wife came in and said she's been talking to our daughter, who has a great rip- off idea. She's going to Cuba, and has a plan. She'll write a couple of columns for me, free, All I have to do is pay for them Baddest. However, silver lining department. By staying home, I had missed a three -arid -a - quarter hour staff meeting, which is an abomination on the face of the earth. So, all in all, maybe not such a bad day, after all. Shortage of good help While admitting that the unemployment problem in Canada is serious, in fact much more so than most of us realize, the editor of The Wingham Advance -Times isn't at all convinced that there is a shortage of work in Canada. Employers all over the land, he points out are screaming about the dire shortage of good help despite the fact that nearly 600, 000 people are drawing unemployment insur- ance, another vast horde are living off the rest of us while the government doles out money for make-work projects, only a portion of which are of any real value. Where, then, does the discrepancy lie? The Wingham editor reports that he rec- ently offered an Unemployed pressman from Guelph $100 a week as a starting salary until his ability could be measured. The pressman said he couldn't afford to take work at a fig- ure of that kind. Another young, able and single man the editor knew took his first job last fall. He worked three months, was laid off and luxuriated in front of the TV with successive cases of beer all winter. He didn't try to find work because he was drawing $83 every week for doing nothing. In other words, he was being encouraged to be a bum. Is it really hard to understand why unempl- oyment figures are high? Let's be fair A great squeal is going up because Bell Canada is asking for an increase in its tele- phone rates. Many sectors of the economy will protest that Mother Bell is really a high- wayman in disguise. There is no denying that the telephone company, along with its associated comm- unications firms, makes tremendous profits -- and thus there is reason to question both the amount of the increase and the validity of the reasons for higher rates. Being neither economists nor government - paid accountants, we cannot render any op- inion on the subject. Some very high-priced help will have to argue that subject in Ottawa. However, there is an aspect of telephone company activities which the public would do well to consider before protesting too loudly. A high proportion of Bell profits have been earned as the result of technical research which it has carried out over the years, at its own expense. It may also be presumed that in their request for higher rates the telephone people are concerned about the continued earnings of the company to carry on with further development of new techniques and equipment. A host of conveniences that the public enjoys have originated in the telephone company's laboratories - developments which have benefited mankind in a thousand ways. Not all of these inventions have been conf- ined to those which would earn more divid- ends for Bell shareholders. Lots of them have been given to the public at large. One ex- ample is your trusty little tape recorder. Bell started all that technology with the in- vention of a gadget called Mirrophone--- electronic recording on metal wire. Perhaps Bell is too greedy. We simply don't know. We do know, however, that the telephone company spends its earnings on a far wider range of undertakings than the mere provision of the little black set you pick up for a quick visit with grandma. Canadians have always been extremely cautious with the money they vote for tech- nical research by government. Without the programs carried out by profit-making busin- ess enterprise we would still be plowing with oxen. (Wingham Advance Times) ZURICH Citizens NEWS PRINTED BY SOUTH HURON PUBLISHERS LIMITED, ZURICH HERB TURKHEIM, Publisher Second Class Mail Registration Number 1385 411 w Member: Newspapers %+Q '. Canadian Weekly. Newspapers Association Ontario Weekly Newspapers Association �'4irte Stibe ription Rates: 54.00 per year in advance in Canada; MO in United States and Foreign; single copies 10 cents. THE GODS SINGLED ME OUT Occasionally, I succumb to a great disenchantment with life. At those times I feel that some days are bad, and all the others are badder. Yesterday was one of the badder ones. It began at 2 a.m. which I think anyone will agree is a bad time to start a day. I had the Gallipoli disease. It's called this for two reasons First, it was rampant among the poor sods trying to capture Gallipoli in World War I, when the Australians lost more men to dysentery than they did to Turks. Second, it keeps you gallop- ing, back and forth, forth and back, until there's something like a tunnel between your bed- room and your bathroom. Eventually, you are so weak it's an effort to pick up a Kleenex and have a honk. Enough to make a bad day, you'd say. Oh, no. It had to be badder. That's the way the gods work. When they single you out for a going-over, they're not going to be happy with a mere case of dire rear. After waiting for months for me to organize some storm window work, my wife had fin-• ally got cracking, which she should have done in the first place, and hired two young men to take off and wash and put back the storm windows. Four of them had been removed last spring and sat in the patio all summer, gathering twigs and dead flies. The others had never come off. The windows, that is. Looking through them was like having a bad case of myopia. You could tell there was light coming through, but everything else was just a sort of blur. Anyway, she had hired two of the most unlikely window - washers in town, a couple forer students of mine. Personally, though I like the pair, I would'- nt hire them to dig a grave. For a cat. However, as they weren't on welfare or unemployment insur- ance at the time, they leaped at the opportunity. After they'd checked on the going rate and agreed it was adequate. Barely. Not that they were immature or anything. Oh, no. They'd done their Grand Tour of Europe One had spent six weeks in jail in the Netherlands. They'd had four or five jobs since, in such productive industries as leath- erwork and making health food. Well, they arrive to do the windows the day I am almost on hands and knees with the Gallipoli. Bright and early. Eleven a. m, • All I want to do is crawl into bed and feel forsaken. No chance. A brisk ringing of the doorbell. "Well here we are," cheerily. A groan from me. They had a long ladder bor- rowed from a long-suffering father. Nothing else. I guess they were going to pry the windows off and wash them with the ladder. My wife mustered' cloths and cleaning fluid. I dug up a hammer and screw -driver, which took me many minutes and many oaths. They set to work, and I nearly had a nervous break-dowi I cowered in the living -room. They're right there at the wind- ows, grinning cheerfully, smear ing the dirt around on the panes, They need a step -ladder. Haul it up from the basement with the last possible ounce of strength. Retreat to the bedroom. There's one of them up there, perched on the ladder, shouting at me to whack the storm wind- ows from the inside. I whack and shudder, waiting, cringing, for the sound of a six-foot storm window shattering into tiny bits. Or the sound of the ladder crashing through the inside wind• ow. Or the thud of a body hit- ting the turf. Wonder whether I have insurance to cover, first, the glass, second, the body. No idea. This went on for a couple of hours. Shouts, imprecations, poundings. I was in a state of collapse and the old lady wasn't much better. I was wishing I'd gone to school, even on a stret- cher. But I guess the gods, besides tormenting people like me, look after those who need look- ing after. Neither of them fell, even as much as eight feet. They finished the job. And they were there, very business- like, for the cheque. They also had some terse remarks about the inadequacy of our cleaning materials and we felt properly guilty. Try it some day when you have the Gallipoli and a couple of nitwits doing your storm windows. A badder day. 0 BIRTHDAY LABEL Under the Motor Vehicle Safety Act, all vehicles manu- factured in Canada or imported into Canada subsequent to Jan- uary 1, 1971 are required to bear a manufacturer's label specifying the month and year of manufacture. Consumers' Association of Canada urges shoppers to look for this Man- ufacturers Statement of Compl- iance Label which must be affixed on new vehicles on the driver's door hinge pillar, door latch post or door edge, next to the door latch post. CAC headquarters is located at 100 Gloucester Street, Ottawa. NORM WHITING LICENSED AUCTIONEER & APPRAISER Prompt, Courteous, Efficient ANY TYPE, ANY SIZE, ANYWHERE We give complete sale service. PROFIT BY EXPERIENCE Phone Collect 235-1964 EXETER Business and Professional Directory OPTOMETRISTS • J. E. Longstaff OPTOMETRIST SEAFORTH MEDICAL CENTRE 527-1240 Tuesday, Thursday; Friday, Sat- urday a.m., Thursday evening CLINTON OFFICE 10 Isaac Street 482-7010 Monday and Wednesday Call either office for appointment. Norman Martin OPTOMETRIST Office Hours: 9-12 A,M. — 1:30-6 P.M. Closed all day Saturday Phone 235.2433 Exeter INSURANCES`,, Robert F. Westlake Insurance "Spacialising ' n General Insurance" Phone 236-4391 — Zurlsh For Safety .. 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