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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1983-02-16, Page 2iiuron «xposior Since 1860, Serving the Community first Incorporating BrusscIs Post founded 1872 12 Main St. 527.0240 Published at SEAFORTH, ONTARIO every Wednesday afternoon by Signal -Star Publishing Limited Jocelyn A. Shrler, Publisher Susan White, Editor H.W. (Herb) Turkheim, Advertising Manager Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association, Ontario Community Newspaper Association and Audit Bureau of Circulation A member of the Ontario Press Council Subscription rates: Canada $17.75 a year.(In advance) outside Canada $50. a year (In advance) Single Copies - 50 cents each SEAFORTH, ONTARI +, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1983 Secon . class ma''1 registration number 0696 Serving th.e. community with your help Serving the community since 1860. That's what it says on our masthead on this page and that's what the Huron Expositor tries hard to do. Week in, week out, 52 weeks a year. And year after year. That's never harder to do than at a time when the economy is going through a bad period. A period like right now when agriculture is suffering, small business has its back to the wall and everyone is cutting -down on advertising. The Expositor has traditionally covered a wide rural area around Seaforth as well as the town. When papers are small, as they usually are this time of year, it's difficult, verging on impossible, to get room for all the news that we think belongs in the paper. That means hard news and feature stories by our reporters, correspondence from the rural area that ranges from Ethel to Hensall, from Londesboro to Dublin, sports news from this booming sports town, the late on the farm scene, meeting reports, school and church news, the births, the deaths and the columns. We discussed the problem with ow area correspondents at a meeting here last week. We hope that with their help and yours we can continue to produce a newspaper that has a wide range of stories of interest to most of our readers. To have every story interest e;ery reader is impossible. But because space is so tight it's no exaggeration to say we are looking carefully at almost every word that.goes into the newspaper and making a sincere effort to ensure the news we print interests the widest number of readers. One of the problems some of the correspondents say they encounter is that while in their community everyone likes to read their news, few people ever call them with news items. They need feedback from their readers to know what readers want to see in the columns they write. "My phone number's not at the top of my news because I'm lonely," one of them joked, "it's so readers can call." The same applies to the Expositor as a whole. We need to hear from our readers what they want to see more, and less of, in the paper. You car phone. us or better yet write us, with your concerns. Along with serving the community, a newspaper must rr(ak a profit that any business needs, or it won't stay in business. That mean the number of pages it produces are dictated by advertising revenue produced. "Can't you just add a page or two?" is what an editor often hears when there are complaints about news left out or an event covered with a photo or a story but not both. Unfortunately, we can't. What we can do is edit all the news we run as tightly as possible, cut out the coverage that's of interest to very, very few readers and expand on the rest. That's where you come in. We hope to hear from you. - S.W. Their tactics are harmful The recent "penny auction" of farm machinery during a bankruptcy sale near Palmerston has sparked another round of banking bashing. The event, which was a perfect public relations display for a Middlesex farm survival group, drummed up a great deal of hostile feeling towards the banks and possibly some support for strongarm tactics by some farm groups. However, the event has done little to help farmer -banker relations at a time when co-operation is the key to many farmers maintaining their livelihood. As a media event, the takeover of the auction by the farm survival group, had all the ingredients of a good news story. Irata rmers helping out one of their own against the merciless Canadian bankl g system, a farmer who has declared bankruptcy and lost his operation and some strongarm tactics, all add spice to a news story. What the rash of stories in the media failed to cover was the fact that the creditors involved had been working with this farmer for. over a year in an attempt to salvage his operation. It is normal procedure for many farm survival groups to portray the banks as the farmer's worst enemy, ready to pounce on any farmer in financial difficulty. That is not the fact. Banks have gone a long way in helping farmers work out viable financial solutions for their farms and are interested in keeping their farm customers. Much of the blame for farm bankruptcies has to be placed on poor management, an over-extension of credit and a poor economic climate. The approach taken at this particular auction can only be termed "simplistic" in its goal of blacklisting banks for the hardship faced by farmers. A better approach would be to find ways of increasing the co-operation between both groups in working towards feasible financial solutions. The Perth Federation of Agriculture is moving in the right direction with its recent establishment of arbitration committees to help in negotiations between banks and farmers. It is a local approach that will aid local farmers. It will also eliminate a confrontation between the two groups. -K.S. Ancient accidents get TV coverage 71© n* *Cita? Just thought that it might be of interest that your newspaper has again supplied me with a news segment for "Report from the Country". This was aired in the late Saturday night news. Feb. 12. it is your two "ancient" references to transportation, or traffic accidents. The hundred year old one where the young man, feeding the mule. had his head kicked. Then. 25 years later. a runaway team created much excitement. and a little damage on Brussels' Main Street. Ran this in with some comments how travel and transportation has always been hazard- ous to humans. One early reporter, Samuel, 4 wrning in the OId Testament tells how Ahsotom went horse -back riding. snagged his head in an oak tree branch, and hung himself. Today we have our railway, skyway and highway crashes taking toll of life and limb. Things really do not change all that much, do they' And thanks, too. for keeping your combi- nation publication. The Expositor and The Post. brightening my weekly mail. Yours faithfully Arthur`Carr CKCO-TV's "Country Editor" l OpOrhicm by Ron W assink NORMAL PROCEDURE CREAM PIE METHOD NO HAND -JELLO SCRUB KISS LOOK -A -LIKE Contributing to society while. staying home Judy Erola floated her trial balloon about cancelling the married spouse deduction and quickly had it shot down by the Canadian public but there is philosophy behind her thinking that will not go away so easily. Despite the angry reaction across the country to the proposal that married women living at home should no longer be' categorized as "dependents", there are many who agree with what she was trying to do. This wasn't. after all, an idea that just sprung into Mrs. Erola's head. It had been proposed many years ago by a commission studying the role of women in society. The idea behind cancelling the deductions was that it was unfair to many women who work and have to pay day-care fecs"while men who have wives who stay home not only don't have to pay day-care, but get a tax deduction as well. There was also a feeling that many upper income families where the wife could afford to stay home. were getting more benefit from the deduction than poorer people. Mrs. Erola tried to talk her way out of trouble, of course, by saying she had never ' meant that lower income people should' have their tax deduction taken away, only the rich. She got herself right back into trouble though, when she asked whgt a married woman who wasn't looking after children at home was contributing to society. She has been attacked from all sides on this [MOW th® by, K@Igh I°n�OOel440Oin one. One question is how do you judge what is a contribution to society? It's a question that has always interested me. 1t would seem to itte, for instance, that farmers make the greatest contribution to society yet are rewarded the least, both in terms of monetary gain and in terms of the prestige of their 'profession. Doctors contribute much and are well rewarded, (even if not as much as they think they should be.) But the inventor of a new video game can become a millionaire overnight and what has he contributed to society? WORTH MORE? There has been way of thinking. particular- ly from the feminist movement in the last couple of decades, that a woman is worth more if she is outside the home than inside. There are, indeed, women who have become farmers and doctors and scientists searching for the cure for cancer and who cannot agree that they are making a great contribution to society? But is the woman who sits all day in front of a video display terminal for a company making hub caps of automobiles making a great contribution to the advance- ment of mankind? is she even making a contribution to the advancement of herself? On the other hand, what about the woman who stays home and raises her children and while they are growing. or after they have left home, works as a volunteer keeping the local church going. working in hospitals, raising money for the heart fund or a symphony orchestra or to send doctors and teachers to the Third World? These people are contribu- ting nothing? The dangerous thinking behind the propo- sal of Mrs. Erola and her supporters is that all things should flow from government and to government. It is the same thinking involved in the budgets of Allan MacEachen, that there should be no such -thing as non-taxable benefits. that everybody should have to pay taxes, then have the government give back in terms of aid for this and that. Government must have money if it is to proyide the services that we all, no matter how conservative. expect to receive. But Mrs. Erola would prefer to professionalize our world. Women would go out to work and pay taxes which the government would then give to set up day care centres which would hire other women to professionally raise the children. Women would go out to work and pay taxes to hire people to do the work that Let's get-anada back on its knees lusg(DQ ©WCC kpk@ Isn't it kind of nice to see the government putting the boots to some financial wheeler- dealers fora change, instead of bluntly telling us common chaps that we must toe the line with 6,and 5, with inflation, that the working man and the farmer are greedy and should be happy that swollen rates of usury have come down. and that there's a Big Rock Candy Mountain in the Sky, if we just continue to trust in it (the government)? Isn't it kind of sad that a government should sit around on its big. fat tail, contemplating its big. fat navel, practically turned inside out because the comfortable pot -belly has so grown with pats on the shoulder. campaign contributions, and sug- gestions that, whatever , happens can he covered up. or obfuscated by comforting stuff like, "You're doing fine, Jack. 1 love ya. Just don't get caught...? Isn-'t it kind of nice that. once in an ice age. democracy actually works? That a placid government. even a majority one. which usually turns over every controversial issue to a Royal Commission which requires three years and millions., of dollars to produce a report that nobody reads, can be forced into taking strong measures by an intelligent, well-prepared and determined Opposition, and actually has to get off its butt before the by DBDD gffl BD@y fandango is danced w its last note? isn't it amazing that government. with its huge staff of "experts" in practically everything. doesn't have a clue that: some trust companies are shaky; people are polluting other people's water; we are building national and provincial deficits which will put our country fairly quickly in with the Third World'countries; our defence forces are a snigger around NATO; • our industries, in general. are still in the 1950s, as far as equipment, management and production are concerned? Wouldn't it be great if people actually read the statement of the Archbishops, that people are more important thatn policies, rather than snarking. "Why don't they stick with their beads?", or, "If they're right, why don't they let the Canadian Manufacturers Association re -write the Ten Command- ments?" Wouldn't it be simply splendid if some "non -working housewife, who has been putting in sixteen hours a day, seven days a week, for twenty-five years, walked up and gave cabinet minister Judy Erola a tax allowance for non -working spouses? This is the worst column 1 have ever written. Nothing but questions. Of course. they don't need answers because they are rhetorical questions. But the sentences are too long. Too many clauses beginning with "which." If a student offered this as an essay, 1 would rip it to ribbons. Maybe it's because I'm becoming con- fused, like everybody else in this country. But who, normally a decent, responsible citizen, willing to share, to contribute, to work out something better, can be anything else but confused when he finds himself surrounded by veniality and apathy in high places, anger in middle places, fury in low places and whimpering from all directions, can keep himself looking at the plateaus, rather than the valleys? There 1 go again. Another rhetorical question. Another rambling sen- tence. Getting rid of Trudeau is no solution. Nor is women previously dud as part-time volun- teers. Not only does this breed bigger and bigger bureaucracies, but it also breeds an inertia on the part of the public: a feeling that we must wait for government to do things. that we can't do them ourselves. During the arena crisis a few'years ago when so many arenas were closed, the places that had their arenas rebuilt the fastest and paid for the fastest were the little villages that were used to doing things themselves. This kind of thinking also leads to more government power. For instance, Mrs. Erola talks about government -assisted day-care but the nearest day care centre is 10 miles from my home. The government is unlikely to sponsor such a centre for the people of my village. More likely, in order to maximize government efficiency. it will encourage the death of smaller centres that can't be served as has happened with small western railway towns and as has happened in Ontario with the greater and greater centralization pushed by the Davis government. Finally. is this movement really benefitting women? If all women could' go out of the house and find challenging. rewarding jobs the answer would be yes but aftcr hundreds of years of a male dominated workplace. there arc millions of men stuck in dead-end, boring jobs who envy women who can stay home. Is it really progress to push many unskilled women into the same boat? at least Joe Clark, who would sell his aged grand- mother on the slave market to become prime minister again. Even for two weeks. What this country needs is another baby boom. 1t would take a couple of years to get it going, but if the whole nation got down to it, or up to it, the economy would soar once again. All our industries were geared up to the fantastic boom of babies after World War 11. Everybody needed diapers, booties, baby buggies, toys. smashed spinach, soothers, talcum'powder, maternity dresses. Then, a little later. shoes, snow -suits tricycles, orthodontists. TV sets, records, jeans, six -dollar hair -styles. granny glasses, mini- skirts. The economy was booming. The Pat Office as delivering the mail. Politicians µere paid about what a plumber makes today, and they were worth every cent of it, The national debt was just a tiny cloud on the horizon. Unemployment was a bad word from the Thirties. Every kid wasoing to go to university and be rich ever afterwards. There. That's my solution. It's as sound as that of any economist I've read. Who's for a Baby Boom? Speak for yourself. of course. Include me out. But let's get the country hack on its knees, at least. if not on its feet. Ice hauled from Egmondville in 1883 FEBRUARY 16, 1883 S.G. McCaughey has disposed of a property in Harpurhey belonging to William McCulloch. Consisting of six acres. the property sold for 170 per acre. Immense quantities of ice are now being hauled from the Egmondville dam. The quality of this ice is not good. Snow has been so deep that, ice is not solid and waters in the fall were so shallow that the river froze nearly to the bottom. Thomas Mellis, popular Kippen, black- smith, has just competed hammering out, half a ton of horse shoes. FEBRUARY 21, 1908 The auction sale of Thomas Case of Usborne was most successful. Cows sold from $42 to $65 and two year old steers sold rho y@cm, ©gone as high as 5110 a pair. Thomas Brown of Seaforth was the auctioneer, The annual meeting of ttobert Bell Thresher and Engine Company was held. Sales for the year increased over 50 per cent, a total of 5183,000. A large quantity of ice has been put in recently by farmers in Tuckersmith town- ship. FEBRUARY 17, 1933 His Majesty's Mail delivered to William Bell a cheque for exactly one cent, payment fot dividend on stock. The check was drawn on the First National Bank in Tuba, Oklahoma. Mr. Bell is holding the cheque hoping the exchange on the American cent will increase to a point where it will pay the changes the bank will collect for cashing the cheque. Severe weather has provided a plentiful crop of good clean ice and gangs of men are busy harvesting the supply. While not as thick as other years, it is better than the slush which was the only available last year. FEBRUARY 14, 1958 Frank Kling was re-elected chairman of the Seaforth Public Utility Commission. Other members are Commissioner D'Orlean Sills and Mayor B.F. Christie. Seaforth's new police department had a busy month in January, recording 42 occurences. Included were four accidents, 10 charges of improper parking and escorting two funerals. Margaret Elgie, 12, grade six student at the Mensal' public school, won first prize in the spelling match which was attended by 29 schools. She successfully spelled 50 words. (