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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1962-09-20, Page 2Since 1860, Serving the Community First Published at SEAFORTH, ONTARIO, every Thursday morning by MCLEAN E, p A ANDREW Y. McI�EAN, Editor . A .� Member Canadian Weekly Newspapers Association o Ontario Weekly Newspapers Association Audit Bureau of Circulations Subscription Rates: Canada (in advance) $2.50 a Year Outside Canada (in advance) $4.00 a Year P� SINGLE COPIES — 10 CENTS EACH Authorized as Second Class Mail, Post Office Department, Ottawa BROS., Publishers /se *leek& SEAFORTH, ONTARIO, SEPTEMBER 20, 1962 Monthly Tax One item that is certain to be on the agenda of most meetings of provincial municipal gatherings is the high tax rate that applies in many towns and cities today. The discussion that for- lows usually contains a, suggestion that some other level of government should do something about it. But perhaps the picture may not be as serious as it is painted: Speaking at a recent meeting of the Ontario Munici- pal' Association, H. Carl Goldenberg suggested—and backed up the sugges- tion with figures—that perhaps munici- pal politicians may be protesting too much. Mr. Goldenberg,,,who has attained a national reputation in labor and fiscal matters, told the OMA that municipal taxation today is relatively less of a burden than it was before World War II. The fact is, as the Toronto Star points out, that senior governments are taking more and more financial re- sponsibility for public services that are not purely local. In 1934, for example, municipal government had to foot 34 per cent of health and welfare expen- ditures; in 1960 the municipal share had declined to nine per cent. In the early 1930's provincial 'governments met only a quarter of the costs of edu- cation, leaving the rest to local tax rates. Now they are footing half the bilis. At the same time, of course, munici- pal spending has had to increase vastly to cope with postwar development; as Mr.. Goldenberg said, across Canada it rose from $350 million in 1926 to more than $2 billion in 1960. :The sore point with local politicians and many citizens is that this has had to be borne. almost entirely by one kind of ' tax—that on real estate. One way of making it easier to meet present-day 'municipal taxes • would be to spread the load by more frequent payment, the Star suggests, and adds that those in Ontario have it in their power to institute taxes by instalment. But most small municipalities still bill KNOW Which Canadian has be- come the world's biggest baker? Willard Garfield We s t o n, Born in 1898, he served over- seas with the- Canadian Engin- eers during the First World War. Weston began his busi- ness career by joining his father's biscuit manufacturing firm, George Weston Limited, of which he became vice-presi- •dent in 1921. On the death of his father in 1924, he became president and general manager. In 1928 he was ready dor the series of big jumps which were to astound the business world. He began by organizing the Weston Biscuit. Company in Bills Ease Load their residents in one wallop,' although most cities have now a three -instalment system. All should move towards a ,monthly tax bill. There is much common sense in the conclusion the Toronto paper reaches : "People pay rent and other bills by the month, why not taxes? Toronto's x- perience with its new six -instalment plan shows that the city saves money (not having to borrow from the banks in the first months of the year) and citizens find payments easier to meet." Confusing the Issue Some of the new economic terms that have resulted from the sophisticated vocabulary of economists and politi- cians tend to confuse the layman who has always been used to having his case stated in words of one or two syllables. "National Review" in the U.S. has pub- lished some of these new economic terms along with their old definition. Perhaps you may be interested. Citizen investment—Taxes. Insurance against the future—Deficit spending. • Economic sophistication—Inflation. Minus adjustment—Debt. Resources allocation — Government spending. Readjustment downward — Stock mar- ket crash. Wealth distribution—Government ex- travagance. Economic stagnation—Thrift. Loss sales and wages—Fiscal responsi- bility. Deference To Custom Robert Thomas, author of an all -wo- man mystery comedy, Eight Women, has had to write different endings for the play, depending on the country in which it is playing. In France his hero commits suicide. In Spain he simply drops dead. .In most Oriental nations he buys a whip and beats the women. And in Japan he commits Kara- iri.— Baleares, Palma de Majorca. YOUR CANADA 1929, with a plant at Passaic, N.J., subsequently acquiring control of • a large number of baking and catering establish- ments across Canada. From 1933 to the end of the Second World War; Weston made his home in Great Bri- tain, buying several British bak- eries and ' developing his firm .into the largest in British bak- ing. With outposts in Austra- lia, India, South Affirm- and the West Indies, Weston now has the largest bread and biscuit business in the world. His oth- er interests include the E. B. Eddy Company and important grocery chains' in Canada and the U.S.A. Garfield -. Weston was a Con - HALF cm PAST TEEN rILL HAVE A TRIPLE SUPER BANANA SUNDAE SPLIT -BUT /NSTEAD OF` TOPP/NG IT W/TH A CHERRY., TOP IT WITH AN OYSTER. servative member of the British parliament from 1939 to 1945. During the Second World War he donated one hundred thou• sand pounds to the Royal Air Force to found the Spitfire Fund. * * * How did Charlotte Whit- ton become famous and successful? •rArI'iss Whitton, .Mayor of Ot- tawa; became famous as a poli- tician; but her stormy political. career was preceded by many long and successful years as a social worker. She took her M.A. at Queen's' University, Kingston, in 1917, and was ap- pointed assistant secretary . of the Social Service Council . of Canada in 1918. Fotir years lat- er, the Encyclopedia Canadiana- recalls, s obtained the post of private secretary to the Min- ister of . rade and Commerce. As the first director of the Can. adian Welfare Council from 1926 to 1951, Miss Whitton founded and edited the maga- zine, "Canadian . Welfare," and represented Canada in some League of Nations specialized meetings. After retiring from the Wel- fare Council, She became a gen- eral consultant on social wel- fare. She wrote many phamph- lets, still used as texts in schools of social work and was also the author of two books. Entering politics in 1950, . she was elected the first woman con- troller of the city of Ottawa. She became the first woman mayor in 1951 and was re-elect- ed in 1952 and 1954. In 1958 she contested the. federal seat of Ottawa West, as a Progres- sive Conservative, but was de- feated. In December,1960 she was re- elected Mayor 6f Ottawa. While Miss Whitton has become fam- ous for her fiery wit in politics, it was the years of single-mind- ed concentration, which led to her being recognized as a wel- fare authority, that made pos- sible her later success in poll - :ties. A "If you win, I'll buy you another stock of bananas" MACDUFF OTTAWA REPORT $50 MILLION IN RED TAPE OTTAWA—To Canadians who have had any, experience with the vast bureaucratic machin- ery of the Federal Government, the conclusion of the Glassco Royal Commission that it runs badly will come as no. surprise. What is surprising is that it runs at all, con RI ring the Commission's devastating crit- icism of the whole system of operation. Established in 1960 under the chairmanship of Toronto char- tered accountant, J. Grant Glassco, the Commission was intended to provide an inten- sive examination of the organ- ization of the Canadian Govern- ment similar toe that undertak- en several years ago in'. the United States by a commission under the chairmanship of for- mer President Herbert Hoover. The findings of the Commis - ion are based on far-reaching studies of more than 100 Gov: ernment departments and ag- encies employing some 480,000 people by more than 200 experts drawn from the ranks of private industry and, to a limited ex- tent, from the Government service itself. The first report of the Com- missioners makes it clear that .the study is long overdue. In language that is both lucid and literate, they paint a picture of a massive Governmental or- ganization that is in danger of strangling itself in ,its own red tape. It paints a picture of a Gov- ernmental organisation that has swollen to gigantic size in an effort to meet the demand of modern - clay society which is attempting to operate under a primitive and archaic system of organization formulated af- ter the first World War to serve the needs of a Government that was still relatively small: The Commission found many of the Government departments and agencies hobbled by a rigid system of centrally imposed controls governing organization, administration, personnel and spending of. money that were aimed at maintaining fiscal and political rectitude without re- gard to efficiency. But while these branches of Government lacked the author- ity to provide for the efficient organization of their own oper- ations, there was a complete' lack of central control and re- sponsibility for developing av- er -all policies that would en- sure that Government services performed as efficiently as pos- sible to meet. the growing d minds that have been imposed upon them. The Report found that the standards of probity establish- ed by the system of centralized controls that now exists is un- doubtedly high. "But good man- agement consists in more than the- avoidance of sin, and this calvanistic approach to public administration, while well de- signed to discomfit bad man- agers, was bound to prove frustrating to good ones," the report pointed out. The fundamental recommen- dation of the Commissioners for remedying the underlying defects in the present apparatus of Government falls into two parts. One involves giving to the departments far more re- sponsibility and authority for TR HOMY OILY IT'S ABOUT TIME WS DON'T 'WOW CLEANSo OUT MS. AWAY THAT GARAeE, HO -THERE 5 GALLON O%L WAS HARDLYROOM CAN,JUNIOR- FOR THE CAR: I'LL SHOW YOU HOW TO Pur IT TO GOOD USE ensuring the efficient admini- stration of their. own operations. The other involves establishing a central agency with responsi- bility for laying down the broad lines of policy in which depart- ments must operate to ensure that their management is mod- ern and efficient. The Commission has high praise, as well it might, for the calibre of the men and wo- men who are members of Can- ada's public service. What it condemns in forthright lan- guage is the inefficient system under which they have been forced to operate and the lack of responsibility imposed on any form of Government for ensuring that such an archaic system of management is not indefinitely perpetuated. The key proposal of the Com- missioners is that the Treasury Board, a committee of the cab- inet which now operates under the Finance Department, be shorn of its present duties to supervise an astonishing array of minute details of Govern- ment operations. Instead, they propose that it be established directly under the Privy Coun- cil with a minister of its own to ensure the adoption of broad policies of good management, utilizing all the modern tech- niques available, within the de- partments and agencies. - The " Report estimated that tens of millions of dollars could be saved through the implei*en- tation of its recommendations. It calculated that $50,000,000 alone could be saved by im- proving the way in which the Government handled the moun- tain of paperwork churned out annually by the , civil service. "Your commissioners are highly critical of existing conditions and regard the opportunities for imprevement- as challenging in the extreme," the Report said. T h e commissioners found Government files, which already occupy 200 miles of shelving, accumulating at the alarming rate of 10 miles a year, despite the fact there was no adequate index to provide any required file at the required time. It found a vast proliferation of forms and reports which served no useful purpose, a "creeping. disintegration" of the system of Government directives, and an appalling lack of understanding of modern systems of Manage- ment and the use of computers and other devices to facilitate them. he first report of the Glassco Commission has underlined the basic changes that must be made to streamline the organ- ization of the Government serv- ices to enable them to meet the load imposed upon them as ef- ficiently and with as little cost as possible. But having a basic solution to the probiedis facing the pub- lic service is <only half the bat- tle. The other half is' having it put 'into effect. The recommendations of the Glassco Commission involve far- reaching :changes, many of which will be • considered dras, tic, even revolutionary by a civ- il service brought up on the present method of doing things. The main features of the Re- port will only be implemented if there is a strong determina- tion on the part of the cabinet BY LLOYD OIRMINGRAID PAD MADE CAMP STOVE FROM THE 6 GAL, CAN. INSERT ALIETTNAtE TABS(CUTON FRUIT JUICE CAN) IN SLOTS IN 5 [SAL. CAN matt IN THE YEARS ALONE Interesting items gleaned from The Expositor of 25, 50 and 75 years ago. 1 From The Huron Expositor September, 17, 1937. Town Treasurer David H. Wil- son is eagerly scanning the mails each day for a cheque in the sum of $951.45, being the municipal subsidy of-. one mill on the town's assessment which the Ontario. Government is this year paying. Tuekersmith council has awarded the contract for the construction of the Sinclair drain to E. Prendergast, of Seb- ringville, the price being $2,689, with work to start Qctober 1. At a meeting in Blyth on Tuesday of the Huron Presby- tery, Douglas Stewart, of Sea - forth, son of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Stewart, was received and accepted by the Presbytery as a student for the ministry. * * * From The Huron Expositor September 20, 1912 Mr. H. Edge has the contract for sidewalks being built in town this year and is now busy laying them down. At a special meeting of cdun- cil on Monday afternoon, Mr. John Cummings was appointed By REV. ROBERT H. HARPER KINDNESS TO CREATURES Recently, on a blazing day, in July, I drove with a friend down a neighborhood road to a home where my friend desired to visit relatives. After he went into the house, he came out ,and said that his relatives invited me in, saying they would make some coffee. It: was pleasant to sit in a large comfortable chair, with a busy fan playing upon me. And I was well content. Soon the, frenzied family dog set up a great barking and the young daughter went to see. In the back yard the dog was bark-' ing fiercely at an intruder which few dogs have found in their territory1— a large crane with plumage as.white as the driven snow.. My friend, a big ready fellow, rushed toward the crane who with his long pointed beak pecked the man on the nose. I could not help but be amused, since he was not badly hurt and the lady had touched salve to his nose. The crane could hardly b blamed, since the hand of man had always seemed against it. But that was the only time• he offered any act of defence.. Sick or injured, we know not, he had seemed to trust the people who dealt with him kindly. I recall- ed what Coleridge wrote in the Ancient Mariner—"He prayeth best who loveth best all things, both great and small." Just a Thought: It is .extremely difficult to find anygood in the human race when we go about with eyes and ears expecting to always see and hear the very worst A SMILE OR TWO Two fishermen sitting on a bridge, their lines in the water below, made a bet as to who would catch the first fish. One got a bite and got so excited that he fell off the bridge. "Oh, well," said the other, "if you're going to dive for them, the bet's off." The dashing young man was sued for his hotel bill. "I never pay bills until I go," he explain- ed. "I am trusted everywhere. I am one of thelions of so- ciety." Magistrate: "Lions? Your last landlord described you as one of the 'cheetahs'." Mother was busy in the kit- chen when Junior asked, "Dad- dy wouldn't murder anybody, would he?" "Gracious no, what made you ask that?" "Well, I heard him down in the basement saying, 'Let's kill the other two, Joe'." to see that they are. Even then little will be accomplished un- less a central authority armed with sufficient authority is giv- en the responsibility for seeing that the departments fall in line. * * * Capital "Hill Capsule A new, four -pronged assault on world markets will be launched by the Trade and Corn-, coerce Department over a six- week period next Spring. More than 700 buyers will be flown to this country from around the globe to inspect Canadian indus- trial equipment and consumer wares in two phases. More than 130 trade commissioners from around the world will return to Ottawa . fot a one-week confer- ence on trade develoi merits, followed by a second national export protttotion conference at tvl itli Canadian busirieSsftien Will have titi Opportunity to e* p1tiie 4iciv avec neS for sales hbitaifi. caretaker of the Town Hall and assistant of the Hydro -Electric substation. He succeeds Mr. Adam MacKay. The salary is $550 per year. Threshers say the grain in this vicinity is .turning out a larger yield than was expected and very little has been ser- iously injured by the wet sea- son. The fall wheat in many fields is coming up' nice and green. Mr. Passmore, of Hensall, has his fine new cement smoke- stack finished„ for his electric light station, and it presents a very imposing appearance, be- ing 80 feet high. The large force of railway men from the different sections along the GTR to the north have nearly completed one of the new switches, so that it will not be very long before they have the entire yard at Hen - sail Changed in the way of tracks. • * * * From The Huron Expositor September 3, 1887 1E r. F. G. Sperling has beau- tiful large ripe raspberries growing -in his garden at try present time, and many of the bushes are out in full bloom. The students of the High School are back in force this week; 115 are in attendance— about 40 of them for the first time. While driving over a bridge in McKillop a few days ago. Mr. George Case was so unfortunate as to have his horse go through the planks. He had to secure assistance from people in the neighborhood before he could get the animal extricated. , Do you like autumn? I• do. For me, it's the epitome of all that's best in Canada. You can have your spring, glorious spring, with its drizzles and its mud and'its chilling winds. You can have your summer, with its particular pests—tourists, bugs, visitors.. And you can most definitely have winter in its every possible aspect. Just give me about six months of that September - October weather, and you couldn't drag me out of this country to the island of Bali. I know that,, according to the rhythm of nature,' fall' is sup- posed to be a time of dying,' of melancholy, ,-of shrivelling •on the vine, of preparing for the deep, dead sleep of winter. * * * Maybe Canadians are just contrary, but they don't react in the way they're supposed to at all, in the fall. Instead of carefully preparing for winter, drawing in their horns, and go- ing around with long faces, they bust out all over as soon as that first nip is felt. in the morningair. Perhaps they're just fooling themselves, but Canadians act as though they- love the fall. They come to life. They bustle. They form committees, . make plans, have parties. They even start going to church. •Perhaps it's just a last hysterical fling, a frantic escape from reality, with the grim prospect of six months' winter ahead, but they certainly •burn with a clear, gem -like flame while it lasts. * * -* Where is the sober house- holder who should be chinking up. thenooks and crannies, put- ting on the storm windows, get- ting in his fuel supply, and battening down all the hatches, for the bitter voyage that loonps ahead? I'll tell you where 'he is, on his day off. He's standing in ice water up to his nipples, trying to catch a rainbow trout. Or out . on the golf course, .so bundled with sweaters he can hardly swing. Or he's sitting with a noggin, watching the football game on television. That's 'where he is. * * * And where's the guidewife, who should be knitting woollen socks, putting down preserves and •canned meat, airing the flannelette sheets, patching the family's long underwear, and quilting a quilt? I'll tell you where she is. She's on the phone, talking SUGAR and SPICE By Bill Smiley about what she's going to wear to the tea. Or she's off in the car to attend a wedding.' Or she's out playing bingo. Or she's taking in an auction sale. Or she's sitting around with her feet up, watching the afternoon movie. That's where she is. * * * It must shake our pioneer an- cestors • rigid to look down, or up, from their present abode, and see us preparing for win- ter. About this time. of 'year, grandfather was killing a beef, shooting a deer, salting down a hog, making apple cider. stack- ing vast piles of firewood and hustling his wheat to the mill. It must rot his celestial socks to look down and see his grand- son hunting deer for a holiday, buying his pig .pre-cooked at the meat counter, and laying in his fuel supply by picking up the phone and calling the oil dealer. * * * And, what about Granny? In her day, fall was the time when you worked like a beaver, mak- ing sausage, spinning wool; put- ting eggs away. in waterglass, filling the root cellar, making candles and soap. She must do a little quiet cussing, in the shadow of her halo, when shesees her grand- daughter facing up to the rigors of winter: racked by the dread- ful indecision of whether to buy a home freezer or a fur coat: torn by the dilemma of whether to have the cleaning woman come once or twice a week. * * * But, of course, that's looking at only one side of the situa- tion. Granddaddy didn't have to worry about anti -freeze, atom bombs, income tax or payments on the car. He didn't need sup- positorieS, diets and a new tail- pipe every time he turned around: And Granny didn't have to cope with a kitchenful of ma- chinery, 'kids who were smarter- than marterthan she was, and the late movie. She didn't need slep.. ing pills, cigarettes or psychol- ogy. * * * Say, come to think of it. those. WERE the good old days. They didn't . have much, but what they they had was their own, not the finance company's. No auto accidents, no alcoholic an- onymous; no aspirin. Let's stop worrying about the hardships of our pioneer ancestors and get back to sweating over our own neurotic chaos. _.-IT S't'Al2"t'ED 't'O CHOKE Al40 COUGH... S DON'T KNOW WHAT'S WzOI4c.