Loading...
Clinton News-Record, 1972-03-23, Page 44—Clinton News-Record, Thursday, March 23, 1972 May the rumors halt John van Gastel put on a pretty good show Tuesday afternoon for a man-that was broke. At least you'dthink he was broke if you happened to be one of those who heard the latest rumors from the rumor mills last week. The rumor mongers had it that van Gastel had not paid his bills and the government was repossessing the Base. Well, the 40-50 persons who sat down to a sumptuous meal at the officers mess at the base on Tuesday didn't have too many doubts about how true the rumors were, Present at the dinner were representatives from all local municipal bodies, the county, and the provincial government. They ate good food and drank expensive wine. They saw an officers' mess that was well furnished. They toured buildings that were heated andsaw the evidence that Work has been going on at the Base. They say the Devil finds work for idle hands. There must be something, about idle minds along the same line. There certainly seem to be too many idle minds around here.. When wi l l people learn to mind thei r own business? Those who were at the Base on Tuesday had ample evidence that the project is going ahead well, Yet some people, because they can not see things happening overnight, apparently have to invent reasons why they aren't. We don't need these profits of gloom and doom. What we need is more people thinking positively about the town's future and doing something to ensure that future will be bright, Are prisons getting too soft? Time was that "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" was the guiding principle for punishment. Most people conveniently overlook the fact that a careful reading of that passage in the Bible shows it means an eye for an eye is the maximum punishment that can morally be sought. The message of the Bible surely is that mercy (not to mention commonsense) should prevail. This should be remembered when considering the extensive penal system reforms being introduced by Canada's Solicitor-General, Jean- Pierre Goyer. He is trying to change the system from punishment to rehabilitation. In his short term of office he has moved to allow payment of a basic wage to some prisoners, provided them with ordinary civilian clothing, allowed them normal haircuts, eliminated censorship of their letters Maritime union The proposed union of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island into one province is still possible in spite of the reluctance of their premiers. Louis Robichaud and Robert Stanfield, former premiers of New Brunswick. and Nova Scotia "PaYou'red 'it: In 1970 a commission headed by Dr. John W. Deutsch strongly advocated it. The three provinces have taken the early steps in a union plan sketched by the Deutsch Report. A Maritime Premier's Council has held five meetings, agreeing on items of joint legislation and uniform practices throughout the region. Nevertheless, Premiers Campbell, Hatfield and Regan have significantly stopped short of endorsing full political union, evidently sensing no public demand for it. When Maritimers discuss public matters, such problems as prices of and allowed thousands of them to leave jail on weekends. Canada has probably jailed more people, proportionately, than any other civilized country. It is something that every thinking Canadian must face. And it hasn't worked. The crime rate has continued to go up. What's more, it's expensive. It costs more than $10,000 yearly to keep a man in prison; only $400 a year to keep him on parole. Society's treatment of prisoners works much the same way as its treatment of youth, the aged, dissenters, policemen, and in fact, any group you want to mention. Members of all those groups will tend to behave the way they're expected to—be that good or bad. We have to help people to their feet if we expect them to walk. primary products (low), taxes and cost of living (high), welfare, education, drugs, environmental pollution and road conditions get priority over Maritime Union. Nor can they see Union solving any of them. They think . of Maritirne Union as something considered a century ago, rejected then and a dead issue ever since. They fear it would give the region only one voice instead of three in Federal-Provincial conferences. They are sceptical about the accuracy of the "bigger equals better" equation as applied to governments as well as corporations and unions. They feel something distinctive in each province would be lost in a union of the three. If union comes, it may not be in the ordered sequence suggested by Dr. Deutsch, but suddenly, as part of a greater rearrangement of eastern North American political boundaries. Old friends the purest "You're late, Henderson — what kept you?" Magic words Give to Easter Is. THE CLINTON ,NEW ERA Amalgamated THE HURON NEWS.RECORD Established 1865 1924 Established 1881 Clinton News-Record. A member of the Canadian Weekly Newspaper AMOeiation, Ohtario Weekly Newspaper Association and tine Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) second class mail registration numbeir — 0817 'SUBSCRIPTION PATES: (in advance) Canada,. $8.00 per year; $0.50 KEITH W. I:100E510N • Editor J. HOWARD AITKEN General Manager Published every Thursday at the heart of Huron County• Clinton, Ontario Population 3,476 111F WAIF DP RADAR I X (A Huron for the quarter ending March 9 number' only 21, and as two of these were dismissed, the convictions were only 19—the smallest number we believe ever reported in the county. driver at the wheel. But the real sufferers, the real victims, are the people who act that way. I've been applying the Bauer and the Weston philosophy to those of my friends I consider successful—that is, those who are doing a job with satisfaction. In every case the answer seems to be enthusiasm. By far the best newspaper reporter I know, to bring it down to cases, is convinced that the next story is going to be the best he ever wrote. Whatever his assignment happens to be, he goes at it with a wonderfully inquiring mind and a determination to do a classical job with it. "When I get to feeling that any story is routine," he's told me. "I'll quit and get into something else." I know several other reporters with more experience, more intelligence, more natural ability. But they lack that sincerity or inspiration or whatever it is. No amount of professional technique can make up for it. Like most people who have one foot in thegrave and the other foot butting out the cigarette that's putting them there, I become increasingly averse to change. Why can't my wife be the way she was when I married her; sweet, dumb, innocent and believing that my opinion was more important than hers? Why can't my daughter say, "Yes, dad", instead of, "Lood, Dad"?. Why can't my son do something besides shake his head in agony when I expound on the virtues of hard work, meeting your payments, and all that crud? It seems that the only people with whom I am still on the same wave-length are old friends. _ Now, I'm not going to give you an analogy comparing old friends to old wine, Although I do think they should be kept in the same place: a cool, dry spot, to be brought out at the exact moment. I have brought out some of my old friends at.the wrong moment. One In particular, can wreak havoc with my domestic relations, We're having a lovely barbecue, for example. His kids are drifting in and out. And then he says something like, "Smiler, remember the night we picked up those two..." And I leap smartly into the breabh and Waller, "Oh, yeah, those two unusual clam- shells at the beach", while his and my wife exchange lobles, and make Mental hates and prepare future third-degrees, however, as they say when they don't know any other way of getting back oh the track, some old Mende preserve not only their sanity, but their sense of humour. Recently had a letter from such. Dave McIntosh, a toiler in the bleached vineyards of journalism. He says he has been writing politics in Ottawa for the Canadian Press for two centuries. This is known as understatement, or litotes, if you are taking English from me, and aren't you glad you aren't? We went to University together, "fought" (mostly our way into the Regent Palace in London) together, and he set me up with the coldest woman I have ever met, when he couldn't keep a date and had me fill in. Dave was the only non-freak in North House, which sounds like something out of Dickens, and was. A "residence". It sounds like a modern euphemism meaning someplace you are put away. Many of the inhabitants of the men's residence should have been put away then, and some have been since. Which proves nothing. The "jocks" didn't like him, because he laughed at them, If you are not up on the latest slang, jocks were the, in those days, crew-cut boys who knew that the way to get ahead was to be on the team, marry the right girl, and kick the right people in the face as you climbed the ladder, They, unfortunately, are still with us. The only differenee is the ferocity of their sideburns, as compared With the shortness of their crew- ed, The aesthetes didn't like him, because he lalighed at them. if you are not up on aesthetes, they are the people who chuckle over the latest'vicious review of a play„ who parrot anyone Who has ever uttered a bon mot, who are seen at all the right places, hut couldn't write a paragraph or a scene, or a poem. They are the flies who buzz around a carcass. It must be dead. If it shows signs of life, they shriek with alarm and retreat into generalities like, "Well, after all, he's only doing his own thing." If his "thing" is vomiting on the carpet, that's fine. Sorry, chaps, Didn't mean to get mean. I have a toothache. Mac and I became friendly because was the only non-freak in Middle House, We were talking about old friends, And in his letter, Dave said something that struck me. He said, "Weeklies are a gold mine." He's right. And that brings me to another Old friend—my favourite weekly. Naturally, it's the weekly of which I used to be editor, It was with great delight thn I I road tweed ly a letter to the editor in said weekly. It stated, "The former e d itors (that's me) were eentletrien." agree. Lolled Imo stales that Bill Smiley is "a fine Man and a ow I writer." I think the Wt'ller of the letter thus ()meta lining haft either a drinking or. sr Mental nrobletn, I don't. Min rare. Allhongt think it might have been a fine writer' and n great man. Another (;em, haute Itimte Classified all: "Notice Would th e poruon who got my cf,IttVeri front my err r' Thurstia y 04/P11111g and HI rm , two poundu of butler !dream, phone..." A )oral eorree,potelent bee:1w,, "HI, dears, let's, lee, what'` Orr the Old ewlezle smirk fliP. week " lady who has never even Itched a ewieele fillets, I wear H'r4 eold, all Meld I've been reading yet another of those articles in which a millionaire tells how he did it and how YOU, too, can do it. Just can't resist these formulae for riches, partly because I am real keen about becoming a millionaire and partly because they usually make plenty of sense. The man to give advice on anything is the man who has made good at it. Old Chinese proverb. Arnold M. Bauer, the latest to bare his "secrets" says it all depends on how much you want whateveritistliatyou're, after. It isn't a new idea., maybe, but he holds that if you crave a thing hard enough and devote your energies to it hard enough you'll make the grade. Presumably this holds true if the aim is a million bucks or that girl with the corn-colored hair you admire each morning in the bus. Something of the same idea was expressed by H. R. MacMillan, who built a dynasty out of British Columbia's forests, when he was 15 YEARS AGO ' MARCH 21, 1957 The Founding Ceremony for the Bluebells will he held in the Council Chamber of the Town Hall, Clinton, on Saturday morning, March 23, This is an interdenominational group of young girls and women who meet every fortnight in the dining room of the Hotel Clinton. They give voluntarily of their time and labour, doing something for the aged and alone, those who are shut-in and need the kind of friendship which the Bluebells are willing to give. Fraser Stirling, R,R.2, Hayfield, has been re-elected president of Huron County's oldest farm organization, the Fruit Growers' Association, Rev, James Mellon Menzies, 72, a former missionary in China, died at his home Saturday. Born in Clinton, he was ordained in 1910 and served as a Presbyterian missionary in China, Clinton's second Queen's Scout, Lewis Ling, received his badge at the regular Scout meeting last week from Scoutmaster' Percy Brown, 25 YEARS AGO MARCH 20, 1947 A rather unpleasant experience of allgiti Cox and Stewart Schoennis occurred on Saturday when the art's they were driving met head on in a blinding snows'tor'm. Neither was sertoesly Mir! but Stewart was taken to Clinton Public Hospital to have traolured ribs, an injury to his hand andalso cut in his head eared for by a doctor. W Bruce Roy, Lomieshoro, was honoured at the animal athletre banquet at OAC when he received an award for being one of the teed athletes in the track and Held deem PI treed Ivan Turner has in ado a coutroot with the J. R. Watkins asked what kind of men he selects as executives and replied that it was the kind who is willing to give up some of the pleasures of life for that singleness of purpose that's required to be a success. It was, if memory serves me right, Garfield Weston, another Canadian dynasty-builder,. who opined that success is 90 percent inspiration and 10 percent brains. Mind you, Weston was no poor boy who made good. He, was a rich boy who made better. But he knew what he was talking about. Any way you look at it, it all boils down to that one magic word: Enthusiasm'. That's the golden key to success in anything whether it's making money or friends, closing a business deal or a love affair, serving a plate of hash or a tennis ball, conquering the world or your own destiny. Call it what you will — enthusiasm, inspiration, determination—it's the one thing that every man or woman may acquire without training or talent.' It may not be the high road to financial success. But it surely is Company, to distribute their well known line. Captain W. K. Rorke, who has been serving on Army Administration at Canadian Army Headquarters in England, returned to Canada on the last troop-carrying voyage of the "Aquitania", 40 YEARS AGO MARCH 24, 1932 Mr. and Mrs. Bert Beacom, Sydney Lee, H. Radford and Harry Caldwell left for Orval in the Parry Sound district where they expect to remain some time to be engaged in making maple syrup. Mr, Baechler has trucks employed this past week hauling logs to his saw mill in Goderich which he purchased from Messrs. Courts and Falconers, Chief Strong has been trying a new plan with transients who have been corning through town recently, He has been 'wowing bread and cooked meat and making tea on his office stove and giving them all they want to eat and drink. No one need be Iningry with an abundance of bread and meat, although variety is the spice of life and it is to he hoped limes will soon improve to such an extent that such provision will prove unnecessary. Organization of the local Hoy Scout Association was effected a month ago muter the leadership of CapL D. K. Poster, 55 YEARS AGO MARCH 22, 1917 The name ol Sergi. Fred G. Sloman, a well-known Clinton boy, appears in the London Times among a list of limey oilier- Canadian officers and met) whose names have liven brought to Om not iCV of IlieSecrelary of Stale for War for valuable- services rendered in colmeclioa with the War. II was with very deep regssel the answer to finding personal happiness and satisfaction in any endeavor. Take, for example, the waitress at the coffee shop around the corner from where this is written. She acts as if it were a life-giving pleasure to serve you. 'heard only yesterday that she's to move up to the cashier's desk. Or a certain elevator operator whose grilled cage is a happy place because she's made it that way. In her own way she's just as much a success story as Garfield or H.R. You and I know all too well that these people are exceptions. Nine out of ten men or women that we encounter this way seem to go about their chores and, often, their lives, as if they were performing some distasteful and disagreeable discipline. They make society a little grimmer for everyone, There's nothing so discouraging to the digestive juices as a bored and gloomy waitress. The bus ride always seems twice the distance when there's a disenchanted that the fact became known a few days ago that Mr. H. E. Paull. accountant and acting manager of the local branch of Molson's Bank, has received instructions of his transfer from Clinton to Alvinston. Mrs. G. W. Cunninghatne and Miss D. Cantelon decided to amalgamate their S.S. classes of young girls and one evening last week met at the home of the former to organize. This class of girls will be known as "The Wesleyans." 75 YEARS AGO Through no fault of her own, the contemplated sale of the jewellery business of Mrs. Biddlecombe to Mr. Wilmot, has fallen through and she purposes continuing the business, having put a thoroughly practical man in charge, Dr, Gunn has sold his lot on Huron Street, immediately west of Jackson Bros. store, to W. Core, for a trifle over $300; this shows that Clinton properly is holding its own. We believe that Mr. Coro intends to build on the lomat:Mon already laid. The magistrates's eases in lemourlors, Letters to. the Editor The Editor, As the winter portion of the Clinton Reereation Programme nears its completion, the time is appropriate to extend my personal gratitude to Director Doug Andrews, Pepety-Glerk Cern Proctor' and Recreation Committee Member, Kern Clynick. Their' generous giving of their time and knowledge greatly aided me in the composition of a research paper on the recreation programme, Clinton and surrounding area residents are fortunate indeed to have the opportunity to enjoy 2 diverse, extensive recreation programme. The recently completed Bantam Hockey Tournament is representative of the industry and ambition exhibited by those people• associated with recreation in Clinton. May their efforts continue to realize innovation and progression within the programme. Don MacDougall University of Western Ontario London, Ontario The Editor, As aparent, I would like to see some dances at the High School for the young people. Twenty-five or thirty years ago we were very lucky to have a Teen Town, It was at the old Clinton Collegiate Institute. The old dance hall remains standing—it now houses their library. We were happy to dance to records— and the same ones each time! There were rules governing our behavior. We had a part in making and enforcing these rules. We behaved ourselves because we appreciated the privilege of a place to get together. As a taxpayer. I say, —There at C.H.S.S. is a spacious auditorium with a great dance floor. Why not use it'?" These are our kids with nowhere to go Friday and Saturday nights. It isn't fair to punish all the local teens and twenties for something for which they were not responsible. Give them a chance to prove themselves. Most of the dances about town nowadays are like the three organized for the winter carnival. All of them have bars. Hardly the place one expects his young son or daughter to be. Maybe the powers-that-be could plan some dances where mom and dad could mix with their youngsters. How about a family skating party or' two. Clinton is running a campaign to shop here. Now let's do something to keep our young fry at home for their' recreation. Just sign me One Mother The Editor, I do not wish to bemuse your readers with as lengthy and biased monologue, a hysterical diatribe such as was submitted by one of your reader's concerning, the Northern Irish question in the March 2 edition of your newspaper. I do however feel that a rebuttal is in order. especially if this is effected by a native of the southern part of Ireland, therefore I have enclosed a photostatic copy of an article written by a well-known Irish author. one Honor Tracy. which might help clarify the situation somewaht, and I sincerely hope you will be able to find sufficient space in your paper to publish tints article in its entirety. It was, by the way, taken from tine Edmonton Journal of a few weeks ago. Speaking for myself, I found the letter to be a classic example of tine bigory which now exists in the North of Ireland, Any person who can agree with, or condone tine horrendous acts now being perpetrated by the lli.1 fanatics, such as indoscriMintate bombing. in which innocent men, women, and children are ki l led :Ind permanently maimed, the murder of members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the Ulster Defence Volunteers. and the British soldier's being killed by sniper's and blown up by hidden Please turn to Page 7