Clinton News-Record, 1974-11-14, Page 4ird torial Comment
More than a media matter
Canada's newsstands are flooded with
foreign magazines, mostly from the
United States, says the United Church of
Canada,
Playboy, for instance, collects about'
as much money selling Its magazine in
Canada as do the 17 largest English-
languate consumer magazines com-
bined, the Special Senate Committee on
Mass Media reported.
Two U,S. Magazines..,Time "Canada"
and Reader's Digest,..have special
privileges under the Canadian Income
Tax, the big break that has enabled
Time and Digest to become so rich and
powerful that the pair now scoop up bet-
ween 50 and 60 per cent of all Canadian
magazine advertising revenue.
Truly Canadian magazines are
squeezed out of advertising, are
squeezed off the newsstands and...with a
few exceptions...pay much higher postal
costs than the two U,S. giants, who
received postal subsidies amounting to
$2.9 million in 1971,
Is this situation of interest only to ad-
vertisers, printers, publishers, writers,
editors, artists and photographers? No.
The Time-Digest issue Is every bit as
important as the energy issue. It is
through the pages of journals such as
Time "Canada', that we perceive what
the energy situation is. A false percep-
tion will lead to false action. Time's in-
terests are, finally, U.S. interests.
The federal cabinet is reported to be
ready to remove the special privileges.
Powerful interests oppose such action.
Whether the cabinet acts will be impor-
tant to every Canadian. Canadian
magazines are waiting in the wings to
take their rightful place in their own
country.
Who should bear the costs
we get
letters
THE CLINTON NEW ERA
Estriblished 1865
Anialgamalpd
1924
THE HURON NEWS-RECORD
Estublishod 1881
COCNA
Member, Comedian
Community Newspaper
Association
Member, Onto*, Weer*
'paper Aerreeletlen
1111\
73
+ t/
11UB,OK HURON COUNtY
Published ovary Thursday
at Clinton, Ontario
Editor - Jihios E, Fitageridd
Goners, Manapar,
J. Howard Altittiph
11400'ortii•Clais Mail
Istrallon hts, 01117
SUBSCRIPTION RATES1
CANADA $10.00 U.S.A. $11.50
SINGLE COPY ,25o
HI HOW
OP OADAIP
iN CAP ADA •
Sugar and Spice/By Bill Smiley
Some bits and pieces
A bits and pieces column. First item shows a
malicious delight in "catching someone out" as
the phrase goes. It is one of the less pleasant
'" aspects of the human character, hut at the same
time has given a great deal of pleasure, over the
centuries, to the human race.
There is nothing people enjoy more than
somebody else's feet of clay. How we all secretly
rejoice, if not openly, when a cabinet minister is
'caught with a blonde who is not his wife, or a
prominent judge is nailed on an impaired driving
charge, or a teacher is discovered nurturing
. marijuana in his/her window boxes. '
Disgusting, and definitely not Christian, but
it's fun. I've been a victim myself. Sent out a
questionnaire to elementary school teachers of
English last year. There was one spelling error in
it, and I didn't do it, a secretary did. But about
50 per cent of the questionnaires returned had
the mistake circled, and some gleeful little
remark attached.-
Now, it's my turn. I have before me a list of
novels and plays sent out by the Educational
Communications Authority, a fairly sacred cow
with the Ministry of Education.
. The Authority wants English department
heads to tick off a list of the hooks most used by
students in our high schools, with a view to
buying the movie rights to the 20 most popular,
so that they can he video-taped and made
available on a wide basis. A laudable plan.
It was when I started to scan the list that I
thought it must he a put-on. I re-checked the ac-
companying letter. No, it was real, it was official,
I looked over the list, a fairly comprehensive
one of most of the literature used in our high
schools, and started ticking off the obvious ones:
Macbeth, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Death of a
Salesman, Huck Finn, The Great Gatsi,y.
Everything in order.
Then I turned to Page 2 of the list and nearly
fell off my chair. I came to two conclusions.
Either the chap who had dictated the list had
failed to proof-read it, or the secretary who had
done the typing had finished Page 1 and gone out
and had a large liquid lunch before tackling Page
2.
Don Quixote came out as Don Quiote. This
must be an animal story about a coyote called
Don. Emily Bronte must be twirling in her grave
on the moors, to see her magnificent Wuthering
Heights described as Withering Heights.
Thomas Hardy will be having a celestial
seizure when he realizes that his great Tess of
.-!.i.0 -1:?11.:Irl?ervilles has a new7ioriK:Y:Tess of the:
b"U Nye m be r than Aft, '?'
A .sq:ieitt,eqiffiein novel, The Chrysalids, has
new life as The Chrysslids. The Luck of Ginger
Coffey has been transformed to Lack of Ginger
Coffey. Probably some sort of rationing.
A fine western noval, The Ox Bow Incident,
has changed shape. It is now the Ox Box In-
cident, a rather square title, if I may say so.
A Grade 11 standard, To Kill a Mockingbird,
has become To Kill a Mocking Bird. Can't you
see that bird, just sitting around mocking the old
lady who owns it'?
But perhaps the greatest blow to Canadian
literature, and certainly the one that nearly bust
a gut in a number of English teachers, was the
updating of that fine, old novel about French
Canada, Maria Chapdelaine. It is now called
Marve Chapdelaine.
That is an obvious backlash by some male
chauvinist pig to the entire Women's Lib
movement. But I'd certainly like to read the new
version. I can just see Marve up there, in the
Quebec backwoods, bringing in the kindling,
worrying about wolves, and having babies under
primitive conditions. Poor Marve. It was OK for
Marie..She had guts. But Marve doesn't sound
as though he could hack it, with a name like
that. I imagine he'll die in childbirth, or, he eaten
alive by mosquitoes, or .drop a pot of scalding
soupe aux phis on his foot, or something like
that.
Now I know this entire column is completely
unfair to the poor guy who made up the list, But
I got so much pleasure from it, purely malicious
pleasure, that I couldn't refrain from passing it
on.
And the sheer joy of it is that it comes from an
Educational Authority. In capitals. It would be
no fun at all if it came from an illiterate
bookseller.
It's interesting to learn that your neighbour is
going to have a baby, after 15 years of sterility,
or that your Uncle George had an affair in
Singapore when 'he was in the merchant navy,
and before he became a church elder.
But it's sheer glee when you discover that
someone away above you in the hierarchy has
committed a monstrous boo-boo,
We all have clay feet, but most of us keep our
shoes tightly laced, or at least our socks on.
PAGE 4--CLINTON NEWS-RECORD, THURSDAY, NOVEMRER 14, 1974
WITH ADRIAN VOS
Food prices are expected to
be up by 15 percent at the end
of this year, over the last 12
months. This is the rather sad
prediction of the Food Prices
Review Board. You,
housewives, shouldn't assume
that the farmer has a raise in
his income that percentage, for
at the first of July the farm in-
put was up by 18 percent,
Where did the difference
come from? The supermarkets
granted a hefty wage increase
to their workers, so their costs
are up too. Guess who is the
loser, it's not very hard. Both
the consumer on fixed income
on one end and the farmer-
producer on the other end. So
what's new.
Texas dairy men and ran-
chers are not taking it any
more, Earlier this year they
killed their chickens because
they refused to subsidize the
public any more. Now I see in
the paper that they also refuse
to subsidize the public with
meat. They figure it is cheaper
to knock their calves over the
head when they are born than
to go on and lose $100 a head
by feeding them. Actually it's
no different from what
Studebaker did a few years ago.
They lost money on the cars
they were making, so they stop-
ped producing them. People in
underdeveloped countries could
have made good use of
Studebaker trucks to improve
their living. These same people
could make good use of meat to
improve their nutrition. Is the
farmer supposed to bear the
cost any more than Studebaker
was?
Some way should be found to
encourage the farmer to
produce as much as he possibly
can. Do you have a solution? If
you have, come forward with it
and the world will be grateful
to you. Or would they? There
was one Man who had the
solution. He said to share even
your coat. But He was crucified
for his solution.
* * *
Mac Arthur, the famous
Canadian writer, wrote 60
years ago in the "Farmers Ad-
vocate" that wealth should be
distributed by the contribution
people made to society. This
means that the farmer, as
producer of food should have
the highest income, followed by
labour for they are the ones
that produce. The speculator
should be at the bottom, for he
is only a parasite. Alas, it's the
other way around.
10 YEARS AGO
Nov. 19, 1964
Clinton councillor Don
Symons doubled as a han-
dyman Wednesday when he
helped Harold ".floot" Gib-
bings erect four new signs
which point the 'way to Clinton
Public Hospital. Mr. Symons,
chairman of the Protection to
Persons and Property Commit-
tee of Town Council, followed
through his promise of
providing the signs with
making sure they got put up.
Central Huron Secondary
School may drop its recently-
introduced driver education
course due to a lack of
qualified instructors. At the
present time, only two of the
eight instructors are qualified,
In order for a driver training
course to qualify for grants and
certificates, the instructors
must attend a two-week sum-
mer course in Toronto,
Close to 400 browsers, fan-
ciers, and serious collectors of
old and curious coins were on
hand Sunday afternoon at the
Elm Haven Motel for the an-
nual coin exhibition sponsored
by the Huron County
Numismatic Society. A total of
288 persons paid admissions to
the show, and 112 attended the
banquet.
Capt. and Mrs, G.F.G, Clift
and daughter Alison, who have
recently returned from Ger-
many, are staying with his
parents, Brig. and Mrs. F.A.
Clift.
A total of 10 bands and 10
floats are expected to par-
ticipate in the annual Santa
Claus Parade, Seaforth, on
Saturday Nov, 28.
Mr. and Mrs, S. Peter Young
marked their 50th wedding an-
niversary with open house at
their home on Huron Rd„
Goclerich, on November 11, '
25 YEARS AGO
Noy. 24, 1949
At least two deer hunters
have returned to town bearing
trophies of the chase. Dr. J.A.
Addison arrived home Sunday
with a.smile on his face and the
report that he had been lucky
enough to shoot three deer on
the Manitoulin Island. Cliff
Epps also filled his quota.
It is very rare that five
generations are in existence at
the same time in any one
family, but that is the case with
the Glazier family of Hullett
Township.
Western Ontario and the
Great Lakes area have been
hardhit by a storm of mid-
winter proportions which has
swept along during the past few
days.
Mrs. Lloyd Makins, Bayfield,
and Marion spent the weekend
in Toronto,
Most visitors to the
Presbyterian manse, Seaforth,
have already met two kittens
named "McKillop" and
"Tuckersmith". "McKillop "
is now on the payroll of a
Seaforth plumbing and heating
contractor. He is running ther-
mostat wires through small un-
derground trenches.
The Historical Committee
decided to publicize that it is
requesting people in possession
of historic articles or
documents to retain them for
the committee, and that when
the museum exhibits are
gathered together, they will be
displayed in each municipality
throughout the county.
50 YEARS AGO
Nov. 27, 1924
E. MacDonald is moving into
the apartments above Hellyar's
Jewellery store; Dr. Brown has
leased the house on Rattenbury
St„ lately remodelled by W,J.
Miss Elizabeth Ford,
Holeneaville, has bought the
house on Ontario St vacated
by Dr. Brown, and owned by
Nit T. Corless.
Al'. Cooper and Mrs. (Dr.)
Fowler have been named to the
Mothers' Allowance Board for
Huron County.
The Clinton Ladies Lawn
Bowling Club held a very
pleasant social evening at the
home of Mrs. W. Brydone. Mrs.
Axon, the president, made two
presentations, one to Miss Jen-
nie Robertson in view of the ap-
proaching marriage, and the
other to Miss Amy Howson,
who is leaving on an extensive
trip.
E.S. Livermore, son of Mr.
and Mrs, James Livermore,
was leader of the winning side
in a debate between Victoria
College and Osgoode Hall.
A.J. McMurray has been
elected vice-president of Huron
County Fairs Association. The
annual meeting of the
organization was held at Blyth
last week.
Several meetings have
already been held discussing
whether or not Clinton will
have an Old Boy's Reunion
next year, the occasion of the
50th anniversary of its incor-
poration as a town. It is expec-
ted the final decision will be
made shortly. A.J. McMurray is
president and Frank Jenkins
secretary of the temporary
organization.
75 YEARS AGO
Nov. 16, 1899
Mr. Henry Livermore of the
Hog's Back has built a nice
stable and driving shed. It is
built on the side of the hill and
has a stone stable underneath
and the driving shed is entered
on the level at the hill side,
The Church Boys' Brigade,
that was in existence a couple
of years ago, is about to be
revived. The war in South
Africa has aroused the military
spirit of the lads.
The supply of teachers
around Loridesboro is not very
great judging by the response
received by the Lohdesboro
The% adyertigerl for
teacher for next year and
received only three replies.
Mr. Whiddon's evaporator is
still in full blast, and judging
from the heaps of apples lying
around, the boys will be
making apple sauce for their
Christmas goose. The rotting of
the apples has no doubt
knocked a big hole in the
profits this year.
A drove of one hundred and
' thirty stockers passed through
Clinton on Monday for farmers
in the Brucefield section, Mr.
Murdock was in charge. The
cattle were bought in Bruce
county.
Mr. John Joynt and family of
West Wawanosh removed to
their handsome residence on
Ross Street, Lucknow, last
week, and will in future make
Lucknow their home. Mr. Joynt
is One of the most energetic and
pushing business men in this
part of the province.
Memories of
Dear Editor:
In your October 10th edition
you had a picture of the old
C.N,R. Railroad Station which
is being torn down, It surely
brought back a flood of
memories as my grandfather,
Ambrose 0, Pattison, was
Station Agent in Clinton from
1882 to 1923 when he was
retired.
We have a very nice account
of his retiring taken from the
News Record of August 1923.
There is also an article about
him in the History of Clinton
and Surrounding Community
sponsored by the Women's In-
stitute published in 1950
Hoping that The Clinton
Centennial of 075 will be a
Stamps
Dear Editor:
Please tell your readers of
my plea for used postage
stamps.
Dear Friends,
Especially at Christmas time,
I think of all the used postage
stamps that are needlessly
discarded. These seemingly
worthless articles, from any
country, are sold in bulk by the
Scarboro Fathers, to stamp
dealers, to help finance mission
projects throughout the world.
In 10 months I have received
over 100 lbs. of cancelled
postage stamps, in small quan-
tities, in very large quantities,
from schools, service clubs,
companies, individuals etc.
They add up quickly if
everyone collects them for me.
It hardly takes a second to
rip the used postage stamps off
of an envelope, leaving a bit of
paper around it.
This can be YOUR way of
helping the world's poor
without costing YOU a lot of
time or money.
Please send (by "Third
Class" Mail) or bring all your
cancelled postage stamps,
anytime of the year to: Mrs.
R.M. Chmay, 230 Jarvis Street,
Fort Erie, Ontario, or, Mrs. J.C.
Lawrence 6782 Dorchester
Road, Niagara Falls, Ontario.
Thank you,
R.M. Chmay,
Fort Erie
Archives
Dear Editor:
In the event that the plans
for a new town offices and new
library go through, I would like
to suggest that provision be
'made for an archives office. It
would consist primarily of a
medium-sized room with filing
cabinets, a map cabinet, and
some chairs and tables. These
can frequently be obtained
inexpensively through the
Crown Assets Corporation.
The purpose of the archives
office would to provide
safekeeping for documents,
photographs and similar
material that record the history
of a town. If people knew there
was a place of safe-keeping, un-
doubtedly much material
would be donated. The
numerous photographs of
houses that real estate agents
take could be donated after
they had served their business
purpose.
A policy might be developed
to photograph any building
that is to be torn down, for
example the railroad station.
The old tax rolls that I last saw
mouldering in the belfry of the
town hall might be rescued, if
they still exist. Street maps
might be deposited periodically
to collectively show the growth
of the town. And of course each
copy of the News Record would
be kept.
A local historical society
might be pleased to operate the
office on a voluntary basis.
Anyone who is at all familiar
with the history of the town
realizes how quickly it changes,
but to a large degree these
changes are known only by
word of .mouth. To have the
history of the town known is
not merely a piece of in-
teresting romanticism. Rather,
it is one of the bases upon
which the validity of in-
novations may be judged. The
archives office could ap-
propriately be a centennial
project.
Sincerely,
Gerry Fremlin,
Clinton
station
great success.
Yours sincerely,
Mrs. H. Rpy Barton
(nee Jessie Maguire)
Lehigh Acres, Florida, USA
Single accidents
The single vehicle crash is
one of the biggest mysteries un
our highways, and one of the
most common. Investigations
into such accidents frequently
conclude "speed too fast for
conditions." Posted speed
limits on our, highways are se
for good weather and dr
roads, states the Ontario Safet
League. Darkness, rain, show
sleet, fog, and ice change thos
conditions. Any of these factor
Calla for a reduction in speed
warns the League.
r0f6V, CLONING -TOMO, fitiT Wiltli START MES511i6 WITH TIC VitCBSIT15, IT'5 TOD Rili!
The Jack Scott Column -
Lovers, Incorporated
I have been invited to give a little talk to one of our local ser-
vice clubs on South America and am tempted to limit it to the
thing that always astonishes the North American visitor to
those parts, namely the way the Latin-American rascal gets
away with it.
By "it" I mean the extra-curricular love affairs, transient or
by the establishment of' homes away from homes, the romantic
liaisons of varied intensity and duration, and other indiscreet
diversions too numerous or naughty to classify.
It may or may not be true, as a disappointed woman resear-
cher once put it in a magazine article, that Latins are lousy
lovers. It is certainly true--and we are considering here only the
South American middle and upper classes--that they're as im-
moderate as mink.
In my two years as a correspondent there, I came across a
mass of evidence and documentation , often volunteered out of
vanity by the beastly chaps themselves, to prove the point.
Indeed, many of the prominent figures about whom I wrote
have clandestine love lives that are widely discussed and might
have made my reports more lively, though perhaps more
libellous, tharvthey were.
t herear.q Seiy.erakp.Xplanations for this,• .alilw 0 6130/1 that
•cOntriNgelqllie,insecuEity,and unhappiness of wives who,
as yet, must live witha dotible standard of morality. One gets
the impression in South America that the lads are desperately
gathering. their rosebuds while they may and thus will have
only themselves to blame when that dreadful condition known
as "equality for women" finally arrives,
It is certainly true that husbands do go roaming with much
more alacrity than .in our climes and, indeed, it may seem to
the visitor almost a recreational pursuit, a substitute for cook-
outs, hikes and fishing trips with which we cooler men expend
our excess energies.
In fairness, it must he said for the Latin-American that he
is genuinely romantic and sentimental. He hungers for affec-
tion, tenderness, true love and all that jazz to maintain what
illusion he retains of youth and his fatal charm.
It should be noted, too, that since middle-aged and older men
are not considered the fossilized relics that they are in our nor-
thern society, he finds, it not too difficult to find his private lit-
tle Mona Lisa.
There are vast numbers of the very young, the very beautiful
and the very ambitious who, coming from the lower income
levels, can be most accommodating to an autumnal companion
who has more jack, more sophistication, more status and
perhaps even more gratitude than a younger choice from their
own set.
Because of these unofficial ground rules, a great many
women who, on the surface, might be envied by their cousins in
North America are, in fact, not to be envied at all.
Women who may have two, three or more servants, who
never cook a meal or make a bed, whose large families are
cared for from infancy by the hired help and who dress with an
elegance you seldom see in northern cities, are very often quite
desperately hanging on to their looks.
.If youthfulness in a man is of little importance, romantically,
,it'cari be all-important for a woman with 'a -husband poised, as
it were, for infidelity.
Marriages seldom break up formally when a man takes him-
self a mistress, but to look around you in any night club in
Lima, Santiago or Rio, so predictably populated by gallant, if
slightly preposterous,playboys a full generation older than their
blithe, black-eyed proteges, it makes you feel a little sad to
think of the number of fading women who have a marriage in
name only.
One is apt to think that no game is really worth the playing
when the rules are so lopsided which is, I suppose, the im-
morality most likely to offend the respectable, fair-minded
North American,
From our early files. • . • • • i •