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The Exeter Times-Advocate, 1974-09-26, Page 4114 MCI! argue ~ AR - • --"'"""" • "' "• - • . • , • • - • - • • ^ „ ;16C " • al. eff*gtflonlem etniltk : • • : • • : • : : • Here's a book worth reading Drops fill the bucket SERVING CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND 0,W.N.A. CLASS 'A' and ABC Editor Bill Batten — Advertising Manager Assistant Editor — Ross Haugh Women's Editor — Terri Irvine Phone 235-1331 Published Each Thursday Morning at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386 Paid in Advance Circulation March 31, 1974, 5,309 'SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $9.00 Per Year; USA $11,00 EibiardWiiiiiidaarAfiraMigni OLD 'TIMES' Adding to inflation 15 Years Ago A sister ,Anti a brother led the prize winners in the school children's competitions at Zurich fall fair last week. Donna and Larry Kipper placed first and second in scoring the highest number of points. Russell Schroeder, RR 2 Centralia, fractured his hip when he tripped and fell in a field not far from his home on Wednesday of last week. Thanksgiving feature at Zion Lutheran Church, Dashwood, this year will be a used clothing drive to aid the needy through the world, Barbara Parker won the harvest queen competition sponsored by Exeter Kinsmen at their fifth annual jamboree Friday night. 50 Years Ago J. G. Stanbury and R, N. Creech, representing the Exeter Board of Education and J, M, Southcott were in London Thursday attending the opening of the University of Western Ontario, London and the fourteen counties surrounding that city can well feel proud of the magnificent buildings. The By-law, proposing to spend $7,000 for the erection of an ad- dition to the Exeter school was voted down on Monday by the ratepayers. W, J. Beer has on display a fine built neutrodine radio set, built by Rev. G. M. Chidley of Thames Road: " Mr. Arthur Jones, Hensall, has purchased the Massey-Harris repairs in connection with Mr. B. M. Francis' business. • While there may be many who don't un- derstand economics, the so-called experts keep telling us that inflation would suffer a crippling blow if people would only stop spending money. The theory is, of course, that as long as there is' a strong demand for goods and ser- vices, the prices will continue to increase on the normal supply and demand curve, Once the demand decreases, competi- tion becomes greater and prices generally decrease. Those who follow a policy of buying to- day for the sole reason that they expect an increase tomorrow contribute greatly to in- flation. That attitude fosters further infla- tion because their purchase today is in fact one of the main contributing factors in tomorrow's price increase. If they, and many others, didn't proceed with those purchases today they would be surprised to find that in many cases tomorrow's price would be lower. Based on the above theory, it is dif- ficult to support the suggestion by Huron's director of education, John D. Cochrane, that the board should consider speeding up proposed projects because the price of con- struction will be considerably more if the projects are delayed. That type of attitude, as stated above, is one of the major reasons why prices do increase, and, if every board in Ontario followed that policy, the price of construc- tion would increase tremendously, However, if all projects were delayed, those involved in the construction industry would face a situation where their prices would have to come down in an effort to en- tice people into building programs. Mr. Cochrane's suggestion should be considered carefully by the board, because it is inflationary. The time has come for everyone to reduce spending in an effort to curb infla- tion and the board should proceed only with those projects which are an absolute necessity. Overcome by reports 25 Years Ago Exeter branch of Canadian Canners have an orchard of 1,500 pear trees on the east side of town where some 50 people are picking pears for canning. The presentation and dedication of a baptismal font featured the service at the St. Johns-by-the-Lake Anglican Church. The font was presented by the W. J. Heaman family of London. A grandson, John Douglas Wright was also bap- tized at the service. Lucan has made a start on its new community centre. Opening of the new headquarters of Huron County Health Unit in Clinton marks the beginning of full-time public health services for every citizen of Huron County. 10 Years Ago This year the Zurich fair celebrated its 100th anniversary and reports are it was one of the best on record. Improved mailing service for the Exeter area began this week providing earlier arrival of mail and later outlet to assure next day delivery throughout Western Ontario. Two early morning , trucks will bring mail from London. Ross Haugh, Stephen Township clerk-treasurer and T-A sports columnist, won the hereford heifer being raffled at the Exeter Fall Fair this year. Peter Lewis, son of Rev, and Mrs. S. E. Lewis, Exeter has been approved as a candidate for the ministry and will be officially received at the next meeting of the Huron Presbytery of the United Church of Canada. personnel are almost completely occupied in providing report after report, leaving lit- tle time for the operation of his or her department. One 'might suspect from some of the questions asked that the pile of reports and verbiage contained therein has overcome the elected official and many of the reports are never read. Milton Champion While regional councillors undoubtedly spend more time on the municipality's business and accept more pay than ever before, the added time has done little to im- prove or hasten the decision making process. Decisions are rarely made without hav- ing staff reports prepared on the matter in question, Often staff reports presented generate requests for further reports and delay the ultimate decision. Soon many key Our response to now Deserve commendation By ELMORE.BOOMER Counsellor for Information South Huron For appointment pnone: 235-2715 or 235-2474 Old age in our society Complacency hard to fathom • The turnout at last week's relations, isn't it? Criticism of public servants comes easily, but all too often those same people fail to gain recognition for ac- complishments. Policemen are no exception, and there is a great deal of-complaint about "where are the cops?" when news spreads of in- cidents of crime in our communities. In the past two weeks, the local OPP detachment, with the assistance of other law enforcement agencies, have successfully completed two major in- vestigations and the painstaking work re- quired to solve the matters is worthy of commendation.. , First, there, was the discovery of the huge amount of marijuana found in Hay swamp. It's a case the police have been working on for over three months and those involved spent considerable time under adverse conditions to make the arrests associated with the matter. Another study made some time ago by the Better Business Bureau, showed that while only 14 percent of customer loss can be traced to high prices, 64 percent is the result of indifferent service, Secondly, the rash of vandalism that has plagued the Zurich and Dashwood areas for the past two or three months also appears to have been solved with the arrest of five area youths. One of the senior officers at the local detachment noted that the solving of the latter crimes "was damn fine police work". We agree and imagine all area residents must be able to breathela little easier now that the various crimes appear to be solved. Police work, by necessity,, often takes more time than many private citizensim',-,,, agine, but the above examples show that the police‘give that time in an effort to rid our community of those who would choose, to spoil it. - Naturally it's their job, but they should be given some commendation when their efforts pay off so well. + + + ceptance, avoid 'the urban overcrowding that leads to so much pollution. There must be local, provin- cial, national and international action if the 'environmental "doomsday" discussed by United, Nations environment chief Maurice Strong is to be avoided. Future generations will thank us if more people are educated to fight actively against pollution of the air, the land and the water. In July our editor wrote, under the title "Must Assume Responsibility," about our need to care for our older people. An old man had died in our com- munity and it was suggested that he had been dead for sometime - maybe even up to three days. There was response. Some offered their service in caring for some elderly person. Some enlarged on our editor's idea. Cases where help was needed came to light. There was a rash of items at the same time about the care of the elderly. Shortstaffed, Nursing Home fined was one small' headline. We were reading about practices at the Dearness Home in London. There was an inquest in Toronto regarding nursing home care. There seems to be concern in our society but also many abuses. Swift wrote, "Every man desires to live long, but no man would be old." The Beatles, I've just finished a book called "Ten Lost Years". In my opinion, it should be required reading for every Canadian under twenty- five, and pleasantly, if oc- casionally bitter reading, for everyone over fifty. The rest are too old to care, and too late to save. With another depression coming up, and remember, you read it here, it might serve as some sort of survival chart for the young people heading into the next depression, and a justification for the older people, who are so hymie about such things as electric lights that aren't turned off, food scraps that are thrown out, and clothing that is perfectly good, but ten years out of style. It's impossible to tell young people about your own ex- periences in „ the Great Depression. And it deserves the capital letters. When you try to tell the rising generation about your own Depression experiences, they merely groan, roll their eyes, and think, "Yuk. Here goes Dad. or Grandad, again, whining about what hard times are really like. What a drag!" That's why the young people should read the book. They simply can't realize, as they scoff their two-bits worth of french fries, that grown men worked ten hours a day for that same two- hits, during the Depression. They can't realize, as they shoot a quarter into the pop machine for a Coke (capital C) to wash down their french fries, that if you took out a girl during the Depression, and had a quarter in your pocket, you were rich. According to the book, the. hardest hit areas were the Prairie Provinces, the Maritimes and Quebec. Ontario and B.C, were the only provinces in those days which weren't in really desperate condition, and they were bad enough. This is a very credible book, to anyone who lived through those Ten Lost Years, The author went out with a tape recorder and interviewed hundreds of people who went through them. The results are funny, tragic, and The Canada- Russia hockey series is again having its effect on various aspects of our society. First of all, it has some good results in that police forces report that crime and accidents almost come to a standstill during the times the games are televised as most Canadians are at home glued to their TV sets. On the other side of the coin, the games have cut attendance at many functions scheduled for the same period. Some events have been cancelled due to the games as the promoters realize they can't compete. Locally there is some in- dication that Saturday af- ternoon's game cut attendance somewhat at the local fair and there is no question but what attendance at Monday night's report on the area sports complex suffered because of the game. extremely Canadian, It could never be misunderstood as a British or American book, though these countries suffered equally. Canadians then, in their pawkish, stubborn and often stupid pride, would-go to almost any lengths to avoid "going on relief." This was almost a sin, and always a last resort. And "relief" could be ten or twelve dollars a month, for a family. A nickel had to do the work of a dollar. After three years of drought and grasshoppers, many prairie farmers just walked away and left everything: house and machinery. The average cash income from farmers in the Maritimes, including the wealthy ones, was something like forty dollars a year, What a modern kid from a middle-class family would spend ,in a month on clothes and treats. People died, not of starvation, but of malnutrition, Oh, I remember! I was only a — Please turn to Page 6 + + + MiVALVZ.4 PO V WAW.4:1•41V-TL'IMA.'"440WWW.: ',01AtitMANORMIPVMMF.. Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 Board of Trade session on downtown res taation was disappointing to say the least. The complacent,attitude of the vast majority of merchants is difficult to understand in view of the moves being made in nearby communities to undertake programs designed to attract more customers. As Jim Brahe noted, there is no need to press the panic button in view of the general appearance of Exeter's business section, but there is some need for con- sidering his opinion that it "does leave a lot to be desired." One of the "desired" aspects is an overall program that mer- chants can follow when they do take steps to improve their store appearance. Many .have undertaken such projects in recent years, and had an overall program been available, they would have been able to co-ordinate their plans with a master program and great strides would have been made in unifying the business section, About five years ago, the merchants considered such a program after hearing a speaker outline the Norwich plan, and had that project been undertaken, it is quite conceivable that by now it would have been almost com- pleted just through the com- pletion of the redecoration programs that have been carried out individually by merchants. However, for some strange reason, local merchants have never been able to see the need for co-operative action to help the business section as a whole and themselves individually, Members of this year's Board of Trade executive under the direction of Don Webster have worked hard to come up with programs designed to promote business in Exeter and it must make them shake their heads in disbelief that so few are in- terested in, those programs, + + All area merchants may be interested in an interesting study recently completed which em- phasizes the consequences of a customer being made unhappy with your product or service. The report showed that the unhappy person is likely to pass the word along to 11 people - relatives, friends and acquain- tances, Look at it this way. If during every year, 25 customers aren't happy with what they're getting from your firm, they tell 274 others. quite a lot of bad public We read about the catastrophic damage and loss of life, eft in the wake of the hurricane in Hon- duras, and we feel sick; the minister tells us 10,000 people most of them children, die from starvation every day around the world, and we are .shaken; we hear the neighbors down the street are going through a hard time, and we are sorry. We say our prayers and intone: "Bless the flood victims; bless the hungry; bless the troubled." What was it Jesus said? Wasn't, it "I was hungry and you prayed I would be fed , . I was thirsty and you prayed someone would giye Me a drink . . . I was in prison and you prayed someone would visit Me . . , I was naked and you prayed someone would clothe Me?" If that's what we think He said we'd better check Matthew 24: 35 and 36 again. Now, I'm not suggesting we shouldn't pray for the flood victims and all those who are victims of disasters of one kind or another. It's just that it seems rather hypocritical to stop there. After all, we are supposed to be God's agent and if we do not follow up our prayers with some kind of tangible help, either by writing a cheque or giving some of our time to help the troubled, then we had better take a second look at the state of our Christianity. I'm sure Christ will commend those who really cannot give but who pray faithfully. And I'm just as sure he will not commend The spectre of cities buried under their own trash, of pollution blotting out the sun for weeks on end, of marine life dying becalise of polluted oceans is becoming more real. In the past, it was merely an ugly vision in somebody's imagination. Today, the dangers of pollution have become all too obvious, One doesn't have to look very far to find causes: First, the world's population is growing at an unprecedented rate. Secondly, we have not disciplined ourselves to avoid pollution. So far, ordinary people everywhere have not begun to realize the devastating impact of filth in our air and our water, of mountains of wrecked cars, both in cities and even in the coun- trySide. Noise pollution is now considered a definite health hazard. What then is the solution—if indeed there is a solution? Man must discipline himself, must discipline his wasteful con- sumption habits in the affluent lands. The more consumption, the more pollution. Utlitin planners Mat pursue the concept of satellite cities— connected in future years by rapid transit systems of various kinds, Satellite cities,' which So far have not won wide ae- those of us who could but don't help to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick or do whatever we can to relieve the misery of sufferers. As Henry Jacobsen points out in a recent column it's easy and somewhat comforting for many Christians to pray for the flood victims but let somebody else write the cheque, or to ask God to bless the minister instead of giving him a word or two of en- couragement from time to time; to pray for'missionaries but take it for granted they will get their • support from a source or Other. The needs of the world are so great we are often overwhelmed. Maybe we can't give much but most of us can give something. If we can't afford$100 maybe we can manage $25 or $10 or $5 and it if means cutting back on our own personal comfort a bit, so much the better. I always remember going out as a canvasser for what I thought was a worthy cause'one winters day. Facing a lacing wind I trudged through snow to a large and beautiful home where I was sure I would receive a sizeable donation "No", said the gracious lady of the house, "I will not contribute because I feel what I can give would only be a drop in the bucket and not do any good anyway." (She did, however, offer me a cup of coffee to warm me up and send me on my 'waYl) Perhaps as individuals we can't do much but we Shouldn't let that stop us from doing something. Buckets are filled by drops, you know. ensigns of the youth culture sang, "Will you still need me when I'm 64? There are many indications that old age is hardly tolerated by our society, Ogden Nash summed up a prevalent attitude. "People expect old men to die, They . . .look - At them. with eyes that wonder when." Old age seems to be connected with death in our thought and in a' time when death is hidden by every strategem possible, the elderly are hidden away. Daniel Baum in his new book, The Final Plateau: The Betrayal of Our Older Citizens, highlights this fact with a 1970 statistic that "80 percent of Canadians die away from their own homes." One reviewer of the above named book remarks "Ours increasingly is a society where the living see no death, where death is denied and the old serve unpleasantly to remind the rest that perhaps that cannot be. For instead of integrating the old, we distort the truth of our life-cycle - we push the old away, isolate them and let our image makers gull us with the picture of youth - forever im- mortality.Smooth skin> Young eyes." We have incorporated the throw-away practice into the ethics of human life. Another writer speaks of our nursing-home efforts. "The truly senile sit in the corridors of nursing homes, in chairs that look like high chairs, and for an average fee of $15 a day they are bathed, fed, amused and changed." One report states the obvious. "It is difficult for anyone to have his hopes and aims trampled on repeatedly and still maintain self-respect and willingness to promote new ideas or defend old ones. This can continue to the point where many older people just sit around enclosed in their ownskin, like inactive warts or bumps on the body politic." Old age does not always sur- face so that volunteers can be helpful, but there are exceptions. One old man was confined in a wheel chair the brakes of which were broken. To stop it he would jam his cane in front of the wheel. Butonce it got awayfrom'him and he speeded down an incline and across a busy Toronto in- tersection.. "Hey,, where are you going? You'll get killed that way!" bawled the traffic officer. What do you do with anold man without brakes? "Next time," said the policeman, "you get a ticket." After going from agency to agency each one of which disclaimed any responsibility some volunteer finally took an interest and a new wheel-chair was found for our careening senior citizen, He was the ex- ception to the average. "Is Daniel Baum right when he says "Here (in Canada) violence is done to the old." Violence is a strong word, Is it too strong when applied to our treatment of the olderly? We Must Assume Respon- sibility in finding Some answers.