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Times-Advocate, 1979-03-28, Page 4Times-Advocate, March 28, 1979 Join the fight April is synonymous with new life and hope as nature starts to unfold her spring beauties and it is an atmosphere that no doubt is conducive to the in­ creasing awareness in the fight against cancer. Area residents have exceeded their target for the past few years during the April campaigns by the Canadian Cancer Society, realizing more than ever that their contributions are un­ locking some of the mysteries of this dread disease and bringing new life and hope to their neighbors, friends and to themselves. While the achievements in research, public education and service to patients have been encouraging, the long battle is far from over and we can’t afford to rest on our laurels. Canvassers will be calling on you in the upcoming month to enlist your sup­ port in that battle and we probably need no more impetus to show generosity than to consider the fact that one in six Canadians will have some form of cancer in his/her lifetime. Those odds aren’t very encouraging, but they can become better with your generous support. It must be remembered that the three main areas to which funds are allotted— research, public education and service to patients— are affected by inflation as is everything else in today’s marketplace. The targets therefore have to be in­ creased just to provide arsenal equal to that of the past year. In short, your donation should reflect that inflation. It’s a*s simple as that! Mainstream Canada A Dicey Issue “You’d best watch your step — we're keeping an eye on you!" Two unwanted words ‘If only’ are two of the most used words in the English language after something unpleasant has happened. They are usually coupled with some action that should or should not have been taken, such as “If only I’d had that headlight fixed’’, “If only I’d slow­ ed on the curve’’, or “If only I hadn’t had that last drink’’. The rather pathetic “if only’’ teaches two things: most of us have 20-20 hind­ sight vision, and most of us know how to prevent an accident from happening. We know what we should have done, but we didn’t do it. April is “Traffic Safety Month” in Canada, and the Canada Safety Council has chosen “Prevention is the Cure” as the theme for the safety campaign. Drivers can prevent accidents. They can ensure their vehicles are in sound condition. Those who use self-service gas bars must also remember that a greater onus is on the driver to watch for things that might otherwise have been spotted by an experienced person. Drivers can learn accident avoidance techniques by taking a Defensive Driv­ ing Course in most major centres. Bicyclists and parents of young bicyclists can ensure that their vehicles are in sound operating condi­ tion. And everyone can be courteous to other road users. That breeds a good attitude. Drive friendly...and don’t force yourself to say “If only...”. BATT’N AROUND SYD FLETCHER Perspectives In Grade 81 went to a little one-room schoolhouse with only two other kids. In Grade 9 we moved to Flint, Michigan, and a junior high school of over two thousand students. Emerson High School was a little like Carver High School on the current program, the White Shadow. I was a white shadow with red hair, a little squirt of a kid in a school which was predominantly Negro. Now this was back in 1957-58, just before the days of the peace marches and the outcry about bussing but there was • still an undercurrent of resentment between the races. Being very much in the minority I learned to keep my mouth shut and to use the term ‘coloured’ rather than Negro if I didn’t want my face flattened. It was a different sort of a school system than the Ontario set-up, with the emphasis on sports and usic rather than academic learning. The classes were huge. Being all of seventy- five pounds and only twelve years old, almost two years younger than some the boys in my physical education class I was quickly designated as ‘number boy’. I had a sheet of paper with numbers up to 150 on it. When each boy came in to class he hollered his number out and I put one line through ’ it. After he took his shower at the end of class I made an X through his number. Exciting, eh? I like singing so one of my classes was Boys Glee Club. Honest! It was a full credit toward my diploma. The old girl in charge of it ruled with an iron hand. She had to. There were about a hundred boys in the class and not all of them were budding choir members. However, she had the ultimate weapon if you acted up. She could refuse you the washroom pass, a tin square about six inches wide which you had to carry to the washroom between class change time. In civics class I learned to vote using the overgrown slot machines that are necessary for the mammoth slate of officers common in American elections, learned how much the president makes and was very im­ pressed until I found out that only native-born Americans could be president, and learned how to play ‘dots’ for hours at a time with a dark- skinned boy who was equally bored, equally quiet and unnoticed in the back corner of the room. Then there was the band class. I was in band No. 4 which was the ‘pits’, the poorest of the poor players. There I learned to duck. Frequently, I was in front row, ‘playing’ French horn. The conductor had a ferocious temper and a short fuse. When angry, he would fire his baton at someone in the back row. Surprisingly enough, con­ sidering our horrible playing, we survived. The most interesting thing I remember about that year was the big fight. At 3:30 one day the grapevine, the fastest form of com­ munication known to man, said there was to be a fight in the vacant lot after school. I got there just as the crowd was accumulating. Two black girls were going at it, hammer and tongs. Kicking, biting and scrat­ ching. Being little I squir­ med right up to the front of the crowd, narrowly being missed by a shoe, flying around in an amazingly high arc, amazing when you consider that the foot was still attached. There were about three hundred kids there. All black. Except one little red- haired ‘joe’ who was yelling and screaming with the best of them. The cop cars never turned their sirens on, just coasted up with lights flashing. Inside of thirty seconds the place was deserted with kids clearing a four foot fence without even touching it. All that was left on the lot was four grinning cops and a little red-haired kid who was fervently wishing he wasn’t so blame curious. the the Timet Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 imes - Advocate H«»». Nl <1 IWm, K • NMk U rtM »Uot WT» J Amalgamated 1924 $ SERVING CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND C.W.N.A., O.W.N.A. CLASS ’A' and ABC Published by J. W. Eedy Publications Limited LORNE EEDY, PUBLISHER ’ Editor — Bill Batten Assistant Editor — Ross Haugh Advertising Manager — Jim Beckett Composition Manager — Harry DeVries igd (*CNA SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $11.00 Per Year; USA $22.00 Business Manager — Dick Jongkind Published Each Wednesday Morning ^^^Phone 235-1331 at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail _ - Registration Number 0386 every major lobbying group from the powerful Business Council on National Issues to the Canadian Construction Association. “Every time protected big business has a chance it sim­ ply doesn’t compete with the rest of the world,” he says. “Northern Electric, for ex­ ample,sells telephones cheap­ er in the U.S. than it does in Canada. How come?” Bertrand also says the multinationals are taking ad­ vantage of their position by squeezing small firms, driv­ ing some of them out of business. He cites the petroleum companies, concrete manu­ facturers, the tire producers and the steel and forestry in­ dustries as sectors where big firms are using unfair meth­ ods to drive independent distributors and processors out of business. “Some big companies that both manufacture products and compete with distribu­ tors and processors at the re­ tail and wholesale levels use a double pricing system to squeeze the competition,” says Bertrand. “In some cases, the big firms’ price to the end user is less than the wholesale price to the independent distributor.” Bertrand claims many smaller companies are at least as efficient — perhaps more efficient - than their multinational counterparts. “Small firms are beating the hell out of larger com­ panies, particularly in areas where innovation is impor­ tant,” he says. “The small and medium-sized business sector is dynamite in the Ca­ nadian economy.” Bertrand’s solution to the situation as it exists: “We need a new competition bill, and we need it now,” he says. “The survival of our indepen­ dent business community hangs in the balance.” By W. Roger Worth Robert Bertrand is not your average bureaucrat. Arm­ ed with a sheaf of degrees from some of the world’s leading universities, Bertrand is now slugging it out in the trenches, attempting to pro­ tect Canada’s independent businesses from being squeez­ ed by large multinational companies. Bertrand’s official title is Director of Investigation and Research,enforcing Canada’s Combines Investigation Act, but he’s also an advocate of new legislation forcing stronger competition, per­ haps reducing consumer prices. What’s unusual is that government bureaucrat Ber­ trand has been allowed to be so publicly outspoken in his denunciation of big busi­ ness, seemingly damning the kingpins of Canadian com­ merce every chance he gets. “It’s a wonder Bertrand still has a job,” says Toron­ to businessman Gordon Quinn. “He really hits big Roger Worth is Director, Public Affairs, Canadian Federation of Independent Business, business where it hurts, charg­ ing the multinationals are less than competitive, in addition to squeezing independent companies.” What so upsets Bertrand is the successful 10-year bat­ tle waged by major firms to delay tough, new competi­ tion legislation, bringing Ca­ nadian law more into line with standards in the U.S. The multinationals, oq the other hand, argue vehement­ ly the changes would halt needed integration of larger firms, depriving them of the economies of scale that allow cheap production, both for Canadian and international markets. Not so, says Bertrand, re­ futing presentations made by We'll see you in court If you happen to see some chap walk­ ing around town with the legendary trench coat, sunglasses and wide brimmed hat pulled down over his forehead, we’ll give a clue as to his identity. In fact, we’ll go one step better and suggest the character strongly resembles the picture featured on the top of this column. No, the writer hasn’t started to moon-light as a private detective in local divorce cases. Anyway, a fellow would go broke in that business, because all the evidence one needs can be garnered around the coffee club or bridge club meetings at no charge. There are no secrets in small towns. Actually, the disguise is being used in an attempt to stay clear of the police. Seems that everywhere yours truly heads these days, some big burly chap is standing there with a subpoena in hand. A couple of weeks ago, the gal in the front nonchalantly walks into the cluttered editor’s office (it’s the of­ ficer that’s cluttered, not the editor) and announces that some RCMP con­ stable is at the front desk seeking a meeting with the writer. Immediately, visions of tax problems arise, but we can’t understand how they’ve found out we cheated when the form hasn’t even been mailed yet. Have the RCMP resorted to mental telepathy as well as some of their other wrong-doings? Or perhaps they’ve finally cracked that mysterious drug ring, whose reputation spread throughout the province last fall? However, it is neither. The young constable says he is merely visiting to deliver a subpoena to the editor to appear in Stratford court in April to give evidence against a man charged with publishing a deceptive advertise­ ment in this newspaper. ★ ★ ★ press release and should have suspected something was afoot as we received a rather warm welcome for what is a bit of nuisance for the busy constabulary. The first clue came when we were handed a piece of white paper, despite the fact the press release has been typed on canary paper for. the past 15 years. You guessed it...another subpoena. This time we’re off to court in Exeter some time in May to give evidence in a charge against R. B. Cox et al. Cox and yours truly have never met, and we suspect that ‘al’ was just some passing acquaintance at the local watering hole whom we have long since forgotten. * ★ ★ There is a strange difference between the two documents, a fact that the local boys in blue would not want us to miss. The RCMP subpeona is for an incident that happened on or about the 20th day of February in 1975.Theymay get their man, but it takes them time. On the other hand, the subpoena issued from the London OPP was for an offence that allegedly will take place on or about the 24th day of May in 1979. Obviously, we think if the police know it’s going to happen on May 24th of this year, the police should be on hand to ensure that it does not and therefore preclude the necessity of the writer being on hand to testify in court. However, we are assured that the subpoena was dated incorrectly in Lon­ don and should have been 1978, and while there is a suggestion they will provide a new subpoena if we prefer, the sage advice is that “you may as well take it, Bill, because you’re going to get it anyway”. * ** Last Monday, we made our weekly visit to the local OPP office to get the While the writer is not against appearing in court as a witness, the two documents do point out one of the great problem areas of the law and that is the speed (ormorecorrectly, the .......,Z • /K lack of) with which the court system works. The RCMP constable knows nothing about the charge regarding the questionable advertisement. He is un­ able to provide this star witness with any suggestion of what information the court may wish to have presented. And, even if he did, indications are that, we would be unable to produce it. Records for a small classified adver­ tisement placed in this newspaper over four years ago are no longer in ex­ istence. Those records, which may have proven of some value, were no doubt available at one time, but the lengthy delays in getting such cases into court often result in lack of evidence created by those delays. The other incident regarding R. B. Cox took place almost one year ago and we suspect it had something to do with the Fleck strike. In fact, one of the local OPP thought that Cox was one of the constables charged during one of the altercations. While the writer was on hand at a couple of those altercations, they are certainly not very vivid in our mind at the present. There’s probably some good reason why those court cases involving situations in the Huron Park strike are just nowgettingtocourt, but there is lit­ tle doubt that except for those directly involved in some of the unpleasantries, only a few lingering memories remain. Witnesses are placed at a decided disadvantage with the passing of time, and while that may be the intent of defence lawyers, it is not conducive to fulfilling the purpose of court appearances. Not only that, but we fear it places witnesses under a very severe strain as they attempt to recollect events that took place one year ago, to say nothing of four years ago. Welcomes advent of spring Like most people in this country with any intelligence, I welcome the advent of spring, which in Canada con­ sists mainly of mud, slush, cold rain and colder winds. It is the end of that suicidal season in which we get more and more depress­ ed, irritable, and bone-weary of living in a land where the national sound sym­ bols are the wet sniffle and the barking cough, the national sight symbols are the filled-in driveway and the rusting fender. It’s a trying time. For years, I’ve ad­ vocated a mid-February holiday to save the national psych from self­ destruction. I’ve suggested calling it National Love Day, the third Monday in Feb.: a day to love your neighbour, your neighbour’s wife, yourself, and life, not necessarily in that order. But I’ve been blocked, year after year, by politicians, who fear the op­ ponents might score a victory if it were named Sir John A. MacDonald Day or Sir Wilfred Laurier Day; and by the in­ dustrialists and business community, who blanch with terror at the thought of paying their employees for one more non-productive day in the year. Hell, a third of their employees’ days are non­ productive anyway. They may as well throw in a bonus. Yes, I welcome spring, but there’s one aspect of it that I very nearly loathe. That’s when the first yellow sun begins to filter through those murky storm windows, which we daren’t take off until mid-May. It isn’t the sun that bothers me. It’s the Old Battleaxe. She throws away her survival kit, the cataracts are peel­ ed from her eyes, and she starts driv­ ing me out of my skull. “Bill Smiley, look at those drapes!” I look. They look fine to me. Same old ones we had in January. Green and gold, turned to a sort of grold with cigarette smoke and hot air from the ancient furnace, but perfectly ser­ viceable drapes. “Look at that rug. Filthy! Look at the chesterfield. The Boys have ruined it: jam, bananas, yoghurt! Look at that woodwork. It was off-white in the fall, and now it’s off-black! The wall paper is disgusting!” Well, I look up from my paper with every demand, and everything looks just the same to me as it did a month ago. Comfortable. Warm. Lived-in. I venture such an opinion. It is met with a torrent of abuse, self-pity, and materialistic avariciousness. “You don’t care, do you? You’d live in a pig-pen, wouldn’t you? Other men help their wives keep the place decent, don’t they? Have you no eyes in your head? Aren’t you ashamed of this “wreck” room that used to be our living-room?” Faced with a barrage of rhetorical questions, I shift uneasily and answer, “Yes.” or, sometimes, “No.” I never know what to say, but it’s always the wrong thing, Frankly, I don’t care. And yes, I would live in a pig-pen, if nothing else were available. And no, other men don’t help their wives keep the place decent. Not decent men. And yes, I have eyes in my head, two of them, one apt to be black after this column appears. And no, I’m not ashamed of our wreck room. I know who wrecked it, and I love them just the same. And if visitors don’t like it, they can go and visit someone else, with a real rec’ room. It is confusing, is it not? However, I am an amenable chap. I don’t kick a dog, just because he bays at the moon. I don’t kick a woman, just because she begins raving when the March sun filters into the dugout where we’ve spent the winter. I merely blink benignly, start talking supportively. Yes, we should have new drapes. How much? Yes, we should have a new chesterfield suite. How much? Yes, it’s time we got rid of that old dining-room suite, which we bought second-hand for $100, 20 years ago.How much for a new one? Certainly, the rugs need cleaning and the whole house redecorating. How much? It always comes out to somewhere around $8,000.1 remind that we have to borrow from the bank to pay the in­ come tax. That we have two cars which we could sell in a package deal, to an experienced mechanic, for $400. That if we don’t have some brickwork done, the whole house will fall down, and we’ll be sitting there, in full view, on our new chesterfield. I suggest that she save money from teaching her piano pupils, pay back the $1,000 she has spent on long-distance phone calls to her relatives, and take a job as a cleaning lady for a year and all will be doozy. New everything. She counters with arrows about the 55 Years Ago Mr. Charles Salter was in Guelph last week taking a short course in cream grading at the O.A.C. Mr. & Mrs. Garnet Passmore and family have returned to their farm in Usborne after spending the winter in Detroit. During the severe wind­ storm from the east, Saturday morning, the large iron roof of the Central Hotel was completely blown off and deposited in the rear yard. George Beavers carried off the majority of prizes in the bird house competition conducted by the Exeter Horticultural Society. The houses are on exhibition in the show window of M.R. Gardiner’s furniture store. 30 Years Ago The RCAF celebrated April 1 its silver jubilee. At Centralia the occasion was celebrated with an an­ niversary dinner. Jim Creech was named manager of the Exeter Baseball team at a meeting in the town hall for which President Bill Allison presided. Preceding his sermon at James Street United Church Sunday morning, Rev. H.J. Snell had a special message in welcoming into the Dominion, Canada’s 10th province, Newfoundland, March 31. Elgin McKinley, farmer of Stanley township has been selected to carry the Progressive Conservative banner for the riding of Huron-Perth in the next Federal election. 20 Years Ago Dave Ducharme, 12A student, won the right to participate in Ontario public speaking finals in Toronto by taking top honours in a contest at Listowel. The Pinery Park at Grand Bend, now in course of construction, will be one of the largest and one of the finest in Ontario. It will include 13 miles of roads in its 4200 acres, and two new bridges across the Ausable River. Led by team captain Larry Heideman, Exeter Mohawks sidelined Forest to enter the WOAA “B” finals against the Philipsburg Chevs. Alison Clark, Centralia, has been chosen to represent SHDHS in the London Free Press School Queen’s club. An award-winning academic student, she has also cap­ tured honours in public and verse speaking, drama, citizenship, track and field and team sports. 15 Years Ago Saturday Lucan honoured its favorite sportsman, Harvey Langford, with a special celebration that reflected the community. One of the many tributes was made by Bill Smith, Legion President, Bob Murray was MC. Executive of the Ausable River Conservation Authority spent most of Tuesday afternoon discussing details in regard to the Parkhill Dam. Final drawings for the million dollar structure are ex­ pected to be completed by the end of April. Mr. & Mrs. Charles Fisher, Exeter, celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary Friday March 27 when a family dinner was held at the home of their daughter Mr. & Mrs. Norman Fisher and Susan, Dashwood. booze bill, the cigarettes account, and all the money I gam­ ble away on lotteries. I remind her gently that if she hadn’t spent a cool thou­ sand on gold chains last summer in Switzerland, we’d be in clover. And so it goes. After a week or two of this, we have arrived at an im­ passe. The sun keeps shining, something important, like the children, crops up, and we sail happily into a new year, with the wreck room in tact: warm, comfortable, llved-in. Doesn’t cost a nickel, And you know something? Nobody cares.