Times-Advocate, 1978-11-09, Page 4small
Are you qualified?
Time to find out EPMONToN UouRNAU
Can do something about it
laws
1HEPEAP LETTER
strict
BATT’N AROUND
Times-Advocate, November 9, 1978
Voters in a few area municipalities
go to the polls this Monday to choose
the officials who will guide the destiny
of their affairs for the next two years.
Few issues appear at stake in any
of the elections, most of them being
fought on what is generally termed a
“personality” situation.
Some of the candidates, however,
are staging serious campaigns, par
ticularly in Exeter. Campaign posters,
door-to-door canvasses and telephone
calls are being used by candidates to
solicit support, indicating a genuine
desire to be elected to the position for
which they are candidates.
That, of course, is good. Can
didates who take that time and effort
are obviously sincere and want the job.
For relative newcomers, it is almost a
necessity to make themselves known to
the electorate.
While new candidates see that type
of campaign as a necessity, it should be
noted that voters also have a respon
sibility to get to know the candidates
who are running in their
municipalities.
Too often, people cast their ballots
for familiar names or faces, without
taking the time to find out if someone
with whom they are not familiar would
in fact be a better persons for the posi
tion.
It is imperative that voters make
that effort to guarantee that they elect
the best people possible.
In fact, if you haven’t taken the
responsibility to find out, it is
reasonable to suggest that you should
refrain from voting at aH. An uniform
ed vote, after all, is often worse than no
vote.
You still have time to make en
quiries about the candidates if you’re
not familiar with them. Do it before
you head out to the polls on Monday!
LjkzSx
Peter Hannam, president of the
Ontario Federation of Agriculture, has
demanded an official study of the gap
between the prices of foodstuffs at the
farm gate and those paid by con
sumers. He is sure that somebody is
ripping us off. Perhaps he’s right says
The Wingham Advance-Times.
Long suspected of inordinate mark
up, the food store chains have
successfully indicated that their profits
are not out of line. Most of them work
on very narrow margins, in the range
of three per cent, which is about as
close as a profit can be safely cut. Yes,
of course they make millions because
of their huge turnovers —• but they
could as readily lose millions should
their business judgment falter only
slightly.
An in-depth study of the price gap
in food products will probably disclose
that there is no rip-off at any point. The
villain may well prove to be the multi-
step delivery system which is
employed to bring food from the farm
to the store. As food products move
from the farm to the trbcker, to the
processor, the wholesaler and even
tually to the marketplace they
sometimes pass through several
brokerage channels. We may find as
many as seven different persons or
agencies involved in the flow of food to
the consumer — and none of them are
working for nothing.
Buying habits, too, have con
tributed to high food costs and have
done little to improve the lot of the
farmer. Fancy packaging, ready-to-
heat meals," pre-frozen commodities,
are all expensive luxuries which con
tribute a false level to the over-all fo<5d
bill of the nation. If you are in doubt,
compare the price of cello-packed
meat with the same product in the un
cut piece. You will find you are paying
quite a charge for the lack of a sharp
carving knife in your own kitchen.
Hannam is right. The gap between
farmer and consumer is too wide.
Whether there are really some rip-off
artists or merely an uneconomical
marketing system, it’s time to find oub
Justifiable homicide!
Perspectives
C
'<
By
SYD FLETCHER
veterans are gettingThe
older.
You
November 11. The shoulders
are a little stiffer, with
rheumatism perhaps, but
are held back just as proudly
as they have been for the last
thirty odd years. Behind the
kiltie band they step along
smartly, diminished con
siderably in ranks but not in
spirit.
I was just a baby during
the last World War and can
of course noteven remember
the Korean conflict. In that
respect I’m the same as the
children now whose only
contact with war comes from
watching M.A.S.H., SWAT,
or an old John Wayne movie
on television.
The problem with
television is that so much of
it is a fantasy world that
children find it hard to grasp
what is really truth on it such
as a grim news program not
long ago which showed a
Rhodesian mercenary
soldier lining up a number of
bodies, the day’s kill of rebel
soldiers. They had got
eighteen that day, “floppies”
he called them callously with
a total lack of feeling, of
Time* Established 1373 Advocate Established 1 88 1
vocatej
see them on
sense of the value of any life.
War means little to
children or even to most of us
adults who have never ex
perienced it except from a
distance. And November 11
seems to be fast becoming a
meaningless day, just
another holiday, for some
people anyway.
Except to those.who lost
somebody, the mother who
saw her son go and not
return, the wife who has
since remarried but cannot
forget that first husband who
looked so handsome in his
uniform that day he left on
the train.
Or those who live and
carry something which won’t
let them forget, like an uncle
who still has tiny pieces of
shrapnel in his body that
stab like a knife when he
leans the wrong way; like
another uncle, who lied
about his age in the first
World War and served for
four years in the trenches,
surviving several wounds to
return a hero.
It was all brought home to
me during a recent stay in
the hospital when I shared a
room with a man who had
been overseas during the
Second World War.
I noticed that one arm was
crippled. He couldn’t raise it
at all and had a rough time
cutting meat and doing other
simple tasks that I took for
granted. Yet he didn’t
complain. In fact he amazed
me when I learned that he
cared for a grown-up son
who had to be constantly
lifted from a wheel-chair. He
shrugged off my concern and
maintained that his other
arm had got stronger to
compensate for it.
It turned out that he had
received the injury when a
tank turned sharply into the
motorcycle he was riding.
You can still see, thirty
years later, the imprint of
tank treads in his flesh.
Though he had never seen a
battle the war had almost
taken his life.
What got to me was his
cheeriness about the whole
subject, his acceptance of
the fact that a job had had to
be done and he had been a
part of it, and his lack of
bitterness over a minimum
pension that the government
had seen fit to give to him.
Whatever his personal
reasons for being involved, I
am sure that he will never
forget the war, can never
forget the impact of it on his
life.
For me, my freedom is an
important thing, for
example, setting down my
opinions in this paper,
freedom to go to the church
of my choice, to vote the way
I want to, or not vote if that is
my wish.
For these freedoms and
others I value the veterans
who decided that they too
wanted life as it had been in
Canada, and worked to keep
it the same place they had
grown up in.
For this I thank them and
say, that I and many others,
do indeed remember.
Speakers at most high school com
mencements often tell their young
audiences that they have the power to
change the world in which they live,
but the youths have difficulty accep
ting those words.
There’s little doubt that they appear
to be faced with almost insurmoun
table obstacles, and the fact is too few
of them are willing to generate the
enthusiasm and dedication required to
change the society in which they find
themselves.
We suspect the majority of those
commencement audiences don’t
believe their speakers.
Last week, however, we had the op
portunity to heara man who had a first
hand experience in seeing what young
people can do.
The speaker was former United
Church of Canada moderator Dr.
Robert McClure, one of this nation’s
best known men, and he took time out
from his busy schedule to attend a
breakfast meeting of the teen’s Sunday
School class from Exeter United
Church.
He advised them that on one of his
first visits to the teeming metropolis of
Singapore, he found it to be one of the
dirtiest places he had ever seen.
Basically, the streets were used as
garbage dumps by the people and they
walked ankle-deep in litter.
All that has been changed and Dr.
McClure reported that Singapore is
now the cleanest city in the world.
How was it transformed? Well, the
city officials agreed that the situation
had to change and decided that the only
way it could be done was with an all-
out effort involving the young people in
the community.
The young people were charged with
the responsibility of enforcing anti
litter bylaws, and they accepted that
task with enthusiasm and dedication.
Dr. McClure related one incident
when he and another visitor alighted
from the same bus, and the other chap
lit up a cigarette and tossed the match
onto the street. A student quickly ran
up to the chap and advised him of
Singapore’s stringent laws and politely
advised the fellow to pick up his match
and put it in a nearby receptable or he
would face a $50 fine.
★ it ★
Ih'another corner of the world, Dr.
McClure told his young audience that
the students are in charge of enforcing
seat belt and speeding laws. That is in
New Zealand.
In fact, the students are even em
powered to collect fines right on the
spot, or to issue tickets if the accused
would prefer.
They approach cars in pairs to check
on seat belt laws, one student checking
the occupants while the other is on
hand to act as a witness.
Needless to say, drivers are most
cautious about obeying the laws.
★ * ★
Of course, there is another major ad
vantage to the youthful law enforcers
in Singapore and New Zealand.
Having been given the responsibility
of enforcing laws, they are naturally
much more aware
themselves and tend not to break them.
That attitude stays with them through
their lives and the program pays
dividends for years to come.
One of the interesting aspects of the
situation is the fact that such a
program does not take as long to
produce results as some would suspect,
Dr. McClure noted that the changes
of one generation do not take 20 to 30
years to effect as some people would
expect. He claims that the time frame
is no more than five years.
So, perhaps we can learn a valuable
lesson from the people of Singapore
and New Zealand by not only giving our
young people more responsibility, but
also in challenging them to fulfill some
of the goals they may have in making
our country and communities better
places in which to live.
As one of the young audience
remarked after hearing Dr. McClure,
“perhaps we could try that approach
(Singapore’s fight on litter) in the high
school cafeteria”. She noted that it was
generally left in a terrible mess by the
students using that facility.
That’s a splendid idea, but the ques
tion remains whether today’s young
people have the enthusiasm and
dedication to make the changes they
would like to see!
Hopefully, they will not merely shrug
their shoulders and fall into the lazy
habits of the generation that has gone
before them.
“My name is Wilbur Wright
This is my brother Orville.
And we need a loan from
your bank to start up a com
pany to make airplanes.”
“We’d love to help you'
Mr. Wright. But small busi
nesses don’t succeed. The
odds are against you, Mr.
Wright. Sorry.”
“My name is Henry Ford
and I’d like q loan to start up
a company that would make
motor cars.”
“Gosh, Mr. Ford, it’s nice
of you to think of us. But
you know that the vast ma
jority of independent busi
nesses don’t last five years.
Why don’t you go to work
for one of the railroads?”
“My name is Bombardier
and I need a loan from your
bank. I’m going to start a
company that will manufac
ture snowmobiles.”
“Thank you for seeing
our bank first, Mr. Bombar
dier. As you probably know,
small businesses aren’t good
credit risks. All the statistics
demonstrate that small busi
nesses have a short life expec
tancy. Maybe if you took out
a mortgage on your home?
Or how about a loan from
your parents?”
As everyone knows, the
failure rate among newly cre
ated small businesses is high.
Roughly 70 per cent of all
small businesses won’t make
it past the first five years.
The bulk of all bankruptcies
are small businesses. And on
and on . . . The list of statis
tics purporting to prove that
the small business communi
ty is unstable stretches on
forever.
But do the statistics really
demonstrate that small busi
nesses are doomed to failure?
Absolutely not.
Virtually every large firm
began as a small concern.
Over the years, it prospered
Dispensed by Smiley
Like to sleep until spring
imes_____
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
Business Manager — Dick Jongkind
* ^^Phone 235-1331
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Amalgamated 1924
Published Each Thursday Morning
at Exeter, Ontario
Second Class Mail
Registration Number 0386
Why can’t the big brutal world out
there leave us little guys alone to get
on with the difficult-enough business of
living: putting on the storm windows,
changing into the snow tires, digging
out last winter’s rubber boots with the
hole in?4
Not a chance. It’s always shoving a
ham-fisted hand into the delicate
machinery of our daily lives. Today I
received a summons to appear in court
in the city to answer a charge of illegal
parking, with all the “to wits” and
“whereases” and threats that accom
pany such blackmail.
And that’s what it is — blackmail. I
haven’t been in the city for four
months, I don’t even own a car in my
own name, and I certainly was not
hanging around disreputable Parlia
ment St. on that occasion or any other,
with or without a car.
Oh, but I have a choice. If I don’t
want to travel to the city at con
siderable expense to plead innocent,
or have a lawyer represent me at con
siderably more expense, I can just
plead guilty by mail and send along
$7.80.
But dammit, I’m innocent. So what
do I do? Lose a day’s pay, spend the
money to get there and back, just to
prove to some frumpy traffic court
that I’m as pure as the driven snow? Or
take the chicken way out, and pay the
rap? That’s blackmail, brother.
A month ago, in came a bill from
National Revenue, stating that I owed
them several hundreds of dollars, plus
interest. No explanations, just the bald
statement, accompanied by the usual
dire warnings of the consequences, if I
don’t ante up. More blackmail.
I don’t mind paying my bills. Well, I
rhind, but I pay them. But these
mindless, inhuman, computerized
attempts to make me feel like a
criminal merely suceed in making me
sick.
Down in Ottawa, the waffling and
weaving and ducking and bobbing go
on, ministers fall like autumn leaves,
and nobody lets the left side of his
mouth know what the right side is say
ing.
Trudeau, after losing a dozen able
ministers in the last half-dozen years,
totters along with a turncoat Tory,
Jack Homer, insensitive arrogancies
like Otto Lang, and political retreads
like Bryce Mackasey, who, as I recall
“solved” the last postal strike in only
six weeks.
And His Eminence floats among
these lesser fish like an octopus past
his prime, still dangerous, still
slippery, but given to emitting squirts
of ink, disappearing into a hole, then
tentatively thrusting out a tentacle to
pick up the latest poll, before
retreating into the rocks once again.
And as if the general state of affairs
weren’t enough to give me a big pain in
the arm, there’s the local. My wife,
after lugging her smashing new expen
sive white coat for about 10,000 miles
this summer, in and out of 20 hotels, on
and off countless buses and boats,
trains and plapes, has lost the blasted
thing in her own home town.
My daughter, with three degrees, is
working as a file clerk, an honorable
vocation, but scarcely one to make the
creative impulses throb. My son-in-law
is looking for a job, a rather harrowing
business these days.
And my grandboys are out of all
those fine new clothes we bought them
last spring. The only thing they’re not
out of is energy and fiendish ability to
dismantle things- that electrical
engineers would be'afraid to touch.
I have a brand-new set of golf clubs
with which I can hit the ball twelve
feet, On a clear day. With a strong
tailwind.
I tell yez, b’ys, if it weren’t for all
them old people, I’d be tempted to pack
it all in, head for Floridy, and sit on a
bench in the sun, mumbling my gums.
But I guess things could be worse.
I’ve got enough money to pay that $7.80
blackmail for a non-parking parking
ticket. I can fight the Feds on that
mysterious assessment. I can live
without the post office, though they
sure know how to hurt a syndicated
columnist, dependent on the mails.
And just maybe, when the dollar has
hit 75 cents, unemployment has hit 10
per cent, and inflation settles in two
figures, we’ll get sore enough to kick
those tired flacks out of Ottawa.
My wife will find her coat. I found
my pants last year, after they’d been
missing four months, They were 120
miles away, in the hall closet of father-
in-law. And there was a twenty dollar
bill in the pocket.
My daughter will get a job, probably
as head of the CBC. My son-in-law will
get a job, probably as his wife’s copy
and coffee boy. My grandboys will
develop into great engineers. Or form a
wrecking company and get rich
knocking things apart.
Maybe I’ll stick ’er out a few months
yet. But I wish I could do it like the
groundhogs — just fatten up, crawl into
a hole and sleep until spring.
and expanded. Without new
small firms, there would be
no big firms.
Some small firms do end
up bankrupt. But most so-
called “failures” are nothing
more than the entrepreneur
moving along to other inter
ests. As it turns out, the ma
jority of entreprene • who
follow up an initial unsuc
cessful business with a sec
ond enterprise do succeed,
Entrepreneurs learn by doing
so the first attempt can be
regarded as preliminary train
ing for the main event.
Why do firms close down?
In many instances, the pro
ject may have been intended
to be temporary. Thousands
of firms sprang up to provide
Olympic souvenirs, for in
stance. Others go out of busi
ness because market condi
tions change; think of what
advancing technology did to
the village blacksmiths. And
some entrepreneurs merely
decide to retire.
Big firms add and drop
products from their inventor
ies on a regular basis, know
ing that a hot item today
may well be a dud tomorrow.
But the statistics don’t show
a big firm as “failing” when
ever it drops a product. The
truth of the matter is that
constant changes in the pro
duct mix are a sign of vitality
and dynamic competition.
Does it really matter whe
ther the statistics are right or
wrong? “Gee,, we’re sorry
Mr. Maclean but our bank
can’t lend money to a small
company that would like to
publish a new magazine. As
you probably know, the fail
ure rate among small busines
ses is very high . . .”
“Think small’’ is an editorial
message from the Canadian
Federation of Independent
Business^,
«own memory lane J |5
55 Years Ago
Brigadier General King
and several of his staff
motored up from London
Wednesday and inspected
the recruits who have been
drilling under the command
of Major Heaman.
On Thursday morning of
last week while Mr. Richard
Davis was plowing Reeve
Beavers’ garden, one of the
horses stepped on the cover
ing of an old well which gave
way. Fortunately the well
was not deep and the horse’s
head and front feet were
above ground. A derrick
from the marble shop was
erected and the animal was
rescued, little the worse for
its experience.
A fire on Saturday after
noon destroyed the large
grist mill at Staffa which
has been used for some time
by Mr. Robert Sadler as a
chopping mill. The mill was
running at the time and the
fire is supposed to have
started from an oil engine
which backfired. A large
stable and garage close to
the mill and also owned by
Mr. Sadler were also burned
to the ground.
30 Years,Ago
Mr. Asa Penhale has sold
his fine farm on Huron St.
East to Mr, Chester Dunn
who will get possession in
the spring.
William Pearce resigned
as tax collector for Exeter,
effective the end of the year.
Friday, November 26 will
be a school holiday in On
tario to mark the birth of a
royal prince to Queen
Elizabeth.
After serving his country
for more than 25 years as
Prime Minister of Canada,
Rt. Hon. William Mackenzie
King relinquished his office
on Monday.
A deputation from James
Street Official Board visited
churches in Kitchener last
week inspecting the lighting
systems.. A start will be
made soon on installing new
lighting system in the
church,
A bronze plaque has been
placed on the wall of the
council chamber of Huron
County courthouse at
Goderich to commemorate
the service to the county
during 24 years as treasurer
and clerk by the late Harvey
Erskine.
Mrs. Elmer D. Bell was
elected president of the
Women’s Auxiliary to South
Huron Hospital at the annual
meeting recently.
Immediate past president is
Mrs. C.S. MacNaughton.
Junior grade teachers at
Exeter Public School
defended and explained
modern teaching methods in
reading to parents at the
monthly Home.and School
Association meeting. Each
accompanied her talk by
visual examples of study
methods.
James Dalton moved one
step closer to the
wardenship of Lambton
County when he was re
elected reeve of Grand
Bend.
15 Years Ago
Elmer D. Bell, QC, has
been appointed by county
council to a three-year term
on South Huron District
High School board. He
succeeds Larry Snider who
retires after nearly a decade
on the board. Members
reappointed were Kenneth
Johns and Roy Morenz.
Milton Pfaff, former post
master and recipient of a
life membership award
from the local branch of the
Legion died Saturday in
South Huron Hospital.
A storm was raised in
council this week after
Mayor ’ Eldrid Simmons
issued an ultimatum to two
RAP employees, demanding
that the local arena be book
ed in a month or he would
ask for the dismissal of the
rec director and arena
manager.
Mrs. Ken McKellar, who
has resigned as organist and
choir leader of Cromarty
Presbyterian Church after
almost 25 years was honored
by the congregation last
week for her faithful ser
vice.
20 Years Ago
WHY NOT YOU?
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