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Times-Advocate, 1978-11-09, Page 4 (2)Page 4 Times -Advocate, November 9, 1978 i io p par O N Arc you, qualified 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 *ould inn 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. - Voters in a few area municipalities go to the polls. this Monday to choose`. the officials who will guide the destiny _ ortheir 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- I ticularly. in. Exeter. Campaigp posters:. door-to=door canvasses and telephone .calls are being used ay .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 sincereand 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 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' Time to find out 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 somepody is ripping us off. Perhaps he's tight says The Wingham Advance-Time. 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 isaboutas close as a profit can be safely cut. Yes, of course they make ,millions because of their huge turnovers — buf they could as readily lose' millions should their business judgment falter only slightly. An fn -depth study of the price gap in food products will probably disclose that there is no rip-off at any point. The ihllairi may well prove to be the multi- step delivery system which is em'pl'oyee} to bring food from the farm to the Store. As food products move' By SYOFLETcHER The veterans are getting older. You see them on 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 not even remember theKorean conflict: In that respect I'm the same as- the children now whose only contact with war comes from weighing M.A.S.H., SWAT, or art old Jghn 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 la 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 l a fir- » "= from the farm to the trucker. to the processor. the wholesaler and even trolly to marketplace they sometimes pass through several • br kexage 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 whichcon- tribute a false level to the over-all fodd bill of the nation. If you are•-ih 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~iii your own kitchen. Hannam is right. The gap between farmer atld consumer is too wide. Whether there are really some rip-off artists or merely an uneconomical marketing system', it's time to find: out. Pers iectives 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 4ccept from a distance_ AniNovember 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 *Tien I shared.a room with a man who had been overseas during the Second World War. 1 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 cancel for a grown-up son who had to be' constantly lifted from a wheelchair. 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 accceptance 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 minimuin 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 freedojn-is-an' importer ''Thing, for exaihple, setting down my, opinions in this paper, freedom to go to the church of mychoice, to vote the way I want to, orttot vote if that is my wish. ' For these freedoms and others I value the veterans who -decided that they too wonted 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. Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 18E1 Amolgamoted_1924 dvocate SEWING 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 Batton Assistant Editor — Ross Haugh- • Advertising Manager — Jim Beckett Composition Manager — Harry DeVries Business Manager — Dick Jongkind Published Each Thursday Morning • Phone 235.1331 al Exeter, Ontario Second Clan Mail Registration Number 0386 • •QNA. SUBSCRIPTION RATES:‘Canado S1 1.00 Per Year; USA $23.00 MMM• sns$T It pt 9II UT 'TM �p nnct -"Justifiable homicide.!" BA i.T'N AROUND with the editor. Can do something about it Speakers at most high school com- mencements often .tent their . young audiences that they have the wer to change the world in whi ey live, but -the youths have di culty accep- ting those words. - - There's little doubt at they appear to be faced with ost 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 toheara'man who had a first- hand experience in seeing what young people can do. • 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'str-ingent laws and politely advised the fellow.to pick up his match and put it in a nearby receptable oche would face a $50 fine. The speaker was former United Church of Canada moderator Dr. Robert McClure, one of this nation's best.known men. and tie took time.out from his busy schedu?e to attend a breakfast meetingpf the teen's Sunday School class from Exeter United Church. He advised there that on one of his first visits to the' teeming metropolis of Singapore, he found it to bene, of the dirtiest places he had ever seen.. - Basically. the streets were used as garbage dumps by the people and they walked ankle-deeplin 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 . In another corner of the world, Qr. 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 otljee is on _ hand to act as a witness. - - Needless to say, drivers are most cautious about obeying the laws. Of celurse, there is another major ad- vantage to the youthful lavy enforcers in Singapore and New Zealand. .Having been given the responsibility 'of enforcing laws, they are naturally Sugar and Spice Dispensed by Smiley .Like to sleep _until spring Why can't the big brutal wort&ou1 there leave; us -tittle guys alone to get otigh business -of he orm'windows, he snow tires. digging out last winer's rubber boots with the hole in?, - Not a chance. It's always shoving a ham-fisted hand into the delicate machin 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" apid threats that accom- pany such blackmail. - And that's what it is -• blacktnail. 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 occasiorror any other, with or without a car. Oh. but f have a choice.. if I don't want to travel to . the city at con- siderable expanse 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 daminit, 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, to 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 1 don't ante up. More blackmail. 1 don't mind paying my bills. Well, 1 mind, but I pay them. But these sawitaith the diffictil living: putting changing i ••- We're Sorry, Mr. Ford "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- . Messes don'_- succeed._The odds are against you, air. Wright. Sorry.- ' "My name is Henry Ford and I'd like a loanito start up a company tliat 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 l need a loan from your bank. I'm going to stank 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 tatisticsdemonstrate that small busi- nesses have a short life expec- tancy. Maybe if you took out a mortgage on your hone? 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? Absolute-iy Virtually every large firm began as a small concern. Over the years, it- prospered -- i much more aware of those laws 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 interestt aspects of the' situation is the fait `_that such a program does not take as long to produce results as some would suspect. Dr. McClure noted that the chanes ,9Lone..generation-do-tt flake 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 cort'[tnunities better placesin which to live, As one of 'the young audience remarked after hearing Dr. McClure, "perhaps we could trythat 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 toda 's young people have the enthus sm and - dedication to make the ch nges 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. - mindaers. inhuman, computerized attem 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 nobbdy lets the left side of his mouth know what the right side is say- 1n-. •' Trudeati, after losing a dozen able ministers in the last half-dozen years, totters along with a turncoat Tory; - Jack Horner, 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 - tentatiyely 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 patn 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 planes, has lost the blasted thing in her oven home town. . My da er, 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 .t out o( is energy and fiendish ability to disnlantle things that electrical engineers would be afro to touch. Mr. Asa Penhale has sold i have a brand-new s t of golf clubs succeeds marry Snider who with which i can hit the ball twelve his 'fine farm on Huron St. retires after ne rly a decade feet. On a. clear day. With.a strong East to Mr: Chester Dunn on the boar Members tailwind. - who will get possession in reappointed were Kenneth . and expanded. Without new small firms; there would be no big firms. Some,srnall firms do end up .bankrupt. But most. 'so- called "failures" are nothing more than the entrepreneur movirig along to -other inter- ests. As it turns out; the ma- jority of entreprent rvho follow up an initial unsuc' ce.Zful business with a sec- . and enterprise do succeed. Lntrepreneurs learn by doing so the first attempt can be regarded as preliminary train- ing for the plain event. Why do finas close down? In many instances. the pro- ject may have been intended to be temporary. Thousands of fines 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-addand drop products from theirinventor- , 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 or he 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 tight or wrong? "Gee. we're sorry Maclean bur our bank --- can't - can't lend money to a small conlpayy that would like to publish[[ a new magazine. As you probahly know, the fail- -int rate among small busines- -ses is vv�ery high .1... - Think small Js 8n ediloria' message from the Canadian • Federa!Bicun ofpees lni4ependent s - 55 Years Ago placed on the wall of the Brigadier - General King Council chamber of Huron *and several of his staff County courthouse ,at motored up from London Goderich to commemorate Wednesday and inspected the -service - to the coenty the recruits who have been , . during 24 years as treasurer drilling under the command and clerk by the late Harvey - of Major Heaman. Erskine. Ori Thursday morning of Mrs. Elmer D. Bell was last week while Mr: Richard elected president • of the Davis was plowing Reeve Women's Auxiliary to South Beavers' garden, one of the Huron Hospital at the annual horses stepped on the'cover- meeting - recently . ing of'an old well which gave . Immediate past president is - way. Fortunately the well Mrs. C.S. MacNaughton. was not deep and the horse's . -Junior grade teachers at head and front feet were Exeter Public School above ground. A derrick defended and explained from the marble shop was -modern teaching methods in erected and the animal was •-reading to parents at- the rescued little the -worse for monthly Home and- School its experience. Association meeting. Each A fire'on Saturday after- accompanied her talk by noon` destroyed the targe visual examples of study grist mill at Staffa which methods. James Dalton moved one 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 step closer to the wardenship of Lambton County wren 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 the spring. . , I tell yez, b'ys, if it weren't for all William Pearce resigned them old'people, I'd be tempted to pac 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 lario to blackmail for -a non -parking parking royal pri ticket. i can fight the Feds on that Elizabeth. mysterious assessment. I can live - After serving his without the post office. though they for more than 25 yea sure know how to hurt a syndicated Prime Minister of Canada.`,.tssued an ultimatum to two columnist, dependent on the mails. Rt. Hon. William Mackenzie And just maybe, when the dollar has King relinquished his office hit 75 cents, unemployment has hit '10 on Monday. per cent, and inflation settles in two A deputation from James figures, we'll get sore enough to kick \ • Street Official Board visited those tired flacks out of Ottawa. My wife will find her coat. 1 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, probabl 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. Johns and Roy Morenz. as tax -collector for, Exeter, Muton .t'ta.t. tormer.post- tl0e the end of the year. • master and recipient of a , 'November 26 will life. membership award. holiday in On- from the local branch of the he birth of a• Legion died Saturday in ween South Huron Hospital. o Q, •A 'storm was raised in ntry council this week. after , Mayor Eldrid Simmons churches in Kitchener last week inspecting the lighting systems.. A start will be made soon on installing new lighting system in .the church. 20 Years Ago A bronze plaque has been RAP eniployers, deiriariding- thatstlbe local arena be book- ed in aamonth -or he -would, ask for the'ttismissal 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.