The Clinton News Record, 1923-6-21, Page 5NO. 220745th YEAR, Clinton, Ontario, Thursday, June„ 21st, 1023.'
TIIE HOME -PAPER
NOMINATIONS IN SOUTH, AND
CENTRE HURON
The nomination meeting in Centre
Huron took place,9n Cardno's Ball,
Seaforth, on Thursday, June 14. The
day was dark and threatened rain,
but there' was a big crowd in town
by two o'clock.
The returning officer, Mr: ` A. Mc-
Gavin, of Walton, ,presided from 12
noon to 2.•p. -in. At the hour he an-
nounced the nomination o -f Win. Robt.
Somerville, agent, .John Scott, Sea -
forth; E. 11 -Wigle, agent, D. M. Mc-
Lean, of 4Goderich; J. M. Govenlock,
agent, .James Hinchley, Seaforth.
Mr. McGavin was then elected.
chairman' for the public meeting and
• 'after, much jockeyingfor position by
the speakers;lm called upon Mr. Gov-
enlock "o speak for ten minutes, with
the same time in reply.
Mr. Govenlock severely critized
the work of the four sessions of the
Drury government,and said the last
few months became a huge joke.,
There was :no control..A forrner mem
her of the Drury party charged the
premier With 'unfaithfulness and ,being,
.
in the, market. Chaos then broke out.
Group government is a failure. He
critized the Mother's Pensions. Act
fort giving more to mothers •hi the
cities than in town .Good roads- are.
costing too much money. Broadening
out of the. Highway was castigated.,
The cost was so pretentious the fed-
eral engineers would not, pass them.
Mr. Govenlock .believed we should,
pay as- we go, Education costs had
also run up over 300 per cent, and
people had to pay the, cost. He blam-
ed Hon. P. Smith for wasting money
and said he sent a personal friend,
who knew nothing about finance over
to: sell bonds in. England at cost .of
$$4,000 for .50'days. Blamed Drury for
no Redistribution.
• Win. R. "Somerville said the last
goverment was to blame for large
debts, but Drury -raised the money .by
now taxes which the people did not
feel. Doherty lifted', the embargo on
cattle and bIr, Raney ,had carried out,
the laws most rigorously. If elected'
hewould—serve to the best :of his
ability.
Archie Hislop had no quarrel with
Mr. Somerville, but his -statement that
Doherty had removed the embargo
showed that "he was a good man
gene wrong." He convulsed the Lib-
erals and Conservatives by'sa'ing
that the South Sea Islanders had a
legend tha't'. the crowing of cocks
was the cause ,of the sunrise and that
it was quite as reasonable to believe
that Doherty. was, the cause of the
en -barge being raised
' He said that people exnected Drury
to remove the debt and they had en
orm000ly increased it. They spent
28 millions las year instead of the 19
millions spent by Hearst—almost as
much as the Dominion government
before the war spent.' The debt has
increased by 143 millions=a terrible
condition for the public. No odds how
it is raised, every•cent comes finally
from labor and from the farmers.
The cost of timber licenses is all
charged ,back to everyman who buys
lumber The people have to pay and
generally those least able have to pay
the most Drury `cannot justify the
•debt he has imposed IIis government
has spent money like drunken sail-
ors. .
''Bob" McMillan, Seaforth, the well-
known U.F.O. organizer, was the next
speaker and said the Liberal 'govern-
ment a at Ottawa, was spending more
money than Drury. Look at two mil-
lion spent in Paris the other day. He
said the : farmers were handling the
finances of their townships better
than the .clever men were doing in
towns,
He claimed all governments were
spending too much money. The
claim that tile Liberals had exper
ienee, draw the statement= that the.
only experience they had was in the
cold shades of opposition for a great
many years. Mr. McMillap defended
tho Claim that Doherty removed the
embargo.
Mr. Wigle complimented the previ-
ous speakers
revi-ous.speakers on leaving out person-
alities and so far as he was `concerned
.he would never stoop to use them.'
Mr, Wigle took up the O.T.A. and
showed that the Conservative party.
was he only' one that gave any'tem-
perance legislation. Mr. Mowat in
1854 promised legislation'if the people
.were in favor, but though there was a
majority vote in favor he did nothing
Again in 1902 a similar promise was
made with the same result, Nothing
was. done until Sir games. Whitney
came into power' when by means of
36 amendments - to the Act, people
were gradually educated to the bene -
'ft, until the O.T.A: was passed by
Hearst._ Mr. Hearst passed the 'Act
as a.warmeasures In 1919,,; carrying
out his promise, he gave, a referen-
dum, and: it was only ingratitude on
-the part,' of those who accepted the
Ad; to vote against the giver, Re
garding the present situation, all the
parties were "dry."'
Mr. Wigle said he stoofor a strict
and impartial enforcemetri of the Act.
In private as well as in public he•
'for a rigorous enforcement, so
long as it stands on the statutes.
'Referring to the Hydra. the speaker;
asked what Carmichael had done to
assist the farmers. He was in the
cabinet and on the Hydro Comnhs-
cion, yethe had not lifted a hand to
bring Hydro to 'the farmers. ' He
thought people at the centre should
pay more and so reduce cost to those
far away :Drury had added half 'a
million dollars'tortho cost by appoint,
ing commissions and paying big
salaries to lawyers, hut had nothing
to show for it. He had promised to
reduce expenditure -•bit had doubled
it in four, years. Drury would abolish
patronage. He had rewarded every
one of the nen who opened seats for
himself or Raney or Doherty with
the best going, and the other day
gave an $8,000 position to J. W. Cur-
ry. The timber commission to try
to fix something,. on Ferguson had
cost Ontario _ $230,000, and all they
had to show for it was $170,000, and
both Drury and Hay said not a single
charge was proven against the integ-
rity of Ferguson The present gov-
ernment spent two and a quarter mil-
lions on • lawyers for work they
should have done themselves.
Mr Biggs had spent money- like
water on the roads, He was so ex-
travagant that the federal engineers
would not pass his work, and the pro-
vince has•to pay. The same is true
of schools Drury spent $5 to 'edu-
Cate the children in the primary'
schools to every $85 spent' on the
secondary schools to educate profes-
sional men. •
Then. agriculture was neglected.
Why did they not give 'the farmers
every morning the weather bulletins
over the phone and twice a week the
market reports could be sentat small
cost, but nothing was. done,
The Backus deal also came in for
condemmnation. ` ...Here water power
and timber: en 4,906 square miles was
given away for 850,000, which should
have been sold for 25 million' dollars.
Mr. Wigle thought it was time for a
change.
Mr. Goveniock`repiying, Said the
Backus deal was no credit to Druryor
Raney. He condemned building
culverts at high` prices And blowing
them .up a year later. ,Widening the
roads was -also condemned: He said
ane of the speakers had talked of the
seven sleepers,' but we had the "seven
tinkers" now, so far .as 'administra-
tion went. The giving of fishing. li-
censes was also condemned.
The meeting closed with God Save
The King, and cheers fol' Govenlock.
and Wigle. .
Official nominations for South
Huron - were held in the town hall,
Hensall, , Thursday afternoon, and
there 'was an immense crowd pres-
ent, the hall ;being crowded at the
hour of 2, when the nominations were
declared closed by the returning of-
ficer, Mr, Layton. The .nominees
were: W. G. Medd, Centralia, 17.F.0.;
b. V, McGregor, Tuckershrtlr, Lib-
eral, and Nelson Trewartha,.tlinton, _
Conservative. Mr. Medd spoke for,
more than half an hour. Mr. Me -
Gregor spoke briefly in the interests
of the Liberal party, giving part of
his time to Thomas Mc1YIi11an, who
spoke in his :behalf, Mr Trewartha
made a ` strong appeal, his address
being conceded .to be the clearest
setting; forth of the present issues
heard to date At the close of his,
address Mr. Medd was given -fifteen
minutes to reply.