The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

2 The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanville, May 5, 1976 Section Two EDITORIAL COMMENT Do We Need More Facilities? In an adjoining Letters to the Editor column, a Waverly area resident suggests that a referendum should be held, possibly along with this year's council election, asking the citizens of the town whether or not we should have more shopping facilities. His letter apparently stems from comments reportedly made by Planning Director George Howden at a recent Planning Advisory Committee meeting, that at the moment Bowmanville's population is too small to warrant a new shopping centre. And that when the population grows sufficiently, the expansion should take place in the Simpson Avenue - King St. area. He gave no indication as to just how large the population should be before that would be considered feasible, even though the town's shopping facilities have not grown to any great extent since the population was about 7-8,000 and there are now 13,000 residents with 15,000 not too far away. There was also a recent report that 70 per cent of the town's shopping is now being done outside the community. Even our own merchants, with some exceptions, seem to feel that there is room for a sizeable shopping centre, so we wonder on what Mr. Howden is basing his information. To bring matters to a head on the subject and let council know how citizens feel, we invite letters from readers in the area, commenting on the town's shopping facilities and whether they feel the time is ripe for more expansion here. Just drop them in the mail to The Canadian Statesman, P.O. Box 190 and we shall be pleased to pass them along to the proper authorities. So, let's hear from subscribers... and merchants for and against. What do you think? Will They Never Cease? The following editorial from the Wingham Advance-Times describes a deplorable situation that might well be indicative of what we can anticipate here when the Darlington Nuclear Hydro generating station begins construction in a few years. It's not a pretty picture. Workers at the Douglas Point nuclear power project have done more harm to the public image of organized labor than can be correct- ed in a whole generation. Working on a project which pays such high wages that the economies of several small communities have been badly disrupted, scarcely a week goes by that some union or other is not on strike at the Point, disrupting the work they are supposed to be completing and interfering with other groups who, at the moment, are willing to get on with the job. Reasons for work stoppages have ranged from a demand that the employer supply boots and overalls, to inter-union squabbles over control of various work areas. Wage rates for most workers on the project have, from the begin- ning, been so high that some industries in the nearby towns have been forced to close in the face of unreachable pay demands by their own workers. Rents have sky- rocketed and nearby municipalities have been bled white to provide educational and recreational facilities. The unending union disputes at the Point have provided ample demon- stration that meeting even higher wage demands is not the answer to peace between labor and manage- -ment. It appears that the more they get the more they demand. Em- ployees on the gigantic project have given the lie to the claim that labor unions exist to right injustice and to protect the downtrodden slaves of big business. A Nice Place to Live A small community is a great place to be able to live and raise a family. I have always been fortu- nate, in my way of thinking, that I was born, raised, and able to stay in a small town. I have watched many of my family and friends who have been forced to head for the big cities in order to find work. They seem happy, but as far as I am concerned life in a small community has the city life beat by a mile. With this in mind I came across a small article the other day that sums up what life in a small town is all about: It goes like this: A little town is where you don't have to guess who your enemies are. Your friends tell you. A little town is the only place on earth where people past middle age are called by their first names when they saunter down the street. A little town is where everybody knows everybody else's car by sight - and also where it goes and when it goes. A little town is where few people can get away with lying about the year they were born. Too many other people can remember. A little town is where people with various ailments can air them properly to sympathetic ears. A little town is where the ratio of good people to bad people is something like 100 to one. That's nice to remember. A little town is where, when you get the wrong number, you can talk for 15 minutes. A little town is where it is hard for anybody to walk to work for exercise because it takes them too long to stop and. explain to people in cars who stop, honk and offer a ride. A little town is where city folks say there is nothing to do, but those who live there don't have enough nights in the week to make all the meetings and social functions. A little town is where everyone becomes a nerghbour in time of need. struggle for survival against city stores and shopping centres. A little town is where those same businessmen dig deep many times to help countless fund-raising projects. A little town is where it's nice to be when rearing a family. A little town is where you don't have to lock your door every time you leave the house. (Dreamer) A little town is where teenagers say there is nothing to do - and then are surprised to learn that their big city peers are saying the same thing. A little town, when all is said and done, is a nice place to live. - Uxbridge Times-Journal A Corner for Poets SPRING SONG The feel of breeze upon my face, The cool, the perfumed touch of air, The fingers of the wind through hair! The feel of soil beneath my feet, The moist, the sylvan touch of earth To which the dew-fresh rain gives birth! The feel of Spring within my heart, The joy...the youthful touch of time, My thoughts, like feathered wings, do climb! And as my days each slip away And lines and wrinkles sculpt my brow May all my dreams return to now! - Tom Chard, Newcastle. REFLECTIONS This is bereavement's sharpest thrust - The keenest I have known - To top Life's crest and know I must Go down the hill alone. I've had life's joy beyond belief; I've known 11te's tignest pleasure. I've also met life's~darkest grief But I have light to treasure. Yes, now it's dark but memories last, Their brightness lingers still. Reflections from that shining past Will light me down the hill. -E. V. Eddyvean Durham County's Great Family Journa! Established 122 years ago in 1854 AIso Incorporating The Bowmanville News The Newcastle Independent The Orono News Second class mail registration number 1561 Produced every Wednesday by THE JAMES PUBLISHING COMPANY LIMITED 62 66 King St. W., Bowmanville, Onta'io LIC 3K9 JOHN M. JAME Editor-Pubfisher S r GEO. P. MORRIS Business Mgr. BRIAN PURDY Advertising Mgr. DONALD BISHOP Plant Mgr. "Copyright and-or poperty rights subsist in the image appearing on this proof. Permission to reproduce in whole or in part and in any form whatsoever, particularly by photographic or offset process in a publication, must be obtained from the publisher and the prinfer. Any unauthorized reproduction will be subject to recourse in law." $10.00 a year - 6 months $550 strictly in advance Foreign - $21.00 a year Although every precaution will be taken to avoid error, The Canadian Statesman accepts advertising in its columns on the understanding that if will not be hable for any error in the advertisement published hereunder unless a proof of such advertisement is requested in writing by the advertiser and returned to The Canadian Statesman business office duly signed by the advertiser and with such error or corrections plainly noted in writing thereon, and in that case if any error so noted is not cr rrected by The Canadian Statesman its liability shahl not exceed such a portion of fhe enHre cost of such advertisement as the space occupied by the noted error bears tp the ahol - r supied by such advertisement. Report From Queens Park by DOUG MOFFATT M.P.P. urer of packaging; and Stan- dard Broadcasting, which owns two of Canada's largest audience radio stations. One conglomerate, there- fore, controls the company making machinery cultivating and harvesting much of the food we eat (Massey-Ferg- uson); the company cooking it (General Bakeries); the com- pany packaging it (Domtar); the company advertising it (Standard Broadcasting); and the 393 stores selling it (Dominion). Argus is a classic example of what economists call "vertical integration" a cor- porate structure which con- trols a product from its raw material stage to the final retail stage. And although this system might be incredibly efficient from the Argus point of view, it is incredibly expensive from the consumer's point of view because each rung in the vertical integration ladder sells to the next rung, with Argus picking up a profit at every step. Donald C. MacDonald, the NDP food and agriculture critic has documented the same phenomenon in the Loblaws - Weston empire. He summed up: "Within the empire, the Weston-owned manufacturer and processor sell food to the Weston-owned whoesaler who, in turn, sells it to the Weston-owned retail store, with the company picking up the profits at every step along the way. With such a set up, is it any wonder that "The price is right"? Not for the consumer. Re- liable and carefully research- ed studies have shown that concentration - vertical in- tegration - is putting a 4 per cent surcharge on food. In Ontario that represented something like $188 million dollars last year. To you it represents four dollars out of every $100 you spend on food. One of these studies was the Mallen Report, submitted to the now defunct Food Prices Review Board. Mal- len's study concluded that Canada's consumers were being overcharged by 4 per cent because of the economic concentration and excess capacity of this country's supermarket giants, which control 70 per cent of retail food sales. Beryl Plumtre, the chair- man of the Board, dismissed the Mallen Report as "un- documented" and wouldn't have anything to do with it. Interestingly, a similar study, done in the U.S. by the Federal Trade Commission in 1972, concluded that that country's food retailing giants were pushing prices up by $2.6 billion out of $65 billion sales - exactly 4 per cent! In the face of this kind of evidence, the time has come for ministers of consumer and corporate affairs, both fed- erally and provincially, to stop prating about "free enter- prise" and recognize that in the cozy relationships of the hundreds of companies in the conglomerate empires, there is less and less competition. Admittedly, economic con- centration in the food industry is only one villain in our excessive food prices, but it is a $188 million villain. That money should be passed back to the farmer or the consumer. It should not go to the already immensely profitable food conglomerates. And government should ensure that it doesn't. Editori have their big chance, to change their lifetime habits, grow with a growing town, instead of thinking small. Maybe it will cost, but if they are that close to the red maybe they should be out of business, now? People of the Town of Newcastle, call your mayor and tell him your opinion. Yours truly, Dennis Sadler. P.S. One shopping centre could bring 700 full and part-time jobs as well as commercial tax assessment to the Town of Newcastle. The Price Is NOT Right Skyrocketing food prices have slowed their ascent recently, and we're all feeling a little less resentfull and suspicious at checkout couni- ers. Unfortunately, the 15 per cent annual inflation rate in food bas numbed us. We tolerate high food prices because we have become used to them. We should not become too complacent. There is strong evidence that these prices are artificially high. 1 Some say that all that money we're paying is lining the pockets of farmers. Others, more charitably, re- phrase the argument, saying that high food prices are the only way to assure farmers a decent living. Neither version of the theory is very good at all. The fact is that well over 80 per cent of the food industry is made up of middlemen, the go-betweens the farmer and the food store. These are the processors, shippers, pack- agers and wholesalers whom the consumer never sees, but who play an alarmingly sig- nificant role in the setting of food prices. Worse, not only are they growing ia number, but their power is also becoming more and more concentrated as the giant food chains control more and more of their activities. Dominion Stores is a case in point. Dominion, by far the largest food chain in Canada, is controlled by Argus Corpor- ation. Argus also controls General Bakeries, Canada's second largest bakery; Massey-Ferguson, Canada's largest manufacturer of agri- cultural equipment; Domtar, Canada's largest manufact- Letters to the 73 Alonna Streel, Bowmanville, Ont. May 1, 1976 Dear Editor: I was dismayed by an article in last week's States- man about proposed shopping centres, that you did not ask the people of the Town of Newcastle if they would like to see this type of facility within their town. Could I now take this opportunity to pose that question, whether for or against a shopping centre, call or write the mayor and let him know where your sentiments lie. Such a shopping centre could not only change the shopping habits of our town, but also the traffic patterns and possibly future develop- ment. The final rejection or approval of such a facility is in the hands of our council, this is an election year and possibly a little more attention may be paid to an individual opinion. On the subject of council, I was astonished to see Council- lor Allin actively participate in the discussion. As Council- lor Don Allin earns his living in a Bowmanville main street store, was Mr. Allin morally wrong, when as a councillor, he opposed the principle of a centre? I mention this since the basic fear at the planning meeting was that downtown business would suffer. This I found difficult to comprehend due to the difference in the types of services offered. Also our town-planner is against the centres (a fact aptly made in the article), he seems to be pushing a bit too hard for eastward commercial devel- opment forgetting the western mistake. According to the Waverly Road Neighbourhood Study of December 1971 there are at least 300 more residences to be built in that ' western area, these households could pos- sibly appreciate their prox- imity to a centre and the downtown, and the services offered by each. I also put it to the merchants, who are afraid of a centre - re-examine your business attitude if it is still the same as it was 30 years ago, maybe you should think of retirement and let someone with a more modern outlook get downtown moving again. Oshawa Centre did not kill downtown Oshawa, the lack of forethought did. Now, it is re- juvinating itself, the people are returning to shop down- town in an atmosphere of competitiveness with the sur- rounding centres. While the shopping centre (if approved) is being built, downtown merchants will Out of the Mouths of Babes by E.P. Chant Students at Bowmanville High School donate a lot of time and money to charity. This year alone they will raise close to $2500 for such char- ities as the Heart Fund, the Guatemalan Relief Fund, and Participation House. Within the school itself, students donate freely and also support organized activities such as benefit dances and sporting events. Outside of the school, students act as volunteers in collecting for the Heart Fund - a charity which the staff and students of B.H.S. have co-ordinated for the past several years. The strange thing is that probably only a very minute number of the students have any connection with the charity. That is to say, probably very few have any connection to the work of the Heart Fund (unless they have a relative with heart disease) or to the work of a Participa- tion House. I know for sure that none have any connection with the Guatemalan tragedy. The same may be true for the people in the community who give to charities. It would be quite easy to save a few dollars over the year by not giving to charities. You don't know anyone with kidney disease or any blind people and Guatemala is farther away than Florida. What should you care about any of the charities that are connect- ed with such things? Not much, admittedly. . However, year after year, even with inflation, charities continue to make money, often over-shooting their monetary targets. That says something for our society. When we have good reasons not to do something, but still do, it makes you think that man may not be as rotten as he's cracked-up to be. Generosity is a great virtue, even if part of the reason it's present is to use as a tax deduction. "The truly generous ib the truly wise; And he who loves not others, lives unblest." - Horace Letter to the Editor April 19, 1976 The Canadian Statesman: Please may I take the opportunity of answering E.P. Chant's most interesting column, Apr. 14: Dedicated to those resigned to old age, a terminal illness, or whatever: In reply to the beautiful poetry - Dylan Thomas: Dedicated to all who have D 25 Years Ago Thursday, April 26, 1951 After a quarter of a century of operation, Miller's Beauty Salon, pioneer beauty centre in Bowmanville has been sold to Miss Molly Badger, who took over the business on April 2nd. Mrs. George Thrasher, better known as "Leola" has operated the business the past 17 years. A campaign sponsored by Heather Rebekah Lodge, No. 334, and Orono Lodge No. 436 of the I.O.O.F., hopes to raise funds to furnish a three-bed ward in the new Memorial Hospital. J.V. (Jack) Argyle has commenced his duties as manager of the Oshawa branch of the National Employment Service Office. The first Provincial Honor pin and certificate to be earned in the county in the Durham County Homemaking Clubs was received by Miss Jean Toms of the Blackstock Club. Balloting will take place throughout the tobacco grow- ing districts of Ontario to decide whether the province's biggest annual cash crop is to remain under voluntary self- management of growers and buyers or come under govern- ment control. "HOPE" and Faith in Tomor- row! Sail Gently Into That TOMORROW! Sail gently into that tomor- row! Old age should be a time of gentleness; It should be full of love, not sorrow, Sail gently into its own happiness. Even if Death should encount- er Head right into those little waves; For there is 'no end' or barter To life's limit in its little caves. And you, my friend, sailing beside me, Be not afraid, play that sonata, Then may we listen to a symphony Or would you rather hear a cantata? Marion Ford N i M. NI w M M M You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. You can't teach an old dog new tricks. You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. To these old adages might be added another, closely related. You can't create a fluent, sparkling, bilingual cosmopolitan out of a dull, middle-class, middle-aged civil ser- vant. I'm glad to see that some semblance of sense has seeped into the senility surrounding the ap- proach to bilingualism at Ottawa. Keith Spicer, the grand poobah of bilingualism, appointed by the Trudeau government to wet-nurse one of its favorite babies, has finally reached a conclusion that an average 12-year-old could have arrived at, without undue mental strain, in about 15 minutes. He decided, and had the courage to admit, that the government program for creating bilingualism in the civil service was bass ackwards. Some unkind people might say that Ottawa civil servants have always spoken with a double tongue, even when they had only one language, and why have them speaking doubletalk in two? Instead of pouring millions into converting stodgy civil servants into connoisseurs of French language and culture, Mr. Spicer concedes, the money should be spent in the schools, teaching French to child- ren. Great thinking, Keith. Anyone with any knowledge of learning a second language could have told you that two years ago. Ordinary, every-day common sense and experience shows us how true this is. Take an average family of immigrants to Canada, German, Italian, whatever you like. The parents have great difficulty in learning English, and retain a strong accent all their lives. Their children, even though their only language is their native one when they arrive here, and even though it is spoken almost exclusive- ly at home, are completely at ease in English within a year or two. To hear them chirp an prattle away in the idiom, you'd never know that they weren't born and bred in English-speaking Canada. For an adult, learning a new language is horribly hard work. And for a bureaucrat or civil servant, it In the Dim and- I )istant Past 49 Years Ago Thursday, May 5th, 1927 Merrill Ferguson, of Bow- manville High School was declared the winner on Friday night in the Toronto Daily Star's oratory contest for this -district held in Cobourg. The furniture and jewellery stock of Alex Elliot, Jeweler, will be auctioned off on Saturday, May 7th by public auction. William Maw, auctioneer, F.O. Mason, Clerk. Rotary officers elected for the year were President F.F. Morris, Secretary Dave Mor- rison, Treas. Fred Cryder- man. Sgt.-at-Arms Alex Ed- monstone, Vice pres.-R.F. Aitchison. Citizens are invited to attend the annual High School Cadet Inspection at the school grounds on Thursday. Corps are under the able leadership of Company Commander Clinton Caverly, and Platoon Commanders James Devitt and Stuart Candler. The Toronto Durham club held its monthly meeting in the Picadilly Tea Rooms, with Dr. James L. Hughes presid- ing. Mr. Bert Reid gave a talk on boys' work. Herbert N. Couch, M. A. a former Tyrone resident bas been elected to the Phi Betta, Kappa Society. Coun. Cowman Favors Election by What brought on the discus- sion April 26 is not clear but Newcastle Councillors held a brief conversation regarding the means by which they are elected to council. Coun. Ann Cowman suggest- ed that a Bowmanville coun- cillor has a much easier and cheaper campaign due to the close proximity of their consti- tuents than a rural area councillor. She indicated that if council- lors are to be elected at large rather than by wards, that she might as well go all the way for mayor's seat and the regional seat since she be- lieved the mere $5,000 council- Wards lor's salary could easily be blown in a rural campaign. Coun. Ivan Hobbs indicated that he would be likely to run against her and suggested that Coun. Ken Lyall might do the same. In support of election by wards, Coun. Cowman notew,. that Oshawa is apparently considering switching to that system. She stated that at present, with an election at large, people don't know who their representative is sup- posed to be and would find themselves calling on the one whose name they hear or see most often in the newspaper. must be doubly difficult; because their minds are constitutionally unable to admit anything new. French-Canadians who want to get somewhere in Canada, whether it's in business or politics, learn English because they have to. Whatever the pundits say, this is primarily an English-speaking country. Most French-Canadian cabinet ministers are at least adequate in English. Some politicians, like Pierre Trudeau and Claude Wagner, speak English beautifully, far better than most of their Anglophone peers and opponents. But when an Anglo politician speaks French, however atrocious- ly, we look upon him or her with amazement, as though it were a sign of genius. What hypocrisy, in a country that is, theoretically, bilingual. (I still wince every time- John Diefenbaker strays into what he fondly believes is French.) As you may have gathered, I have strong feelings about bilingualism. Unlike a great many Canadians, I am all for it. But the government's approach to creating that blessed state has been at best a farce, a charade, at worst a swindle of the taxpayers. Of course the beginnings must be with the children! On the surface, the study of French in our schools has been encouraged by govern- ment. In fact, the moneys for a practical, realistic approach to learning French have been held back from the schools and poured into that bottomless pit at Ottawa. French has practically been abolished as a prerequisite for university entrance. As a result, and because learning it requires some real effort, students shy away from it and look for "bird" courses. Result, French classes in our schools have shrunk deplorably. This, despite the fact that French is being taught better, and in a more lively, interesting, and realistic way, than ever before. (I studied French for five years in high sel , three in university, and can ba-y proposition a girl, let alone order a meal in French.) O.K. Let's start all over again with our bilingual program, and forget that painful failure in Ottawa. Start teaching it to kids in Grade 1. Keep it up. Make it a prerequisite for university. SugarSpice By Bill Smiley French with Tears