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One would have to shop with a calculator in one hand. a copy of the Financial Post in the other. and a mind like a steel trap to be able to prove it. But I have a feeling deep in my bones that it‘s so. Heard of any bg food or supermarket chains going broke lately. trying to keep prices down" Any liquor stores® Any big oil compames®? Nope. just round it off to next fiâ€" gure above the increase. never below. and let the conâ€" sumer make up the difference After all. it‘s a free enâ€" terprise system we‘re living in And devil take the hindmost But I have a deep. abiding suspicion, and if I had the research facilities. I‘ll bet I could confirm it. I have a strong feeling that when the basic commodity rises. say. 20 per cents the middlemen. the big food chains with their handy outlets. the supermarkets. add anâ€" other five per cent to make it a nice round 25 per cent. fully realimng that the harmed shopper hasn‘t time or resources to figure out whether the increase on the shelves is justified All the staples of life in our onceâ€"wonderful Canaâ€" dian standard of living are taking another spurt in the inflation race: bread. butter. cheese, milk, meat. veâ€" getables. fruit. There‘s a plausible explanation for every increase, as usual. ) Teacher. It‘s hard to head into a new year with a high heart. when every second headline or smarmy news anâ€" nouncer hits you another blow where it hurtsâ€"right on the financial bone. It doesn‘t tingle, like a crack on the funny bone. Rather it produces a dull, sick ache that you know isn‘t going to go away in a few minutes. For my own enlightenment on the subject of poâ€" verty and the poor in Waterloo Region, I turned to Martin Buhr, who has spent 12 years in the social welâ€" fare field, in both governmental and voluntary secâ€" O Edrrently. he is the executive director of the House of Friendship, which a month ago completed the anâ€" nual Christmas hamper gift to 700 households. â€" Thousands of people in churches, schools, clubs and businesses in the Waterloo Region, he says, were inâ€" volved in raising $46,700 in yearâ€"end gifts to cover not only the cost of this project but to put the $365,000â€" operation of the House of Friendship in the black for the year. It was some of the most exciting hockey I‘ve seen since the days when the Junior OHA Memorial Cup finals were more popular than the Stanley Cup playoffs and the NHL only had six teams. I stood there dumbfounded watching No. 9 pick up a rinkâ€"wide pass at his own blueline, outskate his check along the right boards, cut in on goal and deke the goaltender clear out of the crease before he coolly flipped the puck into the top right corner for the openâ€" ing goal. Great stuff! And it was happening right here in Waterloo. _ : s porter/photographer. With Rick Campbell convalescâ€" ing under an acute attack of rampantus disinclinaâ€" tionus, the opportunity came up to cover the Waterloo Minor Hockey Association hockey week tournament. So there I was, standing in the arena with my caâ€" mera focused on the net, watching the action â€" and I blew it. I enjoyed the play so much I forgot to take the picture. This sportswriting is obviously tougher than it looks. I don‘t know how Rick can stand the pressure of peeking through the lens of a camera when there is Preparing for last Saturday‘s assignment at Waâ€" terloo Memorial Arena, I figured all I had to do was take a few pictures, remember the scores and tell how it all happened. I‘ve always been a subdued sports fan, but I‘ve never covered the sports beat as a reâ€" The poor you always have with you, said the Master Over 100 volunteers worked in the warehouse. Fifâ€" Bill Smiley According to Hoile such great entertainment going on all over the ice. This pintâ€"sized No. 9 was making moves that made me wonder if 1 was watching a miniâ€"clone of Gordie Howe or just the product of some great coaching. The kids gave the spectators their money‘s worth watching was their desire; their showmanship in mimicing NHL heroes and the frustrations of being at the wrong end of the rink when a goal was scored. In the midst of what was set up to be a fiercely fought competition, there was enough comic relief to keep it entertaining. One leftwinger split the defence on his way to scoring a picture goal. Mind you, one defenceman was standing on the blueline, the other was at centre ice. One minor atom stickâ€"handling whizz made a quick shift and three players fell down. The important thing is they all got up again and chased the puck like it was chocolate coated. As the games got up to the major bantam level, the accent seemed to have strayed from the lust for scorâ€" ing goals to a copyâ€"theâ€"pros style of ramming potenâ€" tial puckâ€"carriers into the boards and carrying on perâ€" sonal vendettas during the game. What was a closely fought game between Galt and Waterloo started lookâ€" ing dangerously like another hoâ€"hum NHL slashâ€"andâ€" grab routine. The kids that stuck to playing hockey did a great job racing end to end scoring seven goals in a If were a young mother with a raft of kids and a husâ€" band out of work. I‘d contemplate eating the kids. starting with the youngest and most succulent. rather than trying to feed them. I‘m not an economist. thank the Lord (what a mess they‘ve made of things). But I think it makes more sense to subsidize farmers for growing wheat so that the price of bread may be kept down. than it does to subsidize American industmal giants so that a few thousand jobs will be created I know the answers: we need the jobs and the taxes industry will produce. But the farmers will still be here. growing wheat. when huge new factories have closed. the jobs have vanished. and the Americans are gone. laughing all the way to the bank It‘s happened before. and will again I don‘t blame the Yanks If you can find a sucker willing to give you huge subsidies. and sweet tax conâ€" cesssons. why not use him" When the subsdies dry up. and the tar concessons period ends. you can always This type of swindle is only pennies, when you look at one item. But it doesn‘t take those pennies long to turn into millions of dollars when the manipulators gather in their counting houses at the end of a year. And it‘s a kick in the solar plexus for the people on low or limited incomes trying to keep food on the table. If I were an oldâ€"age pensioner and had nothing else to live on. I‘d be scared stiff to pick up the mornâ€" ing paper and learn what new item would have to be banished from the menu. The effort of the House of Friendship is supplemenâ€" tal to the assistance coming from governments. Buhr outlined the four layers or parts of the total social security system benefiting people in the Waterloo Reâ€" gion. most of us are in it in one way or another. There are first of all the demogrants from the feâ€" deral government: family allowances and old age pensions. Then there are the federal benefit payments from teen donated their vehicles. The students of sixty schools helped along. Among these the students of Waâ€" terloo Collegiate passed all previous standards by colâ€" lecting over 4000 canned food items and raising $470 in cash besides. ~> Bubhr says that "this partnership between a volunâ€" tary organization and the community really excites Frank Epp Â¥s Liberal candidate Wateriloo riding a° Waterioo Chronicle, Wednesday, January 24, 1979 â€" Page 7 h pension of a politician who served two terms. was soundly thumped the last time around and had reâ€" turned to his fat law practice It‘s all very complicated. and I won‘t go into it here But putting it roughly. I reckon that if you were a toâ€" tally disabled veteran with 12 kids and a working wife. you might. just might. have the same income. as the weep. It‘s the rich wot gets the gravy, it‘s the poor wot gets the blame. as the old song goes. This year, as usual. the poor get a few minor concessions. but with inflation. wind up shorter than ever. The rich get the same concessions. but with their money invested at fat interest rates. come out ahead of the game. The poor don‘t have investments. They have to operate in the market place 4â€"3 Galt win. The game was going along with enough bodycheckâ€" ing, passing plays and puck carrying to offset the boredom of the shootâ€"itâ€"intoâ€"theâ€"cornerâ€"andâ€"beltâ€"theâ€" firstâ€"guyâ€"nearâ€"it strategy. As the personal feuds began to take over, however, the play became scrappy and the puck spent most of the time in the corners. Isn‘t it strange how most young players idolize the Bobby Hulls and the Bobby Orrs for their fundamental excellence and individual style, while the majority of egaches train them from the yery wl;‘stakes to shoot the puck into the corner and crowd in after it. I‘ll admit to being an anachronism; 1 remember when hockey used to be fun to watch â€" like the noâ€" vices and atoms last Saturday. I feel that dumping the puck into the corner is a copâ€"out ; like saying, "I can‘t stickhandle past these guys so I‘ll shoot it.‘" The same goes for the followâ€"up slamming into the boards of the first guy into the corner. It takes guts to step into a highâ€"flying forward at the blueline; it‘s nothing great to follow a guy up to the boards and hammer him from behind. I‘ve been holding off watching the NHL games until they decomputerize the game and get it back to a competition in skills and individual satisfaction. I almost forgot the most important item, the scores. Of the five games I watched, they were ; 8â€"2, 3â€"2, 2â€"1, 2â€" 2 and 4â€"3. . ' How‘d I do Rick? Don‘t think I like subsidies of any kind, I hate them. Nobody ever subsidized my father. And when he went broke in the depression,. he and my mother had to scramble to keep us off the relief roles. But they did. That of course, was in the days when individual enâ€" terprise was possible, before everything got so big and faceless and unwieldy. when a person was still a human being, not just a number buried in the bowels of that vast conglomerate that is government today. No, I don‘t like subsidies, but I do believe in fair shares, or as near as we can get in our system. And that brings me from food fiddling to taxes. Every year I read the early January reports of changes in the tax structure. And every year I almost seocial ingyurance plans to which most of us contribute through payroll deductions. These are the Canada Pension Plan and Unemployment Insurance. Third is the social welfare field, which is adminisâ€" tered through the province and the municipalities. The federal governmentâ€" shares about 50 percent of the costs, including administration. This social welfare case load is divided into two parts: about 2000 longâ€"term cases administered directly by the provinces and about 2000 shortâ€"term cases administered directly by the municipalities. The municipalities service shortâ€"term needs, like shortâ€"term sick and disabled, otherwise not covered, and unemployed employables waiting for their Unemâ€" ployment Insurance cheques. About 50 percent are single mothers of all kinds. go home, taking your marbles with you. No skin off (Continued on page 20)