Ontario Community Newspapers

Oshawa Daily Times, 11 Aug 1928, p. 18

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

i ---- PEPTYYYTTY Aros as sssss a -------------------- L Interesting Phases of Transition----Exigencies of Industrial Expansion on a Phenomenal Scale--Installation and Extension of Waterworks, Sewerage and Other Services By T. W. G. McKAY, Medical Officer of Health for the City of NTIL quite recent years { | "Public Health" was ra. ther a vague sort of term, ee very tion, dealing with things rather than with individuals, To a marked degree public|in health laws exhibit man's me ing after scientific truth, h searchings for understanding of evident facts, For instance, Why should one climate or loca- tion be salubrious and health. ful, while another, perhaps just h alongside, is depressing, un. healthy and full of menace to life? Why is one site for a city or a home advantageous in every way, while another not so far removed is unpropitious and full of health-dangers? Tabulated law and precedent | § are slow to undergo change, New ideas, new truths of scien- JOHN GIBSON Chairman Board of Health wa ing masses of decomposing fruit and rottenness, In all communities problems such as these, some local, some general, some common to all, arise from time to time. They are the penalties of time, industry, commerce, vicissitude of trade, human habitation and in- ter-relationship, growth and chang- g viewpoint, Health problems, moreover, have always My every where assumed rather more the func- tion of doing away with recognized evils, the making of repairs to things, already cut to a definite pattern and perhaps best fitted for some other purpose, than of santying out newly- Yeveloped ideas or thought-out pro- ects, Outcome of Dev nt Community expansion invariably brings into activity dormant spirits of adventure in human kind, in- stincts of commercialism and the pursuit of riches, land exploitation, massed housing production, new sub- division development, the provision of municipal utilities, which should call or every care and watchfulness if the best interest of the citizens des- tined in future to reside in such com- munities is to be observed, In all modern civic developments, has become axiomatic to recognize the necessity of some broad scheme of community growth, restricted de- finitely to some fixed idealistic prin- ciples, yet elastic enough to allow freedom of growth without petty and hampering restrictions, ome fixation of type of community te he developed, or of classes of people to be provided for, of selection of area, or zones, as most suitable for business, residential or industrial de- velopment must be decided upon, Sooner or later a Planning' Commis- sion of far-seeing and thoughtful- minded citiezns imbued with high ideals of citizenship becomes re- quired to insist on these necessary emarcations and to think and plan far into the future, rather than to accept demands of immediate exig- ency and acceptance of the doctrine of "laissez faire" Such a Commis- sion becomes the designer or artist who fits into the community setting the mosaic of individual civic frag- ments or entities which ultimately becomes the "jewelled city," the indi- viduality of which portrays to all others its character of citizenship, its realization of self and of world re- tific fact are slow to filter out among the general public and glow even of general acceptance mong the specially trained, hus it happens that while the human mind is more or less in p constant state of flux so far as health matters are concern- ed, public health enactments are apt to contain clauses ra- ther archaic in their character and perhaps not even conson- ant with modern and accepted beliefs, Man-made conditions of buildings, environments, and other artifacts may illustrate definite realizations and inter. pretations of what was once considered sound health doc- trine, but which is now no long- er believed to be such, The natural conservatism of human thought and action serves also to inhibit any effort at change. Thus communities, and more particularly the general bulk of their citizens of- ten lag behind in both precept and practice of what has been but re- cently approved, Stagnant or stag nating communities which have more or less outlived their reasons for exis- tence all show these anachronisms, Live, progressive, growing communi- ties show them least, but, as a rule, if of any noticeable age, still retain them to some extent. Places such as New York show conditions of con- tinual change. Of New York it has been said "Man no sooner raises an edifice there than he at once com- mences to scheme how soon it may be razed to the ground and replaced by something larger and more mod- ern." Few communities throughout the whole of the world have been built at one time or to a pre-arrang- ed plan, or with any set finite pur- pose, and of those that have only a scattered few with the predetermin- ation of protecting health or health relationships. Such may be consid- ered as partly indicated by the "Gar- den Cities of England," Sunlight Town, the towns of the Panama Canal Zone, and perhaps even our own Kapuckasing. Nuisance and abuses create dissatisfaction and later demand redress which is often slow in forthcoming and when it does often be a compromise. PE reasons such as these most piodern communities may be compar- ed to barrels of apples picked, unsort- ed, barrelled _headed-in, regard- less of size, quality, ripeness, color, variety, flayor, usableness, keeping character, hand-picked or windfall, yet which, because of some market value still pertaining to the contents as well as existent in the barrel it- self, and perhaps because also of fin- ancial restrictions existing in the communities as a whole, must be kept though requiring from time to time sorting, grading and istermit- tent marketing so as to realize on some real ultimate values, while still in this process there will be much loss of value through wastage and work effort, as well as the necessity Pp bility, its response to the de- mands of civilization, and its re- quirements, The crossing points of trails, the fords of streams and rivers, the roads of travel and varying means of trans- port, of domicile, of securing and of storage of food adopted by animals and by primitive peoples are the de- terminations of necessity. Just so surely also civic centres, zoned areas, restricted developments, community focal groupings, park and playground area provision, rapid transit thor- oughfares, quiet street districts and THE OSHAWA DAILY TIMES -- Edition -- SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 1928 A DR, T, W, 6, McKAY Medical Officer of Health "Well done!" The skill of the bees in the structuring of the cells of the comb has not been so illy placed. Skill is there in the upbuilding merit in the finished product and some sturdy quality in the art portrayed. But just as so many other communi- ties we could now well say "Had we only known our destiny, we could have done differently." "However, in the same breath let it be also re- membered "Man may be the maker of his own destiny, but not so often the captain of his own soul." Oshawa's first realizations of self- dependence and aggressive person- ality--perhaps also of worldly ambi- tion--hecame manifest, undoubtedly, through industrial effort,--an en- deavor to rise supreme to that re- strictive influence on growth of "No Natural Resources,"--an endeavor to find food, shelter, covering and crea- ture comforts for its citizens over and above just what each might be able to wring directly from the soil,--an endeavor to make other communities take from it manufactured products, developed from no local supply of na- tural resource, hut developed, in spite of all difficulties, from its com- munity spirit and the virile efforts of its determined citizenry, from a will to live, to make and find employ- ment for its people in community effort in industry,--"to take the world by the tail." The Transportation Factor Perhaps it is right to suggest that the whole industrial effort received crystallized expression through trans- portation, through railway facilities, and especially through our local rail- road, with its later electric haulage. Throughout all the years of Osh- awa's growth there has remained an abiding dream, a constant hope, the return, the retention and the per petuation of lake and ocean naviga- tion facilities through our local har- bor,--a dream of world facility of transportation to carry on that world- spread industry which has always heen its activating force. How could it ever be otherwise, when, one re- members, the forefathers of those who caused Oshawa to arise out of self-same harbor, nearly a century ago, after their arrival from the Old ' backward y wrest a living from the soil! i sleighs, automobiles and automobile MISS B. E. HABRIS Senior Public Health Nurse the like, together with building lot restriction, relative area of lot to be occupied by building (as opposed to that required to be unoccupied), type of building to be constructed, proper provision of maximum of sunlight, resh air and environment protection for homes, ease and freedom of ob- taining of public service utilities for all grades of citizens, are the -insis- tence of group or community reali- zation that what is good for one and is the privilege of an individual is the right of all and should be provided by civic authorities, The progress of the cit awa has been in no way different to that of many other cities. It has also, perhaps, take it all in all, been mo worse, In several ways, y, it has failed to take the best adyvan- tage of things presented. In the rapid growth of the last twenty-five years or more, there has been made more definitely noticeable the appear- ance of a "Genius Loci," a stamp of civic individuality, which sooner or later all places assume. Industry Dominates Here and there scattered through its length and breadth are to be found the monuments to human endeavor, characteristic each of the many human minds which have helped in the shaping of Oshawa's destiny, like unto a swarm of busy bees in a hive of industry. Measured alongside of many an- for witimate disposal of the disgust- other community its record reads of Osh- Land, into Upper Canada and spread into primeval country .to Oshawa's Primary Objectives Industry and manufacture--manu- facture and distribution of goods *hall-marked" by the virility of her native sons and bartered to the world. Thus arose Oshawa. So has she , maintained her vigor. Now has she i taken her place in the world. Pel- | tries, hard-woods, - wheat, barley, | other grains, furniture, threshing en- | gines, printing presses, agricyltural ! machinery, scythes, forks and hoes, tanned hides, barrels, apples, malle- able iron products, iron and brass fittings, pianos, organs, small instru- ments, stoves and furnaces, knit- goods and other knitted underwear, metal sidings for buildings, corru- gated culverts and other corrugated iron wares, cane-syrup, canned veget- ables and fruits, pottery and art wares, picture frames, plate glass, wheels, axles, carriages, . carts, parts, evaporated fruits and dried peas, beans and fruits, and even felt hats, have passed through in the kaleidoscope of Oshawa's industrial life. Time and custom change, but the spirit of industry is ever on the alert. All other things have been second- ary to these great primary objects, industry, manufacture and distribu- tion. With the passing years indus- try, as has just heen noted, has seen many changes. Plants of a sort have come, continued and passed away, but in so doing have given place to others, Throughout all the changes, however, the leaven of the departed industry has given rise to another of a different type, changing with the times, having different community needs and varying demands of our own country as well as of foreign lands. With it all there has been a steady forward development, a con- tinued industrial expansion, the steady forward development, a con- tinued civic and community growth which has steadily fostered and ma- tured. With the continued industrial expansion, the plants themselves haye grown in size and suitability to the changing industrial pro- cessing and requirement. Small and old-fashioned buildings have given place to modern up-to- date factory construction and office building in which every safety-first, accident prevention, employee pro- tection, first-aid and health protec- tion has been listened to for the fu- ture benefit of those who may be employed. General Motors, which the forest wilderness landed at that | Building with two nurses- and two doctors . attendance and in the sume" season a student assistant. Attackyd thereto is a Social Service and Relations Department with a very broad field of work. Each industrial ant has its First Aid and Emergency partment. Some also have a Sick- ness Benefit Organization carried on by the employees themselves with the approval of the organization to which they are attached. ] In General Motors a physical ex- amination is required to be made of each applicant for employment. Re- jection or employment at labor is apportioned as a result of such exam- ination, Similar methods are now routine practice in many industrial establishments employing large num- bers of employees. When employed with a certain element of paternal. ism on the part of the employer, cons tinuity of employment, service from the employee, and due apportionment of labor suitable to physical and mental efficiency, such methods of granting employment reach their acme p) value. In small communities, and when applied to stationary or stabilized labor elements, known and responsible bers of a ¢ ty, or, in larger communities, where a de- finite social service history record of both applicants for labor and the im- mediate family and close relations is available for reference, and where social history, apparent age, work- efficiency, physical effort and mental aptitude tests have been made and interpreted as against chronologic age and physical findings record, they are of great value. Every human ma- chine has to be judged on its own work-effort results and not alone on standards depending on cfficiency formulas only. Some one has remarked "Public Health measures are a reflex of Civic Progress." While this may be to some extent true, let it rot be for- Ureater Ushawa DAVID HUBBELL Saniiary Iaspector gotten the reflex is not always in due proportion to the' amount of stimulus, nor is it in direct relation to the amount of rgsult obtained. Dr, Chas. H, Mayo, in the "Balfour Lec- April, 5th, 1928, indicates the quality of the necessary stimulus when he says "Medicine is about as big, or as little, in any community, large or might very well also have said "Civic | progress in any community bulks | large or small just as the character as they make it" Oshawa Grows Up Twenty-five years and over, a gen- cration's time, a quarter of a century and more, has now gone flitting by as a dream while a quiet country town has awakened, changed its yi- sion, thrown aside its rural character and assumed the ways and ments of a city, During the earlier years its growth years time but little of change was noted or more than the average popu- lation growth of a normal, solid On- tario town, Yet by ten years ago its growth had advanced sufficiently to have doubled the population. In the last decade its march of progress has been still more rapid. In the first half of this decade the population had doubled once again. In the last half of this decade the increase was a half of what it had been in the preceding five years. In the last year alone (1927) the population increase was twenty per cent. of the popula- tion of the previous year. Such a rapid increase or pyramiding of popu- lation has brought in its wake prob- lems of civic growth, finance, sub- division, housing, public utilities, citi- zenship and health that are important and still in process of solution. This growth may be, accommodated ulti- mately more or less happily, but its assimilation will take time. - What then has been done by the citizens of Oshawa to solve these problems of civic growth and health? Many things have already been done, --important things. Many remain still to be done! Who among us takes time now, to remember, that when at last with an apparently assured civic growth, with a steadily-increasing general pros- perity, with a rapidly. spreading de- sire on the part of the citizens as a whole for the securing of household conveniences, family comforts, and the amenities of city life, to all, and no longer to be limited to a few, ac- tion was precipitated by the visitation of that ever-recurring and annual pestilence Typhoid fever, with its ter- rible toll in illness and lost lives, to- gether with the attendant financial distresses and losses. Such action was urged primarily by an overawed, sober-minded and reflecting citizenry anxious to free their town from the opprobrium cast on it by this discase. The appeal put forward was for a civic supply of pure wholesome drink- ing water for domestic use, to be taken from the Raglan Springs com- ing out of the gravel ridge. One hundred and thirty cases of typhoid employs at its peak of employment six thousand hands has a highly- developed and efficient First Aid| fever that year was the driving-force of this appeal. Let us overlook the Continued on page 12 ture" at the University of Toronto, | small, as the physicians make it." He | | and the virility of its citizens, and || habili- | was quiet and staid, so that in five | A ---------------- A An Indispensable and Efficient Public Health Service PUBLIC HEALTH AS FACTOR IN CITY'S DEVELOPMENT TROUP OF MOTHERS WITH THEIR BABIES AT THE BABY CLINIC, ALBERT STREKEY CONSTRUCTIVE QUALITIES APPLIED TO NATIONAL LIFE History of the Centuries Shows Us that the Burden of the Race must be Taken Up by Successive Generations Whose Mentality is Judged by Their Public Works. By F. L. INDING ourselves un- F changed through the cen- turies as we consider the present in its relation to the past.and endeavour to find a hitching post at which to point and say that there humanity, as we know it today, had its beginning, we shall be forced to exclaim with Henry Ford "All history is bunk." Prefer- ring to read history as it has been made for us, we conclude that to assert that the race of | mankind has remained the same from the beginning is a fallacy and concede that each FOWKE generation has made a way for itself, and that the quality of its civilization must be judged by the expression of its men- tality in the public works it has left behind. Historical Aspects We are nor he not as our fathers were, our children at all likely to as we are. The word civilization has nothing static about it and 1s, per- haps, best expressed by the word change, eventuating in progress. Few moderns there are who would think of going back to the ancient Greeks and Romans for working examples in the creation of civilization useful for comparison in our day. There was, of course, the case of the He- brew nation, which, however, was a arc J L. FOWKE pastoral people, deeply religious, but not constructive in a material sense of the term. All these ancient civili- zations were built on slavery, seri- dom and taxation. The ordinary hu- man had little done for him, nor did he have much chance to rise higher in the scale of humanity than that in whicy he was born, The Greeks expressed themeslves literature, in the practice of the aris and sciences, in the building of citics and the creation of civic life, a in war. Each city was, with then separate state and they quarre much, Lacking the principle « operation, they failed to ma their place among the nations. Jl- though they remain the oldest civil zation in Europe. The Romans, for a lengthy period were so busy making conquests Ly the power of their armed forces that little attention was paid to the con- struction of public works of lasting worth before the days of Augustus, For many years the city of Rome received attention at the expense of the rest of the empire, The con- structive qualities of the ancie Romans manifested themselves prin- cipally in public buildings, highwa and aqueducts, the remains of whi are familiar to those who have tra elled Europe. After the crash of the Holy Romar Empire in A.D, 476, men gave ex pression to their virility in the « struction of cities, and, in a partic- ular sense, in the building of cathel- (Continued on page 13) | Royal Bank Bldg. ay Good Buildings Require Good Plans A> Increasing Number of the Plans of Greater Oshawa's Important Buildings are being Prepared by C. C. STENHOUSE Engineer and Architect OSHAWA Phone 1469 i

Powered by / Alimenté par VITA Toolkit
Privacy Policy