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THE OAKVILLE-TRAFALGAR JOURNAL fatalitio Page 4 = yet the flames continue to take|omic bombs were to be focus ji thelr awful toll of human life. In| on the job of protecting peop The Dakille- Trafalgar Journal Trafalgar Tales ||[ IT SEEMS TO ME [sic sa tov sie val el am, sin vo BY BESSIE CAIRNS lets and country districts across. 05 our fire dian Weekly nal Every Thursday Morning in thy Ont., by Oakville-Trafalgar Publishers, Ltd. 86-A Colborne St. E. (Next to Post Office) S. Casey Wood, Jr, Vincent H. Barrey Managing Editor Advertising Manager Bill Cotton, Bditorial Assistant Phone 1298 The Ways Into Town { | At last council meeting Mayor Black presented | | to 1950 council drawings of possible East and West entrances to the town. He explained these were not | exactly what he had in mind, but, that they might i | make a basis for planning. | The mayor's idea is a good one. It's always im- pressive when driving along a highway to enter a : town by passing some suitable marker, rather than i merely the department of Highways population and speed warning indicating the town limits. | But we would like to point out that there are three main entrances to this town . . . the Queen Elizabeth Way route down Dundas Street, being the third, Of the three, this path into town gives visitors the worst first impression. It is largely the Industrial entrance. Also not all the property along the street | SIS has been built on. The premises located there all do i their best to make their exteriors and grounds as at- tractive as possible. But in planning entrance ways to Oakville the way down from the highway should not be over- fh] looked for a town contribution. Possibly the town = could accomplish something toward assisting the various industries to make their locations more at- tractive. Some action was taken along these lines last year, and is to be implimented this year, we un- rs derstand. : But council should have a "three-way plan" with each contributing as fine a first impression as possible. 1 Why Always The Hard Way? It's beginning to look as if every move toward progress in this district is to come only after every possible obstacle has been overcome. The Bronte water situation may become the latest in the parade. Bronte needs a safe, ample water supply badly. The village can not hope to grow and prosper with- out an increase in industry to provide wages and tax revenue. But industry cannot locate where there is not such a water supply. These facts add up to a standstill in growth for Bronte until the water is made available. There are two ways of getting water to Bronte, and when there are two ways, then there is argu- ment . . . some of it pretty bitter. Both ways cost money, of course. One way, apparently, will neces- sitate certain residents between Oakville and Bronte shouldering a part of the cost. Naturally, they do not wish to pay for something which - feel they do not personally need. But life in a democracy means i we often have § to pay for benefits for the many, which we, as indi- viduals, never will share in. It's not hard to think of { i taxes, Provincial and Federal, which benefit others more than they do ourselves. Many people, because of industry and good fortune, for instance, will never require Old Age Pensions . . . yet their taxes go to- Si { ward payments for others. No one would argue that | such assistance for less fortunate old people was A Wrong. | In the case of Bronte water and the taxes requir- | ed the situation is the same. Everyone living in a dis- { trict is a part of that district . . . they share in the { pleasures of living in the area. If their contribution toward improving a section of the area is made in } such a way that they do not require the benefit, that is their contribution to the over-all good. We are not | citizens of an area only when we want something . . | we are citizens all the time, and as such, to enjoy the 4 blessings of democracy, we may find ourselves re- if quired to pay our share this time. Next time matters | may be reversed. Local improvement taxes usually work no injus- ; tice. The amounts are based on frontage. Those with i large frontages are usually able to pay their per foot J share with the same amount of hardship as the smal- ler owner. The principal thing for us all to keep in mind, is that Bronte's water situation is serious. Today there is much talk of people being *Cit- izens of One World." Surely there is merit in this ideal . . . and if there is, then there's more to be said Hin . for being 'Citizens of the district" instead of merely i} "citizens of the section of the earth we each own." Such an outlook would seem to make it possible to 2 | do things the easy way. LOST CAUSES Leaders of last causes have al- ways fired the imagination and aroused sympathy. Napoleon on St. Helena, Mary Queen of Scots, Bonnie Prince Charlie Scott of the Antarctic, all had dif- ferent claims to greatness. yet who knows how many deeds of courage their failures have in- spired. If successful they might well have joined the ranks of the forgotten. Defeat brings out the best or the worst in one, perhaps that is why there were few to sympathize with the defendants of Nuremburg. To-day the eyes of the world are focussed on two brave people --are they worthy of our sym- pathy? Will they rise above de- feat? What are they really like, General and Madame Chiang Kai- Shek? In 1933 when China was the only country whose armies were actively and continuously engaging the forces of Coms munism, Peter Fleming a British journalist obtained an interview with Kai-Shek, assuring him in all sincerity that the world's interest and sympathy were with the nationalist forces. At the conclusion of thd interview Flem- ing had this to say, "Before Chiang Kai-Shek I retired abash- ed. Here was a man with a pre- sence, with that something in- calculable to him to which the herd instinctively defers. He was strong and silent by nature, not by artifice. He may not be a great statesman, or a very great sol- dier; events may prove that the best that can be said of him is that he has been the effective head of the best government China has had since the revolu- tion, a government, incidentally, which is older by several years than any now holding office in the west. But at any rate Chiang Kai-Shek has something to him. He is not only not a mediocrity or 2 wind-bag but he could never look, like one." When Kai-Shek was fighting alone against the forces of Japan, Professor Soward of the Univer- sty of British Columbia wrote, "Weak China's strong man is now facing the supreme test of his career. If China is beaten to her knees China's tuler will be a ruined man, If Japan fails then 'lall the fatal fires By P. W. Thompson Every winter it happens, with- out fail, Almost every day some- one, somewhere in Canada, is burned to death. Most tragic of are those in which little children perish. It is surely an ironic commentary up- on this age of sclence and en- lightment that in spite of all our knowledge of elemental forces we have been unable to prevent these awful catastrophes. In a cold country like ours we depend to a great extent upon fire for our comfort, for our very life, indeed. Fire, while a wonder- ful servant, is a terrible enemy when out of control. Many fatal fires can be traced to plain care- lessness on someone's part, but that does not make them any the less tragic, especially when the victims are innocent children, as is so often the case. Many ad- vances have been made in fire fighting and. prevention methods, || will attain a place in the hearts of his countrymen that will rank him among the immortals of Chinese history." Chiang himself claims "No nation can ruin us un- less we first ruin ourselves." Ma- dam Kai-Shek has made two dra- matic flights to his side, the first time when he was a prisoner in Sian. That morning the General had written in his diary, "When I read the Old - Testament this morning I happened to come across the saying, "Jehovah will now do a new thing and that is he will make a woman a man," when this land, hundreds of humans burn to death every year. And until some radically new meth- ods of fire prevention are de- veloped and applied, there is every prospect that these fright- ful tragedies will continue. Here surely, is a problem that demands the immediate 'and con- tinued attention of our govern- ments. Industry should be en- couraged to work upon the pro-] lem. In view of what the forces of industry and science have ac- complished in other fields, the task of devising some means of reducing, if not completely 'elim- inating fire's ravages should be within their powers. Here is a ol department in which = progress has been' lagging badly. If a por- tion of the time, money and in- genuity that goes into developing television, rocket planes and at- what they are today. QUICK on all Exchanges Phone 1557 OAKVILLE CLEANERS MACRAE AND COMPANY Investment Dealers 80 King St. W.--Toronto PHONE: EL 3374 might only be a small fraction of THOROUGH 5 A Send your Complete garments to Investment rh Servic and always look 3 e . well groomed BONDS STOCKS * For Pick-up & Delivery | my wife arrived in the it seemed the word - of God had been carried out." Before flying to his side again last week Madam Kai-Shek left this message with us, "With or without help we shall fight. We dre not defeated. It is possible that we shall give every appear- ance of failure. It is possible that those who take a short view of life and no view at all of moral principles will write China off as a failure. Let no one be deceived. Ours is the cause of freedom." If they fail it shall once again seem that the message of modern Christendom is that "God is on the side of big battalions" "A sorry substitute for the Golden Rule. this ruler of 400,000,000 people It isn't strictly necessary that a newspaper columnist be eccen- tric, but it does help. It isn't es- sential, either, that he have any- thing in particular to write about. But that helps, too. However, in the long run, the one thing he can't possibly get along without is a sense of humour. Because, when an overtaxed and none too PUFFS FROM THE COTTON GIN the prison as a trusty. He would have phoned in, but he didn't have a nickel. He won't need one for some time to come ... Way out west at Kamloops, a news- paper headline read: "Pretty Bear, Indian Girl, Wins Beauty Contest," Careful with those commas, Mr. Linotyper. . . Poor Lawrence Marvin, over in fertile op- erations] bugs in its carburetor, that helps more than anything. Beating around the idea bush this week became an exceedingly, arduous chore until a couple of United Press squibs suddenly im- bedded in this battered old skull the thought that most folks, in- Te PASSING COMMENT Last week we reported the motion to rescind the gas- oline by-law was defeated by a like majority which passed = the other motion. An error, for -which we are sorry. At the last moment, before the vote, Reeve Litchfield asked the mo- | tion be held over until the next council meeting. * | vss a so 7 Don't forget to bundle up your Christmas cards and leave them at any of the drug stores for the Dr. A. W. Chase Medicine Company to pick up. Your old cards will be sent to a mission in the BIW.I. where they will be put to good use. Why not tie them up today, if you haven't done so? ER We'll call it the Hesitation Waltz, I guess . . . you see we've had to postpone our move to the new building on Dunn Street for a week. So moving day for us is now the 26th. Our new newspaper press wouldn't be ready so we couldn't stick : to our orginal date. cluding the old Ginner, ate prome to miss a lot by skipping over the oddities in the news as they search out the sensational. For instance, just let your mind dally ual happenings: ian Steeves, diaper stage. say? . unfortunately, it bounced . . . W. for a moment with these strictly unimportant, but definitely unus- In Miami, a certain Mrs. Mar- a home economics instructor at the University there, complained in a dlvorce suit that her husband objected to her cook- ing. The same week, a Pittsburg policeman sought divorce on the ground that his wife intimidated him. Professional pride falls hard . An item in the Toronto Star tells of a meeting of the Alberta Drama Board, at which the sug-|ed: gestion was put forward that culture in Canada is still in the Another way of commenting "all wet," might we In Honolulu, a kindly soul for- warded a $10 cheque to a news- paper fund for the needy. But, ©. Gasdiner, aiprisoneriin Mary- land penitentiary, came up with the week's niftiest excuse. He had been out for 76 days, he admit- ted, but it couldn't be classed as an escape. Actually, he had fallen off a truck while working outside Cadillac, , became in- trigued by a footpath that be- Too Busy To Get Ready for a Party? THEN LET US QUOTE ON YOUR NEEDS FANCY CAKES; COOKIES & SANDWICHES HORS D'EUVRES for Showers, Parties, Weddings, Special Occasions FREE DELIVERY F. Morgan-Brown CATERING SERVICE PHONE OAKVILLE 616J21 ATTENTION -FARM OWNERS We have a waiting list of Cash Purchasers wanting farms from Ten acres to' Two Hundred acres. If you are thinking of selling or would like a valuation just call our farm specialist without delay. ED. DEVENISH --PHONE BRONTE 4 r 3 Representing , A. F. BERRILL, BROKER 161 Colborne St. E. Phone 1233 been turning in empty beer bot- tles had been getting the cases from his own storage room . . . Marvin's tribulations, however, were nothing compared to those of a Cape Cod innkeeper whose wine vat blew up. The drinks, AP reports facetiously, were on the house. Must have been (yuk, yuk) a sedimental occasion . . . Blair Ferguson, doing a spot of sleuthing re banned books for Maclean's Magazine, came up with the startling information that 505 books are banned from Canada on the authority, of all people, of the Minister of Nation- al Revenue! Hon. J. J. ann, the minister in question, explain- ing his reason for banning Nor- man Mailer's war novel, "The Naked and the Dead," comment- "I didn't read the thing through, just the parts my staff had marked. I wouldn't want my daughter to read such a book." As Dr. McCann has no daughter, says Ferguson, the final criterion of what Canadians may or may not read is the moral sensitivity of a young lady who doesn't exist. Yes, good friends, it isn't really necessary for a colmunist to be eccentric all of the time. Occas- ionally, he can get by with the eccentricities of others. But he still remains, some of the time, * Eccentrically yours, BILL COTTON came noticeable between the 4 back and front doors of his groc- % ery store. Inv ed - that two youngsters who had When Your Doctor Prescribes compounded with only the best quality ingredients . and by only registered pharmacists. * Drug Co, Len Hope, Mgr. Oakville Phone 94 Limited - « « Bring your prescription to us to be accurately SE Tees IA EE EDGE ED DE "> Colborne St. E §3