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2 The Canadian Statesman. Bowmanville Nov. 14. 1973 Section Two EDITORIAL COMMENT Let's Hear thE Accusations and insults appear to be the order of the day for both the Board of Education and the sec- ondary school teachers in Northum- berland-Durham. There has been neither a negotiating session nor even a communication between the two groups since October 28th, except the indirect charges and countercharges they level at each other throughout the press. They seem to prefer waging a war of publicity and propaganda rather than sitting down to honest, mean- ingful discussion. Each side has its own particular style of empty rhetoric and each tells its own kind of half-truth. The Board prefers to use statistical gobbledygook and the suggestions that the teachers are slightly hysterical and dangerously radical. The teachers, on the otherhand, like to appeal to idealistic concepts of classroom education and the impor- tance of the student, all the while reminding the public how high-hand- ed the board is. Both sides refrain from telling the full story whenever possible, preferring to slant the particular issue at hand strongly in their favor. The board has issued the látest "press release" and it contains the usual amount of inflammatory rhetoric. Make no mistake, the same kind of release could just as easily have come from the teachers. In their release, the board's negotiating committee charges that the teachers "continue their mis- leading and inaccurate statements in their attempt to enlist public support". They added, three recent statements are so flagrant as to demand a reply." The first "flagrant statement" the board deals with is a classic example of charge and counter- charge. The board states the teachers were wrong when they accused the board of breaching the confidentiality of the negotiations by releasing 'secret' information. 'It wasn't us', says the board, 'the teachers did it first'. The teachers negotiating committee blew the confidentiality first by telling the rest of the teachers the details of the negotiations, according to the board. To an outsider it would hardly seem that the teachers' negotiating committee was guilty of a breach of confidentiality in this case. But the point is, it's a trivial detail for the two groups to argue about. The issue does raise one important question: Why the need for the secrecy in the first place? What it amounts to is that the public only gets its information on these negotiations by Wonder If the USSR 1 Those Arabs and their oi are certainly causing considerable anxiety throughout the world these days as they cut production to put pressure on the U.S.A. and indirect- ly force the Israelis to give back the land they won from them in their several wars. How successful they will be in their efforts remains to be seen but certainly things don't look good at the moment for the countries of the world that have been depending on Arab ou to satisfy their increasing demands for energy. We've had so many real and promoted scarcities this year with subsequent rises in prices that a great many citizens will be viewing the current crisis as just another that will be solved as the others were before it reaches panic proportions. Some wildly hysterical views are being aired on the subject at the moment, both here, in the U.S.A. and abroad but until we really start to feel the pinch, most of us will carry on as usual without paying more than passing attention. But, before winter is over, things could be different unless the situation improves. In Canada, at least from Quebec west, we are in the most favored nation category with sufficient supplies from the western provinces e Story As It Is! way of the propagandistic press releases put out by both sides. The next point the board's latest release deals with is the class size and pupil-teacher ratio issue. By juggling some statisties the board attempts to suggest that the teachers have no more students than they had last year. The fact that close to 20 teaching positions were axed by the board this year is totally ignored. We wish both groups would drop the pretence and tell the story as it is. The board wants the right to fire teachers at will and be able to balance their budget as they see fit, even if it means some hardship in the classroom for both teachers and students. The teachers talk nobly about the quality of education but what they mean is that they don't want to teach as many classes or as many students per day. They don't like having to take their work home at night and would prefer to have an' extra period during the day to mark assignments and prepare the next day's lessons. The teachers are right when they say small classes mean better education but it also means less work for the teachers. And don't let anybody kid you, money is a good part of the deadlock. Also at stake, so far as both sides are concerned, is a simple power struggle of who will dictate to whom about the class size issue. This board, like most boards, has never had to deal with militant teachers before and, as a result, they don't seem to take the current dispute too seriously. It is only fairly recently that teachers have devel- oped their political consciousness as a group and they want a share of the decision-making power. They feel, perhaps, rightly so, that they are closer to the realities of the classroom than are school board administrators and it is time for the administrators to stop dictating classroom conditions. lowever, if you listened only to the teachers and the board of education, none of these issues would ever have been brought up. Isn't it time for both sides to stop cranking out all their pointless propaganda and get down to the business of resolving the current dispute? Frankly, as an Editor, we are also wondering who is coining all the words that appear in the press releases, such as 'arbitrability' and 'confidentiality'. They certainly don't appear in any dictionaries in our possession. It would appear the dispute is developing its own jargon. Has An Energy Crisis? to keep us going in a more or less normal fashion, but some sacrifices no doubt will have to be made to overcome expected shortages in the eastern part of the country. We can't help wondering a few things about the current problem, such as what hope the U.S.A. and its ace negotiator Henry Kissinger would have in trying to buy some oil from the Soviet Union. We doubt if the Arabs have cut their supply at all; in fact, it might well be that, in return for the arms supplied, the Arabs could be shipping more their way, some of it probably destined originally for the U.S. Surely, our good friends with whom we of North America have such a friendly detente at the moment would be happy to make up some of our shortages. Or did they give the Arabs the idea of cutting off the U.S. in the first place to weaken the United States? We'd like to see somebody try out that source just to see how much luck they'd have. Here at home, probably any- body who has bought a new car recently with ail those emission controls wouldn't complain if the government insisted they be remov- ed to improve mileage and perform- ance. Lt would save a pile of gasoline. Y ~ ~'LVK' È~IkU1 $;L~~1k~Ul uurham County's Great Family Journal Established 119 years ago in 1854 Also Incorporating The Bowmanville News The Newcastle Independent The Orono News Second class mail registration number 1561 ,QS ID r O I ~ 41 L Phone Produced every Wednesday by Phone 623 3303 THE JAMES PUBLISHING COMPANY LIMITED 623-3303 62-66 King St. W., Bowmanville, Ontario LiC 3K9 JOHN M. JAMES Editor Publisher GEO. P. MORRIS, Business Mgr. PATRICK GOULD Sales Manager DONALD BISHOP Plant Mgr. Copyright an-d or properfy rights Oibsist 'n the image appearing on thîs proof, Permission fo reproduce n whole or n part and in any form whatsoeverparficularly by phofographic or offset process n a publication, musf be obained from the publisher and the printer Any unauthorized reprodouc on wili be sub1ect to recourse in law. $7.00 a year -6 months $4.00 $9.00 a year n the U.S.A. strictly in advance Alfnough every precaution wiJi be faken to avoîd error The Canadian Statesman accepfs adverising in ifs columns on the undersfandîng fhat t wîil not be liable for any error in the adverfîsement publisthed hereunder unless a proof of such advertisemrent is requested in writing by the advertiser and refurned to The Canadien Statesman business office duly signed by the advertiser and with such error or corrections plainly noted n writing thereon. and in that case if any error so noted is not corrected by The Canadian Stofesman ifs ltabilify shai not exceed such a portion ot the enfîre cosf of such adverftsement as the space occupied by the nofed error bears to the whoie space occupied by such advertîsernent. New Roads and Bridge, Create Pro blems for Trustees and Council The planned discontinuance of the "temporary" school bus service from the Waverley Road subdivisions to Central Public School has prompted 18 area parents to petition the Bowmanville Town Council for a walkway from Martin Road South to the cul-de-sac on the old stretch of Highway 2. School Board trustee Alan Strike also appeared at the November 5th council meeting and told the councillors that -'E M r N N NNUl M the three Darlington area trustees wish to meet with the council to discuss the possibil- ity of safety features and crossing guards in the area of the new entrance at the west end of town. A letter to council from school board adminis- trator M. A. MacLeod indicat- ed that the lack of a guard rail on the new bridge is a matter of concern to the trustees. Apparently, the Ministry of Transportation and Commun- ications, who built the new rods and bridge, have no intention of installing either the walkway requested by the parents or adding the guard rails to the bridge. The petition fromn the Martin Road residents stated, "As there are a number of people who walk to town, and upon suspension of bus services to Central School this walkway will need to be used by children to and from school, we therefore feel the provision of such a walkway is a necessity." Councillor Don Allin moved that council meet with the school board trustees at the next committee of the whole meeting to discuss the overall situation created by the new construction. His motion was unanimously approved. IV viim EI RM2ERR R RRRRRRRR t Byui&mu ey By Bill Smiley S ie SOON IT WILL BE 80 MILES IN 80 DAYS For years Canadians in small towns have watched the drying up of passenger train services. Commun- ity after community has had its rail services cut. P assenger service in this coun- try is now about on a par with that in Outer Mongolia. Manytcommunities fought hard to retain the train service, but the locals were no match for' the railways, with their publi e relations men,tlawyers, experts and the inevitable figures. There is none- of the romance and excitement of Canada's early railways in these figures. There is no sentiment. They show that the line is losing money, and that's all the railways care about. They don'tamention that there seemed to be a deliberate plan to let the tracks and the coaches fall into such disrepair and shabbiness that even an Outer Mongolian would prefer to travel by yak. There was almost no attempt, except on the big transcontinental trains, to provide faster, more comfortable, reliable service. The railways are perfectly happy to provide good service for cattle and hogs, but they just don't want people riding on their trains. is our postal service going the way of our passenger train service? Is there a secret conspiracy, high in the ranks of our postal department, to discourage Canadians from communicating by mail? Are postal authorities being bribed by the Bell Telephone, the railways' telecommunications sys- tem, and other competitors to put the brakes on postal delivery to the point where it will diminish to a trickle, then halt completely? One would think so, on the evidence. People in business who depend on the so-called postal service in this country, must be losing their hair, their minds, and even their busi- nesses these days. Last summer, when we were in England, L mailed two columns back to Canada. No problem. They were there right on time. My wife wrote some postcards. ,"Not much point", I observed. "We'll be home before the cards get there." We weren't. But have you tried the Canadian mails lately? Don't, unless there is no other way. Last night, my wife came across an old love letter, from me, and read it to the accompaniment of my blushes and snorts. That letter travelled more than 200 miles, and took two days to get there, and cost four cents postage. This week, we had a letter from Our daughter. She lives the vast distance of 80 miles away. You could walk it in four days, hitchhike it in two. Yet the post office, with its computers, its fancy codes and its fast, modern trucks, took the grand total of four days to get the letter from there to here. That's really whippy service. Twenty miles a day. And it cost eight cents. Twiceithe cost for less than haîf the efficiency. This column is mailed from here to the city on Tuesday, for processing. It should be delivered next morning, the people here tel me-. Lt isn't. Sometimes it gets there Friday. Sometimes it doesn't. After some complaints from the city end, I took what L thought was drastic eaction. I sent the column by certified mail. That sounds impres- sive. It consists of putting your envelope inside a special envelope, and paying forty cents for the privilege. "That'll do it", I thought comfortably. It didn't. Three days later, the city was on the blower. No column. I explained what I'd done. They said they'd go to the post office. They did. Nobody knew any- thing about it. After eight days, the whole sordid little, unimportant story came out. Certified mail must be signed for. The elevator in the office building in the city was not working. The recipients of the column were on the third floor. No postie was going to walk up three flights of stairs. So the "certified" letter was not delivered. Worse still was the fact that it was dumped somewhere in the post office and ignored. Eight days after it was mailed, it turned up. Eight days, eighty miles. But by gosh, the price is right. Only forty cents. I've no grudge with the local people. They are helpful and obliging. But somewhere out there.. Sending a letter these days is about as effective as writing a note, putting it in a bottle, and dropping it in the Pacific Ocean. Except that the latter is a lot cheaper, if you happen to have an empty bottle. Next year, L'm going to hire a mule train for my mail. In the Dim and Distant Past 25 YEARS AGO Thursday, December 2, 1948 Running for mayor in the municial elections for Bow- manville are Arthur S. Baker, Sidney Little, and Lawrence C. Mason. For reeve Norman Allison, and Wm. G. James, for deputy reeve Frank Jam- ieson and Ray Dilling. Miss Joan Morgan, Zion was acclaimed Miss Darlington 1948 at the third annual party given for Darlington Football League and friends given by Mr. and Mrs. Roy Nichols, General Motors dealer at Courtice. Bowmanville and district Badminton fans are to be honored, Monday, Dec. 6 when the all India Championship Badminton team will visit the local club for an exhibition game with local stars. Bow- manville is one of three clubs in Ontario they visit before they go on tour in the U.S.A. The following will be cand- idates in the Clarke Township election on Dec. 9. Reeve Charles Melville Jones and Edward Ross Woodyard. De- puty Reeve J. Hartwell Low- ery (accl). Councillors Jas. T. Brown, J. Henry Davey, G. Wilfred Hawke, Sidney J. Lancaster, and Arthur McKay (three to be elected). Mr. S. B. Rutherford, Orono, returned on Sunday after attending the International Convention of Social Studies held in Chicago, as a delegate from Forest Hill School, Toronto. Five Hampton Ladies sup- plied the entertainment for the Nov. meeting of the Scout Mother's Auxiliary held in the Lion's Centre with Mrs. Albert Cole presiding, Mrs. K. Caver- ly and Mrs. H. Millson duet with Miss N. Niddery at the piano. Mrs. J. Honey and Mrs. J. Reynolds a skit. Mrs. J. S. Heyland moved the vote of thanks. 49 YEARS AGO Thursday, November 27, 1924 Friday at noon the Bow- manville-Oshawa Highway was declared open to through traffic by the contractors, all of the work being completed. This section now gives per- manent pavement from Tor- onto to Bowmanville, a total of 41 miles, and a good gravel road to Cobourg, a distance of 27 miles. There are many evidences that better times are ahead. One is that General Motors, Oshawa, will be kept running at high speed for a long time as orders for McLaughlin cars total 500 a month and addi- tional men will be employed. The Pedlar People have a business boom on and are organizing a night shift. British Canadian Canners are accepting and soliciting contracts for Canning produce for the 1925 season. Green peas - $60 per ton, Early Evergreen and Hickcox corn - $10 per ton, Early Crosby Maine Style Corn - $15 per ton, Pea seed - $3 per bu., corn seed - 10 cents per lb. . The masquerade entertain- ment held in the A.O.F. Hall by the Companions of the Forest, Thurs. Nov. 20, proved a most enjoyable evening to ail present. Mrs. Ted Bird won the prize for the best dressed lady, Mrs. Wm. Hall, best comic costume, Mr. Milton Wilcox best dressed gentle- man, Mrs. Chas. Mutton, comic gent, Miss Irene Bate- man, best dressed girl, Miss Elsie Edgerton, comic cos- tume, Miss Hilda Hall and Miss Jean Herring, the two best dressed little girls. MAPLE GROVE Mrs. H. G. Freeman ac- companied her daughter and husband, Mr. and Mrs. Denis Pickard, Bowman- ville, to Port Hope on Sat- urday evening for tea with their daughter and husband, Mr. and Mrs. Ron Bennett and family. Ail attended the Port Hope Commencement when the former's great- granddaughter Hea t h e r Bennett graduated from Grade XII and also re- ceived a bursary given by the Port Hope Masonic Lodge. Heather is attend- ing Humber College, Tor- onto. Mrs. Alan Snowden ac- companied her daughter and husband, Mr. and Mrs. Len Goodmurphy a n d family, Orono, to spend the weekend in Plattsville with her daughter and husband, Mr. and Mrs. Howard Hagedorn a n d family. Mrs. L. C. Snowden, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Wright at- tended the Solina Married People's Reunion held in Solina Hall on Saturday evening. Mrs. Keith Bickell, panee, spent the weekes with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur W. Martin. Mr. and Mrs. Mel Shiels. Newmarket and Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Flintoff, Osh- awa, were Saturday even- ing visitors. Mr. Hoskin Smith of Hampton was a Sunday supper guest of Mr. and Mrs. Clifford Swallow. lýl , . - ý -- -- -.-- 1 ý - . .- ..,.â ý. CCNA