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2--PORT FERRY STAR, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20th, 1964 Edo Viewpol Meet Automation With Confidence It is hard to avoid the conclusion that much of the current hullabaloo concerning the supposed terrors of advancing automation serves no useful purpose what- ever. What it does do in many cases is arouse needless fears. : No one in his right mind supposes that the acceler- ating pace of technological change is not a.force to be reckoned with, posing as it does major social problems. But there is every reason to believe that we will meet the challenge intelligently and with resource, and indeed evidence is not lacking that we are already doing so. Three things are often forgotten, the first being that technological progress is no new phenomenon of our time. Although it may gallop today where formerly it crawled, it is still essentially a continuation of the same process known to our fathers and grandfathers and those before them. The second is that each generation has had its share of frightened men, along with those who have preyed upon their often quite natural and understandable fears. More than three hundred years ago, hand copyists in Paris were driven to riot against the introduction of the printing press, while a Danzig mob around the same time actually drowned the inventor of a wool-weaving machine. In 1707, bargemen on Germany's Fulda River suc- cessfully burned the forerunner of the first steamboat, thereby delaying steam-propelled ships by a hundred years. And in 1780, English hand-spinners wrecked Ri- chard Arkwright's new cotton spinning machinery. With- in 25 years, however, with spinning machines, textile em- ployment had multiplied over forty times over. There was much more excuse for these men--as for the Luddites of 150 years ago--than for the alarmists of 1964 who see the machines of tomorrow as condemning most of us to a life of arid idleness within a matter of years. The third thing which these latter-day Jeremiahs forget is that work is not an end in itself. We work to live better and enjoy a more complete and rewarding life than those who went before us. It is our great good for- tune to live in an age when this is not only possible, but patently so, and we are certainly infinitely better equip- ped in every way to cope with attendant problems than were earlier societies. Within the past 20 years alone, we have accomplish- ed wonders in terms of improved productivity and rising living standards. And with all this has come increased leisure, higher levels of education and travel on a scale never before known. Let it not be overlooked either, that in Canada (as in other countries) these same years have seen remark- able changes in the composition of our working popula- tion, the most notable being the huge reduction in the size of our agricultural labour force. Yet not only have we simultaneously greatly increased our farm production in terms of both quantity and quality, but we have also absorbed into the manufacturing and service industries the more than half-a-million workers who have left the farms, displaced by tractors, combines, harvesters and other more efficient machines. Yes, there will have to be more and better re-train- ing programs as well as other adjustments before we can be satisfied we are doing all that is necessary, but our achievements thus far surely entitle us to face a more highly automated future with confidence rather than alarm. --from Industry * KF 0% QUICK CANADIAN FACTS The following statistics have been gleaned from ma- terial supplied by the publishers of Quick Canadian Facts. Since 1950 the average weekly wage in Canadian manufacturing has increased from $44 to $82; in the period, the average profit per dollar of sales in the in- dustry dropped from 7.1 cents to 5.4 cents. There are about 1,000,000 Canadians eligible for the old age security pension in the current year, compared to 745,000 ten years ago; cost of the pension in the period "has increased from $290 million to $900 million. From 1929 to 1963, total government spending in Canada increased from 16 per cent of the country's gross national product to 32 per cent. Port Perry Star Co. Lid. Serving Port Perry, Brooklin and Surrounding Areas WM. T. HARRISON Editor P. HVIDSTEN, Publisher Member of the Ontario Weekly Newspaper Assoc. Member of the Canadian Weekly " Newspaper Assoc. Published every Thursday by The Port Perry Star Co. Ltd.,, Port Perry, Ontario. Authorized as second class mail by the Post Office Department, Ottawa, and for payment of postage in cash. Subscription Rates: In Canada $2.60 per yr., Elsewhere, $8.00 per yr. Single Copy 7¢ ' Ll | Flies Homebuilt Aircraft To Rockford, I11. he Experimental Aircraft Monon, is an international non-proft organzation designed to promote and govern the building of homebuilt aircraft in the United States & Canada. For the past twelve years, they have sponsored a fly-in at Rockford, Illinois for homebulit and antique planes. Each year the fly-in has grown both in the number of aircraft flown in and the number of people in- terested in the hobby of home- building. John Carnwith of Oshawa, who built his own aircraft in his basement in four and a half years, flew his open cockpit plane to Rockford. His Druine TURBI is the first aircraft of its kind to be built and flown in North America so was a very interesting addition to the fly- in. The return trip to Rock- ford, which is 90 miles north- west of Chicago, was 1200 miles, taking 16 'hours flying time. Evsom News By Jean Jeffery Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Geer spent the week-end with Mr. and Mrs. Earl Geer at a cottage at Bob- caygeon. Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Lee and family of Toronto visited Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Wilson on Sun- day and daughters, Lorna and Louise remained for holidays. Mr. and Mrs. Keith: Stewart were with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Stewart for the week-end, son Douglas returned home with his parents and sis- ters, Cathy and Barbara re- mained for a week's holiday. Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Walker who had been holidaying at the Stewart home returned to Tor- onto with Mr. and Mrs. Keith Stewart. Mr. and Mrs. Walter Kerry and family visited Mr. and iMrs. Carl Myers at their cott- age at Bobcaygeon on Monday.' Mr, and Mrs. Gordon Taylor and Mrs. Arthur Taylor. were in Niagara Falls on Sunday. (Continued on page 11) Sugar ° and Spice By BILL SMILEY THE LAST SURRENDER I was badgered into attending a wedding this summer. They are events I normally avoid as carefully as I would a leper colony. But this was a special one. My old partner, after fight- ing the good fight for forty years, had finally been snared. I looked upon it more as a historic event than a mere exchange of nuptial vows. For years, my wife and every other married female he came in contact with had bullied him, pleaded with him, urged him, pushed eligible young women in front of him, in that great and noble feminine vocation noww as Don't let a Single One Get Away. During the process, I and the husbands of these other harpies maintained a discreet silence, our sympathy indicated only by the rolling of eyeballs heavenwards. Secretly and un- animously, we cheered him on to greater heights of courage, stubborness or insanity, depending on your point of view. Anyway, he finally took the plunge, or got out of his depth or something, after four decades of incredible fortitude. But trust him. He didn't just get hitched and start raising a fa- mily and going through all the horrors that involves. Nope. He married a charming widow, and when the last vow had been taken, he became an instant husband, father and grandfather. The rest of us go through twenty-five years of unmitigated hell to achieve that that serene height. Well, as I started out to say, weddings, to me and to most men, are just a big pain in the arm. I'd rather go to a good funeral, any day. But women are different. They take to weddings like cats take to kipper. There is something almost morbid about their fascination with that production which most men consider a minor tragi-comedy. You should have seen the nonsense we went through gett- ing ready for this one. I figured we'd get dressed up, shine our shoes, buy the happy couple a crock of scotch or a carving knife, and that's all there was to it. Well, that's all I did to prepare for it. But my old woman started operating at least a month before the ceremony. Though I kept reminding her that she wasn't the bride, she was in and out of practically every dress shop in the province, before she got the right dress and hat. Then there was a big thing about her gloves. They were just a shade off the off-something-shade of the rest of the rig. Tears. Dye. Dye remover. . More dye. Thank goodness T went in my bare hands. And then there was the gift. I could have bought some- thing useful and suitable, like an ironing board, in about twenty minutes. But she dragged me in and out of stores until I felt more like dropping than shopping. And the prices! Oy! However, we made it, and I finally realized why women like weddings so much. * First of all, it gives them a chance for a good cry without some callous kid saying, "Hey, Dad, what's Mom bawling about NOW". Second, it affords them the opportunity of wearing some crazy hat they haven't enough nerve to wear to church norm- ally. And which item will be carefully stored away in a hat- box until it is thrown away by their grand-daughter some day. And finally, there is that delicious aftermath, when it's all over, when they don't have to worry about makeup any more, when the shoes come off and the hair comes down, and they can get at the real business of the wedding - tearing to tatters the costumes, manners and reputations of all the other women at the wedding. --Toronto Telegram News Service 1