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AER ¥ ee nf oh " # Zirh x= 4 - i] Fo) FY ! \ \ =a is Ron, 2 - g mda "ey om ae 4 g i / | Spm vt 3 Rg Lh eg Wo | Watch out for racketeers John T. Clement, Ontario's Minister of Con ymer and Commercial Relations, attention to th roblem of phoney charities. "It's easy to take advantage of people's generosity at this time of year, and although most organizations do a lot of good at Christmas, there are a few that are strictly rackets', he said. S One scheme involves phoning at random to solicit money for charity Christmas parties. The money is supposed to help make Christmas a little happier for orphans and crippled children, but what often happens is that the organizer turns out to bea con man who keeps most of the money for himself. There are several ways the public can help stop this sort of rip-off. First give only to established charities, such as your own church or local service organizations. Second, only legitimate charities can give official tax receipts. When you get a receipt, you not only save money at tax time, but you also have proof that you are giving to a worthy and effective cause. Service organizations and other groups who want to raise money for legitimate charitable purposes should take a close look at fund-raisers who offer their services. Too often, a very worthy group can get a 'black eye' by unwittingly lending its name to a shoddy operator who raised a lot of money but keeps most of it. Real victims of inflation One must have sympathy for the Canadian housewife as she struggles with continuing inflat- ion. Yet it must be remembered always that she is one of the more fortunate victims of this economic malaise that affects the whole world. There are too many others who don't eat regularly, and hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, who'have gone hungry and died during the past 12 months. Photographs taken in the West African country of Mali recently show once-proud nomads scratching in the dust for grain after an air-drop. In the African region below the Sahara, known as the Sahel, drought has gripped entire nations. In Ethiopia, the worst drought in a century is said to have killed 250,000 people. They who hunger are the true victims of inflation, for the aid they seek is slow in coming. Many nations want to buy wheat for their people, but can't afford the high prices. Late in 1972, a ton of wheat cost $79. By March this year, it had all but tripled in price. Between 1972 and 1974 fertilizer, which is a vital tool for faster agricultural development, had doubled in price from $70 to $135 a ton. Shipping costs are rising rapidly, and general disenchantment with inflation in the rich countries does not help the aid picture. Politicians who are "under fire over rising prices look less kindly upon development assistance for poorer nations. Yet their need today is greater than it ever was. Sky rocketing oil prices have hurt the poor of the world more.than they have hurt us. Canadians, in assessing the impact of inflation on their lives, also should remember the hungry. (Contributed) ill Smiley-- AN APPEAL TO PARENTS | "| 10 YEARS AGO Thursday, December 17, 1964 Bro. N. P. Aldred was yg, installed as Worshipful Master of Fidelity Lodge AF & AM, Port Perry. ' Mr. Ed. Mulholland was elected president of 'the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 419. . Peel's Broiler Breeder sales "have reached 35 per cent of all broiler breeder -sales in Canada, which means one out of every three broiler chickens retailed in Canada are Peel's. LAC James L. Hunter, son of Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Hunter received a suggest- ion award while stationed with the RCAF in Coldlake, Alberta. Representing the County in the Junior Farmers Debating contest this year from: Port Perry was Neil McLeod and Bob Barlow. 15 YEARS AGO Thursday, December 17, 1959 The Lions Club held their annual Christmas party and Ladies Night at the Flamin- go Restaurant, and all enjoyed a turkey dinner provided by J. J. Gibson. Mr. John Wilde was engaged as the Skating Club professional to teach the skaters. The Women's Hospital auxiliary netted over $500.00 with their Doll Draw this year. =~ The profit will be approximately $350.00. At the Ontario Crop and * Soil Association meeting a scholarship award was made to Lloyd Wilson, the high judge in the Ontario County ! Annual Seed Judging Com- f petition, and Mr. Keith Bacon was chosen to repre- sent Ontario County at the Junior Farmers Land Use Tour in August. Mrs. Murray Holtby was ®* elected president of Prospect ' U.C.W. 6 25 YEARS AGO Thursday, December 15, 1949 The car donation by Mr. (continued on page 14) In the so-called good old days, a great many who are now middle-aged men were in the newspaper business. That is, they had a paper route and made a bit of spending money, even in the depression years. I was closely associated with a paper route myself, although I didn't exactly have one. My kid brother did. I was sort of his business manager or financial adviser. _ Every Saturday night, after he'd made his weekly collections, I would inveigle him into the bathroom, lock the door so nobody could hear, and give him some sound business advice. , I'd remind him that he was too fond of candy and pop and other tooth-rotting confections, that he had no willpower, and that he'd only squander his hard-earned fifty cents if he didn't invest at least part of it every week. He didn't know much about investments and wanted to put some of his money into a piggy bank. I'd tell him severely that that was no way to make his money grow. He should give it to me and watch the interest pile up. He'd bawl a bit, but then he'd come around after a bit of arm-twisting, and see the point. The point was that I was stronger than he was. I'd always let him keep part of it, maybe twenty cents. I'd take the other thirty cents and invest it. I invested it in the Saturday night movie, a bottle of pop and a chocolate bar. It was a wise investment and paid good dividends. The many movies I thus enjoyed enriched my experience of the human condition, enlarged my vocabulary, and added to my personal pleasure in life. It took him about two years to catch on, two of the best years of my life. There was, of course, a confrontation. He swore I had conned him out of at least sixty dollars. I scoffed at this and told him it was only about fourteen. But the little devil had been keeping his books. Last time I saw him, in Germany last spring, he informed me that with compound interest, I now owed him $44,000 and if I didn't come up with it, he'd be interested in taking it out of my hide. I am still an inch taller than he, but he out-weighs me by forty pounds. So we compromised. I tok him that if he paid all my expenses on my trip, I'd dig up the money somehow. He did. And thank goodness I haven't seem him since. All this has been brought to mind by a recent development in the delivery of daily newspapers. It is just another sign of affluent age, when even the kids have so much money they don't have to work. For years, I've taken two daily news- papers, morning and evening. They take - opposite political stands, and both are so warped that if I take a stand in the middle of their polarized points of view, I am right in the temperate zone, which I prefer. At any rate, it seems that these titans of the press cannot, simply can not, secure young carrier girls or boys to peddle their papers. The morning paper has simply given up. No delivery. The evening paper has hired independent agents "operating their own vehicles." This means guys who drive around in their own cars and hurl the paper out the car window in the general direction of your house. : In the good old days of about six weeks ago, I felt a little tingle of warmth when the door-bell rang. "Ah, the paper boy," I would remark wittily. And it was. The boy, or sometimes girl, was faithful and loyal, even in the foulest weather. I knew the country was going to hell in a hearse, but 1 felt that this was one hummock of decency and virtue in a morass of miseries. Now I feel a very strong tingle, not of warmth, but of rage, at paper-delivery time. Itis my custom when I arrive home after a hard day onthe assembly line at the pupil-factory, to take off my jacket and my shoes, and take on a cold beer before proceeding to peruse my paper. This entire routine has been spoiled, but to say desecrated, by the new delivery method. I still go through the first parts of the procedure, but the beer tastes flat as I stew around, waiting for the paper. It arrives any time between four and seven. That means I have put back on my shoes and gone out in my shirtsleeves in the winter wind to search around in the snow for my paper as. many as four times. This is not conducive to lowering a man's blood pressure. Atleast they put the thing in a plastic bag. But this is covered in three minutes when it's snowing, which it always seems to be when I go out to look for my paper. To add insult to injury, I receive a letter from the circulation department of the big, fat, rich, lousy newspaper telling me that the price is going up and that "We feel this a reasonable price to pay for dependable delivery to your driveway six days a week." . Well, let me just say to the circulation manager 'that I don't want the paper delivered to my driveway, but to my house. Mr car can't read. And let me add that the service is not dependable, in its present condition. And let me further add that if you can't do better than that, I will shortly tell you what you can do with your newspaper. Sideways. This is a direct appeal to all parents. Please cut off your children's allowances, so that at least some of them will be available to peddle papers in the old way. Thisis a cry from the heart. Civilization is sinking. Must this last vestige of normalcy go down with in? The Argyle Syndicate Ltd. ® f