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u SECS ATA, ROR SER -- a SEY Nea . Kellys b ERR SEE > Ra 2 Sr -- NS Ch RR OR RES y Dean J. Kelly NEW CARS; The days of the canvas covered new models and the: blacked out showroom windows are gone. The new G.M. cars are smaller in size...the full size models shortened an average of 11 inches, narrowed by 4 inches and lightened by about 700 Ibs. The rule of thumb generally is you save about 1 mile per gallon for each 1001bs. of weight. The 700 1b. saving could mean 7 more miles per gallon. Chrysler is doing little restyling but concentrating on better mileage with their 'lean burn' system. Ford has dropped the full size Thunderbird from the luxury market into the middle line with a new much lower price tag. The U.S. government has set standards for gas mileage. By 1985 cars must give an average of 27 miles per gallon. G.M. is downsizing its complete full size line besides adding four new engines. Some predict the station wagon may go the way of the convertible...be- cause of its weight, could not meet gov't standards for gas economy. Smaller families...smaller cars. Several weeks ago I filed a feature story with the National Enquirer on the Ford rust problem. After it appeared a group of angry Ford owners in Miami formed an Association to sue Ford. Last week an ad appeared in Canadian papers -- Join national group taking legal action to recover losses from Ford, G.M.C., Chrysler. Write Rust Group, Box 164, Stn. N. New Toronto 14, Ont. Who says you can't fight City Hall -- or the "Big Three' Detroit automakers? LATE REPORT: Ford of Canada has announced the largest consumer settlement in history. The out of court settlement will cost Ford at least $15 million, affecting 600,000 Ford owners from 1970 - 174. The class action suit was for damages of $371 million on behalf of all Ontario buyers of new Fords from 1970-1974. Owners get a trade-in allowance for up to $300. on a new car or light truck or the same value in repairs on a 50-50 basis. The gas war on No. 2 Highway near Whitby has gas selling for around 75.9c. DX Oil on a recent survey had the lowest prices. 5¢ phone calls can still be made in Manitoba. By next spring pay phones will be changed to 10c...HALF what Bell Canada charges in Ontario. ~ The Canadian Labour Relations Board ruling that contracts rolled back by the Anti-Inflation Board are invalid could lead the way to labour crushing wage and price controls. AIR CRASH in Yugoslavia was reliably reported caused by the use of Servo-Croatian language rather than the official language of air control the world over - English! The loss of two jets carrying 176 people should certainly show that the use of French should not be used here in Canada by air controllers. A German jet pilot who witnessed the collision of the British and Yugoslav jéts heard the conversation...which could not be understood by the British pilot. The air controllers were arrested and charged with the violation...not using the official world air language...English. The collision of two 747 Jumbo jets could take the lives of more than 700 people. Meanwhile, Ottawa in its blindness is still pushing the use of French. Recently I had a conversation with a professional man in which we discussed a number of things including labour's upcoming-day of protest, and that Canada has the worst strike record of any country in the world with exception of Italy. He informed me he had personally seen a G.M. cheque paid to a sweeper with a limited education, who paid more in tax than most people make in a week. The one week's pay was for $649.21 with tax of $241.00 (with overtime). That makes around $33,800.00 a year. Add to that the fringe benefits of about 27 per cent...another $9,126 and you get a total of $42,926.00. Who says labour is hard done by...when a G.M. sweeper makes that kind of money. By comparison for a businessman to get that-kind of return (at 5 per cent net profit on investment) he would have to invest about $850,000.00. The STAR has had two complaints that the beer store refuses to take $50.00 bills, even though the people were well-known local customers. BALSAM LAKE FISHERMAN CAPTURES WORLD RECORD...said the headline in a recent Lindsay Post article. A world record fish in Balsam Lake? What kind of fish could that be? A sturgeon or a lunge? No, neither one. The story was about a man from Balsam Lake who landed a 1014 pound bluefish tuna...not in Balsam Lake but in the Atlantic ocean off P.E.I. in the Canada Team Cup Match. It took four hours and 20 minutes to land the tuna. OSTRICH AWARD of the week must go to the Mayor of Hull, Quebec for spending three days in jail protesting that his motor vehicle summons was in English...not in French, although he speaks perfect English. He doesn't seem to protest all the Federal Depts. that are being moved by the Trudeau govern- ment from OTTAWA to Hull, Quebec. About SIX more are being transfered to Quebec. It must make the - separatists very happy. knowing that it will all be theirs when they split from Canada. TV farce Political debates of the type that saw Carter and ~ Ford going through the motions recently have been called "television's great contribution' to making - democracy work. Cameras and lights are supposed to 'strip away the political camouflage in a face-to- face'confrontation with the American people'. How the same people who gave us the Man from Glad and the White Tornado can possibly come up with the conclusion that television strips the mask of anything is too much for us to comprehend. "The Carter-Ford debate is perhaps the best example of what a television debate isn't. By its very nature, the politicking must be aimed at the lowest - common denominator in an effort to appease as many 'as possible and offend as few as possible. That's done through simplistic answers to complex issues, and the old political trick of talking much and saying little. While the Starsky and Hutch crowd probably gets its political enlightenment out of this kind of debate, it is alarming how much of it is swallowed whole by the public at large. It was with not a little dismay that the writer heard one political analyst expound that "it was not what was said by each candidate that was important to America, but how it was said." "Style, not content, is the secret,'"' he said. Adolf Hitler had "style", and so probably did, Atilla the Hun. ' We must be realistic, of course, and accept the fact that wavy hair, blue eyes, broad shoulders and a commanding personality help all of us make decis- ions on who we vote for, but to suggest, as some have, that one political debate could clinch the election or lose an election is ridiculous. If true....frightening. Bunker's bank? We hear that some local ladies have been so upset at the Royal Bank's inability to find qualified' women to sit in the bank's boardrooms, that they've decided to take some action right here at home. According to one very upset lady, she and another half-dozen have decided to close down their accounts at the local bank as a symbolic gesture of disapproval. "It isn't going to close the bank down," one of these people told the STAR last week, "and we wouldn't want it to."" She felt the local branch probably has nothing to do with the action at Head Office, but feels 'a stand must be taken somewhere". We're doubtful that there is an abundance of women executives: in the other major Canadian banks, but you've got to assign the Royal an A-plus on the Statement Most Likely to Infuriate of the Year award. Trade unity The poorer nations continue to demand a fairer share of world trade...yet their hopes will not be realized for many years. The Third World countries had hoped to establish a common fund to stabilize wild price fluctuations in ten key commodities. They pressed the issue at the recent United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) held in Nairobi. But the rich countries, led by the United States, had grave doubts. Washington in particular did not commit itself In any way to a common fund for fin- ancing buffer stocks of raw materials. Most of the free enterprise nations felt it would be difficult for them to support any trading system that requires a prior commitment to the kind of commodity agree- ments that are based on a system of government-ad- ministered prices. In other words, the capitalist traders of the world were lined up against nations controlled by Communist regimes and military dictatorships. It would be of great benefit to the world's nations if such trade issues as commodity stabilization could be removed from the realm of ideology, and examined on their practical merits. Statesmen have stressed that the aim must be to preserve an open environment for world trade in most products, but at the same time to build certain safeguards for poor nations. These countries simply cannot endure the erratic swings in the world market for their few exports without seriously endangering their econ- omies...and sometimes even the health and the lives of their population. Unchurched Editorial y <