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Lamb recaptures the excitement and urgency of that first autumn of 1945 and the yvears immediately following Canada had come of age in World War II. and Canadians knew it Europe was shattered. Britain exhausted This was the best country in the world to live in. and all we recently discharged young veterans knew it There was an almost palpable exhilaration in the air y Right across the country. mchLdmg Quebec. there It just goes to show politics is indeed a game. I‘m referring to what happened last week in provincial parliament when a Conservative MPP named Ed Havrot launched a racist attack on fellow member of the legislature. The attack was long, and apparently due to the fact that the guy was drunk. That incident in itself is a sick comment on the state of Ontario‘s parliament. But that type of outburst is to be expected from someone like Ed Havrot. A couple of years ago, the same upstanding politician was in trouble over some idiotic comments he made about Canadian native.peoâ€" ple. So it has been proven that the man is somewhat less than brilliant Just when the incident seemed over, another mouthy politician jumped on the bandwagon. Exâ€"NDP leader Stephen Lewis delivered a redâ€"condemnation of Havrot on his syndicated radio show, carried by CHYM radio in Kitchener _ But to add insult to injury, the Speaker of the House refused to eject Havrot, and accepted a lame apology. Five weeks prior to this incident, a 19â€"yearâ€"old Slav named Gavrilo Princip had assassinated the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo. As a result, Austriaâ€"Hungary declared war on Serbia. Germany stood by Austria. Russia stepped up her mobilization. ’Britain, after much equivocation, decided to fight alongside France if Germany invaded neutral Belâ€" gium â€" which she did. ' By Aug. 4, Austriaâ€"Hungary, Serbia, France, Canaâ€" da, Britain, Belgium, Russia and Germany were at war. The war spread to 28 countries on six continents. Battles raged on land from Tsingâ€"tao, China to the African coast; by sea from Jutland to the Falkland Islands: and in the air from London to the Somme. _ Now Lewis no doubt figured his tirade was founded. since Havrot is a jerk in many ways. But what did Lewis‘s editorial accomplish? He didn‘t take any forâ€" mal action to pmsecut'e Havrot. rather he limited himself to a threeâ€"minute verbal mudâ€"slinging sesâ€" sion As he promised. James Lamb had his publishers send me a copy of his justâ€"published book. Press Gang. and I‘m glad he did Laid up with a dose of flu. I was able to escape from my personal miseries into this warm and entertaining account of smallâ€"town Canadian newspapers and the people who ran them in the postâ€"war era It is very much a firstâ€"person narrative We meet the young Jim Lamb. jpust out of the navy. after years an the corvettes. and determined to become a newspa perman The mighty German army shouldered its way through Belgium and sliced into the heart of France with a show of strength and swiftness never seen beâ€" fore. The French stopped the advancing Germans just 30 miles from Paris, beside the River Marne. After three weeks of indecisive battle, the maimed armies faced each other across a 350â€"mile stretch of mud and barbed wire stretching from Switzerland to the North As well as the newspaper world. the author has proâ€" duced a social document of some importance. reâ€" 'rrcatmg smallâ€"town Canada (the real Canada. in my opinion) in all its quirkiness. wealth of colorful characters. and basic stabrhity. qualities that seem to be eroding rapidly The Great War â€" the war to end all wars â€" had begun‘ o (Continued from page 1) By the time he was through nameâ€"calling. he came For three and one half bloody years no effort could Stewart Sutherland Bill Smiley push the western trench line more than 10 miles. At times, the food for the carrion eaters numbered some 50,000 lifeless bodies a day. Soldiers spoke with horror the names of once quiet tourist attractions: Ypres, Festubert, St. Eloi, Vimy Ridge and Flanders. People at home learned expressiqns that are commonplace today: dogfight, noâ€"mansâ€"land and strafing. The world was delighted by ordinary men who rose out of the ranks to perform extraordinary tasks: Billy Bishop (Can.), Sgt. York (US), Lawrence of Arabia (Br.) and Manfred von Richthofen (Ger.). Canada rallied to the cause by enlisting and conâ€" scripting 619,636 officers and men who were molded into the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Of those who set out to fight overseas, 60,661 never saw home again. Why is it that politiciansâ€"and exâ€"politicians in Lewis‘s caseâ€"are so prone to juvenile actions in pubâ€" lic? I say let them settle their disagreements in privaâ€" «e and not bother the listening and reading public with personal quarrels. * On the morning of Nov. 10, 1918, shortly after 7 o‘clock, four German vehicles arrived in the Dutch town of Eysden. In one was Kaiser Wilhelm who was granted asylum. At 8 o‘clock that evening a wireless message was intercepted: "The German government accepts the terms of Armistice ... The Armistice was to take effect at 11 o‘clock on the morning of Nov. 11, 1978, but the Allies‘ guns thunâ€" dered until 11:15 a.m. There was competition on the front to fire one last shot. off sounding almost as bad as Havrot Besides, the problem isn‘t so much with the offenâ€" sive Havrot as with a political system that would allow a man such as he to sit in provincial parliament or even take office. With Bill Davis and his Alberta counterpart at each others throats, we certainly don‘t need people like Stephen Lewis and Ed Havrot crowding airwaves and newspapers. To say the least, we have more serious troubles to think about It‘s customary to write something about Rememâ€" brance Day in a paper such as this. But quite frankly, I don‘t know what to say. â€" â€" The two world wars are but secondâ€"hand knowledge to me. Certainly I think Remembrance Day is a worthwhile event, considering the sacri fices made by so many Canadians I think the problem is that people such as I have little or no idea of what being at war is like. I can‘t help but wonder what would happen if a largeâ€"scale war broke out and Canadians were somehow involved was a sense of pride. a feeling of unity. that had never existed in this country before. and has sadly deâ€" teriorated since Our fighting men had proved themâ€" selves the equal of any. our industry was booming. there was lots of room and opportunity for everyone. and the future was rosy. Well do I remember the feelâ€" ing This was before the social revolution. the inflation. the monstrously swollen government. the huge defiâ€" cits. and the shadow of separatism the things that have turned us into a nation of securityâ€"minded. maâ€" termalistic crvyâ€"babres But let me not draw a gloomy picture of Press Gang~ It‘s a delightful book. one that will bring a nosâ€" talgic glow to all those people who lived in small towns across Canada in the Forties and Fifties Lonely as only a young reporter in a strange town can be. Lamb gradually became absorbed in the atâ€" mosphere and social life of the places he worked Woodstock. Moose Jaw. Orillia And he recreates this feeling of a younger. happier Canada. when life was simpler and society less sophisticated on those treeâ€" shaded streets of our towns and small cities From the author we also get a good look into the workings and machinations of those small newspapers with their ramshackle old buildings and The First World War was a time of dying and a time Being a nonâ€"violent sort. I know the last thing I‘d Howard Elliott Waterioo Chronicie, Wednesday, Noveamber 7, 1979 â€" Page 7 want to do is kill or be killed. Yet, I suppose if our society was threatened by an Adolph Hitler, or some other repressive form of government, people like me would have little choice to march off and get our heads shot off. I‘ve always admired the courage exhibited by American men and boys who refused to fight in Vietâ€" nam. That, in my opinion, was a war without purpose or need. of giving birth. Dying impre?s‘ed itself most on men‘s minds â€" the deaths of ideas and ideals as well as of millions of men. Like the soldiers who lie buried row on row in Flanders, many cherished illusions failed to survive the war. Yet, if the great war brought ta a shattering end a long era of faith in reason and progress, it also gave birth to a new age â€" an age of change, hope ... and of violence. The trumpets of 1914 were not just summoning young men of many nations. They were sounding more than a call to colours. They were sounding the death of an old order and the birth of the modern world. They were sounding the death of violent handâ€" toâ€"hand combat and the birth of sophisticated meâ€" chanized slaughter. However, the last thing I‘d want to dp is live in a society without civil rights. Especially since as a jourâ€" nalists I‘d no doubt be working for the government if at all. So I suppose had I been just starting my journaâ€" listic career around 1939, I would have been one of those idealistic sorts who enlisted to protect home, family and lifestyle. Just as there are twoâ€"sides to war, there are two sides to death. The language may differ but the emoâ€" tion remains the same. A German inscription on the grave of a young soldier dead in an alien land reads: ‘*... sleep, brave fighter, you were too young ... Auf wiedersehen.‘‘ At Flanders a few poppies decorate a plaque on a young Canadian soldier‘s final resting place. It says, simply and eloquently: To my son. Since your eyes were closed mine have never ceased to cry."‘ Is it possible for a warped government like Hitler‘s to flourish and grow in our world, eventually forcing an international conflict? I‘d like to hear some theories on that one. For me. that question usually comes up around this time of year. And U‘ve never found an answer one way or the other But perhaps the greatest pleasure in the book is the anecdotes and vignettes of characters. all the way from Lamb‘s first meeting with tightâ€"fisted Roy Thomson. to become eventually Lord Fleet of London and owner of the biggest newspaper empire in the world. down to the grubbiest paperâ€"carrier. baffiing the bureaucracy of the newspaper with his complete lack of organization We meet Harry Boyle. self made Canadian milhonâ€" aire. who wound up with the Queen of Rumanmia as his mistress. And C H Hale. editor of the Onllia Packet and Times. ~"a prototype of all the oldâ€"line newspaperâ€" men across the country who ran newspapers because they had something to say. not because they thought they could get rich And if a force such as that did threaten North Ameâ€" rica, would we fight to protect our lifestyle in spite of the grim f: ‘ure now facing us? There were quite a few of those around when I was in the business. but there aren‘t many left The thunâ€" dering of the editor has been replaced by the wiles of the advertising manager. in the pursuit of the buck The result is an almost national blandness on the ediâ€" torial pages of smallâ€"city papers across the country Don‘t step on too many toes rickety machinery. where reporters worked for thirty dollars a week. and loved it It‘s delightful stuff for anyone who has been in the business The cost is very high either way Harmony through death. Lest we forget ...