The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Thanks? Sound Class Mall Registration Nam." sun . established 1854 published every Wednesday by Fairway Press. a division of Kitttttemtr-Watertoo Record Ltd., owner an 225 Fairway Rd.S., Kitchener. Ont. PAGE 6 -- WATERLOO C'4RoMCitltAt2fAEtt2Ar, OCTOOCR s. 1.2 Our unemployment ranks swell, yes, our devalued dollar is the pits, yes, we are deprived of many of the luxuries we used to take for granted, yes, yes, yes. And more and more each day, week, month, those ills hit closer and closer to home than ever. We are paying for the mistakes of youth, of our predecessors, and like it or not, that's the way it is and will be for a time yet to come. ALI. right, all right. everybody I apohr ulze. It seems that I've been getting people':, backs up all over the country: Small businessmen. bank managers, ac- countants, newx editors. The time has come, in fact, it's long overdue, to stop bitching about how hard done by we are, and start taking measures, as Smiley suggested, to get us headed in the other direction. At first, the light at the other end of the tunnel may not be that visible, but it won't get any brighter unless we take steps to get closer to it. , All sound grossly idealistic? If it does, just remember - it was our lack of ideals that brought us the reality of today, just as it is necessary to face reality in order to bring us a more idealistic tomorrow. Jim Ross of Exeter. whom I kidded (I thought gently) after he'd written some pretty fierce right-wing stuff in an original letter. sent off a veritable depth-charge of a second letter, this time with his business letter-heading. and raked me. the educa- tional system, welfare. and everybody in general who makes him fork over taxes. over the coals. We've all listened to that verbal flag-waving before, but rarely if ever taken heed. We always thought the message was meant for the other guy. Now, the other guy is you, is He's a self-made man, and proud of it. and I admire that, but he's awfully angry about a lot of things. like a great many people in this country. including me. Cool down. Jim. The rest of us pay school taxes too. even though our children are long gone. And rm sorry the teachers and postal workers in town are angry with you. I hereby order them to stop regularly at your store. I‘ll admit that you probably pay nearly as much in income tax as I make in salary. but that's proportionate. About $2 of every four I make goes in taxes of one kind or another. Bank managers are on my neck. too. Just because I called them clueless. I did add that most of them were nice chaps. but they didn't read that part. What I was getting at was their extreme caution. their dependence on head office. their general Meanwhile, let's take the lemon we've been tossed, and make some lemonade out of it. While we may not be enjoying prosperity right now, few other countries in the world can boast of the hope and promise this nation holds. And while youve remembering, take time this weekend to give thanks for what you had, what you have - and what you can have, if you work to make it happen. Actually's Smiley's column would have made a superb Thanksgiving day piece, what with its underlying message that no matter how tough the times, if we look around, we are really better off than most. Though some may have taken it as brash, idealistic or worse, Bill Smiley's column last week castigating Canadians for their tendency to dwell on the shortcomings of our society was indeed a classic - and one that should serve as a lesson to us all, especially the younger generations who up until now had no idea what tough times were. *IJ at." Letters keep coming wmtertooCtw-ottscattoscatmrtntNtH-,_ndtNttrtrr LswotticarBut6trtt-rmttranmt.u-reoorl Pam almoaur otttteNaMImt oooetMoottrytoFottlr00totto6:0opm address correspondence to Wnerlou ottiee: " Ertt tit. E., Waterloo, Ortt, Nal tM, telephone an” insistence on an arm and a leg for security, before giving a loan, although that has changed since I went to the well and came away thirsty. Now they practi- cally force loans on people. No wonder. at the interest rates they take. Apparently I had an unkind word to say about accountants. too, for I got a gentle and even friendly letter from Paul F. Nind. Yellowknife, NWT, who carefully pointed out the difference between Char- tered Accountants, the real villains. and Certified General Accountants or Regis- tered Industrial Accountants. most of whom have to take a five or six year program of home study to earn their des- ignations. I quote from his letter: "Dear Mr. Smiley: You have a great writing style and I have enjoyed you, your grandchildren. your ya rd, home and sometimes golf ga me for many years; but please do your homework before you wrap all of us accountants up in the old newspaper and throw us out with the garbage." He was kind enough to send me a booklet about Certified General Accountants. l have read it, and done my homework. but too late. Sorry chaps. ICs the C.A.1s who are the leeches. not you. But not everybody hates me. Ken Jackson of Port Colborne dashed off a breezy and friendly letter: “I find your letter in our weekly Port Colborne News Publisher: Paul Winkler Manager: Bill Knees Editor: Rick Campbell Ken, ex-Navy and now working on the locks. would like to write a book. Why not, Ken? Give it a whirl, even though author Hugh Garner in a nice note suggested you stick at tying up ships. Any damfool can write a book nowadays. Not suggesting that you are one. That's the first thing I'm going to do when I quit teaching. and a great many people will testify that I'm a damfool. Let's go back for a moment to the people who are down on me. I mentioned nelk editors. The Toronto Star's Saturday edition editor called. and in dulcet tones. wondered if I would write a column tor the paper, as they were doing a feature story on me. I wasn't keen, but agreed. He thought they could manage. in these depressed times, a fee of 8200. That's about half for MacEachin and half tor the only bright spot in another dreary week." I wrote the column, which turned out. purely by chance, to point out the weaknesses of the three Toronto daily newspapers. It was fairly trenchant. but right on the nose. He called again, and this time. in aggrieved tones. said they couldn't run it. because, well. you know, in these difficult times for newspapers ... No wonder dailies are going broke across the country.'They're chicken. And then the guy had the gall to run an old BILL SMILEY At any rate. maybe I should stop being abrasive in this column and attack only politicians and kids under five, who can‘t read yet. About the some thing. What do you think? Then he congratulated me on my column entitled Pity the Poor Banks. "Last year." he wrote, “I borrowed only $11,000 (on a good credit rating) as a mortgage on my small business. To do so I had to put a lien on my house and car and my wife had to co-sign the loan. I wonder what collateral Dome Petroleum have?" I wonder. too. Mr. Crowther also suggested students should spend the fifth year of high school, not there, but in travelling or working. I thoroughly agree. ~. Anyway, I came out about 60-40 on hate letters. Not bad. Just a little worse than that six-five abortion the Liberals are trying to stuff down our throats. column of mine, transmitted by phone to a stenographer. He sent a cheque for $100. I almost sent it back and told him what to do with it, but couldn't be bothered. Chicken is chicken. however tasteless. But all was not dark and bleak. David Crowther of Walters Falls wrote a letter congratulating me on my mention of newspapers not stepping on the toes of their biggest advertisers. He then launched into an attack on the large chain food stores which is too involved to explain here.