Page 4, The Herald, Friday November 2, 1979 TERR ACE/KITIMAT daily herald General Office - 615-4357 Published by Circulation - 635-6357 Steriing Publishers GEN. MANAGER - Knox Coupland EDITOR: Greg Middleton CIRCULATION - TERRACE - 635-6357 KITIMATOF FICE - 632-2747 Published every weekday at 32127 Kalum Street, Terrace, B.C. A member of Varlfled Circulation. Authorized as second clasa mail. Registration number 1201, Postage pald In cash, return postage guarantesd, NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT The Herald retains full, complete and sole copyright in any advertisement produced and-or any editorial or photographic content publishad In the Herald, Reproduction Is not perméited without the written permission of the Publisher. EDITOR'S JOURNAL BY GREG MIDDLETON Now that the air traffic from the south is cut down I think it might be a good time to respond to some comments made by Alex Fraser, the provincial high- ways minister, He said we had a good road in to this area and airports here and in Prince Rupert. Well, perhaps he should talk to his fellow minister, Jim Chabot, who didn’t come up here last week because it didn’t look like the plane could land here, It is true we have airports here and Prince Rupert but the Terrace-Kitimat airport is fogged in for a good part of the winter months, the road from here to the eastis a two-day drive to Vancouver and we saw it cut in a couple of dozen places by a few days of rain last year. The road to the west is one of the most dangerous in the province, a province noted for treacherous roads. As for Fraser's comment that the ferry is sub- sidized, let’s talk about the power, lumber, minerals and fish that comes out of here so that the fat cats in the south can enjoy their comfortable lifestyles there and then talk of subsidies. Another issue involving public money is the local hospital. Perhaps the administrator of Kitimat's hospital, Jack Green, has a point when he expresses some outrage at being included in an inquiry into- health care in the north, Itis, however, time to consider the whole question of health care in northern B.C. and that is what we should be discussing. What we need is a long range strategy for a major regional hospital in Terrace, servicing the smaller hospitals in the outlying areas. If the hospital boards would stop cowering in the dark trying to cover their ase like some back country milkmaid afraid of losing her virginity by even shoWing a bit of flesh we might gét somewhere. I think that most of the doctors and nurses here would agree when I say that individually the professionals in the health care field are trying to doa good job of keeping us healthy and patch us up when we get hurt. The problem is in the politics and ad- ministration of health care. I think that building and protecting empires is what is hurting health care in the north. The comments of the chairman of the board of Mills Memorial Hospital, Wayne Epp, that the reporting of problems within the hospital set health care here back three years, is but childish pique. His determination to keep the public in the dark about the running of the hospital could cause areal loss of confidence in that institution, however. FOR THE RECORD By ED YUDIN Gerry Duffus has long been associated with municipal polities, showing up regularly to Terrace district council] meetings. Some may. view him as a nuisance, others as a public watchdog. Regardless of one’s opinion of the man, his point concerning front footage rates were well taken at Monday's regular council meeting. Duffus’ concerns centred around two paving projects, one on Keith Avenue, the other on Mc- Connell. The figures reveal the Keith avenue job cost $128,000, the other $139,000. However, in one case the municipality offered to pay $49,000 of the total cost, yet spent only $6300 for the Keith paving. In relation to this point, Duffus questioned why property owners on Keith were assessed a front footage rate in excess of $14, while McConnell property owners paid closer to $8. He also wondered why, as a taxpayer, he should subsidize one project to the tune of 5 per cent and a similar one to 35 per cent. What accounts for the great disparity? , Looking at the question more closely, other factors come into play. For one, there are fewer taxpayers residing on the stretch of McConnell in question, thus they would be forced to pay a higher front footage rate unless municipal subsidies are offered. Another explanation can be found in the bids put forwa rd by the contractor, free enterprise being what it is. Whatever the case, council was unable to forward a fully satisfactory explanation as to why the disparity existed. There may be a way to avoid such hassles in the future. Municipai Administrator Bob Hiallsor in- dicated serious consideration is being given to establishing a maximum rate for taxpayers, and retrieving it through a way charge. Hopefully, some sort of guidelines will be drawn up in the foreseeable future. CONNECTIONS Technology By EDWIN T. LAYTON JR. This ls the sixth of a weekly, fifteen-part general - interest, non credit, educational serles on technology and change, called Connections, offered by the Open Learning Institute. . Esch week, an article will appear in this paper, On Sunday, at 8 p.m. on Channel 9 (Cable TV), you can watch the weekly PBS television series, Connections, part of this multi-media continuing education program. As well, you can purchase a Viewer's Gutde' - from the Open Learning Institute. In this article, historian of Science, Edwin T. Layton Jr, af the University of Minnesota discusses whether : technology is out of control or if shaped by societal values. VI: THE FINLUENCE OF SOCIETAL VALUES By EDWIN T. LAYTON JR. : Henry Ford once said that purchasers of his famous Model T could have any color they wanted —so long as it was black. . ; Certainly technology did not force Ford to produce automobiles in only one color. This was a case where societal values influenced technology. Ford's “Tin Lizzy” was not merely popular; It aroused deep affection. It did this precisely because It embodied many values. The color was in keeping with a religious and cultural heritage that valued plain- ness. ; Before Ford the automobile had been the plaything of the rich; after him it became available to the masses. Putting Americans behind the wheel fulfilled values nourished on the frontier: mobility, restlessness, individualism, and a conception of personal freedom that bordered on anarchy. Ungainly as it was, the Model T-nevertheless ex- pressed an aesthetic principle that form should follow function. Perhaps the finest expression of this prin- ciple was the Clipper ship, now often considered the most beautiful of all sailing ships. It was, however, criticized on aesthetic grounds by contemporaries, . John Griffiths, who invented the Clipper, defended it by arguing that beauty consisted of, ‘fitness for the purpose, and proportion to effect the object designed.” This functionalist aesthetic helped to. give form to a vast number of things made in Canada and the U.S. Here, too, societal values helped guide technology. Societal values also account for the demise of the Model T. Ford’s masterpiece admirably fitted the needs and values of a rural market. But urbanization and a growing taste for luxury doomed the Model T. In the 1920s, General Motors wrested automotive leadership from Ford by catering to the new public tastes, offering choices of color, models, and luxury eatures, Technology and social change Though technology is manifestly influenced by societal values, many people think that technology cannot be controlled. . Karl Marx was one of the first to express the idea that technology determines the course of social change. Marx argued that “the hand-mill gives you society with the feudal lord; the steam-mill gives you sociely with the industrial —_ capitalist,” in this case, historical research has refuted Marx. The Doomsday census of 1086 A.D. inventoried more than 5,000 mills driven by water-power — not by hand ~~ in England alone, at a time when the feudal lord was still very much in evidence, Conversely, we find industrial capitalists with factories driven by hand, wind, or water power before the adoption of steam. There is no inevitable cause-and-effect relationship between technological and social change, Each ad: vance in technology creates many new possibilities ; only a few are realized by a particular society. The Amish provide an interesting example; they reject most modern technology for religious reasons. Over the course of centuries China and the West often made strikingly different choices concerning the social uses of technology. The printing press and paper served to entrench the Mandarin establishment in China, but stimulated radical social changes in Europe. The Chinese also invented gunpowder, but used it for firecrackers; the West wed it in cannon. Social lag The idea that technology is out of contro] may result from the way we frame our questions, A useful way to understand the interaction of technology and soclety is through the theory of “social lag” developed by the sociologist William F. Ogburn. The interval between an innovation and society's adjustment is what Ogburn called “‘social lag.” This theory emphasizes the disruptive effects of, technologleal change and the need for mechanisms to protect society. It therefore helps us understand a’ good deal of recent social history. But if we take the new technologies as “given,” then social problems such as air pollution and urban decay appear to be imposed upen society such as air - PART IV and change The influence of society pollution and urban decay appear to be imposed upon society by some mysterious force of technology, When weexamine the sources of new technologies, however, this is clearly not the case. The automobile, for example, is one of the most important causes of both air pollution and urban decay. But automobiles were not forced upon the public. Popular literature prior to the introduction of the Model T shows that people hoped for, and wanted, a cheap car. They saw the automobile as a way of reducing urban congestion by letting people move to ‘green suburbs. It did just that, but it left the inner cities to decay. Automobiles were expected to eliminate “horse pollution,” no small matter. They did so, but they created a new insidious form of air pollution, “‘smog.”” Thus the urban decay and air pollution produced by automobiles were not caused by some mysterious force of technology. They are by-products of doing something that the public clearly wanted to do. In this case technology is not out of control, Rather, we are paying a penalty for our own lack of foresight, Social needs Technology does not exist for its own sake. It is the means by which society achieves certain ends. Technological activities are initiated to meet social 8. The crucial question, then, is how are social needs determined? The traditional answer has been market demand. But cheap cars, along with other things that society wanted, require very large, complex in- dustrial organizations for their production. A compact car would cost about $50,000if produced by hand, As aresult, free competition in the open market has been replaced by conscious control by a small number of industrial giants. The “invisible hand” of the free market has been replaced by the “visible hand” of managerial planning. Despite the enormous concentration of power in the . hands of a tiny elite, there has been little public | quarrel with the criteria of choice. The public * grumbled about the big corporations, but until recently they appear to have approved of their products, if not all their practices. ‘The automobile manufacturers, for example, had little difficulty ‘selling’? the consumer the idea of larger, heavier, more luxurious, and more powerful cars. They were more profitable to produce, and the consumers seemed very pleased with their “gas guzzlers.’’ But increased weight required more efficient engines, which meant increasing the compression ratio, which in turn caused a large increase in the emission of nitrous oxides. Higher compression in automotive engines was the most important single cause of a staggering 628 per cent increase in the rate of production of these harmful pollutants from 1946 to 1967. Consumer's revolt As Ogburn might have predicted, disruptive and threatening technological changes produced a reaction from society. The auto makers’ neglect of safety led Ralph Nader in 1965 to mount a crusade that broadened into a consumers’ revolt. En- vironmentalists, following the pioneering work of Rachel Carson in. 1963, had already begun their protests through such agencies as the Sierra Club. ‘Scientists: also made an important contribution, pointing to the public dangers inherent in radioactive fall-out in the 1950s, More recently, scientists have raised serious questions concerning the safety of nuclear power, In all of these cases the force of aroused public opinion brought government action. Perhaps the clearest case is provided by the automobile: govern- ment, responding to public pressures, is attempting to impose a new set of value priorities upon manufac- turers, particularly in the areas of safety, pollution, and fuel consumption. Behind the rancorous debates over particular issues something important is taking place. We are being forced to rethink long-aceepted fundamentals, Our society is attempting to redefine {ts values, reorder its priorities, and reshape the mechanisms through which these values guide the course of technological development. itis too soon to predict the outcome. But one thing is clear: societal values do influence technology. NEXT WEEK: Population expert Kingsley Davis of the University of Southern California discusses the relationships among technology, population, and resources. EDWIN T. LAYTON JR. 1s professor of history and technology in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of “The Revolt of the Engineers, Social Responsibility and the American Engineering Profession” and he also co-edited “The Dynamics of - Science and Technology.’ - Mississauga South was Ralp the Liberals of York-Humber. OTTAWA OFFBEAT BY RICHARD JACKSON ON Dn Pe li t has one ot every Parliamen' . last one to show before Don Blenkarn was sent here harply discerning electors of a MP by ee with was Ral Cowon who represented Ralph Cowan has to be one of the all too rare MPs wha remain unforgettable for speaking his mind and never mind the party line, much less the Prime Minister. - - At his peak, Ralph Cowan was a better opposition MP than anyone in the Conservative or NDP ranks, There wae nothing his Prime Minister, Lester Pearson could do that ever satisfied, far less pleased Ralph Cowan. . ’ And he diane mind Saying s0. In the bluntest of terms. Standing right there, openly on the floor of the Commons, tearing Prime Minister Pearson and the Liberal party to shreds. oe Some arty mavericks whisper their discontent, quietly leak their protests to the news media or carry on a low-key undercover campaign against the reigning political mestablishment. Ralph Cowan didn’t do that. Nor, now, does Don Blenkarn. Both tred on official toes. as And neither apologized nor even expressed regret for kicking sacred cows. What sacred cows? ; ; _ Well, with Blenkarn, Israel, Camedian Indians and Rhodesia. — - ) Not for Blenkarn to care that it was Immigration Minister Ron Atkey, vote-crazy over his ethnic Toronto riding, who prompted Prime Minister Clark into coming out with that statement about moving the Canadian embassy from Tel Aviv io Jerusalem, thus enraging the Arab world and jeopardizing trade with the Middle East. “Stupid bloody idea,’’ says Blenkarn. And in his news-letter to Mississauga he goes on to compound embarrassment of party and Prime. Minister with the statement that the Israelis, “too busy running around with guns,” are so exhausting themselves as to be unable to operate a state viable enough to attend even to the housekeeping of main- taining the basic of appearances such as painting buildings and homes, cutting the grass and attending to the gardens, All of this bound to make the Israelis happy. But maybe Blenkarn was simply trying to offset: the damage of the government's move-the-embassy statement. Blenkarn is for Rhodesia and against the black guerrillas of the misnamed ‘Patriotic Front,” . Ina similar heresy, he's for trade with South Africa. In both Rhodesia and South Africa he says the white population is merely enjoying the fruits of its in- ventiveness, initiative, investment and labor, and that it is not up to the international do-gooders, including the United Nations, to plot through trade and other sanctions to turnit all over tothe blacks. In a triple-play of flying in the face of government - posture if not policy, he suggests that the Indians ; Should “go back to trapping. beaver,” instead of . forever ‘screaming that they can't make it in this country’ and living off welfare and state subsidies. After all, he points out, they were here first, the original settlers, and if they couldn't make it with felt head-start, then there must be some fatal flaw in m, Out of touch, you ask of him? ‘ Wrong. He polls his riding and finds his people are with him, 89 per cent of them on the embassy issue. A neophite? Uh-Uh.-He was an MP before, from '72 to '74, and in the Coriservative leadership campaign he was Treasury Board President Sinclair Stevens' manager, So he knows his way around. And is well aware of what he is saying, Like Ralph Cowan, he obviously is convinced that if something needs saying, then he'll say it. Bravo Don Blenkarn, “OTTAWA — What this Parliament needs is more LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Dear Sir: In a heated telephone conversation this morning, Mr. Jack Cook, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of School District 38, refused to reconsider closure of your school at the upcoming School Board meeting of Nov. 6. Mr. Cook assured me that Mr. Hamilton is the beat school superintendent we have ever had; that Mr. Hamilton has bent over backwards to be fair to you people; and that you are all quite happy and satisfied with the School Board’s decision to close your Two Mile School. Mr. Cock also told me quite frankly that 1 am sticking my nose in affairs which are none of my business when I offer my support to your cause. He also said that he feels closure of tha school is in the best interests of your children, and intimated that no amount of facts is golng to change that decision, It would appear te me to be a clear case of “Don't confuse me with the facta, my mind is made up," You may have come up against a brick wall as regards the School Board, but take heart--there are a greal many parents who support your sland and see your school as one in a long domino line of amatl schools which probably face im- minent extinction at the hands of this School Board composed as it is of people who have gained théir seats by acclamation. Let thia be a lesson to all parents to become more active in the control of their schools by supporting parent-teacher committees, attending all school board meetings, and most of all, offering their time by standing for momination as trustees in forthcoming elections, Sincerely yours, Mrs. Claudette Sandecki Dear Sir, The Order of the Royal Purple in Terrace extends a sincere ‘thank you’ to the people and businesses of Terrace and District for their generous donations in our recent campaign to raise funds for the B.C. Arthritis and Rheumatism Society. Thanks to the Dail Herald, The News Ad-, vertiser, and to CFTK Radio and TY for thelr coverage and a special ‘thank you' to the canvassers whose help was greatly appreciated, Although we did not quite reach our objective of $4,000, "we were pleased to be able to send a little more than $3,000 to the Arthritis Centre in Vancouver to assist them in theirresearchand treatment of arthritic patients from all over the province. Yours sincerely, Beatrice Parnell Diedre McIntyre (Campaign Chairpersons)