The Ottawa Journal from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • Page 6

The Ottawa Journal "published by The Journal Publishing Co. of Ottawa Ltd. 366 Laurler Avenue West, Ottawa, Ontario WEDNESDAY JULY 5, 1972 The Davis Session: An Assessment The session of the Ontario Legislature which has just ended provides the first real measure of the government which Premier William Davis promised the province eight months ago. Although the session will resume in the Vi.nr4nriMnc nt th pnvernment are lUJlf HIV iu. va clear in the Speech from the Throne, the budget and the 161 bills passed many of them in a final week of marathon sittings.

The volume of work is specially impressive for a post-election session from a government whose ministers and senior civil servants are still engaged in a massive reorganization of departments. -Critics will argue, that all the bills are housekeeping measures to tidy up older legislation. But the government has made its first gestures towards creating a greater Canadian presence in Ontario industry and has made a significant shift to income tax credits in place of grants to property-tax payers. Health services insurance has been The government is determined to cajole or force school boards Into making better and fuller use of school space. Unfortunately, the environment remains like the weather nobody really does anything about it The landmark decision to stop construction of Toronto's Spadma Expressway still has not pro; duced an alternative plan for urban transit.

The most significant element to emerge from the session has been the, blossoming of the committee system in answer to the Premier's promise to give members of the Legislature a greater role in the legislative process. Until the public accounts committee began its well-publicized hearings, most taxpayers regarded the provincial auditor as the Queen's Park edition of Ottawa's Maxwell Henderson. But he turned out Jto be nothing of the kind. The committee's recommendations should hasten changes and send future auditors hounding through departments in search of waste with, let us hope, a tightening of management procedures. At the same time the Resources Com-mittee provided a vehicle for members to investigate criticism of the Workmen's Compensation Board' a task which would previously have gone to a Royal commission or judicial inquiry.

On balance, it has been a good session, an encouraging portent. But there is something else to question. Last October the voters who chose Mr. Davis also replaced one-third of the membership of the house; electing many bright, informed and ambitious members. I How Mr.

Davis exploits their talents in the house, in the committees and be fore too long tn his Cabinet is the next measure Ontario will take of him. Dropping' An Insult It took considerable public and parliamentary pressure, but the Liberal Gov- crumeui wu oi ukm. agiceu uu urup taat section of its elections expenses bill which would have forbidden newspapers to publish political commentary on election day or the day before. In the process it has also removed a similar ban, in force since 1936, against radio and television commentary. 1 The practice of bringing forth ill-thought out bills has now become a Government trademark.

There simply wnif Ml iusMficatinn. as ThA hoc said, for banning political comment on thejday before an election. Why not two dayp before? A week before? It was a shoddy piece of thinking and an insult to votirs. imnlvins that thev were an mil. lible that they had to be protected from being "conned" by newspaper editors and, broadcast commentators into voting in a manner that they really didn't want to vote! Canada's 'Open' It not really the Canadian golf championship; that event will be played on the Ottawa area's Rivermead club in mia-AUgust.

aut roe oanaaian upen which starts Thursday on a superbly-refurbished golf course in Fort Erie is this country's premier golf event, though 1 til .1. 11 a wiu pruptiQiy pe wun uy uu imcivtui For many of the touring pros it may Just be another stop, and for otherjsit won't be a stop at all: the powers-that-be have still not seen fit to give the Canadian Open a playing date farther away from the prestigious British Open which would allow more of the top stars to play here. But Palmer, TrevinoN and Player are here, even if Nicklaus and others aren't, and this weekend will be the highlight of the season for most Canadian golfers. Most of us don't really care who wins, as long as the scores are good, the course as difficult as it's supposed to be, and there are a few key decisions made by the golfers that will give the locker room boys something to argue over for the-next 12 months, A Hurt to a Good Cause The sad part about the incredible in-sensitivity of the planners of the July 1 celebrations on Parliament Hill is that in failing to have the program reflect both the French and English facts of Canada they have damaged the good cause which presumably" they were trying to promote. Of course there have been other, national events which also did not reflect the character of the country, when little or no consideration' was given to the language of French-speaking Canadians.

But that surely is no reason to reverse the dreary old mistakes, and at die very time of more awareness of linguistic injustice. Equal billing for both official languages (and no one should worry about which language should be a spontaneous, joyful thing specially on a national occasion and for an'event sponsored by the department of the Secretary of State. Mr. Trudeau has- apologized handsomely; that is to his credit, though Mr. -Pelletier should have been in the House yesterday to speak for himself.

But what is needed is more than an apology: it is a shake-up now of the Secretary of State's department. Whether the July 1 incident was the result of oversight or deliberate policy, it is a sign of monumental incompetency which should not be tolerated until that blessed day when Mr. Pelletier passes to his political reward. The Cult of Cant Professor Northrop Frye teaches literary criticism at Victoria College, University of Toronto and, after Marshall McLuhan, he is probably the university's most widely-known When he passed on Samuel Johnson's advice to Boswell, "Clear your mind of cant," to a recent convocation at the University of Waterloo, there is good reason for paying some attention. As Professor Fijye noted, cant is a word which has fallen somewhat out of fashion, probably because "the thing it describes is so much in fashion." The short polite definition is "guff," though Professor" Frye also says that cant means "the substitutes for thinking that are thrown up by the hypocritical, the malicious, the stupid, and (much the largest group) the self -deceived." Professor Frye offers this short catalogue of cant: "Don't speak of the university as an 'ivory that's a cant phrase used by people whose only feeling about the university is one of vague resentment "Don't use words like that's a cant word used by people who think democracy ought to be some kind of mob rule.

In a healthy democracy everybody would have bis own social function, and so everybody would belong to some kind of elite. "Don't use words like 'establishment' as though they were concrete nouns, when they are the haziest of abstractions." Addendum: Don't use words like "people" as in "people's place" or "people power: those are cant phrases which try to," cover up special interest pleas (however laudable) under the phoney guise of a superior social conscience. Don't use words like mandarin" unless speaking of ancient Chinese rulers. Don't use words like "liberal" and "conservative" as though they really stood for clear-cut, mutually exclusive points otyiew. Don't 'use the word "moral" without having a clear i a of what is 'immoral." Notes and Comment A neighbor complains that the prices of new cars is so high the manufacturers are forcing him to keep his old model until It becomes an antique.

Perhaps he should send them a letter of thanks! i TO A man unfi tl a 1 awitADr Chess: A Struggle of Egos And Armies on the March NEW YORK. imiliar with that it em. Having grasped as much of its origins as any man may a glance, he went next to the Marshall 'Chess Club, a cloister at 23" West 10th Street, where lovers and slaves of chess bend over the -boards in hushed absorption, pursuing what is to some a game, to others an addiction. WHAT scant pleasure the novice had taken in the prospect of learning about chess had been shriveled the night before when "chess-playing friend had told him, "Chess is one of those games that, once you've learned how to play it, you know nothing." Starting from a deficit position, it would be a steep climb to ground zero. At the top of the stairs in the town-house club, he met his tutor, Shelby Lyman, a chess mater a man of imposing stature, physically and, intellectually, who gave up college teaching in sociology two years ago to devote full time to chess.

Mr. Lyman, born in Brooklyn, bred in Boston and cultivated at Harvard, has a foundation in physchology, anthropology and sociology, a solid bedrock from which to proceed to the higher art of chess. To the-Parcheesi zhlub who stood before him, Mr. Lyman came across a modest and -cordial man and William the -Conqueror a Contradiction that made sense long before the session had ended. It took less than four hours for Mr.

Lyman to transform his visitor from a chess illiterate to a man with a certain ordered regard for chess. From 1.15 to 5 p.m. there poured from Mr. Lyman's lips an almost unbroken stream of wonderfully' knowledgeable talk, filled with erudite allusions mat made the hours fly. Hie novice had, always seen chess through a thick haze of bafflement It was as foreign to him as Urdu but as Mr.

Lyman talked, the fog -parted a little. There' was a clearing through which he could spy the plain outline of an intelligible-system. JTVEN a person who doesn't understand chess can watch it as a sporting event," vMr. Lyman said. "It's like watching a hockey game-on television without knowing -anything about hockey just as a contest Well, there's an ebb and flow to chess in terms of aggression, attack and defence.

The white pieces go this way and the blade pieces go that way that's pretty easy to pick up. "The game, as it takes place, has constant confrontations terms of attack and defence. You have the equivalent of sudden death all By McCANDLISH PHILLIPS' the tune late in the game. "You can just look at a chess board and see pieces at seemed vaguely to suggest -tacfcf defending, pieces Klrt XL counterattacking. You see the v.v.

6.rr., jrtrilffP in tArma nf nnttorn. proaching world championship, series, is rich with the promise of an adventure in total noncomprehension. In "the1 weeks ahead there would be endless reams of chess news and analysis, much of it couched in incomprehensible 'jargon, accompanied by arcane i dia- grams. "Why don't you learn some- thing about chess?" his boss had suggested. The uninitiate went straight to the dictionary.

Chess was defined as "a game of pure skill played on a chessboard with chessmen a game of ancient and obscure origin prob- ably imported into Europe in medieval times from the Ori-, cness of white and black pieces on the board. "Chess is two. armies marshalling their farces on a dis-' puted terrain." JY NOW it was-plain that Mr. Lyman was not going to use any petty rote-and-rules method of introducing the tyro to chess. The approach was more Churchillian, having to do with concepts and Strategies.

At the practical level, it was like the speak-no-English method of learning a foreign language: no grammar, no principles, no explanations, just start A chess novice, suddenly tnrown into association with a master, explores the Mr Lyman" moved the pieces on the board, creating essentially a blur of impressions for the novice. Now and then a sentence could be snatched out the stream-of-consciousness narration: "In setting up the board, the white queen goes on the white comforts of the relationship of space and the black queen on me apiuer ana ine ny, irom a the black space," he said. The fly's-eye view. After 35 minutes of rapid, learned talk, Mr. Lyman said suddenly: "Let's set up a game.

This is. really a gamble," If it's a gamble for you, the tyro what is it going to be for me? Lyman's hands disappeared under the table, then came back up. The novice was offered a choice of two closed fists. He, touched the right fist and received a black chess "Ah, a rule," the novice said. "I can't talk." is really an epic the teacher said, 'moving the pawns and pieces knights, bishops, rooks, the queen and the king rapidly through a game that he took from a book.

"Each piece has different powers: it can make different movements on the 8-by-8 board," Mr. Lyman said. "The chess board represents a terrain and space, and the pieces move over the terrain on, verticals, horizontals and diagonals. A player can capture an enemy piece if is on a square that "he-can move to. All.

of the" pieces, therefore, have varying fields of power on the board, If each of these fields were seen separately and 'then su- perlmposed, on all the others. the complexity of chess could be seen for a single move. piece captures the way it moves if It can go to a square, it can capture what is on that square," Mr. Lyman remarked. The pawn, the novice recalled fat en unexpected flash of abstractive reasoning, is.

the exception, capturing on bias though permitted to move only straight ahead. "Yon may analyze 10 or 20 moves ahead," Mr. Lyman said. "That's rare, but it does happen. The possibilities branch out Say you're analyzing six moves ahead.

Each of those moves has six possibilities at least; so by the time you get to the sixth move you have kx to a' very high power." Mr. Lyman went from the apparently infinite the chess moves to the obviously finite the chess player. the pressure' of time in chess," he said. "Your opponent is a person with a finite mind, a intelligence and -character weaknesses, who has to try to cover a situation that cannot be completely covered in the time allotted. "It's a struggle chess is a battle and a struggle of wills.

In the pressure of a game a player's heartbeat, respira- i blood pressure will "One of the variables is your opponent's psychology. So you attack a person's psychological weaknesses. You put him under tremendous strain, push him to where he consumes his energy where he gets exhausted. "When he reaches a point of demoralization, a player can crash, go to pieces, lose. "Bobby Fischer says he waits for uie moment when his opponent's ego is crushed." 4 novice liked that.

It was clear, mnemonically perfect 1 "You fight for the centre of the board because a piece in the centre controls more squares," be said. "The object of the game is to checkmate the king. If the king can't escape, you have "Why?" "You can't back. talk," he shot: "IT'S LIKE learning the piano and the violin you never stop," Mr. Lyman remarked.

"But you can learn the rules in half an hour." "Not if you don't tell me, I can't," the novice murmured. "As a teacher, I specialize in teaching people who are beginners," the master said in one reassuring breath. But a breath later, he noted that in chess a beginner is somebody "who already knows the moves." "We're ready to play," he said, setting up the board again. I moved. The novice moved.

He moved. The novxe ,7 "By the way," Mr. Lyman said, "the move you just made is exactly the one Fischer made in two games." What a class the novice was in! Fischer himsslf could not have done better on the move! It must have gone to his head. His next move was, not so good. "I have four pieces on that square," Mr.

Lyman said coolly, "This one, this one, this one and that one." The novice quickly pulled He muttered that he could see only a few of the manifold possibilities on the board, and he could riot see at all what the consequences of any move he made would be; Mr. Lyman made his moves and he made the novice's, which turned out to be a dis-astrous collaboration for the black side. There was an inexorable march of white pieces past the centre and into black territory. On and on the white tide came, whole a terrible inertia bad seized the black "When you see the pieces mass, even though you don't know the rules, you can see I'm attacking," Mr. Lyman M.

(c New York Times Letters To the Editors Faux Pas Sirs: English is either the mother tongue or the working language of well over 70 per cent of the citizens of this country and in my opinion this certainly places it in the category of the "senior" language, particularly where coast-to-coast broadcasts and celebrations are concerned. On Friday evening, June 30 (massed bands tattoo and concert, excellently performed), every announcement was made in French first, but at least it was followed by Eng lish as an afterthought' At Saturday evening's performance of the NAC orchestra -with a French solo pianist, aside from an initial; "Good evening ladies' and gentle- men," uie whole evening was -entirely in French. I'll wager a good 60 per cent or more of the thousands who were on the Hill that evening, spoke little or no French. I cannot imagine a more gauche, crude, faux pas taking place on our national holiday. Mr.

Pelletier, as Secretary of State, is responsible for Festival Canada and, as such, must be held account-' able for this complete lack of sensitivity and consideration mucn oa the defensive. Mr. Lyman showed a move, refer then demonstrated tives to the move "Thir briely to clumsy handling of the fireworks dis-wouldn work," he said. I yJ aMIVI till UIUUMU1U9 VI lamlJy groups, complete to the smallest children, arranged themselves expectantly on the lawns of the Hill waiting for the show to start After a tremendous barrage of noise from the rear, it gradually became obvious that in order to see anything of uie display, one had to be either on Nepean Point or on the Hull side of the river. There was a hurried exodus to the rear of the Parliament Buildings where there was neither the space for such a crowd nor an adequate view, due to shrubbery.

In a very, short time, many people straggled back to the lawns with very d'sappointed children who had to be satisfied with the occasional rocket which managed to rise over the Parliament Buildings, i Mrs. D. SHAW. Ottawa. Metric System Sirs: I wonder who the "jokers" are who conceived the idea that America convert to the Metric' system.

This is absolutely ridiculous. Who cares if 110 other countries are using it? This is North America and we have the much better system of measurement I am familiar with the Metric system and those who claim its simplicity are way "off beam." A change would cause more confusion than most realize. The cost of the conversion would run into millions of dollars in every phase of our economy. If put to a vote it would be defeated by an overwhelming majority. Why does everything have to be European? Must we have-the- European look in cars, clothing, styles, We have the best of everything but it would appear that we are losing ground in mis crazy mixed op world in more ways than one.

If our products are the best of the lot, then other countries will want them and buy them regardless. Some claim that we are losing out on our exports because of our system of measurement This is a lot of nonsense. Let keep our system as it is. V' unawa. Disregard for Law- Sirs: I wonder if the Hull city fathers have considered the social implications of a re- msai to give a demolition per mit' fnr thft rUslrpn nrnlwt What kind of a society will we; have when the highest court in me xana may oe ignored with impunity? t.mi u.

I 4011 UIO U1UWU1U UCUCKOIU for law and order oneof the most serious problems with wnicn Canada is wrestling at uio urcsent umcr The Suoreme Court' of Can! huh min niA mi mniM vnncr come down. If they don't then wV UHW IOAHI A IVllg BU1W tl tl 4JUI1 VC11 VJVdl.Crll. lt 11. Beer for Aged Sirs: Would it not be a 1 Vesture AC wlfltnm nnA nus. n.

1. I.J llifliYB 1 1 1(1 LEer available to senior citizens, vehn sAtmAv uninv ttivl. trth. utes to longevity as lower bus rarM inn itm vwti iw- HUM MIVAyVUiU V-IIV1 tainment? Such a development would be of special benefit to "shut-ins," whose oRortunltles for pleasure are circumscribed! It would probably be too complicated to make beve-" rjttTAS hv tllA olfifio 4vrot1ohl.il A tllA aMai.1v In Imm-im tut A weekly delivery of a case of 24 bottles per person would ht easy to arrange, preferably at -the -expense of our leading. After all, those of advanced years who have been drinkers during their active lives will have contributed substantially to brewing profits, and those who practise temperance could use their weekly supply as out io iure neignoors to their hearthstone, and thus -alleviate the horror of loneliness.

D.M. Clenched Fist airs: i ao nor oeueve mai clenched fist salutes, or any other type of political salute should be allowed in our, courtrooms. These people are simply showing their rMruvt trim ywt lauM anil tka more tbey are permitted, the mM kW MrJIl A Tnainatl "Wav ujvj nut at vvuiiMU June 22). It's getting to be a habit for people who have used or caused violence in another country, to come here and bring the symbols of their vio- lence alone with them, and one wonders how so many of i them get into Canada in the first place. Surely they are showing contempt and should be dealt with JOHNSON." 24 Adelaide St Then and Now 25 Years Ago From Tht Joumrt Juty 4, GORDON K.

FRASER, MP for Peterborough, ought penalties for drunken motor boat drivers. Canada was establishing new weather stations in the Arctic. A Commons committee rejected a proposal to lower the voting age to 18. A public memorial service was being held in Chalmers United Church for Viscount Bennett. A similar service bad been held in Westminister Abbey.

v- Walter H. Murdoch, Canadian executive officer of the American Federation of Musicians said that 243 million recordings had gone into Canadian homes in 1946. Francois -Caron incoming president of Hull Rotary presented a past president's pin to his predecessor Dr. Arthur Powers. and Today With Ben Wicks.