The Mail-Journal, Volume 21, Number 9, Milford, Kosciusko County, 14 March 1984 — Page 2

THE MAIL-JOURNAL — Wed., March 14,1984

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China, on the other side of the world

(Continued from page 1) around we were slated to do the “southern route.” Shanghai is well in the south. They call it subtropical, on a latitude the same as Jacksonville, Florida. And they point to scrubby palm trees to prove the point. But we can tell you it is cold here, plenty cold. The locals walk around with heavy thermal jackets and trousers to ward off the cold. Even clerks in stores, where there is absolutely no heat, are dressed heavily and bulkily. No heat in /homes or public buildings whatever. This made us feel good that the big Shanghai Hotel where we stayed had a modicum of heat. The building is 26 stories tall, the tallest building in Shanghai Plenty Os People Os course Christine Baumgartner, our granddaughter, made the trip to China with us, and this is some real experience for a sophomore in high school. One of the first things that came to Criss’s attention, as to ours, once again, is the overflowing population. With its 11.8 million people, Shanghai is reported to be the largest city/ in the world You ask yourself. “Who counts?” when you see sidewalks and roads full of people. either walking or riding bicycles A guide told-us there are 2.5 million bicycles in Shanghai. That's one bicycle for every four to five people When one thinks of population, there is the burgeoning population of this country to consider seriously, for if the present rate of growth continues, there is serious question whether the country can feed its people At the time of the "liberation." when the Communist Party took charge of China and drove Chiang Kai-Chek (1949) onto the tiny island of Taiwan. China had a mere 440,000,000 people And today it has 1,060.000.000. As a result of this growth. China has enforced a ruling that young people could not marry until they are 25 years of age, and then they can have only one child This rule is relaxed somewhat in the countryside where a young couple can have its second child if the first one is a girl All of this was brought out on a recent CBS “60 Minutes” documentary The program mentioned the serious condition China would find itself in by year 2,000 if 1 it didn't get its population growth down to zero-growth by that time Visit Commune We visit a number of factories in Shanghai where workers put in six-day weeks, working eight hours per day The thing is. the factories work seven days a week, no Sunday holidays The day off workers get are put on a rotating basis. y No one goes to church in China as they do in our country Their wide assortment of religions - Buddhism. Islamics, Taoism. Confuscianism. Christianity and Ancester Worship, among many other splinter religions - have gone by the board, being replaced by their fervent ardor to serve the state And so no one minds working on Sundays But revealing to us was a visit on a Chinese commune near Shanghai It was Sunday morning and everything was in full swing We were briefed by the director, served tea - who told us the commune was 198 hecters. with some 25.000 people living there Os this number. 18,700 worked in the fields The name of this particular commune was "July 1,” the day in 1949 when the communist party took over the country They’re proud of that There is a wide variety of products produced in their fields, including herbal medicines, which are sold on the market. The director spoke in glowing terms of their increasing production levels, even calling his commune "a millionaire commune ” He said the average income per person in the commune is 775 Yuan per year At two Yuan per American dollar, this represents a per person annual income of $387.50! And they’re proud of this. We were told this was the first such commune set up in the Shanghai area There is a workshop set up on the grounds where guns, motors and a variety of hardware produced. Our Sunday lunch at the Commune was another two-hour meal of 27 different dishes. Since we were on a tight schedule to see all that had been planned for us. we had to leave before the soup course. Soup was always last. We

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had no idea how many desserts they had planned. We visited a private home where a family of eight lived. It was five rooms, on two stories, with a minimum of crude wooden furniture. No heat, but a small coal burner in the corner of the kitchen kept a tea kettle hot. Talk about spartan living? We noticed the floors were cement with no carpet, with little or no attempt at good housekeeping by our standards. This young fellow built his own home. We should note that he was proud of it. We asked about the bathroom facilities and Arch was taken to a community rest room where open slits provided the only plumbing. If nothing more, it provided an easy way to collect the human excrement. which was then taken to the fields for further enrichment. How the government can keep those folks down on the farm and still engender that fervent support for the state’s welfare is something of a mystery to most Americans. It should be said, however, that • the fields, while they are all irrigated, are abundantly rich. In many of the small patches the crops are covered against the biting cold The people are stooped over, clad in those heavy jackets and trousers, doing whatever they do in those fields. Everyone works in the commune, even the young mothers. There are ample daycare facilities for the young tots as mom and dad work in the fields or factories. We visited one such pre-school daycare building where a group of youngsters sang some songs and danced for us, to the tune of an old piano played by the lady in charge It was delightful, and had to be excellent obedience training for the pre-schoolers The'average worker in the commune, as the average factory worker, makes approximately 24 American dollars per month. One with more responsibility, like the director of this commune, can earn as much as 40 American dollars per month. While all this talk goes on about China being an enormous market for American goods, their present program for earning spending or disposable money leaves considerable doubt about their inability to purchase these goods. There is no grass, no lawns, just fields of crops, in China. Anyway grass breeds bugs and flies which carry diseases. Everybody knows that. A lawn mower salesman would starve to death here — be plenty lonesome like the Maytag salesman! The first morning we were in Shanghai, suffering from jet lag and a cold sleepless night, we took a brisk walk as the city awakened and people began to stir. As we noticed on our previous trip, we were something of a curiosity. But we were curious, too, as the vendors along the street with their little charcoal fires, making all sorts of eatables they sold to passersby. It provided excellent photo opportunities We had these folks figured as entrepreneurs who were using their energies to eke out a little better living for themselves Along the same street were people selling all sorts of produce, weighing small batches with a crude hand scale. Money was exchanged and the buyer shuffled down the road on his way. As daylight ascended the number of people on the street swelled until finally it became a mass Where was everyone going 9 Who keeps track of it all 9 Other questions arose, too. China claims to have no unemployment If one is out of work, the government simply assigns one Jo a job Forget the welfare. Visit Other Sights A morning s city tour took us down a number of very busy streets where" stores of a wide variety were pointed out to us from our tour bus But also pointed out was a two-storied brick house at No. 76 Xingye Road, the site of the first National Congress of the Communist Party of China, held in July 1921. They are proud of this memorial to their beginning on a long road that would prove victorious in 1949 Another site was the Jade Buddha Temple. In the temple are enshrined two rare statues; one, a seated figure inlaid with pearls and jewels, is 190 centimeters in height and 134 centimeters in width. The other figure is 96 centimeters in length, reclining in posture and appearing quite natural. It was of pure Jade, and was brought to Shanghai from

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BUILDS HIS OWN HOME — In the above photo is a young Chinese couple with their well-bundl-ed baby. They built their own home, shown in the lower photo — small but comfortable, with practically no heat. The front yard is not of grass, however, but of small patches of vegetables. The Chinese - like Americans during the Great Depression - don’t have much cash, but they do eat well.

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COMMUNE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL - In a commune outside Shanghai. China, elementary students, in their warm jackets, performed for us as their teacher played an old piano, then posed for this photo with their teacher. All was orderly and obedient. (Note: They say Chinese children don’t cry, but we found a few who did.)

Burma when the temple war erected in 1882 This reminded us of the large reclining Buddha we saw in Pegu, Berma, in 1973 when we visited that country. It measured several hundred feet in length and about 90 feet high, easily the largest reclining Buddha in the world. We never did learn the significance of it being in the declining position One afternoon we visited a jade factory and a garment factory Both proved a revelation. Jade is a semi-precious stone peculiar to China We watched in utter amazement as rows of men and women worked their little drills with precision (o carve out a wide variety of figures for sale. Their skill would make a dentist cringe. We had plenty of opportunity to purchase in their stores, but we had the idea most of these valuable pieces were sent overseas. In the garment factory workers were busy as bees, obviously making an effort to fulfill their quota for the day Most of them refused to stop work to have their pictures taken. When we were there, they were filling an order of full length shirts to be sent to some Arabian country. Almost none of the workers in the jade and garment factory wore glasses; in fact, the one here and there who did wear glasses drew attention. Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe The Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe toured in the United States in 1980, and in April of that year performed in the Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., with President Carter in the audience. This was a high point of our brief, two-day stay in Shanghai. The tumbling, acts of magic, juggling and assortment of animal acts kept coming on in a steady stream. The troupe constantly plays to a full house, and we felt fortunate to be part of the audience. We can say we were fed well in

Shanghai, all strictly Chinese cuisine, of course. Our group of 50-odd occupied four large round tables in the center of which were large "lazy susans” where the dishes of food were placed. We counted as high as seventeen different dishes of food per meal. We usually had low alcoholic content beer or orange pop with our meals. But the real treat, at least for the first few meals, was to watch the neophytes learn the ancient art of using chop sticks. We were no exceptions. What began as a complete mystery soon took on a degree of common sense We were special guests of officials of the Shanghai division of the China International Travel Service (CITS) at a banquet — and it was all of this. Driver cited following crash ' Michael B. Smith, 31, 200 E. Boston St., Syracuse, and a passenger, Debbie Smith, 23, were taken to Goshen Hospital for minor injuries following a two-vehicle mishap near the intersection of Huntington and Boston Streets, Syracuse at 1:32 a m Saturday. He was cited for failure to yield. Smith suffered a puncture wound to the right side of his head and a small bruise to the inside of his left ankle. Mrs. Smith complained of pain in the abdomen area. Syracuse Police report Smith was traveling north of Huntington Street and decided to turn into the parking lot at Nancy’s Kitchen, turning into the path of a vehicle driven by Troy L. Harney, 17, r 1 box 63 Milford. Harney was not injured. Damage was estimated up to $2,500 to Harney’s auto and up to $5,000 to Smith’s auto. Syracuse Police Officer Robert Houser investigated, assisted by Indiana ■ State Trooper Mike Kwasneski.

To accompany this outstanding dinner was beer, a very good red wine and a small, clear drink called a Mao Tai. It looked and tasted very much what Tennesseeans call "white lightning. But it goes without saying there were many toasts to “the great friendship of our two countries,” or to the good health of all present. Finally, there needn’t be a good reason for another toast! We were due to leave Shanghai for Wuxi (pronounced Woo-Shee), a two-hour train ride. Our guide appeared saddened to see us leave, as indeed we were touched by his sincerity and kindness. He said, finally, "Let me quote an old Chinese proverb that goes like this: ‘Parting is the beginning of meetingagain.’ ” We left with good memories of Shanghai, a city that was generous to us, even though it did get its name from the days when it was a pirates’ haven, when the pirates got drunks out of saloons and shanghaied them to work on their vessels! Syracuse men involved in backing mishap David W. Baumgartner, 31, r 4 box 191 Syracuse, and John Lippman, 59, r 1 box 172-D Syracuse, were involved in a backing mishap in front of Thornburg Drugs, Syracuse. The accident occurred at. 10:45 a.m. Tuesday, March 13. Baumgartner told police be was backing from a parking space and did not see the Lippman auto as he (Lippman) was pulling into a parking space next to Baumgartner, on the left side. Syracuse Police Officer Robert Houser estimated damage was up to SI,OOO to both autos.

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VISIT JADE FACTORY - Jade, a semi-precious stone, is a commodity of China, and carving Jade for tourists is big business. We found no one in the Jade factory, even those who had ben at the same job for years, wearing glasses as a result of this close work. (All Chinese photos taken by Criss Baumgartner) J

Overcrowding a concern —

Possible corporation junior high?

By GAILWIDMOYER Staff Writer Nearly a dozen people were present at last night’s school board meeting to express concern about the overcrowding conditions at Syracuse. Among ideas discussed were changing the boundaries to move some of the Syracuse students to North Webster or Milford and the possibility of consolidating the area junior high schools into one. “We’ve got a problem in Syracuse and we need a solution,” admitted Superintendent Don Arnold who released figures on results of a bus driver’s boundary change survey. If the boundaries dividing the area were changed to the north of North Webster, down CR 900 and to Dewart Lake, each grade level at Syracuse would only be altered by two or three students which wouldn’t really solve the problem. One parent asked if the board had considered the possibility of moving some of the students to another building or the possibility of incorporating all of the junior highs near or within the high school. “How would you feel about losing the seventh and eighth grades from your schools?” questioned board member Henry Smith. “It wouldn’t bother me at all,” replied a visitor. Smith was addressing an original concern that involved all of the area communities when Wawasee was first built. “It was

Lions to hold hearing/screening tests for pre-school youngsters

The Milford, Leesburg and Mid-Lakes Lions Clubs will sponsor a hearing/ screening for preschool children at the Milford Elementary School on Monday, March 19, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. A qualified audiologist will

County approved as 'target' area

Kosciusko County is one of eight counties in northeastern Indiana targeted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for additional technical assistance and increased Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service cost sharing. Targeting is a strategy which grew out of a national resource conservation study, known as the Resources Conservation Act, conducted several years ago by the USDA. Target areas are determined to be areas where erosion problems or water conservation problems are judged to be the worst. Congressman John P. Hiler has strongly supported the targeting program as an efficient way to approach soil and water conservation. ‘‘We need to fight soil erosion and maintain our agricultural productivity,” Hiler said. Secretary of Agriculture John R. Block said, ‘‘Targeting has produced excellent results during the past two years. Targeting of technical and financial assistance in 31 states in 1983 resulted in 29 million additional tons of soil saved and conservation of 276,000 more acre-feet of water.” Secretary Block expanded targeting in 1984 to include 44 states and Puerto Rico, according to Robert L. Eddleman, SCS state conservationist in Indiana. He said, “To qualify for targeting, an area must meet certain criteria: soil erosion or water shortages must have a significant impact on the nation’s agricultural conservation needs, progress in treating the problem must be likely and the people who live in the area must support the

the commitment of this board to keep the junior high schools in their respective communities,” commented board president Bill Little. “However, we weren’t facing overcrowding.” To complicate matters, a recent bill passed by Governor Orr gives school corporations the option of reducing the number of students in the first grade to 18. If corporations comply, the state would reimburse the corporations SIB,OOO per teacher; with the excessive enrollment at Syracuse, four teachers would be needed but the corporation would only be reimbursed for three. An alternative would compensate the corporation $6,000 for full-time aides in each classroom; however, after four years, the state would no longer fund aides. If the corporation would implement 18-member classrooms, there would be a need for a minimum of 15 additional classrooms in four years — the equivalent of a new building, Arnold informed. “We are not asking you for any decisions,” the superintendent concluded. “We are just trying to make you aware of the problems.” Secretary Marguerite Hoerr summed up the board’s feelings, “We are looking at big decisions.” Arnold estimated a possible solution would be available by the time school is dismissed for the year and all people involved with

supervise the screening program, which is offered free of charge to children ages four, five and six. This screening is not a diagnosis. It is designed to alert parents to the possibility that their child may have a hearing problem.

work.” Targeting in Indiana began in 1983 with a 12-county area in southwest Indiana. Two additional areas were added this year: the eight county Ohio-Michigan-Indiana target area and the eight county Miami Whitewater target area in southeastern Indiana. “Targeting works,” Bill Weber, SCS assistant state conservationist for land resources, says. ‘‘Major benefits are erosion control, which sustains agricultural productivity, improves water quality, and reduces maintenance problems on roadside and drainage ditches.” Weber said, “Targeting more SCS personnel for technical assistance means SCS employees will be able to concentrate on landowners with the most critical erosion problems. ’ ’ According to a published report by the SCS, Kosciusko County can benefit through increased soil productivity and reduced pollution of its many lakes and waters. Syracuse woman in 2-car mishap Mildred A. Gilbert, 57, r 3 Syracuse, was involved in a two-car mishap at Center and Detroit Streets, Warsaw, on Saturday, May 10, at 2 p.m. She was not injured. Also involved was Tony D. Baker, 18, Silver Lake. Damage was estimated at less than S2OO to Gilbert’s vehicle and up to SI,OOO to Baker’s auto.

any change will be notified in plenty of time to make personal adjustments. Other Business In other business, the board: • Accepted a bid from Burroughs Hardware and Komputrol Software for a new central office computer at $53,402.90. One other bid was submitted by IBM and Kaufmann Software for $64,645.47. The board accepted Burroughs because the system can be installed and operational at an earlier da.te, over 50 schools in the state have a similar system and the bid was $11,242.57 less than IBM. • Agreed to renew its govern- , ment equipment agreement which leases approximately $120,000 worth of equipment to the corporation. The previous agreement began in 1972 and expires May 8 of this year. • Consented to implement four Primetime programs similar to last year’s, summer programs, even though full government compensation may not be received. The Primetime program is “very valuable” and offers remedial students the opportunity to receive additional schooling for 10 days during the summer. • Was informed of a regional school board meeting on March 22 which would explain some the new legislation affecting corporations. The next school board meeting will be held Tuesday, April 10, at 7 p.m. in the administration building.

Early detection is of critical importance in hearing impairments. The earlier a deficiency is spotted, the better a child’s chances of recovery. For more information on the free screening, contact Dr. Bruce L. Lamb, 658-4126 or 658-9166.

New M-J subscribers Thelma Cook I r280x158-G / Whittier. NC 28789 Dave Martin r 2 Box 8-A Milford, Ind. 46542 Kerry M. Price r 1 Box 102-D Milford, Ind. 46542 Linda Ryman r 4 Greenhaus Apt. 82 Syracuse,lnd.46s67 S. Schrumpf P.O. Box 4021 Visalia, Calif. 93278 Ronald E. Sims 473 Hansel & Gretel Lane Cromwell. Ind. 46732

Agenda is released for board meeting North Webster Town Board officials will have a number of topics before them at tonight’s meeting (Wednesday) which begins at 7 p.m. included is a lawsuit pending against the town, proposed paving for 1984, an ordinance pertaining to dogs and cats, and the noise level at a local bar. Sewage problems and snow removal will also be among the topics. Other items include equipment requests by the police department, department reports, as well as a cable television report, semi-truck parking on town streets, garbage problems and general business.