Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 16, 1940, Winnipeg, Manitoba I Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion. Equality of civil rights. Press Pron Tell published d Thi Winnipeg free press company. Tolud. Sinei. Winnipeg Manitoba. J. W Dafoe Victor sorrow. President general Manaoat. Begin Berea a the general Pom a Moo. Emir. For Trana Maalon Udouch the in. of Winnipeg saturday March 16, 1940 the Farmer s Friend the made by or. Manion that he is the Farmer s am that everyone else is trying to sell the Farmer Down one of the most astonishing aspects of the present the River or. Manion and those associated with meaning whatever the import it for bodes badly. For the murder was done at the moment when India throbs with suppressed political enmity and when the allies Are suffused with other new grave anxieties. Whatever he name of their party at this moment May to Western Appeal that does not emphasize the magnificent j the salvation army drive record of h conservative party towards Western agriculture. It is disquieting to hear from or. W. M. Neal chairman of the Winnipeg committee in charge of the salvation army s War service Busty the fitting Symbol of the policies of the i drive that there exists no matter conservative party towards agriculture. How Small measure any Reluct Ance anywhere to assist the red shield canvassers. The work the salvation army is doing and pro poses properly to expand is an end to unemployment and restoring the country to its Pristine essential War work. Its record of condition of economic Security. What was done at that session i efficiency in its performance has the Canadian Tariff received its first sweeping and drastic received wide and justly earned revision upwards for More than half a Century. Scores of but they Dorset that Western memories Are Long. They forget that their Cord remain s As the chief agent in the desolation of the once prosperous West. The Bennett the i cords in this regard Are beyond All dispute. They Ith the special session of the Canadian parliament held ust after he 1930 election with the avowed purpose of putting industries and manufacturers were Given the Thev seized to the gouging the Consumers. The new of Canada markets a a result of the stoppage of Only Means the world Nas for paying for our forced to pay More and More for the goods they had to buy themselves. O the disparity Between the prices of things the Farmers had recognition All Over the world. Without such services Canada s armed forces will be left without incidence of taxation fell with stunning Force upon the Farmers the very things that bulk most largely in making up the balance who found themselves not Only Cut off from their Between daily happiness and unhappiness. The appeals that Are being made to the Public and the demands upon its purse Are Many and Oner Ous. Everybody knows that. But and the things he had to buy already serious in 1930, that is not a reason to close the Beanie noise and worse in 1931. 1932 and 1933. Farm income door to them. A world at War is collapsed. Farmers went on Relief and the sheltered Happy or. Minion s monstrosity How much profiteering charge that the govern 1 ment allows profiteering in War supplies is made by people who have Little or no knowledge of the measures taken for the limitation of profits and who give the government no credit for the much better precautions taken in this respect than were taken in the last War. The awarding of contracts contracts totalling More than have already been its in let Canadian industries grabbed a larger and larger share of the Home Market and were Able to hold their prices up in the face of a general Tumble of prices All Over the world. This was Hie vement of or. Bennett and it is a queer thing today to i successor. Or. Manion. Proclaiming himself to be the Farmer s Friend. He is no such thing. Scientific studies of the effect of this High protective policy an Western Canada Are now available. Here Are some of the consequences of it the increase in Tariff on Cotton textiles was 62 per cent on Wool textiles. S7 per cent on clothing 60 per cent on agricultural implements. 127 per cent on hardware and tools 18 per cent on Gas and Oil. 27 per cent. During those years of depression salaries and wages in Ontario went Down 30 per cent. But what happened to the average return to the Saskatchewan Farmer he operated at a net loss for More than two years. He had nothing to live on at gift of the Farmer s Friend meanwhile in Eastern Canada the textile Industry doubled its share of the Home Market. Ninety per cent of the imports of blankets for instance were wiped out. Over the whole Field of Canadian Industry in 1928, imports were 54 per cent of different from a world at peace. And the standards and categories of action in time of War have to be shifted Over and re modelled to meet the new needs. We know As or. Neal does that the reluctance he mentions is not widespread. Generally the whole Public is seized with the vital necessity of seeing that the special needs of War Are met. It can be Only Hasty thoughtlessness that leads to any other conclusion. And second thoughts will convince everyone that the need is great enough and worthy enough to meet a continued generosity of Welcome everywhere. To Washington the late of communist Claptrap what Ever became of Comrade Otto Kuusinen Comrade Otto you May recall was the Leader of the people s government of Finland which was set up on the first Hundred Square feet of finnish territory seized by Russia at the _ i Sci l by Domestic production. By 1936 they were Only 33 per cent. Outbreak of the War on Finland. How in the face of such facts could the world buy our wheat and our agricultural products the thing was impossible. The world stopped buying or went elsewhere and left Canada alone. Or Manion was a member of the government that thought this was Good business for Canada. And today or. Manion Calls himself the Farmer s Friend. What a travesty of truth in the Good years from 1926 to 1929. Western farm income averaged Well Over a year. But the Tariff policies of the Bennett government put a Stop to that. Farm income fell below s200.000.000 in the bad years from 1930 Onward. Never did a National policy Bear quicker fruit than the policy adopted by or. Bennett with or. Manion s concurrence. It was one that handed Over All the available business to the Canadian manufacturers but what it did to Western Canada was crucifixion. Or Manion has forgotten All about that now. He has become the Farmer s Friend. He tells them How he and his colleagues got them a wheat Board and a fixed Price for wheat. He tells them nothing about the butchery of the world markets that forced them into makeshift. He says not a word about the favouritism to the Ontario and Quebec manufacturers that handed Canada Over to them on a Silver Platter and left the Farmers outside the door paying through the nose for the Little they were ahle to buy. The Farmer s Friend when foreign observers and Edi tors deigned to suggest that this was just another War of aggression by a big country against a Small country there were hot denials from Moscow. Russia it was argued was engaged in a War of liberation. Premier Otto Kuusinen of the people s government of Finland had invited the red army to come in to help the finnish democratic Republic of revolutionary peasants and workers to end the struggle against the War provocateurs and reactionary plutocrats Moscow even carried the farce to the extent of signing a treaty with Comrade Otto. In the treaty that was jammed Down the throats of the finns no mention was made of the people s government o the end of a dream ter noon train from Wash Finland and Comrade Otto has been lost in the shuffle. And while we Are about it what about All the pious declarations from Moscow that the War would be carried on until the workers and peasants of Finland were freed from the terrible oppression of their capitalist having w Egton gets you into new York about eight o clock. You can watch Congress at work observe or. Roosevelt grinning behind a uttered desk at his press Confer ence Dine with some troubled lads from Wall Street and attend a Broadway hit show All in the twelve hours Between noon and Midnight. Then dash by taxi to the grand Central and lie awake in a lower berth while the tenements of new York Flash by and the straggling suburbs and the Little towns shining bravely in the darkness and the red flare of factories be Side the Hudson and finally the empty land with the Light of a farmhouse blinking in the Dis Tance the vast lonely soil of America. And looking out the window of the train you inevitably ask your self which is the real America the Basic stuff where the future of our continent perhaps the future of the free world will grow where the great decisions of this year must be made. Is it Washington where old men Wrangle and intrigue and Young men try to shape a new world is it in the skyscrapers of Wall and Pine streets where Able Fel lows with soft tense voices Are manipulating rather desperately the largest business Structure in existence or in the hurrying streets where people Are in cease less commotion Rushing no one knows where or in the Little ate 5 the legacy of those dark Days is still with us. Years have gone by and the evil wrought by that ill starred government remains. The scandalous Bennett tariffs remain largely on the statute books their effects mitigated somewhat by the Libert policy of Trade treaties that has opened Back doors to our Cus got a militaristic objectives towers. But the Tariff itself remains a constant threat a potent1 weapon in the hands of any government which like the Bennett Manion regime of 1930-35, throws itself into the arms of the manufacturers and forgets that Farmers too must live. These Are the facts of the Case. No major change in National policy can be made without gravely affecting the lives and in comes and destinies of the people of the country. Such a change they were after the russians have lost interest in their crusade of liberation. Which is about All the Comfort the finns have at this moment. Took place in 1930, a change without effective parallel for 50 years. It came at a time when even without it. Western Agri culture would have suffered its worst Jolt. But the Shock of the Bennett Manion Tariff made Western Canada stagger and it has never since recovered. Y o Friend. If these Are friends protect us from our or since Reco Vucicu. This is the policy of the men who today pose As the Farmer s non tent us from our enemies the Echo of Amritsar non violence is expected by the Mahatma Gandhi to accompany the civil disobedience Campaign planned to Start any time now in India but the evils which cannot be dissociated from this form of political warfare were brought Home by assassination done at a meeting of the India association in London on wednesday. An general Dyer was defended later by sir Michael o Dwyer on the grounds that firing on the crowd meeting in Defiance of a local ordinance had prevented a serious outbreak. Amritsar rang through India and shocked her Peoples. It re versed the Mahatma Gandhi s co operative attitude toward British Rule. It revived a state of unrest and turmoil Little better in 1919 than it was at the outbreak of the Mutiny in 1857. The cry of Indian gunman shot and killed sir j cooperation was heard Michael o Dwyer a former lieu j throughout India and civil gov tenant governor of the Punjab Ern ment became impossible and supplies the greater part of the recruits to the Indian army and the Marquis of Zetland the Secretary for India and two others with Indian associations were wounded. The assassination of sir Michael o Dwyer recalls the tragedy of Amritsar in 1919. That was the beginning of Many Black years for the peace of India. From to 10.000 persons gathered in meet ing in the open space of Jalia Walo Bagh and on them general Dyer ordered a detachment of 50 troops to fire. Some 400 were killed and wounded. The action of the demand for Home Rule came from All sides. This is All recalled by the assassination of sir Michael o Dwyer on wednesday. The full meaning of the deed cannot yet be known. It May be the Curt answer of the extremists in the Congress party in India to or. Gandhi s plea for delay in beginning again a Campaign of civil disobedience. I May be prompted by foreign agents to bedevil every Chance of amicable settlement of the constitutional discussions in India. It May be the act of a fanatic in flamed with Zeal. Whatever the from the Golden books from the birth of St. Patrick i Samuel Lover 1797-1868 on the eighth Day of March it was some people say that St. Patrick at Midnight he first saw the Day while others declare twas the ninth he was born and twas All a mistake Between Midnight and morn for mistakes will occur in a hurry and Shock and some blamed the baby and some blamed the till with All their Cross questions sure no one could know if the child was too fast or the clock was too slow. Now the first faction fight in old Ireland they say was All on account of St. Patrick s birthday some fought for the the ninth More would die at last both the factions so Posi Tive grew that each kept a birthday so Pat Rick had two till father Mulcahy said Don t be sometimes Combine Combine eight with nine and seventeen is the Mark let that be his said the clerk. Towns in the factories on the empty land America at a pause who can Tell who can Tell the mind of America and where it is every pot stuff of Many races permanent Many colors dilates states conflicting economic interests sprawl Over half a continent from Ocean to Ocean that stuff of surging vitality and youth and daring and yet of new doubts and Sharp conflicts and vague mis Givings such As it never Felt before. America has paused baffled by he conflict within itself and by he terrifying spectacle of the world about it. It halts now at a new Valley forge of the spirit. T faces now a trial As grave As Gettysburg decisions As Momen Ous As those of Lincoln s time. What change Here in the course of a single year last Spring Washington was still astir with the Many sided experiments and the momentum of the new Deal. March Forward that was the order. More experiments More new Deal More victories for the american Way of life. The momentum had slowed from the first honeymoon Days of Roosevelt but it was still a powerful Force moving ahead sure of itself. Today that old mood is drained out. For once America doubts itself. The troubled capital by Bruce Hutchison. Most troubled capital among the i great Powers of the world. For the warring nations the old problems Are dissolved All doubts ended All solutions postponed All internal stresses and strains eased or beaten Down by the overriding necessities of War. All people Are United there in a single purpose. But America finds itself today with out a Clear objective without a single purpose and it halts divided and baffled. Do not misjudge it. This is not the mood of the weakling or the dolt. It is the mood of the giant who has been keeping his Eye too closely on his own Furrow. He looks up from his plow now wiping the sweat from his eyes and gazes along his Furrow and is amazed to see How it has twisted and turned and brought him Back to where he started. He Peers about startled to the world in flames that approach Ever closer this giant of America hesitates and blinks not in cowardice no in weakness nor stupidity but in the bewilderment of a Strong Man whose strength has been wasted and he knows in his heart tha something inside him has died the american dream has died there is the Basic thing that has happened in the United states in our time. It was the dream of the Frontier and it dawned when the pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock and men struck out into the wilderness. It was the dream of an Ever expand ing Frontier of a land where any Man could make a living and be it regimentation losing Day by Day More of the old american dream trying to build a new one America has not yet decided Ven tries to make itself believe hat it has no decision to make it deep in the mind of the Amer can people the question cries of or answer and will cry More loudly yet until the answer i Given. For the More the Amer can tells himself that he can scape the flames that have engulfed the world the More h ears that he cannot. The Verj of his neutrality is the measure of his fear that he Wil be dragged in. Given by the War Supply Board. The contracts Are awarded by tender except in comparatively few cases where for special Rea sons it is not possible to do so and the Only Way in which anyone can secure a contract is by offer ing a lower Price than his competitors. Moreover the War sup by Board a non political body of ble men has Power to prevent contracts being Given under conditions that would allow excessive profits and there is no doubt of heir Zeal to protect the interests of the country in this Way. But assuming that a company or an individual obtains a contract and makes some profit. The government first takes 18 per cent in corporation income tax. A Mani Toba company also pays 5 per cent to the province and Ontario companies pay 5 per cent. After the Federal income tax comes the excess profits tax. In the last War companies had the government would take 60 per cent of the profit above 25 per cent but that does not mean that he company would have the 25 per cent profit Iree from the pro its tax. It would pay on a sliding scale upwards As profits Rose. In the Case of a company with a profit of 17 per cent on its capital it would pay nearly half of that profit in taxes Federal income tax 18 per cent provincial income tax 5 per cent War profits tax 30 per cent of net earnings less fed eral income tax. Actually it would pay 47.6 per cent in taxes. But As this excess profits tax affects different industries in Dif Ferent ways because of difference in the relative amount of capital required and for other reasons an alternative excess profits tax can be paid. This is 50 per cent of the profits in excess of the average profits in the last four years. This tax plus the income tax is about equal to the 60 per cent excess profits tax now levied in great Britain on munition contracts. The excess profits tax applies to All business not merely to con tracts for War supplies. Former limitation unworkable there has been sole outcry against the abolition of the former limitation of 5 per cent profit on 11 War supplies. It was abolished because it was unworkable but hat does not mean that the government is guaranteeing profits. Option of paying the business profits War tax or the corporation income tax. This time they pay both. If after paying the income tax a company has a profit of More than 5 per cent on paid up capital it pays a share of the profit to the government and the larger the profit the larger the share that is taken. If there should be real profiteering As some people suggest and a company after paying the income tax had a profit of More than 25 per cent on the capital the books Are a finer world within the come Rich if he worked hard was the dream of Complete per Sonal Liberty and Devil take the hinder most of individualism unrestrained of fat Fields and Roar ing factories and two chickens in from holy writ As the Partridge sit Teth on eggs and Hatchet them not so he tha Getteth riches and not by right shall leave them in the midst 01 his Days and at his end shall be fool. In the Northeast of Scotland the Home of saving the Small Saver i saving at the rate of about per head of population per an g. Findlay Shirras. It seemed to be a thing Peculiar to the enemies of the new Deal say they knew it would happen and yet have no real alternative to offer. The new Deal knows that it is not working out As it had planned realizes that it must do far More to succeed but is unable yet to do it the country is at peace yet can not escape the effects of the War. The people resolve to remain Neutral and yet have taken sides America a blessed thing that America could have while other nations lost it. Nothing permanent alas it was not permanent. The old America suffered grievously in these last Twenty years and lost much but surely it would recover and go Back to the old ways surely the american dream was not Over surely americans in their vast free continent would not have to accept the restraints sacrifices controls regulations of other Peoples surely there was yet another Frontier into which Brave men could strike no answer yet no Clear Way no open Frontier. One Shock after another has shaken the american dream in these last Twenty years disillusionment piled on disillusionment. Here is the final disillusionment unable to solve its own problems with All its riches Anc now the world around it afire. All its plans Hopes solutions Sud Denly thrown into new confusion. So the giant looks about bewildered. He cannot return to the old Frontier for it has gone. He cannot return to the Golden Era and Bull Market they too a. Gone. The other thing the new Deal has not been made to work after seven years but it cannot be scrapped or abandoned for it i now a part of the giant s very Lif and body. Where can America go there is a great question perhaps the greatest question of our time. Should it go Back into the world which it left in 1920? Back into r Edwin Markham s royalties from the Man with the Hoe amounted to eight years ago As he said How much of that handsome sum did he turn Over to the Man a tithe at least we Trust. The enormous sales of the great poem were a Good sign. We remember that it was inspired by Millet s great painting la homme a la and its motto s from genesis i god made Man n his own image in the image of god made he applied to he oppression of the lower class f workers it is a powerful Pas donate penetrating poem of exactly forty nine lines and was quoted far and wide. A reply in Wenty five couplets making fifty lines came from John Vance Cheney a compatriot and More Roluti Ioinous poet. The reply has he same title but the motto is rom montaigne let us a Little permit nature to take her own Way she better understands her own affairs than compare some lines from each poem and see which makes the most humane Appeal Markham bowed by the weight of centuries he leans upon his Hoe and gazes on the ground the emptiness of Ages in his face and on his Back the Burden of the Cheney humbled it is and bowed so is he crowned whose kingdom is the ground. Diverse the burdens on the one Stern Road which bears each Hack his Load varied the toil but neither High nor Low with pen or sword or Markham slave of the wheel of labor what to him Are Plato and the swing of pleiades what the Long reaches of the peaks of song the rift of Down the reddening of the Cheney he that has put out strength to he is Strong of him with Spade or song nature but one shall he she or Well ill he digs he sings and he bids on. Or shudders and is in mind and in deed. The government promises to keep America out of the War but not one american is sure that it can succeed. So Washington is must be the Alliance with other Democrat Powers Back into a free Movin Commerce or should it go for Ward alone depending on its own strength devising new solutions More government controls mor Markham o masters lords and rulers in All lands is this the Handiwork you give to god this monstrous thing distorted and soul quenched How will you Ever straighten up this shape touch it again with immortality give Back the upward Lookin and the Light rebuild in it the music and the dream make right the immemorial in facies perfidious wrongs imme Dicarli Cheney need was need is and need Wil Ever be for him and such As he cast for the Gap with gnarl i Arm and Jimb the Mother moulded Long wrought and moulded Hiir with Mother s care before she set him there. Yea since above his work he May not Rise she makes the Field his skies. See she that bore him and metes out the lot he serves her. Vex him not to scorn the Rock whence he was Hen the pit and what was digged from it Bookman. Var contracts can mean losses As Ell As profits. Hon. C. D. Howe who is an Engineer by profession and has had a Large experience with big construction projects has said the Best which this government can have that profits on War material will be kept to a mini mum in to place on this responsible for purchases men of skill a men of experience. Meu who know values and men of absolute integrity. When the Board was set up. Under the last act. The chairman vice president a c. Vaughan of the Canad Tun a Tlona railway was Coocen As a Man who perhaps had the widest experience in purchasing in thai Man who in the Ordinary course of hit had for. Ninny been purchasing to the extent. Of around year. A Man of that Type ii unrestricted by Thi sort of places to the last act could saved Lor government every cent it was Poset Bli. To save and at the same time by could have obtained the material which he was required to the government later appointed the War Supply Board headed by or. Campbell president of the Canadian Ford company one of the Ablest business executives in the country and it gave the Board full Power to protect the Public interest in regard to prices for War supplies. Birthdays j. W. Ackland Winnipeg born Almonte ont., March 16, 1867. Alexander Jackson Union Point. Man. Born Perth ont., March 16. 1854. Thomas r. Lamont. My Leta Man born Grey county ont., March 16. 1860. Charles Edgar Lyleton Man. Bom Somerton Somersetshire eng., March 16, 1ot2. D. L. Winnipeg born Montrose scot., March 17, s. Kennedy Johnston Winnipeg born Ottawa ont., March 17, 1875. John Odgine. Strathclair. Man. Born Kinloss ont., March 11, 1859. Prault Newell Winnipeg bom mild May Bruce county ont., March 17. 1858. Hugh go Loo or Brandon born East kill Bride. Lanarkshire scot., March 17, 1878. Or. Manion s discovery s Markham through this dread shape the suffering Ages took time s tragedy u in that aching stoop through this dread shape humanity betrayed plundered profaned and Duin cries pro tart to us judges of the world a or Petit that pc prophecy. No blot no monster no unsightly the son s Jong line cd Ping his cd Paillett realm be knows it and command erect he tall As his toil nor does he Bow Unble St labor he has and rest. Ince or. Manion began his Campaign he has discovered that the defence of Canada regu lations particularly the radio censorship Are a menace to the lib erties of the people. At Toronto on March 2 Globe and mail he said All the lib erties we hold so dear Are at the following Day at Oshawa he said Canadian conditions in. Canada Are getting near those in Germany when pub Lic men Are gagged when they try to use the radio to broadcast their political Many other passages in or Manion s speeches could be cited. The defence of Canada regu lations were proclaimed on sept 3, 1939, and the radio censorship regulations tabled in the House of commons on sept 7 on the opening Day of the special War session. The record will be Lound at Page 2 revised Hansard of the september session. Or. Manion speaking on the Fol lowing Day Page 13 Hansard declared that this War is a War for the preservation of human or. Manion same Page wholeheartedly supported the government. He said Page 14 we Are lighting for democracy for Liberty of person Liberty of speech and Assembly liberties which we in Canada he approved of what the government had done to prepare Canada for War. At the time or. Manion spoke those words the censorship which he now attacks was in full Force and effect there it not one Whit less Liberty in Canada today than on sept. 7. The radio censorship became an Issue in the Quebec elections. The controversy broke on sept 28 and continued until polling Day. Not once in tha Quebec Campaign when the censorship regulations were being denounced daily did or. Manion utter a syllable in criticism of them. Indeed on dec. 16 at or. Manion addressed the Domin Ion commercial travellers association. He is quoted in the Gazette of dec. 18 As follows observed or. Manion Canada hit Liberty the Liberty of sitting tonight of thinking As we like worshipping As we like printing in our newspapers what we like lib erties we have had so Long we have perhaps lost a sense of value but if we lost them we would realize what they were from the outset there were pub Lic men in Canada who opposed the censorship regulations. Or. Manion is not one of them. Hun. C. H. Cahan conservative Mem Ber in the last parliament for St. Lawrence and St George of them. Or. Cahan denounced the censorship in no vember but he got no support from his Leader or. Manion. Or. Cahan said in november that vital liberties were threatened. Or. Manion s discovery that the liberties of the people were in peril dates from the beginning of urte election Campaign ;