Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 12, 1948, Winnipeg, Manitoba Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights Winnipeg free press printed and published except by Pic Winnipeg free press company limited 300 Carlton Street Winnipeg. Manitoba. Authorised As second class Mallei by the Post Ohice department Ottawa. Victor Sifton. Publisher. Grant Dexter. Executive editor. Win. Lord. Bruce Hutchison. General manager. Associate editor. Winnipeg tuesday. October 12, 1948 revised calculations the Progress report on Britain s recovery lately Given by sir Stafford Cripps is Complex in the extreme. Yet it is a document so vital to the whole world so essential in the project of general recovery and defence against Russia that it must be understood if we Are to gauge the events which carry us All. Willy Nilly As passengers. The first interpretation of the report is highly optimistic though its author avoided any show of optimism. Britain it appears has made great strides toward recovery since sir Stafford took charge of the Treasury or at least has repealed some of the strides towards catastrophe taken under his predecessor or. Dalton. But As against this Are grave factors yet to be faced in Britain and. On top of them new factors emerging suddenly out of the desperate contest with Russia. Considering the credit Side of the Ledger first sir staf Ford s report shows these facts in 1047 Britain ran an Overall deficit in its Trade of s2.5 billions. In the first six months of 1948 the deficit was s5ro millions an annual deficit rate of billions less than half the 1947 total. This is a remarkable improvement but the figures arc really Trade i figures and have no bearing on the Dollar problem. Thus the United kingdom is making Progress in closing the Gap Between what she Sells 1o and buys from the world. The Dollar position is less favourable. The deficit Here in the first half of the year was St the annual rate of si.6 than half the loss of 1947. But still a major Haemorrhage. Kas the situation stands today. Britain s Economy is still far from self supporting. Under the government s existing schedules the nation will require four full years of mar shall Aid. By the end of that period it is hoped Trade will be in balance and Britain paying its Way in full. But before that Assumption can be accepted four items on the debit Side of the Ledger must be considered first the improvements noted above were achieved by such drastic restrictions on imports and such Public sacrifices As would be. In the words of the economist. Quite intolerable As a basis for permanent the second reservation which must be made in consider ing the current figures is this the recovery of the last year if based largely on heavy British exports to the world. These exports have been sold in an easy seller s Market. Anyone who could make goods anywhere could sell them and at Hish prices. But the seller s Market must change some and there Are signs thai it is beginning to change already a buyer s Market when prices will fall. At Itiat Point nol far Distant. Britain must be Able to Tell its goods at lower prices in Competition with nations whose Industry is much More efficient. The question today is whether a socialist government controlled by the labor unions can get prices Down a Little later on which will mean getting wages Down. The same question must be faced by other countries including Canada but Britain s Basic deficit position makes the question there especially difficult. A y thirdly it must never be forgotten that Britain is living today and so in a degree is Canada indirectly on the mar shall plan on the Money of the United states taxpayer. All the British government s plans Are based on the Assumption that the Congress will Vole three More instalments of euro Pean Aid. The plans thus arc at. The annual peril of a Congress ions vote. If these votes Are approved which May be a Safe Assumption there is not yet justification for the larger Assumption that. Three years hence. Britain will stand no longer in need of foreign Aid. If Britain and Europe and Canada Are not Nile to live without United states Aid three years hence what then the fourth Factor of doubt is not mentioned in the Cripps report because it had hardly emerged when the report was prepared. Sir Stafford was budgeting a month or so ago with out any thought of sudden re armament. At that time the Berlin blockade seemed about to end. The International Situa Tion while tense had not deteriorated into the present crisis. Hardly had sir Stafford made his report before the government found it necessary to re condition a part of the Navy curtail its demobilization of the army embark on the production of War planes and prepare for a final emergency. This diversion of men. Labor and materials into military prepare Lions could not be avoided but in must inevitably alter sir Stafford s calculations through no fault of his own. Some of National Energy which he had counted upon in make Good his plan must be used in the non productive process of defence and that diversion of Energy must gravely of feel civilian production the Export drive and flip whole course of Britain s recovery nor can sir Stafford possibly calculate How Large these effects will be because he does not know what measures defence will ultimately require. The developing world crisis could easily destroy the Cripps Blue print which is fragile enough without these risks. A considering All four factors the Cripps report though it reflects the author s heroic labors and the usual response of the British people excuses a feeling of Relief now that the disastrous momentum of 1947 has been arrested it does not justify any feeling of optimism. The struggle is by no won and. In the present world situation May be enter ing its most serious phase. But it would be the most dangerous Folly for us in North America to imagine that it is Britain s struggle alone or West Ern Europe s. If our economic interest in the recovery of Bri Tain and Europe were not sufficient to show us How deeply we Are involved the present military situation should finally persuade us. The safely of Britain and Europe dependent on their economic health is our safety too. That safety being More in peril than Ever we cannot look at the Cripps report or at the condition of Europe today As spectators who have paid an admission fee form of foreign Aid. We Are All players in the great game of life and death now under Way and we shall have to consider How we can bring More Power to Bear on it. If the Cripps report must be revised so must the calculations of the United states and Canada. In one form or another we shall have to increase our Aid in the defence and recovery of Europe at High Cost of ourselves As taxpayers at Low Cost if thereby we can pre vent the ultimate Cost of War. Resources and reviving our waste places and endowing and enrich ing our common Lite if she is to be diverted for another Twenty years into the further elaboration of the mechanism and chemistry of destruction we May As Well Pray for the speediest possible re turn of the glacial epoch. Better a planet on which human life has become impossible than one on which it has degenerated into a form of organized the second Factor which Asquith feared and referred to in later paragraphs was political and social upheaval in Europe due to the disturbance of. The old balance of Power Equi Librium an upheaval which could be stopped from destroying world peace Only in a system of collective Security. Another purge apart from its Public propaganda activities in Paris the russian communist party is carrying for Ward a drastic secret purge in its o w n ranks throughout Eastern Europe. The polish socialist party has been absorbed into the communist party fifteen of its leaders have been ejected and the government is trying to rid itself of ministers who though communist Are doubtful that Russia s precise Blue prints will work at this time in Poland. The communist party of Poland or. Bierut its Leader con fesses is still loaded with socially prophetic Wisdom politics and prophecy have Little in common. Yet occasionally a statesman looks beyond the pres ent and Speaks with prophetic Wisdom. This was pre eminently True of Herbert Asci Ith on february 1. 1919, when he was speak ing in London at a meeting in support of the league of nations. The invention of the atom bomb shows How accurate was Asquith s warning of the destructive pow ers of science and everything that has happened since 1919 confirm his belief in collective Security As Iii elements a in Hungary no putting on their show Between halves a in when the collaborating new members ill be admitted to the communist irly for six months less Uncle sir k n creep in. Moreover the part i ounces that in will eliminate careerists and elements1 Ilien in i lie working in the russian zone of Germany h socialist. Unity party the rus an Organ is setting up commis on on party discipline. These a emissions will clean out social is and enemy in Czechoslovakia the second arty purge in two years has be in. All party cells it is an ounces must become in Albania the communists have eld their first Congress Chris ened themselves the worker s impose an arty and undertaken to screen it f undesirables. In Rumania where the com Mist grip is considered pretty Iti factory a few doubtful party waders Are being removed. All is going Well with the purge programme apparently except in Taly. There the largest communal party outside Russia seems to e Honey combed with unreliable elements who Gol Norm units were Vith the democratic parties in a Ommon front government. In the Cind of far reaching Iron Clad or animation which Russia desires he weaknesses in Italy must be tired. The purge will to fell there Oon no it. Would be interesting to know of far the purge has gone in he communist party of Cun Irla. The better known leaders Are till in office nationally and thus Mist be presumed of be there have been changes in Thiec Iron inc though whether due to or heave to decisions is 101 Clear. In America has lever been managed in fact by hese front men. As the apostates of the party have shown in their confessions the party is actually by shadowy figures flitting Lack and Forth from Russia ant never known to the Public unti they stumble into some Public in Quiry or break some Law. Whether the real Bosses o sloth american communism Are Leeling the whip now being vigorously applied to the party else where perhaps no one outside the conspiracy can know. But the Whir is so Long that it May be expected to reach to this country in do course. Reclamation projects by w. R. C. Dry summer and fall that should not be Del aroused speculation on the played because the loss of one or Vestern Plains of the american it to crops would be More costly int intent As to whether another than any expenditure that might period of Low moisture Levels is i be required and because the so i Prospect. It May Well be an consequences of another Sevari anted fear for apart from the Verc drou1h without any Allevia current. Dryness. Which is said i Ilion of loss to Tori excepting by Relief or Relief work were in calculable. Prices and wages the Explains letter from or. Donald a Macdonald information Secretary of the ., As already published in the free press Indi Cates that the socialist party is in process of rounding a difficult Corner. It has been said in i hese columns that the Proposes to ironclad control of prices but has Given no undertaking to control without which of course there can be no Price control. Or. Macdonald writing officially for his party says this interpretation of Olney is incorrect. He writes that he Will never agree to the freezing of wages while some of hem Are at sub Standard Levels and secondly that a proper relationship Between prices and wages Mist first be established chiefly hot High Price controls. When these to conditions have been met the ?.c.f. Would entertain the propose Ion of freezing wages As part of n anti inflation report Correct from the Golden books Richard Baxter the problem o certainty nothing so much Hildreth the reception of the truth As urging it on men with too harsh Importunity and falling too heavily on their errors for hereby engage their honour in the business and they defend their errors As themselves and stir up All their wit and ability to oppose you in controversies it is fierce opposition which is the Bellows to kindle a resisting Zeal. Price controls we Are talking of something within the Power of this parliament itself. I no Tice that the press continues to say Why not. The control of wages i believe i have Given the answer As to Why wages do nol. Need to be controlled at this particular time. But the other answer i gave and will give again is that the control of wages has been returned to the provinces and that it does nol lie within the province of this Federal government. A part from the Constitution Al inability of the Federal government to control wages in peacetime or. Coldwell s other reason was that present wage Structure is lop sided and inequitable. It would he wrong As he said before and since to freeze wages generally until Many sub Standard wages Are raised. He indicated at another Point that a control of wages might have to be exercised at some time but that stage certainly has not yet been reached in the Canadian eco this though on his own statement such control is constr a new soil for production old a threat to next year s crop. Here is Little tangible evidence on which even weather experts can their problem was greater than ase an opinion. Jihad of Canada. The territory con nevertheless during the p s a corned was larger and it involved year Washington has issued warn More flooding from mugs. To these the m o r e Pessi have added that after a de Cade of adequate moisture a dry period should to expected. It would Hev claim be in the Normal course of the moisture Cycle. Controlled Rivers. And so he t a. Congress viewed the problem not Only As one of irrigating and re claiming farm lands and re vilify no the soil but As one of prevent ing floods and Large Scalf water flow off Iho impounding of water Long Range weather increasing the moisture s not an exact science and of country the it evil present fears May he in warrant hoping of Power for Industry and de. Even if there be some electrification of agricultural for them if does not follow to carry on the work the drouth would be As severe or wide Bureau of. Reclamation and the army we re brought into co opera Tion. The Tennessee Valley authority is already paying for itself. On the Missouri River construction is proceeding on a series of dams reach ing South from fort pock. The largest of these is the ouse dam spread As that of the pre War de Cade. Even the moisture Cycle does not indicate that. Drout i insurance both Canada and the . Have undertaken projects to save the Western Plains from a repetition of the loss and hardships of the great which will create a Lake 250 Miles try spell of the thirties. In can Jlong. Will ultimately develop of wages at the proper time he is promising something which i. Leader says is legally impossible and that is precisely Why Genera Price control is legally impossible except under emergency wartime legislation. The Platform avoids these constitutional difficulties by prom Ising Only to control prices with out controlling wages which a outside Federal jurisdiction. But the platform Strong on the constitutional Side As on politics is strangely weak on the mathematical Side. Stripped of its propaganda it simply Means that a Government would raise the Cost of producing everything and yet. Ottly still hold prices Down to their present level by decree through the painless Miracle of subsidies paid by the very taxpayers who Are the Price payers. I . Has carried pm its work quietly with few spectacular projects such As those w h i c h Nave attracted attention in the . But. It has done a vast Job of by irrigation dugouts and Community pastures. It has Aken some acres of dry lands out of crop and created of Community pasture. These were part of the Canadian dust bowl from which shh dust storms came and they have been planted with crested wheat grass a Plant which binds the soil and provides 000 kilowatts of Power and will by Means of a 125 mile Long canal bring water to the Trust bowl of South Dakota and irrigate upwards 1.000.000 acres. Other 4 project to 1 m a Canada plans a h a v e been another Large . Irrigation project is Well advanced in the state of Washington where too acres of arid land in the co Lumbia River Basin will five irrigation water by 1951 from the pumping station at present being installed at the grand Coulee dam. These reclamation projects in both Canada and the . Were initiated primarily to prevent a repetition of the loss and hardship of the great drouth of the thirties. But they Are in fact More than that. In recent years the Realiza Era great lakes. These pro the essential need of our age. At Julih said the experience of this War a Marie actual what was unimaginable before. But there Are would be if the old system were to continue two new factors at work. The first and most obvious is the unexplored and still incalculable effect of the harnessing of science to the Chariot of destruction ters word she is still lisping the Alpha bet of annihilation. If she is to be diverted from her humanizing mis Sion of recreating our shattered science has in these mat not Only not said her last birthdays w. B. Lanigan cad Boro Bay Victoria . Born three Rivers qtte., oct. 12, 18g1. George Compton Darling Ford Man. Born Wiltshire England oct. 12, 1872. A. Argyle Gil Lespie Winnipeg born Laxton township. Victoria county out., oct. 12, 1868. Today s scripture a new commandment i give unto you that be love one an other As i have loved you. By this shall All men know that Are my disciples if be have love one to another. 13 34-35. This according to or. Macdon ild is the Policy today. But. F he will refresh his mind by read no Over again the Price policy normally Laid Down by the Convention Here in August he will ind that the free press report of i was Correct. The Price policy Resolution number Calls Only or following measures i he imposition of Price controls on All Basic necessities of life food clothing and fuel specifically including subsidies on milk butter Foed grains Cotton and Wool As Well As bread and such articles As enter into the costs of production of Farmers and fishermen. 2. Renewal of an excess profits tax graded to remove past inequities to raise revenues sufficient at least to for the Price controls pro gramme. 3. Closing of the Winnipeg Grain Exchange and the elimination of All speculation in food. The words above Are quoted direct from the official report of the convention issued by the From House its National Headquarters on August 2 last there is no mention any where of wage control. Or. Macdonald apparently con tends that wage control is implied in this policy but where the leaders of the Did not speak of wage control at the Winnipeg convention. They deliberately left the impression that they control prices without con rolling wages w h i c h or. Mac Donald now admits by implication to be absurd which it is the convention propaganda followed the line Laid Down by the Lead ers throughout the country and n parliament for the last Severa years line that wages Nee not be Frozen to freeze prices by on the contrary that wages mus be persistently raised All along the line while prices largely the sum of those wages Are Frozen. When or. Cold Well was fronted with this mathematical Absurdity in parliament he tried t wriggle out of it but without much Success. Finally on Decem her 11, 1947 Hansard Page 179 he made the excuse that there a no use in parliament talking o wage controls Sintie the federa government had no Power to control wages. He said once again when we talk of to tonally impossible except under be emergency Laws of wartime of lapsing. Now we have from or. Macdon id As a Hasty afterthought the announcement that when the wage ale throughout the nation is r ought into balance As Deler liner by the then the .c.f. Will be ready in entertain be no position of freezing Ade for Many larger under takings comparative to those in the . They include the South Saskatchewan and red River dams and for impounding water in Sev ution has grown that probably the greatest problem of the future will be that of producing adequate food for the world. Soils in every coun try Are being depleted. Thus the drouth inspired Recla mation plans have become More than a design for preventing a repetition of the pre War decade. They have become a major under Akin g jocks apparently have been put on the shelf to be started if and when another depression and drouth come along. To the . The programme of larger projects has been put. Into effect. Some Are completed Many Are building and a few have yet. To be started. The . Worked on the theory that reclamation was ensure the Maxi us production of Good food. Editors of the Baltimore a Sun have recently revealed that the fastest human Pun Ner covering a mile Only runs at remorse of a statistician by Bruce Hutchison in some sixty years assuming he not Start to is ten does the r of 19 Miles an hour. This i years old if has always been my reach i n t o the stratosphere. And the Moon still grinning up there in the sky Safe beyond our reach. The figures always have you licked before you Start. I years r spiral or apply the statistical method is a shattering piece of to float a battleship. Something still More frustrating. Have always comforted myself with in married life a Man the thought that at the end of something like two Hundred misspent life 1 could see from Anlo fifty billion words to his wife aged to gel along without it so it is not hard to see where this process would Lead us. First a Government would raise All Vages which it considered too Low and since it has attacked All wages s too Low whenever a labor Dis Ute arises there would be a vast and general wage increase. That would happen anyway if the state to raise All wages which it considered sub Standard Ause skilled trades would insist on maintaining their initial over1 tile wages of the in killed trades. Having thus enormously in teased the Cost of producing every kind of goods in the country he Government according o or. Macdonald would consider he possibility of freezing wages n order to maintain the previous Reeze on prices. The prices by Hen would be far higher than the prices now prevailing since All Cost would have greatly advanced. They would be disguised says the platform by a Gigantic system of subsidies but they would be paid just the same by the Ordinary con timer through taxes. Set off inflation Long. But if you care to apply the Sun s techniques to larger prob lems you get still More import ant results which All our scientists engineers and economists have blindly overlooked. For example by using a simple tape measure on the faces of my friends i am Able after Many months of measurement to announce that the average Man shaving himself for sixty years covers 4.68 acres with Brtis ii and razor in a single lifetime. This discovery which Cost me so much Effort is offered free to the multiply 4.68 acres by the number of male population and you gel. A cultivated area of millions of Square Miles and All utterly useless at a time when the world s surface can not produce enough food to feet grim alternative again the time wasted by the average Man in shaving himself i calculate would enable him to read All or. Coldwell s speeches but i doubt that anyone will do it my calculation probably offers no serious danger to the razor manufacturers. It is commonly supposed that a drinking Man could float a Battle ship with All the whisky he drink. Deathbed a battleship gayly unless he Jyh particularly talkative. It never does any Good though. All this conversation uses up roughly m7 quadrillion decibels of sound. Ill flags flying. Labor lost that Fine vision simply that s a pretty serious wastage stand up 10 modern decibels when you study. Sadly 1 have to report that f a Man drinks a quart of whisky come to think about in. No wonder we have inflation. A Day for sixty years he will have i i have also calculated How Many consumed Only Gallons with few drops Over for his friends after a lifetime of Effort to swell the revenues of our provincial gov now that won t float a battleship even a pocket Battle cows sheep pigs and chickens a Man consumes in a lifetime but when i regard that Long line of murdered corpses the thing be comes too depressing to mention. But. You can Lake it from me that ship though it will have Cost the a vast army of less harmful Ani consumer i know must he sacrificed to keep one human body alive for seventy years. Looking at myself not to facts stare me grimly in face that i shall never float a battleship no matter How patriotically i support the government s finances. I shall have to Content myself with a Canoe. You just have speak of you i wonder whether the result is Worth it what statistically is the re to make up your mind to things As you Grov or. Lynd a older famous English essayist said the other Day that he had smoked enough Cigar ettes to reach to the Moon. That is a splendid and shining Mark for any Man to set himself but it just won t survive scientific measure ment. Smoking 20 cigarettes a Day a Man will Only get through 787 in sixty years. They would cover Only 173.1 Miles and barely suit a human engine which at delivers less than a Quarter horsepower of Energy not enough to run a vacuum cleaner or a toaster. And that engine is stalled in sleep a third of the time. A lot of Good materials Energy and trouble would be saved if it. Would sleep the other sixteen hours. Toil and trouble the Wage policy in Short if it can be called a policy when t is not even mentioned in the party platform would set off the greatest spiral of inflation yet experienced and Price control How Ever the technique of disguise were used would be out of the ques Tion. However or. Coldwell s o w n speech As quoted above gives the whole show away. He says quite rightly that the government of Canada cannot control wages in peacetime. Only the provinces can control them. Therefore when or. Macdonald promises that the Will entertain 1 the control a Soldier s bequest from the new York limes considerable doubt was expressed during the War As to whether All United states soldiers knew what they were fighting for. The late Robert Johnstone of Dowling ton. Pa., who died in the Philip Pines while a member of the army had a Good answer to that question and he did something about it. He willed that his 000 Soldier insurance should be used after the War was Over to educate in the United states one former japanese enemy. , .23-y e a a old former suicide Pilot of the Japa Nese air Force has arrived in the United. States to study at Lafay Ette College Easton pa., on the scholarship provided in Johnstone s will. He will take a Liberal arts course and then return to his Homeland to pass on to his countrymen the knowledge he has gained not. Only in his courses but r Way of life a Way where in our the welfare of the individual is Paramount Robert Johnstone dying in an alien land gave incontrovertible proof that he knew what he had been fighting for. The most shocking answers appear when you apply the Statis tical method to finance. Every newly married couple is urged these Days to put their affairs on a strict budget like the govern ment As if anyone wanted to be like a government. Just to be mar surely is trouble enough. Let the Young married folks be Ware of budgets. Everyone who has tried them knows what happens. You Only find that you Are continually spending More than you earn and this makes for unhappiness in married life produces Pov erty and is a major cause of divorce. Whereas without a budget you can go on living beyond your Means quite happily forever just As governments do. The great thing is never to know fact ;