Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - May 02, 1949, Winnipeg, Manitoba Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights Winnipeg free printed Ana published i Winnipeg free press company limited Sod Carlton Street Winnipeg Manitoba. Authorized As second class matter by the Post of tace department. Ottawa. Victor Sifton Grant Dexter publisher. Editor. We. Lord Bruce Hutchison general manager. Associate Edl Toi Winnipeg monday May 2, 1949 in whose hands the foreign policy of any democracy can be Strong and successful Only if it is non partisan. If it is a policy enforced by the existing government but rejected by the opposition and hence will be changed if the government is Defeated it will impress foreign nations. It was this very condition of Par Usan dispute with resulting confusion and doubt the foreign policy of the United states totally ineffective Between the wars. The United states and Canada both have a non partisan foreign policy today. That is to say the existing policy which centres around the Atlantic pact is accepted officially by All major political parties though perhaps with different degrees of enthusiasm. In both countries the danger of subjecting foreign policy to purely partisan debate As Russia undoubtedly desires has been surmounted. While the vast majority of canadians will rightly resist the introduction of party politics into foreign policy during the present election Campaign they certainly Are entitled and bound to consider which party can most effectively carry out the foreign policy which the nation desires. Such consideration does not introduce any weakening partisan element into the policy. It is calculated Only to give the policy maximum strength by placing it in the strongest hands. That those hands belong to the Liberal party can be demonstrated by the record. In the first place it was the Liberal government which devised the policy for Canada. Moreover the policy was essentially the work of the present prime minister who As much As any statesman in the world is entitled to credit for formulation of the Atlantic pact. It was he who suggested it As Early As 1946 when other statesmen were not yet ready to accept it. It was he who defied the traditional isolationism of his own French Canadian people to appear in Quebec As an outright internationalist compromising with no one to win votes. Having brought Canada into the pact having played so Large a part in framing it the present government is obviously better equipped by experience than any alternative government to carry through the existing foreign policy. This would be True even if the opposition parties were thoroughly agreed on the policy. Unfortunately they Are not agreed. They Are deeply divided. In parliament the conservative party voted for the pact As was to be expected. But the Only strength which the conservative party possesses in Quebec among the whole French Canadian race lies among the outright enemies of the pact and ail it stands for. Or. Sabourin who until recently was the Boss of the National conservative party in Quebec has opposed internationalism without reservation and demanded a policy of neutrality for Canada in future world wars. The real Leader of French Canadian conservatism or. Duplessis. On whom alone or. Drew must rely for any Quebec seats is a Long standing and unyielding isolationist. He opposed Canada s participation in the last War and was Defeated in october 1939 on that Issue by the Liberal party led by the late Ernest Lapointe. Hence assuming the almost impossible event of a conservative government emerging from the present election it would have to emerge with the support of a Quebec Wing flatly opposed to the present foreign policy. This would at once create a weak government basically divided and even More dangerous it would create a weak foreign policy. A government officially adhering to the foreign policy but subject to the veto of or. Duplessis and his isolationists would not be equipped to enforce that policy. This fact the majority of the electors of Canada who unquestionably support the policy should not ignore when they go to the polls. Whether they wish it or not the policy is directly involved in the election by the Deal Between or. Drew and or. Duplessis and will be More deeply involved every Day insofar As or. Duplessis attempts to deliver isolationist votes and candid ates to or. Drew. The record of the . In foreign affairs is even More remarkable. This party opposed to the Brink of the last War and beyond it the whole basis of the present foreign policy. Among All parties tinged with isolationism it was the sup reme isolationist. It opposed any Canadian military expedition abroad. While that impossible proposal was quietly for gotten and the . Accepted internationalism at the san Francisco conference after the War it reverted to its old the ories in the defence debates two years ago. At that time it started Over and Over again Almos to the Point of disaster its loathing of War. Yet there is no inconsistency Here for the huge military expenditures now planned Are Pri Marily designed to prevent War and such measures alone have a Chance of preventing War. The non military expenditures of the United states however should be Kepi in perspective. For Eigners and United states citizens for that matter tend to think because the total budget is so astronomical that All spending has got completely out of hand. In fact the budget apart from de Fence spending of All sorts is Only about fifty per cent larger than that of the pre Roosevelt Era when the population was much smaller and the nation s output of wealth and hence its ability to spend was much less. In Brief the struggle with rus Sia Short of War is costing the United states a figure which would be quite intolerable if the alternative which is War and Gen eral destruction would not Cost infinitely More. The lesser Cost must be borne by the United states taxpayer. In Canada in pro portion to our Means we should be prepared to Bear the same kind of costs for the same reasons though our income taxes for the moment Are below those of our neighbor. No end of this process s yet in sight. We cannot expect the benefits of a Normal world in the kind of Universal Asylum which Russia has created for itself and everyone else. He was there it was appropriate for or. Hume wrong our ambassador to the United states to take up russian criticism of the North Atlantic act when he was explaining the Reaty s significance in a recent speech in Denver. Nothing could be More categorical than his Den Al of russian charges that the pact is inspired by a spirit of unfriendliness and aggression against the soviet Union. He said i can assure you As one who took part in the negotiation of the that throughout our lengthy discussions not one word was uttered by anyone which could proposed in fact to scrap the of i Rensburg defence agreement the we be safest such an undivided party True forerunner of the Atlantic declared that no United states troops should be admitted to Canada even for joint training purposes and it insisted that can Ada should remain Neutral in a War Between the United states and Russia even to the Point of fight ing an invasion by United states troops into Canadian territory. Now this isolationist policy is Al so quietly forgotten. The National leaders of the . Accept the Atlantic pact which denies All their former theories. But the National cannot control the party. The fellow travellers of communism within the . Have twice Manitoba against the Marshall plan in British Columbia against the Atlantic pact. Whereas or. Drew has never repudiated but has endorsed or. Sabourin the National . Leaders personally have repudiated the Fel Low travellers of Manitoba and Bri Tish Columbia. Their sincerity in so doing is not questioned Here. However the electors must ask themselves whether foreign policy can be entrusted to a party with such a record of constant change and a leadership which cannot com Mand the support of its member ship. The single fact that . Candidates in British Columbia and even the . Leader or. Winch Are running in the Federal and provincial elections on a foreign policy rejected by the party convention a constitutional Aberra Tion probably without parallel in our politics is enough to show that the nation s foreign policy can not be safely entrusted to such hands. Ajene among the three parties the Liberal party is absolutely uni Ted on foreign policy and maintains the same attitude and makes the same speeches in All parts of the country. Our foreign policy strange world As or. Bernard Baruch pointed of in a recent article no nation can apply Normal standards to the present world which is utterly abnormal. The Ordinary citizen is like a Man locked in a Lunatic Asylum. He must adjust his be Havior and his expectations to his surroundings if he is to save his own sanity and Hope for ultimate release. This fact is written Large in the budget of the United states now the Centre of debate in the con Gress and by Long Odds the most important item in the Agenda of the free world. The budget for the year beginning july 1 now. Is estimated at s41.9 billions an almost unimaginable figure for peace times but these Are not peacetime. If there is any doubt about that we have Only to examine the con tents of the budget. Of the total Only 59 billions is for what might be called Normal peacetime spending. The rest is for the Cost of past wars in debt interest pensions and so on and in the Cost of defence direct and indirect for the future. The Stag Gering sum of billions pays for interest on War debts and a like sum goes to War veterans pensions. On top of that there is s10.6 billions for Normal military outlays which or course Are quite abnormal and would not considered for a moment in a peaceful world. Finally there is an of billions for various forms of foreign Aid designed to contain the expansion of russian communism. Together these items amount to billions or More than three quarters of the total to which will be added the Cost of re arming Western . And this in a nation which has Demon something new going in the window put Price tag oni a plan for Reform the electoral College Washington senator Henry Cabot Lodge or. Of Massachusetts grandson of Woodrow Wilson s antagonist May perhaps never succeed in getting his plan or reforming the electoral College embodied into Law but he has cer be interpreted or even Jensen Souriy performed a service in focus. Misinterpreted As a statement aggressive intention. If War does of course it May will come in spite of and not because of the North Atlantic treaty no mat Ter what statements to the contrary May flow from the radio towers of Moscow. What we Are hearing now from that Quarter and from the spokesmen of mos cow at Lake Success is another example of Hitler s famous tech Nique of the big lie endlessly reiterated. It May take in the communist addicts in All lands but it should not take in anyone this statement can hardly be expected to halt russian propaganda whose purpose is the per version of truth. But the More widely the real facts Are known the harder will it be for Russia to Poison relations Between states. Few men Are More familiar with the history and objectives of the pact than is or. Wrong. He did Well therefore in adding his testimony to the growing and impressive volume of evidence which shows that. Russia s accusations arc contrary to All the known facts. Ung attention on this curious constitutional device in the Mechan ism of United states politics. A year ago i proposed Federal amendment was approved by the judicial committee of both houses but nothing More was done. The judicial committee of the House of representatives at the current perpetual motion concerning the United states government s new plan to support farm prices which been Dis cussed in a series of articles from our staff correspondent at Washington the Christian science lion s new farm programme can do All its advocates say it will it is hard to escape the conclusion that Secretary of agriculture Charles f. Brannan has turned up with a sure fire formula for perpetual the Brannan plan proposes to let farm prices seek their own level in the open Market. This will tend to keep food prices Low for the Benefit of the consumer. But. When prices fall below a level to be fixed by a formula the government will subsidize the Farmer. Therefore or. Bran Nan will provide the Miracle of High farm prices and Low food prices. As in All perpetual motion by m. F. Ginia said it was As unnatural to refer the Choice of a propel character for chief magistrate to the people As it would be to refer a trial of colors to a Blind Man Alexander. Hamilton showed the same reluctance to Trust the people. Assembly of olympians in Case this Assembly of olympians could not agree the selection was to be made by the House of session of Congress has again in representatives with each state Dorset the project. Trouble has de delegation having a single vote. Eloped however before the ate judiciary subcommittee which has postponed further consideration of the plan until mid May. Before considering senator Lodge s amendment one should first explain what the electoral College is. Influence of the Public when the Constitution was being drafted by the Philadelphia convention in 1787, great pains were taken to prevent the Public from having a direct or final influence in the selection of a president. The first suggestion was that Congress should pick the president on its own authority. Later this plan was modified and the state Legislatures were to be asked to make the selection. The method adopted finally was a Model of indirection. It provided that each state would name As Many electors to the col lege of electors As it had senators and representatives in Congress and these electors supposedly Cho sen for their distinction and judg ment would choose the president from among the available candid ates. The Way the people had voted in the presidential election would not necessarily determine who the president would be. The popular vote was Only a guide to the elec toral College and an Aid to its judg ment. As George Mason of Vir this descent from the majesty of embodied political wis Dom to the Ward politics of the House of representatives was conceived by the Constitution makers As a virtual guarantee that the col lege would always in the end be Able to agree. Two political developments Supervene however to reduce this theory to a farce. One was the Rise of organized political parties that insisted on having the electors be have As their nominees and Crea Tures. The other was the refusal of state Legislatures in Many in stances to appoint the electors they demanded instead that the voters should choose them and this again strengthened the position of the parties. These two influences combined within a space of years to make the electoral College no longer the repository of Independent political judgment As was the intention of the founding fathers but a Pup pet show responding to the Deci Sion of the major political organizations. E vagaries of the elec toral College May Best be illustrated by the experience of Grover Cleveland the one Man in the history of the United states to have been president then to have suffered defeat and in a third Campaign to be elected president again. In 1ss4 the democrats had a a welfare and the modern state i by the it. Hon. W. 1. Mackenzie King from welfare n 1939. Came the s e c o n d Well being rather than individual world War. The War. While it soon provided jobs for those who were Able and willing to work schemes there is a catch in this brought still More strongly to the taxpayer who is the food consumer will pay the Cost of subsidizing the Farmer. And also the amount of food which the Farmer May grow must be controlled by the government for otherwise an excessive production n would require farm subsidies larger than the Treasury could afford or the tax payer would tolerate. Senator Aiken a Liberal Republican from Vermont. Offers this penetrating comment if the government is going to guarantee High prices to agriculture should t the government reasonably guarantee High prices to. Where is the line to be drawn birthdays Stephen Benson. Neepawa. Man. Born Ontario May 2, 1862. Fore the social injustices that had existed for far too Long a time. Men and women were compelled to think deeply on the social problems of life and the causes of human injustices. There came to be a growing belief in the necessity of a new and better order. The new order seeks to shift the emphasis from the sacredness of Possession to the sacredness of life to weigh More heavily the values of personality and its rights than the values of property and its rights and to contrast with Natur Al resources the too Long neglected but much More precious human resources. The new social order seeks to recognize Industry As a Public ser vice rather than As a private Busi Ness and to f Tress Community self interest. There has been much talk in the past of the importance of natural resources and their conservation. Only recently has it come to be realized that of All resources human resources Are most important. From the Golden books Happy Warrior by Wordsworth who. Doomed to go in com Pany with pain and fear and. Bloodshed miserable train turns his necessity to Glori Ous gain in face of these doth exercise a Power which is our human nature s highest Dower controls them and subdues transmutes bereaved of their bad influence and their Good receives. Today s scripture where two or three Are gathered together in my name there am i in the midst of Dorily of about in a Lota vote of More than a million in the state of new York and they accordingly had All new York s 35 votes in the electoral College. Grover Cleve land received them All. In Penn Sylvania the Republican Candi Date or. Blaine. Had a majority of in a total vote of he therefore got the state s 30 elec toral votes. Although Blaine in these two states got More votes than Cleveland he received six less electoral votes a major Factor in his defeat in the presi dental race. Cleveland was less Lucky in 1s8s. The popular vote gave him a majority of Over Harrison his opponent but he had Only 168 votes in the College As against har Rison s 233 and so he was Defeated. This result was caused by the fact that Harrison carried the nor Thern Stales by Small majorities while Cleveland won the Southern states hands Down. To count for something senator Lodge by his Amend ment is trying to have the elec toral College More closely reflect the popular vote. In particular he wants to have the minority vote in Eich state count for something in the College s decision. It has been estimated that or. Truman would have been Defeated in the last election if a turn Over of votes had taken place in Ohio Illinois and California. Yet the electoral College gave him an absolute majority even though the popular ballot showed that he had been elected by a Mere plurality. Senator Lodge s most important suggestion is that the electoral vote for each state w h i c h is equal to its total representation in both houses of Congress Lih Ould be divided on a percentage Boisis in accordance with each candidate s popular vote. For example in the last election if or. Truman got 60 per cent of the vote in new or. Dewey 40 per cent these figures Are Only illustrative or. Truman would receive Only 60 per cent of new York s electoral vote instead of All of it As is the Case under the present Rule. There would still be weighted voting with the larger states having More votes at the College than the smaller ones but within each state the minority vote would count. Popular vote would be reflected the rest of senator Lodge s amendment is simpler. It would de Clare the president elected by a Mere plurality of the 531 electoral instead of requiring him to obtain a majority As at pres ent. Finally the electoral College being recognized As a collection of puppets would be abolished. The popular vote on a percentage Lasis. Would be automatically reflected in the decision of the offi Cial. N charge of the election machinery. There is a political drawback to the plan each party thinks it May Benefit either now or in the future from the present arrangement which excludes the minority vote in any state. It is on this obstacle that senator Lodge s proposal now is floundering. The record in Saskatchewan . Enterprises by w. R. C. Regina the commercial enterprises of Saskatchewan s -.c.f. Government have had an other year of High prices and free consumer spending the third or i ourth year for most of them All equally of an abundance to assure Success. Saskatchewan s provincial treasurer noted this a year ago when he said there had been practically no commercial failures since 1944. The . Took office in 1944 and party speakers Ever since have tried to take credit for the Good times. It is therefore interesting to examine the record of . State commercial enterprises in this period. It is necessary again to draw a line Between the 13 industries some of which the government now admits were experiments and the Long standing Power and Tele phone utilities. These two latter require Little attention. They were established and developed Long be fore 1944. The government finance office annual report shows advances to All state enterprises up to the end of 1948 were 939 to telephones and to the Power commission. The remaining were advanced to the 13 experiments. The report shows profits for the year As of which were made by the Power commission and telephones and by the 13 experiments. The . Government Calls this profit but. In Normal business procedure it is not profit at All. It is the surplus from operations before interest sinking fund and taxes Are paid. For the 13 experiments interest on capital at 4 per cent., which is what the govern ment is paying on its borrowings when discount is taken into consideration would be s2s7.722. Sink ing fund on the Industrial Bonds sold with the Promise of a sinking fund would be annually and municipal taxes would be about these would wipe out the so called there Are other costs which should be charged against them such As the Cost of the technical advisory experts. Favourable period fusion applied on their the government As in the Case of the insurance office were free from Competition As the Timber Board functioned As a commission Agency like the fur marketing ser vice or As the reconstruction corporation which bought from War assets and sold to municipalities and government departments at a profit or did jobs exclusively for the government like the printing Plant. Special favor but even on the basis of the annual reports and accepting for the moment the profit claimed the 13 experiments Are Worth considering As samples of state enter prise As conducted by the . Uie Thod in a most favourable period. Of the 13, four Are closed Down for the present. They Are the Tan Nery shoe factory Brick Plant and fish Board. The Woollen Mill would be better to shut up shop and save Money. These five had deficits of in the current year and accumulated deficits of those with the largest surpluses were either favored by having Corn others which operate much As private Enterprise does but which had special government favor such As the transportation com Pany and Saskatchewan airways made a Small the Box factory too had government Busi Ness As did most of the others. Just How successful these enterprises would have been without the Aid and business of other government industries and departments is difficult to say. But certainly some of them would have made a direct loss instead of a one of the Mutual Aid groups consists of the fish Board the air ways the transportation company the Box factory. The fish Board had a loss in the current year and accumulated deficits of it was a political Handicap because of its treatment of Northern fishermen. But the fish Board bought its boxes from the Box factory thereby contributing to making a profit possible. The fish Board moved its fish out of the North by transportation company truck when the roads were Good and thereby with the Aid of a lunch counter enabled the transportation company to make. Profit on a million Dollar investment. When roads were impassible the fish Board moved its fish by an airways air plane and so airways was enabled to show 514 profit. The fish Board which had lost votes for the . In the North had a huge deficit and would be bankrupt were it privately owned but three other experiments were enabled to show there is another peculiarity of j . Government operation of commercial enterprises. The Tele phone company made a Large profit As it always does and Hie government promptly raised its rates in Saskatoon and Rugina to take another from sub scribers. Its Timber Board has an inventory of its shoe factory one of its fish Board and its Wool Plant 000. But there seems to be no Spe Cial Effort to move these goods either by advertising or lowering prices to meet the Market. It is a principle of Good business to keep goods moving but the . Seems to have other ideas. I economist s warning n the latest number of foreign vate this problem and to give it a policy reports Seymour e. Harris professor of economics at Harvard assesses the Progress and prospects of the european re covery programme. It is customary to discuss this programme in rela Tion to the needs of . Pro Fessor Harris reverses this emphasis and concentrates on the effect of On the american Economy. His approach produces several significant results. He Points out that the fact that the United states has about 40 per cent of the world s income and Only about 7 per cent of the world s population Means two things. It Means first that the . Can afford to extend Aid to and secondly that the strength of. The ., with the Dis equilibrium thus created in world Trade partly accounts for s Dollar shortage. As he sees it the United states must choose Between two policies. It can Aid in order to build up its competitive strength against the United states or alternatively it can continue its financial assist Ance almost indefinitely with pre cautions being taken to protect american industries from an Competition. Professor Harris has no doubt what the policy should be. He believes the european recovery pro gramme must result in a strength ened position for in the Export markets of the world even at the. Expense of . Goods. Other Vise its purposes As originally conceived cannot be fulfilled. Like other economists. Professor Harris emphasizes that the Dol Lar shortage has been a recurrent symptom of world Trade for the past 25 years. The damage to s productive capacity in the War its loss of overseas invest ments the succession of bad crops and soil damage and the arbitrary controls restricting the flow of Trade have All combined to Aggra new urgency. Beyond the emergency help of ., what is to be done to bring it under some thing like permanent control professor Harris s answer shows How far thinking in the . Has advanced beyond the primitive fallacies of the protectionist age. He says equilibrium requires that the United states s2 Bil lion More than it exports within a reasonable time say ten years. The transition in this country from the recent situation of an excess of exports of goods and services of s6.5 to billion annually 1946 48 to an excess of imports will put a great Strain on the free Trade philosophy. Must be ruled out if is to be genuinely he says american producers such As have been demanded and received by american agricultural interests in the Havana charter or special favors to american shippers As provided in the foreign assistance act of 1948, must be ruled out for these increase american exports. In one facet of policy ., we strive to bring Down european costs in another our agricultural policy we dump uni Ted states products abroad and thus neutralize the effects of appropriate he continued also does not countenance the prohibition of exports of pro ducts based on Imports nor american opposition to Britain s efforts to capture markets abroad. If Means anything it Means that at the very least our proportion of world exports should de in default of such enlightened policies he warns Western May decide to meet the Dollar shortage by perpetuating its discrimination against . Exports ;