Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 23, 1954, Winnipeg, Manitoba Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights printed and pub sad the Winnipeg free press company limited. 300 Carlton Winnipeg Manitoba. Authorized As second class matter by the Post office department. Ottawa. Victor Lipton president i publisher Grant Dexter editor r. S. Malone vice president we. Lord general manager Winnipeg saturday january 23, 1954 the Bricker amendment what May yet prove the sternest Challenge to president Eisenhower s leadership since the. Election Victory of november 1952 is shaping up in the controversy Over the Bricker the impression is no doubt fairly general that this constitutional debate which has now been raging a full year like the recent struggle Over title to the Oil bearing lands of the marginal sea is purely a Domestic concern of tie people of the United states. Yet canadians should be the first to realize that any impairment of the Power of the . Chief executive in the conduct of foreign relations is a matter of deep significance to the whole free world particularly in times so difficult and dangerous As the present. The genesis of senator Bricker s attempt at constitutional amendment can be traced to a feeling in certain Republican circles that presidents Roosevelt and Truman abused their Powers at the expense of. Congress and sometimes of states fights in the War and Post War period. Bitterness Over Yalta and Potsdam reaching new Heights during the last election Campaign naturally intensified this conviction in certain minds and led to the abortive 1953 Senate attempt to repudiate the secret or. Bricker an Able Ohio lawyer is a prominent member of the Republican group which has been most critical of the internationalist policies favored by the president. He is concerned lest a future president As resourceful As the late or. Roosevelt might employ the executive agreement As a Means of by passing the treaty making processes treaties require for ratification an affirmative two thirds majority in the . He professes also to discern a grave danger that the presidential treaty making Powers May through Lack of legislative vigilance or otherwise Lead to the curtailment of individual rights granted by the Constitution. For legislation passed by the Congress though touching on matters normally reserved to the states May nevertheless be valid if its purpose is to implement a treaty since a treaty is the supreme Law of the land. Thus Federal Laws protecting migratory Birds have been upheld by the courts on the ground that the . Is a party to treaties with Britain and Canada for this purpose. The Bricker group which has the vocal backing of Many groups definitely hostile to the United nations expresses particular concern Over agreements such As the human rights. Covenant with the International organization which might eventually Over ride . Internal Law. The amendment which would allegedly Correct this Situa Tion provides that treaties shall become effective As internal Law Only through legislation which would be valid in the absence of a treaty and that no treaty conflicting with the Constitution shall be of any Force. It is also proposed that Congress should have Power to regulate All executive and other agreements with any foreign state or International organization a provision which would sharply restrict the authority of the president. An Active foreign policy in this Complex modern world re quires that governments in the every Day conduct of affairs enter into a great Range of agreements which cannot wait j upon the cumbersome processes of treaty ratification. Or. Dulles has estimated for example that some executive agreements have been negotiated in relation to the nato pact alone. Any serious restriction of the president s Powers in diplomacy would obviously weaken the United states and impair the Confidence of other nations in the United states. Outsiders will naturally feel reluctant to appraise the probable effects of the Bricker amendment. But the weight of Liberal opinion in the United states appears to be overwhelmingly against it. General Lucius Clay has said that it would have prevented the United states from making emergency arrangements with Britain and France at the time of the Berlin blockade. The new York times Calls it a proposal to paralyse foreign or. Arthur Krock a careful student of such matters has described it As a revolutionary and Crip pling limitation on the present treaty making others have argued that it might result in agreements affecting such vital matters As atomic Energy requiring the Sanction of the 48 state governments. The Secretary of state or Dulles warns that it would set the clock Back to an approximation of the conditions which existed under the articles of that is to say Back to 1787 when treaties made by the National government with other countries could be overridden by state action. President at a recent press conference made the same Point and indicated emphatically that he would never agree. On the other hand Many critics deny that the Senate or House would have been any More prescient than or. Roosevelt at the time of Yalta they argue in any Case that the War time agreements were made by authority of the president As com Mander in chief an authority which could not be touched by the Bricker amendment. It May appear strange that a proposal involving such risks could Muster sufficient support to alarm the administration. The trouble is that the Bricker forces Are now strongly entrenched. Long before president Eisenhower had made his position Clear no less than 63 senators of 96 had joined with or. Bricker in sponsoring the Resolution which was favourably reported by the Senate judiciary committee in june 1953. Apparently the administration Long hoped that it would be Able to satisfy the Bricker group by assurances that presi Dent Eisenhower would show the greatest respect and consideration for Congress alternatively it was hoped to appease the senator by a moderate substitute proposal such As that recently put Forward by or. Knowland. Neither Hope has been justified so far As or. Bricker is concerned what . Eisenhower s stand has had on other senators remains to be seen. In any Case the position now appears to have been reached where the president must employ the full Force and prestige of his office no doubt considerably enhanced by the administration s Victory in the Seaway struggle if the Bricker amendment is to be beaten Back. In no test to Date has the Issue Between isolationism and internationalism been so clearly posed. The outcome will be awaited with interest and if the implications of the debate Are clearly grasped with legitimate concern in the other free tack the revised criminal code now before parliament. The revised code affects communists because among other things it strengthens the pro visions against treason and Sedi Tion which of course Are the Stock in Trade of communists. Coincidental with this advertisement the communists also under the signature of the which drove Charles n from the throne and brought in William and Mary. The United nations charter is also dragged in by the heels. No doubt the Hope Here is to Cash in on the persecution of the Jehovah wit Nesses in Quebec. It would be most regrettable if this typically cynical and unprincipled propaganda by the communists were to discredit the idea of a Bill of rights for this country. It would be a pity if this dishonest Dodge should be foul a worthy aim. As everyone knows the communists do not believe in free Dom of any kind or description. The communists believe in a ruthless bloody dictatorship. Wherever the communists have seized Power they have first at tacked christianity and there after All other Dis Sentive Opin Ion. In communist Russia there is Security neither of life nor of person. A communist dictator ship is the most Savage and brutal of All dictatorships. Where communism rules there is absolutely no Freedom. The communist league for democratic rights May be interested in the evidence Given in the trial of the Jehovah wit Nesses in the courts of Quebec prior to the final Appeal to the supreme court of Canada. The witness before the court was h. C. Covington the vice president of the governing body of the Jehovah witnesses. He said Jehovah witnesses Are an unincorporated body of Mission Ary evangelists their primary purpose being to preach the gospel of god s King Dom throughout the whole world As a witness in execution of the commission recorded in Matt hew and this body is a missionary society preaching throughout the whole world in every country under the Sun save and except As the communists Are not familiar with the scriptures we reproduce Matthew the speaker is Christ himself and this gospel of the King Dom shall be preached in All the world for witness unto All nations the communists would be honest if they prefaced their advertisement and their Fly Sheet with this save and except this advertisement and the Fly Sheet Are pure hypocrisy. If there Are any sincere communists in this country a most improbable supposition the one place under the Sun where their advocacy of free Dom is urgently required is communist Russia their spiritual Homeland. Legislative building Winnipeg by free staff photographer Bill Rose. Or. Duplessis financial policy acreage restriction opposed australian wheat by r. L. Curthoys Melbourne the chair Man of the australian wheat Board sir John Teasdale has come under withering fire for his proposal that swings of wheat in Australia be drastically reduced until the present glut can be disposed of from Mem Bers of the Federal Cabinet state ministers wheat growers organizations and leaders of the churches. He declines to re ply to these critics pending a meeting in Melbourne on Janu Ary "27 of Commonwealth a n d state ministers of agriculture. The new South Wales minister for agriculture e. H. Graham says bluntly that sir John Teasdale ought to be Dis missed from the wheat Board. Spokesmen for the churches have intervened to suggest that if Australia cannot sell her wheat profitably she ought to offer it to the underfed coun tries of Asia at prices they can afford or even give it away. A Little less Quebec income tax Security Issue the Seaway vote in the . Senate was very definitely a personal Victory for president Eisenhower. This becomes quite Clear from the statements of senators who reversed their positions. They did so in most cases not in deference to any economic argument but in res Ponse to the insistence of the president backed by the National Security Council that the Seaway is essential to the Mili tary Security of the United states. In other words they were prepared in this matter to accept the judgment of the great military Leader now occupying the White House where they would not accept the judgment of his. Two predecessors presi dents Roosevelt and Truman. To this extent the Victory justifies the Hopes of those Liberal elements who have Long Felt that or. Eisenhower was in a position to make a unique contribution at Washington. It is of course also the president s View that military Security de pends upon the adoption of More Liberal International econ Omic policies by the United states and it remains to be seen what Success or. Eisenhower will achieve in pressing this analogous argument upon reluctant congressmen. Hypocrisy ii the advertising columns of today s free press appears a Large display advertisement signed by the league for demo cratic rights an Organiza Tion with Headquarters at Toron to. The league rights is a communist organization. The name is merely a mask like the name labor progressive to hide the ugly lace of communism. The real purpose of the advertisement is apparent. By seeking in a flare line to take advantage of the present in popularity in Canada of Sena Tor Mccarthy of the United states the advertisement masks league Lor democratic Are circulating a yellow folder advocating a Bill of rights. The folder carries the headline declaration of the rights of can and has numerous references suitably printed in old English Type to Magna Charta the Hab us Corpus act and the Bill of rights enacted by the British parliament after the its real purpose which is to at i glorious revolution of 1688 today s scriptures ask and it shall be Given you seek and be shall find Knock and it shall be opened unto you. Luke birthdays Murray c. Colcleugh Winni Peg Man. Born mount Forest ont., january 23, 1873. J. E. Yai Nell Winnipeg Man. Born Ballin Sloe county Galway Ireland january 23, 1sss. Henry White. Winnipeg. Man. Born Nottingham England january 23, 1874. William Pateman Mcauley Man. Born rapid City Man., 23, is88. James Steedsman Winnipeg Man. Born Molesworth ont., january 24, 1864. E. A w. Rayi nent Saltcoats. Sask., born Barking Essex England january 24, Jones Winnipeg Man. Born Gobo Wen Shropshire England january 24, 1866. Ltd col. R. A. Gillespie Winnipeg. Man. Horn Winnipeg. Man. January 24, 1881. J. J. Scott. Winnipeg Man. Born gait ont., Janu Ary 21, 1s67. Ottawa Premier Maurice Duplessis of Quebec is a nationalist who has sought at All times to keep his province from becoming closely United with the rest of Canada. His constant bickering with the Federal authorities on the grounds that they were Central Izeris seeking to submerge and eventually engulf French speaking Quebec appears to have paid off politically. But it has paid off for the astute politician at a High Cost to the people of Quebec province. And now they Are going to have to pay even More for this dog in the Manger attitude of or. Duplessis. The Quebec Premier has announced in the legislature that his government will introduce legislation shortly enabling it to collect a personal income tax at a maximum rate of 15 per cent of what Quebe cers pay in in come tax to the. Federal government. Effect on the people the province s income tax will be retroactive to january 1 and it is expected to yield be tween and 000 in additional annual re venue. It will be in Force for the years 1954, 1955 and 1956. Thus during those years the people of Quebec in effect will have to pay double income taxes they will be paying to the Federal government and at the same time they will be pay ing on their income to the provincial Treasury. With the end of the War the Federal government offered Post War tax agreements under which the Federal Treasury would continue to have free use of personal income and Corpora Tion tax Fields in return for annually adjusted Grants a pro Gram of social Security health services and Aid to develop ment of National resources. The tax conference called to discuss the Federal proposition finally broke Down in the Spring of 1946 when Quebec and on Tario refused to enter the agree ment. Premier Duplessis led his province out of the meet Ings and Hon. George Drew now opposition Leader in parliament who was then Premier of Ontario joined with the que Bec Premier in bucking the Federal government. Ontario signs with Premier Leslie Frost at the head of the government in Ontario succeeding or. Drew that province adopted a More reasonable attitude. After seven years of controversy on Tario finally agreed to sign a tax agreement with the Feder Al government in the fall of 1952. That meant that All but Quebec had seen fit to reach agreement with Ottawa and re Linquish their taxing rights in certain Fields in return Federal payments in lieu of the tax revenues. Premier Duplessis has chosen to go it alone on More than one Issue. He has kept Quebec out of the trans Canada High Way project under which the Federal has agreed to pay 50 per cent of the costs of building the High Way in the provinces. He has avoided joining in National forestry has refused by v. J. M. To accept Federal Aid for universities. It is partly because of his refusal to accept the Feder Al Aid for universities that the Premier now finds himself in the position of having to impose a second income tax on. The people of Quebec. The universities in Quebec Are hard up. They have been prevented by the Duplessis government from partaking of the annual 000 which the Federal govern ment now provides in the form of Grants to institutions of higher learning. A Duplessis in an l bouncing his provincial in come tax said it would help pro vide financial Aid to the universities. The Grants the province will provide Are designed to compensate them for the loss of the Federal subsidies. Part of the Money to be collected will also be earmarked for health and welfare services. The Quebec Premier in introducing his income tax proposal to the legislative Assembly said he had an intimate conviction that the provincial in come tax would be deductible from the Federal income tax. This conviction he said was based on elementary Justice pledges made by Federal authorities and provisions of the Canadian the Quebec tax will provide Basic exemptions of for unmarried persons and for married persons compared to and respectively under Federal income tax Law. Like the Federal Law the provincial act will provide exemption for children. Or. Duplessis estimated that with the higher exemptions Only about persons of the persons paying the Federal tax i Quebec will pay provincial income tax. Nowhere else a provision of the Federal income tax act now allows a maximum deduction of five per cent from the Federal tax for persons living in a province where a provincial income tax is collected. Nowhere else in Canada is such a tax contemplated or in Force. The nine other provinces have leased their rights to collect such a tax to the Federal government. Quebec not having signed the tax rental agreements has the right to collect such a tax. Federal authorities at Ottawa think or. Duplessis Hopes to kill two Birds with the one Bill. First he wants and needs the additional Revenue and secondly he Hopes to provide himself with new ammunition and re sume with renewed vigor his quarrel with Ottawa Over Dom Inion provincial relations. His suggestion that Ottawa should allow the full amount of the Quebec income tax to be deductible from the Federal income tax instead of just five per cent May be the opening shot in a new barrage to be fired by or. Duplessis. He asserted the right of Quebec to collect the income tax when he spoke in the legislature. At the same time he questioned Ottawa s right to fix the limit of five per cent As the ceiling up to which it is prepared to share the Field with a province not in the tax agreement. Authorities at Ottawa have already indicated that there will be no backing Down As far As the Federal government is concerned. The Federal re venue department will not act As a collection Agency for the Quebec government. Nor will the government at Ottawa go along with any idea whereby Quebec might be permitted to collect income tax and join in a tax agreement. Indications Are that Premier Duplessis is going to encounter difficulty making income tax collections. Just How he intends to collect it will not be known until the Quebec Bill has been printed and distributed. It will contain some -238 sections with tables setting out the detailed and complicated collection machinery. It can be taken for granted that if the Duplessis administration encounters difficulties with its measure Ottawa will be blamed. The Leader of the opposition h. V. Evatt denounces sir John Teasdale s proposal As a policy of utter despair and has urged that even at this late the United kingdom should come into the in j Ter National wheat agreement to help Australia out of her difficulties. Wheat growers organizations have been hinting that they might be prepared to take a Little less for their wheat to ensure disposal of the threatened surplus. Prime minister r. G. Men Zies with an Eye on the c o m ing general election says that so far from approving any r e Striction of wheat acreage the Commonwealth government believes the prospects of the australian wheat Industry justify to the acreages sown before the War. He thinks s i r John Teasdale s proposal makes the world wheat situation a p Pear weaker than the facts. Export prices he Points out Are Well above australian costs of production and in the present season the grower is Well protected by a substantial Guaran teed first Advance payable promptly on the delivery of his wheat and in no Way affected by the rate at which the wheat Board is disposing of wheat. A some observers read into this statement of the prime minister the suggestion that Australia ought to meet the overseas Market and take a lower Price but or. Menzies is not Likely to commit himself to any Public statement to that effect while a general election is in the offing. In a comment on the proceed Ings of the conference of Fin Ance ministers of the British Commonwealth which met in Sydney however or. Menzies did Point to the feasibility of strengthening Trade within the British Commonwealth not by Tariff preferences on which there is Sharp disagreement within the conference but by commodity agreements under which the countries of the Commonwealth might buy m o re from one another or by what he described As single Independent acts of government policy d i reeled to the same end. India or. Menzies pointed out was still buying wheat for dollars because Dollar wheat was cheaper than Sterling wheat. The lesson that emerged he suggested was that discussions might sometimes be held on the highest level in which decisions of governmental policy might produce mutually beneficial re suits that months of discussion on a Mere trading level could not attain. The president of the Rural Bank of new South Wales c. R. Mckerihan one of Australia s Ablest agricultural economists is insistent that nothing should be done to discourage wheat growing. The controls exercised Over acreages during the War were stupidly managed and did not take sufficient account of variations in local conditions and. Individual he says. I sincerely Hope our Farmers will always be free to determine How they use their land and what acreages they Plant for wheat and other Price level officials have advised the Commonwealth govern ment that it can store a possible wheat surplus of bushels this season and it is on this ground that they oppose any restriction of acreage. They Are confident that world prices cannot fall below a level profit Able to Australia at present costs of production which Are below a Bushel especially when both . And Canadian costs Are above the floor Price of s1.55 under the International wheat agreement. They believe the present crisis is due to the action of the United kingdom ministry of food in Selling its stocks b e cause the government wants to return to trader to trader buy ing. When these stocks Are exhausted in six months they Are confident that the United King Dom will again be buying freely. The official View is emphatic that australian wheat can confidently ride the storm. Diary of the very Rev. W. R. Inge the gloomy Dean of St. Paul a covers Only the period of his Deanship from 1911 to 1934, but it was not until 1950 that it was published by Macmillan. The diary makes interesting read ing in 1954, partly because one of the Dean s closest friends was lord Haldane who in his Day handed Down a few Singu Lar decisions concerning the British North America act and partly because the Dean had a Low opinion of democracy which he made no attempt to conceal. He was in fact an articulate old school tory with an Excel Lent income and even better connections who foresaw in the welfare state the spoliation and ruin of his own class. His diary reveals Little of the distinguished philosopher and Mystic. It tells much More of the Job of a Dean in an established Church with the endless round of internal quarrels be tween High and Low Church men the appalling sequence of Public appearances and lec Tures and the various enter prizes to which he gave or was expected to give patronage Many activities from the Golden books on kindness by William Wordsworth that Best portion of a Good Man s life his Little nameless unremembered acts of kindness and love. The London society of unredeemed greeks the duty and discipline movement the clerical and medical commit tee All these and countless More occupied his attention and it was a poor month in which he did t chair or address a meeting of at least one of them. He neither liked nor under stood music yet probably heard More of it in his lifetime than any Twenty Ordinary citizens taken together. He despised Martin Luther whom he held responsible for serious misinterpretations of parts of the new testament and who was by Norman Ward he said the spiritual father of nazism. The Dean s diary in Short bristles with opinions expressed lucidly and forcibly Many of them have already taken on the aspect of historical curiosities. Progressive income taxation seemed to him a Shock ing thing and when a non socialist Chancellor of the exchequer told him in 1928 that retrenchment in governmental expenditures was not to be thought of Dean Inge wrote so we Are to be blackmailed whichever party is in he used the term blackmail to express his opinion of conces Sions made to Avert a strike in 1925 and when the general strike finally took place in 1926 he recorded a paragraph which indicated that All real Christ ians were opposed to the strike and spoke critically of his superiors the Bishops who went about bleating for a Compro t least twice in his diary the Dean refers to demo Cracy As mass bribery and his i wife who has contributed Sev i eral paragraphs to his recollections shared his opinions of the society he saw developing about him. As Early As 1929 the servant problem had reached the place where mrs. Inge was Able to remark we shall soon have to do All our own housework and shall have no time to improve our and at that the inges servant problem was comparatively easy of solution for they considered it improper and lacking in simplicity for a Clergyman to keep Manser vants and had Only maids. I wrote the Dean in 1930, it is the right Way for the clergy to live whatever their income May Dean Inge was of course a platonist and As he himself wrote a platonist who is not something of an ascetic is a a somewhat re lated idea underlies this com ment on politics our Aristo cratic politicians who had no axe to grind have governed Best and have been most Trust but it is not this View of politicians which explains his sincere regard for lord Hal Dane whom he loved despite the fact that Haldane left the liberals for the labor party and was in favor of nearly the whole of the Radical pro Haldane was a Fel Low philosopher and no Ditt tante and a convinced imperialist to Boot. Special interest among the things that give the Dean s diary a special inter est for students of canadians Are the references to Haldane s health. Mrs. Inge recorded in 1917 the opinion of a shrewd observer that Haldane is not the Man he was he is aging in every the Dean observed with regret in 1918 that Hal Dane is now an old Hal Dane was even then handing Down important privy Council decisions concerning the Cana Dian Constitution and he continued to write them for several years thereafter. Haldane s most remarkable comment on the . Act in deed came a full seven years after 1918. In 1925 Haldane wrote in a decision that the evil of intemperance in Canada in 1882 must have been so great and so Gen eral that at least for the period it was a menace to the National life of Canada so serious and pressing that the National parliament was called in to inter Vene to protect the nation from that comment of Hal Dane s has interested and amused students of the Canad Ian Constitution since it was made and Dean Inge s diary Sheds on it the first new Light in years ;