Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 11, 1955, Winnipeg, Manitoba Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights Winnipeg free press printed and published Dally except sunday by the Winnipeg free presi company i tilted. 300 Street Manitoba. Authorized As second class matter toy the Post Joice department Ottawa. Tom Kent editor Grant Dexter Ai Sollitt editor h. S Victor Sifton vice president president 3, publisher we. Lord general manager Winnipeg saturday june 11, 1955 or. Prefontaine philosopher or. Edward Prefontaine As the minister responsible has been telling the truth about equalized assessments in Manitoba. Or at least last tuesday he told municipal representatives that it was time to Tell the truth. On this Point it seems necessary in All fairness to defend or. Prefontaine from himself. He has been talking about the equalized assessment figures and the changes in them for several months. The time to Tell the truth was one would have thought in the legislature in february. But if or. Prefontaine believes that he did not do so. He seems to us to have failed to prove his Point. Or at least conscientious reporters have not identified what it is that is True and different in what he says now. Or. Prefontaine s latest speeches have however Contri buted one new Point which deserves to be enshrined in some history of political logic. On thursday at Virden or. Pre Fontaine denied that there was any mistake in the work of the equalized assessment Board. The Board he explained merely changed its mind when it altered the assessment figures by s126 a change of mind and a mistake Are two different said or. Prefontaine. This is interesting doctrine indeed. There Are of course philosophers who Challenge our crude everyday conceptions of fact and error truth and untruth right and wrong who dismiss As subjective and personal what we ordinarily treat As objective and impersonal. But one does not normally meet such philosophers in the rough and Tumble of provincial politics. There everyday ideas will normally do. And the Ordinary idea is to draw a distinction Between matters of subjective opinion and matters of objective fact. On the first we Are All entitled to change our minds and no shame to it. But. On the others we do not in Ordinary speech claim to change our minds we confess to mistakes. And there is. Surely some objective Quality which puts assessments into the second category. On them depend differences Between the taxes that one Man pays and the taxes that another Rhian pays. To arrive at the figures requires of course human judgment it is pot an entirely mechanical unvarying process. But the judgment surely operates so to speak close to the facts. One does not like to think of taxes involving fairness As Between one Man and another one municipality and another depending on subjective opinions that can be one thing today and s126 million different to Morrow. If that is the truth then indeed february was not the time to Tell it and no More is this the time. For it destroys the basis of the Ordinary Roan s Faith or. The and fairness of government and its taxes. To get this straight is most important. What or. Prefontaine is dabbling in Here is some thing a Little Remote in the theory of knowledge in what the philosophers Call epistemology. In the language and ideas of everyday life we May stick to the View that what happened to the assessment figures was a mistake. And a bad one. Lake Lii Larney the Royal Musi expand Mirror of Canadian agriculture its inception in 1922, the Royal agricultural Winter fair the Royal As it is More popularly called has been the Paramount showplace of can Adian agriculture. Held in Toronto each november it at tracts thousands of exhibitors trom every province and from every Branch of farming. Visitors to the Roval and there from Are Many thousands by free press Naff Phol of rather Gerry Nany countries every year see a Cross Section of Rural Canada in the Best that our agricultural Industry has to offer. On display Are the finest Breeding and work horses beef Ana. Dairy cattle sheep Swine Grain Dairy pro ducts poultry seeds Honey fruit vegetable fish Flowers and Many More products. No phase of Canadian farming is overlooked. Tho Royal is then clearly a National fair a Canadian institution. Its directors Mem Bers and exhibits come from All parts of the country. At the same time it has in. Re cent years taken on an inter National aspect. Each year the United states sends More Grain poultry cattle sheep and horses for display. In 1952, 1953 and 1954 the United King Dom sent Grain exhibits. There is talk that livestock May be flown to the show from Britain in the not too Dis Tant future. Many visitors to the fair come from Distant Britain Central and South America Australia and new zealand. Through them the Royal is playing an important part in building overseas markets for Canada s agricultural products. The Royal has been Success Ful from the Start. It sus Pended operations during the second world War when it offered the use of its extensive buildings in Toronto s exhibition Park to the Federal gov a Bisi transformed River control by agreement Ottawa the immediate purpose of the internal j tonal River improvements j Ces May be developed was Cut by Grant Dexter the Bill As originally worded Bill was to restrain the Bri j lined by Gen. A. G. L. Me j was aggressive provocative naughtor., chairman of the in other ways. It said baldly Canadian Section of the inter that All works which might de to the Lakeside and Back was an important part of Adolf Hitler s doctrine that to Tell a ii successfully one had Only to Teli it often and with and though there is nothing particularly original about this formula Hitler can at least be credited with demonstrating that to some extent at any rate it works. It therefore seems reasonable to assume that the revised ver Sion of the formula As Practised by the red Cross water department should work at least As Well. The red Cross men believe that if they repeat a truth often enough it will sooner or later be accepted. So year in and year out with the return of each new Holiday season in Manitoba the red Cross reiterates its message death lurks for the careless in even the Gem lest River and most tranquil Lake. The organisers have been say ing this Over and Over again minor variations since 1944, when the water say for sure that the message has been the Means of saving any one particular life yet it is a simple fact that the lakes and Rivers of Canada now exact a smaller annual toll than the did before the red Cross began. This coming week is water safety week. Once again the red Cross is repeating its Mes Sage underlined and emphasised by aquatic parades by safety i Logan contests and by a. Safety pledge Campaign among the children. Men from the red Cross from the har Bor commission and from the provincial department of health will fill out the Mes Sage with detailed rules for water safety. They should be . There is statistical evidence that their message does save lives. And even when the summer season ends they cannot prove that anybody paid attention to. Their warning they must try again next year. The formula is too important to abandon will be re week campaigns began. And reiterated truth though it would be difficult to i Mem ered. Cure and prevention an additional s100.coo has been included in the Federal department of agriculture s current estimates for repairs and improvements to dikes along the . This brings to the amount of Money the Para expects to spend on Ali s work in the coming year. The dikes must is kept in repair and no one can gainsay the importance of this work. Repairing and improving the dikes however is a bit like riving Medicine to a sick Man. It la necessary and it May or May not cure what ails him. Much better if possible would be preventive Medicine to save him from catching the sickness in the first place. So construction of the Russell dam pro Bably would prevent heavy flooding lower Down the Assiniboine. The Strain on the dikes would be decreased and the Cost of their Upkeep and Extension would also to less. The diking system is important the Russell Reservoir is More important. Tish Columbia government from entering into an agree ment with the Kaiser alumni num company for a dam on Arrow Lake. But the importance of the Bill is nation wide. Ever since the Boundary Waters treaty of 1909, Boun Dary Waters As distinct from International Rivers have been formally declared to be within the jurisdiction of the Federal parliament. These Boundary Waters include the Saint John River the St. Lawrence and the great lakes and the Lake of the Woods. Apart from the Portland canal dividing Bri Tish Columbia and Alaska the Lake of the Woods is the most Westerly Boundary water. There Are however More than 40 International Rivers in the four Western provinces. Most of them and All the important ones Are in British Columbia. But there Are four in Manitoba the Antler Pem Bina and Sprague Rivers and Pine Creek. And there Are seven in Saskatchewan and two in Alberta. The International River improvements Bill therefore is of direct importance to All four Western provinces. The Bill was prepared and sponsored in the House of commons by the department of Trade and Commerce. It was a badly drafted Bill which needlessly provoked opposition not Only from British Colum Bia but from other provinces. The Bill was sent to the external affairs committee where Many witnesses including Hon. R. W. Bonner attorney Gene ral of British Columbia were heard. Hon. Jean Lesage Fede ral minister of Northern affairs and National resources and his officials took Over the Bill in committee. It was revised and emerged from the committee with the Blessing of All parties other than the social credit party. In the process of argument and revision the fascinating picture of the Way in which British Columbia s almost unbelievably great Power re sour National joint Waterways com i crease increase or alter the j party which had constituted natural flow of these Rivers itself the Champion of the . Would have to be licensed by social credit government. Ottawa on penalty of heavy the Bill therefore has Large Mission and the engineers of the water Power division of the department of Northern affairs and National resources. Since 1944 the joint commis Sion has been preparing a re port on the development of the Columbia River Basin. The main report will not be in until 1959. But interim reports on the Arrow Lake dam sought by the Kaiser interests and on the diversion of water from the Columbia to the Fraser water Sheds will be Avail Able probably next year. As originally introduced the Bill asserted Federal jurisdiction on two counts. First International Rivers were deemed to be under Federal control simply because they Are inter National and any changes made in them will affect rights out Side the province and therefore outside provincial jurisdiction. Only the Federal parliament can Deal with International matters. Ivies and forfeitures. Buildings were used As an army recruiting and train ing depot and later As a Dis charge Centre. Many a re turned Canadian Soldier marched from the train to the exhibition grounds to be welcomed Home to Canada by the late r. H. Saunders then mayor of Toronto. After the War the Royal resumed its activities and it has grown better and bigger every Yeav. So much so that it has now been forced to cur Tail some of its exhibits and squeeze others into cramped quarters because it has out grown its physical facilities. Not Long ago the management noted we have entries from exhibitors and Many entries have to be the Royal coliseum in which the fair is held has been described As a 26-acre establishment. That is a lot of floor space but today it is not enough. The Royal needs by ceased to be controversial greatly expanded facilities if More it is now a much More it is to continue to do its in effective measure. Neither of portent Job properly. The fact the original purposes has been j cities needed include a second ring for judging cattle indicated that Only two exist ing structures would require a License under the Bill. Or. Lesage was congratulated on this performance by All the parties even the social credit the Bill on its face invited the suspicion that the Federal parliament lacked Power to enact it and that the govern ment proposed to take jurisdiction from the provinces. It was so drafted that every Little irrigation Channel every water pipe Dock or other convenience would require a Federal License. The Bill seemed certain to com Pel thousands of Farmers ran Chers and the like to go to Ottawa for a License to do com Mon sense things. Or. Lesage and his officials made two . They agreed that the inclusion of the declaration of works for the general advantage of Ca Nada was mistaken. This declaration was dropped from the Bill. The Federal parliament abandoned. The authority and the determination to use it to prohibit the building of the Kaiser dam in Arrow Lake re Mains unaltered. Indeed the agreement to this end Between the . Government and the Kaiser company appears now to be Stone dead. And secondly the Bill will enable the govern ment to assure that the development of these International Rivers will be in the Best Inte rest of the country. Tivi ties More space for Dis plays on conservation and soil analysis and for the Grain and seed show the fruit and vege table show and Flowers. Also needed is More room for the agricultural machinery display which the manage ment would like to see expanded and developed larger restaurant an Ade quate press room a room for veterinarians display space for the fair s Many valuable trophies a club room for the entertainment of distinguished guests storage space for properties and supplies and improved parking facilities. The Royal s management has not been unaware of these needs. Back in 1950 it Laid plans to meet them in the form of a addition. When the coliseum was de signed 34 years ago it was paid for in equal shares by the Federal government the Ontario government and the City of Toronto. The manage ment approached these three bodies with a View to having them finance the Extension on the same basis. The City and the province agreed to do their share but before the Federal govern ment could take action steel restrictions were put into effect because of the korean War. These have since been lifted but the Federal depart ment of agriculture has not yet seen fit to provide its share of the funds necessary to build the addition. In View of the original financing of the coliseum and of the undeniable importance of the Royal to Canadian agriculture it is difficult to under stand the government s seem ing reluctance to meet its fair share of the Cost. It is not too late however for the government to do sheep Swine and Breeding j something about it this year. Horses dormitories for live Stock attendants who must now sleep in overcrowded rooms or in the feed aisles dormitories for the represent the estimates of the depart ment of agriculture have not yet been approved by Parlia ment. The expenditure of a million dollars for this purpose natives of Junior agricultural i would almost certainly meet organizations who come to with general approval in the participate in the show and House of commons. The for whom downtown hotels j sooner it is provided Lor the Are too expensive an Ade sooner work on this very be quate sales ring rooms for 1 Pessary project can get under meetings and for women s a Way. Re Fiffi for Many years the literary _ people of Nova Scotia have treasured the memory of a sort of Golden age which appears to have fit Tofil culminated the mature Thomas Chandler possesses jurisdiction Over i works i these Rivers. Why reach out for j Haliburton and Joseph Howe. More Power second the Bill took Adan j Tage of the Power conferred i upon parliament by Section 92, the exceptions not require clause 10 c of the British a License were enlarged by North America act to declare any work or object to be for the general advantage of Ca once parliament has so declared by statute the Juris diction passes from a province to Ottawa. It is under this Section of the . Act that parliament controls Grain elevators and thereby maintains the authority of the wheat Board. The Section has also been used to extend Federal jurisdiction to railways. It is True to say however that the use of this Power and the Power of disallowance Are resented by All the provinces. The River Bill got away to a bad Start with the provinces not because it lacked Merit but because it contained this controversial provision. The things they say at Ottawa h. Ferjuson cons. Simcoe. I am sick and tired of listening to men from the West insinuate that they Are slaves of parliament i often envy those gentlemen from the West who sit and loaf Over the week ends in Ottawa. J. M. Cons. Toronto it. Is Only by an act of god that a lawyer is a Good administrator. Revenue minister j. J. Mccann there has been a great deterrent effect upon importers of certain lines of goods into this country because they did not know just what the value would be and what their Bill would be for duty Pur poses. H. Vav. Herrid re Kcf a selection Forti the remarkable records of Hansard seem that about 95 per cent of i eminent place on parliament All Canadian sheep die before they become Mutton. E. G. Mccullough Kcf Moose in the pro Vince of Saskatchewan we have been successful with the few Small Crown corporations we have there. Victor Quelch so Aca in that province Saskatchewan politics and agriculture seem to have the habit of getting badly mixed up. George Hees cons. To would the minister of Public works and his department give consideration to having the remains of what used to be a covered Kootenay it would shelter standing in a most pro Hill overlooking the River either painted so it will look respectable or replaced by something More suitable i to. F. Pouliot As Between the eskimos and some White men i would choose the eskimos. Agriculture minister j. G. Gardiner i am going to say this to the Kcf. Since i came Here i have had absolutely nothing to do with Liberal organization in the province of Saskatchewan in so far As determining How it was going to be run and who was going to run it. If i had they i the Kcf probably never would have been Here. Birthdays w. A. Stapley Winnipeg born London England june 11, 1885. George Smith Winnipeg Bornst. Cyrus Kin i Cardin Shire Scotland june 11, 1882. A. F. Jamieson Winnipeg born Rothesay Scotland june 11, 1834. Wil Liam Smith Winnipeg born Rathen Aberdeenshire Scot land june 11, 187s. John Smith Winnipeg born new Galloway Scotland june 1874. William e. Newman Winnipeg born Arnprior ont., june 12, 1883. W. Vel Lam Brandon Man. Born Crowland Lincolnshire eng. Land june 12, 1879. John Thomas Wenham Winnipeg born Cranbrook Kent eng land june 12, 1871. A clause which frees All works constructed operated or maintained solely for Domestic Sani in contrast with some of the i More Barren years that Fol Lowed the Nova Scotia of the 18.30 s to 1850 s appeared to stand out As a Peak from the Plains. By Wilfrid Eggleston tary or irrigation purposes or i there is some curious ten Scotia letters which might Herald another Peak. I recently read in rapid succession Ernest Buckler s novel the Mountain and the Valley and Charles Bruce s the Channel Shore and this remark of Harvey s came Back to mind. Is there any basis for thinking that Nova scoria is currently enjoying an of i creative literary work which does not seem to have sur Vived and a Henry Clinch also a student like Haliburton of King s College. There were some vigorous Magazine other similar consumptive uses. Thus the nuisance Factor was discarded. A new Section was added declaring that provincial Laws with regard to Rivers shall not be disturbed except in so far As they Are repugnant to this act or these changes removed the fears of the provinces and reduced the area of friction to the irreducible minimum. Federal officials declared that a human nature to writers it is True but again it is Only the curious historian who knows anything about them or their works. Leading aside Haliburton the current output of imaginative writing in Nova Scotia seems to me to be Superior in Quantity and Quality to the Golden let us list some believe that Golden Ages Are i he ,.spacious Days always somewhere in the dim mists of the past and an unwillingness to recognize a Golden age while it is in pro Cess of becoming and being. Some years ago the Nova Scotia archivist d. C. Harvey ventured to suggest that with All due respect to the venerated names of Howe and Haliburton there was evidence Survey of British Columbia a resurgence of Nova to Lyoo about All my ailments today s scripture thou shall love the lord thy god with All thy heart and with All thy soul and with All thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like Linto it thou Shalf. Love thy Neighbour As Hugh Maclennan is a native of Nova Scotia and two of his novels and much of his essay writing is about that province. Barometer rising has its setting in Halifax and each Man s son is about a mining town in Cape Breton. Thomas h. Randall who like Maclennan ranks with Canada s Best novelists of any just How lofty and How sex period. Is a product and a resident of Nova Scotia he j Harvey termed them or the creative moment As Dean a. G. Bailey of the University of new Brunswick called it i believe a Good Case can be made out for the idea. Tensive was the earlier literary Peak of course the Eminence of Haliburton cannot now be challenged. Measured by the reach of his influence and the scores of editions into which his Best works ran he is still the giant of Nova Scotia Litera Ture. But once you leave Hali Burton the peaks of that Era tend to slope away into relatively unimportant ridges and Foothills. Joseph Howe was a has used the Nova Scotia coastal Waters and her Countryside in a number of his novels notably his majesty s Yankees the Nymph and the lamp and tide fall. Charles Bruce the news paper executive who is also amazingly enough a sensitive Tribune poet and a competent novelist great i has written of the Guys and newspaper editor was he also a great author by world standards no. And who else makes up old Nova Scotia school when you get Down to lists Oliver Goldsmith of the rising Village was a native of new Brunswick but he can be claimed As a resident of wind Sor n.s., and an. Associate of Haliburton. Not that the rising Village is a very not Able addition to British North american literature in any event. Who else Borough country in the recent novel Ernest the Channel Shore. Buckler s the Moun Tain and the Valley has its locale in the Annapolis Valley near the shores of Fundy. Will r. Bird has written of Many pans of the province in fiction and fact. Evelyn Eaton and Evelyn Richardson Are the More popular of the women novelists and Helen Creighton is known across Canada for her work in pre serving the Folk literature of the province. N la Var. The other names Are known Are All i believe Only to antiquarians and j practising writers in 1955 and literary specialists Robert they add up to an evidence of Christie a conscientious but literary vitality which does Lull historian a miss Tongue not. Need to take Back seat to j of Windsor whose Given name any earlier period ;