Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - December 29, 1971, Winnipeg, Manitoba Printed and published except sunday by the Winnipeg free press company limited. 300 Carlton Street Winnipeg Manitoba. R. S. Malone publisher and editor in chief Peter Mclintock Maurice Western executive editor Ottawa editor r. H. Shelford general manager Winnipeg free press Western Canada s National newspaper Winnipeg wednesday december 29, 1971 Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Eli Pality of civil rights democratic Challenge the prime minister in a philosophical ramble will James Reston of the new York times has emphasized number of his recurring worries which Many people i share. Most certainly there Are dangers to the democratic society in the revolution of rising and unreal Zable expectations. These at times have been encouraged by govern ment and it is to or. Trudeau s credit that he has frequently taken an opposite tack. There Are dangers als in the excessive demands made on society by self Centre groups. Protest at times takes negative and self defeating forms and at others turns to violence the trend to Ter a Orisno has been world wide with Canada unhappily one of the nations affected. Or. Trudeau s general thoughts however Are More persuasive than his illustrations. With in this Broad framework he appears again to be chastising critics of particular actions of his own government. The thread of argument is quite interesting. An dual he explains seeks reassurance in groups and if the group is attacked either through a tax Reform or through our new Competition act or through an amendment to the labor code he will feel aggrieved As an individual but belonging to a the prime minister continued in other words very Seldom do we have opinion makers take the total View and look at All the acts of one government and say Well by and Large they have been Good for this country what people do they Are either members of the boards of Trade or of Union groups or of agricultural groups and they look at All the acts of one government and they pick at those which have Hurt them As members of that particular group and they say therefore we should attack this particular government or this particular a speaking More generally or. Trudeau suggests that there Are periods when it is proper that authorities everywhere be challenged. Are also times i would submit when that Challenge has reached an excessive Point and where we should look for More stabilizing ele ments. And once again i May not be the right person to say this but i think we Are living in such times following a reference to Quebec where As almost anyone would agree authority has been too violently at tacked in recent years the prime minister observes you know in Days when the British parliamentary sys tem invented of paying the Leader of the opposition and calling him her majesty s Loyal opposition it was because there was t enough press and television and Union groups and University groups and so on. But now in a sense everybody is making it his Job and it i m afraid pushing that society towards a leaving aside this curious excursion into pre television or. Trudeau surely is pushing his argument much too. Far. We do indeed live in a highly Crit ical society. Certainly there has been much criticism of the tax Reform and of the Competition Bill in both cases the government quite properly invited criticism. This is perfectly Normal perfectly legitimate. The time will come for people to make an Over All appraisal of the govern ment its merits and its demerits. But meanwhile it is essential that individual items in the ministerial program should be carefully scrutinized and critics cannot be expected to turn a Blind Eye to this out of consideration for the government s Over All Virtues. Or. Trudeau As occasionally happens was careless in his Choice of examples. If democracy cannot stand this sort of criticism it is in dire Straits. But this is not the Case. Democracy has become More critical because it is More mature. More people nowadays take an interest in what goes on in government. They Are constantly being encouraged to do so by or. Trudeau. This is not evidence that society is headed toward breakdown. One effect of criticism May be of course to weaken an individual government. The prime minister should re Cognize however that government also is a group among others. It tends like others to feel grieved if attacked. It also tends to identify the National interest with its own in Terest but there is no such necessary coincidence. What government proposes at a Given time May or May not be in the interests of society. The judges of this must be the members of society at Large. They Are assisted to make their decisions and finally to pronounce their four year verdicts by criticism and counter criticism in parliament and in Public discussions. Or. Trudeau s illustrations Are unfortunate most certainly they do not suggest that Chal Lenge has reached an excessive Point. The matter is quite different when Challenge becomes violent but the Best insurance against that sort of thing is the preservation of a healthy democracy fed by constant and vigorous criticism. Those fixed rates a poorly worked out Deal by n. A. D. Macrae London the internal new pattern of fixed rates tonal monetary ment at Washington was not out. It was arrived at alter a very Happy Christmas horse trading stage managed present for the British econ by America s Secretary of omy. After an unusual period the Treasury John cunnally. In which Sterling was a Cui i suppose it la be just our Rotten Luck to win next year and have to pay Benson s capital gains As the Scales tilt a change of Luck Jwill be a Long time be fore men understand what really happened in the past v h o 1 e course of human same events that the world will never be quite the same gain. That fact or platitude is obvious to anyone who reads a newspaper. The decline in american Power the richest nation on Earth rescued at he Edge of bankruptcy its president enforcing economic at Home and heading abroad Lor peking and mos cow the return of Britain to Surope after an absence of some seven centuries the re urn of China to the world the quarrels of he two communist giants and of the Commonwealth s to largest states these and other events almost for Otten in the Rush Tell us that be have been through a mys Erious year which historians vill interpret or Misin Erret later on while we an Only gasp and wonder. But within the worldwide fitful fever perhaps we can to understand what is in our own tiny segment of the whole. Boys parliament fifty years ago it was known As the taxis and older boys parliament of and Northwestern Ontario and its membership consisted of representatives from youth organizations in the United Church. Today the word taxis has been dropped and its base of membership broadened to include boys from other denominations and other youth groups. But its Basic form and Pur pose has remained unchanged to teach Young men something of parliamentary procedure to instil in them the rules and give them some experience of de and to help make them better and More informed citizens of their country. Over the years thousands of boys have attended its ses Sions for Many it Lias been remembered words fam fran Arcadia by sir of Lisp trae4ove hath my heart and i have his by one for the other Given i Hom fee dear and raise fee a decision making experience for virtually All it has meant the forming of Friend ships which have been bind ing and lasting and there Are few who after attending boys parliament do not rec Kon it among their most cherished memories. For the boys who attend this year s sessions it May be safely assumed that this process will be repeated it will be an experience enjoyed at the time and recalled with gratitude after it is Over. Perhaps because they Maik an anniversary the fiftieth this year s sessions j will have a special signify i Cance. Fifty years May be a Short Span in some terms of reference but an institution of this kind which is fifty years old in a country As Young As Canada May be said to have an Aura of per m a n e n c a with congratulations on past and present achievements goes the wish that boys parliament for Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario May be privileged to fulfil its Rote for Many years to come. Since the last War Canada s been Fortune s Darling sometimes its fool. Assuming that our economic growth and comfortable life vere not merely Normal but guaranteed by the rules of the game we built up our excess s i v e expectations and in Pierre Trudeau found a glittering Symbol for them to his private now the rules Are revised by the troubles of our Ameri can neighbors by the Emer gence of a new Europe and a new Asia by our own inter Nal mismanagement and by the deep social revolution which no nation can escape. In the end these changes May be for the better. In the period immediately ahead however they will Force canadians to reconsider their entire circumstances and assumptions now clearly of by Bruce Hutchison Nixon accepted reality for fortress. Career or. Trudeau confronts the almost unimaginable Chance of failure. As Luck runs against him it runs automatically in Robert Stanfield s favor contrary to All prediction. The Scales of political Justice or injustice Are Tilting to weigh govern ment and opposition with cold impartiality. Is there anything besides Luck in or. Stanfield s Rise does it Register Only the government s marginal decline can we discern in him More than an honest amiable and puzzled human being or can the Bland exterior and ambiguous speech of the family s favorite Uncle hide a steel Core and a considered strategy As in the Case of Robert Borden the last successful conservative prime minister in this Century finally can or. Stanfield gather around him enough new and Able men to form a successful government when he so obviously lacks them now on his Barren front Bench in Short if Luck continues to flow his Way and he does nothing foolish to reverse it is he fit to govern is he a True alternative to the More Brilliant and less predictable or. Trudeau will the nation seek a quiet plodding Man and a breathing spell after a period of breathless social Experiment and if so is it mathematically possible for the conservative party with out Quebec to reverse the verdict of 1968 arid win a majority it does not appear possible today. On the other hand it is quite possible for the government to win no More than if the International consequences flowing from this grim moment of. Truth and from other sources Are still unpredictable and too com plex for discussion Here at least we can see., already some of the political consequences in Canada. And they Are dramatic almost unbelievable. How Many canadians would have said a year ago or even Jast Spring that the Trudeau government could be Defeated in 1972? not Many and assuredly not this reporter. Yet this Possi b i 1 i t y is now the commonplace of our politics and Well understood by the government itself whatever it May pretend in Public. After All the government will lose its majority in parliament if it loses about a score of seats and they could easily be lost. Indeed anyone looking at the political map must see at once that they will be lost unless the government can greatly improve its popularity Between now and next autumn. This would be a mighty feat of politics and very late a smug government has realized it. Of course the situation could change again before election Day and the prime minister is trying desperately to change it. He overwork himself campaigns some where every weekend secures or. Nixon s fantastically new Benediction and pushes his tax Law through parliament with a battering ram. For the first time in his extraordinary and almost of the largest group in the next parliament. As things look now the nation May Well face an election which no Man or party can win decisively then another minority government and political weakness when we can least afford it. That risk apart from much larger International risks must make 1972 a tumultuous year even if it is. A prosperous year in can Ada. Today s scripture when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were in Learned and ignorant men they marvelled and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. Acts 4 13. Rency which everybody wanted because it was Selling at too cheap a rate the poor old Pound has again been appreciated to a level that May make British exports a bit too dear. Behind the double talk what has actually happened is that the United states has achieved a far bigger competitive depreciation of Exchange rates than anybody would have thought possible when the old fixed Exchange rate markets closed on a gust 13. Have achieved this partly because some europeans and especially the French still treat Exchange rates As symbols of National Pride president Pompidou thought that he was making America climb Down when he got president Nixon to agree finally to devalue the Dollar and raise the Price of Gold but what he was really doing was helping american Trade to climb up. Compared with August 13, the biggest american devaluations have been against the Strong Japa Nese and four of the weaker european economies Bel Gium Britain France and the germans have got away with a competitive advantage against the other europeans compared with the position that the then floating a Mark held on a gust 13, although not of course compared with May 1. There is one International advantage in this. The Ger mans gains in the negotiations in Washington mean that Germany probably now will not go into a recession in 1972. It May go Back into a Large Export surplus by Early 1973 instead and we May Well have to have yet another upward floating of the d Mark then. Indeed my guess is that it is an eventual new floating of the Mark that will again ensure that the new pattern of world Exchange rates will not be any More lasting than previous patterns. Canada was very it is almost certain to have to be changed again within two years. The main w o r r y is whether in these two years there might be a huge improvement in America s balance of payments matched by an equally huge deterioration in other people s balances of payments. The japanese can afford a huge deterioration in their balance of payments but the weaker europeans especially hit by the Wash i n g t o n agreement and most especially Britain cannot. Since the mid-1950s the great expansion and liberalization in world Trade has been largely financed by the extraordinary device of unconsciously allowing the americans to run a Persis tent balance of payments deficit. The dollars that the americans have pumped out to finance this deficit have provided the growth in world liquidity that the International trading system required. Other countries have added the dollars to their re serves Felt Rich in Conse Quence and lowered their trading barriers not Only within particular trading blocs As in the european common Market but also with the wider world As in the Ken Nedy round of Tariff reduce now there is not going to be such an outpouring of Dol Lars other countries will feel less Rich and they May impose new Trade restrictions As this shoe begins to Pinch. To that degree i disagree with world Stock markets which generally welcomed the Washington agreement on the grounds that it restored More certainty to trading conditions. I do not think that it has restored certainty at Wise to continue floating. The i All. The Vietnam War and the Calendar Ashington the White House sustains its conviction that War in Indochina will not be an Issue in the coming . Elections. President Nixon May be right but not because the War is disappearing Only be cause americans Are tired of noticing it. Still whether or not the mortars explode on the seven o clock news the War con tin u e s there is not the slightest sign that Southeast Asia will find peace declared or undeclared by the time americans find their Way to the ballot Box once More. The american political Calendar is inexorable. But it really can t Force the Pace of events. That requires govern ment decision. The decision to end the War has not been made and the major official planning is not to prepare Christmas in England in search of the old magic by Flora Lewis that decision but to find the ways and Means of continuing to postpone it indefinitely. Twice in formal pronouncements the president has said that he will end american involvement in the War before his first term ends. That is disconcerting because it is grossly mislead t i c i p a t i o n in the second world War and it does t in clude the heavy Aerial fire from gunships. All this requires american munitions american Money american advice and exper Tise and a certain though limited number of american personnel. There is always the danger that a sudden Mil itary reversal will bring a Panicky escalation with either manpower or weaponry. Ing. The governments of Asia i a danger of resort to nuclear Are aware that he does t re to arms. Ally mean it but the am big j but even i fouling so dras Ity seriously weakens the of j tic Nappy Psi continued War feet of the decisions which which Jne Vitaliy Means con the president has made to i american involvement end american ground combat win harm United states involvement and. If possible j it Wil in the narrow Miji to Stop sending draftees to Ary Hurt National be. Vietnam. Curty because the american no doubt the administration i defence Structure is very is Correct in judging that these Are the developments badly run Down. All these years that the United states which americans most or j has been spending its Mili gently want in Vietnam. This tary substance in Indochina is a Case however where j neglecting the modernization Correct judgment is Likely j of its main forces the soviet nonetheless to prove bad poli j Union has been building its by bad history and severe i Power. The authoritative i future trouble for the United 1 states. London As you eat that delicious Turkey stuffing remember that some ingredients came from South America. And 15 Mil lion people there go hungry c in o t abandon some of their Basic you know. And dried fruit for the Plum pudding and Solete. A decade or More of mince pies comes from the unreality ended in 1971. It diddle East where 9 million ended in an economic sense Aren t getting enough to eat. On aug. 15 when president you enjoy those chocolates i around the Don t you by dive ours make All the world s big Trade to quote the particularly timely reference. The British deprived of the Joys of United funds make their appeals traditionally at Christmas when twinges of conscience Are most Likely to be Felt there never was a Tergis better i Rivea. Fris heart pc we pc eels use by senses a Szajer Doris. Bra a Crawe 2s. A Russ River. It text use of we 2k 3s3s. Ass 3w9osa bars Swezea. Dec. 2s, Bafit Possee Oil. Filec. 1 around the tree you. Season of j chocolate comes from wests merriment and i Africa were 15 million go and it is As Dickens season of Hospi i i 1 and what could be More fitting than a 11 e compassion in this the children of Bri Tain will have to spend on postage. But the stores report that j there has been plenty of Money s500 million More in banknotes circulating than last Christmas. Christmas Trade has never been Harrod s says. And the Oxford Street stores it is not Only Southeast Jane s now puts Russia ahead of All nato countries including the United states in weapons technology. It will Hurt National Security in a larger sense As Well both by delaying the urgent rebuilding of morale in the american services and by Asia which will suffer from depriving them of Public sup the continuing and expanding War though in the immediate future it will suffer most. Add that sales Are up i the War is mounting in in from 10 to 40 per n y in Cambodia and from a disgusted nation. The continued War will not prevent the gradual trans formation of Asia. That is coming Willy Nilly. But it stores for Africa millions of British Christ Mas spenders read that j j s when As one s Scrooge advertisement of the i annual appeals As they went j shopping Christ about their last mute a replaces 11wvn mom com i ing and laying in of goodies j willing to control before the into the Industrial world next stage of overt War on its that is a Price which would own territory is reached weigh gravely on the future. That May take a few years unto Distant generations. 1 Well after the 1972 Campaign. Above All the continued War will postpone the moral convalescence of America s sapping the or Jerry so Des few s Pera Tely needed to Deal with Tomn Netta Domestic prob lems Ard a to Balent i is Turat cars Ari the electorate i Charity Christian Aid i All the established charities boats of an extra what do Vou want of to do j get into the act. The times j pay Many m Britain it to them r bet like carries advertisements f o a save for festivity. Many jobs Chang hundreds of other charities the retired donkeys Saneto s t i ii ran Christmas dabs a org v they wasted was a Kite Ary Ana for ladies hire it the people of dated a to i work. I to ask be a great the and the Brit asked Send Par Unwe of year these Cess ;