Li

Lot

By WALTER E. WIGGINS
“Since the time of Joseph down in

Egypt, right to the present day, some
one else has taken all the cream of.

the farm, and left us the milk and
whey.”

Those plaintive words were the open-
ing lines of a song we heard. here and
there across the prairies some 45 years
ago, as the harassed grain growers set
about to organize what became the
three provincial wheat pools, in. the
hope of heading off-some of the thieves.

Some time in this century a team of
Canadian writers, West and Eastman,
delved into ancient history and came
up with the fact that the Greek peas-
ants of long ago often suffered priva-
tion and poverty. They wrote: ‘Great
numbers of them did the hard work in
agriculture and industry by which
shrewd Greek managers got rich. . .
Natives who were already burdened
with debts and mortgages were burden-
ed still more with taxes and high
prices.” (Scaling the Centuries, page
146).

“In ancient Rome Plebeians often
fell into debt and mortgaged their land
in order to get loans, and then if unable
to pay off mortgages they sometimes
lost their lands and even became the
slaves of their creditors.” (Ibid, page
161).

Well! As a certain French writer once.

put it, “Plus ca change, plus c’est le
meme chose” or, in plain English, the
more things change the more they re-
main the same. It is 45 years back to
the Canadian wheat pool’s beginnings;

- 2,500 years to the Hellenist times of

‘Greece and Rome; and more than 4,500
years to the time of Joseph down in
Egypt. And Canadian farmers seem
little closer to identifying that ‘some
one else” than those who came before.

In that analogy we have moved half
way around the world. We have pro-
gressed from the wooden plow and
harrow and even the hoe for seeding,
and the sickle and rake for reaping,
to the modern equipment and methods
of today; and we still have: the debts

- and mortgages and the taxes and high

prices and some new problems besides.
Farmers reading the glum views of
West and Eastman might ask: were
they telling about the Israelites and the
Greeks and Romans of long ago, or
about Canadians of today?

The authors of Scaling the Centuries
are somewhat explicit in pointing out
the main reason for the hardships of
those early tillers of the soil: “Their
kings with their relatives and favor-

_ ites” were mean enough and well-arm-

ed enough to run off with the cream
and leave only the skim milk and the
curds, a bare subsistence and some
times not even that, for those who did
the useful work.

Some one once propounded’ the
theory that private ownership of land,
while it makes it possible for a person
or a family to have ‘‘a farm of their
own”, also virtually guarantees that in

9, 1969 — PAGE 6

the course of time the majority of these
owners will lose their titles one way
or another. Evil is the root of great
fortunes, and land-grabbing, whether
bald-headed prairies or tall timber, or
mines and other resources, is the most
tempting of all evils.

Around 140 years ago the British
monarch was receiving so many com-
plaints about the goings-on of his ap-
pointed officials in the colony overseas
known as Canada. that he sent Lord
Durham, an honest gentleman, to inves-

’ tigate the charges. In due time Durham
‘ reported in great detail, and part of
his report concerned the, problems of
the settlers in what is now Ontario.
Briefly, the report stated that nearly
half of all the surveyed land of the
province had been “granted” to the
“relatives and favorites” of. those in
charge of affairs, including of course,
themselves. The genuine settlers who
wanted to farm were being neglected
as to roads, schools, post offices, mills
and churches, etc.

Hundreds of these settlers rallied to

the support of William Lyon Macken-
zie when he and other patriots began
to organize resistance to this Family
Compact of robbers and oppressors. In
the rebellion which ensued these small
family farmers, with their horses and
shot guns: at times provided a mounted
escort for Mackenzie. They did not
take the official abuse and neglect ly-
ing down. The rebellion was defeated
at the time, but many of the reforms

it demanded were brought about a little

later.

Many farmers living today will re-

member how the. “Last Great West”
was settled. This marvelous “granary
for a hungry world”; this “land of
opportunity.”! Settlers from around the
world moved in, lured by free home-
steads and the promise of railways and
all the facilities of modern living. .

Historically, of course, the opening
of the western prairies to agricultural
settlement was inevitable and neces-
sary. The utterly chaotic way in which
it was achieved, however, was a social
crime: There is not space here to go
into details, but looking back on it
now, one might justly say it appeared
as though every possible obstacle was
placed in the way of those who really
wanted to farm. After the first rush of
homesteaders picking up the quarter
sections close to the railways and oth-

‘ erwise favorably-situated, it soon was
necessary to go farther and farther
back to stake a claim. Farmers using
horses and oxen for power and trans-
port were wearing out their lives up
to sixty miles from “civilization” and
ten miles from the nearest neighbor,
while sometimes better land along the
railways stood idle for years. 2

In many instances hundreds of miles
of railways were built merely in the
expectation of settlers arriving later
to make their operation economical or
profitable. Railways were built into
arid areas fit only for ranching and
never have paid for their building and
upkeep. One way and another Cana-
dians are still paying for such blunders.
_ Whenever some new line of railway
into good country was being projected,
land grabbers were permitted to take
out options at a few dollars per acre
and sell that land at fantastic prices
even before the railway reached the
area, where the only signs of civilza-

‘built under an agreement between

tion were the corner mounds and bi
buggy wheel tracks left by some Jaf
agent and his “prospect.” The stort
of hardship and suffering caused 'Y
this lack of planning and gouging ie
the settlers by “service” enterprisé
are legion.

“Service with a smile” was once &
rule of good business. Service wit uf
snarl of contempt and the remark.
you don’t like the price I’m offerint ;
you, you can take your damned whe? |
home again,” became all too comme |
around the turn of-the century in a,
toba and eastern Saskatchewan. 54 |
that to enough farmers who have hat |
ed their loads of wheat thirty and a |
‘to sixty miles in sub-zero weather, |
horses and oxen, and you could yes |
trouble. The kind of trouble organit
farmers can make in their fight ~~
justice.

Monopoly cooperating with monoPoY j
can be an unholy alliance. A railWer
siding with one elevator and the * |
agents, backed by their bosses, 10. |
hoots to hold the line on grain pC, |
to farmers. No, we won’t build a 104
ing platform for you farmers; sell be
grain to the elevator man. That Mie
the attitude all too often expressed t
local railway agents, the attitude
pervaded their dealings generally. in

As a matter of fact, the first mode
elevators built in western Canada

CPR and the builders that the rail¥®)
would not provide loading platform
Probably very few farmers were awe
of this agreement for some time. ors
they discovered the facts, the farm
generally regarded railways and Brass
handling concerns as more OF 7)
friendly partners in the business Of P ie
ducing food and delivering it to 4 ts
gry world. They. accepted the agen
weights and grades and dockag® esi
trust, so to speak, and as for price:
they knew nothing of what went 0? of
the grain markets which affected th0*,
They had no way of knowing, ev® os
they scanned the weekly newspaP
carefully, that a good rain in Are
tina or Australia during their gtOW’
season could cut the price of wheat a
Winnipeg by as much as ten cent
bushel. Gradually, the keener mil
among them came to realize they
victims of a vicious confidence gam@

te
Individual farmers began to wa

letters to the newspapers and ‘ait
politicians, and eventually public a
brought ‘some results. A Royal Core
mission was appointed late in 1899

Even before the commission he
made its report the railway compan
announced that they would ful
cars to farmers who wished. t0 ere
their grain direct to Winnipeg W ing
the Grain Exchange operated, it oe
assumed that government regulatl
would be enforced through that me@
for the protection of the growers: og
Manitoba Grain Act became ope!’

in 1900—a sort of Magna Cart

grain growers.