\HE Ontario Drew Tory
goverment intends to
stroy the small farm hold-
i . ©
zs of Ontario and assist -
‘ly the big, well-to-do
‘mers. It intends to con-
ue the Lory campaign ‘to
saeve indiscriminately all,

ustrial capitalists to boost
nsumer prices. It intends to
Ip cut wages and “lower
sts” so that such monopoly
ncerns as Massey-Harris and
ckshutt Plow may dump Ca-
idian farm machinery and in-
strial goods abroad while re-
dieting the home market by
‘intaining monopoly prices.
f intends to starve out the
tall settler and give no gov-
ament aid to veterans set-
ng on the land.

‘With allies strongly en-
lnched- in agricultural organ-
tions this Lory yovernment
yends to split the farmers
id build a stronger “kulak’’
SS in the countryside while
rrying, on false propaganda
fout “high wages” to keep
Psmers and workers divided:
This and more can be de-
pted in the policies being fol-
wed by Drew and enunciated
» his minister of agriculture,
i. Kennedy.

@

INOUNCE
ISPONSIBILITY
“ is a commentary on the
political weakness of the Ga_
dian Federation of Agricul-
re that Kennedys press
itements and speech at its
sent Dominion convention in
v’odon were not challenged in
“« forthright manner so tra-
‘ional to the farmers of the
2st. ;
Mr. Kennedy made it quite
ar -to the -delesates that
ew’s Tory government, while
moringe for greater protec-
n for monopoly, did not in-
id to help postwar reforms
fovernment action.
‘I, as Minister of agricul
-e in Ontario, am not able to
your work for you. There is
man im the government who
a,’ he said. “It is your re-
susibility to improve your
n life and living. Responsi-
ity starts at the bottom, not
“the top.”
This Means no new roads or
<trification in the settle
vats. No new development of
tkwards territory. It means
; jobs, No progress, no ex-

t

‘Sion of Ontario agriculture.
SOLISH PRICE

ILINGS

ONNEDY’S remarks were
;merely a follow-up of his
“ss statement of - December
"1945, which said: “It is time
“abolish price ceilings and
ice floors and let the farm-
— industry find its own na-
tal floor and ceiling.”

As a member of the agricul-
tal committee at the Domin-
i-Provincial conference he is
essing this viewpoint on Ot-
wa. At that time, Ontario

Feature Section

atrols, and to aid reactionary ~

The Double Squeeze
by Alfred C.. Campbell

~ Canadian farm organizations ‘and trade unions—equally robbed by
the meat-packing and implement monopolies—are battling it out against

the Tory policyef low prices for the farmer’s produce, low wages for the
worker's labor, and high consumer’s prices for all. This rapacious policy
has dumped vast profits into the hands of the monopolies and resulted in a
decline in living standards of the Canadian people. Let our united battle be:

“Aigher wages for the worker! Higher prices for the farmer! And a ceiling

on consumers’ prices!’ Let the monopolists pay the shot.

In 1945 alone — aside from its own consumption — Canada
shipped Britain $165,000,000 worth of meat.

. LPP leader, Leslie Morris, is-

sued a statement of policy
which denounced Kennedy’s ir-
_responsible statement and re-
iterated LPP support-to “the
principle of guaranteed floor
prices and the maximum of
protective legislation through
government aid in order to save
the farmers from -a _ price
crisis.”

Qn December 3. 1945, Ken-
nedy advised over 50,000 small
farmers to get off their hold-
ings. He stated a recent sur-
vey revealed that “90 percent
of all produce we sell from
QOntario farms is produced by
50 percent of our farmers. The
others produce only enough to
live on themselves plus the
other saleable 10 percent .. ~”
“Where are 192,000 farmers in
Ontario now; 140,000 would be
enough.”

Accustomed to rubbing el-
bows with wage-cutting bosses
who live off others, Kennedy
cannot understand those who
“produce only enough to live
on themselves.” He wants to
drive them into the cities in
hopes they will help drag down
the standard of wages.

“@
NOG HELP FOR VETS

AT the veterans settling
on land need expect no help
from the Tory governments can
be seen when it was added:

See
£ a
Fascism:

Must Come
No More!’

“Colonel Kennedy issued a spe-
cial warning to servicemen
who, he said, were being griev-
ously misled by the ‘Back to
the Land’ slogan. Most service—
men, unused to farm operation,
would be failures on the land,
he said, ‘unless they are pre-
pared to study,
learn the most advanced agri-
cultural methods.’ ”

In other words there is no
room in Ontario for new far-
mers; only those with up-to-
date machinery and ready cash
who will join the Tory machine
and drive out the small far-
mer and the worker with his
rural holding:

Ontario is thesclassical prov—
ince of capitalist development
in agriculture and at all times
unserupulous capitalist politi-
cians have entrenched them -
selves injthe rural areas when
engaged in dividing the Do--
minion and eroaking about
“provincial rights.” They have

suffer and

always tried to play the eastern
farmer against the west. And
all the farmers against the
workers.
C)

SEEK TO SPLIT
PROGRESSIVES
POSEN ground among the

industrial workers the Tor-
ies are busy organizing the top
layers of the better-off farm -
ers to divide the progressive
movement. With Drew and
Kennedy it has become a stud-
ied art.

When the packinghouse wor-
kers went out on strike against
the starvation wages of J. S.
McLean of Canada Packers it
was the workers who were re-
sponsible for the losses to the
farmers, the Tories said.

When the farmer does not
get enough for his cattle it is
the high wages of the indus-
trial worker which is respon-
sible, the Tories said. :

When the farmer cannot get
sufficient help at harvest, it is
because wages are too high in
industry.

The Tories are the most as-
Siduous in spreading the moth-
eaten myth that wages deter-
mine prices and that present
subsidies to agriculture are
“subsidies to the consumer.”

That the federal government
is weakening under the Tory
campaign to indiscriminately

remove floor and ceiling prices —

can be seen in the recent state_
ments of Federal Finance Min-
ister J. LL. flsley that ‘‘some
price ceilings may be suspend-
ed when a review of the sup-
ply situation in certain fields,
now under way by the Prices
Board is completed.”
e
CONCERN AMONG

' FARMERS

(pees has aroused some con-

cern among the (Canadian
farmers as to future prices.
See what becomes of the subsi-
dies now being paid to agricul-

The demand in’ Canada for meat is greater than ever, and star-
vyation-threatened Europe pleads for all the meat Canada can
send. The problem which faces both farmers and workers is the
need to end the excesses of the monopolies whose policies lower

Canadian living standards and lead to monopoly prices abroad:

ture since the Prices Board’s
stated policy is:

“To remove price control at
the earliest feasible moment
consistent with preventing a
war-generated inflation. In do-
ing so it must look toward the
gradual removal of subsidy
payments.” :

This will meet with the ap-
proval of James S:. Duncan,
president of the Massey-Harris
company and chief Tory organ-
izer of the movement to abol-
ish price control. Duncan, who
was recently appointed a di-
rector of the International
Nickel Company, told the Win-
nipege Board of Trade on De~
cember 16, 1945, that if Canada
is to expect production, “costs
must be low.” “Foreign pur-
chasers will buy our products
only provided prices are com-
petitive,” he said.

Duncan means wages must be
eut and implement monopoly
prices kept high, with the Ca-
nadian farmers and ‘workers
paying for cheap implements
sold abroad while Massey-
Harris maintains high profits.

In his report to the recent
national convention President
H. H. Hannam of the Canadian
Federation of Agriculture
placed the problem of farm
prices as the central question.

While the report did not say
so it seemed to be taken for
granted that a removal of sub-
sidy meant higher prices to the
consumer.

e@
PRESSURE
ON MONOPOLIES

HAT Mr Hannam and his

associates failed to do was
to launch a campaign to make
Big Business and the monopo-
lies absorb any subsidy reduc-
tions the federal government
under Tory pressure may have
in mind. In this respect the eon_
vention failed to live up to the
fighting traditions of the €a-
nadian farmer who has never

failed to attack the monopo-

lies that exploit both worker
and small farmer.

While there should be gener-
al agreement in removing price
controls, the government must
see that the present subsidies
are incorporated within the
basic price paid to farmers for
products. Just why should it
be taken for granted that the
consumer must pay, the in-
crease? And why does the Fed-
eration not carry on a nation-
Wide campaign to maintain
farm prices?

And examination of the prof-
its made by the food process-

(Continued on Page4)
See THE DOUBLE SQUEEZE