| | that

an Wever, the elevator owners formed
tra pirization of themselves to frus-
€ intentions of the Act, banking

| not na great majority of the farmers

Hora ovine What it was all about, and
Grain erable time this North West
ith th ealers’ Association was able,
do th € connivance of the railway, to
R004 fe Tather effectively. After the

Pevest of 1901, the supply of
jit ing farmers was no better than

ae Tain Act had never been enact-
Act Tr Were other provisions of the
COmpanite Observed properly by. the
lonen The law is one thing; the
| int of it is something else

\ r)

wore? the next fourteen years — to
the swat One — the contest between
fo peo 8rowers and their principal
ces €-sawed back and forth. In the
tte, ss the farmers consolidated their
ee Nizations and expanded their influ-
» Organized their own grain com-
ie » demanded and got new legislation,
€ir own newspaper and: main-

Of the themselves as a thorn in the side
UD to ned dealers at Winnipeg. Still,
\Wesjart® beginning of the 1914-18 war,
‘the a2 farmers were only hoping for

e
ya doll Y when their wheat would bring

sold 1920, a small lot of wheat was
lust a the Canadian Wheat Board at
Lnom et $4 a bushel. In 1932, Number.

Cents . 7 Was quoted one day at 19.5
| Years *,,PuShel. That’ was just eight
Went j after the prairie wheat pools
| ver = to business in the greatest effort
| Bricag ade by these farmers to stabilize

ie Setting up of the Wheat Board
ements a recognition by the gov-

th and the farmers’ organizations
| called Wide-open market with its
Was not law of supply and demand
the fou 800d enoygh. Step by step,

da, ent Australia, Argentina and Cana-
Ment pred into an international agree-
“acce . try to hold export prices at
throgr *2le” levels and avoid cut-

Tod Competition in selling.
Sibi}; 8y, ptairie farmers face the pos-
ls Bee having over 900 million bush-
harvest cei hands by the time the 1969
Pers ar 's threshed, while the newspa-
Of Be Publishing reports that some
| boy 3 partners” are reneging, or
| deny © renege, on their pledges. Evi-
/ ket 4a €re is a sickness in the mar-
\ by hal the world that will not be cured

know f measures. No one seems to
from Wu © answer to “where do we go

m here>”

|

©

J
zine ae year ago, a trade union maga-
Showin the Coast, published a chart
sw © that the cost of a modest bun-
Nousin purchased under the National
Louble & Act will be much more than
the — the stated price by the time
Vears Tage is paid off—in say 25
Cogt 2d that 54 percent of the total

“Osty COnsist of interest. The on-site
legs po! labor in the building will be
st. ppv? One-fifth of the cost of inter-

~ ing’ '@t could be a clue worth follow-

far Y both the trade unions and

Merg

Ve .
vp it tually, they are sure to come
Who ;.. ° Solid answer to the question,

1 a3
en, that “someone else” that has

4ing all the cream off the farm!

Us, " Major grain exporting nations,
S po: z

‘An Open Letter to Prime Minister
Pierre Elliot. Trudeau on the occasion
of his recent visit to Vancouver B.C.:

By TOM McEWEN ,
; Y DEAR Prime Minister; or should
I say “My Dear Pierre?” Ob-

. viously in your case there is a very

subtle distinction. I note when you
address the august assembly of Parlia-
ment or some distinctive grouping of

the upper crust, you adopt the posture |

and attire of the traditional “statesman
image,” even to the point of hair-
styling. That undoubtedly is as it
should be in your high office.

‘ “Upon other occasions however, too

“numerous to mention, such as your
recent. visit to Vancouver with its
accompanying fracas, you prefer to
affect the posture and styling of a
“swinger,” with tonsorial and dress
effects to match, plus a pass or two in
the fine art of karate on other and
younger “swingers” who may have got
a bit tired of your dual posing or
“moral” malarkey. :

I can appreciate your personal ran-°

cour by that banner ‘carried by a
charming female hippie in Vancouver
which read “Hustle Wheat Instead of
Women” —a suggestion of some ur-
gency which confronted your earlier
tour of the midwest by a large assem-
bly of wheat farmers in a like mind.
In neither case did your statesmanship
show up to good advantage, and cer-
tainly not in forcibly depriving a wee
hippie lass of her direct-appeal banner.

As a “swinger” of course it is pro-
bably quite proper to engage in some
Billingsgate with a lady or resorting’ to
a well-aimed. judo chop or two with the
crowd should the circumstances. war-
rant. But of course that also means
that the “swinger” who gives out with
a spot of judo chopping, must always

be prepared to take a few retaliatory

chops in return—without “pulling his
rank” so to speak—and without util-
izing the full repressive forces of the
State to ward off the inevitable results
from an initial provocation.

It would therefore seem advisable, as
your high office as prime minister of
Canada demands, that.on future occa-
sions where your duties may lead, to
don the role of “statesman” through-
out, and leave the swash-buckling kar-
ate “swinger” ensemble at home in

Dear Mr. Trudeau. . .

Ottawa. In your position in a two-

nation Canada,..you, just .cannot be

both with any degree of success in
either role, As a “swinger” the swing-
ers will hand it back to you with inter-
est, and as a “statesman” the people

in their majority, sans “Trudeaumania,” ~

will commend, condone or condemn,
as is their sovereign right, now, and at
the next federal election. :

While there is now no longer any.

argument that it was precisely your
“swinger” role (more popularly known
as Trudeaumania), which scored a
decisive election victory for the Liberal

- party and yourself (people are so read-

ily gullible), the “swinger’’' role in gov-
ernment just won’t and can’t stand up
under -the political and economic
stresses and strains of our changing
times. 2 ' :

And please don’t misunderstand me,
my dear Prime Minister. In your case,
as in my own heyday and even now, I
am not averse to kissing a pretty lass

‘should she feel so inclined. Like the

old rollicking army songs goes,—“‘Kiss
them all, kiss them all, the short and
the stout and the tall,” only don’t get
a government responsibility (inter alia)
of selling or not selling wheat, so vital
to wheat farmers and the Canadian
economy generally, mixed up in the
opposing roles of “swinger versus
statesman.” Otherwise you may expect
many more of those “hustle” banners
with even less complimentary: adden-

dums at large demonstrations, both in |

farm and urban communities, similar
to those you so recently encountered
in Vancouver—with the odds all ‘on
your side so far—but with no assur-
ance it will stay that way unless you
discard the role of a would-be “swing-
er” and seriously take up that of states-
manship the people expect of you.

In conclusion, stop telling Canada’s
farmers.how and what to- grow or not
to grow. They’ve had a lot of such
verbal manure since the turn of the
century. Stop lecturing Canada’s “un-
kempt” youth on moral and _ political
verities. A lot of Canada’s, so-called
“wayward” youth are the end result of
too much of both.

With all good wishes, my dear Prime
Minister, and looking forward to your
next visit to Vancouver in the role of
statesman, I am, yours very truly, etc.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — AUGUST 29, 1969 — PAGE 7

-

aa

id

oe etnies cuntenn