Flood victims ask full compensation

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Friday, June 9, 1950

Farmers organize
against gov't
wheat betrayal

By MARK FRANK

OTTAWA

Prairie farmers, alarmed at the threat to their 1950-51 wheat
crop are organizing a protest which may ultimately involve 200,000

wheat growers against the Liberal government.

The upsurge in the three prairie provinces stems from the stunning

blow dealt them by Hon. C. D.
Howe’s announcement that the
International .Wheat Agreement
will take the place of the expir-
ing five-year British contract.
Howe came back from Britain
without a contract. The Agree-
ment, dominated by U.S.' dollars,
offers a low fioor price of $1.54
'U.S. funds for wheat and no firm
arrangement for disposal of a
farmers entire crop.

Though farmers are getting the
first and worst shock, ev Ca-
nadian is hit. Since farmers con-
stitute the first market for our
manufactured goods, the trend to
crisis and mass unemyloyment
has been hastened by the market
cut.

Howe’s announcement shocked
farmers in its cynical and cal-
culated forgetfulmess about the
“have regard” clause in the Brit-
ish contract intended to make up
past losses, Farmers sacrificed at
least $600 million by selling their
wheat at below world prices while
the contract was in effect. The
government promised then that if
they did this they would win a
stable British market. Now that
promise has been betrayed.

Farmers, farm organizations,
and western spokesmen are re-
acting sharply. j

-At press time, Carl Stimpile,
president of the Farmers Union

ef Alberta, was on his way to -

Ottawa to present a demand to
bring the final price of wheat
sold to Britain to $2.

J. F. Gunia, president of the
Manitoba Farmers Union, has
sent an emergency wire to the
federal government protesting
loss of markets and reduced
prices of wheat.

J. L. Phelps, leader of the Sas-
katchewan Farmers Union, said
there was “no enthusiasm” among
wheatgrowers for the new Inter-
national Wheat Agreement.

Others protesting the federal
government announcement were
Agricultural Minister I. C. Nellet
of Saskatchewan; Winnipeg’s W.
A. Kardash, MLA; Nelson Clarke,
LPP provincial leader in Saskat-
chewan; W. C. Ross, LPP spokes-
man in Manitoba; and Ben Swan-
key, LPP leader in Alberta.

A.drought threat in Saskatche-
_ywans south-west; the huge in-
erease granted the railways for
freight rates; the half-million ac-
res of flooded fertile wheatlands
in the Red River Valley—all ac-
centuate the atmosphere of crisis
descending like the gloom before
a cyclone in Canada’s west.

But as the farmers get togeth-
er, it’s the. federal government
that can head for the cyclone
cellar. ‘

HON JAMES GARDINER

WINNIPEG

The stench of backed-up sewers lies ‘heavy in the streets of Winnipeg as flood waters recede and

citizens grimly contemplate the tragic’ aftermath of Canada’s worst peacetime disaster.

Families returning

to their water-soaked dwellings are filled with anguish as they find their prized possessions in run. The
deep waters that a short time ago concealed the devastation of home and farmland have left behind an
evil-smelling slime which clings to walls, ruined furnishings, everything it has touched. For those returning
to restore home which represented the patient work, the savings of many years it is heartbreaking, angry
work, for many of them know now that the flood could have been averted—their homes saved—had the
government displayed the same concern for their welfare they profess in squandering millions on arms for

33 Ay ”
security.

It is little wonder then, that there is a widespread angry demand for full government compensation
for their losses and an adequate flood control scheme to keep the Red and the Assiniboine within their banks.

This is what the flood has cost:

Estimates of total rehabilitation
costs range from $200 to $300 mil-
lion. Six hundred square miles of
land have been or still are inun-
dated. Over 100,000 people were
evacuated from Winnipeg alone.
Some 10,500 Winnipeg homes were
under water at the height of the
flood. Scores of towns and vil-
lages were caught in the flood-
waters and about 1,500 fafms.
Some 4,000 vehicies were trapped
by flood.

Was this unavoidable or man-
made?

Reports of top experts attached
to the Manitoba government and
the City of Winnipeg show that
the flood could have been averted.
Here is their testimony for the
record: ’

D. M. Stephens,.Manitoba dep-
uty minister of natural resources,
bluntly told Premier Campbell in
February, 1950, that such a flood
was certain. (He also told Mayor
Coulter of Winnipeg. His warn-
ings were carried in the press.

But the Winnipeg Real Estate
Board, engaged in peddling a
$6,000,000 housing development,
which was under 18 feet of water
at the height of the flood, said
it was bad for business. And of-
ficials of both city and provincial
governments told Stephens he was
a scaremonger.

A year earlier, in March of 1949,
in an official report on The Red
River Valley Flood Problem, Win-

nipeg city engineer W. D. Hurst
recommended floodwall and lévee
projects as immediate stoppage
measure, pending a full report
from the International Joint Com-
mission. Total cost would have
been $1,168,800.

“That we will again have floods
in the future appears certain
from a study of the history of
the past,’ concluded this expert.

Now the question arises: Will
Manitobans have to wait helpless-
ly for another Red River .ram-
page? Will the victims be sad-
dled with economic ruin and hard-
ship this flood has brought them?

All indications show the federal
government will need to feel the
anger of the people befpre it
moves on their demands. Only
such action will shake the Ot-
tawa obsession with military pre-
parations and make it seriously
tackle the grievious plight of
flood victims,

Nothing emphasizes this more
sharply than the attitude of Gen-
eral A. G. L. McNaughton, who
is senior member of the Interna-
tional Joint Commission appoint-
ed by Ottawa and Washington
following Red River floods in the
spring ‘of 1948. Two years have
gone by without a word of its
findings. While Manitobans re-
turn to the slime, McNaughton,
speaking in Toronto to the Ca-
nadian Manufacturers Associa-
tion, called on “North America”
to build more atomic bombs.

Use sales tax for youth, |
children’s centers, urges
provincial women’s parley

The role of women in securing
peace, education, nurseries and
kindergartens, juvenile delinquen-
cy and recreation centers, with
a proposal the sales tax monies
be used for such ¢enters, high
prices and housing were among
the many issues which occupied
the 70-odd women attending the
first provincial convention of the
Congress of Canadian Women,
held in Hotel Vancouver last
weekend,

The opening session was ad-
dressed by Dr. Evelyn Baxter of
Seattle, a member of the Congress
of American Women. Mrs. Marie
Godfrey, B/C. vice-president, op-
ened the meeting and presented
her report.

The regular session on Satur-
day was attended by 35 delegates
and observers, made up of women
from various trade unions and
auxiliaries, language and youth
groups, and other interested in-
dividuals and observers, who
came from Ladysmith, Nanaimo
and Victoria to join in planning
and initiating a broad program
of activity.

The panel ‘on Child Welfare
and Family Health pointed out
the need for child care centers,
nurseries, kindergartens, hot
lunches in schools, housing jn

terms of health, jobs for health,
health services and hospitals.

One delegate observed that it
would cost much less to provide
these services than to pay for
an atom bomb.

“It costs $872 a year for each
child maintained in an industrial
school, and 50 percent of them
become repeaters. What happens

‘to them after they come out?”.

Another speaker mentioned that
a sum of money had been left
to the city to build a community
center in Grandview, but “up. un-
til now nothing had been done
about it.”

The Education and Culture pan-
el brought out the information
that a pupil had been strapped
for ‘“impertinence”’ because he
disagreed with statements in a
textbook that was outdated. Ra-
cial discrimination was preva-
lent in many schools. The feeling
was that a great deal could be
done by parents, and education
had to start with them.

Outstanding among resolutions
adopted was one pledging dele-
gates to aid the cause of peace
in every way, and urging uncon-
ditional banning by all countries
of atomic weapons, with the first
government to use the atomic
weapon against amy country

ly priced recreational

branded as a war criminal. —

Other resolutions were concern-
ed with the high cost of living;
extension of trade; a campaign
for medical supplies, vitamins,
clothing, for People’s China; en-
forcement of equal pay for equal

_work for women and their right
.to work irrespective of marital

standards; use of part of the sales
tax to provide free and moderate-
facilities
for children and youth.

An organizational fesolution
adopted called for setting up of
chapters in all communities.

Greetings were received from
sister chapters in East Coulee,
Alberta; Toronto, Ontario; New-
castle, Alberta; St. Catharines,
Ontario; Windsor, «Ontario; as
well as from the National Con-
gress and the Superintendent of
the B.C. Women’s Institutes.

Officers elected were Mrs,
Marie Godfrey, president; Mrs.
Doris . Hartley, vice-president;

Mrs. Jean Waugh, secretary; and
Mrs. Norman Dawson, treasurer.

Information concerning the
Congress may be obtained from
Mrs. Godfrey, 3122 Vanness Ave-
nue, Vancouver, B.C., DExter
0769 R.

I. G. Farben.

rocket fuel
for Canada

BERLIN

The German I. G. Farben con-
cern which financed Hitler’s rise
to power is again being used by
the Western powers for their war
plans.

A short while ago, 5,000 barrels
containing fuel for long-range
rockets and jet-propelled planes
were loaded in the dockyards of

the port of Bremen. The fuel was

produced in the I. G Farben
works at Ludwigshaven, the fac-
tory Badische Analin Werke. In
1928 a terrific explosion occurred
in this factory when a fuel con-
tainer for V.1 and V.2 rockets
blew up.

The fuel is to go to Toronto,
Canada, and its price has been
estimated at 2,000 million West
German marks. This consign-
ment will be included in the re-
parations account.

West German heavy industry
is being harnessed to an increas-
ing extent to the preparations for
a third world war desired by in-
ternational ‘warmongers. The
speed with which Schuman’s pro-

posed pact with arms manufactur-
ers is being realized shows that
West German monopolists will

. take an increasing share in those

preparations.
TORONTO
An official of the A. V. Roe
Canada Ltd. manufacturers of
jet planes, told the Tribune that
Avro imports jet fuel in tankers

but has no interest in rocket
fuel because company experi-
ments have not reached that
stage.

Jet fuel, he explained, was not
dangerous, but rocket fuel was
highly explosive in character and
required “very careful handling.”

The only organization the Avro
official could think of which
might be interested in rocket fuel
for research purposes was the.
National Research Council] at Ot-
tawa “but whether they are con-
ducting ‘experiments in and
around Toronto is something I
have no knowledge of.”

The harbor master of the Tor-
onto Harbor Commission agreed
that no dangerous rocket fuel or
other types of explosives should
be permitted into the harbor in
view of the recent disastrous mu-
nitions blast which wrecked South
Amboy, New Jersey.

arbor authorities, he said,
were not usually aware of the
contents of ships’ cargoes,-but if
“I knew ahead of time that a
cargo of rocket fuel was on its
way I wouldn’t allow the vessel
in the harbor.” :

While the Berlin dispatch spoke
of the rocket and jet fuel in terms
of barrels, there is general agree-
ment that it can be shipped via
tanker or in barrels by sea and
Overland routes.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JUNE 9, 1950—PAGE 12