The ‘cold war’
leaves your
platter bare

WEN the cattle embargo was lifted by the federal
government it was described by one radio announcer
as a victory won by farmers and cattle ranchers in a S$1X-
year battle for freedom to sell their products where they
please. The Labor-Progressive Party has always supported

the demand of the farmers for
the lifting of this embargo, believ-
ing that they are entitled to the
highest price wherever it can be
ebtained. However, now that the
embargo has been lifted, it is ne-
cessary to examine the circum-
stances of its removal and to as-
sess the effect the government’s
action is going to have on the wel-
fare of the farmers and working
people as a whole,

Six years ago when the embar-
go went into effect, the country
was still at war. Meat supplies
had to be controlled and conserv-
ed in order to feed the armed
forces at home and abroad, as
well as the army of production
workers who turned out the wea-

pons of victory, Rationing and
price controls were in force also.

After the war ended, rationing
was gradually abolished and all
price controls were similarly lift-
ed. What was the effect on the
consumer?

Going to the meat market, the
housewife was once again offered
all the meat she wanted to buy.
She looked at the choice cuts and
thought of the treat she’d like to
take home for the family, Then
she looked at the fancy prices and
asked for three pounds of the
same old brisket.

Price, not short supply or con-
servation has kept the average
family on meat rationing.

For months past the humble
hamburger and spare-ribs have
. keen luxury menus. The effect on
butchers, cattle dealers and the
ranchers was that they all had
tons of meat but very few buyers.

Higher and higher prices have
created not only buyer resistance
but prompted organized, national
demands upon the federal govern-
ment that it reimpose price con-
trols, Trade unions, farm organiz-
ations, consumer-housewife organ-
izations have all clamored on the
government’s doorstep for relief
from this unwarranted situation.
All such appeals have been turn-
ed down flat.
€

The argument is advanced! that
every farmer is now free to ship
his cattle to the United States.
What is almost certain to happen
is that the cattle dealers will rush
around the country, buying up
every animal they can corral, They
will more than likely beat the
small farmers down in price,
knowing full well that they will
be only too glad to get cattle off
their hands that they have been
feeding too long; knowing, too,
that only the big ranchers are in
the position to sell and ship direct.

The consumer is faced with an
immediate increase of 12c per Ib.
for meat, and we can exepect a

meat shortage as well. The big
meat exporters won’t care so long
as they can sell at high prices
across the line, The government
won't care, either. Hon. Douglas
Abbott is probably patting himself
on the back for having got back
at the people for buyer resistence
and demands for price controls.

What will happen to our live-
stock and processed meat once it

By KATE FOUNTAIN |

By LESLIE MORRIS

—TORONTO

HEN Mackenzie King
mounted the rostrum at
the Liberal convention to call

for war against “communism,” —

an era came to a close. Mealy-
mouthed King Liberalism gave
way to the harsh jib of Louis
St. Laurent, the new executor
of reaction. The fragile link
with Laurier was broken; the
golden chains which bind the
Liberal Party to Wall Street
were rivetted down.

The Liberal Party as a re-
form party is no more; all
remaining remnants have been
coordinated under the thumb
of the corporation lawyer from
Quebec. Time was when the
Liberal Party represented
Canadian capitalism on the

upgrade; it was the party of
‘the rising merchant class, the
‘exporter and the customs
broker, the manufacturer

greedy for markets, the rich
farmer and the milling cor-
poration. ;
But capitalism today is i
crisis, Laurier Liberalism and
the “watered-down Liberalism
of Mackenzie King reflected,
not the men who led the
party, but ‘an historical stage
of Canadian development, An-
xious to create a mass of
free wage-labor for exploita-
tion in the mines and fac-
tories, Laurier and King Lib-

 eralism sought to bring labor

under its sway. Hence its
reformism; hence the phoney
“laborism” of Mackenzie King;
hence the minister of labor,
Humphrey Mitchell, brought
over from the ranks of the
working class.

King held on to office, ob-
ssessed by anniversaries, but
around him and within ‘the
top circles of the party the
hharé-boiled politicians,  strip-
ped of any claim whatsoever
to reformism, took over the
control of the party. St. Laur-
ent is their man, selected by
the party bosses, and financial

‘backers to be the leader. The

little would - be Mackenzie
Kings, avid for office, Martin,
Power, were swept aside; al-

gets across the line is a further
question. As- likely as not it will
be used for speculation and re-

export under the Marshall Plan.
Cattle will come under the cate-
gory of Canadian raw materials

ready they are a part of the
new machine. The days of the
ineffable Kingesque liberalism
have gone, forever,

being handed to greedy American

dollar imperialists by a govern-
ment that has become completely
unfaithful to the people’s inter-
ests, 3 ,

Farm organizations in particu-

The end of a era

The Liberal leader must now
be a man who can compete in
brass-bound repression with the
Drew-Duplessis Axis. That man

A wreath for liberalism too, and its stillborn %

promises of a happier post-war Canada with security

for all.

By RALPH R. COOK

—OTTAWA.
**(*HUBBY” POWER went
down fighting for “my kind
of liberalism” in his speech ac-
cepting nomination for leader-
ship of the Liberal Party. The
machine swamped him and rail-
roaded St. Laurent into office.
The 60-year-old ex-minister for
air did not hesitate to blast the
government for allowing parlia-
mentary committees to function
for “the purpose of stifling criti-
cism of the government,” parlia-
ment to degenerate into a “mere
debating society, and a theater
-for platitudes and repetitious
s) es,” usurpation of the
powers of the parliament by
minor czars and petty distators,”
“wasteful, unnecessary and of-
ten scandalously corrupt politit
ca] expenditure.”
King looked uncomfortable

and St. Laurent seemed to have
difficulty in controlling himself.

Quoting from a magazine ar-
ticle written by himself some
time ago, Power said, “By our
deals, gifts and contracts almost
invariably at the sacrifice of our
own economic interests, the Lib-
erals, of all people, have been
sere to the role of imperial-
ists.

The convention itself came
under fire for attempting to
“whitewash the past” and for .
giving the government, “a blank
cheque for the future.”

Most of the resolutions on
housing and kindred issues re-
flecting Power’s “kind of liberal-
ism” did not get beyond the
powerful resolutions committee
of .the .main .convention .and
those which did were well muti-
lated, despite the protests of the
young Liberals.

lar must view the lifting of the
cattle embargo in its full setting
and dispel any illusions that Ot-

tawa has handed anything to any-
body except the profiteers on both
sides of the line.

is Louis St. Laurent.
@

As Tim Buck pointed out,
this process represents not a
strengthening, but deepening —
erisis in ‘the old-line parties.
Mackenzie King’s  valedictory
is at once a call to right wing
Liberalism to hang on to par-
tisan privilege and an. appeal
to the Tories to make common
cause on all basic issues of
policy.

Bi-partisanship will be con-
solidated in the new Liberal
era. The elements of coalition
between Liberals and Tories
will become stronger. The cap-
italist parties are making ready
for the crisis of tomorrow—the
coming economic catastrophe,
and the possibility that their
schemes for anti-Soviet war
may after all come ito black
fruition.

Take note of Louis St. Laur-
ent, working people of Canada.
Behold in him your inveterate
enemy, the cynical, contemp-
tuous “critic” of socialism, the
arch-type of the profit motive,
the apostle of “contented” labor,
the architect with Washington
brasshats of the Western
European and the Atlantic
Union military alliances.

See in him the living tie be-
tween big capital in Canada
and big boss capital in Wall
Street, a man Whose vision for
Canada is to see our country
trotting along slavishly in the
footsteps of the Yankee war-
mongers, ,

Remember him as, the minis-
ter of justice who engineered
the infamous “spy” cases in
order to disrupt post-war unity
between the powers. Recall him
as the man who said that
“communism is always illegal,”
and who only the other day de-
clared his destiny to be the
fight against socialism. He is
the new Chief of the Thought
Police, the Vioice of the Vati-
can, successor to Buttery Billy
King.

From King to St. Laurent is
a step towards fascism and war.
That is why King’s farewell
speech was a call for a war
against “communism.”

——

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 20, 1948—PAGE 4