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Review |

No more Socred gags

Beck H. LEE BRIGGS, now the

ex-general manager of the B.C.
Power Commission, made his damn-
ing exposure of Social Credit finan-
Cal juggling, natural resources
Siveaways and hydro-electric power
Politics, events have moved at a
tapid pace.

Briggs was promptly fired by the
B.C. Power Commission. At the
Same time, Premier W. A. C. Ben-
hett and other leading Social Cred-
iters denounced Briggs’ statement
45 “an infamous slander and false-
hood.” In view of the conviction
of former Socred mirtister of lands
and forests Robert Sommers for
‘Onspiracy and accepting bribes,
Such protestations of Socred “vir-
tue” were to be expected.

Briggs’ disclosures deeply impli-
Cate the B.C. Electric in the Ben-
Nett sovernment’s hydro power
Manipulations. The B.C. Electric,
Whose monopoly position depends
°n thwarting of public power de-
Velopment in this province, has al-
Ways exerted a malevolent and cor-
Upting influence upon provincial
‘nd municipal governments, and
that influence has grown with the
*xpansion of the B.C. Electric to
‘uly gigantic proportions in these
Post-war years.

a There is no doubt that the BCE

'S now as intimate with the Social
Credit government as it was with
the discredited Liberal-Conservative
Coalition which Social Credit re-
Placed. No better proof of this need
© offered than BCE partnership in
the Wenner-Gren deal.

A. E. (Dal) Grauer’s reply to
tiges is no reply at all, Arguing
all the while that he was not mak-

See:

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ing a personal attack on Briggs,
Grauer actually did that, repre-
senting him as being “in a state of
emotional disintegration” and there-
fore not to be taken seriously.

Premier Bennett, apparently, is
sufficiently disturbed, as well he
may be, to appoint a royal commis-
sion to investigate Briggs charges.
But that his motive is to serve the
public interest must be questioned.

As was the libel suit when the
charges against Sommers were first
made public, the royal commission
will have the convenient (for the
Bennett government) consequence
of shutting off public discussion of
Briggs’ charges — in and out of
the legislature.

The people certainly demand a
full inquiry into those charges, but
not an inquiry designed to gag pub-
lic discussion and legislative debate.

x EDITORIAL PAGE

Bonner must still go

DESPITE its length and wordiness,

Attorney-General Robert Bon-
ner’s statement on why his office
failed to act promptly in the Som-
mers bribery -corruption case ex-
plains nothing to anyone’s satisfac-
tion except perhaps his own and
Premier Bennett's.

His statement does, however, re-
veal him as a supreme egotist who
apparently regards the public as
being a bunch of ignorant suckers.

No doubt Bonner could write a
similar small town lawyer’s brief
explaining why he failed to insti-
tute criminal proceedings against
Vancouver's ex-chief of police
Walter Mulligan. But in either
case, in his public statements both
ot the Sommers case and the Mul-
ligan case before it, Bonner has
has said nothing to disabuse the
growing public belief that he is not
a fit person to hold the post of at-

torney general of British Columbia.

Premier W. A. C. Bennett’s de-
fense of Bonner, that he is “the
most brilliant attorney - general
ever to graduate from law school,”
may be satisfying to Bonner’s ego
but hardly to the public. It is on
a par with President Eisenhower's
defense of his secretary of State
John Foster Dulles, that he is
“the best secretary of state the
U.S. ever had.” World public opin-
ion disagrees with Eisenhower, as
public opinion in this province dis-
agrees with Bennett. However bril-
liant Bonner may appear to Ben-
nett, brilliance is no justification
for dereliction of duty.

Bonner’s own statement “on the
Sommers case is one more strong
argument in support of public de-
mand that can be summed up in
three words —- Bonner must go!

Tom
McEwen

UST as Canada is famous both

for the quality and quantity
of its wheat production, so Den-
mark is famous for its butter
and cheese. But a lot of Danish
dairy farmers have gone broke
winning such fame, just as thou-
sands of Canadian wheat growers
have nothing more than calloused
hands to show for their toil.

Capitalist “economists” had a
solution. They always have. “Why
produce so much butter and
cheese,” they said to the Danes,
“why not try a little diversified

farming? Use some of your dairy,

produce to raise hogs. The Eng-
lish like bacon and we can sell
them bacon along with our but-
ter and cheese.”

So the Danish farmers turned
to hogs, and soon there was an
over-production of bacon as well
as butter and cheese. “Why not
turn a lot of your hogs into lard,”
said the economists, “there is al-
ways a market for fats.”

Soon there was enough lard in
Denmark to grease a skidway

from Alaska to Labrador. “Too
much schmaltz on the market,”
advised the experts, “better use
it as fertilizer for fodder crops
to feed your livestock until the
market recovers. What is needed
is a cutback in food production
until the situation improves.”

I read that story, or something
very like it, about 35 years ago,
when the wheat farmers of Sas-
katchewan were using No. 1
Northern wheat they couldn’t
sell or give away, flor fuel — be-
cause they hadn’t a red cent to
buy wood or coal to fill the
kitchen stove. Like their Danish
brothers, they were being urged
by the “experts” to begin “rais-
ing hogs and cattle ... and get
away from straight wheat farm-
ing.”

I read it-again last week, with
a few minor variations but in
essence the same old story. This
time it was recited by Federal
Agriculture Minister D. S. Hark-
ness, warning Canadian farmers
that unless they “voluntarily
agree” to cut down on grain, milk
and other food surpluses,” his
government would be eompelled
to “reduce federal prfce sup-
ports.”

The world situation being what
it is (according to Harkness),
“Canadian farmers should volun-
tarily abstain from producing be-
yond the capacity of Canadians
to consume . . .”

As examples of sheer unadult-
erated Tory balderdash and hum-
bug (not to mention the evil ef-

fects of Tory cold war policies
upon our world markets,) the

IT REE AY

minister’s remarks are worthy of
being recorded in our National
Archives — if for no other pur-
pose than to show the stupidities
of our dying capitalist era.
Harkness’ “warning” to the na-
tion’s primary food producers,
all the grandiose pre-election
promises made by Diefenbaker
and his colleagues to “restore
prosperity” to farmers and work-
ers alike, are bithely forgotten.
There’s too much food being pro-

’ duced and Harkness has a “‘solu-

tion”: stop producing so much
food, or the government. will
“pull the (subsidy) props.”

Os wt es

The little school house is gar-
landed with sheaves of golden
wheat and other grains. It is the
“harvest home” thanksgiving. In
the centre of the stage is a great
horn of plenty, pouring forth its
abundance of fruits and veget-
ables, golden, green and russet,
symbolic of a rich and bounteous
Nature, responsive to the labors
of Man.

“Oh Lord, we thank Thee... .”
prays the officiating clergyman
in devout thankfulness, while the
farmers, their wives. and child-
ren warmly respond.

Down in Ottawa, a Tory “god”
thunders forth his disapproval
through the media of scores of
newspapers and thousands of TV
sets and radios: “Stop producing
so much food ... or I’ll cut your
food ration.”

November 21, 1958 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 5