‘ ie Year Saskatchewan is cele-
: ratin€ its Golden Jubilee and
ni Po corent’s Jubilee Com-
Project aS initiated a series of
ay ae for the occasion. Among
sion Jj favors was to commis-
Uni a Wright, editor of the-
the Sask, armer, house organ of
edhe atchewan Farmers Union,
ih a history of the prov-

his k@tchewan has had a rich
estably, path before and after its
is to be Ment as a province. It
color e resetted that with all the
Sit a € people’s struggles
get it eit did not manage to
askateh the pages of his book,
a Prov; ewan — The History of
Obtainabe’': YJ B.C. Wright,
People’s © in Vancouver at the
37 We Cooperative Bookstore,
He a Pender, price $5.
- foundaticn™® With the geological
and 72 of western Canada
sent deeds through to the pre-
book = - The earlier part of the
Wonder Perhaps best, though one
hor ©. Whether too much space
a pe fo the history be-
e 4 us cramping the
eat the last 50 years.
] eae ding feature of the
“te the drawings by A. W.
, =ney follow the téxt

The origin-
ate be displayed at ‘the
nd 4, Ptaries in the province
‘it ou are a very welcome ad-
. Wrigh Saskatchewan art.
height” tf. fails to rise to the
tray Of his illustrator. A gen-
his book Miciality characterizes”
Be ancy, he reader is left seek-
It Was ct too many questions.
ang ithig 22° a popular history
— ‘Wmber ., M2Y account for the
Wes Of inaccuracies on small
attempt There seems to be an
out... *t Popular stylising with-
Patticulany” for scholarship —
Nt ysa ye Jatring in the con-
T thea of alliteration in chap-
~ Stryee ™S and text, such as
ievance eel ‘and _ settlers,”
id €s, guns, and gallows,”
i Many more.
‘. ua 50g xt
- lack of » perception

Pin hi it
Riel his treatment of
n,

Altho aah ;
«Of FY hough Stating the grievances
Showing Geel of the north and
by oF. ant these were ignored
fearfy “ited seems
Yt the “3 Showing that it was
Nee og ney alone ebut an alli-
Rt Rig the people of the area
Tepresented and led..
» Many white settlers
ohne supporters of Riel,
“lant im them were tried along
fhe’ Glen

the author

aa Regina. One, Wil-
Y Jackson, secretary of
tre, tial tp Union indicated at

eq ),28t he wished to be
“whose fate,
t May ‘be, I wish to

Sana 3 Main criticism of
: On featured in
Frontiers issue

font issue of New

ys Magazine is high-

y Teproductions of the
€ Canadian painter,
faylor. _

eet illustrated article
} itaieats Science re-
Color ments since the
wal period. And the
es, oo honored
SPecial tribute written by
I eee associate, Dr.
75th ».’.vritten on Ein-
anniversary,

and the Northwest Re- »

the treatment, however, is ignor-
ing the fact that the role of Riel
was such as to hold back the ex-
pansionist aims of the United
States in.the West. Riel’s con-
tribution to Canada was that he
ensured it would be a nation
stretching from sea ‘to sea.

Of the political history before
Saskatchewan’s formation as a
province, we have only the brief-
est glimpse.

The rove of such men as Nich-
olas Flood Davin, editor of the
Regina Leader,
Canadian editor, is barely dealt
with. :

The struggle for provincial
government is,glossed over.

The political struggles after
1905 are even less apparent. The
period of 1911 to 1926 when the
Progressive party movement was
developing in the west and its
special role in Saskatchewan
plays no part-in this history. The
emergence of the Liberal party
in that period ‘and its almost
complete domination of the poli-
ties of the province to*1944 is
ignored. :

‘So also is the economic strug-
gle absent. Statistics on wheat
prices are there aplenty ‘but the
constant ‘striving of the farmers”
for an end to the exploitation of
the big monopolies and banks
is given little space. This is par-
ticularly evident when Wright
deals with the period of the
thirties. ;

How can a man who lived
through that period and was part
of the people’s movement say
this about the single unemploy-
ed two decades later:

“Some of these transients
were looking for -work, others
were travelling to specified
points where relatives or friends
might find work for them, or
care for them, and many were,
in a semi-adventurous way, ‘on
the move’ in defiance of the
stagnation of the economy.
There is no picture of the

struggle of Saskatchewan work-
ars and farmers for ‘relief, for
stopping evictions, for jobs.-

Y 5e3 og se

The final section of the book
that. brings Saskatchewan up to
the present. day is little more
than a CCF publicity release on
what the Douglas government
has done since coming into of-
fice. Those who expect an evalu-
ation of the provincial scene in
face of the 73 percent drop in
cash farm income of the Sas-
katchewan farmers will not find
“i NELey, anes gece :

. Saskatchewan was opened: by ©
peoples. of all nationalities.
Wright fails to give any picture
of these multinational cultures
in the province or the tremen-
dous.role of their progressive or-
ganizations. ‘
*The history of Saskatchewan
is one of great courage by its
people; it is replete with in-
stances of tremendous | move-
ments to advance living’ stand-
ards and political rights. It is a
colorful story of the stfuggle of
farmers and workers against
monopoly control from .Eastern
Canada. 5

Today new movements are de-
veloping in a province faced with
ruin as a result of the U.S. domi-
nation of’ the country, in which
the future of agriculture, still

Saskatchewan’s mainstay, is
black.
Saskatchewan — The History

of a Province, does not measure
up to the real story that must be
told of a courageous, forward-
looking people.

“PHYLLIS CLARKE

\

an outstanding ©

Designed by Laurence Hyde, this new stamp honoring the 50th anniversary of the

« G

provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta was issued by the Canadian Post Office this week.

Alberta anthology leaves gaps,
but offers some fine selections

N preparing the Alberta Golden

Jubilee Anthology, the editor-
in-chief, W. G. Hardy, hoped to
“present chronologically the story

of Alberta—its historical: back-

ground, and pioneer beginnings,
its developments, achievements

and potentialities and, above all,

something of the spirit of its peo-
ple.” This aim has been carried
out fairly successfully from the
viewpoint of the editorial board.

The book includes articles,
stories, poems, paintings and
photographs. Divided into six

main sections, The Romance of
Yesterday, The Changing Years,
The Alberta Scene, The Golden
Decade, Authors of Today and
Tomorrow, and Land of Opport-
unity, it is representative of the
work of some one hundred AI-
pberta writers and artists.

There are some contributions
which are very fine, reflecting
the true spirit of Canadian peo-
ple, but. there are others which

“sound as though they had been

prepared iby a Social Credit pub-
sicity agent .

The book touches on nearly
every phase of life and history
of Alberta, but there is one grave
omission. There is nothing about

the Alberta coal miners, nd men-.

tion of Drumheller, of the strug-
gles which are so indelibly a part
of the people’s history.

The initial piece on the Native
Indians, particularly “We Claim-
ed Their Country,’ by John Lau-
rie and Winona Hauff, gives fair
sympathetic treatment of this
early period. Contributions of J.
G. MacGregor concerning the
early explorers Hendy, Mackenzie
and Thompson are ‘a welcome in-
clusion as he has proven himself
a fine historian of the Canadian
West in his books Behold the
Shining Mountains, Blankets and
Beads, and The Land of Twelve-
Foot Dacis.

Of the personal reminiscences
I particularly enjoyed “An Old
Timer Remembers” by a woman
in her seventies. He recalls her
43 years in the province digging,
building, painting; cutting, rak-
ing and bucking hay; breaking

"4905-1955

esa

horses, shearing sheep and rais-
ing chickens; fighting fire and
loneliness and ever ready to help
a neighbar. This to my mind is
the heart of the Alberta story.

The Alberta Golden Jubilee
Anthology (obtainable here at the

People’s Cooperative Bookstore,
337 West Pender, price $5) of-
fers some enjoyable reading, and
particularly for those with per-
sonal ties to this young giant
among our provinces.

MARGARET SCOTT

THE CANADA YEAR BOOK 1954

Dominion Bureau of Statistics 2
SSE CH EWAN Z =
e History of the Province by James F. Wright ......... $5.00
THE ALBERTA GOLDEN JUBILEE ANTHOLOGY
by RW iis, Harlyg. ch feet Lane Sn eee $5.00
SASKATCHEWAN IN SONG AND STORY :
by Carlyle King. Paper $1.00; Cloth $2.50
« FOUNDATIONS OF CANADIAN NATIONHOOD
by«Ghester Martin.: 2090 2 ee ea aes $7.50
COLONY TO NATION ©
a History of Canada by A. R. M. Lower ooo... $5.00
A HISTORY OF CANADA .
by Carl Wittke SOOM OR Sees ies $5.00 _
MOUNTAINS, MEN AND RIVERS
. British-Columbia in Legend and Story
by W. HStewart Reidi 22" 1% 4 ee $4.00
IMAGE OF CANADA :
A Book of Photographs by Malvina Bolus ........................ $5.50
THE FRENCH CANADIAN :
1760-1945. by F., Mason Wade _.. coe $6.00
NORTH OF 55
hye Clifford Walsone o> ee ee I $5.00
BRITISH COLUMBIA
by jFredH. Goddchild. 2 apeee hy $4.50
SPIRIT OF CANADIAN DEMOCRACY
Canadian Writings Selected by Margaret. Fairley 2.) $1.00
CANADA: THE COMMUNIST VIEWPOINT
by. Fim ‘Buck, Paper $1.00; Cloth .2.).2¢ = $3.00
FLINT AND FEATHER be eg
Complete Poems by E. Pauline Johnson 0 $3.00
' COLLECTED POEMS
by j Robert’ Services: sn fo ae $4.50
STRANGE EMPIRE __ eg tS
_by Joseph Kinsey Howard 220... Riis eee OS $6.00
LONG PLAY RECORDINGS
FOLK SONGS OF THE CANADIAN NOR \
With Wade Hemsworth ...... Be tee a ee $4.25
FOLK SONGS OF NEWFOUNDLAND. a}
‘Sung by Alan Mius <2 a $4.25.
NOVA SCOTIA FOLK MUSIC = a ar
Collected by Diana Hamilton $4.25
FRENCH CANADIAN FOLK SONGS SS
Sung epyoAlan Mills 002 08 on ee $4.25

| SING OF CANADA
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PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JULY 1, 1955 — PAGE 15