SOCIAL CREDIT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 269, 13 November 1935, Page 19

SOCIAL CREDIT.

ALBERTA'S PANACEA.

RIOTING AT REGINA.

GRIEVANCES OF . SETTLERS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) VANCOUVER, October 23. Alberta, one of the youngest Canadian provinces, wliicli has gained sudden notoriety through electing the first social credit Government in the world, has always been a pioneer in progressive legislation. It was created out of the old Northwest Territory, along with the adjoining province of Saskatchewan, nearly thirty years ago, and as a Liberal Government at Ottawa had given it its charter, the first Provincial Government was Liberal in name and in policy and held sway until a few years after the war. As the number of immigrants increased so the stock became more varied. Thousands of farmers anxious to better tlieir condition left their homes in the western States, and, bringing their all with them, as in the old prairie schooner days, migrated across the frontier to settle in the new country, where land was either free or dirt cheap. They brought with them as well many of those new-fangled notions of democracy, such as primary elections, the initiative, the referendum and the recall, which already found much favour in some of the western States. Later came the slump in railway construction and the war. Immigration ceased. Business began to dwindle and people had time to meditate on their hardships. Prices Soar. Many had settled in distant regions where they had been promised railways, but the tracks never came near and they were left out in the wilderness with little prospect of marketing whatever crops they raised. In the southern part of the province there was a wide belt of land that was burned up by drought year after year. Irrigation ditches helped only those along their immediate course, who had to pay highly for their lands. The price of everything the farmer wanted rose and kept oil rising. Most of them had to face heavy mortgages with extortionate interest and liens on tlieir land for machinery. New Party Appears. Such grievances led to the formation of the United Farmers' party, who succeeded the Liberals in 1921 and remained in office until their defeat at the present election. Hard times and the latest slump have swept them away, as they did the Liberals before them. The .farmer has seen his markets disappear and his prices fall, while liis requirements show few signs of becoming cheaper. In other times he could eke out his living by working on another farm, but now that means of keeping body and sou} together has gone and there is nothing facing him but starvation and poverty and a blank future. TI WI7M S 110 city ' where! there is neither \york nor assistance.?', , '> iS'uch. are the-feelings which, .provoked the. recent outbreak of riotiiig.at liegina, tho capital of Saskatchewan, and led to the victory of the Social Credit party ili Edmonton.