NO EASY MONEY FOR ALBERTA

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 249, 17 July 1937, Page 12

NO EASY MONEY FOR ALBERTA

The Social Credit

Illusion PREMIER ABERHART’S AWAKENING Realities of Finance e 1 1 (By J. H. Hail.) J I. I Edmonton, Alberta, June 1. i The Canadian Province of Alberta t has A Social Credit Government, s Two Social Credit parties, and .No social credit. Which, to people who know Alberta, r and have tried to know social credit, is ’ not surprising. But neither is it an ’ aid to good government; and if ever ’ good government were needed in any part of the British Dominions, it is ' needed on the Prairies to-day. Depression has dealt just about her rawest hand to the wheat-growers of Southern Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Collapse of world prices and indebtedness incurred for the most part on the assumption that good prices would last for ever —these have been common experiences in farming countries the 1 world over. In the wheat lands of lower Canada and upper United States, Mother Nature stood in with Slump > against the farmer. He has had six ■ bad harvests in six years. Five years ; the rainfall was short; and the year it ■ , did rain, rust ruined the crop. That 1 sort of thing twists a man’s mind. > When in the midst of it there happens • along a modern prophet cast in the ; mould of old Israel, offering dollars for i nothing and a cup of happiness heap- . ed up, pressed down and running over; i when the offer is made, moreover, to an electorate that is no more than one- ■ half of British stock, and therefore . half without grounding in the demo- : cratic tradition that takes all political ■ promises with a grain of salt—well, can you blame Alberta? To unreasoning minds, William Aberhart looked to be the herald of a new economic order. He was known to be a good school-teacher and an excellent headmaster. He was known, too, as a close student of the Bible, and for years he had given unsparingly of time and substance for the advancement of the form of Christian worship which he practised. Also —this in answer to critics who were always warning against “uneducated” leaders, he was a university graduate. So the United Farmers of Alberta, who had been the Government, were exterminated at the general election of 1935, and in a Legislature of 63 members, the new and wholly inexperienced Social Credit party was given 56 seats. The Opposition consisted of five Liberals and two Conservatives. That was nearly two. years ago. To-day there is almost as much Opposition as Government. Perhaps more. Split in the Party. The House adjourned about the middle of April, and is due to resume a week hence. In the meantime some Ministers have left the Government, either voluntarily or under pressure from the Premier, because they think it is not going the right way about introducing social credit, and have rallied to their support nearly half the party strength. They claim that with the help of the true Opposition they can outvote the Premier and his “Loyalists,” when the session resumes they propose to manoeuvre for a position in which their claims may be put to the test. In the event of the Government’s receiving an adverse vote, the position will be complicated by the inability of the Social Credit “Insurgents” to command Liberal and Conservative support in the next logical step—the formation of a substitute Government. The insurgents wish to defeat the Government because it is not introducing social credit; the Opposition proper wishes to defeat the Government because it says it will introduce social credit. Their agreement, and their co-operation, will end when they pass into the lobbies to carry a vote of no-confidence. There cau be no thought of the antiAberhart Social Creditors taking office with Liberal and Conservative support. Yet they are vehemently antiAberhart. They declare they have been “betrayed”; they complain (and with obvious truth) that the actions, or inaction, of the Government has weakened electoral support. But they are no I more clear than the Premier when it comes to saying how social credit could be introduced. Except that some of them have boundless faith in Major Douglas. Much more faith than the Major has in any of them, if one may judge from his latest book, “The Alberta Experiment.” But there is common ground between them in their 1 dislike of the Premier. According to 1 Douglas, Mr. Aberhart’s writings on social credit are “defective both in < theory and in practicability,” while ho ! himself has “an unusually ambitious temperament” and lacks “either politi- 1 cal experience or social sophistication.” ' Beyond saying that this isn’t very help- 1 ful, the Premier has so far resisted the ■ temptation to reply. Resignation Demanded. i

But the caustic pen of the faith’s high priest in England has been turned to good account by Dr. H. K. Brown, the insurgent leader, and constituency associations have begun to pass motions asking the Premier to resign. Those closest to him think lie will go to the country rather than give way personally; and competent observers who have no faith whatever in social credit or its exponents, say that, although the majority would be very substantially reduced, another election this summer might easily return another Social Credit Government. But it would be a big risk to take, and Mr. Aberhart is likely to strain every effort to compose the differences among his erstwhile followers. He still thinksMajor Douglas will help Alberta through. Apart from the double meaning in “through,” Edmonton and the province are smilingly doubtful. They have had the Major in Canada twice already, and when lately the Government invited him to come back as economic adviser he stalled by agreeing to send two lieutenants to look things over for him. The feeling is held in some quarters that this prelinminary inspection will be political rather than economic—that what principally interests Major Douglas is how the electorate feels toward Mr. Aber hart. Meantime the Major draws good royalties (in sterling) from writing about Alberta, and the attempts of other folk to work his theories there; or so the disillusioned in the movement are saying.

(The next article will appear on Monday).