ALBERTA.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 231, 30 August 1937, Page 8

ALBERTA.

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —As a Canadian on an extended visit to New Zealand, Where I first settled in Invercargill in the early ’seventies, and lived altogether for 39 years in this Beautiful island Dominion (and for the fast 24 years in the city of Edmonon, capital of the Province of Alberta), I claim space in your P a P® r to reply to your editorial headed Mr Aberhart’s Choice,” in Friday’s issue, August 27th last. I know Mr Aberhart personally, and have been keenly interested as a citizen in the man himself as one of the ablest and most eloquent of platform speakers in the Dominion of Canada, and know at the same time how he has been wilfully maligned and grossly misrepresented by his opponents, men who claim to be Liberals and others Conservatives, but who, whenever there is a fear or opposition to the present method, and one so long practised and spoken or as the capitalist system of conducting the affairs of a country, will at once sink their differences and join up as a National Party in an endeavour to frustrate new ideas which reformers seek to establish. You have them in this country, only perhaps under a different title; they, with all the power and arguments that they can invent, still bolster up and hold tight to the present economic system. Now, while I agree with much in your editorial and the fair manner in which you state it, yet I have to cross swords with you on some points. You have not mentioned very important facts dealing with the terrible depression all over Canada, the greed and avarice of men connected with the big industrial and manufacturing plants of Eastern Canada, and of how many of the prairie farmers in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta had been cruelly treated and made bankrupt through pressure brought to bear on them Dy banks, trust and mortgage companies with high interest rates; companies which had high-pressure salesmen sent out to force the latest and most expensive machinery on the farmers, then putting in the bailiff and squeezing them to the walls, then there were the big packing plants and textile manufacturers, big departmental stores in Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, and many other stores all over Canada, that had practically crowded out and ruined the small storekeepers, also the evidence given before the Stevens Commission regarding sweat shops, etc. In fairness to Alberta s Premier, who within a very short period had by public speeches captivated all who had any regard for their fellows, and remembering Bobby Burns’s oft-repeated statement, “Man s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn,” I would have thought you would have given these facts to your readers. These terrible conditions forced Mr Aberhart to action. Canadians remember the hundreds of thousands unemployed, of the then Prime Minister Mr R. B. Bennett’s statement that if he and his party (the Conservatives) were returned he would soon end unemployment by building a highway across Canada. Did he carry out his promise? No; and during his five years term he instituted camps for the unemployed at 53 per week, board and lodging—a disgraceful act by a man who is spoken of as. a millionaire times over. Bear in mind, also, Mr Bennett issued a ban on “riding the rods” on the freight trains as soon as he learned that these workers in the camps were dissatisfied with the life they were living, and so in spite of .Mr Bennett’s autocratic and Mussolinilike edict, the men determined to disobey and march by train and road to Ottawa and interview Mr Bennett and his Minister of Justice regarding their treatment. Mr Bennett actually became scared of these workers, who threatened to walk to the seat of Government, and he hurriedly called in Major-General Macbnen, of the Canadian Mounted Police, and issued instructions to have these men stopped at Regina, the capital of Saskatch©wan, for, said Mr Bennett, “these men are Communists and are out to get up a Soviet system of government in Canada.” Were you not informed of the terrible riot in Regina when both the mounted and city police, let loose in the public square, swung their batons, injuring all who came m contact, and the outbreak resulted in the death of a popular police officer, who at the time was in plain clothes. Canadians all over looked upon Mr Bennett’s action as an outrage, and he surely lost*out as an Administrator at Ottawa, being replaced by Mr McKenzie King at the last general election. , i .. Mr Aherliart has not had halt a chance to put in force his Social Credit platform. Fie has been blocked by the Press, so much so that there was an outcry for licensing the Press by many of Mr Aberhart’s followers, who were at the time I left Vancouver the big majority in Alberta. In conclusion, is the system right which allows banks to control a Government elected by an overwhelming vote, as Mr Aberhart’s was, to carry out the people’s wishes, and then to be everlastingly blocked by the Dominion Government at Ottawa and informed that the issuance of money in every form can only come through the banks by order of the Dominion Government? The banking system, with paper and not gold sovereigns as in years past, is a mueh-criticised system all through Canada, with the banks being all too sparing, or, as it is stated, “tightening up the money market” and the ordinary man and woman kept short, while the few rich classes have an abundance. No, the svstem needs amending, as you must know full well. Mr Aberhart, like the late Rt. Hon. Richard J. Seddon, is

a humanitarian, a man who is out to improve matters for the masses and a man who by his great gifts of oratory, he being a finished scholar and late principal of the Calgary High School —a man who is determined and not easily dismayed by the tactics of his detractors —must continue as a great leader to bring such pressure‘in the long run which will ultimately bring about a much more satisfactory svstem than the present. —I am, etc., J GEORGE DEWE. 4 Grey Street, Feilding. ' 30th August, 1937.