ALWAYS A PIONEER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22714, 29 October 1935, Page 11

ALWAYS A PIONEER

RECORD OF ALBERTA BEHIND THE ELECTION Alberta, one of the youngest Canadian provinces, which has gained sudden notoriety through electing the first Social Credita Government in the world, has always been a pioneer in progressive legislation (says a writer .in The Times). It was created out of the old northwest territory along with the adjoining province of Saskatchewan nearly 30 years ago, and as a Liberal Government at Ottaw-a 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. For most of that time the Premier was the late Arthur L. Sifton, the elder of two brothers who did much for Western Canada. He had vacated the office of chief justice to guide the destinies of the young province, and under his wise and far-sighted rule true and lasting progress was achieved. Those were stirring days. Immigration was at its height. The scattered trading posts of the old frontier clays, where few but half-breed voyageurs, Indians, Mounted Police, and the Hudson's Bay factors were known to go, soon became thriving centres of trade as the country filled up. At first Old Country stock predominated, and the older settlements, such as those round Calgary, High River, and Macleod, are still in the main of pure British blood. THE BOOM. As the number of immigrants increased so the stock became more varied. Thousands of fanners anxious to better their 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 favour in some of the western States, particularly in Oregon, which was always held up as a model of what a modern democracy should be. Before long Alberta was experimenting the same lines, in the years just before the; war the character of the immigrants changed greatly. They were more and more recruited from Eastern and South-eastern Europe. Galicians, Bulgars, Poles, Rumanians, Italians, Greeks, and even Syrians flocked into the new districts as they were being opened up for settlement. Edmor.tcn, the capital of the province, which had been thought by many to lie too far away in the north, was now seen to be in its true place in the centre. Vast new areas were thrown open to the west for agriculture along the new transcontinental railways that crossed the Rockies by the Yellowstone Pass and even farther north, where experiments had shown thai wheat could lie grown, in the regions of Athabasca and Peace River, The throngs of new settlers pouring through Edmonton clay after day, drawn from nearly every nationality under the sun, often recalled the rush to a football match. Hotels were always crowded out, people sleeping in baths, on billiard tables, in corridors, anywhere they could lay their heads. Then came the slump in railway construction and the war. Immigration ceased, and though attempts were made to revive it by public assistance, it never ! became again what it had been, and at last died down altogether. Business began to dwindle, and neople had time to meditate on their hardships. Great discontent prevailed. Many had settled in distant regions i where they had been promised railways, I 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. The verdure of the spring soon gave way to a deep " terracotta." and crops were ruined in a dry spell to

which there seemed to be no end. Huge 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 on rising. Most of them had to' face heavy mortgages with extortionate interest, liens on their land for machinery they had been inveigled into buying, thbuch thov could have cot well enough without it, and burdensome and often crushing contracts, which became so prevalent that laws had to be passed declaring them to be legally void unless they had been ratified by a judge of the county court. 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. Alberta and Saskatchewan, as the most recently settled parts of the Dominion and the farthest difitnnt from great centres of population and industry, have suffered first and most of all. UNSOLD GRAIN. Willi vast stores of unmarketed grain reposing in the elevators with little cliuncc of ever being sold, and fields lying itl 1« and untitled, the farmer of the prairies is able to realise as few others can the meaning of the words " poverty and plenty." His desire is for more secure markets, steadier prices for his products, and fair charges for the supplies, services, and goods he requires, as well as cheap and easy loans to tide him over such hard times as he is now experiencing. Pie wants simply a secure livelihood. Schemes of co-operation, restriction of production, regulation of markets, financial aid from Governments —all of these have been tried, but nothing has staved off the evil day. It is no wonder that these people in their despair have clutched at any straw. Whether social credits can solve their difficulties will not bo known until some definite scheme has been presented and tried. Many will feel that no system can make matters worse. In the mantime, it is to be hoped that nothing will be done either by hotheaded reformers or wild scarcemongeis to destroy the credit or future prospects of the province.