Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-21
CANADIAN GROWERS
IN SERIOUS PLIGHT
Pool May Cut Payment for
No. | Wheat From ST to
70 Cents a BusheI.
BY J. C. ROYLE.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star
MONTREAL, August 2l.-Among per-
sons giving serious thought to their
economic prospects probably none is
| thinking harder than the Canadian
| wheat farmer today.
He has just come through year
which, despite the fact that he has en-
| ployed all of his industry and every
| economy, has left him barely solvent.
And now he is told that worse is to
come-the threat lying in the promise
OF increased SURPRISES in Russia, Aus
tralia and Argentine, where acreage ex-
pansion is rapid.
The Canadian wheat pool last year
made an initial payment OF 81 bushel
to its members for NO. Northern
wheat. This year its payment is ex-
pected to be 10 cents. Thus the farmer
! starts under an initial handicap of 80
per cent which can only be oyertaken
by an increased yield. This is in pros
pect, but not to an extent sufficient
to overcome the price difference.
Insurance Firms Involved.
Just how serious this handicap is, can
| best be realized in the light of the fact
| that during the past year, when the
| pool was making an initial disbursement
| Of 81, close to 100000 acres reverted
! into the hands of insurance company
/
session to protect their equity Nearly
| all great Canadian insurance companies,
as well as two prominent Canadian trust
! companies, are involved in this phase of
| Western depression.
| The prospect is not an encouraging
one, and the western grower is facing
it thoughtfully. Probably no circum-
| stance in his situation is more signifi-
| can't than his own changed outlook A
few years ago his confidence was i'm
plicit that in the formation of the wheat
pool he had evolved the final solution
of his economic difficulties. He believed
| in it as an agency able to affect world
prices and bring about the orderly mar
keting essential not only to price sta
bility, but also to maintain stable prices
at high enough level TO insure fair
return.
| Today this outlook no longer prevails
It is not that the farmer has lost faith
in the pool. Rather, he realizes that the
Canadian crop no longer is the deter
mining factor in world prices and that
the pool must, accordingly, modify what
has been its strategy in the past, in the
light of this fact
Course Is Uncertain.
Just what course the prairie grain
grower will adopt in an effort to i'm
prove his position is uncertain. The re-
| cent general election in which the Pro-
gressive party-traditionally agricul-
tural-was about eliminated and sup
porters of the protectionist Conservative
party elected in its stead was illuninat-
ing as revealing the farmers growing
interest in a protective tariff. Previ-
ously the western farmer has looked
more to the cooperative movement
than TO the government for solution
of his troubles. But he had expert
mented with politics after 1921 by Gre
ating an agricultu. al bloc in the House
of Commons. Its achievements were
disappointing.
the election by which the Liberal gov
ernment in CANADA has just lost power
, after nine years in Office. During the
, past year the impression grew in GreaI
Britain that the Canadian wheat poo
was withholding its grain from the
market in an effort to raise the price
of bread to the British consumer.
prejudice against Canadian wheat
which at one time threatened to de-
velop into a boycott, then became no.
, ticeable among British buyers.
! The Liberal government. in the re-
r cent campaign, proposed to overcome
: this prejudice by extending freely Il
8 British manufacturers important pref
{ ences in the Canadian market. /
, was thought that such a concession
y upon Canada'S part would ensure cor
dial preference for Canadian wheat a
q matter Of reciprocity.
Liberals Rejected in West.
The Conservative party was frank
skeptical concerning the response L
:, any such program and criticized tn
|. granting of preferences without an
!: specific reciprocal agreement
It The West not because it did no
: want a preference for its wheat il
Great Britain, but because it place
+; more reliance on the Conservativ
Il party's policy Of specific bargaining, re
;. jected the Liberal Governments pro
!; posals. Premier Bennett, accordingl!
q will have as one of his important mis-
sions at the Economic and Imperial Con