Evening star., 1936-12-13
ALBERTA WHEAT: THE
MARKET DIED AND TROU.
BILE ARRIVED.

men too little!" 1t was like Bryan's
crown of thorns" and "cross of gold!"
1t carried Aberhart and his retainers
into power in August. 1885. with 56
of them in a Legislature of SO.
Once in power Mr.. Aberhart has
proceeded with great sweeps of his
armed hand to lberate his suffering
province, as the brave knight cut loose
the captive maiden in the wood Not
for him the cold teaching of eco
nomics: away with i'll Give us the
working of the spirit! welfare" does it
not Wealth! This province has too
many public debts Gt owes munich
palities and all, about 1920, 900, ,OO0)
Away with the debt! The bankers
take away their money: Good! Well
have money Of our own! The peoples
incomes are too small! All right
everybody shall have a new one:
Everybody buy from everybody and
pass round like the grand chain of a
barn dance!
Was all this crazy? Not quite. 1t
reflects at least the big. broad fact
that all the world, not Alberta alone,
is overburdened with debts; and the
debts have got to come down; got to,
or We perish: down by cancellation
and force, or down painlessly by ris-
ing prices; but somehow down.
Alberta Cuts Debt.
So Alberta cut the debt. The in
terest on all the provincial bonds was
cut one-half-the per cents to 21a.
and so on. That was done by order
in council and validated by q provin-
cial act of 1886.
All municipal debts are cut to a nat
3 per cent if the municipality wishes
it. Does it wish it? Well, now!-why,
the city Of Edmonton the other day
paid the per cent instead of to the
provincial government itself on bonds
the province held against the town.
Private debts? Not wiped out, but
added up as to 1882, all interest since
then deducted from the principal. in
terest rate cut to per cent, and all
payments subject to consent by the
Advisory Board. The offenders life lies
at the mercy Of the duke only"-as
Portia said. Aberhart ought to fetch
her over.
The next item: Alberta money!
Prosperity scrip! It looks like the
stuff the william uses in the melodrama
to lead the girl astray! The front is
all covered with dollar marks: the
back (you don't need to look at it, all
ready for stamps. What will it buy?
Pretty well anything in the country
store at Wetaskawin or Red Deer;
nothing at all in a big departmental
store at Edmonton; no good for rail-
ways, telegraphs, express, post office,
and all the things belonging to the ac-
cursed capitalists of the East. Pay
ments to foreign" companies for
eign means Canada, yes, they take a
percentage Of pay in it to get busi-
ness. Some won't touch it. But the
unemployed eat it up! And govern
ment employees get doses" Of it, as
Mrs. Squeers dosed the boys in her
husbands school.
Then Social Credit"
Last comes social credit, the big
gest thing of the lot-the SIS
month. 1T will take 18 months to
get it working" said Mr.. Aberhart.
This Autumn his provincial treasurer,
his right bower, said. I'VE may do it
in IS" In fact, some people think
it's done. Aberhart's Legislature
passed an act ito provide the people
of Alberta with additional credit"
(September, 1856 that is meant to
implement social credit" In reality
1t does nothing of the sort. It's just an
act for setting up a Provincial Credit
Board to make loans to those who
need them-noching in or of itself
more revolutionary than the hous-
ing acts and relief of a dozen places.
Moreover, it has been announced
that there can be no social credit"
except for people who register"
When you register you sign a docu-
ment that covers page, that pledges
you to Alberta money, that pledges
your support to social credit, that
cuts you out of individual buying and
selling, that governs your "produc-
ton" on the farm.
In short, no man with solid prop
erty. and any vestige of self-help will
sign at all. "If they won't sign" said
Aberhart, "then I'm sorry, for We
can't have social credit" Nov, then"
he said just the other day, there
must be no mutiny! If there's mutiny
we can't go on"
In other words, it's not hard to
make forecast; all great leaders and
prophets 60 stale on their job or re-
turn to the wilderness. Mahomet went
to his cave; Charles v went into
monastery. Mr.. Aberhart may 60 up
into the Rockies.
Courts Are Sitting.
The courts, of course, are sitting
on all this, but the courts with us in
Canada mean Ultimately the Kings
Privy Council in England-in other
words, Jarndyce and Jarndyce. BY
the time they get finished no one will
remember what 1t was about.
Before that time the experiment"
will be over. Capital is running away
from Alberta. People with real prop
erty are trying to sell it. Values
are collapsing. Script Is whitening.
Night Is falling. Winters coming.
There will be. q general election;
the Conservatives" under some new
name, will come back.
When that happens the scrip" will
be swept up and burned. But the
public debts and the municipal debts
will never come back Is they WERE
no nsverl The remembrance Of