Swing Left

Canada's Liberal Government, which has been pushed steadily left by the socialist CCF, last week went the whole way in its control of wheat. The Government whipped through two readings in the House of Commons a bill to permit the Government Wheat Board to buy, sell and regulate the marketing of all Canadian wheat until at least 1950. (The third and final reading of the bill would be routine.)

The Government took control of wheat during the war and closed free trading in wheat on the Winnipeg Grain Exchange. But this was the first time Canada has stretched a wartime expediency into long-term peacetime policy. The new bill would make the Wheat Board the world's biggest trader in wheat. Buyers both in and outside Canada could deal only with the Board; Canadian farmers could sell only to the Board at its price; no railway or elevator company could receive wheat without a Board permit. The Board could even suspend any farmer's right to ship grain.

Without a Murmur. The CCF, which feels the standard socialist urge for state trading, thought this was wonderful. No one was surprised at that. The surprise was that men who believed in free enterprise and free trading swallowed the bill without a murmur. The only loud protest came from the Progressive Conservatives in Parliament who cried that the "Government was out to outsocialize the socialists." But the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, which represents the farmers, announced that they were "100% behind the bill." The Government had counted on the farmers' long-standing dislike of the feast or famine days of free trading in wheat before the war; it promised that if it did the trading it would stabilize wheat prices and farmers' incomes.

The Government system of evening up farmers' incomes was simple compulsory saving in good years to put aside something for the lean. The Government had paid the farmer $1.35 a bushel for wheat. It sold to Britain under a special wheat deal (TIME, Aug. 5) at $1.55, and to other nations and the world markets for a variety of prices. The profit was dumped in a kitty along with profit from, selling wheat in Canada. In 1950 the kitty will be split up among farmers on a participating basis.

While the current high prices last, the Government plan is bound to work. But would it work if wheat fell to prewar prices? Some free-trading Canadians were sure that it would not. Then Canada might also find--as wheat-wise John Bracken, leader of the Conservatives, warned--that Canada's old customers were turning elsewhere. Some might well feel that they were not getting a fair deal under the multiple price plan.

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