V. C. Fowke

National Policy and Western Development in North America

The general theme of these discussions calls for a reinterpretation of the West as an underdeveloped region. This lends credence to a hypothesis occasionally encountered that history is comprised of the examination of a succession of conceptual anachronisms devised in each case by the historians generation for the solution of contemporary problems and applied as an afterthought to the reconstruction of the past. The adoption of the concept of underdevelopment in die present circumstance is in line with this hypothesis and is, in this regard, in good company with well-worn frames of reference utilized by earlier generations of North American economic historians. Turner advanced the frontier thesis as a tool of analysis of the past at a time when major concern was arising over the frontiers disappearance. Innis fashioned the staple-trade approach to Canadian economic development in the interwar years when for a time it appeared that Canadian prosperity and material advance had vanished coincidentally with the mortal illness of the last great Canadian staple, wheat.

Economic Effects of the War on the Prairie Economy

The effects of the war on the prairie economy can best be considered against a background of three elements—one of them general and two more specific. The first, and most general, of these elements is the historical position of Canadian agricultural groups and agricultural communities in war-time situations. The second is the specific position of the prairie economy in relation to the First World War. The third is the familiar record of prairie agriculture throughout the depression of the nineteen-thirties. These background elements will be sketched in briefly. Canadian agriculture conforms historically to the typical pattern of agriculture developed within a mercantilistic framework. Though traditionally solacing itself, and being solaced, with the belief that it is Canadas basic industry, Canadian agriculture has most readily attracted attention and secured encouragement and support in situations where mercantile or industrial groups have considered that agriculture should be encouraged and supported. The French fostered the original agricultural settlement on the St. Lawrence in order to secure their fur-trade route against the Iroquois. The English considered agricultural settlement to be an indispensable adjunct to their military strongpoint, Halifax. United Empire Loyalists were welcomed to the upper St. Lawrence after 1780 so that they might settle around the frontier posts at Cataraqui, Niagara, and Detroit and thus strengthen the respective garrisons. Plans for the settlement of the prairie regions, put forward before and after Confederation, envisaged the establishment of a strong and vigorous agricultural community north of the forty-ninth parallel of latitude, a community which would forestall the threat of economic and even military occupation of Ruperts Land by the Americans. These historical examples illustrate the extent to which Canadian agricultural communities have derived significance from situations involving war or the threat of war.

The National Policy and the Wheat Economy.

A device for preventing the reversal of a power window motor, wherein when the motor is normally actuated, a coiled spring loosely fitted on a core coupled with a worm gearing is contracted by the core, and the friction between the outer periphery of the coiled spring and the inner periphery of a drum is weakened, so that an output piece is rotated to open or close window glass, while when it is intended to manually push down or pull up the window glass, the coiled spring is expanded by a dog of the output piece, and the friction is strengthened, so that the turning of the dog is checked to brake the output piece.

Progress, Poverty, and Inter-Regional Disequilibrium *

The phrase “Progress and Poverty” in this title is borrowed from Henry George, but in this paper it is applied to a geographic paradox much broader than the one the famous single-taxer had in mind. For Henry George the principles implicit in the expression were universal; but the paradox of the inevitable survival of poverty in spite of economic progress existed within the limits of each nation or even of its smallest community. Progress and poverty as Henry George saw them were ubiquitous and inseparable companions. The progress and poverty referred to in the present paper are, it is true, inseparable companions in history; but the contrast is not between classes within one country or region, but, more generally, between different countries, between different regions of the world. As for the disequilibrium mentioned in this title, it is broader than that about which so much has been written recently and which is sometimes referred to as “the Dollar Problem.” The condition referred to here is not merely a condition of the present day; it is very old. It embraces the dollar problem and many others. It is not exclusively economic but has implications of equal importance for political and social life. It is the disequilibrium which arises from the persistent disparity in rates of technological progress between different areas or regions of the world.

Dominion Aids to Wheat Marketing, 1929–39

Dominion aids to Canadian wheat marketing extend back at least to the beginnings of the western wheat trade and have been of three traditional types, viz.: (1) regulation, (2) investigation, and (3) elevator operation on a limited scale. Regulation of the Canadian grain trade has long been of a quality unsurpassed in other grain producing countries and has evolved in recent decades through repeated revisions of the Canada Grain Act. Investigation dealing specifically with the western wheat trade has involved a notable series of royal commissions commencing with the present century. Elevator operation by the Dominion Government started in 1913 with experimentation and compromise as its objects, and the Dominion Government still retains substantial interests in interior and other terminal elevator plants. In addition to the customary federal aids to wheat marketing before 1929, mention should be made of the exceptional intervention accompanying the Board of Grain Supervisors, which marketed part of the 1916 wheat crop and the crops of 1917 and 1918, and the first Canadian Wheat Board, which marketed the crop of 1919. Important as the above-mentioned aids have been in shaping the destiny of the Canadian grain trade, they form a striking contrast in simplicity compared with the interventions of the decade4 herein considered. Dominion regulation, investigation, and elevator operation have continued to the present time, but the notable innovations in Dominion activity after 1929 lie beyond the traditional categories and include more or less sustained sorties in attempted stabilization, in bonusing, in international consultation, and in various types of wheat board operation. Dominion aids to wheat marketing, of special significance from 1929 to 1939, may therefore be classified as follows: (1) stabilization activities, (2) bonus payments, (3) international consultation and agreement, (4) wheat board operations; and since several important federal investigations of the grain trade took place within the decade, there should be added (5) investigation. These topics have, for the most part, been analysed individually and at short range in various current writings, so that factual material may here be reduced to a minimum and the emphasis placed upon interpretation in perspective.