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’FRIl_)AY, Manon is, 1921

a? Unis its".

ifs-Phineas». no» the Iiflh "legislatures are more or less aolemllly opened. furnishes thetext ior the orator)’ mpahles tlio jordiiaratlo“ of the formal» reply ‘ His I lliop our. At thexpresant session the apeechlplayed but a secondary" part. After some of its grammati- cal inexactitudes had furnished some amusement thespecch as an inspiration or an excuse ior decla. matlon was practically abandoned and‘ um spbstitutl ad as a stimulus to inspiration. And it worked well. From the Premier all the way down the ranks the government supporters paid their compliments to the G/uar

‘dish. ‘rile standard by which iii.-

effectiveness of a Liberal speech was measured was the vehemence with which hei ‘could damn the Guardian And what the damning lacked in reason it made up in velieinence. It became the great excuse. iwhere the Agricultural school failed in attracting pupils Tho Guardian was blamed for it; One member inn-ow, he declared, tiwo young men who would have attended the Agricultural School, had it not been ‘for the Guardian; another knew of ‘poll taxes and income taxes that would have been mid had it notibeen for the Guar- dian. And so it has gone on from

day to day. Whether the debate ' wiliinmsult in an address to Hi.-

Honour. or to the Guardian, is at this wrltingfone of the unsettled questions of the legislature. WK acknowledge the pliment with thanks. The ia- dknatlon that bailed the dis covery of tihe Bell aggregations treachery to tihose w..." elected it has been reflected in the Guardian The ibroken promises upon whicn the Bell agigregattiop was returned to power were exposed in The Guardian; the iwhole province knows this; the supporters oi thy: government know it and what hurts most of all they know that it hurts. This is a good syiniiptom. The fab. that they have felt and still feel the stinging pain that qccoinpan- ies the touching of the score indi cates that there ls some feeling left. dist there is still hope that some at least" of the acts which brought upon them the lndigriav ion of the whole province may yet be rcvlscd and, if posibieremcd. led. 1 . Oriticlsiil n1‘ course is never pal- amiable to the person criticized. To tlleuneil who made promises to their constituents whiichxthey knew would never Ibfl fulfilled, criticism its, ccorQing m ‘some o‘ these gen lumen in the government ranks. "mudalinghig"; to the peop is throughout the province, criti- cism. suoh as the Guardian has indulged in and such as has been orpreseed at over a dozen indilginat ion meetings, is ‘WIIOIQSNIIQvKIIII corrective. When members protes

com.

tod that they had made no pro.-

clection promises, that they "did" not do it" they protested too much and only opposed their guilt. "Mo hllillks lie protests overmuch" has aver been an evidence of guilt and judging by the protestations of innocence on the part of the supporters of the .Bell government the whole party is steeped in guilt. Nevertheless, as already said the fact tihat criticism in bringing the truthihome tq thoinmakes them wince is a good symptom and ai- fords room for hope:

——-—<0Q---—- BUSINESS PRQQPICTS

There is abundant speculation as to the lmlnudiote future of busl nan. lndirstflhl and commercial and there fl much that is mislead- ing and iniuriousfliroreiias been an unwholesome ‘expectation of a" drop in the things we have to buy. with n hope of 1min prices for the things-bib havoito loll Ila Laiiwinlurlotrapraitly for both. is the bane 4nd today for

I

were

‘away up. lithe demand has fall- en off it is becauaeof the hops that laricos would drop. i

What is it that regulates prices? Supply and demand solely. When the demand slows up the supply necessarily slowsdup as it would -be unbuinesslike folly to product goods for which there is no ile- mand. To slow up on manufactures is to create a scarcity ofproduct which means, later on scarcity and hlgherprices. It ineans more, it means unemployment or reduced wages or in the factories i‘ slowing up in the. wholesale and retail business and consequent un employment or reduced wages ‘o.- both in these houses. Between the raw material and the finished product the cost of production is built up. It is made up of, first, the outlay on plant, be it“ farm or factory; second, the cost of labor, third the cost of sol ling; fourth, the dividend or profit to the man whose money is in- vested in the plant. In these var- ious stages the large item is lab or. How much bother, for instance is to lbe found in a pair ‘of boots costing, say $8.00? How much wool in a suit of clothes that costs $60? Laibor. from the raw hide and the wool through tannery and mill, through factory and wholesaler and retailer, makes up by far the lar- gest ‘proportion pf the ultimate cost. To materially reduce the uitl mate coat therefore, the price of labor would have to come down very materially. Would this be de- sirahl-e? Wibat would happen if the price of laibor_ were to drop today to what it was before the war.’ A sudden fall u- wages would sirnplY be ruinous. In the United States where industrial concerns are much higher than iii Canada even the

illlllllill Cfllillllll“

Wlhether he was entitled to it or not. Premier Belicertainly elicited

the aympethyofaiihis hearse when he undertook the impossible task

of answering the Hon. Mr. Arse- nault’s indictment of the demoraliz- ad andconftised combination which sow dishonor the benches of the Government. It was beyond his capacity, either by aopiiristry or ar- gument. to set aside the evidences of min-management. deception and political fraud that hadibesn mar- shailed 'out in irresistable array. against himself and his Govern- ment, to which he was powerless

to offer any practice. I defense, It was only open for him to flounder

as best he could. filling in the time with evasive and inappro- priate platitudes until the ‘hour of adjournment gave him a transient respite from ‘his predicament. Ac- cordingly ‘he oibbled and twisted with illusions and thgories, and “aspectaahd phases." ffor an hour and avhalf. then moved an adjourn- ment of the debate until Tuesday, giving him three days in whrich to gather up his scattered senses. and, if it can be done. to search up something tangible which he could offer, EITHER IN DEFENSE OR EXCUSE FOR THEIR SINS. BOTH OF OMISSION AND COMMIS- SION.

As a first filler in he took ex- ception to Mr. Arsenault's criti- cism of the grammar and disgrace- ful mutilation of the King's Eng- lish in the Speech, and attempted to transform this into a reflection

on his Honor the Lieutenant Gover- ‘nor.

He was promptly brought to book in this by Mr. Arsenault, who, speaking to a point of order. forced him to remember that, it was not the Governor, but Premier Bell and ‘his Government who had prepared this speech and ‘they alone were l ponsible for its bad grammar and blundering composi- tion. He then tried to get behind the Provincial Auditor and the Public Works Department with an imaginary “statement" that $110,- 000 of “unauthorized expenditure", had been made by the late Govern- ment up to the 8th of September,‘ 1919. To this he added: "l have that statement in my possession)’. but he was exceedingly careful not to allow lt to see Yhe light of day“

comparatively small reduction of

Clflflffltéilstfllkés. the closing oi‘faic torles and throwing thousands out of ‘employment. though through the slowing up m buying during last summer and fab small reductions were made but the biggest cut was made in the prices of the necessaries of life. This eased the situation for em- ployees whose wages had been cut and helped materially in meeting the losses sustained through low er prices ior iann products. Can. adieu manufacturers and merchants inet the changed conditions in a Ibiislness ovayand as a result busi- ness has/proceeded about as us- ual with very few cases of insov "Bully and comparatively little dis tress and inconvenience to em pioyees and consumers generally. There has been a general decline in the cost of living ibut ii, wow.) be exceedinily unwise to insist uipon reductions which would necessi- taita the cutting "of wages or the IUBCINRKQ 0i’ employees. Business

INS Province of ours we have not even felt the jar of the ad. lustment to new conditions. Our people ‘are comparatively rich; our farmers have enjoyed several yean. of unprecedented prices and are not

prices of this year as bhey rep]. he that the prices of the nacessar. l" which 411W have tn ‘buy have bee" lvwered proportionately. I

———-——-{0->-_-_

A E AR8ENAUL\ HONOURED

iHon. Mr. Araenault has recelv. ed an invitation from the Presl- dent of the Canadian Club, Mom; ton to address the Club sometime during the month or ‘May, 1th.; m“ h" lmlted for a series of addresses on catch of the three MI-rlilhna Provinces, their political biliary. their resources and natu: l! "dYflBlI-aes and we congratulate Hon Mir. Arsenault on having been chosen as the spokesman for this Province. We feel that with his ltnonledlo and experience Mr. Ariienault will handle the subject,

flffoffdlnlry livia; In a way- that will reflect credit on

llllllflelf and M! native Province,

w" and ‘"9"? P" 9°!" i185 PW‘ produce it more than once, but, like}

an ‘Canada. alfsee the light of day.

in Canada is safe and sane; in;

inclined to grumble at the lowem

We now ask him to produce-it to, the public; he will be asked to, tlrc-~~SUI'PRES8ED REPORT OF THEIR AUDITOR, it will never And why? For the simple reason that he has no such "statement," and never‘ had. and never could have had. FOR THERE IS NOTHING IN THE FACTS OF GOVERNMENT- UPON WHICH SUCH A STATE-l

l

Convicted upon all fours of de- ception and false pretense to the people, and with that misery in his soul that sceks for company, he‘ thought it possible by some tw-lst-' ing of words and facts -to show that Conservatives have made pro- mises which they had not fulfilled.

cou-ld contrive to invent. hc floun-

llaily Selections Guardian Readers

Furnished by W. l. L°ulon_ I ' ' stone

Strange thoughts come to the man alone; ‘Tis then, if ever. he talks wltii God '

-And views himself as a single

~c In the soil orlife where the souls are grown. ‘Tia then he questions the why and where, The start and end of his years and days. And what is blame and wiiat- is praise. And What ls ugly and what is fair.

When a man has drawn iroin the busy throng To the sweet retreat oi‘ the sil- ent hours, Low voices whisper powers. i-Ie catches the strain of some far- off song, . And the sham fades out and his eves can see. Not the man he is hot. strife And the greed and grind oi a polflsh life. But the soul of the man lie is to be.

of higher

in the day's

He feels the throbbing of life divine,

iAnd catches a glimpse of greater plan; He questions the purpose and work of man. - In the hours of silence his mind grows fine; He. seeks to learn what is kept unknown; He turns from self and its garb

the

and with wiiiat weak sopliistry llcthave found out already £0

THECHARLOTTETOWN GUARDIAN .

an a6.»- "et. Jail dared in the bogs of word manipu- lation, uutil he assured himself of failure, and the auditors of his stu- plddty. The essence of his logic was, that, because Mr. Arsenault had estimated a surplus of $782, which did not materialize, the late Government were ipso ialcto prom- ise breakers. It would be the most flimsy of arguments under any conditions to base a contention of fact upon an estimate pure and simple, and Mr. Bell knew how un- tenable his ground was, but he was in extraordinary need oi some kind of camouflage to beoloud the issue, and this suggested itself to him as being better than an abso- lute default. But in point of fact, MR. ARSENAULT HAD N0 CON- TROL OVER THE RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES FOR FOUR MONTHS OF THAT YEAR. They were absolutely under the manage- ment oi Mr. Bell and his colleag- ues‘, WHOSE COOKING AND MA- NIPULATION 'HAS NOW PASS- ED INTO HISTORY. AND FOR WHICH THEY MUST ASSUME FULL RESPONSIBILITY.

With that‘ wonderfully developed Liberal faculty ior drawing sun- beams from cucumbers, he proceed- ed to create another broken pro- mise out of the Education Refer- endum. His erudite reasoning was that because the late Govern- ment did not abandon their elec- tion campaign entirely to the tend- er mercies of tilieir opponents. and PUT ON A SPECIAL CAMPAIGN TO INDUCE THE PEOPLE T0 VOTE FOR THIS ACT, then they DID'NT WANT rm: ACT r0 PASS AND IT WAS DELIBER- ATELY INTRODUCED TO DE- CEIVE was PEOPLE. Despite the fact that hlie moon is not at the full, the Patriot will delight in this unaiiswerahlc (1') attainting of the Conservative Darty. He most carefully omitted to mention that his party organ, the Patriot. had filled its columns with dentin- ciations of this measure as a wick- ed scheme to ‘impose ADDITION- AL AND UNNECESSARY TAXES UPON THE PEOPLE. and that where that paper's circulation was she strongest the adverse vote to the education tax was the biggest. BUT IN KINGS COUNTY. WHERE CONSERVATISM WAS THE STRONGEST. AND THE PATRIOTS CIRCULATION THE SMALLEST. A HANDSOME MA- JORITY WAS RECORDED IN FA- VOR OF THE ACT.

E

_Comiiig to the matter of lils own right-aibout-faice on‘ policy, instead of the denials so frequently put forth by-the party organ, he came out bluntly with “EXPEDIENCY” as his excuse for violatlonof pre- election pledges. basing h-is argu- ment. by quoting the alflwflflm.

MEN’? COULD BE BASED l-‘ivacassirv KNOWS NO LAW."

upon the principle that honor and honesty must give way to self- crented necessity. His code of honor consisted in his expressed opinion that what is spoken by candidates from the platform. nr advocated or promised by the party press is not binding upon the Liberal party. The country tlicli" cost that this is so. without uwali- lug the information from Mr. Bell. They have learned even more than tihis, and that whether spoken at random from platform or press. whether tabled in the House and voted for by their whole contingent in the form oi a resolution, or EN- GROSSED IN A MANIFESTO EN- DORSED BY THE WHOLE PAR- TY, it is shill only to them a "SCRAP OF PAPER," to be trampled under foot and kicked aside by THE HONOURABLE PREMIER BELIJ-S POLITICAL DOG-MA THAT PUBLIC HONOR COUNTS FOR NOTHING, AND THAT "NECESSITY KNOWS NO LAW." ‘Iihiis is the coda of Iioii- or. enunciated by the Leader of the Government of this province, for the ediiioatlon and emulation of the boys and girls. and the honest and honor loving people of our civiillzed province.

.And PrernilerBell is not a lover of newspapers, especially when they tell the solid truth. They worry him very much. but he is exceedingly cautious as to his manner of approaching them. As 1n other matters he would like to nhke charges against them with- out getting caught. and so be avoids giving names and contents himself with the designation oi the Conservative press. Fortu- nately his fleld for selection how- ever is limited. One of his state- ments was that "the people were advised against paying the in- come taxes." Mr. Bell knew iihat the statement he was making was absolutely untrue. and a fabric. like many others. of his own in- vention. ln reply to a challenge from Mr. Arsenauit he declared:

of clay iAnd dwells on the soul and the higher way . Strange ' thoughts come when ll

man's alone.

' A a. A- sour

"I can produce these articles II‘

‘THE GOVERNMENT DESIRES."

The Government may not desire them. but the press do, and we doubly dare the Premier to malts

0n: 0mm Letter

MTAWiA. Mar. 18th, 1921.—Slr Richard Cartwright, who declared in the days before '96 that Can- ada's annual expenditure should no. exceed 36 unilllons a year. musi- have turned in hi! 110M"!!! 8TB" when estimates were submitted to Parliament calling for an expendi- ture in the ifiacal year 1931-22 0f 582 millions, of which no i685 lhilll 54G millions are on consolidated Oi‘ current account. To Bet an idea of what this means it ls only nec- essary to remember that. it involves outlay of more than 70 dollars for every man, woman anti cnild in. the country; that it is 300 per ceiit greater than our expenditure before the war; nearly 200 mil-lions mole than ilie ordinary expenditure of the yeur before last, and, what is ufmm-e vital concern, more than 60 millions in excess of the total revenue of the present fiscal Y9!!!‘-

D°mInion Financing

Piirliuitiiieni. although impressed. is not altogether surprised. It is not surprised because, although large. the estimates actually rep- resent the very best the‘ could he done to achieve economy. Financ- ing Canada these days is not the task it was in the peaceful days before the war. ln- those days the national debt was but 350 millions, us compared with more than two an a quarter billions today; fixed charges were about 35 or 40 inil- lions as compared with 140 millions now, and there were no pensions. no gigantic railway deficits. n0 soldier land settlement and no soldiod civil service reestablish- inent. The plain truth indeed. is the. apart from obligations grow- ing out of the war an our railway 1irobieiii—zinrl- these are inescap- ubie—tlie expenditure of the coun- try has been very slightly increased Taking the following items in the estimates us on illustration: interest public debts $142,281.05? Pensions 3i ,8l6.-923 ‘Soldier Land Settlement 35.000000 Soldier Civil Re-

csiabiisllllllellq 19.991000" Railway 108000.000

in these five items alone, none oi‘ which ever appeared in IIFFPW" estimates. and all of which are obligatory. 400 million-ior practi- cally 70 per cent of the total es- timated expenditure is accounted for. .

Therefore, having regard to the facts, realizing that our financial burden represents mostly ihc sacrifice which this country made in the Great Tempest as sacrifice which no patriotic Canadian would he ‘willing to ahirk, Parliament. with the small exception ol‘ a few partlzans eager t0 maike political capital out of even. national advers- ity. is prepared to face tlir situ- ation. -

'l‘I-liE MORAL

One inoraL, however, has been (clearly taught. It is iiiiit so long as the Dominion faces such gignn- tic ccoininitmciils. so long as the nutioniii debt is wliat it is and mi- tlonal railway lciiclts continuo- wbicli is likely to bc for some time »-—lt is tlic shecrcst folly to talk about tearing down- the tariir and blasting at what is admittedly the foundation of our national revenue Realizing this, the Agrarian leaders are beginning to pay tribute to common-sense by purssyiootlng on Free Trade. Titus Mr. (jrerar, whose economics education is pro~ grossing. went down tn Montreal this week. and, taking a leaf out of the book of IVir. Fielding, assured the financial inaignatea of that, metropolis that he would never in- flict them with Tree Trade. The triiili is that with the exchange situation becoming worse, and the problem of revenue the inost vital

good his boast. We are‘ prepared to go iiito this, or any other ques- tion which he miay have the teme- rity to take, at any time that he is willing to risk the venture. The Cuoservatlve press of this prov- ince are not of the kind to make statements which they are unable to defend, and unlike the Premier's 10951 omen we have no occasion

or run to the "slush" ponds of foul language for our defence. ‘IE All" '4"

.>“\ “\;“i. .7D()l)llS F QKIDNEY»? P|tLs_-;,. A ,[]\\\\“~.—».» ‘H ‘LKHUNV

.{‘(Hl\If\1/\1y' _".Hv' y.

of the Free Traders. so loud I y?" ago, is falling to a feeble whisper, and the Government's budisst 9P0’ posals are not likely to be serious- ly assailed. ‘

Tl-IE RAILWAY PROBLEM

Witiitiis estimates calling ior 168 millions for the railways, the problem which the national rohds present is strikingly emphasized. Here again, however, impartial parliamentarians realize that the Government .-ia aim-ply the victim of a legacy left it by Governments

ell-her ipublic ownership or of prl~ vate ownership, bu; rather the in- evitable collapae of a. period of railway intoxication that regarded political rather than national con- siderations. What the country has to face ls that through what is little more than compulsion it has. come into possession of 22 thous- and miles of railway. constructed Willi competitive objects, not design

and that for some years to come it will be called upon to meet large expenditures for equipment, re- building. extensions and terminals, and serious annual deficits in opera tion. Blaming the present Govern- ment for such a situation is fool- ish and blaming other Governments iiitiie. The on» riizli I nlilzuric is that the Government should get siinpz-rt and sy;,.._.al;|,- in handiling of an enormous and complex pro- blem. so that progress may be made in repairing mnistwkes in pub- "s policy Protecting the Offidillyiilld serving the general m- teret. This attitude. there is ma. 50!! to believe the majority in Parli ment will take.