The Rural Voice, 1983-06, Page 60KEITH ROULSTON
What about the farmers'
standard of living?
It was when Transport Minister
Jean Luc Pepin was announcing pro-
posed changes to the Crow Rate that he
said something that, if it were made
government policy, would go a long way
to halting the ever -declining farm popula-
tion in Canada.
Dealing with Western farmer's com-
plaints that a change in the Crow Rate
would cost them money, Pepin belittled
the farmer's concern saying that the new
rates would represent only five percent of
the price of grain. The problem with this
argument, as every farmer knows, is that
while the new freight rate is only five per
cent of the price of grain today, in the
future the cost of freight is likely to go up
a lot faster than the price of grain. That's
why western farmers don't want to accept
a change because once the holy Crow is
dead, any new agreement would be likely
to be easily changed too.
But that magic five per cent figure
stuck in my mind. If Pepin could
guarantee that the freight rate would
never be more than five per cent of the
price of wheat he might get agreement
from the farmers. It would likely be the
railways that wouldn't be happy with the
arrangement. Can you see the railways
being willing to take less for shipping if
the price of wheat fell? "But our costs are
just as high if wheat sells for a dollar less
a bushel", they'd argue, "as if it sells for
a dollar more." And the government and
public would agree. It's just the farmer
who's expected to get along when his
profit margin is reduced.
Sitting in front of me is a picture I
clipped out of one of the city daily news-
papers a couple of weeks back. The old
photo was from a story about the great
American singer Paul Robeson who was
also a social crusader. Robertson is
shown on a picket line in Windsor in 1946
calling for a raise for autoworkers
because of the higher cost of living. The
sign he holds says "We fought together,
let's work together" referring of course to
the just -complete war. Someone else in
the picket line holds a sign that says with
the price of eggs at 45 cents a dozen and
hamburger at 25 cents, the workers need
a $2 a day raise.
First of all I wondered, looking at that
picture, what percentage the autowor-
kers' salaries had increased compared to
the cost of food. It's taken for granted
that the autoworker is supposed to get a
better standard of living. What about the
farmer? What, for instance, if like our
imaginary fixed freight rate, the cost of
other items such as cars, trucks,
tractors, fertilizer and other inputs were
tied to the cost of wheat. The cost of the
products farmers buy couldn't be more
than a certain percentage of the price the
farmer received for his products. You can
bet your boots there wouldn't be a cheap
food policy in such a case.
The economy then would depend on
the farmer getting a good dollar for his
product not giving it away. The revolution
would be similar to the one that took
effect when oil went from being cheap to
being a major factor in redistributing
wealth and power in the world. Funny
isn't it that just a few years ago we were
told that the increase in the cost of oil
would ruin the world and now were told
that if the price decreases there will be a
disaster.
I understand that the price of wheat
once upon a time was a major factor in
the economy, like the price of gold
became later. Farmers can only dream
that it might again be that way.
The other thing I wondered when I
looked at that picture of the strike in 1946
was if Paul Robeson might march for
poor downtrodden farmers in such a case
today. After all, nearly 40 inflation -filled
years later, the price of eggs has only
doubled. How much have the auto-
workers' salaries gone up in 40 years?
Would Robeson support the much ma-
ligned Egg Marketing Agency which,
after all, is really a union of egg
producers? Sadly, somehow I doubt it.
Keith Roulston has been writing this
column since 1977 and is the originator
and former publisher of The Rural Voice.
He was written several successful plays
and is connected with the Blyth Summer
Festival. He lives with his family near
Blyth.
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THE RURAL VOICE, JUNE 1983 PG. 59