For the next year, this column will mark The Western Producer’s 100th anniversary by taking a deep dive every week into a past issue of the paper.
The Royal Commission on Agriculture and Rural Life in Saskatchewan was the big news in the Dec. 19, 1957, issue.
The commission, which had completed its report, held a conference to discuss the findings and recommendations. More than 200 delegates and observers representing at least 17 rural and farm organizations attended the meeting.
According to The Western Producer reporter who covered the meeting, a division soon became apparent between those who were willing to plan some distance into the future and those who felt the immediate need for more money for farmers.
If financial assistance didn’t arrive soon, the story said, there would be no need to plan for a defunct agricultural economy.
It was pointed out that those who felt the immediate need for assistance were the ones closest to the farmer: Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, the Saskatchewan agriculture minister and the Saskatchewan Farmers Union.
Professor W.B. Baker, chair of the royal commission, recognized a serious shortage of facts and figures about Saskatchewan’s farm economy and said it would drag the feet of any group attempting to plan for the future.
The commission often said in its report that co-operatives were a tool for solving problems that could be used more often.
One of the commission’s recommendations didn’t sit well with the Saskatchewan Agricultural Societies Association. It didn’t want responsibility for agricultural societies and 4-H clubs to be transferred to the Agricultural Representatives Service from the University of Saskatchewan.
This was also the first issue that I’ve looked at in which prime minister John Diefenbaker made an appearance.
Diefenbaker, who had been elected to the country’s top job earlier that year, attended a meeting of NATO in Paris.
The Producer marked the occasion by running headshots on the front page of Diefenbaker, U.S. president Dwight Eisenhower, British prime minister Harold Macmillan, French prime minister Felix Gaillard and Western German chancellor Konrad Adenauer.
August company, indeed.
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