The Making of a Socialist T.C. Douglas, Premier of Saskatchewan, 1944. The Making of a Socialist The Recollections of T.C. Douglas Edited by Lewis H. Thomas The University of Alberta Press First published by The University of Alberta Press Edmonton, Alberta, Canada ISBN 0-88864-082-X Copyright © The University of Alberta Press 1982 First paperback edition 1984 Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Douglas, T.C. (Thomas Clement), 1904- The making of a socialist Includes index. ISBN 0-88864-082-X 1. Douglas, T.C. (Thomas Clement), 1904- 2. Statesmen-Canada-Biography. 3. Saskatchewan-Politics and government. I. Thomas, Lewis H., 1917- II. Title. FC3525.1.D68A3 971.24'009'94 C81-091230-9 F1072.D68A3 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be produced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior permission of the copyright owner. Typesetting by The Typeworks Mayne Island, British Columbia Printed by John Deyell Company Willowdale, Ontario, Canada To Gertrude S. Telford 1887-1978 This page intentionally left blank Contents Foreword ix 1 Scottish immigrant 1 2 Baptist minister 40 3 C.C.F. politician 75 4 War years in Parliament 121 5 Provincial leader 139 6 First months of office 158 7 Saskatchewan government reforms 196 8 The 1948 election 246 9 At home and abroad 263 10 The third C.C.F. term in office 303 n Reflections on life and politics 334 12 Editor's conclusion 364 Notes 378 Index 395 This page intentionally left blank Foreword Thou of an independent mind, With soul resolv'd, with soul resign'd; Prepar'd Power's proudest frown to brave, Who wilt not be, nor have a slave; Virtue alone who dost revere, Thy own reproach alone dost fear. Robert Burns, "For an Altar of Independence"1 In the following pages, the recollections of Thomas Clement Douglas are reproduced from a series of taped interviews re- corded between 21 September and 21 December 1958. The inter- viewer was C.H. (Chris) Higginbotham, a well-known journalist and radio commentator. T.C. Douglas was a Member of Parliament from 1935 to 1944, and again from 1962 to 1979, for a total of twenty-six years. In the intervening seventeen years, a period of office so far unequalled x Foreword in the history of the province, he was Premier of Saskatchewan. The setting and circumstances of the interviews were described by Mr. Higginbotham in a statement from their last recording ses- sion: In 1958 Saskatchewan was in the throes of great activity and change. Premier Douglas was right in the midst of it. He therefore couldn't possibly find the time to sit down and write his experiences in the usual way. It was felt, however, that an effort should be made to get these recorded before time dimmed his memory and the memory of people living at this date. It was therefore decided to press into service the burgeoning science of electronics. For two hours at a time, mostly on Sundays and afternoons in the fall and winter of 1958, the premier casually and completely without notes told his story to a tape recorder. The recording sessions were held in the Executive Council Chamber of the Legislative Build- ing. The chamber, by the way, is a replica of a room in the Vatican. It was believed to be the most perfectly appointed room of its kind in the Dominion. The walls are covered with red silk tapestry, woven to represent Roman tapestry seven hundred years old. This is the room in which the Saskatche- wan cabinet met on Tuesdays and Fridays. One of the fea- tures of the room is a large beautifully polished oval table, around which the cabinet ministers sit. It is at this table, too, where Premier Douglas told his story. He'd stride into the room armed with three large pipes. It was evident, however, that he was no tobacco addict. He would take a few puffs from one pipe, put it down, and then repeat the process with another pipe. It could be said he was almost a dead loss to the tobacco industry. He has just now entered his office on this last Sunday before Christmas, 21 December 1958. His office is just a few steps from this Council Chamber. It's a beautiful room, bright with flowers despite the bitter weather without. The portraits looking down on the premier while he works in- clude those of Abraham Lincoln, J.S. Woodsworth, founder of the C.C.F. party, Prime Minister Mackenzie King, and some family pictures, and M.J. Coldwell, who at this date has Foreword xi C.H. (Chris) Higginbotham, interviewer, 1962. retired as leader of the C.C.F. Party. There's also a portable television set in the office, a symbol of the times in which we're in at this moment. It would have been impossible to find a better interviewer than Chris Higginbotham, who had known at first hand every political leader of Saskatchewan from the late 1920s through to 1958. Born in Altricham, near Manchester, England, in 1901, he served with the Royal Flying Corps and the R.A.F. in the First World War. He emigrated to Canada shortly after the armistice. He worked for a time on cannery boats in Vancouver, and then obtained a position with a west coast weekly. Later he moved to Saskatchewan, joining the Regina Leader-Post in 1927, and served its Moose Jaw bureau until 1931. In 1933 he became city editor of The Leader-Post, and stayed on as city editor and acting editor until 1944. The next two years were spent as The Leader-Post's Ottawa correspondent. He served on the Vancouver Sun for a xii Foreword year and then returned to Regina, where he worked as a radio and television broadcaster, and as a free-lance correspondent for Time and other magazines and newspapers. In 1968, Higginbotham published a book on Saskatchewan political history entitled Off the Record.2 The work is replete with interesting anecdotes and shrewd characterizations covering the years from the turn of the century to 1966. The interviews were really conversations between the two men. They were both articulate, with a twinkle in their eyes. Higginbotham was noted as an ebullient conversationalist. Both men were about the same height (the premier was 5 feet, 5 inches), but here the resemblance ceased. Douglas was slight of figure while Higginbotham tended to rotundity. These transcribed interviews are a significant contribution to the history of Canadian politics. Douglas's recollections are notable for their incisiveness and candour. And they display a generosity of spirit in a man who was subjected, during the early years of his premiership, to more vilification than any other politician of his day. Yet despite it all, T.C. Douglas never lost his magnanimity. The perceptive reader will recognize that the premier and the party he led were articulating principles and policies that aroused extreme hostility in conservative circles at the time, but which are now regarded as conventional political wisdom. A number of additional prefatory comments are in order. The preparation of these interviews was a project of the Archives of Saskatchewan, then headed by Dr. John H. Archer, provincial archivist from 1957 to 1962. The tapes comprise about twenty-six hours of conversation. On the whole, the sound reproduction is good, except in a few instances when Mr. Douglas was not facing the microphone. The sequence of topics to be covered was arranged in advance by Mr. A.R. Turner, assistant archivist and later Archer's successor, and Mr. Higginbotham, in consultation with the premier. The typed transcription of the interviews was prepared shortly after the last interview, and number 524 foolscap double-spaced typed pages. More than one stenographer was in- volved in the transcription, and some proper names were spelled phonetically. It is from this transcript that the following work has Foreword xiii been assembled. The last chapter is a summary of the chief events of the last three years of Douglas's term of office (1959-61), written by the editor. To prepare a manuscript of publishable length and form involved some omissions. The criteria applied included the avoid- ance of repetition, unnecessary detail, and some references of purely family interest. Correction of some errors in syntax have been made. In a few instances, sections were rearranged so that a strict chronological account was consistently maintained. Inter- polations and explanations by the editor appear in square brackets. A number of friends have been most helpful in assisting the preparation of this work. I would like to thank Mr. T.C. Douglas for granting access to this record; Mr. Ian Wilson, provincial archivist of Saskatchewan, and his staff, for innumerable favours; Mr. Leslie Gutteridge, director of the University of Alberta Press from 1971 to 1979, for enthusiastic support; his successor, Mrs. Norma Gutteridge, and Mrs. Katherine Wensel for excellent edi- torial assistance. I am grateful to Mrs. Olive Baird of the staff of the Department of History for expert typing, and to my wife for careful proof-reading and excellent suggestions. The University of Alberta provided assistance from the general research fund for consultations in Regina. Photographs are courtesy of the Archives of Saskatchewan. Edmonton, Alberta Lewis H. Thomas August 1979 This page intentionally left blank 1 Scottish immigrant I was born on 20 October 1904 in the town of Falkirk, Scotland.1 This is a well-known town in Scottish history, lying half-way between Glasgow and Edinburgh, the scene of many battles be- tween the English and the Scotch and later the scene of a very famous battle when Bonnie Prince Charlie was trying to seize the throne of the United Kingdom.