The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

1972 WELFARE: HIDDEN BACKLASH 379good intentions back in the EighteenSeventies when they embarkedon the idealistic course ofprotecting the Indian. Theythought of him as a potentialwhite man who could become selfsupportingif .settled on the land.The assumption need not havebeen fatal if the Indians had beenpermitted to match their wits inthe market place with the new settlerswho were pouring into westernCanada.The Perils of ProtectionismTrue enough, the Indian was notan agriculturalist. But he couldhave learned the hard way, throughcrop failures. The trouble with theQueen's philosophy (Did you knowthat Queen Victoria was a socialist?)is that it insisted that theIndian be protected against thepossibility of being rooked in atrade with an unscrupulous capitalist.Penned in on his reservedlands, the Indian was not allowedto farm for the market place. Thewhite man who was supposed tobe the Indian's keeper became hisjailer, shutting him behind a buckskincurtain for a wholly questionablegood.With enough welfare money inhis pocket to buy' firewater, theIndian was under no compulsionto take jobs building the railroadsor clearing the forests. Japaneseand Chinese laborers came in todo the strong-arm work and remainedto become self-respectinggardeners and restaurant owners.While strong-backed people fromEastern Europe made farms forthemselves and took their chancesin ,the market, the Indian sankdeeper and deeper into sloth. Hischildren, taken from the wild .andforced to sit in governmentschools, learned little of value to afuture on a reservation or in acity ghetto.The crowning blow came whenthe Northern Indian was forced tobecome a "protected" trapper.Originally, the Indian trappercould sell his furs where hepleased. The Hudson's Bay Companywas the big buyer. To get ", acontinuing supply of furs, theHudson's Bay Company would advancethe Indian enough moneyfor a season's grubstake. The socialistsof Saskatchewan thoughtit demeaning for the Indian tohave to go to a capitalist organizationfor a livelihood. Accordingly,they set up a State MarketingService and made it a punishableoffense for the Indian to sell hisfurs elsewhere.Unfortunately the socialistsfailed to follow through with anyof the capitalist services that theHudson's Bay Company had provided.Where the Indian trapperhad once been able to get $400 incredit and food to go on the trap-