The Story of Mouseland as told by Tommy Douglas, 1944
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It's the story of a place called Mouseland. Mouseland was a place
where all the little mice lived and played, were born and died.
And they lived much the same as you and I do.
They even had a Parliament. And every four years they had an
election. Used to walk to the polls and cast their ballots. Some
of them even got a ride to the polls. And got a ride for the next
four years afterwards too. Just like you and me. And every time
on election day all the little mice used to go to the ballot box
and they used to elect a government. A government made up of big,
fat, black cats.
Now if you think it strange that mice should elect a government
made up of cats, you just look at the history of Canada for last
90 years and maybe you'll see that they weren't any stupider than
we are.
Now I'm not saying anything against the cats. They were nice
fellows. They conducted their government with dignity. They
passed good laws--that is, laws that were good for cats. But the
laws that were good for cats weren't very good for mice. One of
the laws said that mouseholes had to be big enough so a cat could
get his paw in. Another law said that mice could only travel at
certain speeds--so that a cat could get his breakfast without too
much effort.
All the laws were good laws. For cats. But, oh, they were hard on
the mice. And life was getting harder and harder. And when the
mice couldn't put up with it any more, they decided something had
to be done about it. So they went en masse to the polls. They
voted the black cats out. They put in the white cats.
Now the white cats had put up a terrific campaign. They said:
"All that Mouseland needs is more vision." They said:"The trouble
with Mouseland is those round mouseholes we got. If you put us in
we'll establish square mouseholes." And they did. And the square
mouseholes were twice as big as the round mouseholes, and now the
cat could get both his paws in. And life was tougher than ever.
And when they couldn't take that anymore, they voted the white
cats out and put the black ones in again. Then they went back to
the white cats. Then to the black cats. They even tried half
black cats and half white cats. And they called that coalition.
They even got one government made up of cats with spots on them:
they were cats that tried to make a noise like a mouse but ate
like a cat.
You see, my friends, the trouble wasn't with the colour of the
cat. The trouble was that they were cats. And because they were
cats, they naturally looked after cats instead of mice.
Presently there came along one little mouse who had an idea. My
friends, watch out for the little fellow with an idea. And he
said to the other mice, "Look fellows, why do we keep on electing
a government made up of cats? Why don't we elect a government
made up of mice?" "Oh," they said, "he's a Bolshevik. Lock him
up!" So they put him in jail.
But I want to remind you: that you can lock up a mouse or a man
but you can't lock up an idea.
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end
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